Another Week Almost Over

It's hard to believe May is practically over. I've had a good week this week, supplying in Yr. 3 and 4 classrooms for the first half of the week. This morning, I was in a rush on the way to work and then I walked through Dagenham East tube station. Beethoven's 9th was playing: not the big, brash "Let's get 'im, boys" triumphal anthem where the orchestral and choral forces all come together, but the serene chamber statement of the theme. Like Kennedy station in Toronto, Dagenham East always plays classical (and usually string quartets and other chamber music) music. It helped me to relax into another day.

One more day of tutoring this week, and then I'm off for another week of vacation. My friend Emily arrives on Saturday morning from Toronto, and I'll be spending the week with her, touring around London and hiking around English cottage country. We're taking the train up to Moreton-on-the-Marsh and then hiking to Chipping Campden. We're walking along the Cotswold Trail over the next three days, through old medieval (and maybe even a Roman) villages dotted throughout the countryside. I hope to get lots of pictures of picturesque thatched cottages and such.

I'll be updating with photos next week.

Cheerio.

An Afternoon with Michael Rosen

The school I tutor at had a visit from Michael Rosen today. Rosen, for the uninitiated, is a fantastic children's poet and novelist, the fifth Children's Laureate (2007-2009) with a wonderful sense of humour that everyone can relate to. He told us stories and recited poems based on his family relationships. The way he related things and the facial and vocal expressions he used had the kids in stitches for most of the hour-plus assembly. I went out to an ATM after school in order to have some cash to buy a few of his books.

This was my favourite poem of his.

Washing Up:

On Sundays,

my mom and dad said,

'Right, we've cooked the dinner,

you two can wash it up,'

and then they went off to the front room.

So then we began.

First there was a row about who

was to wash and who was to dry.

My brother said, 'You're too slow at washing,

I have to hang about waiting for you,'

so I said,

'You always wash, it's not fair.'

'Hard cheese,' he says,

'I'm doing it.'

So that was that.

'Whoever dries has to stack the dishes,'

he says,

so that's me stacking the dishes

while he's getting the water ready.

Now,

quite often we used to have mustard

with our Sunday dinner

and we didn't have it out of a tube,

one of us used to make it with the powder

in an eggcup

and there was nearly always

some left over.

Anyway,

my brother

he'd be washing up by now

and he's standing there at the sink

his hands in the water,

I'm drying up,

and suddenly he goes,

'Quick, quick quick

come over here

quick, you'll miss it

quick, you'll miss it.'

'What?' I say, 'What?'

'Quick, quick. In here,

in the water.'

I say,

'What? What?'

'Give us your hand,' he says

and he grabs my hand

then my finger,

'What?' I say,

'That,' he says,

and he pulls my finger under the water

and stuffs it into the eggcup

with left-over blobs of old mustard

stuck to the bottom.

It's all slimey.

'Oh Horrible.'

I was an idiot to have believed him.

So I go on drying up.

Suddenly

I feel a speck of water on my neck.

I look up at the ceiling.

Where did that come from?

I look at my brother

he's grinning all over his big face.

'Oy, cut that out,'

He grins again

sticks his finger under the water

in the bowl and

flicks.

Plip.

'Oy, that got me right on my face.'

'Did it? did it? did it?'

He's well pleased.

So now it's my turn

I've got the drying up cloth, haven't I?

And I've been practicing for ages

on the kitchen door handle.

Now he's got his back to me

washing up

and

out goes the cloth, like a whip, it goes

right on the--

'Ow--that hurt. I didn't hurt you.'

Now it's me grinning.

So he goes,

'All right, let's call it quits.'

'OK,' I say, 'one-all. Fairy squarey.'

So I go on drying up.

What I don't know is that

he's got the Fairy Liquid bottle under the

water

boop boop boop boop boop boop

It's filling up

with dirty soapy water

and next thing it's out of the water

and he's gone squeeesh

and squirted it right in my face.

'Got you in the mush,' he goes.

'Right, that's it,' I say,

'I've had enough.'

And I go upstairs and get

this old bicycle cape I've got,

one of those capes you can wear

when you ride a bicycle in the rain.

So I come down in that

and I say,

'OK, I'm ready for anything you've got now.

You can't get me now, can you?'

So next thing he's got the little

washing-up brush

and it's got little bits of meat fat

and squashed peas stuck in it

and he's come up to me

and he's in, up, under the cape with it

working it round and round

under my jumper, under my chin.

