Arrival

So here I am again in a foreign country all by myself. Actually, not quite true! This time around I know a number of people in the country and even have my lovely cousin Raywin to look after me just out of London. Oh, and this time people speak English (or so I am told!) It was certainly a very odd feeling flying out of Auckland without a return ticket and I couldn't help wondering what on earth I had done to myself. Flight one to Singapore was lovely with a whole three seats to myself though I didn't really sleep, they turned the lights back on to feed us just as I was dropping off. I was sick about half an hour into the second flight and found myself retching over the toilet about every couple of hours for most of the 14 hours to Heathrow. Not the best long haul flight I've ever done! But I survived and stayed up till 6pm to try and rest my clock. That made about 38 hours awake - not my record but getting close!

Yesterday I went into London and spent the day at the British museum and the British Library. I think you could probably spend a whole week at the British museum and not see everything there is in there! I especially enjoyed the exhibition on clocks with some incredible examples of old pocket watches, a clock designed like a battle ship that set off a cannon on the hour, and beautiful grandfather clocks. The British library holds a stunning collection of old documents and books and blew my breath away. They had manuscripts by Mozart and Handel, letters from Jane Austen, poems by the Bronte sisters, sonnets by Shakespeare, the Magna Carta, and the most beautiful Bibles I have ever seen! Sadly no pictures allowed...

In the evening my teaching agency had a social get together so it was a good opportunity to meet my consultant and other overseas teachers. Everyone had positive things to say about the agency though endless marking seems to be the order of the day when it comes to actual teaching!

I head to Germany today for 10 days to see the wonderful Houbens (my host family from school days) and hopefully it won't be too freezing cold!

I am posting this on Facebook but if people want to get an email when I put up a new post, just flick me an email to annafscadden@gmail.com and I shall add you to the list. Please stay in touch everyone, I found the last couple of times overseas that plenty of people read my blog but I want to hear your news as well! Emails, Facebook, WhatsApp, Skype, whatever! I'll hopefully have some photos next time but our internet is out at the moment, doing this off data on my phone...