Half-term

Hiyaaa,

Here are some pictures from last week. The schools had their version of spring break (half-term) so I had five days off work while the Foster's went on holiday to Cairo...lucky me!


View of Windsor High Street from my friend Ronan's kitchen in the castle.


St. George's Chapel where dozens of royals are buried including King Henry VIII and King George III...this is our view when we go outside to smoke!


Another view from inside the castle (including the anti-tourist gates)


JFK memorial in Runnymede. This was really neat, it says: "This acre of English ground was given to the United States of America by the people of Britain in memory of John F. Kennedy, President of the United States 1961-63, Died by Assassin's hand 22 November 1963" (and then goes on to quote his inaugural address). So as I was standing their taking the picture I was actually on American soil, in a novelty kind of way...


View of London from the top of the Allied Air Forces Memorial in Runnymede


Getting blown away on the East Sussex coast.


Oh, oh, I think I see France in the distance!


A glimpse of Rye harbour


One of the picturesque medieval cobblestone streets in Rye


Couldn't resist. Waiting for the train to London with Morrissey


Drinks with the Eton girls: Anouk, Lauren, Myself, Danielle and Holly

Speaking of the Eton girls, some of us are off to go to yoga now. It's been almost 2 months now...sheeeesh.

Love love love,
Kelsea

Aussies, Snow, and the Full English Brekkie

Hey dudes,

I've finally forced myself to sit down for an update, I really couldn't be bothered the past couple weekends! I do have loads of pictures to make up for it, however:


Me and my boyfriend Jamie Oliver hanging out in the tube on the way to an Australia Day party with my Aussie friend, Lauren. Isn't he cute? Everyone here hates him for some reason!


The line to get into Waxy O'Connor's for the Australia Day thing. It was pretty miserable outside so we went and got sushi across the street until the line got a little less ridiculous.


We finally got inside...so many Aussies! I'm pretty sure they were well over capacity, we could hardly get a drink. Or move. Or breathe really...


Cute.


Half awake in London with my first full English breakfast: baked beans, a fried egg, sausage, bacon, tomato, mushrooms and toast. Oh, and of course a cup of tea loaded with milk and sugar...yumm.


The first of the snow (if only we knew!)


The view from my window on the day of the "terrible" snow ordeal. We got maybe half a foot of snow and the entire country shut down. I didn't even have to do anything that day because they closed the boys' school and their Mom didn't go in to work. London literally came to a standstill, you couldn't get any trains, and the bus and tube lines shut down. That night at the dinner table my host dad, Rob, asked me what would happen if we got the same amount of snow back home, to which I replied "Nothing really."


Snow again from my bedroom with the castle in background.


One of the fountains in Trafalgar Square in front of the National Gallery. This hardly captures how beautiful that night was (or how cold it was).


Birthday drinks at Lauren's with most of the Eton au pairs/nannies- Anouk from the Netherlands, Lucy's boyfriend Ned, Lauren, Lucy, Holly from Australia, Danielle, Carolina from Mexico, Nadia from Czech Republic, and Deb from New Zealand (Lucy and Danielle are just English, heh)


Lauren and I got a hotel in London the weekend after her birthday so we could do some proper partying without having to worry about getting a train home. I thought our view was kind of cute; it was nice being somewhere that wasn't super tourist oriented for once.


Trying to figure out how to pay for dinner...I've almost got their silly coins figured out. They have a penny, a 2 pence coin, then 5p, 10p, 20p, and 50p coins. It's not particularly confusing, but when you're in line paying for something it does get annoying having to stop and think about it!


Loz and I at a club in Shorditch called Sosho. We had to queue for a little while and when we got up to the front the door guy let everyone with us go in, asked us where we were from, and very sternly told us "We don't allow Americans or Australians." (We must have stood there arguing with him for 5 minutes before realizing he was just being cheeky...)

So that was my last few weeks. I can't believe I've been here for over a month already, it's starting to scare me. Before I know it I'll be getting my stuff together to go back to Kansas...god forbid!

