I can’t believe I’m just getting back to you for this but I don’t spend as much time on my Bridgewater email as I used to haha. I did not get that job unfortunately but I did end up as a paraprofessional at Melrose High School. It has been interesting for sure but I’m getting to work with some great teachers and students here. I have also gotten plenty of excuses to talk about my experience student teaching abroad. In my German class I’ve gotten to talk about what school was like in England and how it compares/contrasts to the US and Germany. In another class I got to give a presentation on Edinburgh, which is still tied with Liverpool for my favorite places we visited. Mary and I definitely suffered some “a year ago” we were in this place blues. I hope everyone who participated in the program this year is enjoying it and doing well. They’re at the homestretch and I know we were definitely ready to be home at the end. I hope you’re enjoying the end of the semester and can relax during your break ! Thanks again for the recommendation I know that it was a big help. I’m attaching a picture of Mary and I at graduation and another of us on one of our last bike rides home.

Hello again!

During our two week holiday Amanda and I traveled throughout England, Ireland, Scotland, and Paris! We did a couple tours that were titled something around “[Insert Country Here] in 1 day!” and they were not stretching the truth. Our tour buses ranged from 8-12 hours mostly, but we saw some of the most beautiful places. Here’s some information about our travels.

 

London:

Of course, our first major stop was London. It rained our first day and we were tired, but after taking a nap and putting our stuff in the hostel, we were ready to go. Now, as an English major, I was loving the thought of completely nerding out in one of the most important cities in British literature. We went to see (but not ride, thankfully) the London Eye, a Sherlock Holmes themed restaurant (the soup was AMAZING), the National Portrait Gallery (which is FREE) in which I saw the Shakespeare portrait (I died) and then a large portrait of Ed Sheeran (I died again).

England in One Day (no, seriously)

On our first long tour, we visited Stonehenge (which I found out can not be knocked over, unfortunately), Bath, and finally (last and certainly not least, in fact the best) we drove by Shakespeare’s house AND VISITED THE SCHOOLROOM WHERE HE ATTENDED GRAMMAR SCHOOL in Stratford-Upon-Avon. It was amazing. We had a “Latin lesson” taught by a man who kept looking at me because I guess I look like a trouble maker. We also had delicious scones and champagne which, of course, is always amazing.

 

Ireland:

Our next stop was Ireland, and I was incredibly excited to go as it would be my second country EVER to travel to (this England trip has been my first time outside the U.S. ever!). We stayed in Dublin, which was an incredibly live city with an amazing vibe. Lights and music could be found at every turn. We went on a tour that was throughout areas of Ireland, and while I don’t remember the names of where exactly we went, I was nonetheless immersed in nature and the beauty of landscapes. Being from Boston, I don’t get that chance very often.

 

Scotland

From Ireland, we traveled to Scotland. Now Scotland is a great place to travel when you’re in England because it’s accessible by the train. We flew from Ireland to Edinburgh, but then we took the train from Edinburgh right to Crewe! (Okay, we had to take a bus then the train, but that’s because of construction going on the railroad). Our Scotland tour was beautiful and the weather was interesting because there was snow in the highlands, but then it was fairly mild as we came back towards Edinburgh (although it did snow when we initially landed). We also did a fantastic tour of the Edinburgh Castle, and went to Blair’s Castle too!

 

Paris

Finally, we went to Paris. Now, we traveled to Paris via 8 hour bus ride from London. It was a cheap fare, and we slept on the bus. Our driver was pretty rude, but the journey was cheap and we made it safely. Now, Paris wasn’t my favorite place and honestly, I have little desire to go again. We went to the Louvre, which was nice, but incredibly crowded so unless you’re a diehard art person, you could honestly probably skip it. My personal favorite museum was the Musee D’Orsee, because it had a Van Gogh gallery that was beautiful. However, it was so crowded with tours that I barely had a minute to actually admire and look at his work. This museum, personally, was better because it was smaller and I liked the artwork better, but be ready for crowds of annoying people. We went to the Eiffel tower as well, and had to keep running from men with keychains who kept trying to sell us the best deal. It was so annoying that we took our pictures with the tower and promptly left. It’s not a place you really want to hang around. Finally, we went to Disneyland which was so much fun! I met Peter Pan and Darth Vader, and bought myself light up Star Wars ears.

 

Hello Everyone! Greetings from Crewe, England!

Stefanie and I recently got back yesterday from Liverpool which is an absolute fabulous place to visit! We went to the Beatles story, watched many live music performances and we got to see the Terra Cotta figures exhibit that was sold out but we were able to get tickets at the door.

