The End is Near

I had a post. Blogger screwed up. I'm too emotional to write another. Damn blogger...

Apparently, I lie

It seems like I lied. It's been a month since my last entry. I really didn't want it to be! Really! I mean, I'm done my internship in 2 and a half weeks, home in 3 and a half weeks. Can't believe it really, but it's true.

There are some things I like about being here, and somethings I'll be glad to leave an ocean behind. I'll miss the school and the kids there. For the most part, my kids are good kids, but sometimes you just want to smack them. Sorry, but you do. And I know we're not suppose to have favourites, but I do. Some of them I just love and I wish I could be with them all year because they're just great.

I'll miss how close things are here, how easy it is to get from one place in Europe to another. Another place in England is a different story, particularly if you don't have a car! There are trains, but they like to do work on them during the weekends. Damn engineers.

I won't miss the toliets. Seriously, if you're coming here, beware the toliets. They don't always flush right away and you have to wait like five minutes for them to fill up before you flush again. Drives me nuts.

Somethings I look forward to are Tim Hortons, Mom's mac and cheese, mac and cheese in general (seriously, the macaroni's different here so it's not the same!), snuggling my kitties, WoW and my friends.

Still haven't found where I belong, but I think I've found a bit more of me. This trips been good for me, for the most part.

I have really noticed how much work teaching is. You wake up in the morning, get ready, eat breakfast and go in early so you can prepare for the morning class. During break, you're getting ready for the next class if you don't have playground duty. During the hour of lunch, you're scarfing down food as you're in a meeting or working. If you can get 15 minutes to just sit, you're lucky. You teach in the afternoon and then you're either in more meetings when the kids are gone or you're preparing for the next day until 5pm. You get home, get something to eat. By the time you take the time to call your mom, check facebook, e-mail, etc, there's another half an hour gone. If you're lucky, you'll get the planning done and maybe you can get a television show in before bed. Seriously, it's a LOT of work. No wonder we need two months off.

Went to Dublin and Paris! I thought Dublin was nice, but it was too much like home. We went on a pub crawl which was pretty fun. Met people from all over. A series of books I'm reading takes place in Dublin, so it was nice to put the places in my mind. There's a few other things that would have been interesting to see but we didn't have time, and that's ok. But it was too much like home for my liking. We walked into a store and I think we knew all the songs on the Irish music CD they were playing.

Paris was awesome. It was so big and cultural, you'd need another week to see everything! Most of that time would probably be in the Louvre. Yes, myself and two of the girls went there, saw Venus de Milo and Mona Lisa herself. Pretty cool. Went up in the Eiffel tower too. That was something! I also went to Espace Dali...a museum dedicated to master of the surreal, Salvador Dali. It had lots of his sketches, sculptures and the Surrealist Living Room, which was pretty neat. None of his major works though, but that's ok because it was other stuff that you don't really see, which was neat. It was hard to find, but that just seems like Dali. Also saw Notre Dame, which was pretty amazing.

I really don't know what else I can be writing in here. At least right now. We're going to Spain in our week before we go, so I've been talking to Emma about what to do and travelling within Spain. I'm excited to go! Other than that, it's back to the grindstone. With luck, I'll update before leaving again.

Ooops

So I am the WORST blogger in the world! I start by saying I hope to write everyday and what happens? It's been a month since you've heard from me (unless you're on Facebook or Twitter). It's been busy here in Harlow! Basically, I get up in the morning (aka drag my ass out of bed), go to school, get home in time for supper, eat, do a few errands if necessary (which basically consists of grocery store, laundry, other randomness that needs to be done), work on what needs to be done for tomorrow/the next day, shower, watch a show if there's time and go to bed. Really! I could not watch tv, but then I'd be so behind when I get home it won't even be fit. With that said, the only shows I've managed to be fully caught up on are Fringe and Glee.

So what has been happening in the world of Amy? I've been teaching more and I'm not doing too bad. I taught math for two weeks, english for two weeks and after mid-term break, I'll be teaching math AND english. Scary, but exciting. I'm not sure what I like better, teaching math or english. It depends on what the subject is. I loved doing poetry with them because I loved coming up with examples and reading what they wrote. One of my students has such a creative mind. I love reading his work, it always makes me laugh. Some of my girls write such beautiful imagery. Biographies and non-fiction haven't been as fun, but I think I'm stuck with them.

