Lo! How A Rose E'er Blooming

We have snow!! I was working on Friday and the kids were so excited with the idea that they might get 5-8 cm, funny. Friday was the day we were going to go dancing, we watched Harriet the Spy and drank some cider and wine instead. We thought we would push it to Saturday instead we went to the Christmas Market in Bath, bought AMAZING cheese, wine, cherry pie, something really pretty for me to remember England (stay tuned for pictures) and just had a wonderful time in beautiful Bath! We rented Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Love Actually. Watched the first movie while eating bruschetta, cheese and wine. All in all it's been an amazing weekend.

The other week poor Hilary got a cold and I made some vegan non-chicken noodle soup! We are going to make some today, eat our pie, craft from xmas cards, and watch Love Actually!

Tip for those who are cold before going to bed! Last night I was shivering like I was outside in the cold! So I thought "how can I quickly warm up my bed before getting in it?!" I came up with the idea to iron my bed!!! I may have looked crazy but it helped a lot. Try it sometime!

Hope you all had a wonderful and happy weekend!

ox

Off to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

I've never had hard feelings towards Mondays like a lot of people I know. In fact I like them quite a bit! My Dad has always has the "barber's holiday" and since he works until 6ish every night I really enjoyed seeing him at home on Monday afternoons. That alone was the reason I liked Mondays but I also loved going to school, not lying. I loved seeing my friends after the weekend if I didn't get to see them, what we were going to do in class for the week, etc. I don't mind Mondays.

Yesterday was a whole different story. It wasn't that it was Monday, hell I was thinking it was later in the week to be honest... Everything that could go wrong did go wrong, even with Hilary! Of course the only thing that did go right was Harry Potter. After a long day of worrying, stressing, and yes crying I packed up my computer and my sorry self to go to the library to wait for the 4:30 showing of the movie. Because of the awful day I didn't get the chance to get excited about the movie and what I usually do before HP didn't need to happen: stand in line for an hour, it wasn't midnight, I wasn't acting like a 12 year old... things like that. I sat with my popcorn (God bless Hilary for buying me a treat) and I started watching the movie I have been waiting to see for the longest time.

It was everything I could have hoped for! It made me feel better because at least I am not roaming around the UK in a tent without showers, contact to the outside world, hanging out with your two best friends... actually that sounds appealing right now. Anyway! I loved it and surprisingly I can wait for the last one, as it is the very last one.

Hope you are well.

xoxo

and in other news!

My best friend is getting married and I am lucky enough to share it with her and Mr. Strong!

xoxoxo

Belief makes things real.

It is all fine for Alanis to be singing about being poor and happy... she's quite rich now isn't she?

To say I am discouraged and stressed might be an understatement. I am trying my best to keep a smile on my face and my loved ones convinced I am doing fine and that all is well but I'm getting a little tired.

I was told that living in England was expensive and while I agreed I also said that if you are making the pound to support yourself it wouldn't be too bad. You need to be making that pound though. Truth is I have worked 2 days since September and hesitated on getting a part-time job because I was worried it would conflict with possible work days. I wake up at 6 every morning, eat breakfast, put on my teacher clothes and sit with my coffee and wait until 7am to call into work. Then I wait. Four hours of waiting until I can continue with my day.

My parents have been so helpful and supportive over my adventure and I am thankful for that every single day. Last weekend my brother got in an accident with the family van. He is ok but the van was totaled. Two week before that we found out that I have to start paying 730.00 every month for 9.5 years to student loans. Needless to say I'm feeling so many emotions right now.

I've been living for pay day for six years and while it worked when I was a student I find it's kicking my ass as a person in the "real world". I am about to spend my first Christmas away from everything/one I love and the plan was to throw money at this situation... distract myself from the shock of not being home. AND I can't find egg nog anywhere.... kick me in the face.

So there you have it... stuff I wouldn't normally write on a postcard. As always, things could be worse and I know that. Pray that the travel store calls me back and wants me to work there over the Christmas season.

Every time I talk to my Dad he says "it'll work out, don't worry" of course I cry whenever he says it but he believes so I will believe.

Oh my blueness could be brought on by the beginning of the end, Harry Potter. Seeing it Monday! Wish me luck.

xo

Needs a date for new years

Plan: Dublin for 25ish pounds.

If interested you can apply for a chance to be my date... Might even buy you a fleur.

And to you, if you have stuck with Harry until the very end.

