The Minerva Pub

'Ello!!!

I can't believe that TODAY is my last day!! I'm really sad to be leaving but really anxious to get home too and take an actual "vacation" with Jake and the Montie's at Higgins Lake!

Last night in celebration of finishing up all of our projects, a couple girls and I went with the masters students to a pub called "Minerva". This was definitely the traditional pub, as it has been around since the 1500s!! It was a very small hole in the wall place that you'd normally pass by without noticing it. The whole front half of the pub was full of a variety of musicians from violins, banjos, acoustic guitars, to flutes accordions, and tambourines. The rest of the pub was filled with 50-70 year old men who had been going to this pub ever since they were little. The majority of the night we listened to the "band" play Irish drinking songs while the locals all slurred through the songs together in unison. It's so hard to describe an experience like that...but I finally felt like I had at last seen a traditional English pub.

We ended up "meeting" two 50+ year old men from Italy that spoke Portuguese. We couldn't understand a word they were saying yet they were still talking to us anyways. They greeted us like we were all old pals with a casual kiss on each cheek. It was quite the experience.

Tonight I am attending a graduation ceremony for the Year 4 masters students then probably going out with all the MSU students to our favorite pub The Fresher Professor to celebrate our last night in England.

I just can't believe how much I've learned and experienced on this trip. I had no idea what to expect on this trip and I can honestly say that this trip has and will change my life. I think it's really important to step into a different culture at some point in your life because not only do you learn about this new culture but you also learn a lot about your own culture back home. England is an amazing country and I definitely want to come back. I've never met people so friendly and kind. Every person that I've met has really had an impact on me and I hope that I've had an impact on them as well. I know I've definitely had to clear up America's name a couple times here, but hopefully a few words that I said will change that person's thoughts positively.

This is probably my last blog entry for this trip (I have to leave for the US at 5am tomorrow morning) so I just want to thank everyone for reading, commenting, and keeping in touch with me throughout this trip. You all made it so much easier being away from home in a foreign country so I just want to thank you for attributing towards my incredible experience here. Hopefully I will get a chance to talk with all of you about my experiences and show you my pictures! Until then...I will be back in the US at around 5:20pm tomorrow. Thanks again for keeping me company on my trip to Jolly Old. :)

Warmly,

Tara

Class and Homework

Hello!

Today was a pretty boring day compared to my weekend in London that I just had. I had class from 8-3 today. It was actually really interesting though, I got to attend 3 seminars put on by the other masters students from MSU all about different types of technologies that I can use as a teacher. They were very informative! I learned how to make an iPortfolio, incorporate gaming into my lesson plans, and also how to do some screen capturing (where I can record or photograph my activities online). I'm very excited to try these new tools out in my internship classroom next year!

Tonight and tomorrow I'm going to be working on and finishing my last big project for the study abroad program. It's going to be a doozy. It pretty much is a project that uses a type of technology that I've learned about on this trip and it has to describe how my experiences here in England have changed my views about culture in America. I think I'm going to incorporate aspects of the differentiating lifestyles between the two countries. Everyone is very laid back here, lives without worry, and goes through life casually strolling by. While lifestyles in America are fast paced, routine, and stressful.

An example of this is when I went out to eat here in Plymouth for the first time. After I had finished eating my food, it took the waiter like 30 minutes to come back to my table with the bill. My friends and I were complaining every five minutes about having to wait so long for our bill then we realized that in England it's customary to sit an enjoy your meal with friends and family for long periods of time. It should be a relaxing activity that isn't rushed. We all felt out of place once we realized how accustomed to the fast-pace American lifestyle we were. It's experiences like that that remind me just how different England is from America.

Anyways...I have some work to do on my project. Hope all is well with everyone, I'll be home in only 3 days!!

Cheers,

Tara

Tuesday: Back in Plymouth

Hello everyone!

I'm back "home" in Plymouth now and no longer in London (sniff, sniff). I had a wonderful time and I will always remember my experiences from there. Especially walking down the Thames river at night time, riding the double decker bus, and being 450 feet in the air on the London Eye.

Probably the best experience I had in London had to be walking down Abbey Road. It was an unbelieveable feeling to walk where the fab four had walked. There were also all of these walls that were full of grafitti in front of the Abbey Road recording studio. It was covered with Beatles lyrics and other cool things like "Yoko sucks". I decided to write "I am the walrus" and my name on it just to add something of my own to Abbey Road. The picture on this blog is of me writing it.

