Little-Known Facts about British Schools

Here are a few things that I have learned about British schools in my time here that make them different from Canadian schools.

1) Peanut butter is A-OK in Britain. No one's life is about to be jeopardized if anyone brings anything with nuts to school--there are no nut allergies here.

2) The schools I've been in typically have an assembly for fifteen minutes every morning. This assembly is intended to pump school spirit by regularly honouring students or classes who have achieved commendable things (e.g. best attendance, best effort at keeping math notebooks neat, this morning it was the Year 6--who are the oldest group in the school--Prefects who had been chosen to take on a responsible role on the playground being given badges and notebooks, and whatever other criterion the head teachers--e.g. principals--decide upon). Sometimes classes will be responsible to present something they've been learning to the rest of the school, and sometimes head teachers will expound upon some character development theme, such as how to be a good friend.

3) In several schools, these assemblies opened and closed with classical music to bring everyone in and send them out. I heard Schubert's string quartet, The Trout one morning, and a Haydn symphony another morning.

4) Children as old as eight and nine years old (I'm not sure about the 11-year olds since I haven't taught the oldest two years yet) change in the classroom en mass for P.E. Boys and girls change beside each other without thinking about it.

5) Teachers are not responsible to supervise children who are eating their lunch. The "lunch ladies" who serve a hot meal to those who wish for it supervise the children inside the lunch hall.

6) The Brits prefer the "horseshoe" model for classroom layout. The teacher's desk is in the front corner (left or right) and the children's desks (or rather, tables) are set up in a semi-circle facing the front. Each classroom is equipped with a computer, data projector and visualizer. For the uninitiated, a visualizer is like a digital version of an overhead projector that can be easily zoomed in and out without getting blurry, and you can do other things like use the "mirrror" function to flip and image. This also allows teachers to easily show video clips off the internet in a way that would be the envy of most Canadian teachers at this point. Smartboards (or interactive white boards) have been rejected by the education system here because the visualizer is easier for the teacher to use and still be looking at the children.

Electrical Plugs

Just thought I should let you see what a British plug looks like. Notice the switches for each one. the orange showing on the left means power is flowing to this outlet, while the white (pointing down) on the right means the power supply is cut off. So whereas North Americans just have current flowing through the wires all the time, the Brits can turn it on and off at will. If we're not using an appliance/laptop/the TV/whatever, we try to keep our outlets all turned off.

Two Churches in One Day

Greetings:

I have had a good weekend here. On Friday night, I, together with two housemates walked to The County Pub in Newbury Park (about a 75-min. walk from Barking) for a social with other TimePlan teachers. I got to meet some more people, in particular Funmi (pronounced FOO-mee), a young woman from Oyo State in Nigeria. She was delighted to learn that I had spent three years of my childhood in Plateau State. She will be moving into Barking soon with her husband and two young children, and we are hoping to get together for walks sometimes.

Saturday was a quiet day around home, doing a few errands like grocery shopping and going to the library to take out a few books on behaviour management (written by British authors) as that is something that I have found to be a major challenge in coming to Britain. I'm currently reading "Getting the Buggers to Behave," and it is full of practical tips and suggestions for teachers.

Sunday I went to Barking Baptist in the morning, where there was a real harvest/Thanksgiving theme. I was challenged to be a more consciously grateful person all the time, a struggle at times when one is busy or stressed out, but particularly important then. I have found the times in my life when I remembered to be grateful to be the most joy-filled and purposeful times in my life. I want to reclaim the wonder and joy of a thankful heart.