So that really makes me really wild

and I make a grab for anything that'll

hold water; dip it in the sink

and fling it at him.

What I don't know is that while I went upstairs to get the cape

he's got a secret weapon ready.

It's his bicycle pump,

he's loaded it with the dirty washing-up water

by sucking it all in.

He picks it up,

and it's squirt again.

All over my hair.

Suddenly the door opens.

'Have you finished the...?'

It's Mum AND Dad.

'Just look at this.

Look at the pair of them.'

And there's water all over the floor

all over the table

and all we've washed up is

two plates and the mustard pot.

My dad says,

'You can't be trusted to doanything you're asked,

can you.'

He always says that.

Mind you, the floor was pretty clean

after we had mopped it all up.

Dreadful Day, Great Day

I had an awful day in a year 2 classroom on Tuesday this week. I basically lost complete control of the class and ended up falling back on yelling at kids who wouldn't listen again. Lots of thoughts like, Why did I become a teacher again? and Who do I hate more right now--myself or these children? and How do I get to the end of the day? The guest PE teacher who was teaching them had almost as much difficulty with them.

Wednesday was a completely different day. I'd had a conversation with another teacher in the staffroom on Tuesday who said I had to establish my authority first thing, as soon as I met the kids lining up in the playground. I've heard this before in teacher's college, but something about the way she said it, or perhaps after being in the trenches awhile it finally sunk in and made sense, it was different this time.

So I headed off to my Yr 5 class on Wednesday morning, determined to try it out. I made a point of watching my assigned class for a minute or two before it was time to meet them, and trying to gauge which children to watch for. Then I went up to meet them and immediately gave the kid who was messing around the option to "stand sensibly" (a British favourite) now or practice with me at playtime. He--and everyone else--chose the first option. I had a really great day with them. I laid out my expectations really clearly first off and asked them to go over the class rules. Then I gave them a riddle to think about, and established a reward system--index cards for everyone, and the opportunity to win stamps for positive behaviours with a few prizes handed out at the end of the day for the most stamps. In truth, it was a pretty easy day: the class teacher had missed science last week because of SATs tests, and with a trip to the Royal Observatory planned for next week, the other Yr 5 teacher suggested spending the whole day doing science. So we spent the day talking about and looking at computer models of the relationship of the moon and earth to the sun, the hemispheres of the earth and the equator and the North and South Poles. Then we drew shadow landscapes. The kids were crazy to find out the answer to the riddle and I had one kid ask, "Can you come back tomorrow?" Wow. That's a first ever.

I'm hoping I can use this new insight to help improve my management techniques...I feel a bit silly it's taken me eight months to figure it out, but I guess better late than never. :)

Live and learn.

An Eventful Week

It has been an interesting week here. Monday, David and I walked along the Thames Trail--a trail that incidentally disappeared quite frequently. Fortunately, David knew his way around the area and got us to Greenwich, where we saw the Royal Observatory and the Meridian line (though because it was closed for the Bank Holiday, the gate was locked, so we couldn't actually stand with one foot in either hemisphere).

The work week passed fairly quickly, with lots of excitement here ever since Thursday when the elections happened. There had been a threat of the neo-fascist, very racist British National Party getting elected in Barking (there had been 12 BNP councillors on town council here since the last election). Labour put on a major push to educate people about this threat and it worked: instead of the 38% voter turnout that is typical in Barking, 62% came out, and the Labour incumbent, Margaret Hodge won by a landslide (24 000 to 6 000, with the Tories pulling ahead of the BNP with 8 000 votes. The BNP were wiped out, not only missing out on sending an MP to the House of Parliament, but also losing every one of their council members.

Nationally, the Tories led by David Cameroun took 306 seats, to Gordon Brown's 258 Labour seats and the Liberal Democrats (led by Nick Clegg) took 57 seats. This resulted in what the Brits call a "hung parliament," something which they are not used to, the last minority government being elected in 1974. This has led to a flurry of discussion between Nick Clegg/Lib Dems (who holds the balance of power in this situation) and David Cameroun/Tories, whom Clegg chose to talk to first since he won the most seats. This election has really made the need for electoral reform (particularly proportional representation) clear to the electorate, though the Tories in particular are dragging their feet. Ongoing talks between the Tories and Lib Dems are planned for the next 24 hours, and it could be a few days yet before a new Prime Minister is announced. In the meantime, Brown remains PM and the people of Britain have lots to talk about politically.