JK Rowling - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Leicester Square

Getting ready for their arrival!

Harry Potter!

Hermione Granger

The Twins! Fred and George!

Malfoy (who was actually very nice)

How can I possibly explain in words how wonderful this experience was? I can't. If that happens to be my last adventure for a little while I am more than ok with it!

Oh Harry Potter and the gang, I do love you.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!

Much love!

might paint something that i wanna hang here someday

I would be lying if I said I wasn't frustrated by not working. It is scary because when I am not in a classroom I get nervous and I question if I should be in there at all. I second guess my abilities to work with kids and if I know my shit well enough. I had a half day on Friday and the mome

nt I walked into the classroom it was like I was meant to be there all along. Mind you the kids were well behaved and kind so that makes my desire to work with them much more stronger. I was more myself! I smiled more, laughed with them, sat and thought out ideas for their assignments. It felt right and I missed it. Overall it was an excellent day on Friday! I didn't even mind that it took me 3.5 hours to get home and I had to stand in the rain for 30 minutes before my travels. If that did bother me I best be moving to a drier countr

y.

When I arrived home it was still raining so we didn't end up going to the

fireworks for Guy Fawkes Day. As much as I love fireworks I was not prepared to stand in the rain to watch them. Hilary and I made curry and ate "it's Friday cake" from waitrose and heard firecrackers going off. What were firecrackers early in the night started to turn into a huge fireworks display ALL over the neighbour and city. My view out my bedroom window is pretty damn amazing and all night the were going off! It was beautiful!! We didn't have to go anywhere at all!!

Saturday greeted us with sunshine so we got out our camera and headed to Clifton Village. If any

of you com

e and visit me this will be one of our big stops. It is the cutest little place in the world! Full of coffee shops, local food, amazing restaurants, little shops, etc. You can always walk through it to get to the suspension bridge! We were trying to make our way to Ashton Court which is a huge estate with walking trails and a deer farm. Yep, just a bunch of deer hanging ou

t enjoying life! Sadly we didn't make it but we had quite the adventure.

I neglected to tell you that we had an interesting experience in Poland involving a dangerous highway. Poland has the highest rate of death on their highways because they drive too fast and pass people all the time. It's scary driving on it

so you can imagine my fear when Hilary and I go for a walk on our last day and we come to this busy road that we have to walk on OR take the route we just took. The route itself was a TINY bit scary but only for me. I don't watch horror movies anymore but I have seen enough to know that people come over of corn fields, there are scary things in woody areas, and ponds are filled with things beyond your wildest imaginations. So I had no idea where we were but I was still very much enjoying myself but with scary horror flicks running through my head... Then we get to the highway. It's not like a Canadian highway with 4+ lanes it's a small 2 lane highway still packed with fast cars and transfer trucks. When a car would come towards us we would have to walk on the grassy area which would also be cove

red in poison ivy. Needless to say my heart was racing the whole time and I said some hail marys. I survived and now it is a funny story we remember together. Yesterday, a similar incident happened where I thought a certain road would take us to Ashton Court. Wrong, just took us to the highway. So we chanced it crossed it to a "footpath" with wet slippery leaves and heaved ourselves up the hill with the help of a tree. Good times. Then we came home to the city continuing with the fireworks!

We are alive and have some lovely pictures and I had a grand sleep because I was tuckered out from our adventures!

Well hello November!

It's a cloudy morning in Bristol and I hoping the rain holds off so I can venture to the library at 10 to print off some resumes. There is a new health food/local food/organic/amazing/ veggie friendly store that just opened and they need a part-time employee for Thursdays and Saturdays. I think I would volunteer at that store so if they are willing to pay me I'm very down with that. (The Better Food Company <----- check me out!)

I bought my tickets to go to London on November 11th-13th. They are having the Harry Potter premiere that day and I am going to try out my stalking skills and see if I can see some of my favorite characters! I may have mentioned it before and as silly as it seems HP is a big reason for why I'm here in England. Oh the happiness it brings me!

Halloween was a success! People enjoyed our costumes and we enjoyed getting ready. Halloween itself wasn't a big to do. I called my favorite people to wish they a wonderful evening! Let's just say I would have given anything to hang out with Darth Vader and a motorcycle dude. AND apparently we gained an hour so I am now an hour closer to you (for those across the ocean)

I hope you are having a wonderful day!

Much love.

xo