Back in Bognor, one last time

I will finish writing about my adventures in London and Edinburgh, but right now I'm onto something different. Today is my last day here in Bognor Regis. I made it back safely and have packed up my room successfully. If the scale is correct, both of my bags come in right around 23kg which is about 50lbs. This is how much they need to weigh in order for me to not have to pay astronomically to get my things home. I am confused as to whether or not I am going to have to pay for my baggage though. It seems as though I will be able to take 1 bag for free (since I purchased my ticket before the 9th of July, or something like that) but the it says online that my second checked bag that weighs 23kg will cost me $25. Which honestly, isn't that big of a deal, but I would rather not have to pay anything for it! When I flew from Philly to Gatwick I didn't have to pay an extra cent. Not sure as to why the British system is different. Maybe it's because they don't want to be like the Americans ;)

Yesterday when I got back to Bognor I literally was dragging my suitcase from the train station. That morning in the tube station I decided that I didn't want to carry my suitcase down three stairs and at the time thought it would be okay to drag it down. Not so. I lost the wheel in the process, which was the second part of the suitcase I lost on my journeys this past week. I lost the part that helps it stand up before, on the same side in which the wheel fell off. Anyhow, no wheel = no good. I'm just hoping that it won't be a huge hassle to get it onto the train tomorrow after Julia, the coordinator of our program, drops me off and then get the things from the train into the South Terminal. Luckily the South Terminal is the closest one to the train when it drops you off at Gatwick, so that I can be glad for!

This morning I woke up, without an alarm. That is pure joy :) Yet I believe I was awoken due to the woman, Brenda who cleans our lovely Pent House... I call it the Pent House because it's on the top floor (4th) and it's more like an attic then a Pent House in all honesty. I live in the West Wing, which for all I know could be the North Wing, but again, I think it sounds nice! I am glad I was woken up by Brenda though because I was then able to eat breakfast in our kitchen with Daphne and catch up with her. Daphne and I walked in the freezing cold to Hatters, our restaurant of choice for the most part and got lunch. I had a paninni, nothing very English about my last lunch here. I'm sooo glad that I came back to Bognor before going home. It's weird in a sense because so many people are gone, yet it's been nice to see the people who are still here and just hang out, without having to worry about writing lesson plans, etc. After spending Sunday by myself in London I was ready for some company. It's also nice to be in the dorm during the day. I've never spent time in the dorm during the normal day hours since I've always been in school. I feel like I'm actually a student here as opposed to just a resident. Tonight I will eat my LAST meal in the canteen. I'm sure it will be just wonderful and filling as all the meals our. As I've said before, I really don't mind the meals here, but I am going to be glad to have a good American hamburger or Dim Sum when I get home. I've been eating much more then I would eat at home normally, but I think that's because I don't serve myself. It's like the first summer that I worked at Cardigan and gained a good deal of weight. I just couldn't help taking a lot of food when it had been prepared for me and was just there, staring at me. It's much easier to eat less when you have to make it. I'm excited to get back to Penn State and move into Dara and my new apartment, but I'm not super excited about making food.

Spending the past day and a half here in Bognor has given me time to really think back on my whole experience here. I was also looking at pictures, updating them online, and I realized that I have accomplished a GREAT deal over the past 3 months. I have seen so many wonderful things, learned more then I ever could have imagined learning, met a lot of people from all over the world and made some really good friends as well as grown closer to old ones! I'm glad that I chose to come here to do my student teaching. I feel that teaching in England has opened a lot of doors for me, more personal ones above anything else. For that I am very thankful! Being able to teach made me feel that I had an extremely unique experience abroad. Everyday I was immersed in the culture. I was in a school filled with British students and British teachers. I was the only American... I think this allowed me to grow to a greater extent. It was not as though I was going to class with all my American peers, but instead I was teaching kids who did not have the same background as me, mainly they were not American. I loved my kids (and still LOVE them) and at the end, all in all, I loved my school. There were most definitely ups and downs. I am happy with how everything turned out though. I am looking forward to coming home but I'm sure I'll be missing Bognor Regis.

Things that I am looking forward to:

-Paying the face value price (aka, not having to convert from pounds to dollars!)
-Being able to say dollars and not have to correct myself by saying pounds instead
-Eating a good American meal... a hamburger per-chance
-Sleeping in my own bed (that no one else has slept in, aka hostel beds, and that does not have springs poking me in the night (aka Longbrook bed!))
-Making Christmas cookies in a kitchen that has proper cooking utensil
-Seeing my house decorated for Christmas, especially the wonderful Christmas tree
-Having snow when it's cold enough for the atmosphere to produce snow
-Seeing and wearing clothes that I have not worn since last winter (it will be like I have a whole new wardrobe)
-Seeing Mom, Dad, Sushi, Austen and all my friends
-Being able to send text messages and make phone calls on my phone (without the help of Skype)
-Being in the same time zone as everyone (for the most part at least)
-Not having a running nose all of the time... I'm really hoping this is due to the English weather
-Watching TV
-Drinking lots and lots of milk
-Showering without flip flops
-Having a comforter, blanket, fitted AND top sheet on my bed


