Christmas in January!

At long last after waiting for what seems like ages our things came! The boxes left before we did, and the went by van, train, boat, lorry to our street. It felt like Christmas for us with all of our things :)

 

 

Brendan and I are so thankful for Richard's help to move all the boxes into the house. Thanks Richard!

 

Learning for a New School

As the week started Stephannie started her new job as a year 1/2 teacher in a neighbouring city called St. Neots. Not only did school start but winter seemed to start too. Here is the field near the school were Stephannie teaches.

As the weeks continued so did the snow. Which in the UK means that most students stay inside and do not go out for recess, which for a Canadian having grown up with snowy cold winters on the Alberta prairies seemed so odd.

English is not English

Today was Stephannie's first day with her new year 1 & 2 class. Though she has found to be a steep learning curve she has discovered that English as she knew it in Canada is not English in England.

You see Stephannie was doing an active with the class where they had to build things will Lego (Yay, as we know how we love Lego). She asked the students to tidy up at the end of the lesson by saying, "Please put the Lego in the bin closet to you table."

Cries of shock and horror rang out  across the class. When one student piped up and asked, "Why do we have to put the Legos in the bin?"

Upon seeing what she had done Stephannie explained that in Canada a box or tray can be called a bin, and that we was asking them to clean up and not toss away the Lego.

Funny thing is she knew that and had called the trash can a bin for most of the day, but when she was not over thinking how to speak British English she shocked her new students thinking that thely had to toss out their Legos. (Yes the British seem to love to add "s" to many words...Brendan says that English started the Language but they also BREAK all the rules too).

English 101 for Canadians 
bin = garbage can

Happy Birthday Stephannie!

The morning of ...
Stephannie awoke to breakfast in bed, or maybe she woke to the smell of bacon wafting up the stairs, either way it was yummy!

As you can see from this photo Brendan had to improvise for what  to use for a tray, given that our things have still not arrived from Canada. Thank God for boxes. (In the top another box being used as a side table) We have a number of boxes as we have had to get things to set up a basic home, so grateful that some Tesco orders things are in boxes and then put into a larger box to hold all the smaller boxes, it is like English nesting boxes?

The day before...

A trip to London to get Hummingbird gluten free cupcakes, because what would a birthday be with out cake? After walking around the city stopping for lunch and tea, Brendan took Stephannie to Piccadilly Circus where most of the box offices are so she could pick a show to go to for her birthday. Surprise, Surprise, she picked on with DINOSAURS! 

Walking With The Dinosaurs was shown in the large O2 arena. It was a Spectacular show, and we loved it! We were good and didn't take any photos during the show, but you may recall Brendan's Facebook post "This is what the public thinks of 'no photography or video recording'. " Where you look down and see all the people with their cameras/cell phones taking photos and videos of the show.

We had a blast! It was a joy to watch Stephannie watch the show, it is like what she might have been like a littler girl, on the edge of her seat enjoying every minute of it. Brendan got her a new plushy dinosaur to add to her growing collection, who she has named Huxley. (photo to follow when found)

The evening of ...

Even though we had planned to have over the few friends we made for pizza, games, and cupcakes no one was able to come. So Brendan rounded up some of the friends we brought with us to wish Stephannie a Happy Birthday!

A good time had by all!