New Years, Ireland, and Berlin

Hey kids :)

If I can get this blog done, I'll actually be caught up! (For the record, I wrote that line nearly two weeks ago. whoops!)

So first off, HAPPY NEW YEAR. This is the year of balance. I think perhaps towards the end of last year I made some ridiculous decisions that were not so balanced, so I've decided that this year I'm going to practice weighing the pros and cons of things before I go and make important decisions about my life. Furthermore, when I have a list of bigger cons than pros, I'm going to try and actually follow the list and heed the cons. In other words, I'm going to practice making more informed choices about "what-not-to-do" when the odds are against me. (AND, I recommend everyone else tries this, if you don't do it already.)

I got back to London on NYE, and I was really not looking forward to New Years because I really wanted to spend it in the States with my tried-and-true friends. Everyone always says that the best New Years Eves always happen when you don't have high expectations. Well, my expectations were lower than low this year, and I had a COMPLETE blast! The Irish Lads, and Eimear were over from Ireland, and we spent New Years together.

First, we went to the Embankment/London Bridge area and watched the famous London fireworks. Much in the same way that people go to Times Square to watch the ball drop, people here go to the fireworks.

Here we are in the only group picture of the night, which of course has to be fuzzy. UGH. We were freezing our asses off, and I guess so was our photographer. (We brought the New Year in FREEZING cold, which has since been a theme of my year.)

Afterwards, we went to a party in a club. I thought it was going to be lame, as clubs are, but one of the floors of the club played really crappy 80's music, so it was great. (Really crappy 80's music=uninhibited crazy dancing!) The theme of the night was red and white, hence the wrist band and feathers. Paddy was wearing a red and white tie, but most of the boys ditched them before the evening was over.
This is an end of the night photo. The girls without the feathers are not our friends. I don't know who they are!

After new years, I went to Dublin for a couple days to hang out with the lads some more, see Mariel and celebrate Eimear's birthday, and to see 2manydjs.

This is an amazing crowd shot of 2manydjs. We were in the VIP section (oh yea!) so we had a really good view of everything. I'm not a huge fan of electronic music, as you all know, but this is the second time I've seen them, and they always make me want to dance my pants off. (Luckily, I wasn't wearing any pants to begin with, in order to minimize the scandal.)

We are pretty cute, if I do say so myself. Can I be an honorary Irish person and stay forever? Please, pretty please with a cherry on top? It's not that I don't like England, I do!, but I just love Ireland so much BETTER! Stupid visa rules are the bane of my existence.

I stayed with Mariel while I was in Ireland, but I still wish we could have caught up some more! She's the best, have I mentioned that lately? Here she is being cutsie-pants with her boyfriend Ciaran. (How come SHE gets to have an Irish boyfriend after I leave?!!!!)

Then, my travels led me to Berlin, Germany with Marisa. Let me just start out by saying that I WILL be back. Five days was NOT long enough. Berlin, for all it's bombed out history, has come back with a cultural vengeance. It has 141 museums/galleries--more than any other city in the WORLD. And there is just SO much to see. We didn't even get a dent into the monumental list of "must sees and must do-s" in Berlin.

Here is a photo of Marisa and I, half-dead of frostbite. Our first day there we went on a four hour walking tour. Let me just tell you, I have NEVER been so cold. Not hiking in the Patagonias. Not skiing in the Adirondacks. Not being without power and having no heat. Never, NEVER have I been this cold. Apparently, Germany just happened to be getting a cold front from Siberia. Okay. RIGHT. So, we saw a bunch of the things you are "supposed" to see when you visit Berlin: Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburg Wall, crazy new-ish architecture, and lots of cool war/struggle monuments.

This is one monument that I thought was particularly awesome. It has had it's name changed many times, but now it is just a Memorial to fallen veterans. The artist put the woman with child sculpture in a room with no ceiling, so she "feels" the elements just like everyone else. Of course, when we went to visit, she was feeling the crazy cold front, and snow.