At this point we are settled back into school again and busy teaching away. Last week, I worked with multiple small groups teaching a full lesson and also I worked as an assistant for my teacher. Each day, I also take time to do reading conferences with my students and hold them accountable to their reading goals. It’s great to see the majority of my students improving on their reading since the last time I read with them before break. This week, I will be teaching a Maths whole group lesson and I will be teaching a guided reading lesson. I will fill you all in on how that goes at the end of the week. Overall though, I love my placement and it’s interesting to learn about all of their different parts of their curriculum. For example, my students have German, Religion, health, and so many more subjects that we would not have in America as often or at all like they do here. Everyone is extremely friendly here and helps us with anything that we need. Due to visa restrictions, you will only teach three days a week and Julie sets up a couple of education classes for you to take that are short and easy. Also you will be required to do a packet on your observations while you are teaching in England. Also, a lot of the activities are a mini lesson and then each assistant teacher works with a small group. I have four teachers including myself that work in and out of the classroom. There is never more then three teachers in a classroom at a time. Feel free to ask any questions on the curriculum or daily schedule.

We just had our observation with Dr. Marvelle last week as well which went really well. After talking with him at dinner, Stefanie and I were thinking of all the things that we would tell future teachers who are coming to England. We want to help you be as prepared as possible for your stay and for you to have a positive experience.

Here are some helpful hints and tips that I cam up with and Stefanie will share whatever I miss later:

– First off, make sure to save up a good amount of money before coming to England. It can be expensive because pounds cost a lot more than dollars and it really adds up. Also you want to make sure that you have plenty of money to travel with and in case anything were to happen. For example, they are doing road work in our area so instead of a 7 pound taxi, it is now around 11 pounds.

– Second, start your visa as soon as it is three months out. It takes a long time to get your visa together and Stefanie and I just got ours in the nick of time. That should be your first priority because you cant do anything without the visa. There is a form that you need to fill out and send to the Manchester Met in order to get your CAS number. Visa’s cost almost about 600 dollars. There is a visa team that will help you if you message the exchange program email.

-Third, get yourself ready to be independent. It’s not easy to be in a foreign country that you don’t know anything about. We had a lot of setbacks and delays but, we stayed positive and everything worked out.

-Fourth, think about places you want to travel to. We highly suggest, Edinburgh, Scotland, Dublin, Ireland, London, England, Chester, and Liverpool. Paris is great if you want to go to Disneyland Paris.

– Fifth, look up the curriculum and background information on the school and get to know what you are going to learn and see while you are here.

– Sixth, good food stores to find once you get here: ASDA(like a walmart and fairly priced,  Co-op (small groceries), Wilko’s etc.

– Download apps such as, viator, Ryanair, Virgin trains(west coast).

-Most importantly, get ready for an amazing experience! Get to know all the staff in the school. Also use Julie (Manchester Met Liason) as a resource because she is absolutely amazing and will help you with anything.

There is so much more that I would love to tell you but, I can’t remember all of it right now. Please, ask any questions because I would really love to answer some!

Cheers from Crewe,

Amanda

Hello, since I’ve commented about Warning tales to some people, I thought I would share an example of a warning tale. My students writing is really incredible and most students were able to replicate their final copy to almost be like the sample that I have shown. Students in England, really work on perfect handwriting as well as part of their curriculum. Therefore, sometimes writing these stories could take hours to do because they are writing in cursive.

Before writing Warning tales, students had explicit instruction on the parts of the Warning tale and every background knowledge they would need to write one. They use really advanced and elaborate vocabulary that they have learned as well. They previously learn these words and they go in their magpie (a better word for stealing instead of saying stealing because they get these words from dictionaries, thesaurus’s, etc.) book. Once they have background information, the teacher teaches them the story and they work on memorizing the whole story and they cant move on until students are able to do so. Once that is done, they change up some of the parts of the story. These parts are covered with sticky notes to show changes. Then they write it out with the teacher in the correct structure that they had explicit instruction on before. After they are done with that, students create their own story for their hot task (independent work). Students can use the structure of the one they did together to write their stories. It’s absolutely amazing to see the stories that they come up with it! I will try to take pictures of their stories to share in the future.

Each students story was unique and they were able to come up with some really elaborate stories. My students are equivalent to grade two/ three in America and they are doing this mostly without the teachers help. If you are a teacher in England, you are most likely going to come across this method in the future.

I also inserted their graphic organizer that they used which is the last picture at the bottom.

