The 3 Month Milestone

Happy 3 months England

And what a 3 months it has been.

A new country, new surroundings, new responsibilities, new faces, new food and most importantly new friends. This week has been fairly busy with two school trips and several missions that involved escorting the girls to the senior school. Here's my weekly low down....

Monday- Just your average day at the Junior School

Tuesday- Normal school going duties 

Wednesday- STAUNTON PARK

Involved taking a group of year 1's & 2's to Staunton County Park. Pretty much the English version of your average Aussie farm. Except Aussie farms don't have llamas or deer.....

It was a delightful day, wandering around watching the girls excitement as they got to feed the goats, llamas, alpacas, deer and lambs. Halle and I were given particularly important duties..... The girls received a note that morning from the Easter Bunny, telling them that he had heard of their good behaviour and may or may not see them later that day. I never knew hiding Easter eggs was so much fun, made all the more hilarious as the girls, by chance found some feathers on the ground (probably from some poor dead chicken) and screamed at each other that it was the Easter Bunnies fur and continued to look around the park for the entire day for any more traces of his whereabouts. 

I learnt that 6 and 7 year olds can't tell feathers from fur and seriously underestimate the size of a rabbit hole.... As they fought over where he had disappeared too for another two hours. 

Then it was time for rollypollying down the hill, playing in the dirt, a game of stuck in the mud, a quick biscuit eating session and a treck around the lake. Which involved someone loosing a gumboot mud-1 child-0 and another revealing some pretty impressive blisters. 

By the end of the day I was exhausted, I was chased around a maze, bombarded with questions, my hands were fought over (turns out they are very sought after), hit with a hail storm and frozen and thawed out several times (England's weather is just as bad as Tassies!!).

Thursday- DISCOVERY MUSEUM

Off to Gosport I went with the year 5's to the Victorian section of the Discovery Museum. I was expecting a grand Victorian house, or something equally impressive. I was slightly disappointed with a room that was set up (not very well) to portray a Victorian style kitchen and sitting room. Unfortunately, the sitting room included a bell, which the master or lady of the house would ring to receive the servants. By the end of the 3 hour session, where the girls repeatedly summoned the servants I was ready to ring something else. The only good thing about the day was seeing the knitted garden, which was exactly how it sounds. An entire garden made out of various knitted items, there was a vegetable patch, a picnic extravaganza with knitted pies and cakes and sausage rolls, a knitted clothes line with knickers, sweaters, socks, little knitted ladybirds and bumblebees and various plants that they could call home. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Weird but cool. Possibly more weird than cool.... but I'm used to dealing with that so it was rather enjoyable! 

Thursday night saw me serving drinks at a school function, after pouring about ten glasses of wine I made a dash for the exit. 

Friday- TGIF it's been a long week.

Everybody's looking forward to the weekend weekend. Heck yes I was. Only one more week until holidays. A pretty normal day, began by serving drinks at the morning assembly where I had a quick chat to an American parent who asked where I was from, when I told him Tasmania he said 'owhhhh the Tasmanian devil!' I said yes, except unlike the cartoon they don't actually spin around in circles.... He was a little bit disappointed. I think I would be pretty upset too if I believed my whole life that they could spin around, that kind of lie, crushed people's souls.

I then listened to some year 5 readers, spent some time in the office before lunch, fulfilled by lunch duty which included demonstrating some more of my remarkable skipping capabilities which left the girls in awe.... Unsurprising really. Finally, ending my day in year 2. My favourite class (shhhh don't tell anyone) where I got to be involved in teaching the girls how to count in tens to 100 and then helped them to wrap their Mother's Day plants (England's Mother's Day is this Sunday). I was even presented with a plant myself, which made me wonder if the gap fat is really building up and people are starting to suspect something....... 

Jokes. It was a leftover and needed some serious TLC because it was half dead so I was the perfect person for the job! 

It's Satuuuuuuuuuuuurdaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

Today has been extremely pleasant, I got up early-ish and took myself for a 4km walk along the seafront. The weather is beautiful today and I soon realised my Kathmandu jacket was totally unnecessary when the sweat began to pour from places sweat should not pour from. Jordan and I then ventured down to the shopping centre for a sticky beak (window shopping only for me) and after a few hours wandered back home. Our Easter holiday has been planned and our tickets booked!! 

