Riches, Royalty and Rollercoasters

I do apologise for this post being a little bit later than usual, but as you will find out later on, I didn't have a normal Monday

So tuesday wasn't my usual day either. I spent a good part of the morning on skype to what seemed to be my entire family back home (The parents and sister, Grandparents, two aunts, an uncle and three cousins.. all at the same time..) which was really nice as I hadn't seen/ talked to my aunts and uncle and cousins since I left in december..

In the afternoon I went on a Classics trip to another school, and seriously saw how the other half live (the unimaginably rich other half).

The event was at a high school with about 5 other prep schools there (one of which was the school that Prince William and Prince Harry went to...).The kids spent the day doing various activities, and also learning a short drama piece on different Greek legends, that we later watched in the schools Greek theatre (yes, there was an outdoor greek-style theatre..)

After the performances we were served dinner, which was lamb and salad sandwiches, but on this fancy ciabatta bread, and then for dessert it was frozen yoghurt that is made at the school with honeycomb on top. Now as I was wearing jeans and the school jumper, it's needless to say that I was a tad underdressed, as most of the other teachers were in suits (and had these stupidly posh accents, that were so fancy I couldn't really understand what they were saying half the time, and the other half I spent trying not to laugh at their fancy accents.) Thankfully there was another GAP there, and since she was from Australia I had no problem understanding her, and we spent ages talking about the stupid language barriers here(even though we speak the same language as english people, they just can't understand us..) She also told me all about the richness of the college, as her school was just down the road. It costs just over £11,000 a term to board there, and instead of having someone sit outside the dining room and registering the students as they go in for lunch (like I have to), they have a fingerprint scanner. I'll just let that sink in...

Yes, those are tennis courts on real grass.. 

Wednesday was back to normal, so there's not a lot to tell you about, because you've all heard about forest school too many times (I am sorry about that..)

But for whole house night everyone went up to the woods and had pizzas for dinner, cooked in the pizza ovens and ohmygod they were soo good! Although it always surprises me just how greedy some of the kids are and how worried they are that there wont be enough food for them (when there obviously always is) and that really bugs me!

Thursday was another normal day. I spent the morning on skype with my friend back home, and then nothing else out of the ordinary happened really, well except for the fact that the weather was amazing (it has been all week) and at one point it was almost too hot (!!!). I spent the afternoon with the reception class playing cricket, or rather, trying to teach them how to play (tho I spent most of the time taking kids back to the class because they needed the loo.. apparently hitting a ball once out of ten bowles it a bit too much excitement for some kids..)

By the time Friday came around I was really tired for some reason, so I spent most of my spare time napping (I know..) and receiving parcels of things that I'd bought online earlier in the week (again, I needed most of the stuff I got)

Saturday was also quite an uneventful day. Even though there was a lot of kids boarding over the weekend, they spent most of the day watching films because the weather had turned so all their fixtures had been cancelled. In the evening I handed out tuck (what they call their treats/sweets here) and then watched some of the movie they were watching before having a half an hour lesson on Spanish by three spanish girls in year 5&6. It was then that I realised two things, the first being that I am quite good at copying what people are saying and can pretend that I actually know what I'm doing/saying, and the second being that I have a shocking memory, and would forget things that the girls had told me literally 5 seconds before.. I think I'll leave the Spanish up to Clo from now on. Although in saying that I do remember how to say a couple of phrases, that I'm sure everyone knows how to say, so it really isn't that impressive..

On sunday I spent most of the day outside again, in the morning I was sitting in the sun chatting to the other members of staff, and still trying to get a tan (and of course failing miserably), and then in the afternoon once all the boarders had gone on their activity, I went to a local high school and watched some of the kids play tennis. It actually turned out to be quite an educational trip because before Sunday I had no idea how tennis was scored, or what any of the rules were, and now I almost know enough so that if someone is talking about it I might be able to pretend I know what they're on about!

The College that the tennis was at was another expensive looking place with incredible grounds and expensive fees (I know because me and the other GAP were intregued so we googled it. Turns out that one term at that school probably costs more than all of the fees from all of my years at school combined...)

And so we're back to Monday. Now I bet you've been wondering what i've been up to today that resulted in the late post, and I assure you it has been worth it (well, for me at least.)

I spent the entire day at Thorpe Park, minus the two hours of travel to get there, and then the two hours back.. but the rest of the day I was there!

I went on as many rides as I could (achieving a total of 8 rides) which may not seem like a lot, but for the first two hours there I was on duty so I couldn't go on any rides. But once I was off duty, I was straight onto the tallest ride there. I think it was 62.something metres high, and went from 0 to 80mphh in less than two seconds (and I didn't hold on once). Needless to say it was incredible!

I think the kids (the boys in particular) were surprised that I was going on all the big rollercoasters, as most of the kids wouldn't go on them..

You know you've got a pretty fantastic job when you spent the day at a theme park going on all the rides, in the sunshine, and don't have to worry about getting home because that's what the coach driver is for!

Our base was next to the tea cups ride, and after half an hour of listening to the same tune on repeat I had to put my earphones in and listen to some real music..

This was the insanely good ride, and it was right behind where we were sitting so for two hours I heard other people having fun while I couldn't and it was infuriating 

Somewhere under all that water, there are some poor people who thought they would make it out dry. I have never seen a water ride that leaves you so soaking, or that makes a bigger splash. I didn't go on it because I didn't bring a change of clothes (and I didn't want a re-do of Florida..)

And here we are, another week gone!

So until next week then...