Thursday, March 18, 2010

Al Fin....

So it's been about 3 weeks since I've been back in the States and my trip seems like a huge blur now. It's really unfortunate because that trip has probably been the most exhilarating and eye opening experience that I have ever had in my 21 years. I know some of the events may seem stupid to you guys as readers, but they truly are the funniest moments in my life. Everything that happened on this trip, I am glad that it happened. I'm glad that my wallet got stolen in Prague, and that Jenna and I got lost in Rome, or that I had a near death experience with a man with herpes. The way that I look at it is that it's funny and it's very typical for these events to happen in my life. So everyone....just laugh. Take a moment now to realize that I am back in the states, in one piece and still healthy. It's ok to laugh about the stupid things that we did! We're 21! Give us a break and let us live! I know most of you guys wouldn't have experienced your trip like we did, but that's also why this was my trip and not yours! This blog also goes out to my aunt Carol who has been so bored in life without reading a daily dose of me! Even though she can see me on a daily basis, she would rather just read about my life! hahahaha



So our last week in Brussels was absolutely amazing! It rained everyday I think and it went by extremely fast even though we begged for the days to go slowly just so we could feel like we had more time. As each day passed, we knew that that was one less day for us to be there. We took advantage of every opportunity that we had there. We went to Daokta's boy scout ceremony and made fools of ourselves while all of Dakota's friends were convinced that we were his girlfriends! haha One boy even thought that Lindley was one of the boys mom! hahahahaha sucka.

We celebrated the 100th day of school about 2 weeks late with my first graders. The activities that they did were so hilarious. They made their faces as if they were 100 years old. They looked so funny because some were bald or some had hair just above their ears and some even gave themselves mustaches and beards and hair coming out of their ears! I took photos don't worry! There was this one little girl in my class who loved this other little boy and she wanted me to grab both of their 100 year old faces to see what they would look like together when they are 100. So I took both down and put them side by side and go "aww that's cute". I look at her and she is making a nasty face and goes..."ummm maybe I don't love him anymore!" hahahahahha she thought he was ugly at 100 and didn't want to marry him anymore.

The teachers took us to dinner that last week and we thought that we should bring them all flowers for helping us and putting up with us. Tracey takes us all around and we can't seem to find decent priced flowers that looked good. We ended up bring our teachers potted plants! hahaha. They said they loved them.

We spent that weekend wandering around Brussels and trying to get the last of our gifts. Tracey took us to the Stockel market and we had the best and I mean THE BEST waffle ever. It was fresh and gooey in the middle and it didn't need anything on it to make it soooo good. I think I died and came back to eat another waffle. We bought a crap ton of chocolate. Which now it is almost gone. We bought some Mankin Penis souvenirs and I even bought an apron made out of true Belgian lace. We'll see if I ever wear the apron. I think I just bought in my feat to be more domestic. I want to say FAIL.

Tracey took us out to this fancy restaurant where they are known for their mussels. Yuck....I had chicken. The girls had the mussels and they claimed they taste like chicken, but that makes me wonder....does chicken actually taste like chicken?! We then went to Delirium with Tracey. This place has over 2000 different beers! It's in the Guinness book of world records and in the book of 100 things to do before you die. I can cross that off my list now! They even had Duff beer from the Simpsons.

The next day we had to leave and it was a really sad departure. We had to leave the house by 6:00 am and even Dakota got up to take us to the airport! We were waiting in line to check our bags and the line was taking forever when there was about 10 people in it. It was ridiculous. We were right up front and this lady working was just chatting on the phone and saying ridiculous things. She told Jenna that she would have to put her purse in her bag because she couldn't have more than one carry on. Me, not knowing when to keep my comments to myself blurted out "Are we in the wrong line?! Is this Ryan Air?!" (Those who have flown Ryan Air or know anything about Ryan Air will know why that is an insult). The lady didn't appreciate that I guess and looked at me and told me "that if I had a problem I can leave and fly another airline" hahaha oops. She was definitely sending my bags to anther place than I was going! Turns out that my bags were 1 kilo over the limit and I was about to plead with her and she stops and goes "it's too early for this" and let them through!

