Dental Care in Barking

More on my visit with Karen coming soon...in the meantime, I had my first encounter with Britain's dental care system this morning and was quite favourably impressed. I arrived at 8:25 for my appointment and spent about 10 minutes filling out information forms. Then I had a consultation with the dentist (though no cleaning), an x-ray, and another appointment to fill a small cavity. Payment for the entire thing (including the upcoming filling appointment) came to 46.50, and I walked out of there at about 9:00. Dental health is considered as part of the National Health Service, which I pay for out of my income, and as such I am entitled to relatively inexpensive dental care. 16.50 for a basic consultation and/or cleaning, 46.50 for fillings, x-rays, root canals and the like, and 198.50 for crowns and other major work. I'm thinking any major dental work I need done I should do before I return home to Canada!

First Day with Karen

My friend Karen (Kitchener Karen, not Toronto Karen) arrived in from Toronto last night safely. David kindly offered to drive us back to my place in Barking. Then this morning after a brief sleep-in (9:15 for Karen), I roused her out of bed to start the day in London. We got to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guards at 11:30, and proceeded to walk through Green Park, take a brief stop at the Wellington Arch (from where we could get a nice view of the surrounding area while eating our sandwiches), and then carried on to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens/Palace. The gardens were every bit as lovely as I remembered them being last fall...they must employ a host of gardeners who work from 9 pm until 7 am keeping the flowerbeds in tip-top condition. At Kensington Palace, they had a mystery you were supposed to solve, using the clues provided, decide which 7 princesses were being described who had lived at Kensington (including Victoria, Margaret, and most recently Diana). Karen really wanted to go on the London Sightseeing Tour bus, so we had a good two-and-a-half hour trip around the main sights in London. Karen was absolutely fascinated with all the different forms of transportation available in London and wanted to try them all--tube, train, and especially double-decker bus.

We ended off the day at Maxwell's, a yummy American (I think, since it listed "fries" and not "chips") restaurant. I highly recommend their burgers--very tasty indeed.

Tomorrow we hope to get to Hampton Court Palace, and take a trip on one of London's iconic red buses--which we didn't get a chance to do today--and Karen really wants to visit the original Hard Rock Cafe, something which was pointed out by our tour guide on the bus today. We want to get an early start, so I should get to bed now.

Ciao.

Mr Nobody

I swear there's a ghost at our house. Our internet connection is regularly down for short periods of time despite the fact that Sky reassures me that we are very close to the base (I forget what the technical jargon for that is), and the heat and water also turn themselves off requiring resetting quite freqently too. It's rather annoying when you're in the middle of a shower and the water goes from hot to cold in a matter of one second. Then there's the phone that sometimes has a clear connection during calls to Canada, and other times there's a frightful buzzing static that makes it very difficult to hear the other party. Or worse, you get an echo of your own voice back to you about one second after everything you say.

When I was in Gr. 3, the Ontario correspondence course my mom and I were using had a textbook that included a poem about "Mr Nobody" who makes all the messes and does all the damage in the house. Our family got great mileage out of the poem at the time and still refer to it occasionally. Therefore, I hereby christen our Park Avenue ghost "Mr Nobody."

Easter Holidays

Greetings from London, where the weather has turned rainy and cold this week again, after taunting us with sunshiny weather and highs in the mid-to-high teens for a bit. Never mind, it's supposed to be sunny and warm (14-15 C) by mid-week, I just have to endure rainy and gray for the duration of the Easter weekend.

My biggest news is that I am now on Easter holidays for just over two weeks. This last half-term has gone much more smoothly and less stressfully for me. Going back to supply work was definitely a positive move. Even if I have a rotten day here or there, when I walk out the door at the end of the day, I can learn any lessons I can from it, then forget about it and move on. I have also enjoyed the tutoring work. While I haven't gotten quite as much work as I'd hoped (which essentially means a slight pay cut from supply work), the work I have gotten has been really rewarding, and I have truly enjoyed working with the kids.

