Spring has Sprung. But it's still freakin freezing.

So tomorrow is not only the first day of March, nine days until the big 21, and the two month milestone for England and I, but is actually the first day of spring HOORAH. 

It's still likely to rain five out of seven days each week..... Buuuuut....... It's spring, the flowers are in bloom, sometimes the sun shines and everyone knows that just around the corner summer is waiting. Which means..... Picnics on the common, sunglasses, one less layer of clothing and.... The most anticipated reunion of all, Harry will finally be in Europe. 

The first week back at school after the holidays has been a good one, although Jordan and I both managed to catch some kind of flu and didn't make it in on Monday I was more than ready to see the girls smiley faces on Tuesday morning. I was met with hugs and asked 'where were you yesterday Miss Cragg' several times, got the down low on all the girls holiday goss and generally just enjoyed being back into the routine. 

A few cute moments have included.....

- a little kindergarten student telling me that she didn't like her snack and didn't want to eat her pomatoes (they were tomatoes)

- a year two student told me that she loved it when she got to read to me

- the students were practicing their skipping and asked me if I could show them how I skip. I did... Without falling over (extra points to me) and they all stood there in awe

- two girls bumped their elbows and ran over to me quite upset, I rubbed them better and a few minutes later noticed that they were putting wet paper towel on them and saying to each other, oh wow that looks so much better already

- student falls over and gets upset because she can.... Comes over to me (I saw her trip, she was fine until someone asked her if she was ok, standard response) I look at her leg and say you're ok you're a tough nut, she's still sulking I say to her, what are you?! And she replies I'm a tough nut, giggles, and runs off to play 

We had one really nice day this week where the sun shone non stop and everyone was in a better mood for it, it's amazing how much the weather can change the way you feel. 

Ireland Ireland Ireland!!!!!!

Dublin 

Excitement levels were in overdrive as my plane finally touched down in Dublin, a one hour flight felt like a five hour epic journey. After the anticipated THUD onto the runway I was itching for my feet to touch Irish ground, what I wasn't expecting.... to see rabbits the size of small dogs hopping around the grass beside the runway. What. After I got past the abnormally large rabbits, Jordan and I made our way inside and jumped on the shuttle bus into the city. We arrived at our hostel which was about five minutes walk into the heart of Dublin and were met by a lovely Irish lady behind the counter who gave us our keys and called us 'lovey' and assured us that she was there if we needed help with anything. So, bags down we decided to venture out and explore the city, and it was breathtaking, with lots of roman styled architecture and classical old buildings I didn't know where to look first. But I found a good place to start, my Nutella and banana crepe which we waited in line for an hour for...... So worth it! By about six, we were ready for some dinner and decided to head to a genuine Irish pub for some traditional food. Guinness and Steak pie it was great choice by me, after devouring every bite we headed back into the night to scope out a popular place for a drink, we found the local for all the young, hip and cool people, a category that we totally fit into and spent a good few hours meeting and making friends. 

Paddywagon 

All aboard the paddywagon tour, Ginger Irish guide included. Sean started by laying down the rules.....

Rule number 1- if any of us were late for the bus, we would be forced to sing along to Celine Dion My Heart Will Go On karaoke style.

Rule number 2- we needed to get down with the lingo..... 'Craic' means fun, a good time and what's the goss, 'Feckin' means seeing.... And 'happy days' needs to be said every ten minutes. 

Rule 3- you need to be able to deal with terrible Irish music, Sean's favourite..... Have you ever got a ride on a tractor. YouTube it. You will not be disappointed.

Derry

The next six days were set to be full of adventure.... And paddywagon did not disappoint. We began our tour by journeying to Northern Ireland where we spent our first night in Derry. After an enormous bus ride, a stop at Armagh, with a giant kebab included (I nearly threw up) we fiiiiiiiinally made it. After dumping our bags in the hostel, twenty bed mixed rooms with some very drunk 18 year olds was an interesting yet enjoyable experience, we set out on a walking tour of Derry. Who knew that such a small town could hold so much history, Sunday Bloody Sunday the U2 hit was written about events that occurred in Derry as a result of disagreements between the British and Irish governments. Our tour guide spoke of the chaos during which he witnessed the death of his best friends father. Now, Derry is a beautiful tight knit community but he emphasised that if we had of been visiting during the disruption we would have been questioned about our parents nationalities and depending upon the mood of the British officer either let go, or held for further questioning. The first night out in Derry included some cocktail jugs, a little bit of dancing, a little bit of singing, and a chatt with an old Irish man who introduced himself as Mick Dundee and kept saying 'that's not a knife..... THIS is a knife'. I retired fairly early and headed back to the hostel with some of the other gappies (gap students). Sleep was needed as Giants Causeway was next on the agenda.