We then said our last goodbyes and it was really sad. The Deverill's were amazing people and we weren't ready to leave them yet! I had to walk away fast because, I'll admit, I did start to cry. But the good news is that they are coming down to Texas in June so we get to see them again! WooHooo.

We got back to our house around 4 pm and Jenna and I had to start student teaching the very next day. We were exhausted and depressed. We've been teaching for 2 weeks now and I guess you can say we've settled back into our routine of things, but it's still different. I miss Tracey driving us to school and playing ABBA for us. I miss none of us being morning people and forcing conversations just so it wasn't silent. I miss the dogs. I miss Dakota. I miss Tracey and Dirk. I miss my kids. I miss the waffles and the chocolates and the beer! I just miss Europe.

Top 10 things I learned on this trip:
1. Beer is soo good.
2. Waffles are sooo good.
3. The chocolate is soo good.
4. Always have an umbrella ready because you'll never know with the weather.
5. I want to learn another language desperately.
6. People are fun in Europe.
7. Always have a house key on you. The no door knobs on the inside or outside can really throw you off.
8. Coffee is a necessity.
9. Some people smell really bad. They need the DO for the BO.
10. Europe is absolutely amazing and I now know why some Europeans aren't that fond of the Americans.

I LOVE BRUSSELS!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Holiday part 3....Roma!

So, we arrive at the airport in Dublin with time to spare. We were excited because this airport was nicer than Prague and things had worked out with Ryan air at this point in time. We walk to our gate, which is probably the very last gate in this airport. We tried to get something to eat, but everything was shut down because of a gas leak....important fact...remember. So we are waiting in the boarding line forever and we finally get up there and they pull Lindley to the side. I look at the situation, but they took my boarding pass and let me on through. I look back and Jenna and Whitley are all pulled aside with Lindley. I can't hear what's going on so I step closer. This man working there is trying to get me to board the plane, but there was no way I was getting on that plane without the other girls. Turns out, that they didn't get their passports checked and didn't have a stamp that I had because I ended up checking my bag. The guys wouldn't let them onto the plane until they had their passports checked which meant that they had to run back to the check in counter and back to the plane in about 15 minutes. Keep in mind that our gate is probably about 2 miles away from the check in counter. The next thing I know, Jenna, Lindley and Whitley are bolting down the airport and I'm left standing at the gate. I shouted after them "don't worry you guys, I'll wait here" great words of encouragement huh?! So, I'm sitting at the gate waiting for the girls to come back and time is just ticking away. An announcement comes on saying "the gate for Rome will be closing in 5 minutes"...then I hear "the gate for Rome will be closing in 2 minutes"...then I hear "the gate for Rome will be closing very shortly"...ok at this point I am the only one sitting at the gate so It's fairly obvious that they are talking to me and I'm sitting there staring back at them and tapping my watch saying "don't worry...they'll be here". So I hear "the gate for Rome is closing...soon"...and "the gate for Rome is closing...please get on the flight"...and I'm just sitting there staring back. The announcements keep coming just like that....they should have just said "Sarah Bourland get on the damn flight!". So, they finally announce that they are closing the gate...for real this time...and I go up to this guy freaking out because I don't know where the girls are and my bag is on the plane and this all just sucks. So the guy is trying to stall the plane and I start crying and then I make him really uncomfortable by crying so he sends me away to go look for the girls. I finally see Whitley's head bobbing down the hallway and I start screaming to the airport man that they are coming and to throw my bag back on that damn plane. After Whitley, Lindley comes bounding down the hallway and finally Jenna trickles in. Their faces were hilarious!! They were exhausted, sweating, red, and shiny. I couldn't help but laugh and they all yelled at me for laughing because it wasn't a funny situation....oh but it was!! They were also running with their huge travelling backpacks! hahah....once they got back they realized that they should have left their bags with me! hahahahaha oops. You'll have to read their blogs for their side of the story because I don't think that I could do it justice! We finally get on the plane, and everyone stares at us! They had been sitting there for about 20 minutes ready to leave and then we walk on...it was obvious that we were the ones delaying the flight. To our luck there were no seats together that were open so we all had to snag seats randomly on the plane. Which happened to work out for Whitley because she sat next to this 22 year old guy and a local of Roma. The local gave us tips of where to go and the 22 year old agreed to hang out with us.



