Chinese New Year and Two Types of Football...

Last week-end myself, Nate, Meg, Kati, Dave and their new flat mate decided to head into the main city to partake in the Chinese New Year celebrations. I had never really done anything to celebrate Chinese New Year before and since London has a large Chinatown area I thought it would a very vibrant and fun experience, at least to check off the list of things I’ve done since I’ve lived here. The six of us met at the tube station in Colliers Wood and headed up the Northern Line towards Charing Cross Station. The opening festivities were occurring in Trafalgar Square (a pretty go to place for any sort of festival or celebration) and by the time we got there it was PACKED! There were seemingly people from all different walks of life converging on the famous square to be a part of this celebration, not just the Chinese community (which was still largely represented I might add). There were many kiosks set up along the perimeter of the square selling different souvenirs including: paper dragons, firecrackers (the kind you throw onto the ground….I bought some), fans, and hats. Meg and Kati bought a headband each that made them look like Geishas in a sense (I realize that Geishas are Japanese but I can’t think of an equivalent word from China to define how they looked) which prompted to awe of many a member of the Chinese community and they had to pose for a lot of photos. Once we had finished our small shopping excursion we headed down into the base of the square and pushed our through the crowd to find a good vantage point to the stage.

Once the opening festivities began it became apparent that we were in for a bit of a debacle. The MC’s were reeeeeeeeeeally bad at their job and seemed very unsure of what they were talking about. If it was scripted…it didn’t sound like it, or they just got their lines 10 minutes prior to arriving on stage. It was painful to say the least. Next, the organizers decided to have approximately 12 different guests of honour for this celebration and also made the executive decision to allow all 12 of them to speak before starting any New Year’s traditions. Guests included: representatives from Chinatown, the Chinese Ambassador, the MP for Westminster, the Lord Mayor of Westminster, people from overseas Chinese people’s associations…the list goes on. Again, needless to say it got quite tedious by the time they were finally finished. Afterwards they all participated in a ceremony known as “dotting the Lion’s eye” before the traditional Lion Dance could begin. This also took quite some time and they clearly hadn’t rehearsed this part either. This unfortunately forced the MC’s to stall. It got so desperate that at one point the male MC explained the meaning of the red envelopes that children receive that this time of year containing money. He literally said “They call them ‘Red Envelopes’ because they’re red…and envelopes”…thanks Captain Obvious. Finally they finished the dotting and the Lions got up and did their thing.

This was much more of what I was expecting from a Chinese New Year celebration. The dancing combined with the music created a real authentic atmosphere in the square and was much more entertaining than the previous speakers. Combine this with the 150 db firecrackers and the Dragon dance following and we finally had the celebration we were looking for. By this point we were hankering to move onwards towards Chinatown to grab some grub and take in the atmosphere there.

We probably should have predicted the crowds that were rampant throughout the Chinatown area. Streets were closed around the Leicester Square area so more people could cram in. The pavement and walkways were packed and it took us a long time just to get a couple blocks North of where we started. Although we weren’t really fond of being sardines I have to say that the many decorations, street performers, and vendors made a really good impression. I really like walking through Chinatown, even on days that these sorts of festivals are not celebrated, because of the colour and vibrancy. To see it all on full display was really a sight to behold. Check out my photos on Facebook here. Once we squeezed our way up to Shaftsbury Ave (which was also closed from Piccadilly Circus to Charing Cross Road) we split up; the girls headed to a café to get some cheesecake and the boys descended on the pub next door for a pint.

It was a somewhat small pub known as “The Coach and Horses” right off of Shaftsbury Ave. They had quite a good selection of real ales on tap including my personal favourite, Sharp’s Doom Bar (Dad, brothers, and friends make note prior to visiting me). We glugged a couple pints each, engaged in some conversation with a couple locals about the upcoming football of the day and the previous day’s matches and I ordered a wicked huge egg and cress sandwich with a lovely salad for only a fiver which was a great deal. The girls eventually joined back with us and we sat inside the pub for a little while longer in conversation. Finally it came to the point where we had to get going because Nate, Dave, and I were planning on heading down to The Sports Café on Haymarket to watch the Liverpool-Chelsea match at 4:00pm. Meg and Kati decided to head back to our flat to get a head start on dinner (gotta love those ladies J) and the guys headed to the bar.

