Who knew you had to hail the bus??

I know it's been awhile since I last wrote. I want to keep a good record of my time spent here in England, but sometimes it's hard to get myself to sit down in front of my computer and write. Let's see... where did I leave off? Friday was my first day in the schools. I am at a primary school, aka an elementary school which is private, which really means it's public. This means that public means private here in the UK. I am in a 4th year class, which is 3rd grade in the US. The kids here actually start school when they're 4, meaning they are about a year ahead of the US. There are 27 kids in my class, 18 of which are boys! I've never seen so many boys in one class, except for at Cardigan :) The kids all wear uniforms- black or gray pants/skirts, white collard shirts/blouses and maroon sweatshirts/sweaters. My teachers name is Mr. Gayle. I was surprised to see a large number of men teaching at this school. There must be 5 or so for a student body of 300. Looking back on my elementary years, I can only remember 2 male teachers.

I take the bus, also known as public transportation, to school. Sometimes I even get to ride the double decker ones :) Little did Ashely and I know on our first day that we needed to hail the bus and we were shocked when it just drove by. Of course I want to get on the bus, why else would I be standing at the bus stop!?! Well, today Ashely pointed out a notice posted about bus etiquette. Here it tells you that if you would like the bus to stop that you must hail it. Now I know, as do all of you if you happen to even be in England wishing to ride the bus. My school is a 15 minute ride from the Bognor Regis campus. 30 minutes when you factor in morning traffic, 45 minutes during bad rush hour traffic. I am beginning to despise the round abouts!!! If I had to blame something for the traffic jams, it would be the round abouts. Once I get to the Chichester bus station, I have a 15 minute walk to my school. On the first day I had vague directions to the school and I may have followed a little boy and his brother to school.

Here's what an average day is looking like for me:

6:30 wake up
7:10 breakfast with Ashely
7:30 head to the bus stop, on the LEFT side of the road
7:36 (or whenever it feels like showing up because the buses are NOT on time) get the bus
8:15 arrive at the Chichester bus station
8:30 arrive at school
8:40 first bell
8:50 kids arrive in the room
8:50-12:00pm I mold the minds of the young British kids
12:00-1:00 lunch
1:00-3:05 more learning
3:05-??? talk to Mr. Gayle; plan lessons, etc.

Today I did not leave school until 4:30. I was planning for the bus to arrive at 4:46 so I walked very fast and got to the bus station around 4:41 to find NO bus. The bus got there around 5 or so and I was home and in the dining hall by 5:40.

Tomorrow I am teaching my FIRST lesson of the semester. We are doing an Olympics unit and I am in charge of planning a literacy lesson. I even had to write an example of a persuasive essay. Let me tell you, it's difficult to write like you're 8 years old. I told Mr. G that he'll have to look over my writing and give me some pointers on writing like a 4th year!

This weekend we traveled to London for the day. It was fantastic! I definitely enjoyed myself. The weather was nice and the skies cleared in the afternoon. We were able to see Buckingham Palace and possible the changing of the guards? I'm not sure if it really happened or not to be honest. Not as exciting as one would think. We saw Big Ben, or course, yet no London Bridge was to be found. Granted, I did not look hard. Next time, I will venture to it. There was a festival on the Thames River which some of the group went to, but instead I went with a group to Westminster Abbey. What a beautiful place. It was grand. Words can't describe it. All I can say is it was worth going to just to see even though we did not have time to complete the entire tour. Just walking around London and seeing things in person after seeing what seems like thousands of pictures in books, etc. all my life was surreal. I will need to take a trip back during my time here. Hopefully I can see a show!

Sunday we all slept in. It was MUCH needed sleep! I went to the grocery store. Carrying the two smallish bags back from town was not thrilling. My arm hurts a bit today, not going to lie. Yesterday was BEAUTIFUL. I told Danielle that it was like a New England day! I organized myself a bit and hung out... took a nap and talked on Skype. 8 of us watched P.S. I Love you in Kate's room last night. I feel more like a freshmen now then I did when I was a freshman, haha.

The exciting news is that we booked a flight to Dublin for the first weekend in October. We got a good deal on it, paying no taxes for the departing flight.

This weekend I'm hoping to do some local traveling, especially since I have an unlimited bus pass provided to me from the University since I have to take the bus to my school. I believe all the students that go to the University will be arriving this weekend. There are some students here, but not the freshies yet. We've been told to go to some of the new student events. I'm sure we'll check some of them out.

Things are great. I'm loving the experience. I can't believe that I'm getting credit to be here in England as well as fulfilling my student teaching requirements. I'm learning so much more then I could have imagined and having fun doing it. Yay education!!!