We arrived in Rome and had to take a bus to the train station and then a bus to a stop close to our hostel. It's also about 10:30 at night as well. So, we get off at this stop and we are not in a good neighborhood. The only directions we have are some simple directions that the hostel gave us when we booked the room. I don't think we have a map at this point either. So we guess on a way and start walking. We are standing at a street corner waiting to pass, when this cop car turns onto the street drives by us, immediately reverses and pulls up to us. We are all like what the hell did we do now?! These cops (2 guys) get out of the car and ask us what we are doing. We are all slightly nervous and confused because we were just trying to find our hostel. We explain to the cops that we are "lost" and they decide that they will try to help us find our hostel. They park their car in the middle of the street with their lights flashing and pull out their map. At this point, we are seriously holding up traffic. People are staring and even these girls walk up and ask us if we are ok. Jenna and I cannot stop laughing because something like this would happen! It was ridiculous. So the cops decided that they were going to help us find our hostel, but there wasn't room for 4 girls in their car. They turn their lights on and proceed to drive slow enough that we could keep up with them while walking next to their car. At one point we had to turn down this other street and instead of telling us they started to drive down the street the wrong way while they are still driving extremely slow. I guess the police can do anything in Roma. We finally find our hostel and it isn't clearly marked, so we ask if this is the correct place and we hear this "if it's bad, then no but if it's good, then possibly" umm...that's not really the response you want when you were just escorted to your hostel by the police at 11:00 at night. So we are checking in and the guy asks us for our passports. We were really cautious because no other place has asked us for them. He said he needed them to make copies incase the police needed to protect us and to sell us on the interent! He had some really bad jokes...or at least we hope they were jokes.

Jenna and I went upstairs to shower and we realized that the restroom was a sink and a shower faucet. No dividers, no curtains, not even a door really. It had walls, but no ceiling. So, when you showered the steam and moisture went directly into the room and made everything damp. When you showered you were standing directly over the sink. It was the first time that I could actually be showering and brushing my teeth at the sink at the same time! When I went to bed that night, I swear I had a dry shirt on, but when I woke up it was wet because of all the moisture in the room from the shower. Lindley even asked me if I had showered because I looked wet! Sick.

We headed out and dominated Rome the next day. We hit up anything and everything in Rome. We ended our day eating gelato on the Spanish Steps. Such a tough day. We went back to get ready for a pub crawl we were going to, which started at 7:45 back at the Spanish steps. We didn't leave our hostel until 7:15 and the bus wasn't coming for another 15 minutes. We thought that a taxi would be the best solution, but of course we couldn't find a taxi when we actually needed one. We finally hunted down a taxi at 7:50....we were 5 minutes late and we hadn't even left our street yet. We arrived shortly after 8:00 and luckily there were people still waiting there for late comers like us. The pub crawl wasn't that great because they had all their bars spread out across Rome. They had us walking at least 20 to 30 minutes to get to the next bar. First off, it's never a good idea to have people drinking and have no immediate access to a toilet for another 30 minutes. So, I blame this next part on the pub crawlers. I won't go into too much detail, but basically I had to pee so I decided to squat behind a car. Apparently, a guy who worked for the pub crawl saw me run off and went after me to make sure that I wasn't lost. As he is coming up yelling at me, 4 old Itallian guys coming walking up from the other direction shouting explicit things in Itallian. I was being attacked in both directions. I decided to run for it, but when I tried running my scarf got caught on the car's side window and I was stuck. I look up for Jenna and she is gone!! I was caught red handed with my pants down by 5 guys and Jenna is no where in sight. There was absolutely no way of saving myself after that scenario, so I just let the jokes come and then Jenna and I called it an early night.

