Canada vs. UK: Random Observations and Cultural Differences

Hi Everyone!

Today I thought I would write up a fun little list telling you what things that I have noticed that make life in the UK different from life in Canada.  So, without further ado:

1. There are awesome stores that we do not have in Canada, my favourite being PRIMARK!!  It’s like the UK version of Forever 21 (price and style-wise) but includes a home section (I bought tea towels there). 

-There is one less than a 20 minute walk from my flat (almost right across the road from my church) so it will become very helpful when adding to my teacher wardrobe.

2. When you are out and about, men who are complete strangers to you (ie cashiers, salesmen) may call you "my love" and/or "sweetie." You just have to roll with it (though admittedly I was shocked at first).

3. Politically correct cheese: the most aged cheeses are referred to as ‘mature,’ which sounds a little bit more delicate than ‘old.’  It makes me giggle.

4. In all of the shops that I have been to, I have not been charged any tax on top of the list price.  The tax is included in the prices, which makes much more sense in my opinion.  No more trying to calculate 13% HST while shopping!

5. There are self-checkouts in most supermarkets (I think at home I have only seen them in Wal-Mart).

6. Driving on the left side of the road:  it seems simple enough to figure this out and to not get hit but I generally go to the crosswalk and wait for the signal to make absolutely sure that I do not make a disastrous mistake!

7. Vocabulary:

There are SO MANY little differences!  Here are a few that I knew already when I got here but have been trying to get used to using in order to be understood:

pants=trousers (I am determined not to mess this one up when teaching a class full of 12 year olds!)

shrimp=prawns

chips=crisps

garbage can=’dust’ or ‘rubbish’ bin

washroom=loo or toilet

apartment=flat

bandaid=plaster

buddy/friend=mate (which reminds me of Donna meeting the Doctor: “You just want…to MATE!?!”)

cookie=biscuit

cell phone=mobile

purse=handbag

vacation=holiday

TV=telly

sweater=jumper

8. In Starbucks (and I assume other similar establishments) there are two prices on food: a “take away” price and an “eat in” price.

9. On a similar note: what we would call “take out” the Brits call “take away.”

10. There is an equivalent to dollar stores: Poundland or the 99p store.  They sell pretty much the same kind of variety of toiletries, cleaning products, snack foods, canned goods, kitchen gadgets, etc. that Dollarama does.    

11. According to the TV network E4 “Classic US Entertainment” consists of ‘The Big Bang Theory’, ‘How I Met Your Mother’, ‘The Mindy Project’, ‘New Girl’ and occasionally ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’.  Fun and enjoyable? Yes.  Classic?  Maybe not.

12. Train doors do not open when they reach each station unless you press the button to open them.  This caused me to panic during my move but some friendly people helped me out!

13. You can buy alcohol at corner stores, grocery stores, the UK equivalent of Wal-Mart…pretty much everywhere.

14. Within large crisp bags there are several smaller bags like you might get in a convenience store or on Halloween.  Good for portion control I suppose, but it seems like an exorbitant amount of packaging to me!

-Some of the most common crisp flavours that I have seen include “cheese and onion” and “prawn cocktail.”

15. From what I have seen so far you switch light switches down to turn them on and up to turn them off.  Also all of the outlets have individual ‘on’ and ‘off’ switches.

16. Coca-Cola has a marketing scheme right now where bottles say “share a Coke with” and then a first name.  It is very clever but I was satisfied with just taking a picture when I saw my name!

17. I have a both a debit card and a separate card for taking cash out of bank machines and ATMs.

18. In transit stations there have been no solid bins for security reasons since the London bombings.  There are clear bin bags in their place.

19. There is post on Saturday (but not on Sunday, as Vernon Dursley has taught me).

20. There are signs all over the airports and public transport station in London warning people to watch out for pickpockets and ‘luggage snatchers’.

21. Biscuits are super delicious and even better when dipped in tea!  I tried some of the 11^th Doctor’s favourite Jammie Dodgers and they were no good until I dipped them in my evening cuppa :)

22. There are A LOT of different coins: 1 penny, 2 pence, 5 pence, 10 pence, 20 pence, 50 pence, 1 pound and 2 pounds.  Plus they are HEAVY compared to coins in Canada.  My wallet gets weighed down pretty fast.

These are the differences that come to mind right away but I am sure that I will think of enough to write a Part 2 list sometime soon.

Have a lovely weekend!

