My name is Valerie and I'll be your tour guide today...

For a teacher working at a language school for the summer, you can earn extra money doing other events like giving lectures, doing quiz nights and showing films at the school. Another way to earn some extra dosh is to be the guide on weekly excursions, which usually take place on Saturday. Apparently "summer" kicks off properly in July where we'll have at least 2 different all day excursions every weekend. As the guide, you are responsible for the students and keeping to a program of events, you are also required to do the "tour" part of tour-guide including either by doing it via the microphone on the coach or in some cases taking the students on a walking tour of a certain city (Oxford for example, requires a walking/talking tour). Most excursions we do have a period of time where the students can do and go wherever they want (some go directly shopping, even if the shops are the same as in Bournemouth and some go straight to the pub!) and it's usually only during this time that as the excursion guide you can relax. Much of this I know from my "first life" in the UK. I got to know London quite well (but honestly, it is possible to see Madam Tussaud's too many times) etc., but yesterday was my first excursion in over 11 years, I'd guess. And I picked a doozy!

It was a doozy in that we did a tour of the Dorset Coast (which to me sounded easy and relaxing) except we have at least 3 scheduled destinations which means coordinating 41 students off and back on the coach at least 3 times! Also not having been responsible for one yet, I was stressed it was an excursion I hadn't been on, or places I'd either not visited or had only done so, maybe once! Thankfully, the sign up sheet peaked over 40 and at that stage, a 2nd teacher (guide) is justified. Sam was kind enough to come with me (she didn't have to) and I assured her that I while I needed her to show me the ropes (just managing the basic things: the coach driver, what you tell the students, how you "do" it), I would do the heavy lifting. I was lucky as well that the coach driver was helpful and knew Dorset so well he did a fair amount of the "tour" info giving part. I had highlighted notes but he did it so naturally as he knew the area and has spent a lifetime driving all sorts of coach tours. So thank you Tony!

Many of you know I'm an avid hiker. NOT. My thighs burn going up the stairs at school to my afternoon class! And the first half of the Dorset Coast excursion includes two grueling hikes. D'OH! Well obviously I survived it, though my leg muscles are aching as I type. Having Sam on the excursion ended up with her leading the students up and down the hikes with me at the rear "gathering" and "waiting on" students - all code for me resting. Ugh! The views are stunning but I don't think I'll jump to sign up for another one because if I were to have to do it again and NOT have another teacher, I'd be screwed. I would have to waive everyone ahead of me and I'd be the last one on the coach - not the other way around which is kind of how it should be!


We did three stops: Durdle Door, Portland and Weymouth. We also drove through Wareham on the way which I will have to visit another time, just a charming little village! Anyway, Durdle Door is stunning and is one of the most photographed features of the "Juraissic Coastline" as it's called! The "door" is actually a big hole in the rock where the limestone has been eroded by millions of years of the water lapping against it. Durdle Door beach is beautiful (no potty though so you have to go pee way before at the car park before the hike down). Then we hiked up from the beach and then over a couple of the Purbeck hills to arrive in Lulworth Cove, which is stunning. The coach dropped us off at Durdle Door and collected us at Lulworth Cove so hiking was the only way to get a lift onto the next place!

Above pic: me in front of Durdle Door

Before you hike down or up, you get to enjoy this stunning view of Man of War Bay. You can just see the top of the "door" if you look carefully.


This was from Durdle Door Beach and facing the first of the 2 grueling hikes (up that way!)


Here we were waiting for the final students. While we "waited", I caught my breath and tried to loosen my fatigued muscles. After this we turned around to head down to Lulworth Cove...

Once I made it to Lulworth Cove (and all the students did too and we had about 30 minutes to eat and check out the beach there), we headed to Weymouth with a pit-stop en route in Portland. I don't understand really why this is part of the exursion as it's a bear to get to and you get a vista of sorts: you look out onto the water and can take pictures of the lighthouse but after Durdle Door and Lulworth it's just not all that. Thankfully it's a flat walk from the car park to the lighthouse which was good because a) we were pressed for time so I had them out and back on the coach in 15 minutes and b) my legs were jelly and might have given out under me if there had been an incline. However, I did learn that Portland is famous for its quarries and in fact Sir Christopher Wren (who was from Dorset) asserted that all the new buildings in London (after the Great Fire of 1666) he was responsible for designing should be made from Portland stone. And so, St. Paul's Cathedral, for example, is made from the stone there.

Above picture is Lulworth Cove from atop the 2nd hike.

Our final stop was Weymouth which was a fishing village until the 1700's when King George III visited there for health reasons and loved it so much it became a trendy, holiday destination on the coast. Weymouth has its charm (better than Ports O'Call in San Pedro lemme tell you!) with a lovely beach (Chessle Beach), a marina and lots of character shops and buildings. The students (as well as Sam and me) had about 2 hours in Weymouth before the drive back to Bournemouth. It was a bit cloudly by the time we got there (though the temperature was lovely) so I didn't really take photos - they always end up so dark (blame my iPhone) when it's cloudy. But we enjoyed a sumptious cream tea and wander around the shops. Got back to the school just after 6. I motored home, picked up Abby (who was with Nancy all day) and was glad I had survived the hike, made some extra money and saw a few places I definitely want to take Mom and Shannon when they visit!