We left early and Whitley and Lindley stayed. Jenna and I thought that we could make it back home, but then we realized that we were mapless, didn't know the hostel's name, or what street the hostel was on. Crap. The pub crawl guy was able to get us to the train station and another guy was able to tell us what buses to take after that. We thought we could manage those directions, but once we reached the train station we found that all the buses had closed!! We hit up the group of taxi men to see if they could help, but they either didn't speak any english or had no idea what us silly American girls were doing out at 2:00am in Rome without any idea where we were! We were able to get a taxi man to take us to a metro stop that we frequented and we knew was slightly close to our hostel. After he dropped us off, we were on our own. We thought that we recognized familair street signs or stores, but then we realized that the same store with the same sign is on EVERY STREET CORNER!! Rome really doesn't make it easy to lost people to find their way. So just a recap. Jenna and I are wandering the streets of Rome, at which the time is now 3:30, with no map, no idea what our hostel is called, and basically no sense of direction. Jenna and I are also the WORST peopel with directions. As we are walking, we see hookers being dropped off. To this day, we still have no idea how we didn't get mugged or something. Finally, we did something right and stumbled upon our hostel around 4:30. We can just say that the other girls beat us home. Oops.

We decided that sleeping in would be a wonderful thing for the next day. We then hit up the rest of Rome that we didn't get to the previous day. We decided to take the night easy since we had to catch an 8:00am train to Pisa to catch our 12:00 plane ride back to Brussels. Why we flew out of Pisa and not Rome...who knows?!

We managed to catch our train, which was on time. We got to the airport with plently of time. We caught our plane with no problems and we were even able to sit next to each other. I'm not sure what it was, but somehow everything was going right for us...for once! When we arrived in Brussels, Tracey was already waiting for us! Such a saint. We arrived home and passed out!

1 week of travelling...3 different countries...4 girls...and the adventures that we went through can really tire you out! I wouldn't have changed anything though. The trip was amazing.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Holiday...Part 2....Dublin

We flew into Dublin around 3:00 pm. It was a rough flight because we were coming from Prague, still drunk, and living on 2 hours of sleep. Flying in, Dublin was absolutely beautiful!! We manage to find our hostel, which was very homey and not hostely at all. It was a little rainy, so for those of you who know how my hair reacts to water and humidity...it looked like that! Not a good look for first impressions. We found a place to eat, which was very eco friendly and a quaint coffee shop that hooked us up with more energy. Turns out that the coffee shop was attached to this bar/restaurant/club that we will later frequent. We then hit up the shopping street, which was phenomenal!! Dublin has better style than America...I'm jealous. We head back to the hostel and attempt to call it a night because we were exhausted, but these 2 boys were there (practically right outside of our door) playing their guitars and singing. OOOWEEE HOTTIES! They actually weren't even that cute, but the way they were playing and singing....you forgot all about that. We put in some requests, but they didn't know any "American" songs. They still sang to me....not the other girls...but don't listen to what they have to say.