I didn't think I'd like Year 6 because they're 10 years old and I tend to have a great rapport with younger kids. But I love these guys! I can joke around with them, can talk to them like they're adults, and they're just great kids. However, my co-operating teacher has reminded me that the class last year was not good, and she's anticipating troubles from the class coming up next year, so I'm lucky to have such a great class. There are some problems though. When I'm teaching and she's not there, they're a little more chatty and harder to regain control. Though reminding them that I can give out red cards just as much as she can gets their attention.

And I love their enthusiasm for learning about Canada! Of course, I had to get the map to show them the size difference between England and Canada. "WHOA I thought England was big!" one boy exclaimed as I circled it. Nope. Canada is the largest country in the world according to size. "But miss, I thought Russia was the biggest." It USED to be the biggest, but when different parts became their own countries, Russia got smaller. I circle Newfoundland and Labrador (yes, I circled Labrador as well!) and said that this was my province, and that I lived on the tip here, as I place a dot on St. John's. I then put a dot on Toronto. Justin Bieber lives here, so for the last time, no, I don't know him or live anywhere near him. Being 10 year old girls, they immediately made the connection that since Justin Bieber and I were from the same country, it was a possibility that we knew each other.

I've often compared the school to Harry Potter, since it's the easiest way for me to figure out how things work. The school has houses, but I'm not sure what determines you go into each house. The younger grades use the colour names while the older grades use the names of the school and town founders. I was looking at the board and made the connection that colours were the same as for Hogwarts! Red, Blue, Yellow, Green - Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. I've often wondered what house I'd be put into if I went to Hogwarts. Let's see:

Gryffindor - valuing bravery, courage, loyalty. Most likely not.

Ravenclaw - intelligence, creativity, learning. Good possibility.

Hufflepuff - hardwork, tolerance, fair play. I'll take the tolerance, but not so sure on the hardwork. Besides, I'm more for acceptance than tolerance.

Slytherin - ambition, resourcefulness, leadership. Better chance of getting in there than in Hufflepuff or Gryffindor. Besides, green's my favourite colour. But there's the pure-blood supremacy thing. Being someone who's big on acceptance would probably not get accepted into that house.

The sorting house may take a few minutes, but the mostly likely home for me in Hogwarts would be: Ravenclaw. I can deal with Ravenclaw. Luna Lovegood lives there. She'd be awesome to hang out with because she's a little eccentric like me.

Enough about Hogwarts! Though it's a great segue since Hogwarts is supposedly in Scotland and guess where I'm going! Oh yes. Scotland.

I've already been to Scotland, seeing Edinburgh and Glasgow. I'm in love with the country and have been itching to go back (plus, the cute bartenders and seemingly generally attractive male population is a lovely factor! I mean, Sean Connery, Sean Biggerstaff (Harry Potter again!) Gerard Butler, Ewan MacGregor, James McAvoy....all good looking Scottish men!). So when trying to decide for a place to go for mid-term break, the Scottish Highlands seems like a great idea. Loch Ness is up there, it's a beautiful place...and I've been reading a series of romance novels (but they're not JUST romance...the women are strong, independent women, there's fantasy elements, time travel, and it links to another romance series that is more action and fantasy than romance! It's a series about another world, really, who happen to have hunky male leads that are great in bed).

I'm going there by myself on Tuesday. Yes, alone. I know there are drawbacks to going alone, but I don't mind. I know how to keep myself safe. It's not that hard. The others are going to Italy, four of them already gone. As much as I'd love to go to Italy, I need more than five days lol. I enjoy my time with the other girls here and do love travelling with them, but once you get more than a few people, things can get tough, with some wanting to do one thing, others want to do another. I was going to go to the Highlands with Tiff, but she said to go without her, since she'll be too tired coming back from Italy. I think I asked her about 10 times if she was sure she was ok with not going. Besides, we'll have a lot of time to do things all together soon! We're all going to Dublin and Paris, with all but Sarah coming to Spain. I PROMISE updates on those!

And guess what?! 3 things that I've been wanting to do for a long time happened!

1) Stonehenge. What an amazing place, even if it's just rocks. There's something...unearthly about that area. Maybe it was the foggy day, but just knowing that somehow these giant rocks were placed thousands of years ago by unknown methods, that no one fully knows how or why they're there (I'm still going with either aliens, human sacrifice or both)...it just adds something.