 

-Amanda

Here’s part two of our adventures in Europe. In this part of my blog, I will tell you all about Paris and how to survive for a weeklong trip there.

Our first stop on our second week was to travel to London to catch our night bus to Paris. We again took a virgin train from the app to the London Euston station. Extremely easy to book and you just pick up your tickets at a kiosk before boarding the train. Once we arrived in London, we had 8 hours before we left on the bus to Paris. We just walked around and explored because we had our backpacks and didnt want to be going all over the place that day.

At about 9pm we arrived at the Victoria Coach station to await our bus departure. (OUI bus from Victoria coach- never take because their service is horrible as I will explain. Take the Flix bus instead or train or fly)  Victoria coach station is very easy to naviagate but they are a bit disorganized. The workers also seem to not want to be there all the time unless they are the drivers.  For example, we were waiting at our gate and I overheard on our attendants phone that our bus was going to be delayed. Instead of telling us what was wrong, she got up and just walked away while there was 40 people waiting an extra hour for the bus. It gets even worse though because our bus driver was extremely rude and would only talk in French even though he proved to speak English. That made a lot of customers upset because they weren’t informed on what was going on. We finally were told that there was a bus that was late and that the driver was going to check us in during the mean time. Instead of making an organized line though, he walked around to each person and people were pushing and shoving to get up to the front. Overall horrible experience even before we got on the bus. It wasn’t a bad bus ride so I might consider it again in the future because it was very cheap but it would take some convincing because of their disorganization. Also, our bus driver could have been a lot nicer and less arrogant to the customers that he was serving.

The bus took us first to the French border where we had a break at 2am and had our passports validated to continue to France. It was extremely easy and I was surprised that there was no real security at the station. Once we left this station, we drove through many security gates in order to get on the Eurotunnel. The Eurotunnel is a train that transports cars, buses and everything from France to the U.K. It was a really cool experience to go through the Eurotunnel and to see all the security measures they have at their borders. After the Eurotunnel, we had a 6 hour drive to Paris which we spent sleeping.

We arrived at the Percy station around 8 and figured out how to buy train tickets from there to our hostel. You can buy tickets at any station and they do have an english translation. If  you are taking the train multiple times then you should purchase the package of ten tickets because it saves you 5o cents euro each time. Once we figured out the train line with a little help from our GPS, it was fairly easy to navigate Paris’s train system. Just be careful of pick pocketers during your travels though. We had no problems but Paris is a place where pick pocketing is huge.

We stayed at the Les Piaules hostel which was absolutely fabulous! They speak English and are very helpful in helping us to find out about everything in Paris. Also, the beds are comfy and the security is incredible. They also provide good locker space in the rooms. My favorite part about this hostel was that it had a rooftop spot to take in the views of Paris. We could see the Eiffel Tower and other monuments from the rooftop.

On our first day, we went to the Louvre Museum which had so many beautiful art pieces in their collections. It’s worth seeing but, if you only have a couple days then I would suggest going to the Musee D’orsay instead because we enjoyed that museum so much better. We then spent the rest of our day shopping before settling into our hostel for the night. One of the places we shopped at even thought we were natives of Manchester, England which was hilarious for us because that’s basically where we stay but we had no bags or anything saying Manchester on it.

Our second day, we spent time at the Musee D’Orsay and saw works by Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet and so much more! A wonderful Museum that you could spend a couple hours at. After the museum, we went on an adventure to find food but it was extremely hard to find on our way to the Eiffel Tower. It was either expensive, or closed which made it really hard to find a place that worked. We ended up finding a crepe stand though which was fabulous and we were able to survive until we found a fabulous pizza restaurant up the street that was cheap enough. After we ate, we found the Eiffel Tower fairly easily and it was a great site to see. The only thing that bothered us was the people who sell the Eiffel Tower merchandise all around the Eiffel Tower. If you make eye contact with them then they try to get you to purchase things and don’t really leave you alone. Once we got away from the vendors it was a great site to see and we enjoyed our time near the Eiffel Tower.

Overall, Paris is alright but it wasn’t our favorite place on our two week adventure. It was a place that we had a lot of culture shock and it was hard to adapt. Also the people aren’t always the nicest and as helpful. It’s a lot like time square but if you know these things in advance then it really is a fabulous place to visit at least once in your life.

Our last full day we spent at Disneyland Paris which made me really want to leave Paris. It was just as magical as it is in Disneyworld Florida and I really didn’t want to leave. I will definitely be back to Paris in the future to take a trip to Disneyland Paris.

