Oh I love to eat turkey on Thanksgiving...

Adam Sandler has it right, there's just nothing better than a good ole turkey dinner on Thanksgiving. Granted, I could have done without the brussel spouts, and adding a couple pieces of random sausage to the plate was an interesting concept, but I guess despite the painful payment of £26.50...it was a worthwhile meal. I mean, I did get a nice glass of Pinot Grigio with it, and the meal WAS quite tasty. But still, woah, it was just a bit over-priced in my opinion. It makes what the student house here was offering sound actually reasonable. I guess I just didn't expect it to be so pricey, especially after Jenny and I had that nice Italian meal of wine, dinner, and dessert all for less than what I just payed. Oh well, it was Thanksgiving. I guess I could just be thankful that I'm somehow able to pay for this dinner, even if it does mean cafeteria food the rest of my time here. Eh, like my stomach can really tell the difference anyway ;)

How were all of your Thanksgivings? I'm betting they were a bit more relaxed than mine, since all of you folks in the States got today and tomorrow off :P Jerks. Just kidding. Hope you all had a good time, plenty of food, and lots of fun with your family and friends. For now, it's time for me to sleep off the turkey. Later ;)

Tea Party: Would you like one cake, or five?

Mmmmmm, I'm so stuffed right now. I've just had my fill of tea (with milk), cakes, and shortbread....and plenty of conversation. The best part was, I wasn't the only babbler. The host herself just went off on this huge story about her trip to St. Petersburg, and all the misadventures they had. I couldn't believe how many things totally went wrong for her. She was with a travel group, and they had a not overly helpful travel guide. During the course of the trip, their plane was delayed, one person missed the flight, they were held up at customs, they had to walk down numerous flights of stairs and through the lobby just to use the bathroom and shower every day in their hostel, one man had his passport stolen on the metro, they had to hurry to get to a ballet that they ended up buying tickets for through the black market since the travel guide didn't want to bother helping them find any for the ballet they wanted, all while wading through a huge crowd of people parading through the city in support of communism, and after it all....she had a blast. I love traveling.

Splish Splash I was taken to Bath

I did get pretty wet this weekend, but it was more the rain pouring all over me and tredding through wet grass and puddles that got me. Just a quick update on things here before this card runs out in a minute. I saw Stonehenge, Avebury, Lakock, and Castle Combe this weekend, and it was a blast. This coming weekend my mom and brother and his wife are coming. It's going to be busy but it's going to be fun. Time to run! I'll write more later. ;)

Reading like a mo fo

Wow, the last couple weeks I've been in a reading frenzy. I've read Holes, R. A. Salvatore's The Lone Drow, Of Mice and Men, The Iron Man, and started reading Michael Crichton's Timeline. It just feels GREAT to be reading so much, either because the kids at the school are reading the novels or just for fun. After Timeline I'll be out of personal books to read, so I might just have to stop in the school library and swipe a book or two to read for a while. Or I might drop by a bookstore and grab a classic I've been meaning to read. So many possibilities.

As for my writing, I haven't accomplished much more than a poem and a few random lines, some brainstorming for lesson plans, and some blogging and journaling. Still, it feels good to get some of the much needed journaling done, and it IS good practice for the fiction I SHOULD be writing.

I do plan on working on Meandering Evengale this week, first writing an entry out in a notebook and then typing it and posting it--much cheaper and effective that way. I want to write a quality entry to follow up Tricia's most excellent addition to the story :) Time to get creative.

Of course, I can't forget about my student teaching and the lesson planning and formal journaling I must complete in the 4.5 weeks I have left here. Doesn't sound like much, does it? And for all I need to get finished in that time...it certainly isn't much time. I need to keep up with my daily log, do some case studies of particular students, reflect on differences between the American and British education systems, and do various other things to show what I'm doing and learning durning this second half of term.

::sigh:: And today in the staff room I saw a newsletter on the table advertising a couple teaching job openings in the district. No openings for an English teacher nor am I really looking for any jobs in the UK for that matter (though if a super sweet job was offered, it WOULD be tempting despite the complete upheaval of my life that it would cause :P), but it was a poignant reminder of the job search I SHOULD be doing. It's past mid-November, and I want to have a job by February. I've certainly got my work cut out for me.

