England

Goodness sakes I say "Travels and thoughts of Shannon B" not just thoughts. Well here goes, my memory is not perfect and I hope to get real pictures of my time there but for now its the Union Jack.

I moved to England because my daddy helped start Ancestry in the England division and he had to see it through and we didn't know how long it would take so we simply moved over there. I lived in Ascot, England for two and a half years. From 2006-2009. Ascot is the British equivalent of  Churchill Downs, Kentucky where the Kentucky Derby is held. I lived in a three story half house. I call it a half house apparently its really called a duplex house, huh. Anyway I wish I could remember what the address was so I could just google maps a picture of the outside at least. Oh well. It was a very nice house, I never remember it being dirty. Probably because we had an inspector every month come by to make sure it was clean since we were technically renting the house. 

Sorry get a bit side tracked. School in England was amazing! It was called Ascot Primary School, I believe or something along the lines of that... It was a Christian school within a ten minute walk of my house.Some of the things that we did that I remember was a ceramic class, French language class, drawing one of Henry the 8th's wives I drew Jane Seymour. Oh! We raised butterflies from eggs, went to a Hindu temple and had a tour, a lesson, and prayed with them, it was fantastic! Swimming class during the warmer seasons, and I was best friends with the Headmaster. 

It was very easy going to school there it was amazing! In my seven year old mind I could not see how this was bad. I had very few friends in America so this would be fun. And it was! 

On the introduction day before school officially began I walked into class late with my mother. All I could think was I just want a friend. The angles must have heard because not fifteen minutes later my future English BBFF(Better Best Friends Forever) said "Hi, Im Lauren Aves. Im going to be your friend." Now at the time I just thought oh okay, but as I look back at it time and time again I marvel how lucky I was. Today I have not been able to contact Lauren but I still love and miss her. Another reason why I loved that school was because at one point I caught pneumonia for three weeks and for that three weeks I was out of school, when I was finally well enough to go back to school as one could imagine there would be a lot of work I would have to catch up on. But I didn't have one bit of homework besides what was assigned that very day. It blew my mind!

Alright that was home and school, now to the fun stuff! London was a hour train ride and I hate sitting backwards on a train. Random tidbit. We saw all the classic London attractions; London eye, Themes, Tower of London, The British Zoo- where a part of harry potter and the sorcerers stone was filmed. Bath(Do not drink the bath water!), Buckingham Palace-we went inside and it's quite fancy. But my absolute favorite place to go was the British Museum, I went there a few times and little seven to nine year old would quietly wander around. ( funny thing if you ever see me walking around the store or a museum one will often find my hands behind my back but open- I did this there because  I thought if I touched the glass alarms would go off so I just kept them behind my back so the custodians never had to worry about me) I'm a strange child but oh well haha. But the Egyptian department was the best and always full and I would talk to the guides about the parchment that depicts the Weighing of the Heart witch I had memorized. hahahaha well this comes from a girl who didn't pick up picture book at the schools library, I picked up encyclopedias to read. All the kids thought I was a bit off but they liked to hear me say random things because I had an accent to them.

Well thats all I can think of tonight, have any questions or clarifications just comment. Thanks for reading that was a bit long but that was two years of my life... well love you and goodnight(maybe)

<3shannon