2) Les Miserables. The best musical ever! I loved every moment! One problem was that Fantine seemed to go too fast during I Dreamed A Dream and the orchestra had to keep up with her. But it was a wonderful play. Please see it.

3) I FINALLY met Emma! I've known Emma for about 10 years, meeting online on I THINK a BSB chat, but I'm not 100% sure. We've been friends ever since and it was just great having her here for a weekend. We got on like old friends because we are old friends. It was a sad to see her go but we'll see each other again when I go to Spain. Hopefully it won't be another 10 years before we see each other again.

What else have I done? Oh, I saw Avenue Q with Sarah. Funniest thing I've ever seen on stage. Look up "The Internet Avenue Q" on youtube. So funny. I won't give away the title of the song, because it'll give away why it's so funny. I've also found a love for H&M, since clothes there actually fit me! I'm wearing a bit more make-up and *gasp* I've changed my hair. Since the beginning of time, my hair has been parted in the middle. Now, it's part on the side. The left, actually.

Anyways, Sarah and I are on the way to Starbucks! It exists here, somewhere and we're off to find it! We have a good idea of where it is, and we're going to do a little shopping while we're out.

I PROMISE my next entry won't be in a month. It'll be much sooner.

Thanks for being so patient,

Amy

Just some things

I want to start by saying that a few things in my last post didn't come off too well, and it was not my intention to hurt people. However, I did. These people know who they are, and we have talked, leading to my apology. I would now like to make a public apology to them. We all now can move past this, move on and continue having fun.

So, now let's just put it behind us and get on with the blog.

I've started doing some teaching. It was a little scary, but it's getting easier. I started with working with small groups and transitioned to bigger groups. I think I'm pretty much taking over RE. Religion was my focus area and, I won't lie, finding out we're doing Hinduism excited me. Hinduism is a fascinating religion to me, so I'm enjoying sharing my knowledge of it to the students, who really don't know much about it at all. I just have to watch myself, since my knowledge goes beyond what they need to know. But I guess that's the same for many subjects when you're teaching at a primary level.

I did math this morning, and it went well. I like to think I could have done better, but my teacher said I did fine, pointed out some flaws, and all was well. Like last time, most of my flaws include pacing, keeping watch to make sure everyone's paying attention (which is NOT easy at all!), little things like that. So my goal for Wednesday's lesson is to keep up the pacing.

In non-school news, we have some fun trips coming up: Glasgow this weekend, Dublin the first weekend of November and Paris the 20th of November. Should be some good times.

I also found a bar that will give me coffee in my own Tim's mug if I ask. Awesome.

I think that's all for now. Time to do some RE lesson planning.

Until next time,

Amy

Differences

Is there anything wrong with being different? Some people think different is weird and generally not good. There are differences in the British school system and the Canadian school system. Does that mean one is better than the other? Here, everyone wears a uniform. Of course there are varying debates on that issue, but I'm not getting into it right now. The students do a lot of group work, which is very interesting. The schools are very family orientated, with parents coming to meet their students outside the classroom door. These are just a few examples. But what about me? Is it ok with me being different?

I've always been slightly different than others, though not always knowing how or why. Sometimes, it's just a feeling inside that says "know what? You're not like the rest of these people. It's not bad, you're just different." I see it now in my ways, in my interests, in how I like to spend my time. I'm not the most social of creatures. I'd rather read or listen to music, watch television, then go out shopping for shoes and clothing just because. It's not enough for me to just "look" at things. I want to know all the details and get to the nitty gritty. My taste in music is pretty different than a lot of my friends. In general, all of this seems fine.

But when you're stuck for four months with others who aren't like you...well, there can be some lonely times. Some times you're just thinking, "can't we do something that I want to do? Why must I be the one left out?". I know deep down it's ok that I'm not like the others, but that doesn't mean I don't want to be left alone all the time. Maybe I should take a listen to Nick Carter some more. I'm closing with excerpts with his song "Not Like You".

I don't care about the summer breaks

Don't know much about love

And I don't care about the look of my hair

Cause I'm not like you

My TV set gives me tenderness

The cab driver guy is my friend

I look around me and all I can see

Is that I'm not like you

Don't tell me it's hard to believe

there's something out there

Cause no matter how much I believe it ain't true

I'm not like you

Day in London

Yesterday was an amazing day in London. After a night of dancing in a club (so we're doing all this on maybe 4 hours of sleep), we wake up bright and early for a day-long trip to London. We leave at 8 am and grab the bus to the Harlow Bus Station. Then we took another bus to Epping, a small town where there happens to be a tube station, which links up to the rest of the London Underground. We board and we're on our way.

