Have a Cup of Tea...(this is a long one)

I have been going through internet withdrawal...no internet since Thursday has not been good (as the neighbour we have been “borrowing” our wifi from has been away). The first day, I was okay. The second I was beginning to worry. The past couple of days I was beginning to sweat – so I finally broke down and purchase a pay-as-you-go USB mobile broadband stick (or whatever it is called). I now feel better...I can breathe (even if the bloody online banking isn’t working for me...grrr!!!!)

So, what have I been up the past couple of days...I’m sure you are waiting at the end of your seat to find out. So...here’s the skinny.

Friday
We made our way to Watford (not London, we were corrected) for the orientation at the agency. We were originally going to take the train, only to find out that the cost of that endeavour would have been between 60-80 pounds per person return, depending on what train we were choosing to take! We checked out taxis to find a driver who took us for 200 pounds return (40 each). This is crazy!!! There isn’t anything really to do in Kettering and I was hoping to travel, but if it takes 60 pounds return each time just to get to London...it won’t make it as easy to go as frequently as I would like.

For those that already knew about the hotel, I was worried that a 20 pound hotel would be more like a hostel. Turns out that the hotel we stayed at, The Jurys Inn, is actually quite a nice hotel. The reason we got it so cheap was because they were having a deal on their grand opening. So, we lucked out! It was also down the road from the agency, so it took us no time to get to where we needed to be.

During the “orientation” we found out some important things:

1) Don’t say a child is “thick as a brick”
2) Don’t touch/kick children as a form of discipline
3) If a student asks you where babies come from, tell them from a stork (which would explain the high pregnancy rate here)
4) Follow the curriculum – all that we need to teach is there (really???)
5) Oh yah, don’t kick children (they said that a couple of times...)

I REALLY wish I was kidding, but I’m not. I did, however, get to meet some other Canadians (and one American) who are also teaching with agency. Funny enough, one of the guys (a friend of the English teachers that will be teaching with us) is from Scarborough and I went to school with his cousin. LOL, it really is a small world!

After the orientation, there were drinks in the bar at the hotel we were staying at. After a couple Strongbows, I made my way back to my room while others went to another pub (I know my limit, and drink within it...even if it means I get made fun of). Our room, though, went from having the three of us to having 5 females. Two girls we met there missed the last train (known as the drunken train) and came to sleep on our room floor for the evening. We felt better they were going to be safe. There were tons of stories to tell of that night, but unless you know the people and situation, it wouldn’t make sense, so I won’t bore you with details...besides, there is more to come ;)

Saturday/Sunday
After we all woke up, and said good-bye to our new friends, we checked out and went to a local breakfast bar for a good English breakfast (not that the breakfast at the B&B isn’t great...but it was a change). We didn’t have much to walk about, so we met up with the girls for our return taxi “home”. With a quick dropping of our bags, we went into town to see the festivities and to get some dinner. The market place was opened this weekend (officially on Sunday), so there were some cute goings on – like a train ride through the town for 50p.

However, it was while we were in town on Saturday that we found out that the store we were relying on for furniture (and same day delivery) couldn’t send furniture to our place until Thursday or Friday. Problem with that is we get the place on Tuesday, then have to be at school Thursday and Friday, so no one would be home to receive the furniture. Okay, no problem...Plan B. We went to Argos (a.k.a. Consumers Distributing) to order furniture to be delivered to the house. Next problem: furniture won’t be available for another 28 days at least. Okay...now a problem! I am NOT sleeping on the floor for about a month! We went back to the B&B Saturday with many problems on our mind.

Sunday morning, we had a talk at the table, where I found out where the Roman Catholic Church was. I headed to service for 10:30 (accompanied by my roomies, where they left me and went to see if they could find other furniture shop). Service was interesting – fairly similar to what I’m used to...though some of the changes are odd and, thanks to my summer courses through St. Paul’s, not supposed to be part of the mass...but who am I to tell them. I met up with the girls after church where they asked me, “Did you pray we find furniture?” to which I said yes and they laughed because they did! We ordered our beds straight away – and they are to be delivered on Tuesday evening (YAY!) so that we can set up and be ready on Wednesday. For the rest of the day, we enjoyed our time through the town, visiting shops, and riding the train around town.

Monday
I couldn’t wait any longer for the internet so, as I mentioned above, I headed to the Skype 3 store and purchased a portable broadband thingy (yes, that is my technical term for it). We spent the rest of our day buying the rest of our bedroom furniture that, surprisingly, was available at Argos for delivery on Wednesday between 12 and 6; or from the British Heart Foundation – which will deliver on Saturday (even though when we went in earlier this week, they told us otherwise). We felt great! We got everything we needed! [We found out how long it will take us to walk to work every day (about 30 minutes).] Sure, our pocket books are a lot thinner, but all would be well and we would feel ready to begin our time at Kettering Science Academy (formerly known as ISE Community College) on Thursday. Everything was falling into place...

UNTIL, we just received a phone call from the other two girls saying that we have another orientation for the next two days in Northampton – a 45 minute ride from here. It will be from 9:30 – 3:30. BIG PROBLEM: We need to be at the letting office for 4 to sign our papers and get our keys, then get to the house for our bed delivery...plus at least one of us needs to be home on Wednesday to get our furniture delivery – even if we have to put it together on the weekend. Ron and Silvia have been nice enough to offer to pick us up early from the conference centre in Northampton tomorrow, but we’ve convinced the other girls to get the cab to pick us up earlier (so we will miss 30 minutes of a presentation we knew NOTHING about until 8:30 this evening). I don’t know what to say – I am ticked, but I just hope they don’t think poorly of us...it’s not like we haven’t tried, but not even the agency told us. Funny enough, we contacted our agent to speak with him about the situation, and he seems genuinely surprised by the whole thing, but the other girls told us that apparently the woman e-mailed the information to Scott on Saturday. True, he wasn’t in at work on that day – or today due to the Banker’s holiday – but then if he wasn’t...then how did he know that’s when the e-mail was sent? (Just a question) Hopefully all will work out. I will keep you informed.

Interesting Information
1) Apparently there is something in the water here – as we’ve been noticing loads of twins here
2) We’ve figured out that after students graduate high school (or even before) they go on and have babies (so many young looking people have kids here...it’s kind of ridiculous)
3) I have just found out that Jaime Oliver endorses Sainsbury (a grocery store equivalent to a Super Store in Canada)...so I will definitely have to grocery stop there! LOL
4) Banker’s Holiday (this weekend) is a holiday set aside for Banks...simple as that
5) There might not be a health test that police officers need to pass here, but we’ve observed that apparently it’s important to be good looking – as all the cops we’ve seen are easy on the eyes
6) Things get really rowdy here during football matches (cops visible in the streets and helicopters in the air); There are also “no away fans allowed” signs posted outside of some of the bars...just so you know.