I will update more later on but for now, I just wanted to tell everyone of the weather. We are having a HUGE thunder and lighting storm with hail the size of well... I don't know what but it's pretty big!! And poor Chris went out metal-detecting this morning and is still out there!! Last night the winds all over Britain were so strong that they cancelled so many new years celebrations (even Hogmanay in Edinburgh was cancelled!!). Walking home was like walking through a blizzard but with heavy rain instead of snow. The wind is so strong that you sometimes have to hang on to something not to fall over.
Merry Christmas everyone! I officially finished work yesterday at 11 am and spent the rest of the day shopping with Sadie (Chris' sister). Today I spent the entire day baking cookies. I feel really sick. I think I ate too many cookies.
This is mostly for Mickey and Bob but it's for anyone that likes alpacas. It's a commercial here that I see all the time and it is so cute that I wanted to share it with you.
Mom was asking me where I lived. I was waiting for a nice sunny day to take a picture but since those don't exist around here lately, I had to settle for a gray rainny day. This is the street. It's the salmon-coloured house (if you can see it):
Work has been going okay. It is really really boring but easy. I won a prize on Saturday for being the most accurate keyer in my group! I had a day off yesterday so that was nice since I only have one of those a week. Chris and I went to see Pan's Labyrinth. It was pretty good but a little yucky and scary at times. After that we went to this tiny pub called "Minerva". It's a proper local's pub. It was really nice to be out though. We usually spend any free time watching tv at home.
I went to the post office today to send some Christmas cards out. I went to the bank first and the bank machine short changed me £5. I complained but didn't make a big deal of it since I've been on the other side of that argument before. Apparently they will let me know tomorrow morning if I get the money back. I got to the post office and the lady was really rude as most customer service people are here. Instead of taking offence to it like I used to, I make it a challenge to make them be nice to me. I smile lots even when they're rude, I appologize for things I don't need to be sorry for and I am generally super nice. By the end, I usually get a smile or a bit of small talk in return. It worked well today and she smiled and said "You must have a lot of family in Canada!" I made the mistake of choosing giant, super heavy cards and so I ran out of money and wasn't able to send them all. Hopefully I'll get the others sent later on this week.
I arrived to work early as they had asked us to do so. We all ended up waiting about half an hour outside until we were allowed to enter the high-security building. I had no idea mail sorting was such a secure procedure. Since there were hundreds of us starting today, it was painfully slow to get everyone organized. We got our id badges and went to the keying floor. Sat around our computers and waited another half hour or more for the other group to be finished with the projector or something... Went through the normal stuff like more security issues and dress code and whatnot. We then had an "eye break" even though we weren't actually on the computer. The rest of the day pretty much consisted of these eye breaks. We get 10 minutes off every hour. I can see how this will be great when we actually get keying but during the training, it seems like a waste of time. Whenever I was getting into something, I had to stop what I was doing to have an eye break. Dinner break was a bit like being back at school. I wasn't in a very social mood and didn't want to sit with strangers at the canteen so I sat in the small break area, ate my sandwich and read my book. I misunderstood the instructions at first and they made us to a test without practice and I failed so miserably! They have all these annoying rules like no backspacing more than once and if there is an auto-complete option and you don't use it, you fail! I'm sure today will go a bit better...
Just a quick little update. I only have one more day of freedom. I start work on Thursday and then work 6 days a week, full time until Christmas. It should be ok... I'm going to see a nurse on Friday about my dog bite. At least I think I am. I have to see a nurse for my registration check up. I don't really understand how this works. I had to register to a GP even though I have no intention on seeing this doctor for anything other than my dog bite. Hopefully the nurse can take care of it and I won't have to see the GP at all. Also, Chris' mom has made me hooked to another reality show. It started with Big Brother a few months back and now I'm hooked to "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!" It's not a weekly show... it's daily! So I waste an hour of my life everyday to watch "celebrities" live in a jungle. Oh well I guess after tomorrow, I won't be watching it anymore since I'll be at work.
Went to St. Ives yesterday. It's a beautiful Cornish town that is crazy-busy in summer but completely dead in the winter. It was so cold but there were two surfers that didn't seem to care at all. I will try to show you with pictures and a video but it really doesn't show how nice it is. We didn't spend very long there. In fact, we spent more time on the train than in St. Ives.
