A Month in

Soooo I have been pretty bad about updating this- but I am really going to try and do it more often! Lots of things have gone on since my last update...

Driving: Haha oh lord where to begin.. driving over here may or may not be the scariest experience I have ever encountered. When I finally got my car back- my host brother offered to take me out and teach me how to drive the car and it was like a scene out of a movie. I probably stalled the car every 5 seconds- and THEN he took me up a hill and I couldn't get the car to move and it was starting to roll backwards and it was terrible. not to mention I almost took out about 10 mailboxes and was up on the curb for a majority of the time. SOO they booked me driving lessons and it was 2 - 2 hour sessions with this nice british man with a heavy smokers cough named Ira who probably thought I was on drugs. I was literally having nightmares about having to drive. The signs over here make NO sense .. for example there is a circle with a cross through it that means 2 different speed limits when you are in different places- WHAT?!? why would you make the sign mean 2 different things?! people like ME have no idea what to do- and therefore are always going slower then need be. They also have signs like: kill your speed, not a child.. elderly people with canes at crosswalks and my favorite the frog signs that are everywhere. So after one of my driving lessons my boss had me drive to one of the clubs and he was in the car and I stalled not before, not after but IN THE MIDDLE of a roundabout. how that is even possible people I do not know- but I thought half of the UK was going to shoot me. However not to worry - I am a driving machine now. I still stall sometimes but I am really getting the hang of it . Did I mention my car has my NAME on it and a nice american flag on both sides?! slightly embarrassing when you look extremely special driving ... oh wellll. glad I am representing the country well on the roads.

Lacrosse:  Lacrosse has actually been AMAZING. I love coaching so much and the kids are great. During the week I travel to different schools and either run their PE classes or run a lacrosse after school club. I am also working with a college team (which is equivalent to 11th and 12th grade in the states) and then a women's club team. I am teaching a bunch of different age groups - I have Year 5 and 6 which are the young kids and they learn POP lacrosse. which is totally different then anything we have in the states- its basically the plastic sticks we use to play with in gym class, no goalies and you can only hold on to the ball for 4 seconds. They are  good for the kids to learn with and they all seem to really love the game. so I have  about 90 ish of them and then probably 90 of year 7- upper sixers (which is a senior in high school in the US or their last year of college before university ) It can get totally chambolic at times but there is nothing else I would honestly rather be doing. I am sooo happy that there is so much interest in Lacrosse over here. The Club team I am working with - Putney-  is realllllly good. They have a definite mix of talent but they have a lot of girls that play on the England squad. I am really excited in October I am going to play in a Tournament in Prague with them!!! Then on Saturdays I run both POP and field lacrosse at the club for about 80 girls - and the great thing is we have SOO many more girls that want to come and play with us - we just need to figure out space and find more coaches. It can be stressful at times - however at the end of the day I would so much rather have way to many girls then no one wanting to show up.

Me in one of the Phone Booth's 

Everything else is great- yesterday I went into London and explored. It is such an amazing and beautiful place. I also love how much diversity is everywhere- everywhere I walked there was a different language being spoken. I definitely want to get into London A LOT more.. especially because all of the museums are FREEE!! Not to mention its only about a 30 minute train ride for me from Oxshott to Waterloo. We went to Big Ben, Parliament, Saw the Eye of London ( the really big ferris wheel that gives you views of the entire city and more), Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace but I was a little upset that I could not find Prince Harry... however I will not give up my search. I have a good amount of traveling planned - In October I am going to Prague to play in that tournament and then I am Going to Spain and maybe Italy - but I will get to see Miss Megan from Onaway so I am very excited about that!! and then hopefully I will be making a trip up to Scotland soon to see Miss Meg and Miss Nell.  There are  SO many Onaway people in Europe this year- Including Miss Laura who is moving to LONDON! yayy!

Big Ben!

Buckingham Palace

Well that is pretty much it for right now- I am going to attempt to get back into working out today- hoping my legs are OK to handle it- who would have known I would miss running this much? I was really happy that they didnt hurt at all walking around London all day- so we will see what happens.

