The week is done, an adventure begun!

First of all, I would like to say that I am very disappointed at the response to my "where should I travel after I go to London?" Poll. Vote people! Its on the sidebar on the right.

Next, I had a damn good day. It went as follows:

Woke up after I hit the snooze 4 times (that’s 20 minutes folks!) and guess what, I don’t feel guilty about it. Went down to the corner dungeon, the place where I pick up (steal) internet from the local community center. About 50% of the time there is a young girls’ ballet class in session directly on the other side of the door. Usually lead by a French woman (though I suspect that her accent is false in an attempt to seem like a more credible ballet instructor). Anyways, Colin and I being the well organized, never procrastinating, on top of their game, new teachers decided it would be a good idea to make our hostel reservations for London the day before we left. Great decision guys. Most places were all booked up, those that weren’t were far out of my price range. My superior google-ing skills lead me to find a relatively normal hostel very near the British Museum, which is something we wanted to see on this trip to London specifically. As a bonus, it was only 11 GBP each!

Good start to the day. I shower, eat a banana, and I’m off to class. I submit a request for next week’s morning announcements to thank the staff at LMS for being so warm and welcoming (partly to gain some brownie points, but mostly because they truly have been wonderful!). What’s this? A free breakfast from the PTO? Oh you shouldn’t have, well I don’t mind if I do! A breakfast bacon and egg quiche here, a blueberry bagel there and I make my way up to the health class. Today we talk about peer pressure and then lead it into an interactive website about media influence on adolescence. Perfect timing to talk about super bowl commercials. I got to play around with the smart board too! So cool!

In my afternoon Health class I embarrassingly found out that two 8th grade girls had switched into the class, 4 days late, because of the young new student teacher. Ew.

Time for 7th grade outdoor education/PE. We spent most of the class playing chicken baseball, Giants, Wizards, and Elves, and Monarchy. I participated in all games and was swept back in time to my 7th grade PE class….except I am not as chubby this time. It was really fun to be out there playing with the kids.

After school I am lead to my…

Rose of the Day: I got to drive! That’s right, on the wrong side of the road! I drove my cooperating teachers van (dodge, automatic) 30 minutes away to the sweet town of Bury Saint Edmunds. It was my first test at tackling the challenging obstacles that the English roads throw at the everyday driver. Narrow roads (I mean Narrow!), roundabouts, constantly varying speeds, mini roundabouts (that’s multiple roundabouts strung together, forming an almost double helix of confusion), no curbs or clearance on the side of the road, lots of potholes, CRAZY English drivers, poorly marked exits and signs, and constantly varying speeds. I may have turned on the windshield wipers a couple of times in an attempt to use my turning signal, but I made it. Now for the real test. Car swap. We picked up the car that my cooperating teacher is letting Colin and I use at his house in Bury St. Edmunds, a mid 90’s Ford Escort (Manual!!! Yikes!). This time, on the 30 minute drive back to the base, I did not have my cooperating teacher giving me prompt and accurate directions on where to go, I had Colin, who has the sense of direction of a blind Tasmanian devil (assuming that Tasmanian devils really do get from point A to point B by spinning furiously) and has the conversation skills of a 12 year old girl on crack. No offense Colin. So while I am juggling shifting, using the appropriate signal, reminding myself to stay on the left, trying to figure out how to get back home, which round about ext to take, making sure I’m not going to run the car off the road, and keeping a casual conversation with Colin going, I manage to navigate the vessel back home safe and sound. It was a tremendous success. And really fun.

After we returned, I at a ham and cheese sandwich and finished watching National Treasure. Shut up, I know it’s a corny action movie, but I enjoyed it. Which leads me to my…

Thorn of the day: I am spending my Friday night typing a blog, sipping on a Miller Lite, and most likely going to bed early.

Its okay though. I am not complaining too much. We are going to wake up early, drive 1.5 hours to the town of Epping. Epping is the last stop on the tube, so we will catch the tube there and cruise into downtown London, hopefully before 11 am. We will have all day tomorrow (sat) and most of the day Sunday to bum around one of the most interesting cities in the world! I am really excited. Expect photos by Sunday night!

Musical Artist of the Week: (yes I am stealing this idea from my brother) M. Ward. and his album “Post-War”. I have listened to him in the past, but never as much as I am now. When I hear “Chinese Translation” it takes me back to this summer. My brother Kale was visiting Pullman. We would go out every night, either to a bar or a house party, converse, dance, sing, and meet people. I can specifically remember going down into the empty grain silo and hearing Simon Cornelius (yes that is his real name) play this song, “Chinese translation” with a voice that is uncannily similar to M. Ward’s. It was a great summer, but more importantly this album has made me write poems/songs in my journal. The last time that I wrote anything like it was when I was in Chile. It feels good. I hope to do it more. Anyways, M. Ward is coming out with a new album very soon, and I will be buying it shortly on iTunes.

Random Confession of the day: I cannot stand human mouth sounds. I know that sounds weird, but let me explain. I am not talking about an inappropriate burp, or even a relieving sneeze. You know when someone is really getting into whatever it is that they are eating, and their lips are smacking, you hear the physiological start of their digestive process in their saliva breaking down the food solid. They then loudly swallow the doughnut, or sandwich, or whatever and make a moaning or grunting sound. Do you notice these things? I do. Let me give you another example. When a person, stuffed nose or not, sniffles intensely. I shouldn't say sniffles. It is more like a reaching to scrape the depths of their lungs for any mucus possible, creating a very heavy, muffled, wet sound coming from the cavernous region of the neck. THAT is what I cannot stand. Also I should not be able to hear how dry your mouth is with every time your speak. I do not need to hear you subtly try to cover up your burp, only to leave my breathing air tainted with your sausage lunch. I do not mean to be negative, and I hope that no one is scared to eat in front of me now, but I have always internalized these thoughts and mainly felt guilty for having them. I feel much better letting you all know what is happening inside my weird little head.

I hope you all are well. Be happy!

Halbury