Our last day, we spent traveling to get to our OUI bus stop which was extremely easy to find but hard to figure out which bus to take because of the disorganization. We had to use every bit of French we knew to figure it out but once we did, it was a really nice bus ride back to London. Our bus driver spoke English which really helped on our way back. We also had the chance to see the France countryside and visit the town of Lille before making our way to the French border and then the U.K. Border. Once we got there, the bus had a particular checkpoint where we would get off and they would check our passports and stamp us through the French border. After we had to go to the U.K. Checkpoint and we had to answer a million questions to get through. Once we finished with passport control and customs we were able to go through the Eurotunnel again and see it from the other side back to England. It was a very cool way to transport us back to the U.K.

We arrived back at the Victoria coach station at 7:30 pm and then we went to find our hostel over by the Kensington palace. This was a fabulous safestay at Holland Park and was a nice area to stay in. It was a little strange to walk through a park at 8pm at night to get to the hostel but the neighborhood was extremely posh so we felt as if we were staying in a good spot. We chose a 9 bed female room and it was much better then our previous safestay experience. I would stay here again in a heartbeat because of the location and safety. Also, there was a lot of food options nearby that were open which was great as well. Since we were on the bus all day, we hadn’t eaten since 10 am so we were starving and ate at Bill Wyman’s sticky fingers which was a little pricey but just what we needed.

 

The next day was the last day of our two week holiday that we spent traveling. I was able to meet up with one of my friends from London and try special things that are only in the U.K. Then we spent time at Hyde Park before arriving at the London Euston station to depart at 7:46 pm.

Helpful tips:

Use apps such as Ryanair and Virgin Trains for travel and book as much in advance as possible.

Use an app called Hostel world to find a cheap and nice hostel to stay at.

Use viator and paddywagon tours if you want a guided tour that is worth the money.

Enjoy yourself and take on an amazing  adventure!

Overall, we had the most fabulous adventure and made it through so many obstacles to have a fabulous trip! I can’t wait to share all that I have learned with my students when we get back from our holiday on Tuesday and to share with all  my future students.

 

Stefanie and I just got back last night at 11pm from our two week holiday trip to four different countries. It was absolutely amazing and we learned so much everywhere we went. We have naviagated the bus system, train system and plane system to get through to all the different places. We also understand the London tube, Scotland travel, bus travel to Paris through the eurotunnel and we can navigate Paris on our own. Here’s a brief description of each place that we traveled to with some pictures from our time.

LONDON

Our first stop on our adventure was a trip to London and to see all the main sites there. Since we don’t have school on Mondays or Fridays, we left Friday morning to get the most amount of time out of our stay. We took the Virgin train line from the Crewe station to the London Euston station which is always very busy. Once we arrived, we navigated to our hostel via the tube system. Our hostel was one of the worst hostels that we have stayed out due to bathroom cleanliness and customer service. Do not ever stay at the Elephant and Castle Safestay because of those reasons that I have mentioned above. Also its a sketchy area and out of the way from everything. After we settled in at our hostel we headed out to see some of the main tourist sites. We saw, Big Ben who was under construction :(, trafalgalar square, the London eye and went to a Sherlock Holmes themed restaurant near Westminister Abbey. (Go there because it’s fabulous but may need to book in advance if there is more then two.) We went back to our hostel to find two other Americans who were in the same room. It was fabulous to have a connection with someone else in London.

The next day we went on a guided tour through the viator app. It was called, “England in One day”. We started off at Stonehenge, then visited the city of Bath, drove through the Cotswolds to a place called Stratford upon avon where we visited the hometown of Shakespeare. We even had a lesson in one of the classes that is still used today and they gave us proper scones with jam and special cream. Absolutely amazing experience and I would go again in a heartbeat! Our tour guide was fabulous and gave us so much information instead of sitting there in silence.

Our last day in London before we headed back to Crewe for the night was to do everything that we missed on Friday. I would suggest starting at the Tower Bridge and walk along the waterfront to see most of the attractions. We started at the Tower Bridge, then went to Shakespeare’s globe, and then took a train to Buckingham palace, Piccadilly Circus and so much more. I would suggest that you leave time to see the performers along the water as well because they were absolutely fabulous. We headed home via the train back to Crewe to get packed up and ready for our trip to Dublin,Ireland and  Edinburgh, Scotland.

