There and back again

I knew that I had been in Amsterdam too long when I mistook a bunch of tulips rolled in paper for the biggest joint that I had seen that weekend. Or it might have been when looking in windows that didn't have half naked women in them started to feel odd. Either way, it was Ok to be going home on Sunday.

Of course, the other teachers didn't really know what to think when I told them that I was going away with my students for the whole weekend! They looked confused for a moment before moving onto disbelief and finishing with calling me a geek. But students are a bit like real people actually, they have their own personalities and everything.

That is not to say that I didn't have my own concerns- what if they all spoke Porteguese all weekend, even the French girl, would my paranoia get the better of me? What if they wanted to party like it was 1999 when all I wanted to do was tuck myself up in the hostel with a nice cup of horlicks.

Then I remembered that I had never even drunk horlicks so that was unlikely.



We took the long and involved route of a train to Harwich, ferry over the water and a train from the Hook of Holland straight into Amsterdam Central Station.

Hadn't really counted on the stag parties from Essex and the 18th birthday party from Suffolk joining us on our journey. Ah well, the students are always saying that they never seen any English people in London- they were about to see them in their natural environment.

And they were pretty gobsmacked at the amount of English spoken in the 'dam- by the Dutch people and all the English speaking tourists- they decided that it would be a much better place for them to study than multi-lingual London.

They seemed pretty shocked when we got the hostel- turns out that three of them were hostel virgins and one in the centre of Amsterdam is not the easiest first hostel- it was all a little overwhelming for them and strangely comforting for me. I guess that the main difference was that it was a step down in the world for those that usually sleep in a bed and a step up for those of us (me) who sleep on an air mattress on the floor.

In actual fact, the weekend was nice quiet one really. No major partying or happenings- apart from one student bugging me the whole time as if I should know as much about the rest of the world as I do about English grammar (not much, admittedly) and asking me what the time was in London all the time.

Friday night, coffee shop and bar. Sightseeing Saturday- and souvenir shopping of course. Me and Perrine spent a happy few minutes planning the weekend using these fridge magnets- until her boyfriend, Gustavo, put a stop to our fun.

Saturday night we had cheese and wine in the hostel before settling in for a well-earned nap which we only woke up from at 11pm! Oops, then more coffee shops, stroll through the red light district to laugh at the ugly hookers and bars before bed around 4.

Sunday, last minute shopping and aimless wandering before getting the train back to London.

A great weekend and one that I would gladly do again- only this time we will go to Belfast so we can take the Colombian with us with a minimum of visa hassles.

End of Term

I was wondering through Trafalgar Square the other day and I spied an ice sculpture in the distance. I thought that it was of a man playing golf but it proved to be a man clubbing a baby seal.



Please notice the green water in the fountains left over from last week's Paddy's Day parade.

My goodness, it has been a busy week this week. It was the last week of term so there has been much running around trying to find out what is happening at the school on Monday. On top of that we had to have a goodbye party or two or......

Monday I was out and about, Tuesday I stayed home and rested up. Wednesday and my good friends from Korea, Patrick and Heimi, came up to the big smoke for a bit of a salsa sesh

There was no convincing Patrick to take to the dancefloor with Camilo but the rest of us had a quick spin.

Thursday and the official goodbye party season started. We had planned to take out our classes on Friday until I realised that it was Paddy's Day and so better to out the night before. The added bonus being that for once the students would be as hungover as the teachers on a Friday.

My Intermediate class were well up for it, of course, but to start there was only one member of my Elementary class there. It was a good night though the tequilas were probably a bad idea. And the sight of me and Sarah fighting over our best student was probably not our finest hour.

Learning from previous mistakes I somehow managed to set my alarm on my phone to wake me up when I got back to Purfleet that night thereby saving myself from another pointless taxi home.

Yesterday was a bit of a mixed day- tried my best not to think about the fact that I wouldn't be teaching the students again on Monday- getting a whole new lot.

Should be exciting but I am a little scared because I seem to have struck gold with both of my classes this term. I love both of my classes and am sad to see them go.

So we ate crisps and biscuits to celebrate.

The afternoon classes took the form of a quiz in the pub. Unfortunately the 12-3 classes hadn't left by the time that we got there so it was all a little crowded. And we didn't get even clase to winning. Ah well. We took a lot of photos

I am not trying to make out that all this socialising is either big or clever but it has been fun and I feel a bit more like me now- not lesast because I have put back on all that weight I lost when I had no mates before Christmas! Hooray- erm...

I would try and pretend that this week will be quieter but.... I am taking my students to Amsterdam on Friday! Yes, this is beyond the call of duty but I think that it will be fun. Plus I already have plans for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Possibly might have to have a student reunion on Monday night since all my lovely students in my afternoon class are mvoing up to the next level which means a change of campus for them too. And half the teachers are moving too- but I am staying put at Piccadilly for now.

Is Monday the new Friday?

With the lights flashing, the music playing and the jostling of other revellers intent on showing their mastery of the rhythm, it is easy to forget how drunk you are. As your friends become your best mates ever, you slur lovingly into each other's ears and all is well with the world. Even on a Monday.

