Hi all. I got back from Barcelona two days ago. It was tremendous. The weather was a balmy 23 degrees and the sun was out for the majority of the four days I was there. I'll post more about it once I get back from Torino. The weather in England has been great, too. Today, it was at least 15 degrees and the sun was shining like it was summer time. I'm at Stansted airport right now waiting for my flight to the 20th Olympic winter games. It's going to be great. Narv just arrived after a tough flight from Vancouver but we're all ready to go.
Go, Canada, Go.
ed
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Monday, January 30, 2006
Staying
Hey all. Found a way around this county's anti-blog measures. So, I'll try to update this as many times as possible now. As you now know, I've decided to stay another 6 months. My fate was sealed after I bought an ironing board on Saturday. Obviously, if I'm going to impulsively buy a £7.99 ironing board from the Rainbow Co-op I'm destined to stay so I get at least 6 months of use out of it.
I actually haven't told senior management that I'm staying so there's still an opportunity to back out of it. I don't think I'll do that, though, considering the tremendous drop in work following Easter.
I've also picked up a 21 inch television from a guy I met at the Jolly Sailor Pub. It's only a year or two old and I got it for £20. Well, I bought him a pint, too, so it works out to be more like £23. I works fine but I have to keep it on the low down as England requires all television users to register their TVs and pay the annual stipend of £160. It's money that keeps the BBC going. The BBC shows hockey games every two weeks or so. Wednesdays at 3Am. Yippee.
I haven't figured out how to circumvent the flickr.com ban yet so I can't post pictures anymore. I'll figure it out, though. Believe you me. Without much else to do but watch the Simpsons at 6pm and what ever garbage movie is on channel 4 at 1000pm, I'm searching the web or listening to webcasts of NHL hockey games. At least they haven't blocked NHL.com.
Ed
I actually haven't told senior management that I'm staying so there's still an opportunity to back out of it. I don't think I'll do that, though, considering the tremendous drop in work following Easter.
I've also picked up a 21 inch television from a guy I met at the Jolly Sailor Pub. It's only a year or two old and I got it for £20. Well, I bought him a pint, too, so it works out to be more like £23. I works fine but I have to keep it on the low down as England requires all television users to register their TVs and pay the annual stipend of £160. It's money that keeps the BBC going. The BBC shows hockey games every two weeks or so. Wednesdays at 3Am. Yippee.
I haven't figured out how to circumvent the flickr.com ban yet so I can't post pictures anymore. I'll figure it out, though. Believe you me. Without much else to do but watch the Simpsons at 6pm and what ever garbage movie is on channel 4 at 1000pm, I'm searching the web or listening to webcasts of NHL hockey games. At least they haven't blocked NHL.com.
Ed
Saturday, January 28, 2006
28 January
Hello all. It's been a long time since I last posted. It's been really busy at the school with mock exams and stuff so I haven't been able to get out to the internet cafe in the last few weeks. However, I'm here now and let me update you all on what's happening.
As you all probably know, Odette left for Guatemala and Fiona left for London so my circle of friends has dissapated some what. However, Zelresse has moved into flat number three (she's South African from New Zealand) and Len, Carol, and Jackie are still in the flas and that's keeping me sane. She's here until the end of the year but I think she might be having second thoughts. At least that's the feeling I'm getting from her. The school has again officially offered me an extension to my contract and I said no. They suggested that I take until Monday to think about it and now I'm thinking of staying. I know for a fact that the workload gets increasingly easy between April and July and that's the incentive in staying. This, plus I don't have as much money as I thought I had. I actually don't even have enough money to buy a ticket back to Vancouver at the moment. (I don't know where all the money goes...though I guess it's pretty easy to figure out since I'm spending a lot on accommodations and my last gas bill being £212. The woman at the bank asked me if I leave all the lights, heat and hot water running 24 hours a day. It's a lot of money for two months of gas, eh?) Staying another 5 months will provide at least £6000 but then£2100 of it will go to rent and at least £500 to gas and water.
Well, I have another 48 hours to think about it. If I do accept it I'm going to ask for 2 weeks off before beginning at the start of March. Plus, I'll see if they can help me a little more with rent. As well, they'll have to pay the extra £500 required to extend my work visa another 6 months.
Oh, I really don't know what to do.
I hear the weather in Vancouver has been pretty crappy the last 2 months or so. I should say that it's been sunny here the last two or three weeks and we rarely ever get rain during sunlight hours. Actually, we're only a few feet above sea level and we have no mountains in the county so we are said to be the driest county in England. That's good news I guess but it's still very, very cold and the sun sets by 1600hrs.