The next day we went to the Jewish Museum. It is one of the best museums I've ever been to. SO informative and thorough. (Apparently, the German stereotype of extreme organization proved itself to us during our stay in Berlin, through the AMAZING amount of information we inhaled through various museum plaques and "audioguides." (Marisa loves the audioguides...and I may have become a convert in my old age.) The Jewish Museum took us through history from the Kabbalah all the way to present day. Oddly, I found that there was no section in the museum about the creation of Israel. Is that some sort of German political stance? I definitely think so. We also went to the TV Tower and got some cool views of the city.

On day three we went to the Altes Museum and the East Side Gallery. The East Side Gallery is just a fairly well-preserved section of the Berlin Wall. It has some great (and not so great) graffiti on it.

Some of the graffiti is political, like in this photo, but a lot of it is just crappy artists trying to get their crappy art seen. I preferred the political stuff.

The Altes Museum has one of the largest collections of Egyptian art in the world. (Probably, I'm really just making that statistic up.) Again, it took us about 4 hours to get through the museum, due to the high content of audio-guide information. I swear, Marisa and I are the slowest museum go-ers EVER.

The highlight of the Altes Museum, obviously, is the Bust of Nefertiti. I never knew she was unfinished, and thus has a freaky eye-hole. Oh yea. Gotta love the fun-facts.

Our last full day in Berlin we went to a modern art museum, the Reichstag, and the best darn Chip shop that side of Ireland. In case you were wondering, the Reichstag dome is NOT inside. It is just a dome with no sides...in other words, it is COLD. (Surprise, surprise!)

Our last night also happens to be the only night we went out in Berlin, seeing as it was SO cold! We ended up at this really awesome bar, recommended to us by our lovely hostel bartender. The bar (Kharma Noia) had a labyrinth inside of it! You had to get down to the secret room in the bar, and once there, you could get a ticket for the maze. Marisa was too chicken to go (sorry M!), but I figured that we had trekked all the way there, I might as well do it. New York should jump on the bar/entertainment bandwagon, cause it was AWESOME. Afterwards, we went to a crappy indie-rock club, but we felt very old, so we left.

All in all, Berlin was a fantastic, albeit freezing, experience. The people that we met were great, everyone was very friendly, and there is just so so so much to do! (If anyone ever wants to go back...let me know!)

Comment!

Love Sarah

PHOTO LINK

Hey Everyone,

This is a quick reminder about my photos on snapfish. You DON'T have to become a member or anything. Just follow the steps below.

1) Go to www.snapfish.com
2) Type in email address: sarahinireland@yahoo.com
3) Type in password: ireland123
4) Click on "Go To Photos" in the sort of middle of the page.
5) Click on "Friends' albums" on the left side of the page.
6) Click on 2008 to view the new albums titled "London in Wintertime" and "Home for the Holidays." Then Click on 2009 to view the new albums titled "Berlin 2009" and "London in Wintertime, 2009."

I'll let people know via email as I add more photos.

Cheers :)
Sarah

Christmas-ish-ness

Hey all,

It's been a month since my last blog (this is what happens when you go on vacation), so I'm going to break it up into two parts, for your reading pleasure. The first part is leading up to Christmas/Christmas vacation. I feel like this post MIGHT be kind of lacking emotion since everything happened so long ago and is no longer fresh, so, sorry!! :)

Right-O, so, I went to my first concert in England--Jamie Lidell. It was a complete blast. London is known for its fantastic music scene, but there isn't a lot playing in the upcoming months that I really want to see, so it was great to be able to see Jamie. He is super diverse and a great performer. He even did a bit of a DJ set and people were really into it. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera so I have no pictures of it.

We (I) finally got down to decorating our house, at least a little bit. I got tired of waiting for everyone to come to a consensus, so I just made some dictatorial decisions. (Coffee table, photos on the walls, candles in specific locations, etc.) Living in a hippy-household has it's advantages, but getting things done in a timely fashion is NOT one of those things. People like to deliberate. and deliberate. and deliberate. You get the idea.
This picture was taken before the photos were hung. Also, I came home yesterday and we had a giant television. So, that tiny one doesn't exist anymore. (Now all we need is a DVD player that plays American DVDs and I will be ALL set. I brought back the best movie EVER--Wet Hot American Summer--and I can't even show my housemates because we don't have a DVD player that plays it!)