Yesterday, I was at a gardening party for someone at church. Lesley struggles with chronic cancer pain and has quite a large backyard to take care of, so there were about 10 or 15 of us at her house for a good portion of the day yesterday, weeding, mowing, burning dry wood and such. It was a fun day...Lesley provided lunch for us and we had a good time. My hamstrings are feeling it today...don't use those muscles quite so much normally.

Today we had a lovely visit at the London Mennonite Centre featuring visitors Alan and Ellie Kreider, who founded the LMC some 35 years ago now. They both spoke about the paradigm shift in mission (from being something that the church sends specialist people "out there" to do, to something that God calls each one of us to, right here in our own communities). Lovely lunch and a good visit--visitors who were at the church during the Kreiders' time swelled the ranks to 35 or 40 today.

Well, I'm just about ready for bed. Good night!

Another Quiet Weekend...

Well, another week-and-a-half has passed since my last post. I got a full week of work last week related to the volcano-induced travel chaos; some schools had as many as 10 or 15 teachers missing on the Monday after the holiday. Shows you how many teachers go abroad on vacation during the holidays...by this week, schools seemed to be back to normal functioning for the most part. Last Saturday, I met some friends and we had a picnic in Hyde Park. It was an absolutely gorgeous day for it, 21C, and I think half of London had the same idea. The park was filled with friends, couples, families some with picnic lunches, others with balls and frisbees and towels to lay out and enjoy the sun's rays.

Erin and Jess, my teacher friends on our makeshift picnic blanket (a bedsheet).

Sunday, Wood Green was having a no-church Sunday to encourage everyone to visit a different Anabaptist church. I chose to go back to Barking Baptist as I hadn't been there in over a month. It was good to see people I hadn't seen in a while, and I enjoyed a long Sunday afternoon to walk around the neighbourhood, and relax. Over supper, I was making a batch of banana muffins, so I had my laptop down in the kitchen (I didn't have space to bring a truckload of cookbooks with me, so if I can't find the recipe I want in one of my few books here, I look it up online and read it off the internet) and had a nice chat with a friend from my Stirling church family in between mixing muffin batter.

This week has been pretty good. I had nursery (am) and reception (pm) classes on Wednesday which was fun. So cute! On Thursday and Friday, I had my regular tutoring work again. I got quite upset and angry on Thursday upon hearing about one of my 9-yr old students (who is struggling in math) who is under a high degree of stress and being made to feel like a failure because of the government's bloody fetish with standardized testing results...the whole rant is on Facebook, if you care to read.

This weekend I have very few plans. I do need to get to a laundromat today--our washing machine broke down (with my housemate's clothing inside it) last Friday night, and because the door is on the side and it electronically locks, it won't open now (because the water is still inside). My landlord has been here several times this week, but the engineer who was supposed to come never came and now this company (who's supposed to cover any repairs with our appliances) is making the excuse that this engineer was in an accident and now they're a week behind. As of last night, it had been 7 days since Maria's laundry went in the machine...I hate to think what the clothing will look like when it comes out eventually--which could be another 3-6 days. Who knows? I cannot wait that long, so will shell out a bit of cash today to get it done.

Monday is a Bank Holiday, and Thursday is election day, so it is going to be a short week this week. Here, they close the schools and make schools the polling stations for some reason. Other than going to church tomorrow, and maybe trying to catch a walk locally here in Barking today, I have no particular plans. Heck, it's 10 am and I haven't eaten breakfast yet...must be a lazy Saturday. I should start my day.

Ciao for now.

Julie

Trains, Planes and Automobiles...and Ferries and Buses

My Time in Taize

Picking up on Wednesday morning now...Karen and I were up just after 6 am to get to the airport. After picking up a coffee and a farewell pasty for Karen, we took the tube all the way to Gatwick Airport, about a two-hour trip. We checked her in and then I waited with her until she went through security about 11 am. After seeing her off, I took a shuttle bus from Gatwick to Heathrow to await my 6:30 flight to Lyon. I spent a rather long afternoon at Heathrow and left the airportabout twenty minutes late, after which the flight went without a hitch. I got into Lyon about 9:30 pm local time (France is one hour ahead of Britain). I wandered around Lyon airport and after getting some directions, I found the shuttle bus I needed to get to Gare Part Dieu, the train station from which I would be departing the next morning. Then I walked to my hotel very close by to get some z's.

