Kasel Anick

A few weeks back we went made a visit to Castle Alnwick, which in typical English style of dropping phomemic sounds, is pronounced 'Anick'. The castle is the home of the percy family, the Duke and Dutchess of Northumberland (children are grown). It is the largest inhabited castle in England, situated on the river Aln ( I'm beginning to sound like an encyclopedia). In addition, it is famous for being used in many film productions, my guess would be because of the good condition it is in - many of the other castles are ruins. The most famous of those movies being the first 2 Harry Potter movies.

We spent the first while exploring the inside of the castle, reading about the history of the Percy family as well as present day, looking at artifacts and paintings, and finding out about the different uses the castle has had over the years. My favorite painting was one of Algernon Percy, the 10th Earl of Northumberland, who I thought had a rather 80's looking hair and mustache dispite his clearly historical clothing - earl of the eighties I shall call him. My other personal favorite was reading about how since the first world war part of the castle has been used for educational establishments. The first was as a girls high school which had to relocate due to a fire, then a teacher's college (so jealous!), and now St. Cloud's university of Minnisota has a program that runs there.

After that we went to look around the grounds and went on a tour highlighting the different areas that were used in filming of movies. We also learned along the tour the significance of positioning of horses feet in statues. Apparently, one hoof in the air means the person died of injuries in battle, two hoofs in the air means the died in battle and both feet on the ground means they died at some other point in life.

Lastly we went to "Knight's Quest" and tried on medieval clothing as well as went through a spooky maze with a monster at the end that talked in a chipper british accent (it actually was scary for half a second until it started talking). All in all, it was a good time. Though if we had to do it again, we would have paid to go into the gardens as everyone keeps telling us how nice they are.

Shaping Up!

Its been a while since the last blog, but it hasn't been all too eventful to be honest. The past couple of weeks have involved mostly settling in and getting used to our surroundings. We moved into our apartment on the weekend of the 11th. It was exciting to finally have our own space but it was pretty boring for the first few days, just waiting around to get called in for work and making trips downtown to cafes to get internet. I have to say that our first impressions of the flat were not too positive, seeing as one of our doorknobs fell apart and neither our oven or washing machine appeared to be working (the oven wouldn't heat and the washing machine overflowed). Yet, we did figure out how to use the household devices in a few days - I guess some appliances just work a little differently over here. We also took a trip to ikea to get a memory foam mattress topper so our back wouldn't be mangled by the horrible mattress. So now that all those things are taken care of, I can honestly say we are very happy about the place and it is really beginning to feel like home. It's spacious, in a pretty area, we are close to everything we need, and we are within walking distance to both buses and metro. So, all in all, things are well with our "new castle". Bahaha, I'm so clever.

Though most of these past weeks have consisted of errand upon errand, last weekend we did manage to get out and have some fun. We went to the Tynemouth area to play some mini-golf. But not just any mini-golf: Lost World Adventure Golf! It was basically a dinosaur themed minigolf courses where the dinosaurs shoot water at you if you get the ball in certain places. It was pretty darn epic. It may just be the best mini-golf experience I've ever had. Though, it did get quite competitive. I did better on the first half and Trevor did better on the second - in the end it was a tie. Which Trev thought was pretty anti-climactic, but I thought it was funny, seeing how hard we were try to beat each other. After golf we went to the beach by the castle, not sure what its called, but its very pretty. The waves were huge that day and there was a herd of surfers! It was nice just to walk around and view the coastal landscape of the northeast. Everyone keeps asking "why come to the northeast?" and walking along the shoreline, its pretty easy to see why. Tynemouth is a beautiful area. And apparently it has a really good cupcake shop, which I will be taking a visit to soon, very soon. (always comes back to cupcakes!)

I almost forgot - The weekend before last, we went to the Bluereef aquarium at Tynemouth. It had rays, sharks, otters, seals and fish that looked like razor toothed grandfathers!