The match itself was Ah-mazing! Now, most (if not all) of you know that I am a big Liverpool fan. The team has unfortunately not been playing too well recently and they had just lost their prize striker, Fernando Torres, to rivals Chelsea the week before. This made the match even more interesting because Torres was picked to start by Carlos Ancelotti (the Chelsea skipper) against his former team at Stamford Bridge. As a Liverpool fan I was in a minority at the bar because Chelsea are based in West London and we were in a bar in Central London…needless to say it was dominated by Chelsea blue. The match was actually very close (a lot closer than I would have expected) and Liverpool ended up battling for the win! I went absolutely crazy when they scored their go-ahead goal and hugged a random other guy who was celebrating…well technically he hugged me but why get into details…it was a serious sports-loving man moment…don’t judge me. Nate, Dave, and I split a couple pitchers (I almost forgot what it was like to pour one of those!) throughout the match and more friends showed up at around halftime. It was quite the epic time and definitely worth the somewhat crowded space and standing room to watch it.

Finally after heading back home we mowed down on delicious nachos that the girls had prepared while watching “Liar Liar” on television (right?) Most peeps packed it in but I had another reason to keep trucking on this particular evening…the Superest of all Bowls. My family is a BIG Pittsburgh Steelers family so we were obviously quite excited by the prospect of our team beating the team we hate the most…those damn Packers. Unfortunately due to the time difference the kick-off didn’t start here until 11:30pm…which is brutal for a Sunday night. I had to stay up and watch it though. After a nice Skype conversation with Julie followed up by one with the family I hunkered down to watch some American football this time (or as Jeremy would say “FOOTBALL!!!!”) I reeeeeally don’t want to get into any more details about how the game went…let’s just say I decided to go to bed at halftime and save myself falling asleep in the middle of teaching a class the next day. Fair play to the Pack though, they played a great game and capitalized on some Pitt mistakes, well done to them.

That pretty much sums up a really epic day on my week-end last. I’ve got another day at Cheam tomorrow before the week is out, and then only one more week before half term! Cheam also extended my stay until at least the end of this term, so right at the beginning of April before we get out 3 week holiday (thanks Wills and Kate!) I’ll update on the state of my teaching this week tomorrow after the week is through. I’m also going to be firing up a brand new blog this week-end that will solely be used for posting articles about sports…don’t feel like you have to hit it up if that’s not your slice of awesome. Until that time…

Cheers and love!

Erik

January Finished Off...

Well, now that I’ve gotten through what I have been up to recently on the school side of things I thought I would take the time to let everyone know what I’ve been up to in my own time. I’ll tell you one thing, when you only have week-ends off it makes them a lot more special than usual. I try to take the time to seize every minute of them because I rarely get the time to do a lot of personally constructive endeavours throughout the week.

First and foremost, I’ve been having a great time with my flatmates. Every week-end since the end of the break I’ve spent some time with any combination of them. A couple moments of going out to the city and checking in at pubs or clubs in Leicester Square and beyond. There’s one pub in particular in the area, Waxy O’Conner’s, that’s become quite the favourite recently. It’s a really nice Irish pub off Leicester Square in Chinatown that goes underground into an old church. It twists and turns in different rooms and even climbs up at the back where there’s a tree growing out of the floor. It’s quite the bizarre unique place and they serve a lot of different pints that I have not seen at a lot of different pubs. It does become quite crowded and has a club feel to it on the week-ends but it’s a definite must if you’re in the city.

