Time certainly does fly while working. By the end of the day I can't seem to push myself to do anything productive. I really don't know how the other teachers can do all that they do! I have an 80% work load of a normal teacher (it is a first year teacher thing) and I can barely find the time in the week to plan, grade, teach and perform all the duties required. Some of it is that the stuff I have to teach is far more advanced and very different from what I had in the states. But I will never complain about what it is like in the states again. I don't mean to say that teaching in the UK is better then in the US though - I miss being at Murray very much - it is just much more intense a job over here. Much of my planning has gone to creating (as close as I can with the curriculum) AVID notebooks for my classes. For the most part the kids seem to enjoy it more then regular notes and video lessons - the test will be how they do on the assessment that is coming up in the next few weeks.

During the holiday two weeks ago my father came to visit and we travelled around to Dover to see the White Cliffs - you can even see France from the castle in the town! We also spent a few days in London seeing all of the touristy sites.

This past weekend, while travelling with the other American teachers, we went into London for dinner and a show at the theatre and on our way back to the train station stopped by Buckingham Palace. Since it was very late (and raining) there weren't many people around. I noticed that one of the gates was open and we stood by it just for fun. Then all of a sudden a car - all lit up inside - comes rolling in through the gate! It was the Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen of England. It all happened so fast so no one thought to get out a camera - but we were less then ten feet from the Queen! It was so cool.