In the afternoon, I headed into central London to the Woodgreen Mennonite Church. This church is connected with the London Mennonite Centre and is a congregation of about 25 or 30 members who meet in a local Baptist church at 3 pm on Sunday afternoons. Unlike the morning service with the Baptists, which is highly interactive ( "Amen!" and "Oh, yes..." and "Hallelujah, brother!") from the people in the pews during prayers, this service was quieter and more like services I am used to. I was glad to see the blue hymnal the moment I walked in the door, and found out they use the Sing the Journey book as well as two other supplemental books I wasn't familiar with. Vic Thiessen (the current director of the London Mennonite Centre) gave a very stirring sermon questioning how we can follow in the way of Jesus today with integrity, pointing to the young people who are turned off Christianity by the appalling atrocities that Christians have committed in Christ's name in the past and continuing today. He challenged us to be willing to apologize for the wrongs past Christians have committed, and being willing to repent of current injustices in which we are complicit. His most radical point was that we need to be willing to re-examine our own esteemed traditions and the Bible, not counting either one as infallible. Nelson Kraybill (until very recently the president of AMBS) and his wife (Ellen?) were visiting, who had been the directors of the London Mennonite Centre back in the early-mid 1990's, so there was a warm welcome of them--Ellen jumped in and played piano since they were down a few musicians that day--and they gave an update to the congregation at the end of the service. There was also time for other introductions, so I introduced myself, and a few CPTers were introduced as well. Then they ended with tea for everyone. It is a church that truly is family to each other, and I will definitely be back, though when it takes almost 90 minutes and three trains to get there, it likely won't be next week.

I currently have 1-1/2 days of work lined up for this week so far. I'm going back to the same school I spent a week at before for this afternoon and all day tomorrow. It's good to be going back to a school I know.

Have a good week, everyone.

Julie

Errands week...

Hello again:

It's been a few days since I posted because there hasn't been much of interest to report. On Monday, I got called into a school to cover a teacher who usually takes kids out of the class on an individual basis to do enrichment work or for remedial help. I ended up sitting in on four different classes for the day, in one case doing some reading with individual children and the rest of the time just being another adult in the room to monitor kids doing their math/computers/whatever. That was a very easy day, and it was nice to see some other teachers doing their thing. I feel like I'm getting some sense for what routines are fairly standard across schools in the borough of Barking and Dagenham anyway.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week I have had no work. This has been good in the sense that I have been needing to get some financial work done. I needed to bring my passport and proof of address to Lloyd's for instance, in order to set up phone banking on my international account so I can transfer student loan money back to Canada, and I also needed to give my employer and my landlord my newly acquired bank account info so that I can get paid (by direct deposit), and pay my rent (a preauthorized debit off my account). As well, I now have a membership at the local library.

Yesterday I got a call for work today, but then it was cancelled later last evening. Then I got a second call about the same school this morning, but it was again cancelled about half-an-hour later. I ended up using my free time today to clean the kitchen from top to bottom. It was due for a good housecleaning to get rid of all the greasy deposits on all the shelves.

I've been thinking lately about where I'd like to go once I have some time off and money in my pocket, and I think--apart from short jaunts within the UK itself--I'd really like to visit Austria. Salzburg, Vienna, Linz, and Innsbruck--all of these appeal to me for their historical, cultural (particularly musical) and aesthetic appeal. I took out a book from the library and am copying down notes about what to see and how to get around. I'm hoping to find someone who would be willing to go with me...my housemates a) have already visited Austria and have other destinations they'd like to see; b) aren't classical music fans and probably wouldn't care to visit the Musikverein with me and c) already have plans made with boyfriends or established friends and I'd be a tag-along/third wheel--the last thing I ever want to be! I'm hoping I will find someone as I get to know more people here...otherwise, if any of you reading this blog are interested, do let me know!

Ciao. JKN

Kensington Palace and Gardens

This is me standing just inside the kitchen modelling my new trenchcoat purchased at H & M's for 35 pounds on Friday night while shopping with my housemates.

So on Saturday, I decided to take advantage of the Open House that was happening all over London, from downtown out to the boroughs like Barking. This was an event in which all kinds of architecturally significant buildings were opened to the public for free for the weekend. I got on the c2c train since the tube doesn't run here on the weekends. Transportation for London has taken on a massive project of updating the entire tube system--trains, tracks, signals, everything--over the next ten years, and the project is in high gear now in preparation for the 2012 Olympics. This means that every weekend 4-5 subway lines within the system are partially shut down for two days during which time there is a replacement bus service which lengthens the journey to about double tube time. Luckily I live in Barking which also has good train service via the c2c into London, so I opt to pay a bit extra and take that rather than spend upwards of two hours on a bus each way.