I still can't believe I'm in England and am looking forward to seeing even more of this beautiful country in the next three months. 

Then FINALLY it will be time to travel to EUROPE with a very special someone. 

If I could give any piece of advice to anyone, it would be to travel whenever or wherever you can. It doesn't matter if it's in the same state, in a different country or even a few hours away from your home. Just explore. The only way to appreciate the place you come from and the people that surround you is to experience the unknown. Only then do you really understand what you want to do, where you want to be and who you want to be with. 

I can honestly say, I finally have it all figured out and it's a really great feeling :) 

The gap house has a furry friend....

Judging by the title.... I'm guessing most of you will catch on as to what occurred this morning.

It involved me, a cup of tea, some bags of garbage and a very small creature that is capable of creating a lot of noise and causing me to slightly lose my mind. 

Whilst making my morning cuppa, as I do now because I'm totally English I could hear a rustle coming from somewhere in the kitchen. After a closer inspection of the area I discovered that one of the garbage bags was moving quite violently. After realising that there was in face a MOUSE in the kitchen I tore upstairs to Jordan's room, where I barged through her door (it's ok she was awake) and exclaimed that there was a MOUSE in the kitchen and I needed her help. Jordan mouse exterminator extroardinare then followed me down to the kitchen where she proceeded to open the kitchen window and bag by bag lower the rubbish outside. Meanwhile..... I was standing on top of the kitchen bench because let's face it the ground was the last place I wanted to be. Mice can climb and I was not prepared to become some kind of mouse climbing frame any time soon. Upon lifting the second bag, I saw the hole that our unwelcome intruder had entered, in order to feast on our garbage and have a mouse party for one. By this stage you could say my voice had risen slightly and the little creature was well aware of what was happening and was desperately trying to find an exit, but just in time, he was dumped clean through the window and out into the wilderness where he belonged. 

After calming down, getting off the kitchen bench, racing back up to my room, tripping up the stairs in my haste, I tied my hair back and got ready to clean the kitchen like it had never been cleaned before. 

I was a woman on a mission. 

An hour later, and some help from Halle, the entire house has been vacuumed and mopped, all of the rubbish is outside and with a bit of luck mr mouse got the memo and won't be revisiting the premises again. 

Phew, what a morning!

This weeks recap.....

Funny moments this week have included....

A six year old telling me that the black stuff above my eyes looks really funny (eyeliner), but the sparkly bits on my cheeks look ok

Another six year old told me that I was one of the most wonderful people in the world (because I held the door open for her) haha

Again, another exclaimed 'I really like you Miss Cragg, I don't know why, I just really do'

I received an email from one of the teachers expressing how well I had done helping to organise the school play and that all my help was greatly appreciated

The principal also gave me a box of chocolate (delicious)

Last night Jordan and I watched Taken and I may or may not have deadlocked the front door before going to sleep... 

Monday marks my twelfth week in England, how time flies. It's crazy to think that in just another three months I will be more than halfway through my journey. 

It's two weeks until the Easter break.... I hope Easter bunny can find me over here! 

Then. Just around the corner my European adventure awaits. 

Leicester. Mr Darcy. & a weekend that felt like home.

As most of you know, I do have a slightly unhealthy obsession with Pride and Prejudice.

Here's a little secret for you all.....

During high school, I watched the film adaptation (the Keira Knightley version of course) every single day when I got home from school for about a month. I'm pretty sure that Mr Darcy was the first man I ever had a crush on. His broody nature and damn fine hot pants had me wishing I was Elizabeth Bennett. I eventually moved on from this stage of my life and discovered that although men like Mr Darcy didn't exactly exist, there would always be a 'Mr Darcy' out there somewhere. Although, probably not quite as good a dancer...... Fact. 

In order to get to Mr Darcy's crib we needed to catch the train to Leicester which went as follows..... Train from Portsmouth to London.... Two tube rides and another train to Leicester to finish the journey off. Luckily Jordan and Hope (slightly) are calm travellers because I am the kind of person that checks my ticket 5 times, likes to make sure I am at least half an hour early and am usually paranoid that I'm going to get the wrong tube/train, loose something vital or fall down the escalators. Thankfully none of the above happened over the weekend, phew. Hopes mum was there to pick us up from the station and we jumped in the car and journeyed to their family home where we were welcomed so beautifully. Automatically it felt so lovely to be there. Within a family environment where everyone looks after each other, and there's so much talking and eating and laughter. 

