Experiencing Techology

Google Map Lesson

Here's my travel map on google maps and a short lesson that I would like to do with my students next year! It's a rough outline!


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Google Map/Geography Lesson

Traveling Kids

Since I will be just meeting the kids that are coming into the classroom I want to share with my new students where I travelled this summer and where I have travelled to prior to that! With showing them my map and how to navigate around them I will attempt to teach them how to create their own map using Google maps.

The purpose of this project is to allow them to share with each other and myself where they have travelled to, what they liked about their trip, or their favorite thing there. If possible also adding pictures from their travels that they can get from parents, and bring in to show the class. I would also be able to print out a large map of the world (I work at the copy center and we have a large poster printer) and we can tag with thumbtacks or pictures the places that we have been, and add to it throughout the year.

Back in Plymouth

Well I never thought I would say this....but I MISSED PLYMOUTH! I came to find out that we get spoiled in Radnor, with new towels everyday, and cleaning! After using a dirty towel all weekend in London, I realized how lucky we are to be staying in Plymouth! I also missed the small city feeling with the University here and everything...knowing where I am is a big thing too!

Today during the PLATE conference I was able to learn and see some GREAT stuff! It was amazing the things that the 2nd years had to offer to show us! I stayed in the same room the whole time, but every session I saw was great!

My first session was on screen capturing using Jing, and it was really cool! You can video or take a picture of you doing something on your screen, doodle on it, record onto it, then send it wherever you want! I think that this would be a great tool to use with my Mom! She sometimes has problems at home in Battle Creek, where I'm from, where she can't figure something out on her computer, using this technology I can make a video with voice of me doing it on my computer, and send it to her to watch! It'd be a great tool to use in the classroom as well and I definitely will be using it next year in my 1st grade classroom to show the students how to do things and get to things on the computers.

The second session I was able to see was the iPortfolio one. The ladies presented on several different ways to produce portfolios including, google pages, voicethread, and iWeb. I was able to get some one on one tutoring in iWeb as well! I had purchased the software and space for my computer but was not able to learn how to use it yet, so one of the year 2 students showed me how she created a presentation and a portfolio using iWeb and how I can publish it to my .Mac space online! This is something I plan on incorporating into my Inquiry 3 project by posting my Inquiry 3 project onto my .Mac space!

The last session I sat in on was one about gaming in the classroom! I went to the one before a week ago and it wasn't very informative, but this one gave me a whole list of sites and ideas to use in the classroom. There were a lot of fun and interactive games for all subject areas that I could definitely use to engage my 1st graders in learning! I'm excited to see which ones would be worth wild to use in a lesson.

Overall the one portion of this program (class wise) that I have enjoyed the most was the conference today. It gave us a real chance to learn about some things that we didn't learn about in our class, and able to interact with the Masters students so they can show us what they know and what we can use for ourselves! It was VERY informative and great! :)


I am going to finish doing my Inquiry 3, or at least most of the way tonight. I am focusing on the technology aspect of the culture here in England, and how my experiences have made me think differently about American culture and our technology compared to here and other parts of the world! It will be in the form of a digital story, and I am incorporating my iWeb that I learned how to use and the ability of vodcasting to put it into my blog so people can d/l it on iTunes from there and watch it!

Weekend In London

So this weekend was an interesting one in London!

