I miss having a dryer!

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So I realize I haven't written anything since last weekend. Gosh, there is just so much to tell. I made it through my second--and first full--week of school. Sadly, no mass this week. Although I did get a dose of "RE" on Friday afternoon (seriously, who do they have scheduling this stuff?). And in a tragic turn of events, due to some kind of scheduling miscommunication, the kids in year 4 did not get ANY of their weekly "golden time" (this is basically the equivalent of "fun friday"). Keep in mind that they spend all week trying to be good in order to NOT lose this time... but I guess it didn't matter THIS WEEK! No, instead they got to go to assembly, where the headmaster read a story from the Bible and tried to explain to them how it could be a metaphor for their lives. I'm sure they'll appreciate it someday...maybe... I personally can't even remember what the story was... (In an "it's so horrifying it's funny" aside, apparently at Kaitlin and Hilary's school the kids who lose golden time are sent to "the sin bin!" They actually call it that!)

Anyway, I had fun working with the kids on their sharing book to send to the kids at Canterbury Woods. I also showed them the satellite picture of my house on Google maps. (Creepy but so much fun!) They thought that was really cool and I told them we could look up the school next. We discussed some of the (many, I have come to discover) differences between American and British English. I actually made a chart to put up all the wall titled "Did Ms. Quinn use a Word You Don’t Know?: Common Words in American and British English." By-far the best question I got asked this week was "Ms. Quinn, in America do they call chocolate "chocolate?" Our classroom is actually starting to look a little odd because I have hung up a map of the United States and one of the TAs brought in an American flag which I hung up next to the map. I only think it is a little awkward because there is no map of Britain or British flag... it's like "where are we?" Jeff was telling me the other day how he thinks it is so outlandish that in America kids have to say the Pledge of Allegiance every day. I wanted to say, "well, don't even get me started about everything outlandish I think you have going on here!" It makes the "one nation under God" controversy look like nothing!

Let's see, in other random news, I did finally figure out how to turn my shower on/off from INSIDE THE SHOWER! SO exciting! I also did my first round of laundry. It was totally thrilling pinning all of my underwear and socks on the clothesline. We do have a dryer but apparently we aren't supposed to use it unless it's "absolutely necessary." I think I am going to have to ask Pete exactly what he means by that... if its raining? Would it be wrong to wait until it was raining to do laundry?

The food situation continues to be pretty mediocre. I actually found some postcards this weekend making fun of British food that I should have bought--I may have to go back for them. In a moment of weakness, I did get Subway. I was curious to see if my favorite roasted chicken breast sandwich would taste the same. Happily it pretty much did and at 5 pounds for a footlong (i.e. two meals) it is both a pretty reasonable and tasty option. Although apparently not all of the franchises offer mustard as a condiment--what is that? Luckily the one right by my school does! I also had my first British Indian food this evening, and I must say it was definitely the best ethnic food I have had here so far. The Chinese food has been pretty disappointing and the Thai I had the other night was okay but not great. Anyway, there is an Indian place right down the street from us that makes decent nan and delivers--surely I can survive on just that if worse comes to worse!

I have also been dismayed to discover that they only seem to sell Ibuprofen in packages of 16 here! Don't they understand that I can pop those things like candy and that 16 just don't get you very far? And perhaps the better questions is how did I somehow forget to pack my industrial sized bottle?

In more exciting news, I don't think I mentioned before, but Pete has a cat! "Suzie Cat" only makes occasional appearances (Pete doesn't really like her wandering around the B&B) but she is black and white and very small--adorable 😊

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