Nothing makes me happier than seeing something incredible that has been entirely made by nature, completely untouched but just full of natural beauty. Giants Causeway did not disappoint. Formed by a volcano all of the rocks are almost identical in size and shape, the Irish legend has it that in ancient times a giant from Scotland ventured over to suss out potential giant competition in Ireland, after a few sneaky Irish tricks the Scottish giant was scared back across the water and in his rush he broke all of the stones in his path. 

Belfast

We arrived in Belfast fairly late in the afternoon, glimpsing some of the city sites and buzz from the bus window we pulled up to Paddy's Palace hostel and got settled in for the night. After exploring some of the local pubs and grabbing a late night snack it was time to say goodnight to Belfast. 

Galway

Journeying to Galway was a beautiful trip, with amazing scenery and some laughs on the bus, but the best part was when I was juuuuust about to drift off to sleep and then suddenly I heard a familiar tune..... Galway Girl. Although you might not know the name of the tune, Galway Girl is the Irish pub song from P.S I Love You and I was on my way to Galway!!!!! It was a moment where I had to remind myself that I was in Ireland... Every single time I watch that movie I would say to myself, I am going to go there one day, it's going to happen and at last, it finally did. Galway was by far my favourite place, with an amazing seaside (I pinched a couple of rocks) it was so bloody Irish and it would not have been complete without...... A PUB CRAWL!! Wow. It was ridiculous, three pubs and a nightclub Galway showed us how to drink..... Luckily it didn't show me how to spew. The first place was called 'Coyote' and was a take off of the bar in the film Coyote Ugly, dancing bartenders included. The second place was a little pub with drinking games and music, the third a bigger pub that looked like you were in a pirate ship from the inside and the last club Karma was (according to my fellow roomies), interesting.... Making me thankful that I bailed. Safe to say a lot of people had very sore heads the next morning with many of them crawling into the hostel, after making some 'Irish connections', Sean's way of asking us if we got any Irish action. On our way to our next destination we stopped off at the Cliffs of Moher. My favourite part of the trip, this place was beyond breathtaking. I could not stop smiling as I looked around at the incredible views, it was the kind of place that made you thankful to be alive and made me so grateful to be on this amazing journey. 

Anascaul (West Kerry)

Little Anascaul, much to the boys disgust this town had just 200 residents. No clubs. Four pubs and no young local girls. I thought it was charming and really enjoyed seeing an alternate part of Ireland, so far we had seen all of the major cities, a nights stay in a small town was just what I needed. I do have a confession to make...... I decided to venture outside to take some photos of the area, after walking around the back of the hostel I found a small paddock that had a beautiful view of some local houses. In the paddock were four little sheep that I must have given a bit of a fright because they took off out of the paddock and made their way across the main street. I didn't really think anything of it as I assumed they would find their way back into the paddock later on. Wrooooooooong I snuck out front the next morning for a quick Skype call and found the sheep eating grass in the front yard. After a few minutes two old men turned up, had a chat to me and said that they were there to round up the sheep..... Whoooooops. I wonder how they got out. I did ask them if they wanted some help but they said they would be fine....... Dear Old Irish men, I am very very sorry for scaring your sheep out of the paddock. 

Before our final night in Ireland we travelled as far west along the coast as you could go, plenty of photo opportunities here as the views were unbelievable. Ireland is so naturally beautiful it is ridiculous. It definitely reminded me of home and made me appreciate, even more, what a wonderful place I come from. 

With a quick stop at Killarney for lunch it was time to conquer Blarney Castle!!! 

Now. The whole point of going to Blarney Castle is to kiss the Blarney Stone. A stone that was given by the king to give him the gift of the gab. Legend has it that if you kiss the stone you inherit the gift of the gab for seven years. So I bet you are thinking oh yeah..... Kissing a stone, bit gross but easy enough. Think again. In order to kiss the stone you have to lie on your back, dangle your head off the edge of the castle from your hips down, reach out and grab the hand rests, stretch your head down so you are dangling upside down and smack one on the stone. Luckily, there is a man there to hold you so that you don't fall to your death. 