The night before I left London to go home for Christmas, we had a house Christmas dinner, and it was so, SO great. It is amazing how dedicated Vegans can make such wonderful food. I will never again have meat-envy on Thanksgiving, but instead will make a nut-roast like the one that Ed made. I was SICK from eating so much food. (And THAT, my friends, is a good thing!)

This plate contains the following items: Yorkshire pudding, 2 veggie mash with apples (I made it, YUM), green beans, nut-roast, roasted potatoes, and cabbage. A right proper English meal, minus the meat roast.
This is what the table looked like all pretty and decorated.

And THIS is a picture of the aftermath of Christmas Crackers. For those of you unfamiliar with this English/Irish tradition, you have these crackers and you open them and they pop. The person who gets the bigger side wins the cracker. Inside you have a fortune, a toy, and a ridiculous paper hat.

Look! Juliet and I and ridiculous paper hats!

Well, I went home to the states for Christmas. I wasn't there nearly as long as I would have liked, but flight prices are a bit crazy these days, so I took what I could get. I was feeling MAJOR homesickness, as I've mentioned before, and it was so so so good to be home. Really. However, before I got home, I got bumped from my flight. (Which, by the way, meant that the airline gave me lots and lots of money. SWEET.)

I spent a lot of time in Heathrow airport on the 23rd of December, and I decided that if all airports were like this one, it wouldn't be so bad to get bumped from your flight! (It's a comfy chair to sleep on! I was hovering over this couple, trying to sketch them out so that they would get up and I could have the chair. It did not work.)

Let's see. In summary, while I was home what did I do? Primarily, I ate. Sickening amounts.

Here I am, eating. Surprise, Surprise. This is the Uccello's annual Christmas Eve party. We came, we ate. We conquered. AND, we sang Christmas Carols!

What IS it with vacation and food? Why do we associate gluttony with happiness. (Deep thought for the day.) After eating, I hung out with the fam, and saw my awesome Connecticut friends. (Shout out to all of you reading this!) I think that the following two photos sum up my family all too well ;) (LOVE YOU GUYS!)

Here is my sistie-pants appreciating the gift I gave her. Oh yea. Best. Picture. Ever.

And here is her daughter, following in her footsteps. Dance Party at the Hammer House! (In further photo news, I decided NOT to include the picture of my parents smootching. Ewww ;) !)

Besides family things, I spent the majority of the vacation with my girl friends. (This is Myself, Aly, and Meredith.) It was nice to be hanging out with the ladies again. We really only see each other once a year at this point, and I'm always sad when we all go our separate ways again!

Finally, what would a trip home be without an obligatory china pan run. Robby, Sarah, Lisa, and I went for lunch and stayed SO long, we thought about ordering dinner, too! Whoops!

So that, my friends, leads us to blog part two, New years and European Travels. I will end this blog with a couple of lists:


A quick list of things that suck about London:
1. Bagels--Do I want butter AND cream cheese? What the hell? Who would ASK such a thing. (Yes, I have a food problem.)
2. My mom's lack of a passport. (SO she has too many fake names and the government thinks she is a terrorist. Come on. My mom. A terrorist? I guess this doesn't really suck about London, but it sucks that currently my parents can't visit.)
3. Eamonn. Well, he doesn't suck (good guy, blabla. bad situation. blabla.) but I thought I should mention for the sake of blog-honesty that our unofficial relationship had a very official break-up. Merry Christmas to me.
4. Grid-less-ness. I like cities that have a grid. Or really, the grid is completely unnecessary, but could the city at least have SOME semblance of organization! I canNOT get around without getting lost EVERY time I go to Central London. (In the words of Brandon Karrow: Can I LIVE?)
5. The fact that I may, MAY, have bed-bugs. I'll keep you posted on this. Outcome--Yet to be determined.

A top-five awesome things about London:
1. My hockey team
2. The fact that I just scored a job 4 days a week until June/July at the same school everyday. NINE MINUTES BIKE RIDE AWAY. Goodbye commute, hello enhanced quality of life! (I start on Tuesday so further news to come.)
3. It's cheaper than Ireland now that the pound is SO weak, and it's close enough that I can hop-over if I want to.
4. My room. It IS amazing.
5. Multi-cultural-ness.

Comment, dudes :)

Love, Sarah

Picadilly line to COCKFOSTERS

Hello!