We had a Passover Seder meal (what my Mennonite friends and family would call a Maundy Thursday meal) on Tuesday this week at the London Mennonite Centre. With 15 people there, everyone had to take a part in the readings, either as a host, or narrator, or child (we had several teen children and a 20-something year old "child." After the ritual eating of the cilantro with salt water (symbolic of the Israelites' tears in Egypt) and matzah (unleavened) bread, among other things, we sat down to eat the matzah lasagna and nut roast. I made the nut roast using a recipe that was given to me...very interesting food, containing walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, celery, tomato, mashed potatoes and onions, and egg to glue it together like a giant veggie burger. I wouldn't have thought to put nuts and tomatoes in the same recipe. It was a good evening of food and fellowship and worship together.

Today, I'm leading the music at our Good Friday service at the LMC, and then my friend David and I are going to hear the Bach St. Matthew Passion tonight. Tomorrow is a pretty quiet day, I think I might make cinnamon buns for Easter, and then on Sunday I've volunteered to be the Wood Green songleader at a joint service between Wood Green and the Westbury Avenue Baptist Church whose space we use every Sunday.

I plan to spend the early part of next week doing some cleaning/organizing in my room, as well as planning for my tutor students and accomplishing some things that don't get done when I'm in school, like visiting the dentist. Also, my housemate Kim has gotten a new job in Colchester, teaching a Yr 4 class. She is very excited about it, and will be moving on Tuesday. Since she doesn't have a car/van to move her stuff, I've volunteered to help her carry stuff on the train on Tuesday. I will miss her, but it will give me an excuse to visit Colchester now.

On Wednesday, my K-W friend, Karen will be arriving for a week-long visit. I ordered two London Passes, so we can travel around and see as much of London as we can. I will try to post during her visit with photos and notes about where we've been.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Time for another Post...

Greetings. It has been almost two weeks since I last posted, the time has just passed quickly without my getting around to blogging. Teaching has been on the whole fairly positive lately. I've been doing more teaching in Yr 2 and 3 classes which is really my preferred age group. As of last Thursday, I've started tutoring students at Richard Alibon Primary school two days a week. I met with the homeroom teacher on Thursday, then met each of the students briefly that afternoon just to introduce myself and get to know them a bit. Friday, I worked with three students. The two main areas of focus for most of the Math students (I also have some in English as well, whom I haven't worked with yet) seem to be decoding word problems (identifying exactly what information the question is asking, and what operations are required to solve it) and converting between decimals, fractions, and percentages. I'm hoping to be able to work with at least 4-5 students those days so that I'm not taking a major pay cut over supply work (I talked to the principal and he said he has two more students for me which would bring me up to a total of 8), but already on the first day, I found it a much more rewarding job than supplying. The kids were eager, and they worked really hard, and they each learned something...even something like, reread each sentence carefully to be sure you understand the information you've been given.

Aside from teaching, I'm beginning to plan seriously for visits from friends for each of my upcoming school holidays in April, June, and August. In April, I'll be showing my friend Karen around London. After she goes home, I'm going to visit the Taize Community in France for four days, a ten-year old dream of mine now that I can finally fulfill. For anyone not familiar with Taize, it's an ecumenical monastic community that works and worships together, and has welcomed Christian pilgrims from around the world (particularly young people) for many years. In June, Emily is coming to visit, and then in August, my other friend Karen and I will be backpacking across Europe together. I'm doing lots of research right now about how best to see as much as we can on a budget as possible. Paris, Bruges, Amsterdam, parts of Switzerland and Germany (where we have IVEP friends), Salzburg and Vienna, Rome and Venice are on the wish list right now.

Last weekend, I saw Chicago with some friends from teacher's college. We managed to see the show and get dinner at a Thai restaurant nearby for 27.50. It's wonderful to be in London and be able to take advantage of such deals...I know I am fortunate.

Yesterday I led a musical gathering for my church friends at the London Mennonite Centre. I got out the blue hymnal and Sing the Journey books, and picked some of my favourites--mostly short and simple, but beautiful pieces to teach in parts to the gathered assembly (about 10) by rote. We had fun, and several people expressed interest in doing it again.