Three of my favourite things. 

So visiting Chatsworth house was genuinely a dream come true. Although we didn't get to go inside, just venturing around the surroundings was completely breathtaking (we're talking 105 acres of garden, and enough sheep and deer to keep the grass mowed so that the Duke and Duchess don't have to get the ride on out). Now, within this 105 acres includes three small villages, comprised of mainly original buildings and many permanent residents. We stopped for lunch in one of these that was built around a beautiful gothic style church, with small cottages scattered around either side it was picture perfect. After we were bursting at the seams we headed back out to explore some more Chatsworth goodness. Hope had previously given us the heads up about some local fudge that one of the cottage owners sold outside the house on a small stand, honesty box included, which made me feel like I was back at home buying apples on the side of the highway as the bogans revved past in their commodores.

 But did the fudge live up to it's praise........ Hells yeah it did. Diabetic nightmare. Sugar coma. Buttery overload but totally satisfying. Besides, we had another four hours of walking to do. We burnt that food baby right off. Then put it back on later with some carrot cake and tea at yet another small cafe. Hey, when in England! 

After walking to the top of the hill and taking in the magical view of the house below and the vibrant green surrounding mountains and valleys of the Peak District there was nothing to do but smile, and be grateful for all that was before me. Included in the grounds were two separate stables, one just above the house and another a further distance away which would have originally been for the working horses, a small animal farm which was created to bring tourists in and also provide accommodation for the Duchess's mad chicken obsession.... Apparently keeping chickens is her thing. Whatever floats your boat. I do need to touch on the stable situation because really, I've never seen stables like this before. We are talking a building big enough to be an apartment bloc. Yes, there was even a water fountain (ducks included) in the centre and enough room to keep about thirty horses comfortably. It's unbelievable to think that people lived such lives then and today there are some without homes at all..... I could not have asked for a more perfect day and the company only made it even better. I loves ya Sue and Nige x x

Sunday was home time but not before a sneaky visit to the local pub for an afternoon drink before we returned to the house for a traditionally English roast dinner, my first one since coming to England. Yorkshire puddings included it was delicious! 

They do call cordial 'squash' here..... A little bit weird. And cream is a lot runnier, the perfect consistency for my mother but as she is well aware, in my opinion shaking the cream bottle is a NO NO. We managed to make it home without any trouble and I accomplished yet another goal on my 'to do' list. 

April holidays are just a few weeks away and I hope to get to Eastbourne, Chichester, Arundel castle and possibly Brighton somewhere in those two weeks. If not all, at least a couple. It still shocks me that it's almost been three months since I left home, but I surprise myself as another week is crossed off and I continue my journey. I really needed this test and I will appreciate it for the rest of my life. Just as it has taught me to appreciate the people in my life and the opportunities I am given more and more each day. 

A week of twenty...... firsts.

The most anticipated birthday of all..... 21.

Here is how my first week as a proper adult unfolded.

Sunday- Birthday Eve

After getting back from Bath quite late on Saturday night, I was exhausted to say the least.

Let me tell you about Bath, easily my favourite place that I have seen in England so far (not that I've seen a lot). Rolling through the countryside on the bus was a visual delight of its own, as we passed field after field of lush green countryside, most with enormous classical homes sprawled across them. As the city came into view, all you could see was a perfect patchwork of sandstone coloured homes, churches and cathedrals with roman inspired architecture and a beautiful river that ran right through the middle of it all. Bath, didn't feel like a city in England at all, but instead some kind of European delight, I could easily have been walking through the streets of Italy, with cobblestone pavements and authentically Italian Gelato, or perhaps even France, with the sound of the river, buzz of the traffic and patisseries scattered around each corner. I truly felt like I was in another world, in another time. Five hours was only just enough time to explore Bath in its entirety and I would gladly go back an indulge in another Gelato, whilst sitting at the park in the sunshine.  

It was a truly beautiful way to start my weekend and made me appreciate my time here even more.

Sunday was SMFD (Skype My Family Day). No hints were dropped about birthday surprises that may or may not occur on Monday morning, so I did not suspect a thing....

Treated with some delicious chocolate cupcakes with butter cream frosting from my dear NZ soul sista, and a wonderfully thoughtful card from my English home girl my day could not get any sweeter. These two are keepers and I consider myself a winner to have found friendships so soon that I know will last so long.