However, it all took a turn for the seedy when, stumbling onto the train, I spotted my sister's neighbour nestled into the carriage. A quick look around proved fruitless as he had already seen me. Fixing a smile to my face, I lumbered over and collapsed into the seat next to him, a bundle of alcohol and cigarette fumes- other people's not mine, though the alcohol was mine, to be fair.

Incomprehensible words slipped from my lips and into his ear. Worse, our train was cancelled and we would have to swap onto a bus at Barking. At least this guy could stop me from falling asleep and missing my stop like last week. Worse still, all that lovely 'pound a pint' lager was beginning to make itself known. The need became increasingly urgent and even my incessant rambling became difficult to maintain as my bladder was seemingly crushing my brain.

Penny's neighbour seems like a respectable man and I was mortified at dashing off to duck behind a bush when the bus finally released us into Purfleet. But I quite literally had no choice. He kept a discreet distance and we resumed our conversation until we reached our front doors. What we spoke about is beyond my recall.

Lessons learnt? Just because the beer is cheap it doesn't mean that you have to drink twice as much.

Maybe ;)

Old Friends and New Beers

I have had a packed social calendar this week. Well, I took Monday off but the rest of the week found me scattered across many and varied bars in London. Tuesday I was at a new salsa place that I hadn't been to before but we still ended up at the usual one later that night. It was Brazilian night in Salsa on Tuesday and a mad affair it was too- listening to traditional Brazilain music such as 'Barbie girl' in Porteguese.

Having spent all night clock watching through increasing blurry eyes I made it onto the last train home. Hooray! But that didn't stop me sleeping the moment I got on it and missing my stop. I wasn't very happy when I got into a cab back to Purfleet.

Wednesday, another night out with the students. We had chosen a rather interesting looking Morrocan restaurant but failed to check to see if it sold alcohol. Big mistake. Soon after eating we were out of there and back to Callaghan's for a jar or two.

Thursday night was a little special- Patrick and Heimi, good friends of mine from Korea, are back in London- maybe for good this time. We met, we ate Korean food, we went to Salsa and we drank. Patrick's head seemed to be spinning a little at the bright lights and big city of London- it takes a while to get used to being here. The sheer volume of stuff going on in London is enough to confuse the most worldlywise of people. It really is a long way from Gangneung! Hopefully I will see them again this week and actually take to the dance floor- I have arranged for some of my lovely students to teach them salsa!

Friday night, I did something unusual- I went out with the teachers rather than the students. It wasn't as much fun and I was home shortly after nine.

This week is the last week of term and the last week with those students that I have been filling my free time with. We keep teasing each other about not going out anymore once I am not being paid to teach them but I hope, and hope that they hope, that we will continue to see each other. After several trips to bars and salsa clubs, not to mention a great night at the Korean restaurant and a cold trip to the zoo, we are getting more ambitious and talking about a trip to Amsterdam.

As for photos- this week I saw ducks in the fountain at Trafalgar Square



and a rather over the top reaction to a broken sink in the toilets there

A bit like the old days

I went out for a quick beer on Friday night after work and finally got home at 6.20am on Saturday morning.

It was almost like being back in Korea again except for a few minor differences:

I was in an Irish bar and quite possibly was the only native English speaker there

There was a great band playing loads of fantastic tunes

When the pub shut at 2am (yup, too early for Korea) we didn't have much idea of where to go so ended up on Burger King (would have to travel all the way to Seoul for that kind of privilege when I lived in Gangneung)

In an effort to find somewhere open we caught a bus to Camden Town

And back to Leicester Square again once that mission failed

sat in a cafe until that closed around 4am

Then got on a bus for an hour or so to make it to Barking

And then just had a twenty minute wait until the first train home.

In Korea, I would never have run out of open bars. And probably would have gone to the norae bang at some point. Certainly would never have got on a bus with all those lovely cheap Korean taxis around. And probably wouldn't have spend any time at all in BK, when I could have been in a 24 hour BBQ place, let alone with Brazilians and Colombians.

I had a good night and at least it taught me one thing- when I have to leave the bar early to get the last train home at night, it doesn't really matter as I am not missing much!

We're all going to the zoo...

Went to the zoo last weekend with some of my Intermediate students and my sister. They had asked me about the zoo a couple of weeks previously and I told them that it was a great place to go in the spring or summer. But they insisted on a visit asap- oh the folly of people that have lived without winter all of their lives.

I am not going to lie to you- it was bloody cold and, as we had suspected, a lot of the animals were on their holidays somewhere. But at least there were some giraffes there

which, as you know, are my favourites. It was a fun day out even though the high point for most of my students from below the equator seemed to be the heated greenhouse with nothing more interesting than a couple of birds in it.

We did manage to miss most of the rain since some of the people were a little late arriving at the meeting place so we just observed it from under cover of Baker Street Station before heading off through Regents Park.

The sun did poke its head out occassionally

I guess that another draw back to taking people from exotic climes to a zoo in London is that a lot of the animals have as much impact as a bunch of squirrels and pigeons would have on a bunch of Londoners,

'Ah yes, teacher, we have some of these living in my back garden,'

' my dad was once bitten by one of those,'

etc.

We managed to thaw out in the pub later. For once I had my camera with me, have been just using my camera phone recently but can't be bothered to go around the back of the PC to try and plug the thing in, but the students remained a little camera shy