Hope everyone is doing well. I miss being in Vancouver, though this might be as good a year as any to be away from Vancouver considering the weather and how the Canucks are playing.
Only three more weeks until the Olympics in Turino. Only two more weeks before Barcelona. Yeah!
Go, Arsenal, go.
ed
As you all probably know, Odette left for Guatemala and Fiona left for London so my circle of friends has dissapated some what. However, Zelresse has moved into flat number three (she's South African from New Zealand) and Len, Carol, and Jackie are still in the flas and that's keeping me sane. She's here until the end of the year but I think she might be having second thoughts. At least that's the feeling I'm getting from her. The school has again officially offered me an extension to my contract and I said no. They suggested that I take until Monday to think about it and now I'm thinking of staying. I know for a fact that the workload gets increasingly easy between April and July and that's the incentive in staying. This, plus I don't have as much money as I thought I had. I actually don't even have enough money to buy a ticket back to Vancouver at the moment. (I don't know where all the money goes...though I guess it's pretty easy to figure out since I'm spending a lot on accommodations and my last gas bill being £212. The woman at the bank asked me if I leave all the lights, heat and hot water running 24 hours a day. It's a lot of money for two months of gas, eh?) Staying another 5 months will provide at least £6000 but then£2100 of it will go to rent and at least £500 to gas and water.
Well, I have another 48 hours to think about it. If I do accept it I'm going to ask for 2 weeks off before beginning at the start of March. Plus, I'll see if they can help me a little more with rent. As well, they'll have to pay the extra £500 required to extend my work visa another 6 months.
Oh, I really don't know what to do.
I hear the weather in Vancouver has been pretty crappy the last 2 months or so. I should say that it's been sunny here the last two or three weeks and we rarely ever get rain during sunlight hours. Actually, we're only a few feet above sea level and we have no mountains in the county so we are said to be the driest county in England. That's good news I guess but it's still very, very cold and the sun sets by 1600hrs.
Hope everyone is doing well. I miss being in Vancouver, though this might be as good a year as any to be away from Vancouver considering the weather and how the Canucks are playing.
Only three more weeks until the Olympics in Turino. Only two more weeks before Barcelona. Yeah!
Go, Arsenal, go.
ed
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Odette leaves.
So, it's been a long time since I posted on this blog. The school has determined that blogs are evil, full of half-truths and lurkers so they've banned blogs from the school. Now, I have to go to the internet cafe (yes, there is one in Ramsey...it opened a couple of months ago) if I want to blog. That means it'll be difficult for me to blog much in the coming weeks. Plus, they blocked flickr.com because it may contain offensive pictures. This school is just odd.
I've decided not to come back following the end of my contract in February. Instead, I'm going to take two months to finish up some travelling. I might come back after that for a few months, just because I've been told it's really easy teaching during these months but I'll have to think about it more. In February, I'm heading to Barcelona for five days before flying to Turin for the Olympics. Narv is going to join me in Turin and we're going to Milan, Brussels, Antwerp, Dublin, and London. After that, I'll have a couple of days to pack up the flat and get everything out before heading out for more travelling. Where? I don't know yet. I think I'll try to get to Germany - for the World Cup of Football and Russia sooner or later. As well, I want to get to Wimbledon but past these few things I'm not sure about anything. I'll have to figure something out in the next few days.
Odette left and I am the only remaining member of the group that came over at the start of the year to teach at Ramsey Abbey. It's very quiet and there's not a lot to do here. It's very isolated but all I have to do is think that in five weeks I'll be out and travelling again.
Hope's all is well.
I've decided not to come back following the end of my contract in February. Instead, I'm going to take two months to finish up some travelling. I might come back after that for a few months, just because I've been told it's really easy teaching during these months but I'll have to think about it more. In February, I'm heading to Barcelona for five days before flying to Turin for the Olympics. Narv is going to join me in Turin and we're going to Milan, Brussels, Antwerp, Dublin, and London. After that, I'll have a couple of days to pack up the flat and get everything out before heading out for more travelling. Where? I don't know yet. I think I'll try to get to Germany - for the World Cup of Football and Russia sooner or later. As well, I want to get to Wimbledon but past these few things I'm not sure about anything. I'll have to figure something out in the next few days.