IRELAND

Today, we left for Ireland by first taking a train via the virgin trains app to the Manchester airport. We had a Ryanair flight (use the app because its so easy!)  set for 12:30 which was pretty easy to navigate. Warning though, dont pack a lot of toiletries in your carry on because they will limit you tremendously. We only had carry on bags so we ended up throwing out some of the stuff that wasn’t necessary. Once we arrived, we went through customs and then paid 7 euros for an air coach to the city center which is where our hostel was. Our hostel (Ashfield Hostel) was absolutely fabulous and I would stay there again in a hearbeat! Our first day, was just an exploring day and to live the culture of the Irish people. I had recently traveled to Ireland so I just wanted to enjoy my time there. We went to a pub that was doing Irish step dancing that night and had the chance to learn with 30 other people and it was so much fun! I’m so glad that we ended up going because we had the time of our lives!

Our second day, we went on a tour through Paddywagon tours to see Glendalough, Kilkenny and the Wicklow Mountains. It was an absolutely fabulous tour and our tour guide was so genuine and amazing! Easy to book and very cheap compared to other tours that I’ve been on. Also if you stay at their hostel for three nights then you get a free tour.

IRELAND TO Scotland

On Wednesday we took the #16 bus over by the Trinity college area to the airport for 4 euros. It was a longer ride but it saved us a ton of money compared to the air coach. Our flight was only an hour long via Ryanair again  because it was so cheap. When we arrived we didnt have to go through customs though or passport control which was extremely weird but they said that we were all set.

Suggestion for travel to Edinburgh: take the train out of Manchester or Crewe via the virgin trains app or book a Ryanair flight from Dublin.

Once we arrived officially and found our way out of the airport, we made our way to the tram which took us to the Princes street stop which is close to all the main sites in Edinburgh. It was snowing though and Edinburgh is all uphill and can be slippery so be aware of that. Also, the GPS doesn’t tell you if you have to go up and down stairs to get to a lower level or that you are even on a lower level. If you stay at the hostel that we stayed at (BUDGET Backpackers (Really great hostel!) ) you will need to go down these stairs that have a sign for Grassmarket street. This stairway will bring you to the area that is the birthplace of Harry Potter and its absolutely breathtaking even in the snow. Scotland was definitely my favorite place because it was absolutely beautiful there. Wait until you see some of the pictures that I upload after these posts and you will understand.

SCOTLAND

Today we went on another tour through the Viator app that was called, ‘Scotland in one day”. Our first stop was in a little town called Dunkeld which was absolutely beautiful. Beautiful views, friendly dogs and a little town fulled of cafes and history was included in the town of Dunkeld. Our second stop was the Blair castle which is the home of the current Duke of Atholl. We couldn’t take any pictures but it was worth the stop to see everything that it had. Try to get something quick in their cafe though such as a jacket potato because otherwise they take forever to get you your food. We only had two-three hours at the stop so we didnt want to waste any time. Our next stop was the Queen’s viewpoint that Queen Victoria named for herself and it was the best view ever. The pictures don’t do it justice though and you have to see it for yourself. Our last stop was the Hermitage walk that Royals had made for special viewings of a waterfall. Overall a fabulous day!

Our last full day in Scotland included a visit to the Edinburgh castle, a cat cafe and we went out to find some live music close to our hostel.  The Edinburgh castle was fabulous and our first stop for our day! First go on one of their guided tours for free to hear the history of the castle. They will tell you specific events going on as well during that tour. They will finish at the top where you can see the crowned jewels that are still used today for ceremonies for kings and queens. Go through the longer route to the crowned jewels because you will learn some history as well. Then go explore the rest of the castle and see where Americans were locked up during the War for Independence, royal halls, and the military tribute to the fallen heroes of Scotland. If your of Scottish descent, you may even find your name in one of the books. Also, make sure you are there to see the 1 o’clock cannon go off because its really cool. (Go to the top of the castle near the memorial for the dogs and view from there)

Side note: We also went to the Elephant cafe which is where the Harry Potter series was written but its very overpriced and not worth it. Go see the place and get something small but dont order the food. Go into the bathroom though to see all the Harry Potter signatures and quotes that people have left.

After we went to the castle, we headed out to eat and go shopping before our time at the cat cafe which was 2 minutes from our hostel. At this cafe, you pay 8 pounds to spend an hour with the cats and enjoy cafe refreshments that you purchase during your time. It was definitely something to experience at least once in your lifetime especially if you love cats. After the cat cafe, we went around to the different restaurants/pubs on the street to listen to live music from Scottish singers and bands. One band even found out that we were American and dedicated a bunch of songs to us. It was a great time to be immersed in the culture of Scotland.

