A Trip to Bristol

This day was very exciting indeed as it was action packed from the moment I woke up until the moment i went to Bed. So today the family decided to head into Bristol for the day and check out the SS Great Britain and have a feast at a buffet chain called Za Za Bazaar.

So once again we left for the days journey at 9am sharp and drove an hour and a half to get to Bristol. We immediately went into the SS Great Britain and started to have a look around both under the boat and on top. The ship spanned across approximately 200 meters over 3 stories and split into different sections relative to their respective pay grade.  There was first class in which there was massive banquet and private quarters for each client. Then there was second class which was our equivalent to economy class. This was where the workers of the SS Great Britain would have stayed. This had cabins shared between 4 people and little small areas to have tea.  Then there was third class. This area literally was the worst smelling area in all of Bristol. It took almost 3 hours to get the smell out of my nose and smelling clean (ish) air. The third class was where all the toilet wastage was stored, the animals were kept, and near the hard working engine room. The weirdest thing about the third class rooms was that I was the only person to think that it was a terrible smell. A lot of the people just walked straight through it whilst I was only person drowning in the stench. After we looked at the cabins we headed above deck and looked at took photos of the pirate looking ornaments and all the good features of the boat.

Once we finished our little tour of the SS GB, we went for a walk around Bristol, looking at the christmas lights set up around town. On our way through we had a stop for lunch in a buffet called Za Za Bazaar. This was better than any Sizzler in Australia. ItT WAS MASSIVE! The buffet was split up into 5-6 large islands of food. These included Entree islands, Asian Cuisine, Indian Cuisine, Mexican islands, and of course, the dessert island. These islands had massive varieties food to satisfy all customers big or small. So being Australian I immediately went to see what types of meat there was and boy did they not disappoint. 4 Plates of stuffing food later and I was done for. I could barely move. Except of course there is always enough room for dessert. 3 jelly cups and a plate of ice cream later and I had to call it quits. I could feel a storm of indigestion brewing in my stomach. We payed for the bill and all stumbled out of Za Za's in a not so smooth fashion.

Immediately after leaving the buffet though we happened to walk straight through a food market. I'm not too sure how but Zoe and Will were looking through almost every stall taste tasting a lot of the food. It seemed to be the motif of the day. Food.

We slowly made our way past the stalls and headed towards the Cathedral in the centre of Bristol. The sheer size of the cathedral was almost overwhelming. So of course I tried taking as many photos as possible. The mixture of the Massive Cathedral and the Christmas lights in Bristol really did make the day a magical one.

One of the most cherishing things I saw whilst walking back was that in the water there was 14 white swans and 3 black swans all swimming in a cluster along the River Aven. But since it was a massive day we all slept on the hour and a half trip until we arrived home and immediately went to bed.

Dene Magna Christmas Fair 4-5/12/15

Assistance Needed Immediately! Turns out before I even left for the UK the Weiss family had signed me up to help run a christmas games stall at the Dene Magna school Christmas Fair. So on Friday afternoon after school, Tom, Ollie a few new faces and myself helped transform the hall which was being used for exams into a Christmas winter wonderland. From singular tables to winter stall galore we transformed the hall ready for the event the next morning.


Bright n Early we woke up on the first Saturday as we got ready for the Christmas Festival. 9am came around and we were up at the school ready to sell our game. We set up a stall where the participant needed to throw ping pong balls into a series of jam jars, winning whatever prize was inside the respective jar. We also had Pin the tail on the Donkey, Name the Bear, and Guess the number of lollies in the jar. Together myself tom and Ollie ran the stall and scammed plenty of money off little kids. But in the end it all went to the fundraising towards a school trip to Okinawa in Japan. It was also a good time to look at some of the familiar faces from the School and buy a few gifts for Christmas.

First Night Of Explorers.

First Night of Explorers

Explorers had been all the hype since I had arrived. What activities do they do? What do they have planned? Are they more fun then us? Throughout the week Zoe had been hinting that the explorers would be plucking, skinning, and cooking pheasants if the weather were right, but unfortunately the weather went a bit south and we ended up for the first night going onto an abandoned farm/paddock and having massive nerf war between the unit.  This was a prime time to get to know a good portion of the unit, even though i couldn't see their faces most of the time. But on the first week of doing Explorers I was given an Explorer Scarf made particularly for their unit. It is cool groovy looking blue scarf with flames on the end, reminding me of a hot wheels car from back in Aus.