I have a job! It's not a great job, but it pays well and it's easy. I will be entering post codes in the system for Royal Mail. I start next Thursday and I only have to work until Christmas (at least 40 hours per week). It will be boring, but the pay is worth it for a month. I think I was a bit over-qualified for the job since most people came in for the interview/assessment in jeans with a hand written CV and struggled on the criminal record question... I guess I really didn't have to go out and buy an interview outfit for this... oh well.
It's a beautiful day here! The sun is shinning and it is actually quite warm. The days have been really nice lately until the sun starts going down. Then it get real cold, real fast! But it's to be expected in November. The caravan, however, is not somewhere you want to spend a winter. We wake up several times in the night from the cold. It is really unpleasant. But! We only have just over a week left here before we move on. The house will not be much warmer but at least it will not be a tin box so it shouldn't get quite as cold. I haven't been on very much because it's been too cold to go outside to get a signal. I was very amused to read a paper I found in the pub that warned the British population of the "Arctic Winter" they will experience this year. They are expecting overnight lows to go "as low as minus 10 degrees C"! Hahaha! There is even a 40% chance of a white Christmas (which I am very happy about). When I showed people the article they reacted in the, "No surely not! No one can survive such a harsh winter!" Well... not that bad but they were horrified at the -10C.
This Sunday is Bonfire Night but around here, things are done a bit differently. Sure there will be bonfires, fireworks and maybe even a few "Guy Fawkes's" on fire but being so close to Ottery St. Mary, we might get a chance to see a 300 year old tradition: Tar Barrel Racing! This is apparently fantastic (though a bit dangerous) to watch. Only real locals are allowed to participate in the event. You must be born in Ottery St. Mary (or even be second generation... I'm not exactly sure). The event brings crowds in from everywhere similar to cheese rolling. (You gotta love strange English traditions!) To sum it up as best as I can with my limited knowledge, they take barrels with tar inside (small ones for kids, medium ones for ladies and young men, and giant ones for men), light them on fire and then the people have to carry them around on their shoulders with only burlap "gloves" to keep the flames away. There is no crowd conrol and people can walk among the tar barrel racers. One of the bartenders is participating tomorrow for her second time. Here are some videos of it if you are curious: Youtube
I don't know if we'll be able to make it. Chris and I are both working but the men's one (giant barrels) doesn't happen until midnight. So as long as we have a way there and back, we can go. Ottery St. Mary is pretty easy to get to but getting back is difficult. We are on top of a large hill and it is in the valley. It's a steep climb at 1:00 am to go back home...
Also, my dog bite has not healed yet... It's been like two months! I don't know if I should got to a doctor or not. For one thing, I don't know if I'm covered under the NHS and my insurance has run out. Also, I feel like I'd be wasting a doctor's time if I were to go in for something so small. Maybe I'll just wait until January and see my family doctor...
This weather is killing me! We had one nice day in the last 2 weeks! Luckily it fell on a day off. I know I've said this before but I don't understand where it comes from.
Today, the top wire came of my teeth. By "came off" I actually mean I pulled it off with a pair of scissors (classy, I know). It had come off one of my teeth since I've been eating so many apples lately and it was driving me insane. Now though, my teeth are still covered in cement but at least I've been able to floss my front teeth (Something I haven't been able to do properly in over a decade!) Ok, enough tooth-talk.
I don't really have anything else to talk about. I'm just counting the days until we get to leave. I am so bored here. I know I should work when we move to Plymouth but I really want some time off. I might just work part time or something... at least until after my exams.
It's getting awfully cold for outside-internet time. My fingers, toes and nose are frozen.
