President Emily provided an impromptu story of her year in England and Europe.
She had finished her first college program and was at a loss of what to do. Her grandmother came from England as a war bride and therefore, that allowed Emily to get a visa to work in England for four years, any job. She stayed with family for a few weeks initially.
James' father came over later but had no immediate family so he was restricted to work labour jobs and was a bar tender at a pub.
Emily applied to several day care positions and went to some interviews. One was in a nice area and the Sheriff of Nottingham was a neighbour to the day care. Also, the Severus Snape actor lived in the neighbourhood.
Emily worked at a day care. She said the kids were adorable with their accents and polite.
She lived in a sketchy area and run down boarding house. There were some Albanian refugees at the house who were very polite gentleman with looked out for her, meeting her at bus stop after work and walking her home. And they made the best coffee. She has tried to make it but doesn't get it quite right. There was another girl who lived at this house who had a lot of visitors.
After a time she left the day care and went to work at the pub with Sean (James' father). At English pubs they don't tip but buy drinks for the bar tenders. Emily took a course in pouring drinks.
They realized they were only working and not seeing the country so they skipped out and started back packing. They did leave a note telling the land lord to keep their deposit. Grass was growing on the floor of the bathroom at this time.
They spent 3 days in Ireland, very expensive. But they had a good time.
They flew to Portugal and although the resort wasn't the best, it was close to the beach. They took a lot of trips. A lot of cats.
Then they returned to Canada via England. Emily spent about a year in England.
Back home she went back to school looking for some direction.
In Canada working at a day care for kids from broken homes, one little boy playing with toy animals said, "I am going to rip your f****in head off" A stark difference to the cute English children.