London Time

I am in the beginning of my second week of Christmas break and I have recently returned from London. It is raining outside, it's quiet, and I have nothing to do, except read (Hooray!!), so, I thought that I would share a bit from my time in London.

My mom and I flew out on 20th December and landed in London on 21st December. The first day seemed long and filled with amazing things and then it was time to go home. Why do vacations pass so quickly?!

We purchased our plane tickets eight months ago, so I had plenty of time to make lists and lists of things that we wanted to see and do. We also purchased tickets for things like afternoon tea, tours, and musical delights!

Our flight was delayed for some reason and then once we were all boarded, we were delayed for about an hour, because a passenger decided that they did not want to fly after all and all of the luggage on the plane had to be taken off so that their 9 bags could be removed. Then everything was re-loaded and we were on our way. I've never heard of someone changing their mind to fly once they are already on the plane! The removal of the luggage was a security issue, so I was totally ok with it. Right after we landed, my mom and I set out on foot, in the dark of the evening, to see what we could find. It just so happens that we stumbled upon the London Eye and the winter market that they hold there, on the Southbank.

Monday- Our first full day: We took a tour to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath. I was extremely excited for this tour, especially the bit in Bath. I am a self proclaimed Jane Austen fan and I was in such a state to be where she once stood and also see sites that she has mentioned in her books 'Persuasion' and 'Northanger Abbey'. So, I was quite disappointed when we barely got to spend and hour here. I was able to see Bath Abbey, but my mom and I had to run through the Roman Baths. I just have to get back there some day and spend a proper amount of time weaving through the streets and seeing all that there is to see... Jane Austen's house for one!

The guards marching up the hill to the castle, for the changing of the guard. They came drumming and fife-ing along.

A street in Bath.

Tuesday- Day two: We were supposed to take a trip to Oxford. I couldn't believe that I was going to be able to eat at the same pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolkein used to hang out. However, at the last minute, my mom decided that it would be too expensive to travel there, so we walked around London and did a little sight seeing and shopping.

Did I mention that we went to the Twinings tea shop? Established in 1706... still family owned!

The Embankment along the Thames, going toward the Houses of Parliament

Wednesday- Day three- Christmas Eve: We spent our time walking around Piccadilly Circus and we also visited Fortnum and Mason. This is an amazing place. I had researched it ahead of time and I knew that I wanted to buy some tea and a teapot from them. It turns out that they have been the grocer to the Royal family for hundreds of years! If you ever make it to London I really suggest a visit to this location. It has beautiful window displays, especially at Christmas and there are many floors to explore. Although, it can get busy, it is nowhere near at crazy as Harrods! Don't even bother with Harrods, it's a diaster. You can barely move in there. After doing some shopping, we went to the Piccadilly Theatre and saw 'Jersey Boys'. It was pretty good!

We then headed directly to Royal Albert Hall, for my most favorite part of our entire trip. We attended the last performance of the season, of  'Carols by Candlelight'. The orchestra was dressed in Regency clothing, wigs and all! There was Mozart, Vivaldi, Beethoven, etc. and everyone in attendance sang carols in between pieces that the orchestra played and songs that the choir sang. It was great! What a lovely venue as well. It was a magical night!

Royal Albert Hall

Inside Royal Albert Hall

Thursday- Day four- Christmas Day: We did an all day walking tour of London. We saw many things that we had already discovered on our own, but we were also taken down many side streets and alleys that we never would have found on our own. I wish that more historical information was given throughout the day, but we did have a pretty substantial amount given to us. However, it did seem that many things were glossed over and hardly any time was spent on picture taking. My mom and I met a lot of great people that were in our group and it was an enjoyable experience. If you don't want to put on any weight during the holiday season, may I suggest a 14 mile walking tour??!

A great thing about this tour, is that we started at 6 am and London was practically deserted. So, we had the very great opportunity to take some photos with no one in them!

The Royal Courts of Justice

This reminded me of 'Bridget Jones' Diary'... He's a top barrister!