On the work front, its been slow. like, reeealllly slow. I was beginning to get quite irritated with Protocol for telling us they could give us enough work and then getting next to no work. However, they have assured us that things would pick up. As of right now, I have no reason to doubt them, since our work has started to pick up somewhat. Trevor has worked a couple times at a SEN (special educational needs) school and I have worked at a school for children with ASD. It is a really nice school, and it shocked me to find out that it is actually a public school. They have the most amazing resources, fabulous staff and a really warm atmosphere. I am scheduled to go back again some more next week, but I hope that I can get in for a long term position (plleaaassse!!). They said they would really like to try and place Trevor at that school as well. Protocol says they have sent our resumes out to all the schools they service, so here's hoping something more long term comes up, or at least steady supply. At this point, i'll take anything! I'll friggin' teach high school if I have too! I just want work! No work = Very sad Melissa and Trevor. I realize teaching recruitment agencies probably have very little say on how much work opportunities come in from schools......but what about good old fashioned threats, or envelopes with viruses in them? That would bring in more work for us! - What are you waiting for Protocol? Get us a job!

On a not so side note: THEY HAVE SHAPES CRACKERS IN ENGLAND!!! Shapes are a cracker brand I was addicted to when I was in Australia for 7 months, and even after all this time I still get random cravings for them (key ingredient: crack?). So when I walked by a shelf stocked with them I nearly started hyperventilating (Trevor can attest to this). We have already gone through several, sodium-licious shapes boxes! Especially pizza flavor. SHAPES!!! eeeeeeeeeeeeee!

That is all I have to say about that.

Love,

Liss

Newcastle: My Lawyer Insists I Write This Blog

Onwards to the UK:

On the first leg of our journey we stopped in Glasgow. Our friend Amy had some friends, Tanja and Sam, who were kind enough to let us stay at their flat, even making us supper and breakfast the next day. We slept much of the afternoon since we had to wake up just past 4 a.m. Fortunately we did have time to visit downtown Glasgow with some more of Amy's friends, Andy and Gemma. Stopping at a coffeehouse, Melissa decided to see if they could make her a London Fog, which apparantly they haven't heard of in England. She even took it a step further and explained how to make it to the barista and she got what she wanted. That's all for Glasgow as we had to train out the next morning.

It was a bright and sunny (and early) morning that we arrived in Newcastle Upon Tyne, our new home. Unfortunately for us, we couldn't get into our hotel, so we tried to find a mall nearby, after a decent walk, we eventually found a huge mall/outdoor square downtown. Over the next few days, we would visit this mall over and over again. It seems like a day doesn't pass when we don't make the walk to go there. I think that's because a day like that hasn't passed.

Going to the mall replaced our previous afternoon pasttime on this journey: afternoon naps. Although after getting into our hotel, we endulged in another one of those. Getting up at 4:25 and 5:15 isn't great for your system when you're fighting jetlag as it is. So you need a nap now and then.

First night was fairly calm, spent some time relaxing by the computer much of the night, putting some pictures on the computer and developing some interesting impressions of the "Geordies". Melissa was playing on her laptop by the window and there is a man outside the window staring intently at her. She is confused, but figueres he just wants to be let in to the hotel so she goes to the door and he tells her she is "beautiful". The Geordies have good taste in women that's for sure. The attraction to Melissa may have something to do with their own women I'm guessing, because the first night in our hotel we hear screaming and yelling. Melissa gets up to find out what has happened and well it appears there were two women in a room across the hall getting into a very physical fight over something or other. I never did get the courage to ask the hotel manager if he knew anything about it.

Day two wasn't all that eventful so I'm not even going to comment on it. Yeah that's the way I blog.

On the third day, we got to go on a train ride around the city. Why? Because we had the time to do it. We also got to stop in Tynemouth by the sea and that was pretty cool. Cool, mostly due to the gale force winds that were blowing through the city. One of the first things I noticed when we reached the castle on the coast was a group of young people playing...football? American football? Yes, and in a ravine by the castle. I told Melissa that if it weren't for my time constraints, I'd have joined in the game just to have a little piece of home. The castle was pretty cool to walk around, but we didn't have tons of time to see it before we went and visited our first flat.

