Barcelona!!!!

A brilliant half-term holiday in Barcelona!!

Our journey began with a very very very long flight!! Our flight left London on its journey to Milan, where we had a lay-over time of 10 hours!! That was not a very good experience...... Then after our horrible night in Milan Linate Airport, we boarded our short flight to Barcelona. Once there, we got in a taxi and in broken English and Spanish, we eventually got to our apartment.

Throughout the entire week, we went around the city looking at all the major tourist sites, but for a lot of the time, we spent walking up and down Las Ramblas and doing some shopping. We also headed to the famous Barceloneta Beach a few times. I can now tick of a swim in the Mediterranean off the bucket list haha!!

Las Ramblas

Our trips to the beach were excellent! Beautiful sun and relatively warm weather kept us coming back to the famous Spanish beach. There were a few annoying things though....a lot of men and women were selling things on the beach and they kept annoying us, wanting us to buy things, but we never gave in to them....on a few occasions we got a bit aggressive!!
On one nice evening, we decided to go to a cocktail bar on the beach......haha!!

Beautiful beach weather

A "Sex on the Beach" cocktail

 Major tourist sites such as the Barcelona architecture and the Sagrada Familia were big sites on our visit.

I simply cannot go into every detail of our trip as it would make this blog exceptionally long!!! But I do want to say how enjoyable this entire holiday was. Thankyou to Rachel, Eliza and Ally for coming along with me. We had an absolute blast!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAT A SPECTACULAR HOLIDAY!!!!!!!!

Beginning of term 2!!

Hey there!!

I have begun my second term here at White Lodge!! So far, as I look back at this blog, the time I've spent here has been fantastic.

So far this term, I have seen two ballets! I went and saw Romeo and Juliet with Suzanne. It was a wonderful day, filled with great company. The performance was simply spectacular. It was at Sadler's Wells, with a live orchestra. The music was Prokofiev so I was very impressed seeing that I have played the famous number "Montagues and Capulets."

The second ballet I saw was only a few days ago. It was a performance of The Great Gatsby. Again, another spectacular performance!! I had no idea of the story before going into the theatre, and had no idea what was going on for most of the show, but the whole atmosphere of the place was pretty amazing! (Unfortunately ballets do not have any words in it so everything is portrayed via dance.)

I have been doing a few trips around London, going to see all the sights of this amazing city. The Globe Theatre was just one of the many things I have seen since the beginning of term 2.

The Globe

 
Despite seeing all these fantastic attractions and sights, I have also been very taken with the atmosphere of London. The city is such a vibrant place to live and I am very grateful for being here. At nigh, the city really does change. The lights and sights from the Thames is simply unbelievable.

Me on the Thames....St Pauls in the background

I am off to Barcelona for a week at half term, so I will write again after that with my Spanish experiences.

:)

Mum here!!!!!!! (end of first term)

At the end of first term, my mum came to visit me!!!! She arrived a few days before the end of term, which meant that she could come to school while the students were there to watch a few ballet classes. She loved it!!!

When she came, she brought with her the music for the Elgar cello concerto. We went up to the Salon and played it together with me on the cello and mum on piano. What a grand and historical room to be playing such a personal bit of music between mum and I. We played underneath all the great portraits of royalty!!! Quite fitting!!

Mum playing Elgar

 We stayed in a lovely apartment in Richmond while she was here and while I was on holidays. We decided to stay in the London area for the time that she was here, so we could do all the London attractions and go shopping......which we did quite a lot of. I think I visited every Fossil shop in the greater London area looking with mum for a handbag.....she ended up taking two home with her!!!!

We went to Greenwich one day as a little outing......it was freezing cold!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a great day though. We visited the Royal Observatory and watched the red orb drop to mark the time. We also found the sight of the Tudor palace (a little gem find). A walking tour made us familiar with the area and was very informative. We then headed further east towards the Thames barrier (which mum was determined to see for some reason). Despite a great fear of heights, mum and I went on the Emirates Sky Rail (a cable car) up high and over the river. Many excellent photo opportunities from up there.

Mum freezing at Greenwich

 We also traveled to Windsor Castle! We felt very special seeing the royal flag on the flag post, indicating that the Queen was in residence.....sadly we did not see her (haha!!) The staterooms and changing of the guard were quite spectacular. A guided audio tour filled us in on the vast history of the place.

A day trip to Cambridge was also included in our little tour of the London area. We decided to take an open top bus tour around Cambridge. It is such a beautiful place!! After seeing all the sights such as the colleges and finding out little facts such as the only degree offered at Cambridge other than medicine and veterinary science is Arts! Fancy that!!

Kings College Cambridge (shot from tour bus)

The rest of the week was made up of long walks, resting, eating and shopping.
I had a simply amazing time with my mum and it was great to see her for the first time in a few months. I can't wait for August when both my parents come to visit me.

A beautiful shot of my beautiful mum

Turbulent times at White Lodge... (second half of first term)

After the half term trip to Ireland, the remaining weeks of the first term were quite a difficult few for the seniors at White Lodge. They were busy doing auditions and filling out application forms for various schools across the country and the world.
As the term progressed, the big "Upper school" audition came and went with as much nerves as anticipated. After seeing all the year 11's work so hard for this, I decided to get them all a little sweet treat so I bought some very decorated cupcakes. Not many complaints about those coming from the common room!!

A day after their final Upper School Audition, they found out the results. I can't imagine what they went through.....the stress and anxiety would have crushed any other person....but these kids are ready for it. They have been ready for events like this for their entire lives as it takes a certain kind of person to reach this stage in the dancing world. Their determination, courage and love for ballet will never change, regardless of the result of their auditions.

After a very stressful two hour wait, they all had the results for Upper school. Some were teary, others were joyous and some were just like normal.

After only knowing these kids for a few weeks, I know that they will do well no matter where they continue their dance studies.

I wish all year 11 the best of luck with your future dance studies!!!! I look forward to seeing a few names in future ballets.

:)  

Ireland!!!! Half term holiday

The half term holiday finally came around and that meant my trip to Ireland on a Paddy Wagon tour!! I would highly recommend the Paddy Wagon tour people. It was such a fun and exciting tour and certainly well worth the cost.

I got the train to Hemel Hempstead and was met by Ally and Eliza. I stayed at their school that night then we got the plane from Luton to Dublin later that afternoon.

After arriving in Dublin we stayed 1 night in the hostel and then the next morning we joined the tour group.

We were on one of the smaller buses (about 35 people on it) but it turned out to be the best bus on the tour! Our tour guide Gab was fantastic. He was hilarious!! He would sing little Irish songs and tell us all about the sights we were seeing. After the first day, Gab named the bus Nicki, and played "Starships" every time we set off in the morning.

I won't go into incredible detail about each day, because we did soooo much!!! But I'll add the link to the Paddy Wagon website which has a nice itinerary.   

http://www.paddywagontours.com/tourView.php?id=160

The tour was sooo much fun!!! I was incredibly tired by the end of it, but I had some very fun times on the tour.

I met about 14 people who I am still in contact with. We called ourselves the awesome 15!! Haha!!

After returning from Ireland, I certainly have some funny stories and fond memories :)

A massive catch-up!!!!

I'm very sorry for the lack of posts lately, but it has been extremely busy at the school for the last month.

I'll write a some posts to catch-up on everything, and title them as approximate dates....

The pavlova for the seniors