But my work at the school is proving to be a very worthwhile experience. I may not be doing much teaching, but I AM learning to make myself useful where I can. The head teacher has me working with the English, Drama, and ICT departments, which I think spreads me pretty thin to be doing any seriously effective teaching. However, working with the Drama classes might show me a few tricks I can use in my own English classroom. And helping students during their ICT classes, answering questions about certain computer programs one-on-one with the students, could be an invaluable asset to my own computer education. And that's not all.

In addition, the ICT teacher mentioned that their website needs a lot of work, but there is no one available to devout their time to it...sounds like a door knocking to me. It would be such an awesome opportunity for me to learn more about web design! Only problem is that I might not know enough to even begin tackling such an ambtious task. But I'm willing to try if the ICT staff is willing to help me out. I'd even pick up a book or two on webdesign and do some of my own experimenting with Front Page and such. Even if I make very little progress, it's totally worth a shot if it means getting more experience in an area I'm interested in.

AND, wouldn't all of these different experiences in English, Drama, and ICT look wonderful on a resume? ::sigh:: Making a resume --> looking for a job --> hours of frustration --> many rejections --> finally finding a job that I probably won't like but I'll need to take it cuz it's the best thing I can find. Bleah, whatever. Anything's gotta be better than working in a box factory :P

"Single Serving Friends" or Moments to Be Remembered?

You know that scene in Fight Club when the main character is on the airplane and talks about "single serving friends," the people that come and go especially when travelling, who you talk to for a while but that's about it? I was reminded of that on the train today on the way back from Lancaster.

There was a nice fellow sitting at one of the table setup kind of seats, so I thought I'd take the spot across from him since there weren't many other spots open and he looked like he might be interesting. Sure enough, he went to the same "uni" as Jenny at Lancaster and was on his way home for the 1.5 hour daily commute. We talked a while about travelling in the US, the sights in Britain, and life in our respective towns.

When we arrived at his hometown of Crewe, we wished each other luck and said good-bye. We never exchanged names.

I spent about 7 hours on the plane to London next to a young woman named Anette, but I didn't know her name until I asked her about 2 hours into the flight. I spent about 2 hours on a train to Lancaster this weekend chatting with a friendly older woman named Julie, and didn't even realize I didn't know her name until I tried to tell Jenny whose mobile phone I was using to call her. Single serving friends. But coincidently, both of those ladies were teachers in some area of Britain. Funny, hm?

Maybe they are just temporary aquaintances, but they did the job spendidly. I've never been bored on a trip. And the same goes for the random people I've met at the bar downstairs, or at the school I'm working at. Such interesting people to meet from all over the place. All it takes is a few friendly words of greeting and a whole stream of conversation can come forth. Or I could have silently sat down, put on my headphones, and tuned out the world. Perhaps there's time for both.

Highlights from the Weekend

*Listening as middle-aged + Italian men debate smoking cigarettes in restaurants, and then Jenny and I joining the debate, telling our views are about it as Americans.

*At that same Italian restaurant eating the best meal I've had since I arrived...mmmm, spinach tortelloni sprinkled with real, fresh parmesean, the house white wine, and smooth coffee ice cream covered in a shell of white chocolate with a resevoir of creamy chocolate in the center. Each bite was a reminder of why I love good food and am really sick of cafeteria food twice a day.

*Riding the lion at Trafalgar Square ;) Nice ass.

*The beautiful red, orange, and yellow curtain of leaves covering an entire wall near St. James's Park.

*Watching a procession of carriages, horses, guards, and dignitaries on their way towards Buckingham Palace. Oooh, and the palace itself with all the gold guilded gates. Too bad we didn't see the changing of the guard--another time.