Usually, I keep a little sticky-note of things I want to blog about, but this week I didn't do that so we will see what I can remember. I will say that this blog will contain a fair amount of photographs. I have been remembering to bring my camera with me everywhere!
Please let me point out that I live on the PICADILLY Line (Manor House Stop) on the way to COCKFOSTERS. Enlarge the photo. You'll see what I mean. Yes, it gets me every time. Giggle, Giggle.

This is what the Picadilly train looks like at night. No straphangers were killed in the taking of this photograph (that I know of).

Okay, so it's been freezing cold, and I have had WAY too much hot chocolate. (Not, suities, that this is a bad thing ;) ) The problem with "freezing cold" here, is that it only ever rains/freezing rains, but never actually snows. SO, we get all the crappy parts of winter without any of the beauty!

Alright, so, you all have seen pictures of my room and my housemates, but you haven't really seen my neighborhood yet. I'll admit, it's super cute, but I can see myself eventually moving elsewhere because there just isn't that much going on in the way of a social life.
This is the High Street (Main Street) off which I live. It is called Green Lanes. It is predominantly Turkish establishments.

This is THE reason to live in my neighborhood: The famous Yasar Halim Bakery. They have THE best breads, desserts, and boreks on Earth. I may grow obese living here.

This is the street corner off which I live. My street is JUST to the left of this vegetable/fruit store.

This is my street! We have pretty red row-houses with front yards AND back gardens!

This is my house. 10 Salisbury Road. (Why does no one love me enough to send me things??)

Now onto work things...I got my contract for guaranteed supply last week!!! (Congratulations via commenting on the blog may ensue now...) Basically, this means that I am guaranteed work every day (that isn't a holiday) from now on. I still have to call up in the mornings, if I haven't gotten anything before-hand, but, it takes a lot of financial pressure off because what it means is that if they DON'T find work for me, they still have to pay me. Eamonn has also convinced me that it is due time I ask for a raise so I am psyching myself up to do that this week. (He gets paid 12 pounds a day more than me, and has been working only a couple weeks longer than I. He works for a different agency, but apparently, the going rate is the same...Now all I have to do is get the guts to do it. I hate talking about money!) Speaking of Eamonn it's due time for a photo and a caption:
Please note, this is intentionally a ridiculous photograph. This is Eamonn wearing the amazing Christmas cape he received from a mate for Christmas. He cuts his hair every 5-6 months. Clearly, he is due. He is a teacher and a friend and we've known each other for more than 5 months now. (Has it been that long already?) I like to introduce him as "the smartest Irish person I know." Which, by the way, is the complete and total truth. Eamonn and I are not dating. We are also not not-dating. When asked, which does happen, I say, "We are not dating," and he stands there like an awkward boy (who is not a boy because he is nearly 30). If you ever meet him, you can tell him about all of the horrible (and not so horrible) things you've read about him in this blog because the nature of our relationship is such that he knows his picture's been painted less-than-ideally here--he's just not allowed to read it. When we stop not not-dating it apparently won't matter because we were not-dating to begin with. And you can blog-quote me on that. ;)

This is Eamonn and Badger. They had an all-lads party last weekend. Apparently it's a 7 year tradition. Badger, incidentally, writes for the sports section of The Guardian. (His real name is Robin so you can look him up if you read it.) He may overtake Eamonn for "smarted Irish person I know" at some point soon.Speaking of shattered, this is what their house looked like after the weekend. (Girls just don't let the ridiculousness get to this level!) I spend a fair amount of time there, and on this particular day, I hid in the cleanest part of the house and read the Sunday paper, so as to avoid looking at/smelling the mess.

So, this week was crazy and fun, and I found myself comfortable and at home for the first time. I worked every single day, and hung out every single night. It is nice, socially, to finally know enough people, and feel comfortable enough with them, to go out and do stuff and not feel the pressure of having to "impress." I feel like when you first meet people it takes so much ENERGY, and now I just feel more relaxed, so hanging out is much more enjoyable and a lot less work!