-Heather <3

Life News: I GOT A JOB!!

So some crazy things happened to me over the past couple of days and the result is...I got a full-time teaching job!!

I am going to be teaching a class of 22 Year 7 students at a small secondary school in a town north of Southampton. 

I had actually interviewed for the same position in May over Skype and at the time I thought the interview had gone very well.  However, they ended up hiring a guy who had been supply teaching with TimePlan (the agency that I came here with) in Hampshire for a while already.  However, at the beginning of this week he ended up resigning from his upcoming position (TimePlan and the school both are still not sure why).  In a panic the school called TimePlan to see if I had found a full-time job yet in hopes that I would be available to take the position in his place. 

I went to meet with the head teacher and the head of the department that I  will be working in yesterday morning and they basically just explained the details of the position to me and asked me if I wanted the job (since I had already been interviewed previously).

 

The program that I will be teaching in is a new project-based learning and skill development focussed program which also adheres to standard national curriculum expectations.  It is meant to give Year 7 students the best possible foundation for success in secondary school and beyond. 

There are four of us (the other three being experienced teachers) who are teaching within the program and who will have regular planning meetings to share ideas and collaborate to decide how best to meet the needs of each of our students.  We will also have teachers from various departments who are specialists in the subject areas who will meet with us regularly and work alongside us in planning instruction and projects for the students.  I am very excited since project-based learning is an up and coming educational strategy in many parts of the world right now and I feel that this will be an excellent experience for me, especially so early in my career.  It will be quite challenging, but it seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up! 

   

I will be teaching a variety of subjects including Science, Technology, Literacy, History/Geography and Art so it will be a lot like teaching Grade 7 back in Canada.  I am a bit nervous about branching out of my areas of speciality but since I am working in such a team-based environment with supportive fellow staff members I think I will be all right!  I will also have a small “Mentor group” of students who I will meet with in the middle each day for tutoring and academic support.  Most of the teachers in the school have one of these groups and there is a designated slot in the timetable for this.  Students also have study hall-type work times during some days of the week and I will be in charge of supervising a couple of these classes. 

It will be about a 45 minute commute for me every day (plus a bit of walking on each end) but since school hours are 8:40-2:50 I think I should be able to manage to get home at a decent time in the evenings even when staying after school for prep work and marking, meetings, etc.

I start school on Tuesday but the first two days are just staff meetings and planning time for the teachers.  Then a week from today I will be meeting my kids!  I will make sure to write more about how I am feeling about the job and what my position will entail after the first few days. 

I am excited to see where this new journey will take me even though there are still a lot of unknowns and I am pretty nervous!  At least I know that I will have a stable, predictable income, I will be working with the same colleagues every day and I will have a chance to really get to know my students and to see them grow and progress.  There is good and bad to both supply teaching and to a permanent position but I just need to trust that God will give me the strength and perseverance to get through the tough times and that there will be lots of positive, rewarding times too!

Like always your prayers are so appreciated!!

-Heather <3

Bank Holiday in London!

Monday was seriously the BEST DAY.  

The plan originated when we were hanging out at a nearby pub after the evening service at church and Sion told Laura and I that he was planning to visit the British Museum to see the Pompeii exhibit the next day.  Laura asked if she could go along and then they asked if I wanted to come too and it eventually became a full day of exploration and sightseeing! 

    

We got up bright and early took the train up from Southampton to Waterloo Station.  The Starbucks employees were genuinely shocked to see Laura and I at 7:30 on the morning after most people had been hard-core partying (including the guy in the flat above me who indulged in a great deal of drunken singing).

From Waterloo I had my first experience on the Tube.  I was quite mesmerized by all of the posters advertising West-End shows but I had to focus in order to keep up with Laura’s ‘London walk’ (which is quite a bit faster than my natural walking pace if you can believe it!).  

Since Laura is a native Londoner, she taught me things like how on the escalators if you are on the right then you can stand still but if you are on the left you need to be walking.  She was an excellent tour-guide throughout the entire day.

We arrived near the museum when it opened at 10:00.  

Our timeslot for Pompeii was 11:20 so we went and saw some of the regular exhibits including historic artefacts from the Americas, Eastern religions, the Middle East and the British Isles.  

Easter Island Head

One of MANY Hindu sculptures.

Evil vampire camels!

13th-14th century Chinese pottery.

