A Cambridge Valentine's | Young Rubbish Vlog | Episode 25

Jon surprised me for Valentine's this year with a whole slew of wonderful. Seriously, he's so good at this stuff, he's almost given me a complex. 

It really is almost unbelievable. This year, after secretly walking to work for a month, he surprised me with gift cards taking the money he saved so I could go buy myself new perfume and makeup. 

Then, he set me up at the hairdressers (I literally only had my hair professionally styled once-- for my wedding) then we had dinner at a very posh restaurant in South Kensington. It was the kind of place that plays harpsichord music in the background... yeah, it was fancy. 

As if that wasn't enough already, he planned a whole fabulous journey to Cambridge for the next day. It's not terribly far away, about an hour and a half, but it was definitely an adventure!

It still baffles me sometimes how old buildings and streets are here. Someday I'm going to have a mint-coloured door just like this. 

After our day of exploring, Jon took us to (the appropriately themed) The Theory of Everything. I'd like to just go on record as saying, "LAAAAAAME!" to the guys that made the trailer promoting this film. Here I was thinking I was getting a heart-warming escapist fantasy, instead I got a whole lot of sad. I was seriously so tense through the second half of that film. *sigh* I suppose it was well done... I'd just have preferred it if it had stopped halfway through.

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Happy (belated) Valentine's day!

Guess How Much I Love You | Young Rubbish Vlog | Episode 24

As previously discussed, I have to be quite particular about what I show and/or discuss regarding my students... so today's video, which is a film of the 3-4 year olds we made for their Valentine's day assembly which has them talking about how much they love their mummies and daddies. It is possibly the cutest thing of all time, and I'm quite sad I can't show it to more than just my family. 

But all is not lost, I still have a little nugget or two of cutest to share. Valentine's day in the UK isn't quite as big of a deal as in the states. The children don't make or buy valentines for each other. So, it is kind of a big deal when a kids spontaneously make you one. The following are a few of my favourite cards some of my students made me to let me know how much they care:

First card comes from comes from Lena. You'll see a lovely photo of her and I. Notice the excellent spelling of my name (Mis Jasiku) and that we are roughly the same height. I got lucky enough to be the one with "a sun close to [my] heart," which I think it pretty fab.

This little girl actually did bring me chocolate and a card. I was pretty jazzed about that. Chocolate is the way to every teacher's heart.

 This little munchkin decided to emotionally blackmail me with her card. I had told the children the day before how Valentine's cards were my absolute favourite. She went home and made me one, but handed it to me this morning saying, "I made this for you, but I'm only going to give it to you if you promise to tell me a story with a princess, a golden apple, a pillow, a dragon, a good witch, a cottage.... and a pink feathered hat." Obviously, she'd put some thought into it. 

At first, I wasn't entirely sure about what this one said, but was so pumped by its Kandinsky-esque vibe I took a photo of her with it anyway. It says "Diyu Mis jask luv" which means "Dear (with a British accent) Miss Jessica, I love you." So darn cute.

This one made me laugh. You can't see it so much on this page, but the other side starts off with hearts then followed by very long laundry list of people. "Look Miss Jessica! You are one of the people I love!" She's so stinkin' adorable I guess I don't mind sharing my valentine's real estate with the rest of the planet ;)

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Three for Tea | Vlog Episode 23 ● by Jess

Yesterday, our adopted auntie, Claire, took Jon and me out for a proper English tea. Claire is one of our most favourite people of all time; as Jon put it yesterday, if we could use one word to describe her, it would be "charming." She really is one of the loveliest people we've ever met.   

Tea was meant to be at the Wolseley, this very fancy, shamncy restaurant near Piccadilly Circus. If you look it up online you'll see that lots of celebrities head there for nibbles, which is kind of fun.

On our way, we walked by Buckingham Palace, which I realised Jon and I have never seen together before.  It was strangely empty round the palace for a Saturday, but that might just be because I last time I really spent any time in the area I was watching the changing of the guard, which draws huge crowds.

Part way through our walk round Buckingham Palace we got a text from Claire saying that the Wolseley had booked us for lunch instead of tea by accident so we had to rebook elsewhere. Luckily the Cavendish Hotel was just around the corner!