I’ve also introduced my flatmates to the wonderful game of Beer Pong ha ha ha. Some of them already knew what it was but I’ve got a couple of them hooked. Mainly Nate and his friends who already had a pretty good handle on the game. It’s been fun over the last couple of week-ends to have the opportunity to chill on a Friday night and play a bit of Beer Pong before going out. It feels a lot like I never left Queen’s. A nice little nostalgic boost.

I have also been attending a lot of football over the recent days. This time of the year is filled with many different league matches as well as cup competitions in full swing. Fulham are currently in the FA Cup and I attended the Third Round match against Peterborough United with Meg and Laura. It was a complete blow-out with Fulham winning 6-2. I’ve never seen that many goals in one game live before and a Fulham player even got a hat trick! Combine that with the penalty shot that a Peterborough player was given and the two ladies pretty much got the full experience at their first match. The fourth round saw Fulham pitted up against Tottenham Hotspur from North London. A big rivalry and the atmosphere at the match was amazing. I went with Nate, Dani, and her friend Jocelyn (also their first match minus Nate) and we sat in the Home End a couple rows up from the pitch. Fulham took a big 2-0 lead early after two straight penalties were called and ended up embarrassing a very good team 4-0 to move on in the competition. Craven Cottage was absolutely filled with excitement and the chants that the home fans were singing were absolutely hilarious. This was definitely the best match I’ve been to since arriving in September. Jeremy also made a quick trip down at the end of January to attend the Crystal Palace match that I got tickets for as a Christmas gift. The pre-match was really fun as we met up with Richard from Protocol at a local Palace pub. The atmosphere there was great and we headed over to Selhurst Park for the match. Palace is doing very poorly at the moment so it was not a sell-out at all but we had really great seats. It was cold unfortunately and Crystal Palace drew 0-0 so Jeremy didn’t even get to see a goal! It’s the risk you have to take when attending a match though.

It looks like there’s a more football opportunity within the immediate future as well. England is playing a match in March, there’s the Carling Cup final in February, Fulham’s continued FA Cup run, more league matches, and Champion’s League matches too. All of these will of course be well documented by me as I may or may not attend them.

Besides these things I’m also taking the time to develop the artist in me. I’ve recently been cast in an upcoming production of “The Dog in the Manger” at the South London Theatre. The play was written by Lope De Vega in 16^th century Spain. De Vega was a contemporary of Shakespeare and so the language, characters, and situations are very Shakespearian in nature. The script is a modernized version done recently for a production by the RSC so the language is updated from the ‘thees’ and ‘thous’ that characterize a Bard text. I am playing Teodoro, the male lead, who is caught in a love triangle between his love, Marcela, and the Countess of Belfor, Diana, for whom he is a secretary. Diana falls in love with Teodoro but because he is below her stature it is not an appropriate match and thus she will not allow anyone else to love him either. Teodoro becomes infatuated with the idea of becoming Count of Belflor but when it becomes evident this is impossible he attempts to return to Marcela. Lots of other ridiculous moments happen but it’s a very quirky almost dark comedy/love story. I’ve received the script and already begun work on it at this point. Rehearsals don’t start until February 22^nd so I have lots of time to go through my lines and scenes in order to make notes. I don’t have to be off book for the first rehearsal but the director wants everyone to have a good idea of their characters and what they are saying in each scene for the initial read through. I can’t express how excited I am for this. I wanted so much to be a part of theatre while here as it gives me something else to focus on besides just teaching and being home. It also gives me a good outlet and allows me to hone those skills that I’m teaching in the classroom. I’ve also been in talks with the Roundhouse (a flexible space in Camden) over upcoming shows through their “Take Part 11-25” program in which they recruit people from that age range. They have my information anyways and said they would contact me when audition information became available.

Finally, I’m trying to do as much writing and reading as I possibly can. It’s part of my New Year’s Resolutions to try and be more proactive at reading and to start to get ideas and thoughts down on paper more. I have a lot of different ideas for sports related pieces that I’m starting to flesh out on paper at the moment which will make their printed debut on this very blog, so stay tuned for those! I also have an idea for a play that I’ve slowly been hashing out over here. I think I might jumpstart it soon though because there is currently a playwriting competition sponsored by The Times here in the UK that I would like to attempt to enter. I may lack the necessary skill at the moment to win such a competition but hey, why not try right?