The next day, we went on a day bus tour to Wicklow. It takes you out to the country and around the area. Lots of films have been shot in the area we went to, but I have never seen PS I love you or Leap Year...those movies are crap so that part didn't thrill me. The land its self was amazing! Turns out our tour guide was youngish and cuteish, so Whitley was brave and asked him to come out with us that night. He had a football game that night, so he said maybe. We weren't heartbroken, but went home to get cleaned up. While we were getting ready, he ended up calling our hostel and leaving us a message to meet him at this place around 10:00. We went to eat before we had to meet him and ended up stopping in that bar/restaurant/club that was attached to the coffee shop. There was a hottie standing outside telling us about the menu, Whitley being such a flirt, invited him to come join us when he got a break. We are almost done with our meals when he comes up with a friend of his and sit down at the next table. We chit chat a little and then they agreed to meet us at the bar we were going to meet our tour guide at. They also mentioned that the bar we were meeting at was an old people's bar, but we thought maybe they were wrong. Always trust the locals!!! We walk into the bar and we are the youngest people by about 30 years! It was old people central! It was funny because this one lady (at least 40) ended up being so drunk that she fell backwards off of her stool. I wanted to laugh so hard, but everyone else was "pretending" to be worried, so I wasn't going to be that insensitive girl, but let me tell you...after about 10 minutes had passed I let out a really loud laugh at the lady.

The 2 guys from the restaurant came and met us, we had some drinks and tour guide never showed up. We called it quits on him and left with the other two guys. They took us to this really cool club that happened to be right by our hostel. When we walked in there was a live band that was playing really good songs and then downstairs was a dance area. We stayed in the live band area. We were enjoying ourselves and bopping around when I get pulled out into the dance/mosh area by some drunkie. He was so drunk that his facial expressions never changed, he would just move to the music. I thought why not dance with him, but when I was done I tried slinking away, but he kept pulling me back. I look over at Jenna to save me and she happens to be recording the whole thing! The video is priceless!

Jenna and I decide to go get another drink, while I'm not sure what the others did. Oh well. So, I'm standing at the bar and I get a tap on the shoulder. I assume that it's Jenna because she was behind me. I look and no one is there. I feel a tap on the other shoulder and again no one is there. I was like ughh Jenna stop and then this guy pops out and goes "gotcha!"I couldn't help but be amused because I just got tricked by the oldest trick in the book and by some random guy in Dublin. We ended up talking for a while and then out of no where he goes "I"m going to marry you". Umm...hahah this guy is drunk! I was like ya sure, but he kept going on about how I was his future wife and that I was exactly his type and that I was the one. I can honestly say that I have never heard that line before. He wouldn't stop talking about us getting married, so I decided to just play along. We ended up hanging out for the rest of the night until he told me that he was going downstairs with his friend so his friend could get his jacket and that he would be right back. Jenna and I wait there for a good 15 minutes when he NEVER comes back! hahaha some husband!

We ended up staying until the bar closed and discovered that the Irish are careless with their money and the floors of the bar were covered in euros! I ended up finding about 2 euros worth of coins on the floor. The luck of the Irish! On our walk back, we find a fight in front of our hostel. Jenna and I were intrigued, so we stayed and watched. Turns out, that one of the main guys in the fight was the drunkie that I danced with earlier in the night! hahahaha it was too good!

The next day, we go to the Guinness warehouse and take the tour. The beer was gross! blech. But the tour was cool. After that, we head to the airport for our final trip to Roma!!....

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Holiday...part 1 "Prauge"

So, there was too many things that happened to us on this week long holiday, so I'll have to break the trip up into parts. Part one is what we like to call "Prague"....

We leave school on Friday early to catch our bus to Prague. We were all sure that this bus ride was 10 hours, we are 10 hours in a realize that the bus ride is actually 14 hours long! Ugh. This bus is packed as well. Jenna and I are in the very back where all 5 seats are connected and then Lindley and Whiltey are in the 2 seats in front of us. About 5 hotties walk onto the bus as well, so we are thinking that this is going to be a good 14 hours. We take off and Jenna passes out. Great. About 2 hours or so into the trip the 2 ladies sitting next to Jenna and I begin to paint their nails. I'm sorry, but who paints their nails in a packed bus?! The fumes are awful and the bus is extremely bumpy that the ladies have paint not only on their nails, but all the way up their hands. Once they were done, they decided to add polka dots?! Their nails turned our awful ps. So there is this Aussie girl sitting in front of Whitley and Lindley and we start talking with her and it turns out that she is travelling around Europe for 7 months by herself! YIKES. But she happens to be sitting next to the hotties. They are from Brussels, are 21, and are going to Prague! We thought this sounded good, but to them we were "untouchables" or something! The only time they bothered talking to us was when they shouted "Hey Texas girls" to us and to ask us if we were cheerleaders! Well, Whitley slightly is and said yes and they started shrieking. I'm not sure if that was good or bad. She showed them some photos and let's just say they had no interests in us after that!