I am happy to announce that so far, there has been no rain today. Not even mist or the crazy fog that's so thick you can barely walk through. I don't know how long this will last but it is a nice change from the non-stop torrential downpours of the last week. I don't understand where the rain comes from and where it goes. How is everything not under 2 meters of water? We must have very good drainage. The funny thing is that this is not abnormal at all for this area. This is just winter... well the beginning of anyway. Real winter is like this excepts the roads turn to ice. I used to defend the stereotype of England being nothing but rain and fog... it turns out it's true in certain areas. So leaving here seems like a good plan. We have to stay an extra week now because the head chef wants a holiday and he can't have one after Chris leaves. Although I don't see why we should give him one since he treats Chris like dirt. I suppose it just means one more week of pay. We have to work until the 13th now but at least we've asked for our birthday off. I think we will be going to Bath to celebrate. I'm very much looking forward to going away even if it is just for one day.
I don't know when to go home. I can leave on January 1st (£119) or January 9th (£79). If I go on the 1st, I get to see family before everyone goes back into the work/school routine but I screw up Chris' new year plans. He hasn't been home for Christmas and New Years for at least 5 years and was looking forward to going out with his friends. I always complain about not doing anything for New Years and this could be my chance to do something. The other option is to leave on the 9th and I save £40, get to spend New Years with Chris and his friends and get to spend a bit more time with Chris before I leave. But, I don't get to see the family during the festive season and classes start on the 8th so I'll miss two classes. What should I do???
Not completely official yet but I think we'll be handing in our notices tomorrow and then within 2 weeks, moving to Plymouth to live with Chris' family. We've decided that my last two months in the UK should not be spent in a caravan in a junkyard... especially not Christmas. It will be a pay-cut but happiness is more important than money, right? I think so anyway. I'll probably get an easy job in the new mall or work at Subway with Chris' sister or something like that. No more crazy hours or stress and I can spend more time on school work with a normal internet connection. Speaking of school, my psycholinguistics class is slowly killing me with grammar and syntax. I had no idea how much grammar would be involved. I thought the class was supposed to cover all language aquisition. I don't know why we are spending so much time on English grammar. I better get ready for work.
My updates have been few and far between but I assure you that you are not missing much. I found out that adventures are nearly impossible when trying to juggle working full time and school. My days involve working from 10 am to 10 or 11 pm with a 3 hour break in between that I usually spend talking to Vicky and or mom on msn. At night I either try to cram in a bit of reading for my courses or on nights when I am especially tired, I watch an episode or 2 of House with Chris. My days off consist of catching up on some sleep and studying. I have most of today off (I have to work at 5:30) which is lucky since I have to finish a critical book review by midnight (EST) or 5:00 am tomorrow (BST). Although it may sound like it, I'm not complaining. I actually get quite a bit of satisfaction from my studies. What doesn't give me much satisfaction, however, is work. We've thought of leaving and have discussed it quite a bit lately but money is the main reason for staying. Moving to Plymouth and getting a job there would cost us a lot more money than staying here. I think I can stand working for another 2 and a half months with people who don't particularly like me. I find it difficult since I've never really experienced that before. What will be especially difficult is spending Christmas here. I missed Christmas last year but we were still with lots of friends and had a big Christmas dinner and everything. This year we will most likely be working. I don't want to end on a down note so I will talk about weather. Yesterday was beautiful! It was warm and sunny. At the moment we're having a bit of a thunder storm... What I'm wondering about is the weather at home. I get two automatic weather forcasts: one through the UofG website for Guelph and one through MSN today for Toronto. Today, the Guelph one said it was -3 and the Toronto one said it was 14. I doubt that there is a 17 degree difference between Toronto and Guelph, so which is right? Are you below freezing or is it nice out?
Going back to work after being away took some getting used to. The first day I thought, "There's no way I can do this for three more months. I need to get out of here NOW!" The second day was, "This is boring but I need money," but now I am back in the routine and have decided to make a bit more of an effort to socialize with my coworkers. What really got to me was Thanksgiving. It's funny because I never really cared that much about Thanksgiving. I suppose it's because we only started celebrating it when we moved to Ontario. (Right? Or did I just forget?) I was talking to Vicky on msn using Chris' sister's webcam and it was great but I really really wanted to be there. I'm so torn. I really miss home but I can't look forward to going home in January because it means leaving Chris for at least 4 months. I have to choose my courses for the winter semester in the next week or so and that just makes it so real. Sunday was also our one year anniversary and we spent it working split shift on the busiest day of the week and watched House MD until about 1:30.
