(sorry it's taken me so long to get online properly!! stupid internet....)

So I'm finally here in Framlingham for my gap year at Framlingham College! I arrived on Saturday (2nd of Jan) after saying a very teary farewell to lots of friends on Friday and a few other friends and family on Saturday morning! It was very sad to say bye to everyone and I'll miss them lots! At the airport, I met Nick, one of the other two gappies at Fram who's very nice and we hopped on the plane (Cathay Pacific…very uncomfortable seats - in economy anyway - so I totally don't recommend them for long-haul flights!!!), with my 30.2kg bags(!), to London! We stopped over in Hong Kong after 8 and a half hours of flying and watching lots of movies and "Friends"! I met up with Alex McDonald (a friend from school) in Hong Kong which was really good fun and got to skype Nicola, another friend from Sydney We then hopped on our next plane to Heathrow and just slept and watched lots of movies again. Met up with Alex at Heathrow again before she got picked up.We had arrived at 5am and met Amy, the other gappy from South Africa, at 10am beore being picked up by the Fram College driver John at 11.45am. We drove the 2.5hrs to Framlingham and had a good chat to John on the way (except when he told us about the body found in Fram a few weeks earlier!) and stopped over somewhere for lunch (South Mimms??). As we drove into Fram, it started snowing which was a very nice welcome and as it had already snowed a few days before, everything was white! YAY! We arrived at our flat, "The Pink House", which is across the road from the college and I met Mum's friend, Kate, who dropped by and gave me a hot water bottle! We then met Chris Hobson (who's our main liaison person at the school) who's a great guy and went and unpacked (I have my own room, with a tiny bed!). We went to Chris' place for dinner where we met his family - Sophie (our age! Very very nice), Tommy (16) and Sue (another Fram teacher) who are all very kind and hospitable! Went back to the flat and spoke to Mum & Dad which was good. I slept pretty solidly (surprisingly) and wasn't cold at all! (Our place is sooooo nice and warm )

The next morning, I spoke to Josh and then the 3 of us went for a walk into town with snow everywhere - it looked so pretty with the sun out and snow on the college and the castle across the mere! It's about a 5/10min walk into town which is really good! Lots of cute shops and pubs! In the afternoon, Chris showed us around the exterior of the school grounds which are amazing (golf course, swimming pool, heaps of sport fields etc). Started getting dark around 3.30pm (soooo annoying!) and went back to Chris' for dinner again. Everything is very different here! The temperature, the darkness, the buildings which are all so old and close together and close to the road! We don't have internet in our flat which is annoying but hopefully they're going to do something about that! I really want to get on skype! (You must all add me if you have it ) I also put some photos on my wall today which makes it feel more like home!

On the 4/1/10 (whatever day that was!!) we headed over to the college at about 10am and got shown around the inside of the school It's very cool! The 6th form (years 12 and 13) have their own common room (and a prefects common room too!) which has cable TV, microwaves, heaps of lounges, computers and most importanly, a bar!! They often have dances and stuff in there (which we're allowed to go to!) and if they ever have formal dinners in there (which they do very often) the underage kids are allowed two drinks from the bar! Pretty insane. I wish we'd had a common room! The school is a bit of a maze but very old and Hogwarts-like with a cute chapel and dining hall. We had lunch (the food is really not that great…I'm craving more vegemite toast and milo) and I've been drinking lots and lots of hot chocolate! We got our timetables (their bell times are very confusing - 35min periods with 5mins in between each one…) and I'm doing lots of drama and netball. My day off is Friday which is the same as Amy so that's good! The school is very different to Manly though! You can do almost anything here. The head of drama, Dorothy, is a stereotypical nutty drama teacher! Sooo funny. We went back to the flat, burnt some toast, set off the fire alarm (we've done it twice again since then!) and then met Chris and Sophie and headed to The Crown. It's a cute little pub in Fram where we met some of the other teachers who are all very nice and funny (there are a few younger ones which is good and a very funny, very camp music teacher!) We got home at about 11.30pm after a good, fun night out. Only a few annoying things about this place - our TV is still showing a snowstorm, the only internet access we have is over at the college and our DVD player is black and white … So annoying! That's technology for you! I just want to be able to fully chill out here! Oh well, hopefully it'll all get fixed soon!

On…..Tuesday (??) (5/1/10), we went over to the college mid-morning and the Brandeston gappies, Hannah and Casey, had come over for lunch so we hung out with them for most of the middle part of the day which was really nice! Anyway, after Hannah and Casey left Chris took us and introduced to the Headmaster, Paul Taylor, who is such a nice, fun, relaxed guy! Reminded me of Mr Tomlin but even more laid-back and so relatable! We then sat in on the staff meeting where we were introduced to everyone…fun fun. Amy and I then tried to build a snowman but the snow wasn't very sticky so it didn't work very well! And yes Tom, I named it Tom after you cos you begged and pleaded! By then it was time for supper (supper is crap…it's not a proper dinner! It's either leftovers or just small quantities of stuff) and we went and watched TV in Joe's flat (the resident tutor in Garrett House) before going back to get a good sleep after that.

Today (6/1/10) was our first day of work so I got up at 630 and we went over for breakfast at 730. (Me being the disorganised person I am didn't get out of the door til 745!). Amy and Nick got to wear tracksuits cos they're doing PE mostly but I had to wear formal suit-type stuff which is so uncomfortable and annoying! Today was a bit overwhelming (especially with the Yr 13 drama cos they're the same age) and I half wish I'd been placed in a prep school cos I think everything would be a lot more fun! But I'm sure I'll find the fun stuff soon  The stuff they do in drama is so similar the stuff we did at school and I just wanted to forget about all of that! Haha. The Year 11s though are a really nice bunch and are looking at performing some plays such as Yerma (Steph's HSC monologue) and Mother Courage and Caucasian Chalk Circle (one's we did for HSC)!!! So funny. Admin duties are as boring as bat poop (lots of shredding). We met the CCF (Combined Cadet Forces) guy today. I'm going to be part of the Navy section which I'm really excited about! And he gave us all of our kit! Camo, navy uniform, hat, DoE stuff, boots, sleeping bags etc etc the list goes on! (but we have to give it back at the end of the year). It snowed SOOOO MUCH today which was so so so pretty! Snowfall is so peaceful and so silent! It's amazing. Anyway, now I'm in bed after having watched some "Friends" which was good. Today was very overwhelming and I didn't really like it but hopefully it will get better! I miss everyone lots so make sure you send me an email or something to keep me up to date with what you're doing!

xxxxxx

PS: It's snowing as I type which is very very very pretty!!

Random Stuff about England:
• No, I haven't met any cute guys for any of you girlies back at home, yet!
• Yes, their accents are very cool
• Their policemen look like typical English policemen! It's sooo funny
• Thongs are not shoes. I've made that mistake too many times.
• They've never heard of devon/fritz (the food…meat….stuff)