12th century Roman church in the village of Taize

Being rather tired, I decided not to be up at the crack of dawn the next morning to catch the 7:22 train to Macon that I had originally intended to catch. I got to the train station a bit before 8 am. I discovered the next train departed at 9:20, so picked up some pain du chocolat (basically a croissant with chocolate inside, for the uninitiated) for breakfast. After arriving at Macon-Ville about 11 am, I finally found the bus stop for the bus to Taize. After a rather long wait and a bit of a walk around Macon itself, I finally got on the bus to Taize about 1 pm.

The drive from Macon to Taize was gorgeous. We passed countless vineyarards, field after field of gravevines that had been pruned almost down to the root with grids of staking wire everywhere to guide the vines. It was a lovely first view of southern France. Driving through the small village of Taize, we passed lovely stone cottages set on a hill overlooking pastures with sheep calmly grazing and trees in full flower.

I arrived at the Taize Community about 2 pm where I was given an introduction by Marie, a German volunteer there this summer. Shortly after arriving, I was sent to the "Canadian regional" meeting, which consisted of a Canadian Taize brother and Laura Thiessen, an girl I went to university with in Winnipeg some ten years ago. We had a great hour or so of getting acquainted/reacquainted. Laura's an English high school teacher in Altona MB now and on a sabbatical year this year in order to travel Europe, including visiting Taize and completing the Camino de Santiago Compostela.

At Taize every day is virtually the same, so I'll go through the daily routine to give you an idea. Morning prayer begins at 8:15, followed by breakfast about 9 am. Then Bible study (basically a lecture/exegesis of part of the gospel of John led by one of the Taize brothers) was at 10 am, and then we had a small group discussion of the morning's Bible study. At 12:20 we gathered for mid-day prayer, after which lunch was at 1. At 2, there was "choir practice" (practicing some of the songs we were learning; I went on Friday and we worked on the pronounciation of a Polish song and a Dutch song we had sung). Mid-afternoon was free to do whatever, and then there were several workshops offered at 5:45 pm every afternoon from Tuesday until Saturday on a variety of themes ( from the Trinity to the Eucharist, to helping someone going through a difficult time). Supper was at 7 pm, and then Evening Prayer was at 8:30 and usually went on for several hours.

Prayer services also followed a routine. Scriptures were always read in 3-4 different languages, most often in French, English, German, Korean, and Spanish. We sang in each of the following languages at virtually every service as well: French, German, English, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Dutch, and Latin. Near the beginning of the service, there was always a ten-minute silent prayer time. I enjoyed these services very much. Since everyone sat on the floor--or if they were early and lucky enough, on one of the prayer stools provided, it was discomfort that usually made me decide to leave after two hours at the evening service.

Demographically the 17-24-year olds (the group that Taize primarily caters to) were the largest age group by a long shot. They came as large groups and had their own Bible study group and were employed afternoons cleaning bathrooms and washing dishes and various other jobs around Taize. I joined the 25-35 young adult Bible study group (about 30 of us). There was another Bible study group for all the other adults as well. For meals, all the under-30s ate near the main picnic area, while the over-30s ate in a separate tent quite removed from the youngsters. I was officially supposed to be in the older adults tent, but since I had a few friends in the under-30s, I spent some of my meals in both areas. In terms of languages, the French were by far the greatest majority, followed by the Germans. There was quite a large group of Chinese people that arrived on Friday afternoon as well.

Some people came with tents, but the remainder of us were housed in dormitories. During the day, we spent most of our time outdoors, sitting on benches or grass. There were lots of tents and benches set up in squares or triangles to facilitate visiting.

I th0roughly enjoyed the prayer services and the Bible studies. Not sitting on a chair with a back for three days was the hardest part of the experience I think. I'm a terrible sloucher...

Somewhere halfway through my time there, Brother Jean-Marie(?--our Bible Study leader) told us about Iceland's volcano and the problems at airports.

So on Saturday, I went online to find out how I was going to get home. It quickly became apparent that my scheduled flight from Lyon to London on Sunday morning was not going to be happening. I considered staying put at Taize for a few days, and I thought about trying to get a high-speed train to Paris (for 150 euros) and then a 9-hour coach to London. I also talked to various people at Taize who encouraged me to find someone who could give me a ride. Through talking to various people, I was introduced to Karen, an English woman who was driving home to Oxford. She was leaving on Sunday morning, so I quickly accepted her offer. We drove to Lille, where we were hosted by the family of a girl whom Karen is employing as a nanny for her daughter. So I entered my first French home where I was treated to their hospitality, including what my cousin Alex calls "la bise" a kissing ritual of greeting (L cheek, R cheek, L, R). Each member of the family kissed me upon arrival and again at departure. They served us a lovely meal. Then we drove to Dunkirk with Anna Joy (Karen's daughter) and Elise (the nanny) for an 8 pm ferry ride across the channel. From Dunkirk, we crossed over to Dover. Even at 9 pm local time, the white cliffs were visible upon arival. Karen dropped me off at the end of the District tube line at 11 pm, and I got home about 11:4o.
L'Eglise--the newer church where the Community worships three times a day