Back from Munich on Wednesday. We had an amazing time! The pictures are taking ages to upload so I'll start the update while I wait. Before I start though, to (try to) answer Amy's question of "what are english muffins called in England?" I asked Chris and he said they were just "muffins" but I don't think he understands the question. I've seen them called "muffins" or "English muffins", I think both are acceptable.
We arrived to Munich after an uneventful flight but a stressful bus/train/bus ride to get to London Heathrow. Sabrina and Johannes greeted us at the airport with open arms. We went back to their place and Johannes cooked us a very delicious Bavarian dish which was a really nice type of macaroni and cheese. Their place is amazing! It's like an Ikea show room. We sampled some local beers. The next day (Sunday), we went to Oktoberfest. We started off with a traditional breakfast and I decided to spend the whole day eating meat so I could enjoy the local delicacies. Oktoberfest was great! Luckily, we had Johannes there to teach about where to go when so we were able to take full advantage of all the "Bavarian's Heaven" had to offer. Since we started at around noon, we had to pace ourselves when drinking our beer (which is served by the litre). The beer was so good that you could drink large amounts without feeling ill. So the beer was flowing and the "oom pa pa" music was playing. After the "oom pa pa" band the "good" band came on, we stood on our benches and danced and sang along to Brian Adams, Bon Jovi, and various German football songs. We met quite a few people. It's amazing how well Germans speak English just from learning at school. We left the beer tent at around 10:00 or 10:30. Stumbled around in the fair. Ate some sausages and visited the fun house. Chris, Sabrina and Johannes got stuck in the glass maze. Chris won me a rose by shooting a metal rabbit. The next day, Sabrina went to work and Chris and I went sight seeing. We walked all over town. We then had to go back to the apartment to prepare for Johannes' surprise party. His sisters came by and Sabrina returned from work. Then all the guests showed up. It seemed to work well and Johannes was surprised. The next day was a national holiday (reunification day) and so both Sabrina and Johannes were not working. After a long lie in, we all went to sight see. We climbed St. Peter's to see a bird's eye view of the city.
It was a fantastic holiday and I'm sure I forgot to write about lots of stuff. The pictures are being posted on my photobucket account here.
It's a cold, windy and slightly drizzly day and I am sitting in the laundry shed since it is the only covered area where I can get a decent signal. The connection now only lasts about 30 seconds in the caravan so it looks like I will have to do my homework outside from now on. I haven't updated in a while so here is a recap of everything that has been going on around here (there really isn't that much...) Last Tuesday I decided I would walk the coastal path from Sidmouth to Branscombe. Chris decided to take the easier (but less scenic) foot paths to do some detecting and we planned to meet in Branscombe for a meal. I started up the first of many cliffs on the path. I was out of breath, sweating and felt like I was going to die. All I could think about was where my horse was since horseback riding would have been so much more enjoyable. (I was glad later on to not be on horseback since it would have been extremely dangerous on these paths.) When I made it to the top of the first cliff, I felt so accomplished. I could see the town of Sidmouth below me and it looked so tiny. I then noticed that all the people that were up there and that I had met on the way where at least 30 years my senior. This made me feel very unfit and made me realize I have to do more things like this. To be fair though, they were all seasoned hikers with walking sticks, hiking shoes and socks that went over their trouser legs. These people knew what they were doing. I continued on my way going up and down more cliffs. The view was incredible! At about the half way point, as I was going down a hill I hear my name being shouted in the distance. By coincidence the coastal path and one of the other footpaths met just as Chris and I were in the same spot. So we decided to walk the rest of the coastal path together. When we got to Branscombe, the pub was not yet open for dinner. We had the option of waiting 40 minutes outside or just going home. We weren't that impressed with the menu so we were on our way. We missed the last bus out of town but one of the locals told us where to catch a different bus. We had to walk another 2 miles uphill. At this point I could not feel my legs anymore. We got to the busy road and had no idea how long we would have to wait for a bus so Chris decided to hitchhike again to my protest of "we're going to be murdered!" After a few minutes a car stopped and the man inside was thankfully not a murderer. He was about Chris' age, grew up in the same small Cornish town as Chris and was a chef. So he and Chris had loads to talk about while I just sat in the back seat and enjoyed the free ride. He ended up driving us right to our door at the pub. ( Pictures ) So that was Tuesday. Then there was work. Nothing special there. Then we had two days off in a row! We took advantage of this by getting far far away from the pub. We went to Plymouth and just relaxed in a real house with Chris' family. Chris and I went to see the film Children of Men which I highly recommend for anyone who wants to see an apocalyptic film that is actually good. Other than that we've just been working everyday. I get a few half days which are great for school work. I have lots to do before we go to Munich on Saturday. I really hope the weather is better over there. Last night Chris and I both had an evening off so we went out for dinner and a nice romantic stroll in the moonlight on the beach in Sidmouth.