Staying on the theme of infrastructure maintenance, I have been impressed by the efficiency of the Brits in repairing roads. Because they do not have the luxury of four-lane roads and/or relatively little traffic as many Canadian communities do, they complete all of their roadwork at night. You'll see 5 or 6 machines working together at 11 pm (as my housemates and I did on our way home from our night out on Friday) to complete a stretch of road 100-200 metres in length. The next night they move down the street and do the next 200 metres.

OK, back to my story. So I took the c2c to Fenchurch station where I transferred without difficulty this time (see last weekend's post for my previous confusion) to the tube at Tower Hill. From there I took the Central line to High Street Kensington. I found the most wonderful

foodie's paradise when I got above ground again, called the Whole Foods Market. It had the most tantalizing smells emanating of freshly baked bread, roasted vegetables and herbs and many other nice things. I got inside and found the highest quality fruits and vegetables, many lovely baked goods, a good variety of exotic chocolates, an impressive cheese display and a gigantic wine selection from all over the world. There was a restaurant on-site and many take-out type options, prepared foods (by which I do not mean fast food, but nutritious, scrumptious- looking entrees and salads) that you could scoop into a box to eat immediately or to take home to the fridge. Much emphasis on organic and local as well as vegetarian. I didn't have money to spend there yesterday, but I have made a mental note to return in the future.

I got to Kensington and wandered around the gardens before getting to the palace. There were gorgeously manicured gardens bordered by short shrubs. Upon entering, I was told that in fact it was only free if you were there with the tour group which left a

t 2 and 4 (I had arrived at 2:40). I decided I didn't want to stay until 4, nor was I interested in paying 12.50 when I had not intended to stay longer than an hour. I continued my walk through the gardens which turned into Hyde Park. There were lawn chairs available for the public to use so I saw many people there with books and magazines, camped out for the afternoon there. I've included some pictures here.

One of several carefully tended gardens around Kensington Palace.

a statue of Queen Victoria

A statue of William of Orange on the east side of Kensington Palace.

These are some of the buildings on High Street just outside of Kensington Gardens. This Pizza Hut has a bit fancier building than usual...

New Lexicon

There's lots of new terminology to get used to here in London. The garbage can is the rubbish bin, recess is playtime, lunch is dinner. Baseball is rounders ball, soccer is football. Flashlights are called torches and kleenexes are tissues. The washroom is the toilet. Grade 2 is Year 3. Zucchinis are courgettes. Sweaters are called jumpers. Pants are called trousers and underwear are called pants. Buses are trams and the subway is the tube. Taking the attendance is called taking the register.

It's interesting to compare the sound of Canadian English to British (and New Zealand) English, and to realize that Canadians words are much more clipped than most other English-speaking nations. They elongate their vowels more, sometimes making dipthongs (or even triphthongs) out of words that we could speak as a single vowel, such as "tree," which they say more like "tray-ee." They are very sparing in their use of the a sound as in apple...most a's sound like father. Our long a sound often sounds like "ah-ee." And they drop "r" sounds in words most of the time, only to add random "r's" to the ends of other words, especially if a vowel ends one word and another vowel begins the next word. I've decided Canadian children have a much easier time with spelling, because we say words by and large much more phonetically than the British do.

It's fun to listen...and I find myself often having to change my instructions to the children..."No, I mean put the balls in the bucket, not the bin," when they look at me askance and I realize they think I want them to trash the tennis balls.

Class 3L

I've spent the first three days of this week supplying in a Year 3 classroom. I was working on my laptop on Monday morning, just thinking that I probably wasn't going to get called for the day, when the phone rang at 10 am. Apparently the teacher went home sick mid-way through the morning. I dashed out the door and, following TimePlan's directions, caught my bus and made it to the school for 10:45, just as the kids were coming in from recess. I didn't have more than two seconds to look at the math lesson that he left before they were coming in and needing to be taught...so I taught the lesson on the fly, looking at the plans regularly to see what we were supposed to be doing next. The rest of the day went like that, keeping half a step ahead of the students. Thankfully the TA was pretty available to me for most of that time--she splits her time between the three Year 3 classes--and she was a big help.

The kids in that class were a handful. Few of them are deliberately naughty, but they seem like a classful of ADHD students who can't sit still or be quiet for two seconds. I felt like I spent the entire afternoon yelling at them to shut up. I stayed until 4:45 marking papers Monday, which is expected of all supply teachers here.