Odette left and I am the only remaining member of the group that came over at the start of the year to teach at Ramsey Abbey. It's very quiet and there's not a lot to do here. It's very isolated but all I have to do is think that in five weeks I'll be out and travelling again.
Hope's all is well.
The wall at York
On our way back to Ramsey we stopped at York. It is a double-walled city about 2 hours from home. It was pretty cool and has a lot of history behind it. Of course, I don't know any of this history cause we were too cheap to go on a tour and even cheaper considering we didn't pick up a 60p tour sheet. Well, Ross knew a lot about the wall and he told us about it but I forget what he said.
Scary cave thingy
Upon our attempts to find an internet cafe, Fiona found a weird museum instead. I don't know how she found it - it's up a flight of stairs a couple of doors down from the cafe and the stairs were pitch black and smelled like pee - but she did. The first thing we saw was a weird museum dedicated to torture. Then a scary - super scary - catacomb thing. We walked down through one end - in complete darkness before we got freaked when we saw a candle flicker. We ran out. On our last night in Edinburgh, we went back to see if we could get back in and check it out completely. All five of us climbed the staircase. We entered the door but I guess Marie-Anne and Ross were kinda loud (kept asking where we were going and stuff) and a bouncer type guy caught us. However, instead of stopping, Fi said run so Odette and I ran away with Fi deep into the dark catacombs. We could hear Ross and Marie-Anne trying to talk their way out of trouble. We ran and ran until we got to the end. This is a picture of the last room in the caves.
Edinburgh Castle at night
Edinburgh is a great city. It's probably my favorite next to Vancouver, of course, and Stockholm. It has a population of only 550,000 but it seems it should be much bigger. They have a great transport system (I hear) and there were very few cars on the roads. The city is full of magnificent buildings and interesting sights and everything is within walking distance. Someone mentioned to me they thought that if you could take all of the interesting and significant things in London and get rid of all the other stuff you'd be left with Edingburgh. You need just walk a block and there'd be another cool thing to see or do. The only complaint was the prices for fish and chips. They charge £5.50 ($11CDN) for a small order. Highway robbery, I say!!
Haggis
Our first night in Edinburgh we all agreed that we had to experience a Scottish Pub. So, we went into this one. (I can't remember the name but it was well Scottish and everything inside was either green or red...somewhat of a tartan theme, I presume.) How disappointed were we when the first waitress turned out to be Canadian (Toronto) and the second waitress from somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere like NZ or Oz. I don't actually recall hearing a Scottish accent during our stop here. Even more disappointing was that the only Scottish beer they had was tenants. Well, at least they had haggis on the menu. It didn't taste like chicken but it didn't taste bad at all. If anything, it tasted a lot like very, very greasy ground beef with lots of chewy bits. I don't even want to think what the chewy bits might have been.
Entering Scotland
This is the sign dividing Scotland and England. Of course, we were kind of disappointed because we heard a rumor that the road dividing the two was painted a green tartan color. Another urban myth shattered. Everyone expect me and the dwarf weren't willing to come out of the warm car for this photo op. So, Fi drove across the street - remember cars drive in the right lane - and parked underneath the sign so we could get this picture. If you look closely you can see their teeth chattering.
Odette and the perfect man
We pulled into a small village(?) to make a snowman. Odette had never made one and we thought it was important for her to experience this. Except for a few pieces of dog poo I think our work was pretty damn good. (At least, the dwarf looks happy.) The snowman is wearing the latest in fashion. It has Fiona's cap, my scarf, a piece of tree for a mouth, two twigs for arms, and two AfterEight mints for eyes. Fi ate the eyes afterwards. Following this important experience, Fiona taught Odette and Marie-Anne how to make dinosaur foot prints in the snow. On our way out of this town we got kinda stuck in the snow. We all had to get out of the car - except Fi - and push to get out. This drew a few curious onlookers. We couldn't figure out if it was because we got stuck in the snow or because we were probably the first tourist in this village...ever.
Dwarf in Sherwood Forest
Though it was close, we went into the famed Sherwood Forest. It was kinda disappointing that we weren't jumped and/or attacked by some guys in tights (is one ninja asking too much?) and that the visitor centre was closed but you can't get everything. Sherwood Forest, like many other forest, has a lot of trees. Because we were visiting during the winter months, it also had snow on the ground. We saw some birds but nothing else, really. Sherwood Forest, which averages 500,000 visitors in a calander year, was kind of disappointing. But we had an amazing snowball fight in the car park. I got Fi good and Odette fell trying to throw a snow ball at the same time as she was trying to dodge one. Heehee. Novices.