On Tuesday I went Salsa dancing with Sadbh (Irish and pronounce Sive) and Jaz. It was a great lesson at a great club, and the people there were pretty friendly as well. There was even a live band to dance to afterwards! The class was kind of hard, but I felt like I learned more in one day than I have in a very long time. I've seen London salsa dancers at work in other places, and now I can understand why they are so good! On Wednesday Jaz and I went to see this really great musical in the West End. (I have definitely been seeing my fair amount of theatre these days. I guess I don't want to pass up the opportunities that I know I missed out on in NYC. To be surrounded by great theatre is a very rare, and wonderful thing!) We saw "Imagine This" which got very poor reviews. It was a musical about Jewish Ghettos in Poland during World War II. The musical was GREAT, I think the problem is that no one wants to go see a musical and then be horribly depressed afterwards! On Thursday Eamonn made dinner. He's been talking up his "super secret best ever pasta sauce" so it was due time I tried it out. Pretty good...but not as good as the Uccellos on Christmas Eve. On Friday I went out with Jill, Sadbh's housemate, and COMPLETELY coincidentally Eamonn's best friend's little sister. I am telling you...the Irish community here is crazy. We had an awesome night out on Liverpool Street (and I had the BEST cheap veggie burger of my entire life!) but unfortunately, one of the guys we were with got his laptop bag stolen. It is such a shame that in London's "fairly low crime-rate" there is such a HIGH concentration of thievery. It's SO common here to get things nicked when you are out having a good night, and it really puts a damper on things.

I woke up at an un-godly early hour on Saturday to play a hockey game in the freeeezing cold freeeezing rain. The game was miserable, we got our as**es kicked, and I think I pulled a muscle in my right lower a**. Seriously, watching me walk is a rather large source of entertainment today. Soren and I were supposed to go to the famous Camden Market to Christmas shop, but, I felt so crappy, I cancelled. I NEED to Christmas shop though!

However, it was our hockey club Christmas-Do last night, so after our EARLY game, everyone went home and napped and then we went to the club for the party. I should explain the West Hampstead Hockey Club to you now, I supposed. There are 6 girls teams and 7 guys teams (which is around 150-200 people). And, being sports enthusiasts (and predominantly English, Scottish, and Australian), they know how to throw a party. I'm excited to have such a large group of people to be able to meet, who all have the love of hockey in common. The girls in my division are all really kind, fun to hang out with, and have completely taken me under their wing.
This is the hockey club.

Most of you know how I feel about Karaoke. Well, you can see me standing in the back of my team, being embarrassed. Each team had to do a karaoke song at the Christmas-Do. We are pictured here singing "Uptown Girl."This is myself and one of the girls on my team, Helen. If you look closely you can see that I am covered in tinsel.

In other words, this week was all about being too social and not getting enough sleep. The pattern is just going to continue because tonight I'm going to see Jamie Lidell in South London. YES!

Finally, I am coming home from December 23rd-December 30th. If you are going to be around, let me know. I am going to be in London from December 31st-January 2nd, Dublin from the 2nd-4th, then Berlin (with Marisa!) from January 4th-January 9th, and then Finally back to London to re-start "real life."

Love you! (Comment!)

Sarah

PS: Happy Birthday Simone!

Washing Machine From Hades or This Week's Social Life

Helloooo Fans :)

Right now I am waiting for my *only* set of sheets to finish washing. Currently, they have been in the washing machine for 2 hours. I HATE European washing machines. Stupid front loaders. They LOCK so that you can't open them and spill water all over thing (nor can you get your clothes out when they have been in for a million years and the washing machine gods are playing some kind of evil trick on you)! PS: We don't have a dryer. No one does. And it is right annoying. Seriously, clothes don't dry in freezing cold countries where there is no sun, and yet, no dryers anywhere. Who came UP with this energy-saving idea??

News update: My sheets have finally finished washing. And guess what, my white duvet is now blue.

ANYWAY, back to blogging. It's been a good week. Great in fact. I have taken loads of cheesy London photos for you all to feast your eyes on: ICONIC London.

LOOK. It's Picadilly Circus. Yes, folks, this is Time Square's daddy. Bright and Scary.

A reminder on the street to all the idiot tourists. Don't look in the wrong directions like a stupid American and get yourself killed.

There are no pictures of the beautiful Soren because I promised him I wouldn't post the only photo of him I have...which is quite un-photogenic, to be honest, and doesn't do him any justice. We are going to have a blog photo shoot next time we hang out though, so no worries :) (And Eamonn thinks we should have a "who is hotter contest." I told him I'd have to collect a few more hot male friends, and then I would make it happen. ha.)