For those that don't know, going out for tea isn't like going out for a cup of coffee. It's much more involved and far more exciting... At the Cavendish Hotel they serve each guest, not only tea, but four small sandwiches (crusts removed), two kinds of scones (with clotted cream, jam and lemon curd), chocolate mouse, lemon merengue pie, blondie brownie, macaron, some kind of green mouse, and candy floss. Whew! You seriously walk out feeling so full, and very thoroughly hydrated because you've just drunk so. much. tea.

After several hours (which just seemed to fly by) we left and walked to the glasses store because Jon is now the proud owner of contacts! Oh boy!

Then we went home and Jon found this picture, and literally spent 10 minutes laughing-- and I LITERALLY mean 10 minutes (think about the fact that most of our "laughs" are only about 5 seconds or less). He was rolling over in tears, which was actually more funny than the picture itself. I don't know what tickled him so much about it, but he woke me up twice by giggling about it after we went to bed. Decide for yourself: here it is.

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How to Call the USA from the UK for Free ● by Jess

I'd say that the hardest thing about living the expat life is the frustration of not getting to see your family very often. Fortunately, we live in an age were our families and friends are only a phone call away. I've done quite a bit of research into the best ways to talk to the fam bam in the States and here are the best options I've found for those in the UK:

1) Google+ 

What is it? : A video conferencing and computer-to-phone service available through your gmail account
Pros:

• Easy to use when you are checking emails
• Quality is decent (though I've had more success with Skype)
• It updates automatically
• You can talk/video multiple people for free

Cons:

• You have to download it, so it takes up hard drive space
• computer-to-phone calls from the UK to US cost money (you can get around this with legal VPN plugins like Hola)
• Not everyone has gmail

2) Skype 

What is it?: A stand alone video conferencing service which is downloaded onto your computer or device.
Pros:

• Decent Quality (sometimes I have to turn off my video to get better audio)
• PC and Mac compatible

Cons:

• You have to download the program initially
• To video conference with multiple people, Skype requires ££
• Updates can be irritating
• Waiting for people to come online!

+ Although I don't use it regularly, FaceTime is also great. Unfortunately, I am one of the few mac people in my family so it isn't really an option for us, but it's great for those that do!

3) ZipCall

What is it? : A free calling service which allows you to make "local" free calls to the USA. To use it, you simple have to dial: 0333 232 3232 + country code (001) + family's phone number. Then, voila! You're talking to your family!

Pros:

• No internet required, so I can call my family to matter where I am, as long as I have my phone with me.
• The process is exactly like calling locally, so there is no long distance fees
• With this service you can also make free calls to Canada and China as well

Cons:

• In order to call, you must type in the full Zipcall number, which can be annoying, but it's easily fixable by setting it as a speed dial number
• Pretty sure it only works FROM the UK, and not the other way around

As a general rule, I use Skype when I am sitting at my computer because I like video chatting with my mama. Being able to see her makes us feel not so far away. We also Skype with Jon's family on Sundays, which I love. 

What I really like about ZipCall is that if there was an emergency or if I'm out and about and I really just have to call my mom and tell her something amazing, I have that option. All this makes the world seem smaller. Most the time I don't feel any farther away than I did when we lived stateside (and honestly, most the time I feel closer!). 

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Cocomaya ● by Jess

Sometimes you just wake up on a Saturday and all you just want is a cuppa tea. Nobody is more surprised by this than me. I have a history of distrust with the stuff. But the English-ness is finally seeping in and today we spent the better part of the afternoon at Cocomaya. 

I also had my very first cronut (croissant dough, fried like a doughnut), or at least the Cocomaya version, which is cream-filled and topped with sparkling sugar and frosting. Basically, it's a diabetic coma and a cardiac arrest all in one scrummy bundle.

The lady sitting next to us was fabulous in every sense of the word (sadly this is the only photo I snagged of her because I'm too much of a wimp to own the creepy stalker photo). She had this super tall lavender hat, three fashion magazines and a full pot of tea all to herself. If I was this woman, I could die happy.

I love Saturdays like this. *sigh* 

Jon spent our whole Cocomaya trip trying to decide whether to move to a new flat or not and came to no real conclusions. There are so many great places to live in London... but they more often than not are also very expensive. We'll have to do a bit more soul searching on that front. 

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