Being back in Plymouth I have finally just sat down and thought, wow...I only have 4 days left until I go home! It seriously feels like I just got here yesterday. I've had such a great time here (both in Plymouth and in London), yet I'm starting to get anxious about coming home. I'm in this weird middle-ground position where I'm sad to be leaving but really happy to be going home..I don't know, it's kind of hard to explain. I miss everyone back home so much, though , so the fact that I'll be home in 4 days is exciting me more and more!

My second inquiry project went pretty well: 3.75. It was a podcast about my experiences in the elementary schools here in the UK. I would have posted it on here but a.) I haven't had time and b.) I don't really like how it came out. It's basically just audio of me and my group talking about similarities and differences between the two schooling systems. Kinda boring.

Anywho...

One more project to go....that's due in two days and no one has had the chance to start yet, including me. It's pretty much a culminating activity/video about what I've experienced during this trip. I have some ideas about what I want to do....unfortunately I have one day to do it. Siiiiigh....

As a side note (that is completely off subject): I think everyone should buy a Tide Pen, and this is why...

I was at the train station today waiting for the train back to Plymouth. I got hungry so I thought it would be fun to order one of these cool baguette sandwiches (it was very tasty)! When I was ordering I noticed that my shoe was stuck to the ground...I looked down and saw a HUGE gob of gum that someone just spit out in front of the cash register floor. I mean come on....who does that?

Long story short, I ended up wiping it off the best I could. Yet I didn't know that there was an even bigger gob on the side of my shoe until I sat on my foot and got gum all over the buns of my jeans! I ran to the bathroom and Kailey used her Tide-to-go pen on my behind. Lots of people stared but it came off! I ended up just making the train in time during this whole fiasco...phew!

Anyways, I should be going to finish up some homework. I hope everyone is doing well, keep me posted on whats going on back in the States!!

Cheers,

Tara

London Weekend

SOOOOO sorry that it's been so long for me to post. My weekend here in London has been packed as I haven't had a lot of time to see everything. Needless to say though, London is completely amazing.





Today was probably the best day. I went inside the Tower of London and saw the Crown Jewels; which were SUPER impressive. After that I went to Abbey Road and actually walked down the crosswalk!! Just knowing that I was where the Beatles had been was enough to make me freak out and act like a total tourist. After Abbey Road....oh wait I forgot! In the morning today I saw the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. What a spectacle!!! I took lots of great videos and pictures, they should be posted here soon!





Tonight I saw Wicked- which was of course amazing. The show included a free two course meal at a really fancy restaurant, too! After the dinner and show some girls and I walked back down to see Big Ben on the Thames River one last time. Everything was lit up and Big Ben reminded me of the scene in Peter Pan when they all fly off to Neverland. We sat there on a bench in front of it and just took it all in. As we were sitting there I heard some girl singing with an acoustic guitar. She had an absolutely amazing voice. I ended up talking to her for a while and bought her CD. She's from Brazil and totally rocks. Her name is Carla Peccorelli. What a great souvenir, eh?





Tomorrow morning we only have a couple of hours before we have to catch a train back home so we're going to stay close by our dorm and finish up some souvenir shopping.





Gosh, I've done so much this weekend its so hard to write it all down here!





I finally worked up the courage to ride the London Eye. The London Eye is a HUGE 450 foot tall ferris wheel that overlooks Big Ben and the Thames River. I took pictures from the top....from my seat... where I was clutching the arm rests until I had white knuckles. But alas- I survived to tell the tale here on my blog! Yay me!





I also rode one of those cool double decker tour buses. We sat on the top level (which is all open without a roof) and got a great tour of London. I got most of my pictures from this experience.





London is such an amazing city. It's SO diverse. We watched a bunch of people underneath the London Eye playing songs or juggling or breakdancing. The air is also so full of soot that it turns your white shirts grey. I also blew my nose today and found a lot of black boogies from the soot, yuck.





Alright, I should be getting to bed now. I have to wake up early again for a long journey back to Plymouth tomorrow. I hope everyone is well, and don't be too mad at me for the delay in posting this blog, haha.








Cheers,


Tara

Day 11: Tamarside Community College (High School)

Hey it was a sunny day today!!!! It's a miracle, hehe!