I don't think I can work this blog in any sort of chronological order today because my brain is feeling un-chronological. Let me start with the teaching/work stuff. I think I am in the middle of a great anthropological experiment: New York City's Eff-ed up educational system versus London's Eff-ed up educational system. I will tell you that this week's experience was a most pleasant one. I spent the whole week at one very well run school in Vauxhall. Basically, the students come from very similar backgrounds to our New York City students (poor, projects/council housing, broken families, etc.) BUT, this school that I was at this past week did a very good job at keeping all of those problems outside of the school. Inside the school was a very serious work environment, and for the most part, the students worked. They were kids, so, of course they didn't REALLY respect the substitute teacher (me) but, they got their work done for the most part. And, after seeing me for a few days, they started getting used to me, and I to them. I was actually quite sad to leave. I sent the head-teacher my CV and an email saying that if they ever needed an English teacher (though I'm not currently looking) they should think of me. The school itself was incredibly racially diverse, and all the students got along really well.

There were also a fair amount of Spanish speakers and Portuguese speakers, which is a bit of a rare thing in London. They had a high ESL population, and it made me feel at home more so than other schools I have been in. The teachers were surprised when I mentioned that their students seemed to be ahead of our (NYC) students in terms of reading/writing/maths skills. I worked in a year 11 class (kind of the sophomore equivalent) who were working on Of Mice and Men and Romeo and Juliet, and it made me feel like the confident teacher that I should be at this point! One thing that was really crazy to me is that one of the classes that I subbed for, a year 7 class (7th/8th grade equivalent) had an end-of-unit exam. Instead of taking the exam in the classroom, they were taken down to the assembly hall, and had to take their exam there as an entire grade. They had to enter the hall silently, leave their coats/bags at the back of the room, and stand SILENTLY behind their chairs until everyone arrived. Once there, the head teacher announced that they had one minute to sit down and get ready before the exam began. I thought it was a bit serious (and kind of scary!), but then I realized that maybe, if our students were taught how to properly take tests from 7th grade, they wouldn't be so shocked and disheartened when it came time to take the SATs. Right? Teacher thoughts? SO, that's my update on teaching life here.

Alright, so, in other news, I started falling in love with London this week. Mostly, it happened this weekend, but now that I'm falling in love with it, my edit button is in full effect, and I can't even remember the things that happened before. When we fall in love with people, we do the same thing. You stop noticing the things about a person that are negative, and all of a sudden, even though the negatives exist, you stop being able to point them out. That is how I am starting to feel with London.

On Friday I went to see Treasure Island with Jaz. She had free tickets, Lily Allen's dad Keith is in it, so we went. Free West End theatre (that's like Broadway for you New Yorkers) is not something you say no to. The production wasn't that great, but, that's not why Friday was awesome, anyway.
See, after getting out of the theatre, we walked through Leicester Square, which is kind of a bigger version of Union Square. People hang out, walk around, and often-times there is something culture and fun going on. Well, during Christmas time, apparently, there is an annual CARNIVAL! How cool is that?! In the middle of the city! Can you IMAGINE Union Square with a proper carnival??? With RIDES? I mean, this carnival alone gave London SO many brownie points. AND, there is a SNOW-making machine. (A clear downside to London is that it is SO cold in the winter...without the beauty of real snow. It kind of snow-rains here. I wouldn't even call it sleet.) There were serious city-livers acting like children running around everywhere. It made me giddy.
Did I mention there was carnival food? Oh yea!

So then, Saturday I had my first field hockey game with the team. The pitch (field) is about an hour away and I have never done the bus-ride in daylight because we practice in the evenings. It turns out, the bus-ride to the Brent Cross Pitches is absolutely stunning. I had heart squeezies the entire ride there. Honestly, it is just a giant expanse of green! (We all know I moved out of New York because, though Central Park exists, it's just one green spot. It turns out that London has giant green areas EVERYWHERE.) I will go back and take pictures at some point. It was just amazing because the green pops up in the middle of no-where. London is such an expansive city with so many different neighborhoods and so many different heartbeats. It's going to take a long time to get to know them all, but I'm really looking forward to it. (MAndrew, fancy walking in a park when you are here next month?? There are so many of them.) In addition to the parks on the way to the game, there were also so many cute little "New England Type" towns with little town centers lit up for Christmas. Little old couples were walking around hand-in-hand Christmas shopping, and it just seemed like such a LIVABLE place. Not like New York where everything is so fast-paced all of the time.