We started off with walking around the dorm to find some food and ended up eating at a little Italian baguette shop right around the corner of Conaught, near where the student apartments are! It was a nice little shop, the food was relatively cheap and good, and the gentlemen working there were very courteous and friendly!
We talked for a long time about everything that has been going on with the trip and all the work in the courses. I think we all feel overwhelmed everyday we have class, and after that as well.
Next we walked down into town and found a TON of shops! We went into Sainsbury's Market and it was so BUSY! There were many many people I think getting out of work, but I was able to find some Jaffa Cakes so I was VERY excited! I noticed as well that I since I have been here I have been looking for a sign that says "cookies" but they don't call them cookies, they call them "cakes" or "biscuits"! Another language thing that I learned this weekend! :)
We went out to the Zoo Bar later that night and had a great time! The music was very different, they played a lot of pop songs but techno versions, which I LOVED! Techno is NOT big at all in the US, but here I hear it playing everywhere I go out to! I think the fact that this was also a club/bar made it a bit different from a pub. When talking to some Plymouth people our first week here they considered a club a bar....where as in the US we call a bar...well a bar, then clubs are separate. I found this interesting, but overall the Zoo Bar just seemed like a dance club to me, with a lounge area on the first floor and a dance floor on the second. We then left and went to a small cafe on the corner of the street we were on in Leicester square, and ate some chips! We were able to watch all the people go by, and it was AMAZING to see ALL the people! There were so many! Everyone was going somewhere or talking or yelling, so people watching was very interesting at that time of night!

On Sunday, we headed down to the heart of the city to look for things for our scavenger hunt and do a bit of sightseeing as well! We walked into Trafalgar square and were able to sit and people/tourist watch for a while. I noticed that you could tell right away who were the groups of tourists (many of them) and who were natives to the area. There were people sitting by fountains reading and relaxing, while some children, of many different ethnicities, were playing on the statues and running around with their parents. There wasn't much of a difference that I saw between myself as a tourist and other tourists, of the same, and different, ethnicities. They were curious of where to go, lost, or just baffled, like me, of all the things to do and see. When riding on the Underground I felt the same feeling. Many of the people riding the tube knew exactly where they were going and exactly what they were doing, while you could see others looking at the map, or having one out of their own, trying to figure out what the heck was going on and how to get where they wanted to go! After a few times I felt that this was AS MUCH me anymore...I know next time I go to England I will definitely be prepared and know how to find my way around easier! We then went on a city bus tour, riding on the top of the bus was great! We saw EVERYTHING in London from there! We went on the original bus tour and it was amazing! It was cool and I was able to learn certain things about the culture and history of landmarks that you would not get just walking by them. Like the Hilton Hotel, which was originally supposed to be 2 times larger than it is now, but the Queen disapproved of the height of the original building because it exceeded the height of the palace, and the builders couldn't upset the Queen, so even there was A LOT of money lost, they didn't build it as high as it was supposed to be! This goes to show how important royalty is in the country, and how respected the royal family is.

The transportation is a BIG part of the culture of London I have come to see. This may be true as well for larger cities in the US, I’ve never been to NY or DC though. But I’m sure it’s very similar. In London I also saw a vast array of the arts around the city. Not only is there a TON of museums with art as a theme, but walking along South Bank on the River Thames, I found that there was a large area of arts that I had never experienced before. I saw the people that had great talents using them to make money, which is amazing!
There was a man that wore face paint and danced around and was able to balance these small clear plastic balls all over his body and on his hands. He then picked up another, and another, until he had 4 balls that he was balancing! It was amazing! We then saw some break dancers, and live statues, which i have never seen before. I wonder about how they train to do things like that, and if that is their full time job, or just a hobby that they do on the weekends. We were walking along the river on Monday night, our last night in London and was able to meet a musician that was down there playing her guitar and harmonica. Some of the girls bought her CD and we talked to her for a while. She was very good at what she was doing, and she seemed to love dong it, so that made it enjoyable for us. I always wonder what it would be like to have an amazing talent like that that you could use to make a living, or at least try, but that would be part of the adventure...trying.