In the long and short of it though, I believe their Explorer group had left a reasonable impression on me for a good first night. It was a good way to meet the group via a Nerf war.

Second Day of School

Word is quickly spreading of my arrival with several more people coming around and greeting me and wanting to know why I came to their school. Many have said since I have arrived the school has never been so drawn to one section of the school. This would of mainly been to my "Big surprise" that I was a triple jump prodigy in their school. Although I perform just above average in triple jump in Aus, the students of Dene Magna were very excited to see someone who could jump 13m in triple jump. I "performed" 3 jumps, each with growing publicity. By the third jump the majority of the school had gathered around to see me jump.

I also met a very comforting grade 8 student by the name of Bailey, who reminds me alot of my next door neighbor Bradley at home. He seems to be my closest friend for the following couple of days as he shows me around the school and introducing me with the title "The Australian Slayer". I get a good giggle out of the nickname and gives the girls something to lean on. Still wouldn't consider getting with anyone though. Too much loyalty with the Mrs. at home. But false hope is always a giggle.

The First Day of School Wednesday 2/12/15

Now the glitz and glamour of just arriving has begun to wear off, I was introduced into the first day of school. Thinking it would be similar to school at home, i woke up at 6:50am....but the sun wasn't even up! So I continued to get ready like i would at home. Shave, Shower, Clothes on. Came back downstairs almost all ready to go to find Tom and Will in their dressing gowns looking like they had only just woke up. Slowly but surely we left out the door at 8:35 to head to their school Dene Magna.

Dene Magna is a small public school consisting of around 500 students consisting of many similar personalities to Australia, such as the loud mouth, the quiet kid, the opinionated person etc. I was greeted by the school Principle Mr Brady where he informed me all about the school and my role for the next 7 weeks. Once we had our introductions he showed me to my first class which was English with Mrs Meek. Mrs Meek is the Head of English and stated that I could either watch from a distance or just jump straight in helping out with novel work. Since it was the first lesson I kicked back and observed how everybody worked.

The second lesson I had that day was Maths with Mr. Jones. He was really excited to meet an Australian and immediately asked me to introduce myself to his class and got me to help him teach some maths to his class. I absolutely enjoyed it. The sudden intensity of teaching a brand new class really was exciting and pushed my limits considering I myself only just left school. But it really goes to show that if you have enough confidence you can be anything.

Once this lesson finished I moved along to my first tea break. This was spent in the Teacher Aide office where I got to know some of the teachers on a first name basis. Whilst every teacher in the school was drinking some tea, I was sipping on some good ol water.

The next bell went where i headed to my next Math lesson with Mr Macdonald. This lesson was on the opposite extreme of exciting. In a nutshell he sat me down and I did nothing whilst he taught. No introductions or anything. But thats alright.

At lunch the awareness of my arrival grew excessively as massive clusters of girls gathered round from all grades to listen to my voice and to constantly tell me how fit I was. Turns out Fit means good looking and not overly athletic. I'm enjoying the publicity thus far with many people to meet.

A day at the Museum

On the first full day of the exchange, all the boys and Paul were either at school or work. So Zoe (the mum) took me down to discover the roots of the Forest of Dean at the Forest of Dean Heritage museum. We left the house at 9am bright n early to make the opening for the museum. We walked in and were greeted by a lovely man named David. He was one of the final original miners from the Forest of Dean back in the 20th Century. He gave me and Zoe a very well in depth of the background of the area and what his role was in the mines. Once we finished our discussion we headed into the actual museum where there was all types of mining artifacts and photograph from the mining age.

We both took our time, soaking in the area and soaking in the information provided by the museum. Taking many photos of the pottery and the scenery surrounds.

But the highlight of the day struck when there was a small tour for the infamous children novel "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". I got Zoe to take a photo with me with every single handmade caterpillar on the tour. This experience really was an eye opener for me personally as I saw one of my favorite childhood novels come to life.