On our last day, we explored a little more on our way to the train station and said our goodbyes to the beautiful area we have grown to love. Since our train line was suspended, we took the scenic route to Carlisle to catch our train from there. It was a breathtaking drive to Carlisle and we had a great layover trying Nandos and spending time with locals at an ice cream shop. The train ride was simple from there and everything was easy to find. Everything was so nice and I really miss all the people that we met.

 

Feel free to ask any questions about any of our travels to Ireland, Scotland or London because we are experts now. If you want a cheap but incredible trip then you can ask us for any help or suggestions.

 

Part two of our journey will be in my next blog post that I will complete today if you have any questions about Paris or London.

The only “traveling” that I have ever done in my life has been within the east coast of the United States. I’ve been to Florida, D.C., N.Y.C., and of course the other New England states that people don’t seem to care about. Of course I dreamed of venturing further and going beyond anywhere I’d ever been, but I’m a college student who is so far in debt that I sometimes debate whether or not I want to get that $2.62 iced coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts (oh my gosh how I miss my Dunks right now).

I was offered the opportunity to complete half of my student teaching abroad in England, and I answered yes before I even checked my bank account. It was going to happen. I was going to make it happen. I had no idea how, but I was getting on a plane to England and I was going to live a dream that had been collecting dust on a shelf.

After negotiating with my loans (I’m already in debt, so why not add onto it at this point) and getting my first credit card ever (yay, adult) I booked my flight and packed. I thought I was good to go. L.O.L.

I’m going to explain this quickly. Flight was originally booked for 10:15pm on March 18. Delayed till 12. Then finally 2 am. Had to re-book connecting flight. Sat in airport for 5-6 hours. Second flight delayed. Taxi wasn’t arranged. Another 2 hours. Jet lag. Little coffee. Not fun.

To summarize, I went 36 hours with about 3-4 hours of “sleep”, and by “sleep” I mean taking a nap on an airplane encountering turbulence.

I made it to my destination (finally) at midnight of March 20 and th

n slept for 5 hours before heading to the academy to observe and begin my second half of student teaching.

I’m here. I’m ready. (No I’m not).

 

Oh, I almost forgot! At the Manchester airport which was my connecting flight from London, I met Gwendoline Christie (Brienne from Game of Thrones, Captain Phasma from Star Wars). I shook her hand. And cried on the inside. A lot.

Hi from Crewe! We have been having such a great time here in class, working in the school and traveling! It is really eye opening to see all the different perspectives of teaching and life abroad. Being enrolled in two university classes on Mondays has been a great experience. We get to work with students who are also training to become teachers and we get more insight on UK schools, not just the one we are working in. Our peers are just as interested in the way we do things back home as we are with how they do things here.
Working in the primary school Tuesday through Thursday has been very rewarding and different. Our teachers have such a heavy workload with 30 students in their class and they are so appreciative for our help around the class. It’s been nice to be able to work with different groups of students and get to make a connection with them. They are a very lively and fun bunch and have so many questions about America. They think that I drive home to the U.S. after work. I really enjoy being in the class with them and we are gaining more and more responsibility each day. We also get school lunch there from their cafeteria and it’s actually really good. Probably because its home made!
Because we have Friday off, we have been able to travel the weekends! Sometimes we leave Thursday nights if we can find a cheaper airfare. Luckily Crewe is placed in a railroad town which makes it an easy half hour from two different airports on the train. We are airport pros now and probably won’t want to be in one for a while after we are finally home! We have been to Edinburgh, Scotland, Dublin, Amsterdam and Paris so far. My top two are tied between Edinburgh and Paris. Edinburgh was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Paris was fantastic as well but we could have used more time sight seeing, as we only had one day. The other day we went to Disneyland Paris which was definitely a lot smaller than Disneyworld but it was something to check off my bucket list! We can’t believe we have less than 20 days left. Everything has gone by so fast, yet so slow at the same time. We feel like we have been here for years already but we are so appreciative for our time we have spent here. We have seen so much and learned a lot from the people we have met!

It was great catching up with these two while they were visiting Dublin from Crewe.  The four of us made our way to the infamous Temple Bar and had a pint at the Porter House. We did take some time to compare our experiences and have a chat about our schools and the school systems in England and Ireland. It does seem like everyone is getting enough exercise that is for sure.  While Mary and Shayla are biking on a very regular basis to get to their school in the morning, Emily and I are walking quite a ways between bus stops.  We should all be in decent shape when we return to the states.