Now for the game. I LOVE playing field hockey! It's SO much fun. We tied, which isn't SO bad, but I definitely have high hopes for next week, and a win! I am in the lowest division, which makes me one of the top two players on the team. I am not sure if I like being in that position because it means that all-of-a-sudden I'm being looked to for advice and positioning, and things like that. We all know I don't know how to shut-up, and I just don't know if I'm looking for a leadership position on a team ALREADY. Another slight disadvantage is that I had to play the ENTIRE game without getting a sub because every time my teammates subbed people were like, "No, you stay in because you are better." And yea, it was flattering, but my body is D-Y-I-N-G right now. I mean, it actually even hurts to sit. (My butt muscles are KILLING me.) BUT, it really is great fun. And the girls on the team are great! I wanted to take an action shot for the blog, but I was on the field the whole time, so maybe next time...

Then, last night, Soren took me out in Camden. Now, I've been around Camden but I hadn't actually spent time there with anyone who knows the area well. WELL, let's just say, I've found the neighborhood I want to live in. (I can't afford it, of course, but it is perfect.) There are parks close by, it is very alternative (think Alphabet City-esque), tons of great restaurants, culture, and bars, and everyone who hangs out there seems so laid back. I think I will start looking for a permanent job in that area when I start seriously looking for jobs, because I neeeeed an excuse to have a too-expensive apartment in that neighborhood.
This is a picture of the Camden Lock overpass. If you click on it, or just look closely, you can see two painted people who look like they are painting the sign. Those are graffiti by Banksy.
This is also graffiti by Banksy on the same street. Pretty cool. Basically, the neighborhood is teeming with cool art and fun stuff to do. Soren and I had pints at Amy Winehouse's favorite hangout, The Hawley Arms, before heading for a FREEZING cold walk in Primrose Hill. Seriously, this city is GORGEOUS.

All in all, what I'm trying to say is...I'm starting to like London. Like "Like it Like it." :)

Comment!

Love Sarah

PS: I got my first piece of mail yesterday. It was a thank-you note from Lisa. It made my day. But seriously, does no one else love me and want to send me fun things in the mail and then I will send you fun things back? Please, Please? Let's bring back snail-mail, one letter at a time :) (Nate and Evan and John Young, I was expecting better from you guys!)

Dearest Kirstin: a short blog on how to comment

If you are awesome and would like to comment on my blog:

1) Go down to the bottom of the post for that date and you will see something that says number of comments. (0 comments, 1 comment, 2 comments, etc.)
2) Click on it.
3) Write your comment in the box that says "Leave Comment"
3) Below the box that says "Leave Comment" look where it says "choose an identity."
4) Click on "Name"
5) Type in your name
6) Press "Publish your comment"
7) Periodically check back at the comments because I respond to them

:) Sarah

London Bridge is Falling Down

Hey everyone,

If you get through this blog, you win a pathetic plea for comments :)

Table of contents, by paragraph (you laugh, but I'm serious):

1. Introduction and Tea
2. Job Status
3. Job Status part two, with tears.
4. Literary Butcher Shop
5. Broken Muscles
6. Gay Clubbing/Britney Spears
7. Running and Tea
8. Conclusion (pathetic plea for comments)

I am sitting here with Louise and Jaz, drinking tea and writing this blog. It's nice to sit around with housemates. There are so many of them that it seems someone is pretty much always around to hang out with, but it's also perfectly acceptable to hole-up in my room alone. I'm digging it. (We finally had a house meeting about how compulsive people like myself cannot handle the gross-factor of the bathrooms...and we set up a "rota." So now everything is clean and lovely and I am happy.) :)

It's been a bit more than a week, but I haven't had a second to sit down and write because...I GOT A JOB!!! Basically, I already had a job, but I was frustrated because my agency wasn't getting me work. As it turns out...they were waiting for my FBI CRIMINAL RECORD...and now that they have it (All Clean, All Clean!), I have been able to get work every single day. In fact, I will be working at the same school this entire week. It is REALLY nice knowing that I have the security of a job for the whole week. I have been offered interviews for permanent English teacher jobs starting in January, but I am kind of avoiding them right now because I want the freedom of substitute teaching, and it is pretty much the same money. Job security is a frightening thing, though. (How 'bout this recession, eh?)