*Staying up until 6:30am (after a night at the bar downstairs) watching late night BBC shows like the movie Maurice...so gay ;) No really, it was all about homosexuality in the early 1900s. And Hugh Grant went from looking like his young hot self to this dude with nasty slicked back hair and a bad mustache (he reminded me of the old Strong Bad, you know, from the days of The Sneak and such). And then watching a bad sitcom, a mind-boggling game show, and a wonderful little kid's song about Tigers..."Raowww, Raowww."

*And last but not least, making travel plans at 2am in the women's bathroom.

Weekend with Jenny

Yep! This weekend Jenny's comin' to visit :) And it's totally going to rock. We'll do the tourist thing, we'll do the I-know-a-bit-about-London thing, and most of all, we'll just have lots of fun running around the big city (and sleeping in, of course ;) It's been so long! Yep, this will rock. And maybe there'll be popcorn too...if I can locate some. Anyway, it's late, I'm tired, better head to bed so I can get a few things done tomorrow afternoon. Later ;)

And for my next trick...

An interesting day at the school. Yep, quite. Today was fairly typical, with observing and helping where I can. First I was with a double class (two class periods in a row) of 9th year English, and then I went upstairs after break (there's a 15 min break every morning at 10:30) to see 10th year English. Sounds pretty normal, right? Yeah...So I got there, and my cooperating teacher isn't there. I figure she's a bit late, so I stand outside the door, waiting.

Then another teacher comes along, sees me waiting, and opens the door for me so I can sit down. That was nice. I used the time to continue reading Holes, which the 8th year students are reading (I've wanted to read it for quite a while). I got another short chapter in, and then the bell rang, and students started congregating outside the room. A couple peeped in, saw me, and asked if I was their teacher today. I said no, I'm a student teacher, and their teacher is coming, she's just running a bit late. So, they waited a while, and then asked to come in, and I'm like sure. But they then decided outside the classroom was a better idea. Really didn't matter to me, as long as they were well-behaved.

Shyeah, right, like a group of 14-15 year olds, left mainly to themselves with no real figure of authority nearby are going to behave. I decided to stand up and see about getting them in the classroom where they could sit down, since there seemed to be too many in the small hallway, and they were getting loud. I told them they could go have a seat in the classroom. My words were totally lost on them. Instead, they decided to start pushing each other around, in a very closed space, so that about 5 young men, all bigger than me, were jostling each other, pushing, shoving, and punching, all within a few feet of me.

I was like....FUCK! What the hell do I do?! So I yelled at them, told them to stop. I wasn't about to jump into the fray because I wasn't sure they'd stop a fist if my face was in front of it or not. They seemed to be mostly play-fighting, but some of those pushes and punches were coming in harder than they should. But as much as I yelled, they just ignored me. And then my savior arrived.

No crown of thorns or cross, but he saved me nonetheless. One of the other teachers came, and when he arrived, they calmed a bit. He got them to sit down in the classroom, though they were still quite loud. He then turned to me, and said he would go downstairs and look for the teacher. I'm like....great....Me, alone again, with a class that has already proven it can and will ignore every word I say. What do I do?

Think fast, Katie, think fast! What can I do to catch their attention and keep it long enough that they won't tear each other, or myself, apart? Singing and dancing was out of the question (except maybe at last resort). The students wouldn't give much information as to what they're lessons were, so I had no idea what they've been talking about in class, plus classwork from a pseudoteacher would not go over very well. So I did the first thing that came to my head: tell a story.

I announce to the class, "Alright class, can I have your attention? Who would like to hear a story?" At the last question, the majority of them shot their hands up in the air, turned their faces towards me, and for the most part, shut up. I'm like...sweet! Now what the hell do I say?

I didn't have a story book on me, nor did I have a fan-skippin-tastic story to tell that I could think of at that very stressful and pivotal moment. So I decided to make do with my own little tale. Not very creative, but it did get their attention for a while.

"There once was a student teacher, who came here from the United States. She just arrived Saturday, and it was her first time abroad. She came to a new school, and had to learn very much in a very short time, about the education system, the student, and the teachers." At this, the students were like, ohhhh, because of course they understood that I was just talking about myself. But they still were mostly attentive. "She knows she must stand out (I pointed at my clothing and such) by the way she looks and by her very apparent American accent. She is going to be helping out in the classroom, and eventually teaching, until Christmas."

