England and after

Oh. My. Gosh.
What an amazing time I had in England! From April 6 to the 13th I traveled with 45 students and three other adults to York, England. The weather was INCREDIBLE for us, if you can believe it. Sunny and warm, with rain only once which lasted about an hour and a half (not normal for England, eh?)

The kids were amazing; friendly, polite, well-behaved, fun. York is a nice city, and being there when it was sunny made it seem even nicer. Martine (my favorite teacher) and I stayed with Jack and Anne Redfern, a wonderfully animated couple from Lancashire. We had such a blast getting to know them. Once the kids were in their host families (around 6pm), we were free to do as we pleased. A couple of different nights, this meant going to the pub, or just staying in for a nice meal. Anne is a fabulous cook and we ate a lot of traditionally English meals (fish and chips, Yorkshire pudding, Shepard's Pie.) They've both been all over the world (Jack worked as a pastry chef in the British Army for 30 years) so they've got tons of stories, most of which are hilarious, especially when told by Jack.

I should have written this post AS SOON AS I got back from England, as I could have given you a day-by-day run-down of our time in England. Oh well, here's just the general synopsis:

We drove 11 hours from Cusset to Zeebrugges, Belgium, where we then boarded a ferry for Hull, England. We ate well on the ferry (buffet-style, which pleased the students) and went to the discothèque at night. Once in Hull the next morning (we had cabins on the boat to sleep in) we drove about an hour to York.
In York, we had a tour of York Minster and of the Shambles area--small streets with shops. The Shambles were particularly interesting because a lot of the buildings still have hooks up above their windows and doors, where meat was hung out to dry in the sun.

We spent an afternoon in Haworth, where the Bronte sisters are from. Visited the family's parsonage, which was my absolute favorite thing of the entire trip.
One day was dedicated to the seaside town of Whitby, where the book Dracula was written. Ate fish and chips on the beach. Some of the boys stripped down to their underwear and ran into the ocean, which was FREEZING I might add. It was really, really funny though. We visited the remains of the Whitby Abbey, walked around the village in the sun (though this was the day where it rained a little bit.)

I spent a lot of time getting to know the other teachers, but also the kids. At first, everyone was a little reserved, even with me, but a couple days into the trip (and especially after having danced with the students on the ferry) the students were opening up and having a blast and (after I'd given them permission) were using the informal pronoun with me and we were laughing and having fun. A couple of them in particular attached themselves to me, which was fun. They were all so interested in the differences between the American and French cultures, where I live in Cusset, which supermarket I shop at, what I like to do on the weekends. So cute.

On the ferry back, we went to the discothèque again, and this time was even MORE fun because everyone had been traveling with each other for a week and had gotten to know each other better. It was sad to leave England behind, and then to leave each other behind (I had seen another side of the teachers that I don't see in school!) but it was such a great trip overall, with great pictures and great memories.

We really did luck out with our group of students. The biggest problems we had the entire week were one of the girls not liking her host family's house (a problem that got resolved pretty quickly) and then about 10 kids getting sick on the ferry ride back because the ocean was a lot more rough than going over.

Now it's school holiday, plus my contract is up so I'm technically on summer holiday. My (Scottish) friend, Sophie, and I are planning to go to Toulouse this coming week for a couple of nights. Then in a week and a half I leave to go to Paris (May 11) for one night, then take a flight to Venice and stay there for two nights, then meet up with my Colombian roommate, Claudia, on the 14th to then take a cruise around Italy, Greece, and Croatia!!! Afterwards, we'll stay a night in Venice (the 21st) then two nights in Paris (where we'll see some friends I have there, visit Versailles- which we've never seen!- as well as Montmartre and some museums- for free because we have a Pass d'Education as teachers), then I'll come back to Vichy on the 24th. Thennnnnnnn I'll pack like mad, go down to the department of Lozère from May 28-29 for a French friend's bday, come back to Vichy, pack some more, go to Paris on June 1, then fly to Virginia on the 2nd.

Let's just hope the weather stays as nice as it has been. I've definitely realized what a beautiful place Vichy can be, when it is good weather.

xoxo
KK