Edinburgh: Day 6 & 7

On day 6 we spent most of the day traveling to Edingburgh for the weekend. It was a pretty, green ride with lots of sheep everywhere.
On day 7 the first exploration day started! We woke up and went to Edingburgh castle (and took a selfie with my very-clearly-a-tourist selfie stick). We went on a tour, saw the Royal Crown Jewels, and went to several small museums within the castle.
Then we went to The Elephant House Cafe where JK Rowling wrote several of the first Harry Potter books. It is known as the "birthplace" of Harry Potter. We got lunch (salad, baked potato and peppermint tea) and then walked around towards the Museum of Scotland. It was three floors of world culture. I mainly liked the animal stuff which was luckily on all three floors.
After that we wandered around some more and eventually made it back to the hotel. Dinner is at 6:30 and we may go out later or go on a ghost tour or both!

Shoutout to my rain boots for not killing my feet all day. :)

On the escalator. 

Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station in London.

Train Ride from King's Cross Station to Edinburgh

Only in Scotland: Children's Book "W is for Whisky".

Shameless selfie with the selfie stick at Edinburgh Castle.

Shameless selfie with the selfie stick in front of Edinburgh Castle.

Everything is greener!

The Elephant House Cafe

The Elephant House Cafe

National Museum of Scotland.

National Museum of Scotland.

National Museum of Scotland.

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Day 3, 4, 5

Not much has happened the past three days. Went to school all three days and it was wonderful. Being in the school is easily my favorite part of the trip so far. Woking (where we are staying is quite boring).

Breakfast- May 13th

Cosmos- May 13th

Mexican Dinner- May 13th

Mexican Dinner- May 13th

Gelato- May 13th

Cobham cafeteria

Sign on sauce

Fish n Chips

Day 2

Went to Cobham International School today. Before that, earlier in the morning our power blew out in our room so that was a struggle. I am with the 5-6 year olds or kindergarteners. There are 13 of them. They were from all over the world, which was very cool. Almost all of them however had American accents when speaking. The teacher is from Boston, which I found interesting. Not much happened today. The kids ate snack and then had an hour of recess. The recess field was huge! There was an ‘inside’ soccer field as well. I can say Kristin, Autumn and I were very overwhelmed at lunch as we were told to go at noon and that was when all the high schoolers eat. We thought we were in line for about five minutes but realized we weren’t. That was a bit embarrassing. We ate lunch outside at picnic tables and that was nice.

            I struggle to not talk with a British accent when having a conversation with a British person. I did talk to a teacher today who lived in America for a while. She still had a British accent but as we talked her accents began to slide towards American. By the time the conversation ended she sounded very American.

            We went shopping after school at the grocery store. I bought a jar of Nutella, rice cakes, chocolate milk, a caramel Cadbury bar and some other things.

            I sadly realized the phone I spent £30 on doesn’t work. I can only call UK numbers. Despite people in my group having international service, it doesn’t count as being a UK number. So hey, I can call Prince Harry. Just kidding….

            I am still very confused with the money and the £ being a coin along with £2 being a coin. Oh, well I’ll get it someday. Probably May 30^th when I leave.

Day 1

Got to London today! I haven’t slept for more than an hour in over 26 hours. I am having a very hard time staying awake. I think I am too tired to realize where I am or that I am about to go to an elementary school tomorrow. I’m lucky I found my way to the town centre to get a UK phone and food. Not much going on. Most people are resting but not sleeping because we need to get adjusted for London time. We meet tomorrow morning at 6:45 to head to the school. I’ll be getting up at 5:45 to shower, and get ready. I’m very excited but all I can think about is sleep.

            I also had a lot of people ask where I was from and or smiled when I talked. I never thought I could be so self conscious of the way I talk. It’s good perspective though to see how some people feel every day.