Love love love,
Kelsea

Barick Obamer

Hiya, I'll have to make this a quick update as I'm meeting some friends soon!

This past week flew by so quickly; I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Last Sunday a few of us Eton girls went to London for the day for some touristy things and some shopping on Regents street (amazing!) and all I can say is I can't wait for it to warm up! It seems silly, but we really couldn't wait to hop on the tube every time we moved on to our next destination after standing out in the cold just because they keep the underground so warm!

Tuesday was of course a very special day in America and I made the boys watch the inaugural speech with me (Nick and I had a little argument after I said "bar-ACK" instead of "BAR-ick" as they tend to pronounce it here. Silly!) That night I met some friends in London for an Obama Party and was relieved to be able to speak to some Americans, having literally not done so since I arrived weeks ago. And, just to make the night that much more memorable, I of course tripped getting into a taxi and fell flat on my face, mainly my mouth, and am still nursing the resulting fat lip!

Now I'm off for a night of drinking legally, hehe.

Love love love,
Kelsea

Pictures...finally!

Hi hi, here are some pictures finally...I have about a million more but thought these were special:


View of the Eton College Chapel from one of my bedroom windows


One of the Eton playing fields with Windsor castle in the far background...greenest grass I've seen in my life.


Inside St. George's Chapel at the castle. I wasn't supposed to be taking pictures but God didn't say anything?


Windsor Castle and the high street


View of Big Ben, West minster Bridge etc. etc. from across the Thames


The Tower Bridge...it looks nice here but it was actually terribly windy and cold!


Myself and my Dutch friend, Anouk, being weird on the train...(I promise we're not drunk, it was noon on a Sunday!)


Myself, Lauren from Australia, and Anouk looking well-mannered after lunch in London


Cute.


Piccadilly Circus (and myself)


Piccadilly Circus


Love love love,
Kelsea

The cinema, the castle, the club, and ABBA

Hello hello,

Having decided that Saturday will be the official update-my-blog day, here is update #2. Nothing too exciting has happened since last Saturday but, in true Kelsea fashion, I'll make a list:

1. Went to a movie (*film) at a British movie theater (*cinema)

This wasn't actually too exciting but we did have to drive a little ways to get there, on the left side of the road, and having never been in a car at night here it was actually really scary and confusing (I think it was the headlights). We originally were going to see the Che Guevara movie but somehow got stuck seeing Sex Drive which sounds really terrible and is really terrible. It's one of those movies like Superbad where they use really offensive humor (*humour) to entertain high school-aged kids. I will admit that it secretly made me miss America though (they go on a road trip through the mid-west) and I left the theater with a craving for Taco Bueno. (Side note: whenever my friends from here say "taco" ("tock-o"), they say "taack-o", which is hilarious.)

2. Hung out at the Castle and giggled at the Queen's guards' hats

Once we got over the initial excitement of being at the castle, it was really fun just to remind each other/ourselves that we were in the castle when we were doing really un-castle-like things. That sounds bad, but I mean silly things like flying remote control helicopters, or making pancakes. Oh yeah, and the guards. Hilarious. They're the ones who aren't allowed to talk or move. It sounds like such a cliche, but when you see them standing there with their fuzzy hats (*bearskins) you immediately want to go and try to get a reaction out of them. Or just giggle.

3. Went out dancing at a proper club

This is something I would never do in Wichita! I had heard really terrible things about the huge clubs here and how gross the people there were, but somehow I was convinced to go last Sunday. Maybe it was because it was a Sunday and all the gross people were at home, but I definitely had so much fun. This place is called Liquid- they have the ropes outside, and it costs £6 to get in ($9) and £1.50 ($2.25) to check your coat, which you are required to do. The thing I like about it though is they have two dance rooms, one that plays really terrible hip-hop and Britney Spears and such, and one that plays good new music and even better old music. (Needless to say, we hung out in the latter.) I did find out that if you're going to go, take your own guys with you, because otherwise you'll be asked to dance by all kinds of gross dudes, (who can somehow always spot my accent just after a "HUH?")