I don't even know where to start with this blog (pictureless again, sorry...) because so MUCH has happened lately. My first day of teaching was on Thanksgiving. Since I have just given you the happy side of work, I'll now tell you that it was the worst day of my teaching career. Remember how I was not talking to Eamonn? Well, I called him during lunch break of my first day, crying hysterically, because it was going so poorly and I didn't know what to do. He's the only teacher I know here, so it had to happen. (Needless to say, we are definitely not, not talking. Stories for later, of course.) Basically, I have never seen such disrespect--to myself, and also to each other. I mean, I couldn't even SCREAM over these high schoolers and be heard. And then OTHER teachers kept coming into the class and yelling at the kids. And the teachers would also occasionally yell at each other. It was, in Roland Rivers words (yes DHS, that's a shout out to you...), a "toxic" environment. And it made me lose all faith in humanity. "Where are the parents of these children?" I know, I know, teachers aren't supposed to say that, but seriously, where are they? (And yes, in my day from hell, I DID actually ask the kids that question in exasperation. Yes, day one on the job completely broke me, but hell, we all make mistakes, right?) Needless to say, it could only have gone up from there, and it did. London is an interesting, extremely diverse, place to work. I think I'm going to like it.

Also on Thanksgiving, I hung out with Xan and we went to a "literary butcher shop." For those of you writers (and/or aspiring writers, and/or academics and/or lovers of gin), it was this small theater in the round where people send in their short stories and then the audience edits/butchers them. It's a great thing for writers, because they get feedback and criticism on their work, and if you aren't a writer, well, there is a free gin open bar. Seriously though, it is half theater half entertainment half literary genius (i know, three halves...) and a complete blast! I ended up on stage, helping to edit a story, wearing a cowboy hat and holding a gun. How American is THAT on Thanksgiving??

What else, What else? Well, I'm playing on a field hockey team here. I haven't played since I was 18, so it's been an interesting experience. (Read: I am in SERIOUS PERMANENT AGONY. Muscles I forgot I had are SCREAMING at the TOP OF THEIR LUNGS.) Nonetheless, the girls are great, it's great exercise, we are positively horrible, and apparently, we have an amazing club house with cheap drinks. More to come on that front. My first game will be Saturday, and I'm psyched. It's great fun to be on a field again, though I will say, it is rainy and 30 degrees here every day...which is FAR too cold to be playing outside!

OH. My new really awesome South African friend Melissa, and I (and her boyfriend and all of their awesome Safo friends) went to the gayest of all gay clubs on Saturday night, for free, and Britney Spears was there. I didn't see her, but damn, the tabloids say she was there, and they have the paparazzi photos to prove it, so it must be true. I spent the remainder of the weekend watching football/soccer (Go Arsenal, HOMETEAM!), sitting on a couch in dirty clothes, eating amazing home-cooked meals (proper breakfast fry-up and an even more proper Irish roast...I didn't eat the meat...but the rest of it was divine...I'll challenge the English to beat the Irish in a roast-off anyday), and being an all-around lazy bum.

AND, after work today I went to another new friend's house, Soren, (ladies, please picture Soren as the steamy scandinavian man that he is. sigh. next time we hang out I will take a photo of him for you to drool over.), and went for one of those runs that is just the right length--short enough that you still have a ton of energy left. It was SO nice to have someone to run with, as I haven't really found that yet since I've been here. It's also important to add that running when it is FREEZING cold out means you get tea made for you afterwards. Yay for tea. I am LOVING the tea culture here. EVEN better than in Ireland...and even the non-British here have adopted it!

Alright, you made it! I have SO much more to say, but most people have died of old age at this point and the rest of you want to peacefully enjoy the autumn of your lives, so, goodbye :) And comment, will you?

LOVE,
Sarah