Anyways, then Monday the girls and I headed to watch the changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. This was an AMAZING ceremony that was great to watch. It was so neat to see how traditional the whole thing was, and to know that this has been going on for centuries, was even more amazing. This is something that dates back through the ages that shows the honor and respectability that there is for the Queen, and how guarding her is one of the most important things in the country. After this we grabbed a bite to eat at Queen Anne's Cafe, which was named after Queen Anne Boleyn, which I've studied before so that was neat! Then Tara and I headed to the Tower of London, and saw the crown jewels, which was AMAZING too bad I couldn't take pictures but it was so worth it to go there. Then I stood and took a picture of where Queen Anne Boleyn was beheaded, they have a memorial of the other people that have been beheaded there, including Queen Anne's brother, George Boleyn. We also walked through some of the towers, then we headed off quickly, which was a shame, but we hopped on the tube and took it to St. John's Wood stop, which was a stop I had never heard of, but the closest one to Abbey Road. We then took pictures of our adventure there, seeing Abbey Road and the recording studio was amazing! I mean the Beatles took the same walkway across the street as we did! There was also a memorial wall outside the studio where thousands of people have written things for the band, including Tara and I now! :)
I thought that getting off at a different stop on the tube would be scary but it turned out to be a really nice part of London that we were in! The culture there was very high class, including all of the houses and even apartments on Abbey Road were nice!

After all of our adventures during the day all of us girls met back together and got dressed up and went to see the Broadway show Wicked! We ate at a restaurant called JB's Restaurant one block away from the Apollo Victoria Theater, where our show took place. The food was really good and the whole restaurant was very classy. After eating a DEL.ICIO.US meal we went to see the show, and it was AMAZING! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, and have been singing the songs (which I d/led on iTunes) since that night! I cried, I laughed, it moved me! :) I definitely recommend it to anyone! I would go see it again! Then we took a walk along the river and talked and just took in the sights of the city. It was beautiful to see the city all lit up at night, and a GREAT way to end our trip there!

I'm starting to plan my next trip to London soon! :)

VoiceThread

Here's my try at voicethread, comment on it and check it out! :)

VOICETHREAD

Inquiry 2 Podcast!

Click here to see our Inquiry 2 Podcast!

Inquiry 2 final.mp3

Loving the 1st grade!

So today when I went to the classroom in the afternoon I was able to observe a 1st grade classroom at a British Primary School today! It was interesting at first, the liaison left me in the staff room to wait for my teacher for a half an hour....then my teacher took me to a classroom in the 1st year corridor, which smelled like pee at one point, except for the classroom I was in! So that was good! I talked to the teacher, she introduced me to the children and they all stared at me and started to say "Oh she's from America!" And they smiled, adorably. :) I then walked with them and a helper to voice lessons, I was at the back of the line and 3 young boys started to ask me questions, one held my hand, they asked me where I was from, what my mother and father's name were, if I had a dog, what it's name was, my cats and everything. It was so adorable! Then during the voice lessons I watched them sing and they were very good! It was funny to hear their accents come out while they were singing! :)

I went back into the room with the children and the teacher did a great job of getting their attention and getting them to sit down and be ready to learn. She then started a lesson by having them count up by 2's, 5's, and 10's as a class to 20 and 100 and backwards as well! This was something that surprised me a LOT! I had never seen a class learn/recite counting down instead of up. I know that they teach it, but every classroom I have seen hasn't had it be a very big part of learning numbers. After counting she put up some problems on their smartboard. She used this paintshop/kids program that had everything from making your own pages with words, to using highlighters and pens of different colors to draw, colour, and write on the page she had up. She had the children show me how to use it later on in the class and it was very helpful :) For each of the numeracy problems she put up (they were working on solving word problems) she would have them pick out the important parts of the problem and she would highlight them with the highlighter in the program she was using. The pen she held in her hand did it on the computer screen for her, on the projector and the computer it was hooked to. She then also had them talk about the problem and solve it, she even had some of the children come up and solve problems using the smartboard. The children seemed to be very inclined technologically with this smartboard in their classroom. I would guess, and it seemed to me, they used it a lot and were very familiar with it.

The teacher had me work with one group on doing halfs and quarters of things and they did a worksheet on it. They had me help them a lot and they all asked me questions as we went along as well. It was a great experience to talk to these young students because I have not be able to experience this age of British culture till now. Overall I feel that the young students of England are just like those of the US, but have more proper grammar. :) They both are the future of each of their own countries, and I feel that the students want to learn and become the best that they can be when they grow up, and each of their own countries is doing the best they can in order for that to happen.