Monday- Hello 21

I have to admit I was a little bit emotional (ok a lot emotional) waking up on Monday morning without my family by my side to celebrate such a special milestone, BUT, I really should have known that there was no way I was going to get away with no birthday surprises.
Earlier in the week I had received a parcel from home, after a little bit of sneaky touching.... Hey everyone does that with their presents!! I figured out what it was..... A 21st birthday key, which I assumed had been signed by my family, but instead, was signed by another group of very very special people. Thankyou to my fresh family for making me feel very loved, I was truly moved by all of your kind words and well wishes. 
As well as this there were cards from all of my family, and I can't forget the beautiful drawings and paintings done by two gorgeous little girls, which are now hanging on my wall and are the hottest new look in room decor. I was also very lucky to receive more presents and letters from home from my parents and grandparents, which I will cherish and no doubt continue to read over and over until my time here comes to a close.
I can't not mention or not give a huuuuge thankyou to everyone that contributed to my birthday fund, you've made me an extremely happy and insanely lucky girl, I owe my time in Greece in the summer to you all, so thankyou for helping me to make more of my dreams come true. 

Log onto Facebook..... Watch the best video ever known to man kind...... Laughed..... Bawled my eyes out..... Laughed a little bit more...... Cried a little bit more..... and finished it all of in complete and utter amazement, for having a family that I know would do anything and everything for me. I know that most people love their families and consider themselves grateful to have them. But I believe that there is no other family quite like mine. They are the most caring, considerate, compassionate, generous, inspiring and most importantly CRAZY people I know and without them, I would not be the person that I am today.
 Everyone in your life shapes you in some way, negatively or positively, their influence is inescapable. I will forever appreciate the way that my family has helped me to become the person that I am, by inspiring me and supporting me in everything that I do. My success is not purely my own, but the success of all of these people who I love so so dearly.

My happiness would also not be complete without another extremely special person in my life, you guessed it.... Harry. He knows who he is. It is his continuous support and love that helps me to get through each day without him right by my side and to remember that time is flying and it wont be too long before he will never be able to get rid of me again. (Just warning you).

I was pleasantly surprised and very touched when I received the biggest 21st birthday card from the schools caretakers, my own 7 dwarfs (not really vertically challenged) but the sweetest English men I've ever known, literally. See..... they do remember special occasions, well, the foreign men anyway ;)

Showered with hugs from the students at lunch and serenaded by the year 3/4 classes I could not have possibly asked for a better 21st birthday. But what else could possibly happen......

A nice walk along the waterfront to work off the cupcakes and the small box of Ferrero's that I scoffed at lunch.... present from home, had to be done. Then it was time for dinner and you guessed it...... cocktails. If you know me you will know that two cocktails is more than enough to get me feelin the vibes. So we left the restaurant in relatively high spirits, got to the Vodka bar across the street and those spirits were magnified.

I have just three words for you.

Nutella frozen vodka.

Yes you heard correctly, the liquid of gods.

The Chinese owner of the establishment was extremely generous, giving us several free drinks, over 100 different flavours of vodka that they make themselves from flavoured sweets and chocolates, he is living the vodka dream. 

For me it was a Blue Raspberry with two shots, one Nutella flavoured and one Rolo flavoured.

As we were just about to call it quits two gentlemen entered the bar, bit dodgey looking but perfectly harmless. We managed to get ourselves another drink each, shortly followed by another three shots.

Having fully got to the merry stage by now our new friends began to tell us about their line of work.....

Turns out that they were both recently released from prison on drug charges and had popped back to Portsmouth for the weekend after taking their girlfriends to have consultations with city doctors about breast enlargement surgery (why we needed to know this information I will never know).

Oh the people you meet in England.....

Oh the things that people say to you in England....

Apparently I look like a cannabis addict.

Something I don't get told every day, but a fantastic compliment for anyone on their 21st birthday... NOT. We agreed that it was time to bail and headed home. Laughing most of the way and discussing how often the English shower (according to my dad not a lot), but dad, I can tell you that they shower the same amount as we do.

Tuesday- A normal day at school

Luckily no seediness at all! Had to man the student teacher interviews refreshments table, which involved me standing in one spot for two hours, pouring two cups of tea and coffee and eating a ridiculous amount of cookies. YOLO (you only live once).