Around 3:30ish we woke up to 4 Czech police demanding for our passports. That is not a good way to be woken up. We finally arrive in Prague around 5:30AM!!!! After wandering around for our hotel for 45 minutes, we finally came across it...right next to a brothel! Well, we can't check in until 2:00pm and it is just 6:30 am. Crap. Jenna and I pass out in the lobby while the other girls did something. We venture out around 8:30 for breakfast, get lost, get picked up by an American man, he leads us to another place. We go back to the hostel to wash our faces and brush our teeth. We meet 2 guys who are here from the states and they invite us to breakfast. Well, we already ate, but we didn't want to pass up the chance to meet new people. So we accept. They end up going on this walking tour with us. They have this friend who lives in Prague and he happens to be DJing at the bar in our hostel. We meet up with them that same night to watch his friend. The music was ummm.....they called it "experimental music"...they should have kept experimenting before they played it for us. The hostel gave us free crappy beers and the guys provided us with awkward conversations....religion, abortion, politics, dads. It was interesting. One guy brought his hookah down and we smoked some hookah for a bit. He tried to teach Whitley and I how to blow smoke rings....we failed miserably. We took off quickly after that.

The next day we take a walking tour of the castle. We have to take a tram up to the castle so the entire tour group is trying to get onto one tram. While we were waiting, Jenna plays this pickpocketing game on me. It was slightly funny. So the tram comes and we all bombard it. I'm getting pushed and I think they it is Jenna pushing me because she couldn't get on the tram. I move to the side and I look back to see if she got on. Well, what do I see?! Do I see Jenna on the tram...yes, but I also see my wallet going above my head!! So I run to the doors, which are closing and I push them back open. This lady is standing at the doors with my wallet in her hands. So I shout "give me my wallet back!" and what does she do!? She hands it back....?! WTF why didn't she run?! I mean she has my wallet in her hands and then gives it back when a little 5'2" girls asks for it back! So, of course I thanked her for that. Well, she then sticks her tongue out at me! Rude. Afterwards, I realized that I thanked some lady for finding my wallet in my purse and then giving it back to me!! Oh Prague.