I would have liked to have stayed longer in the young classroom at Widey, it was a great experience and I learned A LOT from it. It also gave me the preview of what my 1st graders may be like next year in my internship placement next year!

Americans have an accent!

Today was an interesting one, and tiring I'm afraid....without much sleep the days seem much longer, and harder to get through. Tomorrow I will be well rested up however, because I am SO excited to see Stonehenge and Bath!

Class today was interesting, I thought that everyone so far that I've seen has done a GREAT job on their digital stories! I'm learning a lot through watching them! Good job girls! :)

We didn't get to learn much about the podcast today because of the internet being down and such, but I plan on doing a bit of research through the wiki and iTunes tonight to get myself more acquainted with it....because it still is all a bit fuzzy to me. I'm pretty sure that it is all just like a talk radio show, but the synchronizing and things are making me a bit more confused...as well as the ninja video! lol I did love the segment on the cyber nation and all that we saw and learned about it, it's crazy how much technology is growing! Speaking of that today when we went and ate in on lunch with some teachers and students we saw something that I had never seen before! When getting lunch or things from the vending machine, the students fingerprint is scanned and then what they choose, the price is charged to their student account. They can add money or their parents at any time, and they just do this for the vending machines and lunch and things of that sort to pay! AMAZING! The liaison said it was a great thing put up a couple of years ago because many students were getting money lost, stolen, or they would be gambling during school, so the fingerprint scans got ride of the reason for them to have any change or money in their pockets. I thought that was very interesting and a great technology that would help problems like that go away in schools.

After lunch we were each taken to a specific subject classroom that the liaison had set up, and left there to observe the class. I was put in a 10 year group (15 year olds) in a science classroom. The layout of the room was similar to any high school science room I have seen, with lab tables/stools, electrical outlets, sinks on one side, and lots of posters hanging around about science. They also had a smartboard like the rest of the classrooms, which the "Miss" = teacher, had a slide show projecting on. They first went through a short lesson on how plants grow. They then did an activity where they planted some seeds on a cotton cloth in a petri dish, got the cloth wet and were going to make a table for how tall the seeds grow the rest of the school year. (They go on summer break in about 10 days, and start school back up again the 2nd week of September.) The Miss then went through a small run through of the life stages of a human, and talked about gestation and growth. They then did an activity where they cut out pictures of the different stages of life in the magazines and then pasted and labeled them in their notebooks. I really didn't see the value in this but I later found out that this was a lower level class, which still didn't make sense for how easy the activity was and how old the students were.

As far as the behavior of the students I was overwhelmed yesterday with the good manners and group work, but today, I saw different. It was like a normal classroom to me I suppose, with teenagers anyway. They all wanted to talk while the teacher was talking, they made comments about anything and everything, and all the teacher did was "shush" them every time and wait for them to be quiet. No demerits, no punishments, just a "shush" and a wait. I suppose that I haven't seen the students enough to know how they behave on a regular occasion, but this was interesting to me that she was so laid back when these students were not respecting her at all. But I only observed her one period because she had not expected me to stay any longer. We saw another home ec class and talked to 3 or 4 girls in there about America and what they thought of us and our "accent"...they said it was "lovely" and they talked to us about music and about that their school wasn't really that bad, but everyone says it is. They also talked to us about our language and how it's different...we also talked about the mall, places to go and things to do here and in America and Michigan...it was quite nice. :) The girls were very friendly, the most friendly students I met during my time there, so it was great to finally talk to them and get their input and thoughts on things of our culture compared to theirs.

I am extremely looking forward to Stonehenge and Bath tomorrow, as well as going to the primary school on Thursday!

Off to plan for London!

"Some People Are Gay. Get Over It."

So I supposed I should start off by explaining my heading...we went into the reception area at Tamarside Community College and saw that poster hanging on a bulletin board where we waited. It was interesting to see that in the school, because things like that in the U.S. are sparing. It is a good indication at how accepting the people and society is over here to everyone, no matter who they are or what they are like. It's nice.

