5 Quid and Loads of Curry

So, we are officially ONE FOURTH of the way through! Instead of celebrating though, we find ourselves dreading week two. I wish I could say the weather is helping, but between the ferocious winds and hail it is making things even more bleak. But, Christine and I are saving each other because we seem to be able to laugh at it all, and of course day dream a lot. There are some great things about living here, like the curry! It is like our Mexican food in the states, it is everywhere and very inexpensive. We also get to walk by the Royal Gardens and the castle every time we walk to school which can't help but lift our spirits. What can I say, we are both romantics! And of course the accents are lovely, though we have found our American one seems detrimental in our studies. We often have moments where are jaws are dangling open, as though they have been detached, because we can't understand what our Scottish friends our saying. Two of our guy friends in the program actually held their pinky fingers out and up while drinking a BEER! I have done this too, I will admit, but not since my toddler days when I was mimicking the British in some inaccurate, snobby accent. I didn't think actual BLOKES did this on a regular basis.
Friday was very fun, seeing as I finished my lesson by four and we got to go to the pub with our students and other classmates. I must admit that I spoke some spanish with my Spanish students, at which point someone in my program (who I will keep anonymous) told me I was not ALLOWED to speak to my students in any language but ENGLISH! Oh the audacity! Clearly I ignored him, and ended up explaining several confusing english phrasal verbs to my students by explaining it more clearly in spanish (which is quite impressive because my spanish is absolute shite). Needless to say, there are some people in our program who are a little more *focused* on the program then we are, to put it gently. Perhaps it is the American way to want to have fun along the way, because we seem to be the only ones who are determined to not let this program digest us too quickly.
Yesterday we refused to think about school, and so forced ourselves to embrace the day. After a good sleep we found a gym down the stree that was massive, and Christine was able to swim laps while I pottered about on the bike and elliptical. It was an amazingly bright and cheery facility, providing quite a juxtaposition to the rest of the city!

But enough rambling, we are happy clams, I promise :-)