Edinburgh

This city has been rather interesting, rather quirky, rather rainy, and our hostel has definitely been more lived in that any of the other(s) we've seen yet. We are in a mixed dorm here, and one poor guy in the room has Beaver's Fever from drinking water from a stream whilst on a hike. His first meal in four days was a MacDonald's burger, double cheese for the curious. I'm sleeping in a bed that's named TOTALLED and Stew is in a bed named TANKED. Just to give you a hint of the ambiance... nice folks and I just discovered chocolate... carmel chocolate.... the other day. No restraint... three bars later. We also had our first trip to Tesco's for a bit of Cathedral Cheddar cheese (all for a bargain 2 pounds). We met a lady walking three husky dogs, all of which were originally from Siberia and had award winning pedigrees (sp?). We are off to the Highlands tomorrow... we are even renting a car!!!!!!!! Hopefully we'll remember to drive on the right (wrong?) side of the road and if not, well, we have travel insurance for that. Here are some pictures, in no particular order for you to enjoy...
Love Amanda :) :)

more london...

hello everyone! We have thoroughly enjoyed london, and no, we were not a part of the 800 people trapped in the tube. Although, we were on the tube that day, all day. it is such an amazing system. these folks are quite serious about the security concerns right now. we walked by the restaurant, tiger tiger, that the car with the explosives was parked in front of. it would have been a serious problem if that bomb had gone off. there were warnings every 4 minutes on the tube, warning you to not let any of your belongings out of your sight, and if you did, they would be destroyed by tube officials/police officers or whoever deals with the dirty laundry. we went to Westminster abbey, got caught in a downpour and huddled for cover under one of the arches near the parliament buildings and the watchful eyes of police officers holding machine guns. very quaint indeed. we spent about an hour trying to find brick lane, which was near liverpool street, part of east london. brick lane has tons of indian and bengali style restaurants, and it's where we saw many flavourful characters, stores, pubs and stalls. the suites there were going for about 300 pounds per week. we settled on a little restaurant named sheba. we had the BEST indian food we'd ever had -- it was like every bite had a total flavour burst of lemon grass and fresh ground indian spices. in the evening we saw phantom of the opera, and it was absolutely amazing. the music was so powerful it gave me goosebumps. stewart liked it too. the costumes and designs were also very powerful. lamps, chandeliers, misty lakes, rowing boats, skytop scenes... a snarky italian -- in character for the musical -- prancing around stage. it was amazing. i even met some korean friends from suwon, south korea. well, love to all of you and i feel like i'm living another life -- free time to exercise all day, walk, take pictures and spend money like i'm working in anything other than education...
love amanda and stewart

london....

hello from london! you'll have to excuse the lack of capitals but for some reason in the land of driving on the wrong side of the road the keyboards shift keys are switched around too. we are having sooooooooooooo much fun here. i feel surprisingly at home, considering that yesterday, tuesday, was our first full day. we are staying at a fantastic hostel in swiss cottage, just north of central london. sleeping with 18 other people in the room has been a very smooth adjustment and sharing bathrooms and showers with men has been strangely normal also. i've never watched anyone else shave except for my dad and stewart. we arrived here on monday, at gatwick airport. We figured out how to get to our hostel and tried to stay up till 9;30 or so, a grand total of 30 something hours being awake. on tuesday we were up and out for the day early. we started out at the tower of london, the london bridge, and walked along the thames river until we arrived at the shakespeare globe theatre. we then walked across the millenium bridge and went to st. paul's cathedral. it was so beautiful. the arches, butteresses, frescos, mosaics, tombs, crypts, chapels and sculptures were amazing. We knew we weren't in kansas anymore. we climbed 163 stairs to get to the top dome and look down on the main church area, and then i climbed to the very top of the dome and looked out at london from what seemed like thousands of miles in the sky. stew forgot his jacket, and we had to climb the 163 stairs again, and did i get my exercise, along the narrow and winding staircase to get the jacket. it was a great day. we saw the westminster cathedral, the parliament buildings, big ben and picadilly/soho at night. the party atmosphere here is wild and people are so fashionable. stew loved picadilly, with all the lights, at night. we are booked for phantom of the opera for tonight. oh, and mom, we found the stockpot!! we are set to go there before the phantom. we bought discount tickets, of course, but it was still 100 bucks for tickets. stewart loved picadilly. well, love to everyone and photos will come once i remember to take the little usb thingie out of my backpack which is locked up at the present moment.
love amanda and stewart

We're Off!!

