Football, rugby, and skiing

Another week has gone by, and with every day I'm feeling more and more at home here.

The week started (on Tuesday) pretty amazingly! I spent the morning on skype to a friend in NZ – its weird how now when I hear a kiwi accent it sounds odd, and how when I hear an English accent I don't think twice about it because it is now the norm..
That afternoon I went down to my pigeon hole in the staff room (how grown up does that sound?!) and in it, I found a package, containing my new phone! So now I am the proud (and very cautious) owner of an iPhone 6! It might have been a bit of an impulse buy when my old phone was having a tantrum, but I do not regret a single thing!

Wednesday was a little bit different in the afternoon. In the morning I had forrest school as usual. The sun was shining and it was almost warm (almost). We made popcorn on the fire while the kids made birds nests.

I can't wait for there to be leaves on the trees. I didn't realise how much I've missed it

However that afternoon I went on a fixture (to Port Regis again) but this time it wasn't for netball. It was for football. Now for those who know me, you will know that football is not my favourite sport, like at all. But trust me, if football was always played the way it was on Wednesday, I'd love it (because in every game more than 5 points were scored). Our girls on the tournament were slightly less prepared than the other schools there, because they all had full on football kit – shin-pads and spiked boots, whereas ours were running around in trainers with no shin protection... Most of them had never played before so they were just there for a bit of fun, and they definitely had fun. Within 10 seconds of the first game the other team had scored, and it didn't get much better from there for either of our teams...
We had two teams, and they probably played 7 games each, of which each team lost 6, and the 7^th both teams drew.. Our girls scored 4 goals the entire tournament, against the probable 20 they had scored against them. The last game was a play-off for last, and second to last place, which meant that our two teams had to play against each other. Now because we were one girl short for two full teams, I was roped into playing. I think there were two reasons behind this, the first being that of the staff that went on the trip (me and two PE teachers in their 20's who play rugby), my ability of football was probably closest to the girls' level (i.e. Non-existent), and the other being that the two other members of staff that were on the trip wanted to laugh at me while I attempted to play goalie, because laughing at my accent all day, and only talking to me in a kiwi accent all day wasn't enough. So our girls came last and second to last, but they all had a great day, with only a few bruises.

The rest of the week was just as good, and just as unique.
On friday morning while I was running around the school doing the registers, I was slightly distracted by there being an eclipse! Now because this is England it was cloudy, but I could see it and it was pretty spectacular!

Friday afternoon I watched the year 4 play of “Framed” and it was really impressive! It was a kind of “Night at the museum” storyline, but instead of a museum coming to life, paintings and photographs came to life.
That night was yet another sleepover, this time it was the year 5's turn, so that meant a night of walking between the dorms telling the girls to go to sleep and to stop talking, which of course they didn't do.

Saturday was a chilled day, so there's nothing much to tell you all about except that I watched a full game of rugby and really enjoyed it, so much so that I was yelling at the TV and on the edge of my seat (England needed to beat France by 26 points to win the six nations, and we were only try and a conversion short.) So working in a school where everyone follows the rugby has had an influence on me, and I cannot wait for the world cup to start because I now know some of the rules of rugby! Sunday was a bit different, as I actually left the school for a couple of hours! Every week the boarders have an activity on sundays, and this week it was skiing. Now there was no snow where they went skiing, instead there was this weird bristle mat thing on a hill. I know my explanation is horrific but I cant think of another way to describe it. Some of the kids who board here are crazy good at skiing/snowboarding, and some started crying as soon as they got on the slope and refused to do anything.

We had a pretty good day to spend it supervising the kids. it would have been miserable if it had rained

You can kind of see what the slopes are covered in. I thought it was a really good idea - skiing all year round!

After we got back from the ski trip I spent the afternoon playing just dance, table football and table tennis, of which I won most of the games I played (it might have helped that I was playing a 9 yearold) but then I played the post-grad gap here, and I bet him every time at table tennis, so all that practice I did when I was 12 has finally paid off!

And we're back to Monday! And as usual I have not done anything, but this week it was for my own good. There is a nasty ass virus going around the school right now, and half the boarders have had it, so I am sitting in my room to reduce my chances of getting it. I do not want to start the holidays with the virus (I don't want to go into detail of what this virus comes with – its not pretty..)

So, until next week then!

This was the sunset last night. The perfect end to the perfect week.