Tuesday I got the call at 8 am that this same school/class needed me back again, so I made it for 8:55--just time to glance over the English plans before it was time to bring the kids in. After taking the registration (their word for the attendance), I took them down to the gym for assembly--which they have every morning--and then returned directly to the classroom to spend a few minutes going over the game plan for English with one of the other Year 3 teachers. During English I was just about tearing my hair out with this little freckled, red-headed imp named Lewis, and was very grateful when one of the other Year 3 teachers was willing to keep him in her class for the morning. At lunch Tuesday, I talked to 3L's previous teacher, who said it took her until Christmas last year to get them to listen to her. Tuesday afternoon went mildly better, I was starting to get the hang of this "lessons on the hop" thing, reading through the lesson and finding the necessary resources (or improvising) during recess for the next period.

Today, I got called at 7:45 and was able to make it to school with time to spare. I finally felt like I was starting to get the hang of the routines--how to mark down the dinner registration (these kids all have the option of buying a hot lunch every day), remembering to send the attendance down to the office and all the other little details. I also felt like I was finally remembering most of the kids names today, rather than just pointing: "Yeah, you." Since most of the kids had not returned their spelling lists from home today (or yesterday) despite repeated reminders to do so, I decided to do the spelling interactively today and just get the kids one-at-a-time to come up to the whiteboard and write down one of the spelling words. I had a great moment at that point, where I just felt like, "Yes! I am enjoying myself, the kids are engaged and learning...good times." Just before lunch, we had a really good discussion about respect, and the children were far quieter than I have seen them before, or since. After lunch, I taught R.E.--which stands for Religious Education--and the theme was on sin, and the bad things we do, connected to John the Baptist baptizing Jesus (baptism being a sign of us being made clean). Kind of a heavy--I was glad for my years of Sunday School background, or I think it would have been a rather difficult lesson to teach. It is impossible to imagine such a lesson being taught in a public school in Canada. To end off the day, I was to teach an ICT (Information and Communication Technology, for my friends/family who aren't techies) lesson on the important components of a card, involving using the computer to make a card. Not having had any time at all to get on the school computers and do any exploratory work beforehand, I was very grateful that I have had Microsoft Office on my laptop the last year and have done enough work with it to feel relatively comfortable. I took the kids into Publisher and got them started. Not having planned anything, nor having the capability of showing anything on a large screen in the lab, I just walked around and helped pairs of students figure out how to change the font, the picture, the layout and design of their card. We managed to get them all saved in the 3L folder and them organized in time for the 3:05 bell.

It's been a steep learning curve this week, but I have definitely learned some useful things from it. Hopefully for the kids's sake their teacher is back tomorrow. Cheerio...

Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Since my last blog, I have had my first day of actual supply teaching here and attended a comedy show (Friday), explored the south bank of the Thames for the Thames Festival (Saturday), and attended Barking Baptist Church (Sunday).

First, Friday. I got a call on Thursday evening for work Friday in Dagenham in a year 1 class--that's like our kindergarten. Friday morning, I took the tube to Dagenham Heathrow, and made the ten-minute walk to the school without issue. I met the teacher, who was to be in a workshop all day, and she gave me brief instructions what to do with the kids. Allison, the TA there was a good support to have, helping me to find the kids to bring them inside, and just helping me with kids names and classroom routines. In the morning we counted to 100 and played "I'm thinking of a number," and then I got them up and jumping and jiving to a song called "I Can Dance." After recess--"playtime" in the local lingo--we had a read-aloud, and then did some art--painting the letters for a Happy Birthday poster listing the birthdays of each student in the class. For lunch, they all went down to the dining hall, where a full-time staff served a hot lunch to those who either paid for it, or who were being offered a free lunch because of financial disadvantage. The children eating a hot lunch ate together, and the children eating packed lunches from home ate at another table. I was responsible to supervise for the first 15 minutes of lunch to ensure that the children were eating, and then the kitchen staff dismissed them for playtime when lunch was over. After lunch, we went down to an assembly in the dining hall, and following that the children were to be given "golden time" (e.g. free activity time) for their good behaviour earlier this week. After twenty minutes of very hyper children shouting at the top of their voices, in spite of repeated directions from both myself and the TA to tone it down, we chose to take them outside into a courtyard in the middle of the school and let them run off steam. I got through everything the teacher wanted except for a discussion about what they liked about year 1--in their condition, I decided it would be a vain attempt. Overall, I felt quite good about the day, but very concious that I know how an Ontario classroom functions and what the expectations are, but I really have no idea how a British classroom operates, or the implicit understandings there. I hope to get into someone's classroom this week just to observe for a day and see what some of the differences are, in order to make myself feel more confident when I step into a new classroom as the substitute teacher.