Well, the day has finally arrived. My classroom is packed, moved up to the third floor of my school (with the help of Stewart, of course), report cards are home, and I've planned out my school year for my Grade 4 classroom. Now, we're officially ready to go on the trip! We start out in London for some theatre (see mother, I do listen), move on to Edinburgh & Inverness Scotland for some hiking and Highlands adventures. We then fly to Turin Italy for one night, and we're staying with a fantastic and humorous Italian ambassador, Dr. Winger. From there we move on to Cinque Terre on the Italian Riveria and then onto Nice, the French Riveria. I do believe bathing suits are in order and that my nice shining white legs will be eye catching for all the wrong reasons. Yes folks, as my family says, I do glow beneath the water because they are so darned white. It was my maiden name, you know! OK, back to the schedule. We are taking the train to Innsbruck Austria (Alp hiking) for one night, and the next day we meet one of my life-long best friends, Erin Drew in Munich. Erin and I always seem to get into trouble anywhere we go, so I'm sure Munich will be no exception, and throw Stewart into the mix and it's bound to be a blast. We fly back to London after our visit with Dr. Drew, and start our Top Deck camping tour. Now, I made the mistake of cancelling my Top Deck tour when I was in University because I was being "thrifty" (Denise, is there a surprise here?) and wanted to put the money towards tuition instead (some people say boats are holes but really, University is the true hole folks... regardless of the "long-run" benefits older, wiser people tell me about). Some highlights: Paris, Lyon (France) Florence, Rome, Venezia, (Italy) Vienna (Austria), Prague (Czech Republic -- I don't even need a Visa for this folks), Lauterbrunnen (Switzerland), St. Goar (Germany) and Amsterdam (Netherlands -- definitely checking out that Red Light district everyone talks about). So there you have it! Stay tuned for the adventures, mishaps and amusing stories that come along with travelling. We even have fishing line as a way of hanging up our laundry (illegally) in hostels...

Love you all!

Amanda & Stewart

Jess's Birthday Cake

We went to my Auntie Maureen's birthday party a couple of weekends ago in Victoria. An old friend of mine, Jess, made this cake! You wouldn't believe how good it was. She made the icing out of marsacapone cheese, lemons, icing sugar and butter. Jess did an amazing job and it was so beautiful I had to post it on my blog!! I've really been into cakes lately -- lucky you if you're my neighbour or my landlord becuase we bake a giant cake and distribute slices to everyone.

Amanda :)

Squishing anything possible into a two week period...

Well, hello to everyone! As many of you know, I have a slight problem with time management. And it's not sleeping in that I'm talking about. I'm talking about COMPACTING. Trying to do as many things as possible within a limited time frame. Indeed, my friend Kim in Victoria has always wondered why I haven't had a nervous breakdown yet rushing from one thing to another, and by george I think she may be onto something here! I applied for jobs, had interviews for jobs, started planning for the Grade 4 classroom I was offered, started packing my classroom (no way out of that one), moving my classroom (not that one either), preparing for our trip away, and report cards all within the past three weeks.

We also had my Mom's surprise 60th B-DAY PARTY, which was a huge success, last weekend. I did the appies for the party, and Velma Legrow & I were chatting about the difference between women and men when it comes to entertaining. Men see the lowest common denominator, the baseline reality checks, in a party. Do it properly, make sure people are fed & happy, and skip all the pretense. My Dad & Uncle-Mike had it right -- ready to go lasagnas, salad, paper plates, plastic cups, and plastic cutlery. Women (only some of us) well -- it has to be "just so." Why buy a cheese ball when you can buy 8 kinds of cheese and make it yourself? Why buy roasted red peppers conveniently canned with no preparation when you can wash, cut, roast, peel, cool & marinate 14 of the blimey things yourself? Why buy paper plates that leave 0 clean-up when you can put out all your nice china and silverware and wash dishes for three days following an event? Why keep it practical and stress free, when you can agonize over every detail and "teat" beloved family and friends and in turn need a Valium to go to sleep the night before the party? Haven't I answered my own question? Like my Dad always says, KISS. Keep it simple silly. Wise at 19? I don't think so -- not so wise at 29 either. But working on it!
Perhaps I'm being dramatic but seeing as that's what I'm best known for I might as well keep the tradition and stretch out a good story when I see one.

PS: My kids/parents in my classroom gave me a SPA present -- can you believe it! Appreciated more than they probably know...

First Year Almost Done & Off to Europe We Go!

Well, I am officially almost finished my first year of teaching! It is very exciting to consider these options -- but I can definitely see why people who've been teaching for 30 years say it "flies by"!! I have loved what I've been doing -- I have a great class & a great parent group. Stewart has been most wonderful in helping out around the house when I've been too tired to do it myself -- and of course I hear the jokes and the commentaries about the latest jazz album along the way.

Some changes for next year -- it looks like I'll be teaching a Grade 4 Montessori class! That Montessori training has paid off -- literally and figuratively. This means I'll have my own classroom, and I already know most of the children and their parents. It's going to be a great way to try out intermediate and see if I enjoy it as much as I enjoy primary. I've also had retired teachers give me boxes upon boxes of supplies -- you need all the help you can get as a new teacher!

Our trip to Europe is just around the corner -- we are starting out in London, then going to Edinburgh & Inverness (Scotland). From there we fly to Turin Italy and onto Cinque Terre, the five cities on the Mediterranean!! Our next stop is Nice (France) and onto Munich to visit Erin Drew in Munich for two weeks! We then fly back to London and will start a three week tour of some of the major cities in Western Europe -- it's a TopDeck camping tour, and you should see our sleeping bags! They are amazing. They compress into a tiny packet that fits nicely in the bottom of our backpacks.

Decisions decisions decisions -- Stewart & I have been talking about kids (not the ones in our classrooms) and you never know what could happen in the next two years. I'll keep you posted. We've also talked about going to the Cook Islands but that might not happen either?

Hope everyone is well -- Amanda & Stewart