Friday- Day five- Boxing Day: We went to afternoon tea at the Berkeley. What a hotel! I am pretty sure that I would never be able to afford to stay at this hotel. The tea was 49 pounds per person! I keep telling myself, that the price was well worth the experience that we had. We had the Berkeley Blend tea and the tier of sweets were based off of winter's fashion moguls and their new fashion pieces. It was pretty fun. Our server was great and we had a very nice gal chat us up about our Christmas and she also offered to take our photo. My mom was having a hard time feeling like she should be in such an expensive setting, but I told her that we all paid to be there and we deserve to be there just as much as the next person. I enjoyed our time there!

Inside the Berkeley

Tea

Aren't the sweets fun?!

Saturday- Day six: We headed home. Our flight was delayed because there was a problem with one of the pilots and they had to call in a replacement. He had to come from Essex, so our delay time was about an hour and a half. Luckily, they boarded us quickly after he arrived and we were safely on our way. We had a pretty smooth flight and although I miss London, I am happy to be home.

I would love to visit England again and spend more time in Bath, make my way to the Costwolds and Oxford, and also spend a bit of time in Lyme. I hear that the countryside is lovely. I just had a fabulous experience. I highly recommend a trip to London!

I had to bring some tea items home, of course!!

I forgot to mention that I went to the Dickens House Museum. It is in one of Charles Dickens; old homes! It was really neat.

If you are interested in any of the things that I mentioned, you may go to my London, Oxford, Bath board on pinterest! Anything that I found interesting, I posted to this board. 

I hope that you will stick around, because I hope to do a recipe for Sticky Toffee Pudding soon! I ate some in England and I just had to have it again!

Happy new year! 2015 already! How did that happen?!

My Czech Experience

I am back from the Czech Republic and have been for five days.  Here is a video that kind of wraps up our time in the Czech Republic nicely.  Check out the Czech team.

Because I wrote a nice newsletter for family and friends, I am going to post that here, as it sums up most of the trip... hopefully in a nice manner.

Newsletter

I have successfully made it back to the United States, from the Czech Republic.  Before heading out on this trip, I prayed that the California, Chicago, and Czech teams would get along famously and that we would connect with our students quickly.

We were told that it would take until Wednesday for our students to bond with us.  I am here to report, that we were very successful in the relationship front, and I believe that that is how God got four students to become Christians by the end of the week.  But, I am getting ahead of myself.

The trip:

It was so exciting to meet the Chicago team for the first time at O’Hare International airport and instantly have stuff to talk about and be able to form friendships, before we even got on the plane.  Friendship is a great thing to have when you are sitting on the plane for two hours before take off, due to some cargo mishap.  Once we took off, our nine hour flight to Helsinki, Finland went very well.  However, due to being two hours late, we missed our connector to Prague and had to sit in the airport for seven hours.  Ahh!  I don’t know how we did it, but playing card games, walking around, and eating helped pass the time.

Once we landed in Prague, we boarded two separate trains, ending up in Vysoke Myto (Northern Czech Republic, near Poland).  Our hosts were waiting for us and whisked away to their respective homes.  All of the hosts were a part of the Czech church team and they would serve as English camp leaders and translators in our classrooms.  It was nice to sleep in a bed, after 36-ish hours of traveling.

Friday, Our first full day in Vysoke Myto, the Czech team took us to a Chateau and we got to tour it and gain some knowledge about local history.  A student and church member set up a garden party in our honor and we got to use this time to get to know the other teams better.

On Saturday, we left by bus, for camp.  Many of the English camp students were on the bus with us.  We got to the camp in the rain and that was very foreshadowing of the weather for the entire week at camp.  That night we had the chance to meet our classroom students and then we played a game outside, and that was pretty much one of three moments at camp, that there was no rain.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t think rain at camp is very fun.  You expect to be outside and playing, having fun.  But, with grace we accepted this challenge and moved forward into the week.

During the week this is what the schedule looked like:

7:15 am daily devotions.  (This was mandatory for all team members, but was open to anyone that would like to come.)

8:00 am breakfast (time to hang out with students)

9:00 am Classes (Two lessons, sometimes three)

12:30 pm Lunch and the beginning of free time (I usually used this time to play Uno, Catchphrase, and any other old camp game we could think of.)

4:00 pm An afternoon camp game

6:00 pm Dinner

7:00 pm an Evening game and then we moved into the night ‘Sermon’.  I use that word lightly, because it was very Christian focused, but done in a way to interest those, that might not be interested.  We always opened with worship songs and the camp song.