Friday evening, I travelled on the c2c and DLR trains from Barking to Greenwich for the Comedy Festival that was happening there. There were three acts, and I liked each one better than the last, particularly the Irishman who came out last. Unfortunately, as Melissa (my housemate) noted, the intervals between acts were almost as long as the acts themselves, an excuse for as much beer-drinking as possible.

Saturday I went into London with two of my housemates for the Thames Festival. Unfortunately, about half of the Tube system--or maybe it just seemed that much--was shut down this weekend, so we took a "rail replacement" bus into the downtown. On the plus side, it gave us a chance to see some of the communities that up until now have just been Tube stop names to us. There was much food there, and a variety of acts, from Korean dancing to a gymnastics event, to people in Swiss costumes performing several acts, and various bands at the Big Swing stage. I had a Ghanaian lunch, spicy rice with a sampling of chicken satay, a black-eyed bean stew, a beef stew, and a lentil dish. I picked up some "caramel clotted cream" fudge at one of the many fudge stalls at the venue, which covered the Thames from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge. On the way home, I parted company from my housemates because I was ready to go home and they wanted to stay a while longer. I got myself quite lost trying to transfer from the tube (a line that was partially in service) to the c2c line out to Barking. I didn't actually know what the c2c station was that I was looking for, and no one seemed able to help me when the initial directions the tube staff gave me failed to help. I finally went back to the tube and found out that while the tube station was called Tower Hill, the c2c station I needed was Fenchurch station. After wandering around for about 40 minutes, I finally found the station and got home about 8 pm.

This morning, I attended Barking Baptist Church, which is about an 8-minute walk from my house. It is about 80% black, and looks to be a congregation of about 100 or so. I was greeted by several people on my way in, including Vicky, who just moved here (with her husband) from Alabama last November. The singing was heart-felt, with a team of about 12 people on-stage (keyboard, guitar, and singers) leading the music, many of which I didn't know except for "Majesty" and "Come, Now is the Time to Worship." They had a greeting time early in the service, but unlike the Mennonites who will politely greet the people in their immediate vicinity, these people were moving out of their seats to greet everyone, 5 pews over or whatever. Then after the service, I met a couple who were pleasantly surprised to find I was a Canadian, and then thoroughly amazed to find that I was a Mennonite who had studied at CMU in Winnipeg. It turned out that they had lived in Steinbach while she was studying sociology at the University of Winnipeg. She gave me their address, and welcomed me--as did a dozen others--to come back next week. I hope you have had a good weekend as I have.

Sweet success...

For all of you who were sitting on the edges of your chairs wondering if I was going to get the baking ingredients I needed, I had a successful venture this afternoon into London. I went to a little place called The Spice Shop in the Portobello Road Market area and found all the flavourings/spices I was looking for. Here is some photgraphic evidence for your edification:

From back left: cinnamon, cloves, pomegranate(!) molasses, vanilla (the little vial in the middle), curry, ginger, and (almost hidden) sesame seeds.

On my way, I was able to enjoy the many shops along Portobello Road--organic and fair trade spots selling tea, coffee, chocolate etc, numerous little cafes and knick knack stores, a bead store, and more. No doubt it would be a whole other experience if I were to come on Saturday for market day. I shall keep it in mind for the future...

Shopping and other quirks of British culture...