4. Sang lots of ABBA and made lots of cheese on toast, both for the children

I had never seen Mamma Mia! (the musical made up of ABBA songs) or really listened to ABBA before I came here, but Louise, my lovely host mom (*mum) got the DVD for Christmas and I've probably seen it about 6 times now. The boys love it! Thomas (the 3-year-old) and I were on our way back from swimming lessons at the Leisure center (that's LEE-sure, I refuse to say LEH-sure no matter how much I get made fun of!) and I was pushing him in the stroller (*pram) singing Super Trouper quite obnoxiously, all the while Thomas was very adamantly correcting my mis-sung lyrics. Speaking of Thomas, I make him lunch after picking him up from pre-school (*nursery) everyday and I think I'm becoming quite the pro on British kid food. Back home it's peanut butter & jelly (*jam) and grilled cheese, but here it's Marmite soldiers and cheese on toast, (I showed him the peanut butter sandwich I was eating and he promptly "eww"ed). When he asked for cheese on toast the first time, I thought about it a little and came back with a delicious grilled cheese sandwich. Cheese on toast, however, is exactly that, some toast with melted cheese on top, and he couldn't understand why I had stuck the bread together. Silly American!

Thanks for reading, and now I'm going to work on posting some pictures. Promise!

Love love love,
Kelsea

*indicates silly British counter-word

My first report from across the pond...

Hiya everyone,

Well, I've made it almost 2 weeks. After a rough start, things are getting exponentially better by the minute. It really is amazing what new friends and internet access can do to improve moral!

For those of you who haven't heard the whole story of why I'm here, I'm working as a nanny for a housemaster at Eton College, a super prestigious private school for boys. Apparently, being in charge of about 50 teenage boys 24/7 is a pretty daunting task, so some of the housemasters here have nannies to make sure their own children are being taken care of. My lovely host family, the Fosters, found me on greataupair.com and after months of waiting, here I am. I couldn't have asked for a better job either, I work from 11:30 am to 5 pm Mondays through Fridays watching their two boys (3 and 6). Other than that, I'm free to come and go as I please, so my nights and weekends are totally free.

The location is pretty perfect also; the town of Eton is just 20 miles outside of central London, or about a 20 minute train ride. Though Eton isn't extremely exciting, just a 5 minute walk from my front door is Windsor, which is full of great shops, restaurants and pubs (did I mention it has a gigantic castle?) It's really nice being able to walk everywhere, something I definitely didn't ever do in Wichita (if you know me well you would be proud of how much walking I do!) Like I mentioned, London is just a short train ride away and I've found their underground system to be a piece of cake so I can usually get to where ever I want to go. It's a fun city to visit but London is too big for a little Kansas girl like me, and there's really plenty to do here.

Thursday night, one of the housemasters' wives arranged a dinner party for some of the aupairs here at the college and I was able to make some new friends. A few of us went out to a pub in Windsor last night and sat and drank wine for a bit (not exactly British, I know). Pretty soon, we were approached by a group of guys who wanted to know if we would like to go back to the Royal Castle for some drinks. Obviously we assumed they were drunk dudes trying to pick up some girls but, as it turned out, they live at the castle as professional singers for the Queen...no joke. Next thing we knew we were yelling out a castle window, pretending to be the Queen, ridiculing all the people down on the Windsor high street. This is all in stark contrast to my previous Friday which consisted of me wondering around by myself trying to find a spot with wifi, so like I said, things are getting exponentially better.

I have about a million pictures to post, so hopefully I can get around to doing that later this afternoon, and also here's some info on how to reach me, should you feel so inclined:

Address-
Hawtrey House
Eton College
Eton, Windsor
Berksire
SL4 6DR
UK

UK cell phone number-
(44) 750 166 7893

Email-
kelsea.rebecca@gmail.com

MSN Messenger Email-
kelseawoo@hotmail.com

There'll be many more posts to come in the next 6 months so check back about every week or so to hear the lastest from me,


Love love love love (especially to my parents, Liz, Brandon, and my bros)
Kelsea