8:00 pm Night discussion groups.  We had two different types of groups… Spiritual and Non- Spiritual.  In the spiritual groups, students who were interested in God or had questions about Christianity, could discuss with students, teachers, and translators that would help guide them.  The non-spiritual groups, we still introduced God, but not directly.  We asked them questions that got them thinking about qualities of Christianity and God, without throwing it in their faces.  Planting seeds, and nurturing them, but allowing time for God to work, even if it takes a year.  This discussion time lasted as long as the students were talking.

Midnight-  Lights out.

The schedule was the same everyday, but of course variety found its way into the mix.  Vlada, the pastor of the church in Vysoke Myto led games everyday and they were wild.  Some took place in the rain and some involved us touching slugs (eww!), sticking our heads in mayonnaise pasta water (eww!) and being intentionally stung by stinging nettle.  Yes, I did all of those things and more.

I saw God working in the close relationships I made with Czech students Ota, Ondrej and Lucie.  Some members of my team and the Chicago team hung out with these students everyday, we played games together and we ate together.  We sat together at the evening sermon.  It was great and Ota and Ondrej left with a Bible at the end of the week.  Ota is seriously considering becoming a Christian and thinks he will be the first in his family.

My roommate and student Eva,  asked me about God when I was in the non-spiritual group and I got to tell her about the trinity.  The theme of the camp was ‘Challenge’ and I think it was a challenge for her to ask me that question and it was a challenge for me to answer her in a way that would encourage her to ask more questions.

Four students came to Christ by the end of the week:  Evča (Evcha) , Simča (Simcha), Esther, and Tomaš (Tomash).  It was nice to see them at Church, the day after camp ended.  I am excited to keep in touch with them and to see where they will be in a years time.

Even though it rained just about everyday, we were able to make connections with our students and form relationships that will hopefully continue throughout the years.  You wouldn’t believe how easy facebook makes it to keep in touch with these students!  I’ll be able to use that as a tool to answer any questions that may arise throughout the next few weeks, months, or years.

To end, I’ll share a funny camp happening:

There isn’t much curly hair in the Czech Republic, so once again, I was thrust into crowds of people wanting to touch my hair.  Well, one student, Kiki always wanted to touch my hair.  One day, she touched it and said, “Your hairs are like little worms.”  Ha ha.  Sometimes, I would be standing in a group, and I would feel someone touching my hair… it was always Kiki and she would say, “Hello, it’s me, are your worms happy today?”

Thank you for your support during the preparation of this trip, and during it.  I think I speak for everyone when I say, your prayers were heard and we all had a great time getting to know our Czech teammates and students.  I have been asked if I will go back again next year and right now, the answer in undoubtedly, Yes!

Thanks again!

Love, Tiffiny

Here are some photos from the trip as well:

Spending time in the Helsinki airport...

At the train station in Prague (Praha)...

At the Chateau...

In Vysoke Myto (Vi-So  Kay- Meto)...

English Camp...

They are trying to get me to solve the puzzle below... but they mostly speak Czech...

I really did not like this part of the game.

Having my portrait drawn by an English student.

Kayla teaching the vocabulary for the day.

Our students acting out a restaurant scene. (Host, Guest, Waitor)

Niko's back after stinging nettle.

My friends and teammates for an afternoon game.

Us girls had to pull them al apart.  Success!

Classroom 1 is the best!  Would you learn with us as teachers?  Of course!

They learned so much.  Ha ha.

But really, they did learn over 100 vocabulary words and their English truly improved throughout the week.

Before the broken window!

One of the best dinners of the week!  Blueberry dumplings.

 Ondřej and Lucie (siblings)

Ota and Eva (Cousins)

Bonfire!

Classroom 1!

The teachers and the translator!

These guys... always playing games on their phones and computer...

How many people can we get in one frame?

The church in Vysoke Myto.

With Katka (middle), our Czech Host.

For those who suffered under communism. (Prague by Petřin Hill)

Oh escalators in Prague...

On the Charles Bridge.

At John Lennon's wall.

I ate so much zmrzlina (ice cream) on this trip!