Hello again. I have been thinking a lot lately about some of the differences between British and Canadian culture, particularly where it pertains to the things one finds available at one's local supermarket. To begin with, Barking--and insofar as I have travelled around, other places such as Ilford and Newbury Park--are peppered with tiny little ethnic markets selling fresh produce such as yams, plantains, tomatoes, apples, and oranges outside on the street, and lots of dried beans and rice and little cans of chili pastes and halal meats and such inside, and a grocery store such as you'd find in Canada at a No Frills is a rather rare thing. My mother suggested to me before I left home that I might find myself missing certain ingredients when I got here, and she was right. In particular, I find the Brits do not bake--virtually at all, if my survey of one or two dozen grocery-type places is any indication. It took me at least half-a-dozen stores to find baking powder and baking soda, and I still haven't seen brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, or vanilla. The largest quantity of flour I have seen yet was 1.5 kg, and sugar comes in 500 g bags, while the only way to buy chocolate chips is in 100 g bags. On the other hand, I have found ingredients I don't usually find in Canadian stores, such as marzipan and "essence of rose water." While the difference is most profound in baking, my sense is that the Brits don't cook very much, period, based on the quantity of processed foods vs. raw materials available. Nevertheless, their habit of just buying what they need now, and not buying massive bulk quantities ahead seems quite admirable.

I find the Brits a bit backward when it comes to traffic lights. The lights for the cars go red, yellow, green, such that the pedestrian light signal is still green when the car signal has changed from red to yellow. What's the implicit message there? "Proceed slowly forward into the pedestrian crossing in front of you..." Whether I'm jay-walking or crossing legally, I tend to jog across the road in my own self-interest, unless someone has specifically stopped for me, in which case I give a "thank-you" wave...though I have no idea whether they interpret it as a thank you or something else. :)

Adios amigos, J

St. Margaret's Church

This morning I chose to attend St. Margaret's Church, an Anglican church about a fifteen minute walk from my house. The church itself is a beautiful old stone building, situated among the ruins of the Barking Abbey, originally built in 666 AD. It's a lovely treed area with cemetary and a community centre.

Upon walking into the building, I found a good-sized (300-ish?) congregation that is clearly a microcosm of the community in which I'm living. I'd say about half the congregation was black, while another 40% was white, and the remaining 10% was predominantly Indian. They opened with a number of praise songs, most of which I was not familiar with, and then proceeded to follow a liturgy that felt relatively familiar to me. The "talk"--it wasn't called a sermon or a message--was based around the story of David and Goliath. The minister talked about facing our fears knowing God will bring us through them, and about being ourselves, and not trying to be someone we're not--in the context of David just taking his slingshot and stone, and choosing not to wear Saul's armour. They sang some hymns as well, though the music was not provided for the congregation.

I will try to visit a few more churches, but I probably won't find anything closer to home. They have an intergenerational choir, and they operate a fair-trade booth the first Sunday of every month, selling tea and coffee and a few other items. I was also very interested to see in their bulletin they had a notice advising parishioners that in the interests of preventing the spread of H1N1, the use of the chalice at Communion has been temporarily suspended, and strict hygiene methods are being observed by those administering it. They also recommended that everyone find a "flu friend" in case of being diagnosed with Swine flu. I had to hurry home at the end because my household is in a bit of uproar--several people have just moved out in the last 12 hours, and a few more were going to be moving in--so I didn't stop to chat, but I had a good feeling about this church community.

London Eye and St. Paul's Cathedral

Hello again. This morning I made a phone call to set up an international bank account with Lloyds to cut down on the cost of sending money back to Canada. (It's 25 pence per 100 pounds, rather than 30 pounds per transaction.) After arranging that, I set out to explore London again. For today, I thought I would check out the London Eye on the suggestion of my housemates. If you've never been on it, it is a gigantic ferris wheel which gives one a perfect birds-eye view of the landscape on either side of the Thames River. The wheel is continuously moving at a very slow pace, such that people just get on and off while it is moving (though they will occasionally stop it momentarily for the elderly or disabled). The movement is slow enough to allow for very clear pictures taken while in motion. Here are a few shots I took:

Big Ben and the Parliament buildings behind

This art display involved the trees all being festooned with this red-and-white polka dotted material, on which passersby were writing messages.

Then I headed towards St. Paul's Cathedral. When I arrived just after 4, I discovered that sightseeing hours had just ended for the day. I chose not to stay for the 5 pm service, much as that would have been very interesting, and save that for another day.