Here I was losing a bit of their attention, but I luuured them back in with, "In fact, I will be working with your class, and a few others. And later, I will be teaching one or two classes in particular. And I get to decide which ones. Whichever one I like." I knew that maybe it wouldn't matter much to them, but on the other hand, the other classes seemed rather intrigued at the idea of having me as their teacher.

So, this took up about 5 min. The other teacher came back, but still not their regular teacher. Apparently she was finishing up a meeting with a parent, and she'd be on her way soon. That left a few open minutes...that didn't look too pretty from my perspective. Neither of us really knew what to do, and all the kids could tell us was that they had been working with poetry. Unfortunately, I had no poetry with me to share, and my efforts at asking what they thought about poetry went completely unheeded as they went back to their roaring and goofing around. Again, I had to think, think, think fast...

A game! Yes! A prize! Yes! Okay, I knew what to do. I had some American souvenirs with me I planned to use as small gifts before the end of my term here, that just happened to be in my bookbag. What could I pull from my bag of tricks? Ah yes....that would work just nicely.

"Okay students, who would like a prize?" Again, hands shot up, students were cheering, yeah! Good, got their attention. "If you can answer this question--with your hand raised and NO shouting out the answer--I will give you a small prize. Tell me, what team is this the symbol for?" I pasted a familiar symbol on the white board.

Hands shot up, and I called on each one individually. "The Giants?" "The Chicago Bulls?" "Georgetown?"...the list went on, all completely wrong, some for not even the right sport. It was great :) I gave them a hint. "Okay, the team is in the Midwest." (They have no clue what that means). "This team won the first and second Superbowls." (no clue) "Alright, the team is in Wisconsin." More guesses all around, but again, no clue. Then the teacher arrived. YESSSSS!

The kids were left in suspence. They wanted to know the answer. "Would you like to know the answer? It begins with a G...(no clue) It is a color." Finally, "Green!"
"Yes, the Green Bay Packers, which is where I am from."

The teacher started class, and I sat down, drained but feeling good. A student asked, "So what was the prize?"
"Oh, just some stickers"
The class laughed. Sweet :)

Time Time Time, see what's become of me

Okay, that's annoying. I changed the time to GMT, so that my posts here in London would actually show the time here. All well and good, except that changes ALL the times, so all my older posts are all stupid. I wonder if there's some way I can fix that...

The Way Out

I'm in London! I mean, London, England, me here now!!!! This so fucking rocks! My roomies are nice, both English Ed. majors. It's cool, though I'd like to meet some other international students or natives, just getting outside the typical US and the accent and all that. Jenny's experience at Lancaster just sounds so cool, with it being primarily British flatmates. But here, they group you together by location, but oh well. There's places...DUDE! BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, on the radio, NOW!!! sweet...that makes my day :) "Look up to the skies and seeeee" Ah yes, an affirmation of my American roots...Wayne's World, what a wonderful movie.

Anyway, I should walk around, meet people, check things out. My roomies are all tired, but I'm wide awake and ready to go, thanks to my nap. As I had started saying, there are places like this internet cafe, a bar, and other social areas in which I can meet people from all over the world. I'd love to blog more, but I've spent way too much time sitting around on my own in the last 24 hours. Time to be social. "ME! Galileo, Figaro...He's just a poor boy from a poor family....Will you let me go, NO! we will not let you go...will not let you go, will not let you go, will not let you go, No no no no no no no!...for MEEEEEEEE!" Okay, I'm done singing. Hard to keep up with "type singing" on a foreign keyboard where the buttons are in just a tiny bit different places, so I make more typos. "oooooooh, oh yeah, oh yeah...Nothing really matters--anyone can see. Nothing really matters, nothing really matters, to me...Any way the wind blows ::sustained cymbol/gong::" Okay, I'm sad, I know ;) Well, off I go. Perhaps I'll come around later, when mayhap some of you US blokes are about. I guess it's only 2pm there. Later dudes :)