We come up at the Holburn station, close to Covent Gardens. After a few minutes of wandering, we eventually coming to a market square. We decide to get some breakfast, since it was 10:30. Everything was great, eating outdoors watching other tourists run around until we actually got the food and discovered that the eggs were...well, not too good. They were a weird pink-orange colour and probably not cooked. The salmon I had was quite delicious, on the other hand. I just did not eat the eggs.

We do a little exploring in the open market and I found the Disney Store. My inner child woke up and I had to go inside. It made me a little sad though, since if Michele was alive, I'd have to get her something. Though what, I have no idea. She'd want pretty much all of it. I did manage to get a cute top for going out. It's slit down the side though, so I'll need to make a trip out to Primark (it's a cheap clothing store, not far from the bus market) to pick one up. Maybe a few more tops too, while I'm there.

Anyways, after getting slightly lost, we're in Trafalgar Square, which has some beautiful views, by the way. Behind there, there's a stand where you can get discount West End show tickets. Original, the girls wanted to see The Lion King. Not my first choice, but I figured "ok, it's supposedly a good show. I'll check it out." It's sold out. We agree on seeing We Will Rock You, a jukebox musical based on the music of Queen. Sounds great to me. So we pay £33 and off we go. It's only around 12 now and the show's not until 2:30. Knowing we want to see the London Eye as well, we decided to make our way to the theatre, because it'll probably take longer to see the Eye.

So we're walking along, making our way to the Dominion Theatre on Tottenham Court Road. We stop prior to this for a bathroom break at McDonald's (where I had a banana milkshake! Banana! I'm loving this country more and more...) and we saw this giant guy in a bear suit walking around. I get my picture taken with him. Oh yes. I'm a dork.

It only takes us about 30-40 minutes to make it to the theatre from Leicester Square (it's probably shorter, but we stopped to look at things, take pictures, consult the map etc). We're way too early for the show, but learned that the British National Museum was only up the road. We hike up there and split into two groups for a quick 45 minute look around. If you haven't been, put it on the bucket list! I was so disappointed when my camera battery died just as we were getting there. It was so fantastic, amazing, historical. I could feel something inside me well up and I partly wanted to cry at everything I saw. I don't know why. Maybe because I was looking at things that were so old, and I wondered so many questions; what the story was behind the objects; who used them and what were they like; what happened to make this Goddess statue break; what sort of people thumbed through this book; what did that pharaoh do? It was so overwhelming, and we only saw a small fraction of what was there. We need to go back and spend a day or more there.

Around 2, we made our way back to the theatre. Again, we were split up into two groups, a group of 2 sitting in row J, a group of 5 in row....A! Oh yes. I was in the first row. Right at the end, but I was in row A nonetheless. Sure you could see the actors spit as he was enunciation his words and see up the dancers skirt, but it was front row at West End! I will say this: it's a little cheesy, but I think it has to be to connect all the songs. Basically, it takes place about 300 years in the future where everyone has learned to be clones and consumerism as it at's best. All music is made on computer and musical instruments (particularly rock and roll) are banned. A young man rebels and gives himself the name Galileo Figaro. He meets a girl (who has no name) and he calls her Scaramouche. Galileo hears things in his head (which are song lyrics) and they're considered part of an ancient sacred text. They meet other rebels called Bohemians (who have names based on other musicians, which changes based on the music of the moment...and it's pretty funny) and he learns what rock and roll is. They're fighting the evil corporation in charge (we don't really know what they do...they're just "the man" I guess), who's leader is....Killer Queen. Cute. A prophecy, that the rebels believe was given to them by other rebels from a band called Queen, from long ago, says that there'd be a time in peril and only the heir of the "Hairy One" (not sure if it's Freddy or another member) can bring it back by going to the land of the living rock (i.e. Live Rock, which in London means Wembley Stadium) and finding the instrument, playing it to destroy the Killer Queen.