Wednesday- Swimming carnival day

Who ever thought that giving out 3rd and 4th place tokens would be so difficult. Freestyle isn't freestyle its frontcrawl here.... the English are so bloody bizarre.

Thursday- aka today

Another regular day in the office. The weather has been unbelievably good, my standards have dropped to about 17 degrees at the warmest. Its usually when everyone starts getting their tops off over here, FYI British men and women pasty white chests are not a good look. Jordy and I have started to go for walks of a night as there has been no rain (I hope I haven't jinxed us but I honestly think that we have seen enough to last the rest of the year).

The students are as funny as always with one running up to show me a log of wood she found in the playground, exclaiming 'Miss Cragg, look, this is a baby log, its only five years old, can I PLEASE take it home'. Unfortunately I had to play the hard card and tell her that if she found it in the garden it had to stay in the garden because that was where it belonged. 

Another told me that when I first arrived she 'didn't like the look of me very much' (cheers), she wanted the old gap student to come back but now she..... 'really loves me more'.

I've been working pretty hard on helping the 3/4 classes with props and costumes for their play and today I was given a beautiful bunch of tulips, completely unexpected and unnecessary in my opinion but so very thoughtful.

I also got back from lunch today to find a big 21st balloon and a little present on my desk, with a note 'To Tonoya, Happy 21st Birthday, from all of us XX'

It was a beautiful silver bracelet that I will treasure and hold dear, for it will remind me of all the great memories I have made here so far and the many more that are yet to come.

Leicester tomorrow.

English roast dinner.

English family time.

More exploring.

How very lucky I am!

My last week as a not legal in every country person.

My last week as a 20 year old started off pretty average.

It's not easy to be away from home when you are about to celebrate your 21st birthday.

It's usually a time where you have a big party with all of your family, friends and certain special people but instead, I'm over the other side of the world, by myself, working. 

But it's ok.

Because I know that my amazing friends and family will be thinking of me and sending me all the love they possibly can, that, combined with the lovin from my wonderful housemates, co workers and students is enough for me. 

Besides.....

I'm in England!!!!! 

I'm going to Bath tomorrow to explore, it's supposed to be 15 degrees..... Over here that's a heat wave!!! 

I've been kept pretty busy at school this week. 

I am in charge of organising and creating props and costumes for the year 3/4 school play. 

Today I made a sandwich board, four posters, and a time machine..... All in a days work. 

The best part of this week has been catching up with an old friend, it never ceases to amaze me just how much people can change, for the bad and for the better. The best part about seeing someone from your past is hearing about what they have done in the time that you have been apart. I have so much admiration for anyone that pushes their own boundaries, people that are unafraid to try something different, to persue a career that tests them, because really..... We never know our true potential if we are just comfortable. 

In the short time I have been here I understand that this is an important part of growing up and honestly, I don't think I will be hesitant about doing things that scare me anymore, if you're scared, you're doing the right thing. 

As usual, the school girls are absolutely adorable and I'm starting to form closer bonds with a number of them. Every day I'm greeted with enough hugs to last me two weeks and enough smiles to keep me smiling for the whole year. They are becoming more interested in Australia and many want to know what animals live there, if we have tornados, how big the snakes are and if we get eaten by sharks if we go in the ocean.

Unfortunately, despite several attempts, an adorable little girl thinks I live in Africa. 

I've told her that Australia is very different from Africa, she still asks me if I ride elephants, if I have to wear a woven dress and how far I have to carry my basket of food on my head......

Today was jump rope for heart, 120 students on a netball court skipping to 'what does the fox say' prooved to be a very entertaining afternoon...... Who knew skipping could be so dangerous, we had about six injuries. Little girls trying to run and skip...... Not a good combo, so many bloody knees and tears. In the end I just couldn't watch. 

For some reason Jordan and I missed out on Ben and Jerry's Sunday last week...... So we made up for it today..... In the form of chocolate fudge brownie and Phish food. Just what we needed to end the week! 

Next week I am off to Leicester for the weekend, we have the pleasure of staying with my British roomies family, which means, traditional roast dinner Yorkshire puddings included!!!! 

As well as......

A VISIT TO MR DARCY'S HOUSE. 

I'm not kidding, I nearly cried when I found out. 

I have a feeling next week is going to be one that I will remember for a very long time.