Cork

The time flew and it was finally my final night in Ireland, it was full of mixed emotions, time to say goodbye to new friends to Ireland but also time to get back to Portsmouth and into the routine of school life once again. Unfortunately, most of the pubs in Cork had an entry age of 23, buuuuuuuuut we eventually managed to find somewhere that would let us in and after a few drinks and some sweet moves on the dance floor we all ventured back to the hostel for some quality time together. A trip to Ireland would not have been complete without a trip to the Guinness factory, mmmmmmmmm delicious black liquid......... Of death. It was revolting. But I tried it and that's all that counts. 

I didn't see any leprechauns 

I did make lots of new friends

I got to see all of Ireland in six days

I ate traditional food and drank traditional drink

I conquered Gatwick airport (slight hold up in security, I forgot to get all of my liquids out of my bag....)

What a week...... 

If you can travel, travel. 

The world has so many wonderful places to explore. 

Leprechauns come at me

I consider myself to be lucky to be here every single day.....

But tomorrow

I'm going to Ireland!!!!

I really have to keep pinching myself to make sure I'm not dreaming, even though my bag is packed (6 days worth of clothes and other essentials into a medium sized backpack is quite an achievement) all you women out there will completely understand. It's all happening, this time tomorrow I'll be sitting in a pub in Dublin, say whaaaaaaaaaaaaat. 

I am about to be living the P.S I Love You dream!

Minus the Irish husband. 

Fittingly, yesterday was Valentines Day, the international day of looooooooooove. Finally, I have found a very very special person to share it with....... As much as I could. I was not expecting an extremely large and breathtaking bunch of red roses and pale pink lillies to arrive at school for me yesterday, and I found myself lost for words and shaking as I tried to accept that they were actually for ME!!! So thankyou, my Valentine, for making me smile every single day. 

My Irish adventures will be up for you to indulge in upon my return home. 

I look forward to sharing all of my stories with you, I hope you all enjoy reading them just as much as I look forward to writing each and every one. 

Xx

Northampton NOT-tingham

So after a little bit of confusion I actually ended up in Northampton for a couple of days this week, I must admit I was disappointed that I didn't get to glimpse Sherwood forest in all it's leafy green glory.... But.... I did get to explore a little more of this beautiful place that is England. 

We left Portsmouth at about half four and after a three hour bus ride, food stop at IKEA included (omg my first ever IKEA experience) we fiiiiiinally arrived in Northampton. The students were incredibly excited as we rocked up to our sweet accommodation for the one nights stay.... As we opened the doors and walked in there were gasps and giggles of joy, some oooooooohs and ahhhhhhhs. For many of them it was their first night staying in such an establishment..... Now you may all be thinking..... Wow, what kind of place was this? Who on earth could have created such an amazing place to rest ones head. 

Ladies and gentlemen.

Prepare yourselves......

It was a travel lodge. 

And the students have a tendency to get way too excited when they finally get a chance to ditch the 'proper' behaviour and get rowdy. It only got as rowdy as a couple of pillow fights and some sugar highs off midnight snacking.... Which..... Let's be honest is pretty freakin rowdy. 

I drew the short straw and the short bed so it seems (meant for a person even smaller than me, which is hard to believe) and spent the night on the floor getting up close and personal with the carpet. 

Today saw us participating in a sports tournament which involved hockey, swimming and netball. My role was paramount to the lives of the children, I had to carry the first aid kit from court to court whilst testing my ability not to contract glandular fever or pneumonia. I was prepared for it to be cold and wet I was not prepared to be soaked through to the bone, not being able to feel my fingers or toes, huddled under a useless umbrella that kept blowing inside out and nearly taking me off the ground with it, with three students shivering and crying their eyes out because they are so cold that they don't think they will live to see another day. All I can say is....

Thank god for Sue and her stormy weather waterproof pants or my backside would have been a very nice shade of blue/purple by the end of the day. 

Thankfully the rained eased off and the students smiles returned along with their enthusiasm, which enabled them to secure a spot in the semi final (the first time ever that their grade has made it that far). Unfortunately despite their best efforts they lost in the semi but in high spirits we all made it back onto the coach and began our journey home. 

On our way back to Portsmouth we cruised past Oxford and I caught a glimpse of the spires from Oxford University poking their way up over the treetops (very cool) and also passed a place called the Thames valley which was seriously flooded. Extremely sad as it means a lot of the farmers cannot use the land to graze their animals, it also put into picture just how much rain England has seen these last few months, which is only supposed to increase until April. I think everyone and everything here is in some serious need of sunlight. 

All in all, this week has been a great one, but.....

ON SUNDAY I LEAVE FOR IRELAND. 

Diddly diddly diddly

The small things

I know my last entry was only last night 

but today was a really good day. 

Here are some of the moments that made it so special.....