Fi packing the trunk...thanks mom.
Organizing the car trip to Scotland was pretty easy. I left it in the hands of Fiona and Odette. We got this weird van - a Kia Sportif, I think it's called. Eventhough it had something like an 8L engine and ran on diesel it was super wimpy. Plus, it took something like 30 minutes to go from 0 to 60km. I might be exaggerating a bit but not too much.
Tuomiokirkko Cathedral
This is a huge cathedral in Helsinki. It sits on a hill and can be seen from everywhere. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go in. Actually, I didn't get to see anything in Helsinki except the outsides of famous and interesting things because everything was closed for Christmas. I looked through a lot of windows - double glazed...only makes sense in a Northern city like Helsinki - but that didn't give me a true effect of the city. Helsinki is the largest city in Finland with a population of about 1 million. Really, it was like being in a really isolated, really small town because everything was so quiet. However, even if it wasn't Christmas and everything was open and everyone was out and about I don't think that this city would have been much more interesting. Very small, very expensive and the people weren't as friendly as in Sweden.
Royal Guards
This is the Royal Square in Old Stockholm. The buildings surrounding this square include the Royal Palace, Royal Apartments, and a couple of Royal-related museums. The Guards that were protecting the square looked pretty imposing but they didn't shoot me or ask me to put my dwarf down...slowly. I thought it was a very well protected area considering there weren't a lot of people about.
Dwarf on a boat
This is a picture of a small rock in Finland somewhere. I took it at about 6am...2 hours before getting into Helsinki. By how dreary and plain this looked I should have anticipated what was coming in Helsinki. Oh well. At least the dwarf looks happy.
Saturday, December 24, 2005
December 24 - Helsinki, Finland
I took a slow moving boat from the port of Stockholm into the port of Helsinki. Actually, it was very calming to be on the boat. Except for the fact that the boat kept making these weird groaning noises...the same ones that the Titanic made in the movie after it had hit the iceberg and was starting to break up. My cabin was underneath the water line and that was kinda freaky. I shared the cabin with three others and it started out okay but turned into the worse night of sleep possible. The first guy I met was a Russian. He bought a bottle of whiskey from the dutyfree and we spent a good couple of hours drinking it while talking about russian hockey. That was the good part. The bad part was he snored heavily and the chinese guy on the other top bunk made these bird calls throughout the entire night. Bird calls. Exactly. Heading back to Sweden in 2 days.
ed
ed
Thursday, December 22, 2005
December 22nd - Stockholm
So, this is the Nobel Museum in Old Stockholm. (Old Stockholm is a small island just east of New Stockholm...does that make sense?)It's kinda neat from the outside but when you get inside you discover pretty quickly that the outside is probably the best part of the museum. It's weird that the museum is so dinky. Considering the city goes into celebration mode every December when they hand out the awards and how prestigous it is to get one of the Nobels (not to mention the $1.3 Million US you get with winning) the museum is a huge letdown. There are only six tiny rooms - well eight if you count the coat room and restaurant. One room is dedicated to Albert Einstein, two others are video rooms, and the remaining three are exhibits of stuff like the hat that one Nobel Laureate wore every day to work...I know, I don't really understand the relavance either. I was told that the museum had the original Watson and Crick DNA model but when you look at the model and the pictures the colors of the molecues are different. I kinda think they're pulling a fast one.
Today is day two of Sweden and I've already done all the things that I had planned to do. Unfortunately, hockey is out since the teams are on a Christmas break. Djurgarden is the nearest team that's on an island just east of Old Stockholm. Djurgarden aren't a very good team this year (they lost about 12 players to the NHL this year) but their next game is against HV17, which happens to be the best team in the Swedish Elite League. Unfortunately, that game is on the day that I return back to England. I'm looking into getting to Finland tomorrow. It's weird, though, that it's looking like a pretty difficult task. I can't figure out how to get there by ferry because all the ferries work outside of the country for some reason. The train might be an option but I couldn't figure that out either. Easyjet, Ryan Air, and Airberlin don't fly directly to Finland from here and Blue1 and Scandanavia Air are really expensive. I'll try something in the morning. I may go to the Vasa Museum if there's nothing else to do but I'm 90% sure I'll be on my way out of Sweden tomorrow and 99% sure that I won't be spending Christmas in Sweden.