Since getting home this week, I have been supplying in the classroom of a teacher who had been holidaying in Greece and last anyone had heard, she had made it back as far as Madrid. British skies are supposed to be opening tonight...who knows how long it will take for things to get back to normal. My sense is that a lot of schools have between 5-10 teachers that are still stranded abroad trying to get home. What a nightmare...I'm happy to have made it home myself.

Karen's Visit Continued...

So much has happened since I last posted about Karen's visit. Where to begin? I think I left off the story of Karen's visit after our first day exploring around Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace and Gardens a week-and-a-half ago. The following Friday morning, we headed into Southwest London to visit Hampton Court Palace, best known for being Henry VIII's favourite hangout. Every day this summer, they are re-enacting the day of Henry's wedding to his sixth and last wife, Cateryn Parr. Over the course of the day, we met with various characters who each gave their own perspective on the wedding and what it meant, giving us some cultural context, including Cateryn's sister, Thomas Seymour (who was in love with Cateryn) and Henry and Cateryn themselves. Much was made of the fact that women of the time married for duty rather than love, accepting matches that would advance their family's status within the society even if it meant saying no to the men they would truly have liked to marry. After a good but long day there, we headed back to central London to go on the London Eye, London's giant ferris wheel. Karen was enthusiastic about the London Eye, but when she saw hot tall it was, was very reluctant to get on. I was sure she would enjoy it if she got on it, and with the help of the staff there (who volunteered to let her get on and see if she liked it, and told her she could push the emergency button to come down at any time if she didn't want to do it) cajoled her into going for it. It turned out to be a great highlight for both of us; I had been on the Eye last fall during daylight hours, but enjoyed going on it after dark and seeing the city skyline lit up along the river. Karen also discovered pasties that day, a delicious pastry filled with various savoury things. I ordered one to share filled with pork and apple that morning, and before the day was out, she enjoyed two more with various fillings.

Saturday was the last day we could use our London Passes, so I wanted to get as much value out of them as we could. We went to the Tower of London early in the day, where we saw the crown jewels, and some of the instruments of torture used to extract information from prisoners, and various pieces of mail and armour. We passed the Traitor's Gate, where prisoners were brought in by boat, never to leave, except for execution outside the tower.

After that, we took a Thames ferry ride from Tower Bridge to Westminster, where we walked around the Parliament buildings, Big Ben and then up towards Covent Garden to the London Transport Museum. We quite enjoyed that, and we got some pictures of Karen driving a bus. After another long and busy day, we headed home for some spaghetti. As there was a potluck lunch at church the next day, we also spent the evening making potato salad and rhubarb crumble for the dinner.

After a few days of almost frenetic activity, Sunday was a nice quieter day. We slept in and then headed to the London Mennonite Centre for lunch. After church, a few friends joined us at the nearby "Vic" or Victoria Pub for a drink.

On Monday, my friend David joined us for a trip to the Natural History Museum. After a good sleep-in, we dropped David's car off at the LMC and took the tube into central London for the day. We saw the dinosaur exhibit, and and the butterfly conservatory. Karen was delighted when a butterfly landed on her finger. For supper, we went back to Maxwell's again (where we'd been on Thursday evening) for their half-price entrees (Monday Madness). Then we said goodbye to David and headed to Mamma Mia at the Prince of Wales Theatre. It was excellent; we enjoyed the costumes and of course the music.

Tuesday, I had a dentist appointment (already alluded to in my last post) so let Karen sleep in a lot that day while I ran a few errands around town. Then we headed into the city to see and eat at the original 1971 Hard Rock Cafe. It hadn't been anywhere close to my radar to make that a stop on our tour, but Karen was very eager to get there. She got some pictures to take back to her cousin in Canada (who's the owner of a franchise in Toronto) and we had a lovely--if rather pricey--meal. We headed back home to pack our bags for travel the next day and kick back with a movie before bed.

To be continued in the next post...