Today I got to observe at Tamarside Community College (which is really a high school). It was a really interesting experience. All of the teachers were great and so were the students. I spent about a half hour talking to an 8th grade class-pretty much having a Q&A with them about things they wanted to know about America. The questions were pretty ridiculous, ha ha:

"Have you ever seen anyone get shot?"

"Do you know any movie stars?"

"Do you live by Run DMC?"

It was a blast talking with these kids, and I hope they learned some things about America; maybe I even cleared up some stereotypes or common disbeliefs! The kids were great today. I had a blast. Seeing these schools makes me consider teaching abroad one day in the future...I don't know- but it's been running through my mind as of late.

So I got my grade for my first project (the one posted on this blog) and I got a 4.0!! :) Yay, I guess hard work really pays off, eh?

After being at the high school all day then having class, I decided that I needed a shopping break with Kailey. It was lots of fun and I got a lot of cute clothes. The clothes here are way more fashionable than back at home!

Alright, I have to get working on some homework!! I will blog tomorrow-though it might be kinda late because tomorrow night is "80's Prom" with all of the MSU people here! It should be great fun! I'll keep ya posted!

Cheers,

Tara

PS. The picture is of me touching the waters at Bath! I'm a rebel, what can I say? :)

Day 10: Stonehenge and Bath

Phew what a day! The day started at about 5:30am. Everyone in my group took a 3 hour bus ride to see Stonehenge. It was awesome! The only downfall to the day was the TORRENTIAL downpour that never stopped. The pictures seemed to come out okay though, so that was good news!

Stonehenge was better than what I expected. Just knowing that where I stood today was where Romans were was insane to me. It was so rainy when I got there that I dropped my camera on the cement in front of Stonehenge but no worries it still works fine!

It's so crazy how all of those stones got there. It's still kind of debated as to how they did but that's the cool part! It was a very mysterious place. I also learned that across the field from Stonehenge are a bunch of massive grave sites. It was just a crazy very rememberable experience.

After Stonehenge we drove another hour to the city of Bath. Bath is where the Romans used to ...well bathe. It was kind of like a huge social gathering place for them. The city was full of buildings dating all the way back to the 1400s. It was amazing to see. The baths themselves were actually in really great condition. I took some great pictures and videos of them and even touched the water (even though I wasn't supposed to)! The water was really warm! Overall, it was a really great day. It's so hard to explain my experiences at these places because they are just so historic and incredible...it's very hard to explain it when I could hardly believe I was standing there myself!

Tomorrow I will be observing a high school class in Plymouth. Should be pretty interesting!! I also have to get some work on my second project done so my blogs today and tomorrow will probably be a little shorter than normal!

I hope everyone had a great day!

Cheers,

Tara

Day 9: Flowers and Bees

Hello everyone! Today was another Great day in the UK! It was my last day at Chaucer Elementary (sadly) and the kids were great today. I got to sit in a fourth grade classroom today and had a great time. I learned a new way to teach division (a method called "chunking") and then got to work one-on-one with students using this method. It was a lot of fun. I got especially close with one girl, Kelsey, and she asked me lots of questions about America. We had such a great conversation that she asked if she could write me a note in my notebook that I used to take notes with. She made sure that I promised not to read it until I come home (a.k.a my dorm) and then hugged me and ran away. This is what the note said:

"Bye, I will miss you lots!! Love from Kelsey King from the school 'at you came to in Plymouth"

There was also a bunch of hearts and smiley faces on the note, which made it extra cute, hehe. So after the fourth grade observation I went to watch the end of year play put on by the kindergarten, first, and second graders. It was a play about a bumble bee that couldn't make any friends but does at the end of the play. The children were all dressed as flowers and bees and sang songs aloud for a gymnasium full of proud parents, teachers, and me eagerly snapping pictures and videos with my camera.

I posted a short clip of one of the songs in this blog (pay attention to the accents in the song, SO cute).

So tomorrow is the big trip to Stonehenge and Bath! I can't wait! I have to wake up at 5:30am (yuck) but it will be worth it. I'll be sure to post lots of pictures in my blog tomorrow!

More news about London. Some girls and I have been planning our itinerary for the London trip that is coming up very soon. We booked our tickets to see "Wicked" for Monday night, yay! It also includes a dinner at a fancy restaurant! I loved this show when I saw it last summer and I can't wait to see it again in downtown London!! Alright well I've got to be going! I hope everyone had a good day, and I will post back tomorrow after the trip!

Cheers!

Tara