"Chicken _______"

We officially started our placement at our new school on Monday. All of us researched how to get there realizing it was going to take at least 1 1/2 hrs. Most of us are living in Eastbourne; however, Haley, Jess, and my school is in a town called Hailsham which is about a 20 minute drive--if you're not taking public transportation. The only decent thing about the situation is that they don't start school until 9am BUT the Head-Teacher wanted us to be at the school at 8. A detailed description of our Monday travel is listed below...

6:45 am-->Walk 10 minutes to bus stop near our house-->Wait for the number 3 bus to take us to Eastbourne City Center--Ride the number 3 for about 10 mintues to city center-->Walk 5 minutes to another bus stop in city center that will take us to Hailsham-->Bus 54 is supposed to arrive at 7:15 but doesn't until 7:29--> 54 Begins journey to Hailsham and alarm goes off. Bus driver tells us there is a problem. We look at each other.-->We stop and wait on another bus to pick us up. The driver tells us that the bus coming is actually worse than the one we are on. She said the drivers refer to it as the "chicken shit" bus. We think "great we're getting on the chicken shit bus...this is a great start to our Monday."-->Switch buses--> Continue journey to Hailsham-->Arrive in Hailsham then walk 20 minutes from the bus stop to our school-->Arrival time is 8:50 (only a tad bit late, right?)

The day at school went fairly well, until the teacher gave me her lesson for the end of the day and left the classroom. It was a lesson plan for PSHE. I didn't even know what PSHE stood for!! So...I improvised. A lot. Oh, and this was after the French teacher did not show and she tried to get me to review counting to 10 with the students-in French, of course. I don't know French. That was interesting.

My Super Small Classroom

Luckily the Deputy Head-Teacher took us home. We left the school around 4:45 and arrived home right a 5. Public transportation not my best friend at the moment.

Two days down, 22 to go.

Pedro from Portugal

I am happy to inform you that I did make it back from my school on Wednesday. I'm glad to see that you all were so worried.

Wednesday we visited our schools for the first time. The University of Brighton dropped us off at the school and told us just to introduce ourselves and look around the school and that we needed to find our own way home. When we arrived we met the Head-Teacher or in America the Principal. She told us that our school was very recently a failing school and the children were basically running the school. One teacher told us that kids used to run out of the classroom and climb over the fence and go home. I thought this was ridiculous! We walked into our classroom and were instantly greeted by a 4th grader whose name was Pedro. "Hi, I'm Pedro and i'm from Portugal," he stated excitedly. "Hi, I'm Mr. Owings and i'm from America," I responded. He didn't really seem all that excited about us being American. He asked us how we got there and how long it took. After telling him we flew about nine hours he instantly responded that he took a boat and it took much longer. We continued our tour of the school. It is so small compared to our schools.

On Thursday we took a day trip into London with all of the American students that are studying at the University of Brighton. We saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, Walked to Trafalgar Square, Past 10 Downing St where the Prime Minister resides, then on to Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Fortnum and Masons where they sell tea for like 5 gazillion dollars. And no, I'm not exaggerating...okay..maybe just a little. Then, we split up. Jessica, Haley and I took the tube to see the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, and then rode on the London Eye. It was such a great experience; even though, I had just done it exactly a year ago. I still remembered my way around.

The trip continues...

Living with a host family is taking some getting used to. Our house parents are to my estimation at least 70 years old. They are precious, though. They are trying so hard to make us feel at home. Francis, our house mom, apparently had a cardiac arrest years ago disabling her. She struggles to move around and we can barely understand a word she says. When I can comprehend what she says I get to see her humorous personality. Yesterday Ernie (our house father) asked me how I liked my coffee. Francis chimed in, "I like my coffee like I like my men--Strong and hot." We couldn't contain ourselves.

The food situation is what has been the most difficult. For lunch our first day we had rolls, a salad (not what you are thinking of as a salad. It was only lettuce. Yep. Just lettuce.), and deli meat. We had the same thing for supper that night, and lunch the next day. Yum. Just as we were getting discouraged Ernie offered us a vegetable casserole. Yes! We were excited for something different. Fail. Ernie served the casserole to us for dinner. I opened the lid and the three of us almost exploded with laughter. We tried so hard to hold it in. I bet you're wondering what was so funny... well, the vegetable casserole had, of course, vegetables; however, there was something else. It was basically a bowl of corn flakes. Milk and cornflakes. Yes, I said milk and cornflakes. Don't forget--the meal was vegetable casserole. Definitely not my definition of a vegetable casserole. So, Jess and I decided to snack on the only thing we had--shredded wheat.

I saw Francis naked.

As the three of us were sitting at the table having our delicious vegetable casserole, Ernie comes and closes the door to the dining room and tell us that he is going to help Francis to the bathroom. Theres only one problem. The door was glass. Not frosted glass. Clear glass. So as we chuckle about that I just decided to turn my head away because I certainly did not want to see that. I think I am in the clear so I look up. What do I see? A nude, at least 70-year-old woman, heading to the loo. I am scarred for life.

On Monday we had to venture out of Eastbourne to go the University of Brighton campus in Falmer. Travel is much more efficient here. We have done so much more walking too. We walked the 1.2 miles from our house to the train station. At this point we hadn't figured out the bus system. We arrive at the train and decipher how the get on the right train. We take the 30 minute train ride to Falmer. The view was awesome. It's so great living within a walk from the beach and having beautiful mountains surround you. We arrived at the campus and met up with the 11 girls from Illinois State University that are completing the same program as us. Yep, it's myself and 13 girls!

University of Brighton Education Building

I guess I could share some of my newly learned English jargon...

spend a penny-use the toilet

loo-restroom

heater-clothing dryer

biscuit-cookie

flat-apartment

uni-university

trousers-pants

pants-underwear

rubber-eraser...the university supervisor told us, "don't be frightened if a child asks you for a rubber, they're only asking for an eraser."

rubbish-trash

Tomorrow they are dropping us of at our schools. I will be at a primary or, as we call it, elementary school. Haley and I were placed at the same school. They are dropping us off and leaving us to find our way home. They told us that this was the best way for us to learn our way from the school. If I don't write anymore, then I haven't made it back from the school.