Paisley-Glasgow Central on local rail; Glasgow Central-London Kings Cross on National Express East Coast (the good: once again free internet and great views; the bad: Kings Cross is currently under renovations so no chance of trying to ram a trolley through platform 9 and 3/4). London Kings Cross-Holborn-Newbury Park on the tube (Liverpool St. rail was under Sunday construction – nothing new there) and then Newbury Park-Gidea Park on a replacement bus. I actually could have gotten a ride home to Emily’s but I figured after the 9 hour travel day I needed a walk. Plus a chill night at home… which is what we got, which included planning for the next day, and a skype call home to sing happy birthday to my dad (who is now tied with mom in the who gets to age *mumblegarblegobbledygook* first).
Day Septante brought me full circle. Well, sort of. It’s weird; some people don’t want anything to do with their job when they go on a year off, but I like a little reminder once in awhile. Emily had invited me to visit her school for the day which I took up her on. She teaches year five and her kids are just adorable. We started the day with maths (yes, I’m spelling it right, stop asking) where they were working on pictograms. I was allowed to help them with questions about their homework which I quite enjoyed. After the morning break, I was up. Yes, I taught a lesson! We did some drama activities, fun games like “Darling won’t you please please smile?” and then took 20 minutes just before the end and played Countdown. As seen here!
The kids promised me that they’d watch the show when it pops up next week and I hope they do!
Emily, along with her friend Jen (who I knew from the Halloween party) and I went out for lunch at a small café and then it was back to work. Emily had prep time and had to get some things done, so I was invited to Linda’s class (Halloween party friend). It was science time, and the kids were making parachutes out of garbage bags, string, blue tack, staples, labels… a whole bunch of things. My favourite part was getting to help hand out the materials. Each group had previously composed a list of materials they were wanting to use. I got a kick out of the kids not specifying what quantity of materials the students wanted; so if they asked for four pieces of string, we made them nowhere near identical. Here’s what happened when one group asked for “lots of string”.
So a lesson was learned in qualifying what you wanted!
After school Em and her coworkers had a staff meeting and after some goofy pictures…
… Jen dropped us off at the Romford train station: Emily and I were heading into London for a West End Musical!
We started off by having dinner at Pizza Express, where we got a good deal through an internet special. The food was good, and it was nice having pizza as I miss Pizza Pizza back home terribly. We walked around Leicester Square, where, as we found out later, was a massive premiere for the video game Call of Duty (see, grade nines, I do know what it is). After finding a bank machine we wandered back to the Gielgud Theatre to see Avenue Q!
Now I had heard that Avenue Q had some, shall we say, mature situations. In fact it did, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would have been, and the whole production was very enjoyable – made even more exciting when we saw one of the actors on the tube on the way home! Although once we figured out it was him he got shy and got off the tube. That being said the production is not really for under 16s, although for you adults, go enjoy. I’m sorry I didn’t see it sooner!
Day Septante-et-Un was my last in the UK. Originally I was going to have a massive travel day; instead, when Millionaire got cancelled, I took advantage to split it in two. So this day was mostly travel… walk to Gidea Park station, train to Stratford, tube to London Bridge (contrary to popular belief –it was not falling down), train to Tonbridge, train to Dover Priory, where I caught the ferry. 
actual "White Cliffs of Dover", pictured
It turned out that I made good time and was able to bump up my ferry from the scheduled 3.15 pm to 2.30 pm. Which was kind of nice, because as much as I have affinity for waiting rooms, I have been in enough of them in my time. The ferry ride was really nice. It was designed for a ferry ride that would take quite awhile; however in the 90 minute ride I think I slept at least half. However I was disappointed that all passport control was look at my passport – no stamp! Boo-urns.
And thus I was in France. It has been eight years since I first stepped foot in France and even though the rain was coming down, I was EXTREMELY EXCITED to be back. I hopped a bus to the train station to sort out my first piece of business.
The whole reason that kick started my return to Europe was my EuRail massively discounted first class pass. You have 6 months to start the pass before it goes null and void. Well, Day Soixante-Onze was the second to last day to get it validated in either France, Germany or Spain (my nominated countries) before it went null and void leaving up the creek without a paddle. So first, I got it validated and secondly I booked my Calais-Paris-Stuttgart trip for the next day. After a bit of juggling, I got the reservations I needed.
Following that, it was off to the hotel, got some dinner, caught some telly, wrote some emails and skyped the rents.
I’d like to tell you that I slept well, moving from day Septante-et-un to Septante-Deux. I woke up to doors banging and thought, oh, it must be morning. Yeah, it was FOUR IN THE FREAKING AM. I was not amused. Does anyone have courtesy anymore?
So I finally tossed and turned and woke back up at around 7.30 am. I lazed around for a bit, and then decided to walk to MacDo for breakfast. Except they don’t do breakfast, not at least where I was. So it was back into the Carrefour, the grocery store where I found myself the night before as well. And I really wanted to get something for my cough, except that it’s not like the supermarket at home, so they didn’t have any and as 11th November is a holiday here in France, the pharmacie was closed as well.
At 12.35pm I found myself on my first train of the day: Calais to Paris Nord. I was sitting in 1er classe and living it up! I then had to switch from Paris Nord to Paris Est – a short 10 minute walk, even with my luggage.
Getting on the train headed for Stuttgart at Paris Est I could see some English speakers struggling with the seat numbering system (trust me, it’s not easy), so I was happy to be of assistance. Mary and Curtis are from Independence, Kansas and en route to see their daughter and her husband in Munich. We struck up a conversation and they were very nice to talk with.
The train arrived just a bit late into Stuttgart and I made my way to the hotel. Funnily enough I couldn’t get internet reception in my room so I had to sit out in the hall! After skyping Dad and writing some articles, I tucked into bed.
And, dear readers, I think that makes the first time in practically FOREVER that I’ve caught up. Four weeks still to go before I’m on home soil!
Cheers,
Vick.
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