I won't comment on the ending of the play but it was great. Despite it's cheesiness, it makes you believe in the power of rock and roll. Awesome. The cast was great too. At the very end, after the final bows, across the screen comes "Do you want Bohemian Rhapsody?" (since that wasn't played). The audience screams and the screen says "Oh. Alright then." Then the cast comes out to sing. Then, the most amazing thing of life happens. Oh of the front of the stage, in a cloud of smoke, rising from below is Brian May. THE Brian May, lead guitarist of Queen. Oh. My. God. He did the solo for Bohemian Rhapsody and the cameras were out flying, snapping all sorts of pictures, even though picture taking is not allowed. Brian apparently only comes to play for special occasions, such as an anniversary. In this case, it was a casting change. But, I paid £33 to sit in the front row and watch Brian May play Bohemian Rhapsody. That's priceless. What the amazing odds.

After we're still being blown away (I'm still in disbelief!), we took a tube and found the London Eye. It was almost 6 when we get there, and just after 6 when we get our ticket. The line-up seems to go forever, both getting the ticket and getting on. We got on about 20 after 6, so that wasn't too bad. The view was amazing! You could see pretty much the entire city and it was beautiful. I was little scared because you're over the Thames, and I hate being over water. It's about half an hour long and at 7, we're looking for some supper. We decide to go to TGIFridays, since we don't have one and the commercials make it look good. Unfortunately, everyone else in London decided to go too. We were waiting probably half an hour for a table, but when we got there, the food was so good (oh, and we split up again...4 and 3, since they couldn't do a table for 7). The burger could barely fit in my mouth! A bit pricey though. The price in pounds wasn't too far off what we'd pay in dollars for it. Good food though.

After we're done, it's close to 9:30. So, we board a tube and make our way back to Harlow. We got back about 10:15. Not too late for buses, we figure. Nope. We just missed one and another one wasn't coming for another hour. For some reasons, a lot of buses don't run past, 7 or 8. I really don't know why. People still go places, or maybe that's just a North American thing. So we're waiting an hour and then we get the bus, just at 11. We get to the bus station, and we're waiting....still waiting. It's almost 11:30, and we're waiting for a bus to take us home. It's just about midnight when we finally see our route...which drives right past us. Noooo! We have no idea what to do now! We tried calling a cab but one wasn't available for another hour. Just then, a cab that can hold 8 people (and we were 7) pull up down the road. We ran for it. Two of the girls ran faster and luckily managed to convince the cabby to drive us home. Usually, they won't do it like that. You have to have the cab already hired and can't just hail one. But, really, we look tired, we're all disheveled, we don't sound/smell/look drunk...we're obviously not British! He took pity on us and luckily drove us home.

So that was the day in London. Hopefully, there'll be more to come. We're going to Glasgow at the end of the month and Dublin in November. So look for updates for there too. In the meanwhile, it's almost bed time. Back in the classroom tomorrow.

Amy

First Days of School

I've been a little slack on updating the blog, and for that I apologize. However, I'm also not sorry because me not on the computer means I'm out doing other things. With real people. A little scary, but it's ok.

Us here in Harlow have been doing things like shopping, going to the pubs, watching cheesy romantic comedies and planning trips. We're going to London this weekend which should be good. We're also going to Dublin in November for a weekend. That should be a good time. They have a Tim's there!

The school system in England is...well, very different. At least here in Harlow it is. I'm in a very posh school that has high expectations. At the staff meeting yesterday, I was tempted to just leave and run home back to Canada. There's just so much to comprehend and grasp. But I've been reading the manual and things are getting clearer. In general, there are some similarities: the students are the most important, help those who need it while finding extra for those who are advance, etc. One of the biggest things is how behaviour is dealt with. Remember Harry Potter and how everyone's in Houses? Well, this school is like that. Everyone's in they're own grade but within that grade and the school, the students are separated into four houses. Good and exceptional behaviour is given a token, to be given at the teachers discretion. At the end of the week, the house with the most gets special prizes, in both the classroom and school as a whole. Bad behaviour is a bit more complicated. There are different coloured cards and they mean different things. I guess it's like soccer/football.

The head teacher (think principal) is a little strict/nice but overall a nice person. The teachers are all really nice to me, and I'm liking my teacher. She's sweet but the students know she's in charge. The students are very nice too, at least in my classroom. They'd say things to me like how they liked my accent and ask me questions about Canada and Newfoundland.

Two weird things: the parents wait for the children outside and most of them walk. There are also short assemblies every day. I guess it's an equivalent to announcements, but more general.

Well, the girls want to watch a movie, so I'm keeping this short. I'll give more details later.

Live from England,

Amy