Happy Monday Everyone!   xx

ahhh so I have been here for two weeks and I am obsessed with this place. The people are so nice and everywhere I go everything is SOO beautiful. Last week I had my induction course with English Lacrosse and got to meet all of the other americans that are here working in the south of england. It was alot of fun - were played A LOT of pop lacrosse which is the lacrosse that is played with the younger kids and you use the plastic sticks like the ones we have in gym class back home. Thursday night everyone stayed with some of the LDO's that are in Reading and we went out which was a really fun time. FINALLY learned everyones names haha which was seriously difficult at first- so many new people and not enough space in my brian to remember any of their names! after we finished the course on friday we headed to Bath - which is by far the most beautiful place I have been so far in my life. everything is made out of stone from the same quarry and I was just in awe. We went to Bath Abbey and wandered around the streets. But we were  there for a lacrosse tourney which was so awesome - its not like our tournaments back home - they are WILD here .... wayyyyy to much alcohol haha. we got to go out in Bath on friday and saturday night which was a blast - maybe a little too  much fun??? haha needless to say sambuca and I will never cross paths again.

Im back in Oxshott now- just hanging out and getting ready to start a lot of coaching. Lots of lesson plans to do!! I have a couple meetings with teachers and then I am going down to play/help coach a club team in Putney which will be fun as they are my age. STILL NO CAR  hahaha my lifeee... lets hope I learn how to drive before hmm monday when I have to start? haha ill keep you updated!

If you have a skype account- let me know so we can talk and catch up!

Miss and Love you all
xx

oh and for camp people ..I just have a quick story I thought you would all appreciate. The street I am living on has a church at the very end of it and you can hear the bells from my bedroom. well this morning I woke up to bells that sounded like a Waterfront Emergency. Naturally I threw myself out of bed ready to run down to the waterfront until I realized where I was. 

Almost a week update

Hellllo!


So I have been here for almost a week and it is still unreal to me that I am actually living in England.  It has been a pretty good week so far - but I still do not know that many people so it can get a little lonely at times. Thankfully I have my induction course for English Lacrosse next week so I will get to hang out with the americans that are over here doing my same program. So this week has been pretty eventful- I got to go to King Henry the 8th's Palace (Kensington Court) and look around- it was SOO beautiful and the gardens were unreal. It made me want to start watching the Tudors on HBO - I took a couple of photos and will be posting those up soon.  The family I am staying with also has a bunch of parties this and next week so I have been able to go to those. I went to my first Pub last night for a drink! very exciting ... except its not what I would imagine a pub to be like- it was much nicer then I expected. Also they are so behind here on all of our TV shows and Movies .. which is so weird. Movies that are almost out on DVD in the states are just coming into the theater's here. Im going to need to start saying Spoiler Alert before I talk about any movie or show. 

hmm ok funny stories-
so I went to take a shower the other morning and they told me they gave me a towel in my room (which I later found) but all I could find in my room was this little towel about the size of a bath mat .. and I was like hmm this must be european or something. so I showered with this small thing and then later after  was dressed and ready found the normal towel. haha just keeping things interesting


I hadn't met the son until thursday night when he came into my room to tell me that he had crashed my car (which btw I STILL haven't learned how to drive ... and doesn't look like I will until next week!) I guess he was trying to get to the gas station and ran out of gas and on manual car's the car shuts off when you have no more gas and therefore the breaks dont work- needless to say he ended up running into a tree. So they have been having problems getting my insurance to begin with, and this incident definitely does not help the matter. So when I go to that course next week I have to carpool with 2 other LDO's .. but It doesnt look like I will have a phone either. The son has been using my phone since his broke a couple of months ago I guess and he lost the sim card for it so it cant be used right now. Basically nothing is working out right now lol I am going to be the girl with a notepad getting peoples numbers next week haha


I did have a lacrosse practice I guess you could call it on Friday and it went really well. The girls seemed really enthusiastic and their stick skills were not to bad- I am really looking forward to getting into lacrosse full swing. Paul (my boss/host father) also said that he has been getting emails about how much the girls liked it so I am really happy about that.


That's it for  now! Miss you all! xx

well, im going to be a tea addict before halloween ... going on my 4th cup today and its 5..

First Day in England

Hello Hello to everyone,

Well its my first full day in England and I am still feeling a little jet lagged. Yesterday was a bit long but no complaints as all of my luggage, etc. made it here in one piece. My host family is super nice and has made me feel right at home. I am all unpacked and just trying to get odds and ends set up. I am going to try and post like once a week so everyone can know what I am up to . (ie once I get brave enough to get in the car- once its insured - and tackle driving on the other side of the car on the other side of the road) Hopefully I will have some good stories to share.. however its me, so I am sure I will!

 I wish everyone could be here with me!  love to all