Under the hedge again. We have good wireless days and bad wireless days. Today is obviously a bad one since I have to sit outside to get a signal. No matter though. Today is a good day because the pubmobile is finally available for us to use! The pubmobile is used by whichever staff member's car has broken down (seems like there is always someone with a car in the shop) but now it is back to the pub! It's an old station wagon that makes strange noises and I've been warned to not exceed 50 mph with it but it is no worse than the old civic in it's last days. We decided to explore a few of the neighbouring villages and go down to Seaton since we had never been (other than going through it on the bus). Seaton is actually an uglier version of Sidmouth. The view is nicer with large white cliffs in the distance but the actual town is nothing special. The beach is a stone beach like Sidmouth. What is it with boys and stones? I think it's physically impossible for a boy to sit on a stone beach without throwing stones into the water. Try it! Either go with a male to a stone beach or if you are a male, try to not pick up and throw the stones. Our nice sit on the beach in the warm sun turned into Chris trying to put stones in my clothes and shoes and drag me out into the sea. Anyway, we also went out for lunch and I got the saddest excuse for a caeser salad. It was a bit of shredded iceberg lettuce at the bottom of my plate with some dressing, shredded cheese and the world's smallest croutons. All for the low price of £6.50! I know you can only do so much with a meatless caeser salad but they could have at least used decent lettuce and nice croutons for that price. We had a bit of a panic when we returned to the car with only half an hour before Chris' shift started and could not get the car started. After a quick phone call, I found out that there is a strange ritual of locking and unlocking the passenger door in order to start the car but only if the back door or trunk have been open. How strange is that? I'm starting to get used to the tiny tiny roads and driving on the left side again. Give me a four lane highway with a speed limit of 70 mph and I know what to do but these one lane, two-way roads with no shoulders and huge hedges on either side scare me so much. How do people do it? And when you encounter a tractor that barely fits on the road, that's even scarier. I'm about to lose battery power so here are a few pictures from our day out:
Having a nice relaxing day off today. It's actually supposed to be a school work/cleaning/laundry day but it's not going so well. The essay I have due soon is taking away all my Munich excitement. I'd like to at least get a rough outline done today. Chris is gone to town and will metal detect his way back here by foot. It should keep him busy for the bulk of the day. I asked him to bring me back a surprise and he agreed. I just hope it's of the chocolate variety and not the "rusty metal from the ground" variety. Although while we were in Plymouth, he found a really nice old style one penny from 1917 that he gave to me. It's very pretty.
I heard great news last night. Starting October 1st, half of the bar will become non-smoking! Yay! I will no longer get physically ill from having smoke blown in my face while I work. I'm going to have to deal with a lot of complaining I'm sure but too bad for them. They can all cram in the tiny smoking bar. I think my extreme enthusiasm for the non-smoking bar might have further alienated me from the rest of the staff who are mostly smokers. Oh well... they weren't about to befriend me anyway so no big loss I suppose. Still... it would be nice to have some work friends. I've never worked anywhere where the staff have been so indifferent toward me. It's not that they don't like me (I don't think anyway), I'm just there. There to take all the crappy split shifts, to stay late at night when everyone else is gone, and to come in first thing in the morning to set up the tables and roll the cutlery. I am here strictly here to make it easier for them at work. There are no personal feelings toward me, good or bad. I've always had work friends before. I always found that work was a good way of talking to people you would normally never talk to.
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