Celtic artefacts from 400-300 BC

The museum is SO BIG and there was no way that we could have taken everything in properly in one day.  I definitely want to to go back at some point as I would really like to see the sections on ancient civilizations (Greece, Rome, Egypt). 

The Pompeii exhibit was breathtaking as well.  There were many carbonized items that had been rescued from the wreckage of the city by archaeologists.  

Carbonized food.

Carbonized baby's cradle.

Sculptures and art from people’s homes were all over (some of which was NOT PG rated).  Most of it was extremely intricate and beautiful.

Dog mosaic.

The most haunting part was the section called “Death in Pompeii” which contained various representations of people from the town.  One was the remains of a woman's body which were filled in with ebony resin so that her skeleton and jewellery were visible.  

A little further on there was a series of plaster casts that had been poured into where the bodies of two adults and two children had decomposed, revealing the shapes of the people in the moments when the rage of the volcano hit them.  

It was only then (at the end of the exhibit) that I was finally asked by a staff member not to take pictures, so you are all in luck as you get to see the photos that I already had.

After this Laura and I texted Sion and he still had a long way to go before finishing the exhibit so we ventured out of the museum and found a café where we had tea and cake while we waited.  So delicious!!

The final exhibit we saw was one of old clocks and watches from the 14th-20th centuries.  Sion works in watch making and repair so he was able to answer our questions and help us to appreciate the craftsmanship much more.

Next we jumped back on the Tube and got off at Picadilly where I soon got my first view of the London Eye.  This is where I went into full-blown tourist mode.  

Laura helped me to push through the crowd and I got my first glimpse of the Houses of Parliament and the Elizabeth Tower (which many people refer to as “Big Ben” but in truth Big Ben in the bell inside the tower).  I was SO excited and I finally felt like I was undoubtedly in London. 

We found the place to buy tickets for the tours and ended up getting ones that got us a boat ride down the Thames and a bus tour around all of the key sights in central London.  I was so thankful that my native Brit friends were keen to do such touristy things with me! 

Here are some highlights of what we saw:

Lions along the edge of the Thames.

St. Paul's Cathedral

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

Waiting for the tour bus.

Beautiful day for an open-top bus tour!!

Nelson's Column

Trafalgar Square

Canadian Embassy!

Wellington Arch

Marble Arch

Westminster Abbey

One very happy Canadian!

We were super hungry by the time we had gone around the bus route so we headed to Chinatown and found a restaurant that ended up having super delicious food.  My favourite part was the crispy duck pancakes.  Heavenly!

Finally we took our exhausted selves back to Waterloo to catch the train back home. 

I had such a fantastic time and I felt like I checked off a lot of boxes on my London must-see list in one day.

I hope you all enjoyed reading about our adventures!

-Heather <3

Getting Settled

Hello sweet family and friends!

The last couple of days have consisted of a lot of running around.  My flat has pretty much all I need for the kitchen, etc. already but I did need to buy some things like towels and cleaning supplies AND little tins for my biscuits, tea and coffee :)

I went out last night with a few people from the church that I am planning to get involved in while I am here. We went to this restaurant/nightclub place where they play movies on Wednesday nights.  The dance floor was converted to be like a big living room with couches we watched 'Clueless' on the big screen in there.  I got to chat with some of the girls before and after the film and it was really nice to start to connect with some people from the city.  One of the girls also walked home with me and gave me a mini-tour of some of the cool spots in the city which was really nice :)  The church in general sounds super awesome and I am excited to check it out on Sunday and to meet some more lovely folks!

In my travels today I tested out the camera on my new phone and took a few snaps of the city.  I will take many more soon in the next couple of days when I am less busy.

I definitely ate Weetabix for breakfast and lunch today.  SO yummy!

Whoever decided to make them tiny and to add chocolate was kind of a genius

(I never was a fan of the big, plain wheat-cake version that we have at home)!

Ruins of a church that was bombed in the Blitz.

The Bargate which was built in Roman times (1180 AD)  

Some pieces of the old town wall are still standing as well.

One of our friendly neighbourhood rhinos!

They are all over the city and all decorated by different artists.

If you need to find a cross-walk here, just look for the Lego block pattern!

Hotel where the Titanic passengers stayed before their ill-fated voyage.

The taller crane is where this epic climb happened: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fs0hkdJzk8  SO CRAZY!!

I am going to try to just relax tonight and get to bed at a reasonable time.  The jet-lag hasn't been that bad but I am still pretty tired!

Love you all!  

-Heather <3