England, Oxford and The Dragon School

So here it is! The one thing I said I would never do yet here I am starting my own blog. I thought this may be a fun way to keep in touch with the family and I can also post photos for you all to see from my adventures here in the UK and also Europe.

The hardest thing now is finding where to start! I have been here for 68 days and it is finally starting to warm up. Gone are the days of getting up in the pitch black, quickly turning the shower on and then jumping back into bed to wait the 15mins for the hot water to reach my room on the third floor of the house. I start my day at 6.45.. A very gross early wake up! I venture downstairs by 7.00 to open all the curtains and turn on all the lights. It is a fact that when you are living with boys if you don't do it.. It will NEVER get done. Honestly they can sit there with all the curtains drawn and lights off all day. So it is then breakfast time. I sit on a table with 12 B block boys (year 7) and every morning I have the same thing for breakfast.. Corn flakes with sultanas and yoghurt, yet now the one boy that sits next to me each day now has the same breakfast as well. He watches how many times I mix it and how much milk I pour in and where and then does the exact same.. Would be cute if I could stand the boy! So it is then back to the house for the daily routine of pants and socks, washing, dorm tiddiness chart, sewing, cooking etc etc.. I must say though I am getting used to having to cook in mass loads. Everyday I am making some sort of cake or cookies to feed at least 50 hungry boys! By the way the photo is of my house that I live in with 40 smelly boys!

When the boys come back they normally switch on the television and have a chill out session for an hour! After this they then have an hour where they have free time. Normally the boys wither go and play football or saty in house. We have recently started a card craze in the boarding house and now we have a bit of a league going. It is amazing how competetive they all get even when there is nothing at stake!

Ok so now to some of the boys.. Of course with every school, I have my favourites. My number one is a greek boy called Jack. Impossible name I know! He is such a sweetheart and we have so much fun together! Yesterday he got dumped though by his girlfriend of 1 and a half weeks. He was heartbroken but after one of my magical hot chocolates and whipped cream he was feeling a bit better. He is also one of the leads in the school musical which starts this week and also the captain of the 1st! Each Wednesday they have a match and he always asks if I can come along and watch.. Makes me feel like a proud Mum on the sidelines :) So number two is Rupert. He is just a typical pom but we also have lots of fun together and are always laughing and have the occasional pillow fight! So that is just a taste of some of my favourites. There is however two boys that I always seem to have difficulty with.. One's name is Cheni and he runs away all the time and stresses us all out to the extreme the other is Duncan. Last weekend we had an exeat weekend which is a long weekend where all the boys have to leave the boarding house for the weekend. Duncan was asking me about what I was up to for it. Before I even had a chance to answer he came back with 'i think you should sleep.. you have really big eye bags!!' I couldn't believe it! Cheeky little bugger!

So now to Oxford.. This city is AMAZING and there is always something to do or see! On a Saturday night we get off at 7.30 so it is time for us to let our hair down and just forget about the piles of washing we have sitting back at house for us! A few weekends ago we got into a club being VIP's and I am talking our own area, free entry and even free drinks! It was an epic night and one I will never forget! We were treated like celebrities and now two of the girls work there doing promotional work!


But now to the all important stuff! The travelling and seeing the world! For our half term break all of the gappies here at the Dragon School and nearly every other gappie in England spent the week on a paddy wagon tour all through Irealand! It was a fantastic experience and so so much fun! We would travel all day through Ireland stopping at all the tourist destinations and then party all night! It was basically like schoolies all over again.. Just staying is hostels instead of a hotel.. I think I know which I would have prefered! The country side that backed right onto the ocean was spectacular, yet the cities like Belfast had this really scary feel to them. I can't really explain it.. However we are now coming up to the Easter holidays.. Although I am heartbroken that I am going to miss Copton Dam and camping there I will be spending my easter break going to Euro Disney in Paris and then a week in Spain and a week in Portugal! It is going to be an amazing trip just with friends so stay tuned for the photos of my Easter Sunday on the beach in Spain!

So twice a term we have a thing called an exeat. This is basically a long weekend where all of the boys have to be out of the house all weekend! This is something I really look forward to because we work every weekend considering the boys go to school on a Saturday! So for both exeats I went to London with Lucy Cush! the first time I went we did all the touristy things; saw big ben, the london eye, Buckingham Palace, Picadilly Circus etc etc. The second time however we went in for a GAP party! It was lots of fun and definatley an experience..

So the days are going by so fast and suddenly a week is gone and then a month has passed by.. It is weird to think that I only have the length of a pregnancy left here! So stay tuned for more updates from me and my year in the UK..

xx