So today's adventure at the community college was amazing! The liaison was SO friendly and he took us around the school and talked to us about the whole British school system and how it works then we were able to watch him teach a history lesson, which was very interesting because it was British history, which I know nothing about, but I love history so I enjoyed watching the students work together to put together a time line of events. They had slides that had different dates and events on them and the first task was for them to the events in chronological order. He used the smartboard (which almost every room had in it) to time the students for 5 minutes to get that done, then he also had an iPod boombox near the desk that he put music on while the students were working.
The next part of the lesson was to work in group, boys for one group, girls for the other, and fill out a worksheet with a fill in the blank for each historical event that was on the time line they put in order. The girls struggled with this, but the boys worked together and figured out a system, two people write, the others find the sheets....they had put them out of order after the first activity. I found it interesting how they split up into boys vs. girls a lot in the school. In the next classroom that we went to, the technology (ICT = Information and Community Technology) rooms, had the girls and boys lined up outside of the classroom before class started, then they were filed in separately, then they also put their bags on separate tables, but sat altogether as a class. This was very interesting to me, because in the states we try not to exclude boys and girls into separate groups, but here it seems as a tradition and part of the schooling.

The other part of the history lesson that we saw from our liaison, Craig Staples, was that he had created audio clips with clues on them, and what the children were to do was listen to each clue, trying not to pick the false ones or the "buzzers" which meant no clue or anything. He played each clue as the students picked them and then the children had to go through ruling out different famous people that the clues were about, based on what they had previously learned from other lessons about history. It was VERY interesting to see the way that the activity was set up and the massive use of technology throughout the entire lesson, I loved it! The students were engaged and actively participating....note there was only 7 of them out of 20, but still, it was great to see them work together as a class, but also independently at times. Craig continuously told us that the period we were going to see him teach was a very "rough" group of students, that didn't really care about school, but they did a great job of fooling us because they were well behaved most of the time and worked well in groups. At the end of the lesson he had a section called "WHILT" = "What Have I Learned Today?" He went through a series of slides with sentence starters to get the children to reflect on what they learned in the lesson, what it taught them, how did they learn it, why they liked it, etc. It was very interesting to hear the students' responses, which one boy inputed "I learned that when I behave well, I work better in a group." It was a very mature and great observation to hear from an 11 year old.

The other room that we visited was the ICT room where I watched a lesson on making designs/logos in Microsoft Logo Maker...a program I have never heard of before. It was interesting to see similar classroom management skills used by the teacher, but such a different lesson with a program I had never seen before. We were able to help the children and they were very open to asking us for help calling me "Miss" which was very different for me, but cute! :)

Overall it was a very enjoyable experience and I'm looking forward to going back tomorrow and the Primary school on Thursday, which will be different I'm sure. The schooling lecture we got from Nick today in class was VERY helpful in letting us know how the system works, which helped me to develop more questions for our liaison for tomorrow and also opened my eyes to more things that I will be able to notice, now knowing what the school system is like. Which is SO confusing to us, but simple to them! I am looking forward to doing the podcast on this subject, which I think will be very interesting to hear everyone's different perspective from each school.

Tina, Michelle, and I are going to eat "dinner" with the staff and students tomorrow when we arrive to the school so that will be a good experience as well! I'm looking forward to that, all of the staff is VERY friendly, so I'm sure it will be a very useful experience as well as seeing more subjects/classrooms tomorrow!

Inquiry 1 Project - Digital Story

Kill your speed, not a pony.

This weekend has been very interesting and exciting!

Friday I was able to interview a man named David, from the city museum in Plymouth. He told me all about WWII and what it was like in Plymouth, and how it's affected the people here, then and still today. I also was able to see pictures from a 50th anniversary exhibit that they had recently put up in the museum. It was great experience and I was able to get a lot of things for my project...too much information probably but we shall see!

