Chamberlain Clock in the Jewelry Quarter

Typical tourist picture with the phone booths at the top of New Street!

St. Paul's Square

Birmingham Assay Office

The Assay office was established in Birmingham in the late 1700s used to assay gold and silver for use in the jewelry quarter. The current assay office pictured above has been in use 1877. It is the largest existing assay office in Europe.

Sunday Dinner

Roast beef dinner and a pint for 6 pound....yes please!

It's been a little while since I updated this! We went on a skating adventure with a South African, a Swede, a Hungarian, and a German on wednesday! It was really fun although the skates were pretty horrible and their indoor arena was even worse. Over the weekend we didn't get up to much but managed to get out for some fun. We headed to the gay quarter of Birmingham for a lady gaga night which was pretty fantastic! Tomorrow we will finally get to move into our flat (we were waiting for the carpet, tile, and kitchen to be installed). So I will update and post some pictures when we get settled in!

I taught for the first time yesterday afternoon in a reception class (3/4 year olds). They were super cute but super busy! No funny questions about Canada today from this group, but I'm pretty sure they had no idea what I was talking about some of the time. For example at the end of the day I picked up a sweat shirt from the floor "Oh don't forget your sweater". The reply I got was "my whaaa? that's not what that is". "When I say sweater I mean jumper". Which was met with a couple of confused looks.
Afterwards we had a few drinks with a couple of the girls from the hostel where I was introduced to something called Magners flavoured cider which is SUPER delicious. No work in the schools today so this morning we had our first full ENGLISH breakfast at a place called the Big Bulls Head down the street from where we are staying.
As for tonight we are taking a few foreigners ice skating....so wish us luck!

New Street

Canals beside Gas Street

We had a pretty laid back Sunday (went out for a roast & pint) then viewed a house share on the resevior in Edgbaston which was cute with big rooms that we'd be sharing with a couple other girls before heading back to where we are staying for a night of movies.
Today we headed down to the office to fill in some more paperwork, and view a flat on Stirling Road.(You can view it on street view for google maps at 40 Stirling Road...it's the one with the the baby blue door...which is actually black now) And we are taking it...we're just waiting on the landlord to finish installing the new carpets and finish installing the BRAND NEW kitchen!! We move in Sunday!
We also headed to the jewelry quarter this afternoon for a little stroll through St.Peter's square (a graveyard turned park would be the only way to describe it). It was really nice and had HUGE trees and probably the most quiet area we've been in since we've arrived here.

Super Saturday

Today we managed to find ourselves a bus tour, the Big Brum Buz! It was pretty awesome! It began at the museum in Victoria square and covered Victorian buildings in the city centre, the jewelry quarter (where they still manufacture over 40% of silver and gold jewelry in the United Kingdom),and all the major downtown historical areas, parks and churches (including a really cool church and graveyard that we are going to go check out on foot one of these days). We also checked out Edgbaston where J.R.R. Tolkien grew up, married and lived for most of his life. It was a really nice area of the city and a really ritzy area to live in the past few centuries. The Birmingham University campus was also located in this part of the city and is SUPER nice.
After the tour we headed back into the museum for another wander, and stumbled upon a section we skipped the other day that displays ALL the metal work and jewelry.
Other then that it's been a pretty laid back day.
We've also started the hunt for flats which has so far been not too bad aside from the fact that it's sometimes hard to get past the accent on the other side of the phone! We have been to see two but are still looking for something that'll suit us. Hopefully we'll have some luck this coming week!

First Day in the Classroom!

Today we had an observing day in the classroom where we were able to go into a UK classroom and observe their morning routine. I was placed in a year 4 classroom with a Canadian teacher, coincidentally she happened to be from Chatham, Ontario! I helped out a bit with her lessons but it turned out to be a rapid fire interview courtesy of half a dozen eight year olds that went a little something like this:

"Oh my, Miss your accent is sooooo funny"
"That's because I'm from Canada"
"CANADA! Mrs. W went on her holiday there did you see her?"
"Nope I just met her today"
"Ohhhhh, where's your mum and dad?"
"In Canada"
"Is your whole family there?"
"Yes"
"Well how did you get here"
"On a plane"
"On a plane!? Was it expensive?"
"A little bit, but it was in Canadian dollars"
"Canada! Does it rain there?"
"Yes but not as much as here, it snows sometimes."
"When it snows do your neighbours all go stand outside?"
"Not a lot of people go out when it snows, it can get pretty cold"
"If you go outside with sandals on would your toes fall off right away?"

.....And that last one was a serious question.

Lazy Thursday

Today we had a little bit of a lazy day just apartment hunting and wandering around town. We stopped in at a cute little pub and I had a FULL Irish breakfast including white pudding which was soooo good but I regret googling the ingredients because I can now feel my arteries clogging...the two main ingredients are pork and pork fat (yum). After all that we headed to the library to get our sign out cards woo hoo.

Things I've learned so far:
yoghurt = yogurt
tyres = tires
apologise = apologize
car park = parking garage
lift = elevator
ranch dressing & popcorn don't exist & door knobs all turn the wrong way!

Victoria Square fountain & City Hall

We've Arrived!!

The first two days in Birmingham have been crazy...so much to see and do! After a day of training, setting up bank accounts, cell phones, and somewhat apartment hunting I managed to fit in some sight-seeing! We checked out Broad street, New Street, Paradise Forum, and the Bull Ring with tons of neat bars, restaurants, and shops before heading into the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (which houses the Staffordshire Hoard -- the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver discovered). After all that I topped off the day with my very first pint at a pub and a walk beside the canals!