Internet Success!

I finally got access to the internet the other day! Yay! This will hopefully solve a lot of my communication problems with people back home and the other girls on the trip. The first few days in Liverpool have been pretty busy with trying to get settled in a figuring out our surroundings. Liverpool is a much bigger city than I realized and which I discovered on our trip to city center yesterday. People are very friendly here though and very helpful when offering directions and advice on places to see.

We started yesterday with breakfast in the school's cafeteria. I haven't really decided if I'm a huge fan of the food here yet, at least at the school. It just seems like everything is fried or served with french fries which they call chips. I don't think I have had a meal yet where they did not have french fries as a side. We have also found the food to be very bland and therefore have been loading everything with salt and pepper. I didn't realize how much seasoning American's put on their food before coming here. A few other things I've noticed about the food is that the ketchup tastes different, weird salad dressings, lack of vegetables with meals, and also a lack of my loved and most valued peanut butter. At home I eat peanut butter with everything so I am having some withdraws (haha). We did have broccoli with our meal tonight though! I'm not really a huge fan of broccoli but I was so excited we had a choice of vegetables with our meal that I didn't really care and it was actually pretty good! After breakfast we got our student IDs and then a bunch of us went down to city center to get a few things we needed. I was on a mission to find a blow drier, straightener, and shampoo.

As I said earlier after going to city center I realized how big Liverpool really was. I was also really surprised how modern the city was and all the people out shopping on a Monday. I kind of wondered why there was so many people out on a weekday instead of at work, but it made the trip an interesting experience. I think the best part was that we took a double decker bus to get downtown. That was my first time I've ever been on one so it was quite the experience. Many times I thought we where going to hit something because they break so close to other vehicles and I also noticed that everybody drives really fast here. I don't think I would ever trust myself driving in England or at least in a big city like Liverpool, it would just end all bad (haha). When we got off the bus we all headed to the the train station where we got our rail passes validated. Some of us used the restroom while at the train station and was shocked to find out that we had to pay to use the restroom! I almost didn't go but I would not have been able to make it the whole afternoon! After the train station we attempted to find a post office to exchange money but failed so we ended up going to a drug store and buying our supplies with the money we had. When we returned to campus we exchanged money at the post office nearby and then picked up ethernet
cords at the library. The exchange rate is ridiculous right now though and unfortunately we lost money in the exchange process. After dinner some other girls and I booked our channel tickets to Paris for next week which where outrageously expensive but also the cheapest way to get there. We probably should have booked them a lot earlier but hopefully our time there will make up for the cost.

Today was our first day of class. We had a guest speaker in the morning who I absolutely loved! He was energetic and so excited about education! After lunch we had class with Dr. Popplewell for a couple of hours. I am really enjoying his class already and it is only the first day. After class a bunch of us headed to ASDA which is part of Walmart to pick up a few more things we needed. After ASDA we came back to eat, clean up, and then a few other girls and I got dressed up and went out later in the evening which was a blast!

Tomorrow we are going to the schools for the first time. I am so excited to meet my students and their teacher! I will be teaching 5th graders which I'm nervous and excited about at the same time. I really enjoy working with the younger students but I chose to work with older students this time because I have already done a lot of teaching with the younger kids so this will be a good experience for me! It will definitely be a challenge and push me out of my comfort zone but who knows I might find out that I love teaching the older students.

Well that is all for now I will let you all know how tomorrow goes!

Ta!

-Dani