How the months have flown by...and without me blogging about them. For this, I am truly sorry. I want to work at being more of a consistent blogger (among a whole lot of other things!).
How was everyone's Christmas break? I hope you all had a great time with family and friends and that you RESTED. I sure did. I spent 10 days in Germany, visiting family and friends, and had a lovely time! Here are some highlights: cut down my first Christmas tree (how sad is that....the first time for a CANADIAN!), made German Christmas cookies, went ice skating in Frankfurt, tried lots of different German food, and enjoyed my share of Nutella!
But now its back to reality. No more sleeping in. No more staying up late till all hours of the morning. No more relaxing. It's back to the grind. That's it, no more fun! :)
I've started a full time teaching position, with a year 4 class in North-London. They're a great group of kids, and the first week back went surprisingly well. We'll see how next week goes. :)
But this job is a big learning curve for me. Not only is the curriculum very different compared with Canada's, but so are the teaching strategies, the teaching apparatus (Interactive White Boards (IWB) instead of the old-fashioned overhead projectors we use in Canada), and the teaching framework. So, the kids are getting used to me, my accent and my rules (and oh boy, do I have a lot!), and I'm trying to apply all these things I'm learning while maintaining a somewhat orderly class. Lots of fun :) I'm going to be one amazing teacher if/when I come back to Canada!
So, I have to jump back a bit. The day after I arrived back in London from my Germany trip, I spotted something quite amusing as I stood in a packed bus, heading towards Hackney (the best place in London to live). I was people watching, and just making observations and comparisions with the people I saw in Germany with what I was now seeing. And as I was lost in thought, this man walked in front of the group of people I was observing, pushing a shopping cart. No biggie, right? Well, this was no ordinary sight. You see, the cart was piled high with clear bags of meat (ribs, big cuts of meat)! He was making his way through the crowds, on a mission to deliver this cart full of meat to who knows where....probably to his cousin's shop. lol...I love the random things you'll see in this city! And no one thought anything of this....they didn't stop and stare (like me)...it didn't even phase them. I love it! I don't think I'll be buying meat in that area. I'll stick to Tesco.
Bringing in the New Year......
London, UK.....2008 ending and 2009 beginning.
A fabulous fireworks display! 