Today is day two of Sweden and I've already done all the things that I had planned to do. Unfortunately, hockey is out since the teams are on a Christmas break. Djurgarden is the nearest team that's on an island just east of Old Stockholm. Djurgarden aren't a very good team this year (they lost about 12 players to the NHL this year) but their next game is against HV17, which happens to be the best team in the Swedish Elite League. Unfortunately, that game is on the day that I return back to England. I'm looking into getting to Finland tomorrow. It's weird, though, that it's looking like a pretty difficult task. I can't figure out how to get there by ferry because all the ferries work outside of the country for some reason. The train might be an option but I couldn't figure that out either. Easyjet, Ryan Air, and Airberlin don't fly directly to Finland from here and Blue1 and Scandanavia Air are really expensive. I'll try something in the morning. I may go to the Vasa Museum if there's nothing else to do but I'm 90% sure I'll be on my way out of Sweden tomorrow and 99% sure that I won't be spending Christmas in Sweden.
Monday, December 12, 2005
News
So, I've booked my flight for Sweden and I'm off on December 21st to December 28th. I'm really excited because this is about the time that they hand out the Nobel Prizes. Of course, it doesn't go out until the new year but I'm sure there will be some heavy scientist about the town at about the same time as me. As well, we have decided to book a van and drive up to Scotland for the New Year. Six people in a small van beginning December 29th. It'll be fun, I think. Whatever.
I haven't received my tickets for Turin Winter Games yet but they billed my credit card so I'm positive I'll be there for February 19th games (USA vs. Sweden and Finland vs. Canada) and the women's final on February 20th.
I've purchased tickets for the World Cup of Football in Germany, too. The tickets are super cheap but they sell out very quickly. I'll get a response email in two days telling whether or not I've got the tickets for Brazil vs. Australia. (It's Odette's choice...she wants to watch her home country play the hot Brazillian tean.) The game is in Munich and I'm sure it'll be a great time.
We're in the end stretch before Christmas. The year elevens are all studying for mock exams so I don't have to teach them. I only have seven teachable hours this week. What a relief.
Got a weird email from Guy dressed as a dwarf type thing. Odd indeed.
Hope all is well.
Ed
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Sarah leaves the Abbey
So, it's down to two. Sarah left last weekend and now there are only two international teachers for the Abbey staying in the stables. It was a very sad time. However much we tried we couldn't talk her into staying. Glenn's job is still vacant and we're still looking for a permanent teacher but she wanted out. I've been asked to stay on for the remainder of the year but I'm not too keen on it. I'm on a weird contract that pays me about 15-20% less than the other international teachers, I can't write off any of my expenses, and the school isn't willing to help me out with my rent. Plus, I have the British Gas Company on my butt to make a gas bill payment that was for the previous tenant and the heat keeps knocking out. It's dropping down to freezing during the nights here and my new heating unit keeps knocking out. The other weekend it went out and when I called the management company on Saturday to come fix it they said the contractor couldn't come Saturday and might make it in on Sunday. Of course, they didn't come on Saturday because the contractor had tickets to a football match in London (he told our neighbor about it) and he didn't come Sunday even though a friend of ours saw him at the pub. I slept on Odette's floor for two nights. By Sunday evening, Len and I decided to fix it ourselves. I climbed up onto the roof to push a little red button which started the furnace up again. I don't believe the contractor ever did come to check out my problem. Then it went out again on Tuesday.
No heat and no hot water and the management company didn't think it was a big enough emergency to call in their second contractor. Hmmm, not persuading me to stay at all. Except, I've been told that the workload drops by almost half by mid May. Nothing happens as the year tens go away for work experience, the Year 12 and 13 are sent home. We only have to deal with the Year 11s and even then we only see them for a limited amount of time as they write exams. Glenn's schedule is a hard, though. He has some really difficult students. I'll have to think about it.
Graduation was last week. I missed it, of course. I got some pics from Diana and everyone looked great. It looked fun and I wish I coulda made it. Oh well, next time maybe.
ed
No heat and no hot water and the management company didn't think it was a big enough emergency to call in their second contractor. Hmmm, not persuading me to stay at all. Except, I've been told that the workload drops by almost half by mid May. Nothing happens as the year tens go away for work experience, the Year 12 and 13 are sent home. We only have to deal with the Year 11s and even then we only see them for a limited amount of time as they write exams. Glenn's schedule is a hard, though. He has some really difficult students. I'll have to think about it.
Graduation was last week. I missed it, of course. I got some pics from Diana and everyone looked great. It looked fun and I wish I coulda made it. Oh well, next time maybe.
ed
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