It was a pretty nice flat: three bedrooms, fridge, beds, sofas, random pots/pans/cups, backyard, but the price was a bit more than some of the other places we had seen and responded to. So we said we were really interested, but were secretly hoping that one of the cheaper nice places would get back to us. They did.

They asked us if we'd take care and the flat and pay rent. We said we would. Next it got a little strange. Apparantly this person, an "Irish pastor", had a lot of problems in the past with people that came and saw the flat who didn't have money, or else cancelled appointments at the last minute. Since this has caused so much harm, before we could go and see the place we would need to transfer money to a friend and get them the receipt as proof. And this is all what her "lawyer" insisted upon. This all seemed perfectly logical, so I decided to go a step further and just throw all of my money in the river (note sarcasm). What frustrated us the most was on two other flats we got the exact same initial e-mail as we got on this one. I'm not really sure if there is any flats here in Newcastle or if they are all scams. In any case, we decided to go with the first flat, though a little expensive, we really liked the place and the landlord.

On Tuesday we met with Protocol Education to get oriented with the city and the organization, but mostly to fill out more paperwork. It seems like we'll never quite escape paperwork, in fact Protocol pretty much promised that we'd be filling out tons of paperwork all year long to get paid. One of my favorite things about Protocol is the mascots (seen above). For some reason I felt comfortable enough to act like one of them with the hand gestures and facial expressions during the orientation and I got the woman doing the orientation to do it as well. Hopefully that's a good sign of things to come and it'll be a great year at this job. That's the first couple of days in Newcastle and before you know it, we'll have stories about our jobs!

Reykjaviking Part Two: Geysir, won't you blow?

On the second day of our journey in Iceland we went on what is known as the" Golden Circle Tour." This took us outside the city, to some of Iceland's most famous natural wonders. We nearly missed the bus and my hair was still sticky and salty from the day before, but it was worth it.

Our first stop on the tour, the geothermal plant, was the least exciting, but certainly still informative and interesting. Iceland uses geothermal power for most electricity and water heating in their country due to the natural hot spots in the ground, which produce steam. This kind of energy is limited to places located on tectonic plate boundaries.

The next of the stops was Gullfoss falls, which really gave us a true feel for the landscape of Iceland. When saw the first part of the waterfall, we thought that's all there was and were already impressed. Then we turned a corner to reveal the rest of the waterfall - and it was massive! Not much was in the way of tumbling into the mist and rocks, with the exception of common sense (according to our tour guide). It was so misty that many of our photos became blurred.

It was here that Trevor decided it would be a good idea to purchase a hoody, since in the rush of the morning he forgot to bring a coat. The icelandic winds were not all too forgiving that day. Thankfully for him, it was not too badly overpriced like everything else on the island. Speaking of over priced, if Trevor and I were to do this again, we would rent a car. Most of the money spent was on transport, as most of the sites we visited were free. We calculated that a car rental would have been much more economical. Oh well, you live and learn.

Next we made a stop to visit strokker the geysir, currently the most active geysir in Iceland. It was supposed to errupt every five mintues, but we found that this was a very rough estimate. It was so much fun trying to guess when it was going to go off, and one never quite knew how large each erruption would be, since they were all so unique. Here we also went to see Strokker's neighbour - the Geysir, the namesake of all other geysirs. He has been retired now since the 1950's, but you can still see him blowing off a bit of steam.

The last destination was the site of the viking paliament, known geologically as the Mid Atlantic Rift. This is the the place where the Noth American and Eurasian tectonic plates are slowly pulling apart. In fact, Iceland grows by a few centimetres every year. It is also where the Vikings would come to hear the law spoken. Each year, the leader of the land would come and recite 1/3 of the law so that the people would remember.

It was here that we also met a very eccentric New Yorker. He was pretty much as stereotypically New York as you can get. thick accent, scraggly semi-permed hair, bad sweater (think ugly sweater party), and went on and on about how NewYork is the best city in the world hands down. He also mentioned about how he was going to bring back gifts for all his "lady friends." He was a very nice man though, quite a character, and looked a lot like Billy Crystal.