We end up meeting some new friends on the tour as well along with our tour guide. We all go out for drinks that night at this place called Pub. It was really cool because on each table there is about 4 taps that you can get your beer from. But each table is also competing with other tables from around the country on how much beer you are drinking. Our table didn't win. After a beer we thought that it would be a good idea to take a shot of Absinthe. EWWW worst idea ever. It tasted like paint stripper. Ugh. So we all go back to the beer. I guess we were too loud and the Pub closed early. We weren't ready to go home yet, so we wander around until we found this other bar. We walked in and it was chill. So we sit down and are talking, but then we discover that there is an underground disco hall. We go down there and there is hardly anyone so we dominate that dance floor. We are dancing like fools because there is no one there to judge. I look over and there is this older man (40s) sitting at this table by himself just bopping. So, I go over and invite him to join our dancing group. He got excited, but only did one move with his hands and clapped like every 3rd beat. He soon sat down. So we are dancing and drinking and look down and it is about 4am. Apparently, the bars in Prague don't shut down. So we are getting our coats back on when this guy runs downstairs and starts tearing up the dance floor. We don't know how to react so we just stare and then decide to join him. He is going nuts and flailing his whole body...we assume that he has to be on drugs. So I go up and ask him what drugs he is on...he responds with "I Czech and I dancer" umm....since when did that become a drug?! So I ask him again and he says that same thing...that's when we noticed....dun dun dun....he has some snot formation going down his nose to his mouth. We are all grossed out and I told him that he needs to wipe his face he has some snot dripping. He told me, or so I thought, that the snot was his helpers. So I run to Jenna and was like this is so bizarre he told me it was his helpers....Jenna thought maybe it was his herpes. Not really sure, so I run and get him a tissue. I start dancing with him and waving the tissue in his face. I told him that he needed this to wipe his face. He took the tissue, rubs it on his face, throws it, and it lands on Jenna! hahahahaha. But the snot was still there! So I told him again and that's when he confirmed that the snot was in fact HERPES!! AHHHHHHH. So at this point we think he is the plague. So we are dancing, but not close to him. He comes up to me and gets really close as if he were going to kiss me, but before he even had a chance I was out of there! I told Jenna and asked her if Herpes was contagious, but before she could finish I was already in the bathroom washing my face and hands. Gross! We left quickly after that. We head home to the hostel and find that Jenna's ipod is missing. We tell the people working there, but they couldn't do much. So we go to bed for about 2 hours and then we had to get up again. When we wake up, Lindley finds that $600 is missing from her bag. Oh shit. But that was about it. There wasn't much that the hostel could do, so we had to leave to make our early flight to Dublin.....I don't think this post did Prauge justice, but it's the best I can do when typing.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Great day!

Last night it snowed and the lady that is picking us up while Tracey is gone is a little fearful of driving in the snow. Even though we told her that our roads were fine, she made us walk a mile to meet her at a corner of this main road! Keep in mind, that at 7:15 in the morning it is dark out and freezing!! When we got to the corner, she wasn't even there! We had to wait about 5 to 10 minutes for her! Least I can finally say that I have walked mile(s) in the snow to school, but in Europe! Try and beat that parents!

Today, all of the first grade teachers were gone for this conference...that means Lindley and I would be left alone with a sub. Sub's are never fun, so I wasn't looking forward to it. I go into class early to plan, especially since I wasn't there the day before. Luckily, Vanessa left an outline of the schedule for me. So, the kids come in and we start the morning routine. I look at the clock and it's 10:30....still no sub. I went the entire day teaching the kids by myself with no sub or anything. IT WAS FANTASTIC! The lessons went smoothly and the kids were able to whiz through their work after that because they understood the lesson. It's a good feeling. I am extremely impressed with myself. At the end of the day, the kids are to write in their agendas a few things that they did that day. I went around reading them and signing off on them. EVERY kid wrote that "Mrs. Darroch was gone today and Mrs. Sarah was here and we had so much fun!" Oh crap. They weren't supposed to say that. They were supposed to talk about how much they learned!! Oh well....beggars can't be choosers.

We arrive home and I'm last to walk in the doors. I hear Jenna go HA and point and then Whitley follows the same thing. I thought they were laughing at one of the dogs. Little did I know. I walk in and LAMBIE PIE is laying in the middle of the rug downstairs! I know I left him upstairs in bed. I rush over to him to pick him up and guess who beats me to him!! Frodo!! This big dog! He snatches him up and starts running around the room with lambie in his mouth! I'm shouting at him to drop it and he is just growling back. Lambie's life flashed before me! I could just see his cute little tail being ripped off. It was a horrific sight. Finally, Jenna grabbed his collar, Whitley grabbed his face and I grabbed Lambie out of his mouth. He was soaking and covered in dog fur. EWWWWWW. I have to sleep with him tonight like that! Everyone thought it was hilarious. Whiltey even caught the event on video. It might be funny in a few days. Right now Lambie is just scared for his life. Don't worry...Whitley got a video...http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=18312829#!/video/video.php?v=622336979724&ref=mf

At dinner, everyone made me pray. Future reference....I'm not good at that. I couldn't think of anything serious at that moment, so I basically made a joke out of it. Except, I prayed for good things. Like Lambie's safety in this house and for us to have a good trip and not miss any flights so Dakota won't have to spend another week with us and for Tracey to come back and save of from crazy Joy who doesn't know how to drive. None of the standards like bless this food we put in our body blah blah blah. It was actually rather good.