Things that I will miss:

-Having hallmates
-Going down two doors to talk to Ashley
-Eating in the canteen as a big American family (plus our Swedish and Belgian friends!)
-Only being able to get juice at meals (oh wait, I'm glad that I can have milk at home)
-Riding the bus to and from school everyday
-Being able to rely on public transportation in order to get me from point A to point B
-Meals and drinks at Hatters
-Being American in a foreign country and still being proud to be an American
-My 27 students with cute uniforms and British accents
-Having Internet in my room (Mom and Dad, you haven't gotten wireless yet at home, have you?)
-Being offered chips at EVERY meal on campus
-Having the option to go to a pub, on campus (I think I only went about a handful of times though)
-Getting to travel to new places each weekend
-Being able to jet-set to other countries easily (if the bank account allowed of course)
-Penn State pretzels, the American recipe
-Biscuits (cookies)
-Saying...
...toilet instead of bathroom
...bin instead of trash can
...lovely in a non-sarcastic manner

What a ride! I'll check in and write more once I'm back in the good 'ol US of A!!!

No more tube rides, meals in pubs or (war) museums please

It's been such a long time since I last wrote. Honestly, I forgot that I even had this blog! Anyhow, I just finished traveling for 9 days. Nicholas came over to the U.K. last Saturday and we were lucky enough to have enjoy an entire week together, in England and Scotland with glitch-free traveling. We did so much over the span of 7 days and currently I am still in London even though Nicholas is back at home, safely I presume. I will be headed back to Bognor Regis, to the University where all my belongings await me to be packed and taken home on Wednesday. I'm super excited to be home and glad that tonight will be my last night in London and sleeping in a hostel bed.

To begin, Nicholas and I met up at the tube station by our hostel last weekend. It worked out very well. What an accomplishment! We hung out for awhile, waiting to check in. I most definitely talked his ear off which probably did not help with the jet-lag, etc. Anyhow, we then walked right down the street to the Natural History Museum. The building itself was much more impressive them the things inside. I felt that way about man of the museums that we saw over the week. The thing with the NHM is that it has so much in it that there is no way you could possibly see it all. Honestly, I wouldn't WANT to see it all anyhow. I've seen a lot of the things before as well, in various museums that I've visited in my lifetime, thus the reason it was less impressive. The only thing that was extra-exciting was that it was in London and I was there with my brother. We got sandwiches at the local grocery store and ate them at our hostel. We were in bed early, which occurred often this week because quite honestly, once the museums close and you finish dinner and don't want to go out to a pub for example, there is not much to do. I am obviously not opposed to sleeping since I am pretty much a pro at it :)

On Saturday we were up and at 'em... it's now slipping away from me as to where we went. Oh, yes now I do recall. We walked around Hyde Park and then went to see the Changing of the Guards. Dad had told Nicholas that this was awesome and a must see. I had seen it at Windsor and let me tell you, it was much more 'spectacular' if you will there. Seeing the COG at Buckingham Palace was a disappointment and a waste of time, yet we can say we did it and that's half the battle when traveling, doing things to say you did them! After we went to Churchill's Cabinet Rooms and Museum. This was both Nicholas and my favorite thing we saw over the week, exhibit/museum wise. It was very interesting to see what the rooms looked like during the war, especially since they had been left as they were when the war ended. I liked being underground and peering into the rooms. It felt as though we had been transported back in time. I think I also enjoyed it because I knew that Nicholas was loving it. I'm always a happier traveler when I know my fellow travelers are happy. After, we continued with the war theme and went to the Imperial War Museum. Best part, it was FREE!

Monday was another big day, thank goodness we went to sleep early. Nicholas and I went to St. Paul's Cathedral, which is impressive to say the least. I enjoyed looking around and just soaking in the sights of the architecture and design. We were able to climb up to the second dome of the cathedral and see the city from outside. This is the site of one of our TWO pictures together. We weren't able to go all the way to the top, I think it's called the Golden something or other because they were doing construction, go figure. Our second stop of the day, after eating sandwiches on a bench outside while our hands shook vigorously due to the cold weather conditions, was the Tower of London. I was interested in seeing the Tower because of King Henry and his 6 wives and all the wonderful things I had heard about other's experiences there, yet again the Tower was filled with too many war exhibits and artifacts! We were able to get a tour, given by one of the beef eaters, who I called a meat eater later when talking about it with Nicholas, in which I was made fun of for, go figure. Having personal tours are always great. I was getting so tired of those silly audio tours after taking quite a few in my travels before and luckily there was only 1 audio tour given in the Churchill Cabinet Rooms exhibit.

I am going to leave it at this for now because I am currently in an extremely noisy and hostile environment, aka the Internet cafe at the hostel I am staying at. I will write more when I get back to Bognor since I'm sure I'll have time to kill. I presume it won't take me 1.5 days to pack my things up. Tata for now!