Blogs from Luton, Bedfordshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 4

After school today, there is a dodgeball tournament in the gym. Faculty versus students. Heck yes. Fortunately for the students, I can't play because I didn't know about it in advance, so I didn't bring my "game." (Translation: I can't play sports. I'm the most non-athletic person who ever lived.) So I am an observer. Boring. When the tournament ends, and the faculty has won, two young teachers invite me to join them at the pub down the road. Of course, I'm all about it! So Jodi, Deanna, and I sit at a table and talk over a couple of beers and a big plate of nachos. They're both about my age, and they inform me that they meet at this pub almost every Friday after work. Jodi is British and teaches art, which I think ... read more

Oh. My. God. These are the ROWDIEST students I've ever seen in my life. I'm trying to establish rules, but they won't even sit down and shut up long enough to hear them. I can't put the whole class in detention. THEY WON'T LISTEN TO ME! They make fun of my accent, in a malicious way. Which doesn't hurt my feelings or anything, but when 4 kids mimic what I've just said, and they repeat it over and over, laughing and laughing, and everyone is laughing....it's hard for me to get the class back on track. It's just a big disruption. One girl said, "I'm going to have you sacked! Then you'll really cry!" Another said, "Why did you even come here? Why don't you just go back to America!" Plus half the kids don't know ... read more

I wake up at midnight and can't go back to sleep until 6 AM. So, yet again, I sleep until 11. AGAIN! I go across the street from the B&B to the convenience store to buy a paper. I look at the Luton newspaper and the paper for Hertfordshire right next to it. To hell with Luton, I think. I buy the Hertfordshire paper. The Indian man who works there, never smiles and speaks unintelligible English knows I'm apartment hunting. He loudly retorts, "This paper is not for Luton!" I look straight at him and simply say, "I know." He just looks at me. I look right back at him, offering no more explanation about my purchase. It's none of his damn business. He rings up the paper. As I walk out, I hope it's the ... read more

I'm still on Nashville time, taking naps and sleeping accordingly. In the morning, I'm going to get up at 7:30 and force myself to get on local time! I was up all night last night, finally falling asleep at 6:30 AM, which is 12:30 AM in Nashville. I slept until 11 and jumped out of bed, aggravated with myself for wasting time. Almost immediately, there was a frantic knock at my door. Wiping the sleep from my eyes and straightening my hair, I cracked the door. It was the lady from the cafe downstairs, who said something so fast and with such a thick accent, I couldn't understand her. After asking her to repeat it 3 times, I learned that my school had called Dave, the B&B owner, looking for me. (I had given my B&B ... read more

and all through the house, Laura was dancing, like a tiny wee mouse. Tomorrow we embark upon our journey across parts of Europe. The tension is mounting and the expectation is through the roof. We write to you all now from sunny Luton (Surprisingly i'm not being sarcastic). We met our good friend Simon today in the park for a beer and a burger, or "burgar" as it is pronounced here. Topics of discussion varied from existing outside of time, to artificial intelligence and landed comfortably in the lap of Jay-Z and his performance at Glastonbury. Safe to say that today was a very normal and relaxed day. The fun begins tomorrow however when we shall make our first "real" entry from Rotterdam. We shall leave you here in suspense... until tomorrow… Goodnight. ... read more