So, tomorrow we leave for our week long holiday. You won't hear from me for a whole week. It's sad really. We will head off on a 10 hour long bus ride to Prague...ew. We will spend 2 days there and then fly to Dublin. Spend 2 days there and then fly to Rome. Spend 3 days there and then head back to Brussels.

Watch out Europe! I'm on the run!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Kids here are hilarious

So, today in class I feel like loads of funny things happened. First, we were reviewing the vowels and all the kids had "a, e, i, o , u" right and then the teacher said "and sometimes...." and before any other kid shouted out the answer this little boy shouts "and K". Ummm....since when did K become a vowel! hahahahaha it was brilliant. The teacher goes "umm...I think you mean Y" and the kid just stared back at her. When we were asking what the kids learned about time, the same kid said that he learned that time=life. hahahaha how deep for a first grader. All the kids looked back at the board and were confused because they didn't seem to get that same message out of the lesson. I swear to you, these kids are amazing here. These kids are truly making me consider coming back to Europe to teach. They also think that cupid is a creepy naked man that runs around shooting people to make them fall in love.

After school, this other first grade teacher was going to take us down to the train station so we could book a train pass, but she had a conference first. Jenna and I got to talking with my teacher while we were waiting. Somehow her "ladyship" came up in conversation and she unveiled that her husband is actually the ambassador to the EU and that the house they live in was given to them by the government and that they have a full staff including, a butler, a driver, a full time chef, maids, and other people that work for them. She then passes us her number and tells us to call her anytime we want for drinks (they also get free champagne...luckies). Jenna and I then got a lesson on how ambassadors work and were taught that the US has some and they are actually neighbors with Vanessa. We had no idea that we even had people like that in the states. Let's just say that Vanessa was....well shocked that we had no idea! I hope she doesn't tell her ambassador neighbor that we had no idea that he existed. That's a little embarrassing...

We then went to the train station, which was a real fiasco. Karen offered us to take us home and cook for us. We didn't hesitate on accepting. Her house was lovely and her husband! OOOWEEEE....he is quite handsome. He is a true Belgian. Somehow, our blog came up in conversation and the fact that we might blog about them....they found that slightly creepy...oops. Karen also gave us some "predinner food". She wouldn't tell us what it was until after we ate it...that's never a good sign. I'm not very adventurous with food...so this was a huge thing for me. I ate it, and it had this ummm sweet yet weird taste to it. I wasn't quite done eating it when Karen told us that it was duck liver and onions....ummm vomit it my mouth please!!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Learning happens everyday...

1. Washing machines are kept in the kitchen.
2. Doors don't exist with doorknobs...outside or in. If the door shuts behind you and you don't have a key...you're screwed.
3. Travel backpacks suck.
4. The exchange rate absolutely robs you.
5. If you don't ride a bike...well, you're a loser.
6. Apparently, it's better to swerve and take your chances hitting another car than hitting a pot hole.
7. Having a native European, that is also driving, ask 4 American girls where we are in Brussels is not a good question.
8. Interestingly enough, the question "do you have a baby" and "have you ever had a baby before" doesn't mean the same thing to some kids. Needless to say, I answered the question differently everytime.
9. Tracey trusts us enough to leave her 14 year old son with 4 girls for a week while her and Dirk are in the states for a funeral. hahahahahahhahahahaha.
10. Bronie humps anything that will stand still long enough to let her prepare herself.
11. Water is not free.
12. You have to pay to use the loo, but men can pee in urinals placed on the sidewalk. ugh. gross and not fair.
13. Spooning with Jenna really isn't that bad.
14. Sex museums don't inform you on much. They just provide free porn.