At last - a breather and an update

Many of you know that I'm on Facebook a fair amount (okay, I'm on it a lot) - mostly via my cell phone - so in the last whirlwind that has been 3-4 weeks, I've updated my status regularly on there along with posting pics - it's the easiest way, I've found, to just update friends and family. But I am still committed to my blog (sort of) so will try now to get the blog up to speed.

But first, my teaching as it turns out, isn't just for the foreign students. When discussing the French Open with my colleagues and who had progressed etc., the Williams sisters were mentioned. Confused about which one had just been eliminated, I asked "was it the one with the junk in the trunk?" to which my colleagues were baffled. Even with the American TV and movies and all the slang they hear, these 3 had never heard "junk in the trunk" so I explained it to them. Of course, why would they have that expression, they don't even call that part (of a car) the "trunk". To them it's the boot, so what would they say instead, "She's got some loot in the boot?" Come to think of it, that kind of works.

Anyway, first off, I LOVE where I live. And not just the little bungalow. I love the neighborhood, the town, the New Forest in every direction and multiple great walks just minutes' away. I can't wait until Shannon and Mom come to visit - it's quite picturesque. The town I live in is quite small and a lot of retired folk live here. And judging from the plethora of activities and clubs advertised in the little local magazines, it's a great place to spend you time when you have a lot of free time (as in retired!) It's quiet and has enough shops to do everything you need to do without it being totally busy like Bournemouth. I'm also positioned to have motorway access within a couple of miles so my drive to work is easy.







As for work, I'm writing this AT work on a Friday evening. It's a Sing-Song night here and another teacher has the guitar and is getting everyone involved (actually right now he's doing "is there anyone from out of town?" bit but with our audience, it's kind of a no brainer!) so I'm acting as bouncer. I'm keeping my eye on the front door (as is Abby). But it's the end of a long week so I'm not necessarily as chipper and excited about work as I might be earlier in the week. But anyway, I'm back in the world of TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) which is something I wouldn't have ever thought I'd be doing again! It was just like riding a bicycle. Having done 3 weeks now, I can quite safely say this isn't what I'd want to do long term but for the summer, it's 100% ok. The grind of prepping for classes is really exhausting and while I'm sure this will lessen as the weeks go by and I get more tools in my tool-belt, so to speak, I still think prepping is something that's just part of this life. I am pooped from teaching and then spend at least 2 hours every night prepping for the next day. I have 3 classes. Two are lower level, so are more teacher-centric and the other is a Business English class and I enjoy that one a lot. They have enough language to work on projects and presentations, but they ask some tough questions and thank God I just got the Teacher's Book (with the answer keys) because I was getting worried I'd not be able to confidently explain the differences between joint ventures, form alliances, join forces and other things like that (not that big of a difference as it turns out!) Being American is a bit of a novelty (I think my Director of Studies likes having a Yank on staff for the diversity factor) and students ask me if certain things are the same or different in America. You know, when you live in America, you never say "I'm from America" do you? You say "from the states". But over here, the USA is referred to as America and that's that. So I've learned to say "In America, we spell it o-r-g-a-n-i-z-e" etc. I am also doing as many overtime options as I can. This includes lectures, quiz nights, film nights, sing-song nights and then weekend excursions. I was supposed to be the 2nd teacher on tomorrow's excursion to Oxford, for example, but there weren't enough students to justify two bus loads (which is just as well, I'm exhausted). Like my mom says, I'm making "hay while the sun shines" and I know this is just for the summer.


Where much of the lesson prep happens.

Abby's taken to my new schedule like the pro she is. My schedule isn't 40 hours of teaching, though I spend at least 40 hours with teaching and prepping combined, so I don't usually have to leave her for more than 7 hours at any one time. When I first got her all those years ago (was it 9 years ago maybe?) I worked full time and she was fine then. It's just been a long time since I was in this type of routine. We go for walks and she LOVES having a backyard. The minute I open the back conservatory doors, she just plops down on the grass and chills out.

Free time is obviously very much limited compared to before. But the plus side is I'm sleeping like a log after approximately 3 years of having insomnia in varying degrees of severity. I have only had 2 weeks since my move and the first one was running around getting organized, the 2nd was last weekend when my friend Jean came to stay from Manchester. So this weekend will be hopefully just a lot of rest and relaxation. I have continued to download the tv shows from AMERICA that I love and a few ones to try but there's quite a backlog of shows to catch up on so I will do some of that this weekend. I did just go through the entire 3rd season of Dexter in a few days - excellent show.

I hope that my northern friends will come to visit when they can. While the summer is busy for me, I can still make a lot of my time workable to hang out, too! Mom and Shannon are due to come at the end of the summer so I'm so looking forward to that. Also I'm heading up to Wolverhampton (don't bother to Google it, it's not that interesting) to see DMB at the end of June (been listening to their new album, excellent stuff!). I bought the tickets months ago when I was still unemployed (the show is on a Monday night) and Wolverhampton was just 90 minutes away. Now it's more like 3 1/2 hours a bit of a pain to get to. But I'll either drive or take the train and my boss knows about it. I've asked Lesley (friend I went to Budapest with) if she'd like to either come for the weekend before and go to the concert with me (and then head home from there) or just rendez-vous with me there and she's up for it! She likes to dance to good music so I think she'll enjoy it and I'll enjoy seeing her and also having someone with me!