Then yesterday I was able to experience the natural and beautiful amazing side of England. We went on a horseback ride through the hills of Dartmoor National Park, and it was AMAZING. The weather was horrible on the way back from the pub, but none the less, it was well worth it! There were animals roaming the hills all over, including the Dartmoor pony which is date back to 110 BC!!
They are beautiful little animals, that were very friendly! We saw them on the way to the pub and also on the way back, along with the colts :) they were breathtaking, as well as the view. I highly suggest going to see Dartmoor before you leave, even if it is not on horseback (which was definitely the best way for ME to see it) go see it, it is unlike anything that you will ever see in your life, and definitely worth it.

I also learned about some cultural things while I went on my trip to Dartmoor this weekend. The transportation system here is amazing, and most of the time very reliable. We got to experience the little town of Ashburton, talk to some police officers, and ride in a taxi, which is an experience in itself.

The police officers were plainly dressed, and very friendly! I wish I would have gotten a picture but...it was interesting! Our police officers are geared up with huge belts of stuff, guns, knives, handcuffs, everything....but these police officers were plainly dressed in black t-shirts with black trousers and black shoes. They had like a small patch on each arm that said Police, and they had only 1 or 2 things on their belt, neither of which was a firearm.
The taxi drive there and back was VERY interesting, and for any of you that know me, I get nervous and sick in cars, especially in the backseat with people driving that I don't know...well welcome to the taxi system in England!! When you enter into Dartmoor National Park there are SMALL roads, one car wide, walls on each side of you (brick with ivy growing all over), sharp turns, because you are in the hills, and animals standing on the side of the road. He was speeding through this area, fast around corners and barely 2 in away from the wall on my side, and the cars passing on the other...come to find out however, taxi drivers here have to go through a 2 year program to become a taxi driver, and they get paid SOOO much. Their brains are even scanned before and after and there is a HUGE difference in depth perception and area awareness after they go through this program. This is why they get paid so much here, because they are the best drivers in England! After I found that I (which was at the end of the day) I felt more comfortable getting in a taxi again...but during the ride, I wanted to cry, throw up, and scream all at the same time! haha! But, I'm alive and well thanks to England's finest taxi driver, Matthew :)

All and all I was able to come home, get a hot shower...and get up this morning sore as all get out, but it was worth it :)

Happy 4th of July!!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY !!!

Yesterday during class I was happy to talk about the projects and give our feed back on what we thought about everything. Watching the Chinese preschool video, and then watching the Japanese and U.S. preschool videos today, there is such a wide range of differences! Not just the language and they way that they learn, but the way that the teacher behaves as well as the students. Seeing the Chinese children called "spoiled" for being upset for their parents leaving was very shocking. There is such a difference in the perception of why children go to school, and what they are supposed to learn. It is not just about academics there but to learn how to become part of the whole group, and work and play cooperatively. When thinking about schools in the U.S., as the article and videos talked about, independence is a large part of going to school, to learn how to take care of oneself and express oneself with words.

I was surprised to see that the Japanese teacher did not discipline the young boy who was misbehaving so much. I feel that this is such a large and shocking thing to our culture, but practical if you think about it. Children do fight and misbehave, it is part of their nature, but then again there are children who misbehave not only for attention but to purposefully hurt other children, and this is where I would think the line would be drawn. In the U.S. preschool the young child who will not pick up the blocks is carried back to a corner to sit by himself until he is ready to put away his blocks. The teacher is not loud and does not yell in front of the other teachers, but is firm and allows him to express his feelings if he chooses. This is quite different than seen in the Japanese school where the teacher does nothing about the young boy misbehaving, even though he was kicking and hitting the other children. Keeping your hands to yourself is obviously not a rule in their classroom, or perhaps culture.

Seeing these major differences makes me excited yet very nervous to go into the English schools. I feel that there will be lots of differences in not only the material they are learning, or how they behave in class, but how also they react to my presence in the classroom, and what the teacher thinks also. It should be interesting to hear what they think about America...but whatever it is I am hoping to be able to tell them some new things and show them that not all Americans are the same.