Whilst walking around the playground at lunch time today one of my new four year old friends said to me in a very very serious voice, 'Miss Cragg do you have any idea what people do with dinosaur bones, because I do, dinosaur bones are used to build houses'. 

Mmmmmmm not so sure about that......

This was shortly followed with 'Miss Cragg, I want to keep holding your hand forever' 

All of the students know me by name now, and all greet me or smile at me or give me hugs in the playground. On a day when I am really really missing my loved ones they give me all the love that fills the void. 

I'm finding that they are more eager for me to help them in the classroom, they ask me to work with them on something and genuinely want to know how many animals I have, or sisters, or boyfriends (loads). It feels really lovely to be required and to feel like I am making a difference, however big or small. 

This afternoon when I walked to the shop for a sneaky end of week chocolate brownie (didn't even have any so I had to settle for a hazelnut round, just as satisfying) two students were in the patisserie with their parents. As soon as I had opened the door they had their arms waving around saying 'Miss Cragg Miss Cragg!!!' On my way home I nearly got knocked over as another student ran up to hug me in the street. 

Part of my job is to help the students that are slightly struggling with their reading, today, one of them  did such an amazing job that she almost had the teacher in tears. Being able to be a part of watching children actually learn and enjoy and get it is so rewarding. 

I'm already feeling like it's going to be hard to leave....

and it's only been one month.

One Month.

I have lived in England for one month.

I am constantly amazed that I am here, that this is my life, that I am a resident of a small seaside town  at the bottom of the UK. This experience is already helping me to grow into an even better version of myself. Slowly, but surely, without me even realising it.

This has a lot to do with the little and big people that surround me.

Qualities that I knew would be altered by my time here are.....

Patience.

Confidence.

Independence.

Maturity.

Problem solving.

And my ability to maintain and create new relationships.

Working with small children is the surest way to test someone's patience, they require a lot of attention, a lot of time, a lot of commitment and a lot of understanding. Children have an incredible knack of absorbing whatever they see or hear around them. Now, I constantly find myself acting in a way that sets a positive example and dealing with situations fairly but hard enough for them to actually get it. Sometimes you have children that are used to a lot of attention and other times you come across little people that are not receiving the attention they deserve. The trickiest part is dealing with children that crave this attention, they act out on purpose, they get emotional incredibly easily and they constantly try to put themselves in the limelight. Today I was tested for the first time. After following my instincts I received a note from the student saying 'Dear Miss Cragg, I'm very sorry for being naughty will you ever forgive me?' There is a very high chance that exactly the same situation will occur tomorrow, but the fact is, the student recognised that they were behaving in a way that was unacceptable. I replied by thanking the student for the beautiful note and telling them that next time if they played fairly and didn't get emotional they would have a much better lunch time and that all of the other students wanted them to join in.

When you have ten students a day running up to you to tell you that such and such called them a name, or was whispering about them, or was eating a sweet, or fell over, or wasn't playing with them your patience is pushed to the max..... I am getting really good at responding in a way that seems like I'm sympathetic.....but really I'm just telling them to build a bridge and get over it. Here is when your problem solving skills also get a good work out. Boo yeahhhh.

A good way of testing your confidence is to get yourself lost in the middle of town, a good forty minutes away from your house at night. Another good way is to serve 300 posh people drinks at a school function, or just move away from everything familiar with no friends and no family. I have fully embraced the fact that 80% of the time I make a fool out of myself by accident and I actually enjoy it.

All you women who are independent throw your hands up at meeeeeee.

Although I do have a Harry I have learnt to be more independent in a way that I would not of been able to do had I not moved away from home. It's testing when everyone is living their lives and doing new things and time is ticking along as if you hadn't even left, but it makes you realise that life doesn't stop, you have to keep doing what you're doing in the best way you know how, taking on new challenges and embracing life.

Making new friends has become one of my new favourite things to do, I don't even care who they are..... Because everyone I have met so far has something interesting to say. The best way to learn new things is to listen to other peoples stories, so I plan on doing a lot more listening over here.

This month has also made me realise who my real friends are, they are the ones that send me a message to see how I am or stop to ask my family in the street how I am doing. These are the special people and I am very grateful to have you in my life. I feel even more blessed to have someone that is there every morning when I wake up and is the last face I see every night before I go to sleep. I do not know what I did to ever get so lucky.

This week I haven't managed to do anything too humiliating.... For once.

Tomorrow night I hit up the vodka bar and the weekend should involve some more sightseeing and wandering around this beautiful place that I get to call my home. For now.