Well, it's time to get outside and take advantage of the glorious weather. The crocuses, daffodils and pansies are all in their prime...spring has officially arrived!

London Transport Museum

Hi again. This past week has been gorgeous: cold, but sunshine and clear blue skies every day--a very welcome reprieve from weeks on end of grey, overcast skies from my point of view. Teaching went pretty well last week too. Monday I arrived at my designated school to find the boilers were off, so they sent all the kids home. They still had to pay me for showing up, so I changed a large bulletin board and then went home around noon. Tuesday I didn't get called in, so I went to a bookstore in Ilford (a community just north of Barking) where I bought myself a number of budget Europe travel guides for a big trip I'm hoping to make with a friend from back home this summer. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, I was in yr 3 classes each day, and amazingly, some pretty well-behaved kids. I really like that age group. They're old enough to be a bit more independent, have a bit more self-control than the really young kids, yet not old enough to be self-conscious or hormonal yet. They're a really creative bunch, and most of them still idolize their teachers.

On Friday night, Kim and I went to see the opening of Alice in Wonderland. It has been a long time since I read the books, but I mostly enjoyed it. Since I had never seen Avatar, it was my first 3-D movie. They combined Alice and the Looking Glass with Carroll's poem, The Jabberwocky, including the "vorpal sword." I had sung a song based on the poem in choir at Nipissing last spring, so I had the song going through my head a few times.

Saturday I went to the London Transport Museum. It's very well done, a very interactive exhibit in which you can board old buses, trams, trains, etc and see what they were like.

various vintage models of London buses

Lots of history, from the British-style rickshaws that used to be used to the mini ominbuses which replaced horse-drawn carriages as a mode of transport, to the high-speed rail options available to Londoners today


Yesterday, I went to St. Paul's Cathedral for their choral Eucharist before going to the Menno church in London for 3 pm. I had a nice visit over drinks and chips (with mayonnaise, the Belgian/Dutch way...) with some friends at a local pub after church. A good weekend...

Tutoring Opportunity

Hello again:

I've been back in the classroom this week, back on day-to-day supply. Some good days, some not-so-hot days, but my free time is my own again. I went to a training workshop at TimePlan on Thursday night for a new initiative the government has just unrolled. They're funding a new program aimed at helping underachievers (in the areas of math and english) reach their potential. If schools allocate students for the program, they will be given funding for 10 one-hour sessions 1:1 with a tutor. It's targeting primarily Yr. 6 (and some Yr 5) students, who have to write their SATs (like Gr 6 EQAO) in May. I'm quite excited by the prospect of working intensively with individual students over a period of time. As a teacher, one never has as much time to spend with individual students as one would like, so this will feel like a relative luxury to spend an hour dedicated to one student. It will provide rich opportunities for me to both hone my own teaching strategies as well as to see very measurable progress from week to week. I'll give up some supply teaching in order to do the tutoring instead. TimePlan is looking for people to tutor, but willing to work around whatever I want--I'm envisioning doing 2-3 days of supply and 2-3 days of tutoring a week at this point. I can adjust as it goes on, depending how I find the tutoring.

I've been watching the Olympics every chance I get lately--I finally figured out which channel to check for Olympic coverage--and cheering all the Canadian gold that's been won lately! Canadian women athletes rock!...and I'm hoping the men's hockey team is victorious over the Yanks tonight.

It's been a good weekend. I went to a TimePlan social on Friday night, where I was able to visit with some people I haven't seen recently, as well as meet a few new faces. Yesterday, I walked around Camden Market, which is a great place for eclectic gifts and souvenirs. I'll go back there just before I return to Canada for a few reminders of London. A friend and I went to see Donizetti's "The Elixir of Love" at the English National Opera House last night. The Opera House itself was a beautiful old Victorian building, highly guilded and ornamented, from a time when the sun never set on the British Empire. This morning I went to church in Barking, and I'm going to a prayer meeting with some folks from the church late this afternoon.