Plymouth Video

Hoe Approach

We ventured down to the Hoe again today, it was GORGEOUS out! We also went down into town to look around at the culture to try and find what we can do our first project on. I had no idea what I wanted to do for mine yet, and as I walked around town I noticed a main stream in the fashion here. But, since this is not something I'm very passionate about, when I got home I decided to think of something different. I talked to Amy and the other girls and decided on doing something with the historical aspect of Plymouth. There is SO much here that I could take pictures of and have every day that we go out I see something new that I want to research and look up online about Plymouth, so that's what I've decided to do. A history lesson and digital story put together!
While Tara and I were down at the Hoe today we saw what we wanted to see since we got here, kids jumping into the water from the Hoe! I know that sounds really bad, but it was crazy! They were wearing their wet-suits of course and we didn't think they would jump, but they did! It was crazy, it was like they were just free-falling down into the water, which didn't look very deep! Then as we walked further down there were more and more boys doing it in different places! Crazy! I got a few good pics though!

I thought the video today in class was very interesting! It was amazing to see how much the children's lives changed as they got older! I thought it was crazy that almost all of them had gone through a divorce, didn't want to have kids at first, but ended up having them. It just goes to show that peoples lives can change no matter what they are like when they are young. I think this is very important that we as teachers remember that even though the children may grow up to be something totally different, we have the power here and now to change their lives, maybe just for a day or maybe forever. It's just that simple act of caring for them and what they learn while they are with us that makes all the difference. I truly feel this is why I want to be and am becoming a teacher, to make that difference in at least one child's life each day, for the rest of my own life.

Tomayto, Tomahto

So here I am, in Plymouth, England! I can't believe it! It was a long way here but I made it! Yesterday was our first day in the city, and after class and lunch we were able to explore out into the city, excuse me, "town!"

After taking our walking tour we ventured to the Metro supermarket to buy some food, we didn't get enough but I think it was because we felt so rushed, and there are SO many people rushing through to get in and get out, so we only grabbed some fruit and I bought some Swiss milk chocolate, I can't wait to enjoy that! Tara and I are going back today to get some more things, I don't think I will be able to eat out anymore after last night!

A group of us went out to eat at a fish 'n chips restaurant, we got a little confused on the way there because of the streets but we made it. We walked around trying to find a place that was pretty cheap, no such luck here! So we settled on a small fish n chips place that looked okay. The fish n chips were 5.20 pounds but everything IS expensive here! So we all settled on one thing, then when we received our food we decided to get sauce, it was funny that when Stephanie asked "what kind of sauce do you have?" the waiter got really confused and didn't understand what we meant...I then asked him "what sauces do you have?" and he understood that question and was able to tell us the types of sauce. I then said "tomayto", like we do in the U.S. I came to find out, but he replied back with "you mean tomahto?" and I had to reply with a small giggle and a yes. It is so interesting that although we speak the same language, it really is an entire different concept to speak English over here compared to back home. Some of the natives speak so fast I can't understand them, and JP told us that when we go to London, there will be ALL different kinds of dialects, great! :-) I feel like I can understand them the more I'm here, but it is funny that they would not be able to understand us. To them however, WE have an accent!

I was able to go out and get a camera charger today, and Tara and I walked around and took pictures for tomorrow's assignment. I have to edit mine first but will post it later on! I think it is a good representation of the adjective that I chose, which is simple, but yet can be complex in a picture if you think about it.

I enjoyed the discussion we had today in class about culture, and also the one on the first day. I think it is great to explore the different aspects of culture and really figure out WHAT IT IS, which is so many different things! I love the fact also that we have a small group and are able to discuss things easily without feeling overwhelmed with a bunch of people you don't know.

Another thing I will post about right quick is something that I was talking about to Tara the other day, the children here. They are very different than the children in the U.S. it seems, but at the same time not so much. They all hang out in groups I've noticed after school, and you don't see as many adults out at that time as you do kids. They all have school uniforms whenever I see them dressed up after school, so I'm assuming that they all have to wear school uniforms but as soon as they get home it's time to play! Another thing is that they are told to be very respectful here, and courteous, but as far as I've seen, they are just normal children, the older ones drop F-bombs like it is their job here! It's sort of funny but....the little ones are so cute with their accent! I love it!