This actually isn't St Paul's. It's the "Royal Courts of Justice," with an appropriately imposing edifice...

This however, is St. Pauls. I shall have to return another day and see inside.

I then took a bus to London Bridge, where I got some good information for travelling about the southern end of London and environs. This final picture is a of the ubiquitous taxi--they are all this shape and make of car, though some of them are painted in fancier colours.

First Day in London

This morning I took a double decker bus to Grant's Hill to set up a bank account with Lloyds. Following that, I took the Central line tube into London for the day. I got off at Tottenham Court Road and wandered about for a while, including Liberty's, a very posh spot selling everything from exotic chocolates to perfumes and leather handbags and scarves and designer clothing. I was mildly taken aback when I found a fairly ordinary-looking trench coat for about L450, but then I found another one for almost a thousand. Then I went outside looking for a place to eat my brown-bag lunch. I walked around for 10 minutes, but there were no park benches in sight, so I ended up leaning up against a wall, not too far from the original Liberty's storefront. A few people looked at me slightly askance as they walked by me eating my cheese sandwich and carrot sticks...funny.

Then I walked along Regent Street. I found a wonderful little place selling cashmere and wool products: kilts, shawls, jackets, scarves, blankets, sweaters. Plaids featured in many of them, with many allusions to "Scottish lambswool" and the like. I came down to Picadilly Circus and wandered through the market there, where I picked up some "Notting Hill" tea that smelled good. Finally, I walked over to Leicester Square and up to Covent Garden, before catching the Tube at Holborn station to come back to Barking.

I am struck everywhere I go by how everything in Britain is compressed compared to back home. Washrooms are by-and-large much smaller (though there is a very large ladies washroom in Leicester Square!) , and cars are smaller. Traffic lanes are definitely narrower too, which makes for slower traffic. As well, I really noticed on my way through Ilford and Newbury Park and Grant's Hill this morning that many people have either a garden/landscaped front yard OR a driveway, but rarely both. Occasionally you see a tiled driveway with a small edging of garden against the house or along a perimeter wall. I was amazed to see a few instances in which the owner had parked their car almost parallel to the road (just at a slight angle) and the 10 x 10 foot box (maybe less) of front yard was just barely big enough to contain the car, never mind anything else. Certainly I haven't seen a single garage since I've been here, never mind a huge three-door garage that juts out, dominating the house. The tube in the Central corridor is also very space-economical. It's probably about 7--maybe 8--ft high at the centre, but curves down towards the sides to create sort of an egg-shape. The doors themselves curve inward at the top, and the tunnel itself is just large enough to let the train through. Toronto's subway tunnels are extremely spacious by comparison.

Well, that's probably enough for now. Until the next post, adieu.

J

Arriving in UK

I landed at London Gatwick about 10 am on Monday. After getting through customs, I met my cab driver who took me to my new accomodations in Barking, a borough on the east side of London. The drive itself was an experience: adjusting to sitting on the left "passenger side" of the car and driving on the left-hand side of the road. After about an hour's drive, I found myself at my new home. There are lovely old townhomes on either side of my street, with well-pruned shrubs and rose bushes in many of the yards. I was surprised to find either side of the street jam-packed with an unending line of parked cars--parked indiscriminately in both directions--with just one centre line for moving traffic.

Upon venturing outside to explore my neighbourhood, I discovered what felt to me rather like the neighbourhood along the Danforth in Toronto. I discovered the local McDonalds, as well as a great many British institutions: Boots (like Shoppers Drug Mart), Poundsave and other similarly named stores, the British version of dollar stores, Barclay's and Lloyd's (both banks), and pubs such as the Barking Dog and Spotted Dog. It's quite a diverse community I'll be working in: I discovered Thai, Indian and Caribbean cuisine in easy walking distance, as well as a plentitude of little ethnic markets selling a variety of rice and other grains and starches as well as imported tropical produce and Indian spices, and several places selling halal meats.

My next task will be to figure out the London transit system. They have the Tube (subway) as well as National Rail (overground rail), and a plethora of buses. So far I've been getting around on my feet...tomorrow, I'm heading into London for the first. So long for now...