Once we came back to the hostel from our tour, we went on a journey to find Iceland's "famous" hot dog stand - apparently their most popular place to eat out. Well, we found a hotdog stand. We are still not sure if it was the hotdog stand as it did not seem altogether that impressive. But for fun we will just say it was. Yes, we went to Iceland's infamous hotdog stand ;) The hotdog didn't quite fill me up, so I played a best of 5 game of Racko with Trevor in which he lost and had to go find and make me pasta.

After this long day we went to bed - but not for long. We had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning in order to make our 8:00 flight.

Reykjaviking Part One : whale eating monsters from the blue lagoon

Well folks, we have officially left Canada. Right now it feels more like a vacation, but I think in a few weeks it may start to sink in that we will not be returning for quite some time. We will miss you all across the waters, however we feel this is just the right time to do something like this. There are so many changes in the air, so why not make a fresh start? Let’s take a break from expectations and do our own thing for a while! England, our oasis, we are coming for you, baby! But first, we need to give Iceland some love.

Here is how our first 24 hours of travelling went down.....

We woke up at 9 in the morning on the August 31, finished up some last minute packing and enjoyed a deliciously indulgent meal of fried potatoes, courtesy of Trevor’s father (sorry Trev, your father’s potatoes kick your potatoes...but I think you know that). We got off to the airport a little later than expected, but found no major problems with time. When we arrived at the airport we found our brother and sister Duane and Krista (along with niece and nephew), my best pal Shandell, My parents and sister. They were the best send off crew ever! (thanks everyone for the wonderful travel gifts!)

It is nothing short of miraculous that we were able to get our entire luggage on without paying an extra cent. Firstly, our two largest suitcases were five pounds over the limit – but after a chaotic game of Tetris, moving items to our underweight bag, we had them at 50 pounds each. additionally, we somehow managed to shove our expedition packs into the dimensions required, yet I think had she asked us to weigh the packs, we wouldn’t have been able to take them on. Flew under the radar on that one!

The plane flight was a typical one – no crashing in flames or emergency water landings here. Though I felt bloated the entire time as I usually do on planes for some reason....thank you, thank you, thank you Shan for the fibre one bars!! (I know, TMI). Trevor and I found ourselves in Reykjavik at 6:30 in the morning Iceland time, 12:30 am our time and were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves feeling awake and alert. Then, after scrambling around for an hour or so to see if there was anywhere to keep our bags at the airport, we conceded to take the mammoth luggage with us. Yet, alas, we had missed our first bus –the bus that would get us on time to meet my friend Trish at the hostel. We left her waiting for 2 hours later than expected, but we got there in enough time to spend part of the afternoon with her.

Trevor, Trish and I went out for lunch at an Icelandic bar, enjoyed each other’s company and ate some traditional cuisine. Trevor and Trish were brave enough to try a whale burger, but I just could get past mental pictures of eating Free Willy. It looked surprisingly a lot like steak, and they raved that it was some of the best meat they had ever had. I did manage one micro sized bite, and I have to admit that if I didn’t know what it was, I probably would have thought it was delicious. I settled on lamb soup which was very satisfying and perfect for a brisk, windy day.

It was such a treat getting to stroll around Reykjavik with a familiar face and hear her stories of traveling Europe this summer! It got us so pumped for the year we have ahead of us!

Once we saw Trish off, we hit the sack for a short nap. We were both exhausted. At this point I was starting to feel like my head was floating and things were moving in faster time. Any longer without sleep and I think we may have started to hallucinate.

Once we woke up we went on a bus excursion to the “Blue Lagoon,” a mineral hot spring. It was so nice for two jet legged folks like us! I would describe it as a bright blue, salty, natural hot tub with steam and fog rising from it. It was devine. They even had a place where you could put mineral mud on yourself like a face mask. Trev and I had fun giving each other spa treatment. This was such a good choice for our first day of travels - so relaxing!

When we came back from the lagoon we went to bed almost right away. I am starting to regret going to bed so early, seeing as I am writing this on Microsoft word at 4:00 am. Trevor is sleeping like a baby, the lucky monkey!

Time to go try and get some rest! More updates to come!