Tawit Tawit TA WHAT!?

Welcome to the new layout, I figured since it is no longer summer I needed to change it up a little and the dots seemed fun....thoughts?!

Alright so its been a while but its harder to blog now that im working. Yes thats right I work now, everyday...which is good, but generally i work from 4 to 6 every evening which isnt really a ton of hours. I work Saturdays and Sundays too which isnt fun but it gets me up and out and meeting people. The other instructors from my main company are really great, ive really got on well with most of them. Some are ex swimmers like my buddy Darren who is trying to make common wealth games this year. He's a history dork like I am and an amazing swimmer. He also has a car which is nice...i may or may not make him feel guilty until he drives me home after some shifts...it works out well for me!!

At first teaching for this new company was rough, I didnt understand the program and i had recieved no induction course so it was just GO! and at first i was very unhappy...but Ive got my head around the system now and its a pretty great program. Its different and unique in Scotland but apparently is very common in Australia and America..and I think really needs to come to Canada, and I will attempt this in the next 10-20 years i figure. Ill do a little export service. The women who runs the company is an utter nutbar. She took over training and babbled on about bejing for a good hour and belittled all the new instructors, had us do an exercise and then didnt wrap up or teach us anything...but they pay me for it bah ha. Generally for those who are Edinburgh inclined. I work at George Watsons college and Royal High school out in Davidson mains. So im really getting a chance to see the city more than i would if i worked in a office. Oh I also work at Leith Academy which is cool and warmer than most pools. I've just been filling out my paper work so i get paid for this month...for whatever reason we get paid monthly....and its the most awful system but i guess its a system that works for them...we'll see im sure i did something wrong!!!
My favorite thing is that I get to teach the little kids how to do breaststroke and dolphin kick....so they get to be froggies and mermaids. There is nothing quite like lining up four 5 year olds and listening to them going RIBBBBBIIIITTTTT as they boot along down the pool. One little girl on Saturdays has a private lesson with me, and she loves to do the froggie kick....and we're one of three people in the pool so she ribbits realy loud and then we alternate between a baby frog...which sounds like a screeching disaster and a big frog which is just her yelling RIBBBITTTTT(with scottish accent it comes out...RRUUUBBBBIIITT) while Darren scowles at me and her mother just sits laughing! She is fantastic swims all over now up and down to the bottom under and over....its great but the poor kid is only 5 so we spend half the time playing....i get to put her on my back and dolphin dive or i flot on my back and she paddles like she's on a boat..ahahaha...so great love getting paid well to play!!!

Other than work ive kept to myself mostly trying to find a schedule to stick to, doing errands during the late mornings then getting to work in the early afternoon and catching up on tasks at night...i havent been out to visit anyone and i really should. The only other thing is that im volunteering with a Brownie Troop now, which is fabulous, they are great and im getting back in the swing of the lingo of brownies....its changed so much though, they all have these cute tracksuits..no more dresses and ties. And badge sashes are optional...which broke my heart a little...they've also changed the badges slightly...no more sewing homemaking badges...there is a construction badge which has a hammer on it which i find amusing...Sadest part though...no more toadstool...sigh!!!Good news is we still Serve our Queen and our God...at least some things stay the same...i know you were all worried!(it does make it interesting that other faiths are somewhat excluded as it is primarily a Christian based club for girls....seems rather unfair,...)

On the other hadn below are some pictures from my adventure to Stirling castle...the one outing i did get. My boy Jack took me out, he has a car so we drove out to Stirling for the day and I with my massive camera thoroughly played tourist whilst he tried to look at Scottish as possible so that we didnt look like the biggest tourists there....but my accent is like a sore thumb...

Amazing caslte though, its nice and compact, and walking the walls you really get some great views!! Its a pretty big castle historically even more so than Edinburgh as it was the royal residence of Mary Q of S. And the place where most of the kings and queens were baptized. We actually took a tour as we figured that would be the best way to see the castle...our guide was a very very proud Scots man who, while we both agreed was very good, we kinda poo pooed us both being history majors and no mom i didnt say anything out loud that he would hear....i kept the brat in me hidden!!! But the architecture is just amazing they brought an Italian in to do the one building which i show you in the pictures, the building sticks out terribly and i wasnt really all that fond of it, but apparently all the buildings were painted in that white wash colour on top of the stone, and the gargoyles and the sculptures were all painted in bright amazing colours which just blows my mind! Someone needs to restore a castle to that type of colour scheme!! It was good to be shown around by someone who knew Stirling, Jack went to the university of Stirling so i got to see the town and eat at some good restaurants there!



http://picasaweb.google.com/liz.swanson/StirlingCastle#

I think thats it for my little adventure for the month though as i work everyday...but get ready for super blog in October when I venture back across the channel(speaking of one of the guys i worked with swam across the channel last week...crazy kid) to the Auld country to meet up with Allison and see a bit of the French South.....YAY!!! Meeting up with some people from school last year on exchange and a few people I worked with last summer as well :)!

Enjoy the pictures!