School Daze

A quick post to show the girls' school uniforms. Was a bit hectic and crazy getting everyone out the door this morning for the commute to school. We're spoiled at home, where we throw a little breakfast at the girls and then shove them out the door to catch the bus. At least for a while we're going to commute with them to school on the Tube until we're confident they know the route.

It was still pretty dark when we left the flat. It's about a 5-7 minute walk to Angel station from our flat, then about 15 minutes to Hampstead Station (if the trains are running reasonably well, which so far they have been), then a 5 minute walk to the school. It was quite a sight watching all the big and little girls running into the school in their uniforms. They all seemed very excited as it is the first day back of the spring term, though there's still nothing spring-like about the weather. Rose noted that one of her new classmates had messaged her at 2:00AM to say she was still working on her assignments that were given over the break and due today!


After dropping them off, Anne and I enjoyed a nice breakfast in a patisserie in Hampstead. We're doing our best to try lots of coffee and tea places, and this one had delicious pastries. We shared a table with an older man who was speaking, we think, French, who smiled at us. I coughed a few times, and he leaned forward and ran his thumb up and down my forehead three times. It said something, which we couldn't understand, but he seemed to imply that it would help get rid of my cough. Either that or he had some weird male forehead-touching fetish.

As for my fear of not being able to find good coffee in England: no worry at all. Five minutes from our flat there are a bunch of places to get good coffee. My favorite (or "favourite," as they write here) is a guy who pulls his little mini-truck up near the Angel station each morning, and has a cappucino/espresso/coffee stand in the back of it. Great conversationalist and good coffee.

After-school update: Also dark by the time we returned. Long day, but also a feature of the latitude (more about that later). I know the girls will blog their first-day-of-school experiences.