I think that just about covers it! That pretty much sums up the entire month of January for you. Things have already gotten off to a great start in February and I’ll try to be a bit more frequent in my posts about the goings on.

Until then…

Cheers and love,

Erik

Life In The Classroom Since The Break...

Well, I have spent the better part of a month regaling you all on the trials and tribulations (and amazingness) that was my winter holidays. Unfortunately, that time of fun and fancy-free is no longer with me and it has been back to the classrooms for going on five weeks now. You may think I have a lot to catch you up on in this regard but I really don’t. One of the wonderful aspects of being in a school for a long period of time is students recognizing you and thereby not giving you such a hard time. As a cover teacher I cannot stress how good this feels. To be able to walk onto the school grounds every morning knowing exactly where I’m going and what classes I’m going to have. Passing students in between lessons and being able to use their names because I remember them! It’s really cool when students say “Hi Sir!” or “Hello Sir!” or “Hi Mr. Smith!” while they walk by too. It’s a real sense of belonging, not only in the classroom but in the school as a whole. I’ve developed great relationships with staff as well, mainly in the Drama department but in other departments as well. Including two male teachers who are really big into NFL football and we’ve been discussing the play-offs and upcoming Super Bowl almost every day. I’ve really found a wonderful niche at Cheam High School and while I know it is going to be a sad day when I have to move on to a different school, that’s just the nature of the job. I know there will be many more experiences out there waiting for me and I have to keep travelling along the road of this incredible journey I’m taking. Maybe at some point while I’m still here I’ll find my way back to Cheam.

All lamenting aside I have been having a positive experience this term. I have not had as many Drama courses this term because the teacher I was covering, Lian Downes, has returned to the department. She was not taking her full class schedule at first in order for her to ease back into all of the movement required (especially with the Key Stage 3 classes) so I was taking about one or two of her Drama classes to begin with. At this point in the term she has taken over her entire schedule so I actually don’t teach any Drama at all...uber sad. Instead I’ve been spending my time covering a long term illness in the Humanities department. I’m actually teaching entirely Religious Studies and Life classes. This has obviously been a huge switch for me (especially in the dynamics of having desks in the classroom) but it has been going really well. Luckily I’m still teaching mainly Key Stage 3 classes so I actually end up having most of the students I was previously teaching in Drama classes. This has made it so much easier to keep the ball rolling because they already know me, they know how I get on in the classroom, and they know my expectations so we’ve been getting a lot of work done together.

The Religious Studies classes have been the more interesting of the two subjects. Year 7 classes have been discussing festivals from a general as well as a specific standpoint. We’ve been talking about what festivals are and how we, as well as different people around the world, celebrate them. We’ve also recently began discussing specific festivals including Ramadan and Easter. In Year 8 they have been studying Islam as an overall topic and we’ve hit on various elements including the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), Mosques, and Jerusalem. I’ve quite enjoyed myself in these lessons because I am learning a lot that I didn’t know about these areas as well as the students. I think this benefits my teaching practice greatly because, not only am I better at delivering material about these topics, but it has peaked my own interest into religions that I did not know much about and I have been researching a lot into the customs and specifics about them. It has been quite an eye-opening experience for me and I’m glad that these classes have sparked that flame. Life is a never-ending opportunity for knowledge and, as a LOT of you know, I enjoying knowing a lot….especially random facts. Coincidently in the newspaper recently there have been excerpts from a new book on the history of Jerusalem and Britain’s involvement there during colonial times. The publishing of the articles coincided directly with my lessons about Jerusalem and I’ve been reading them when I might just have skimmed over  before and thereby gaining more insight into this topic. I love when these sorts of things happen, it was a bit much for 13 year olds but if I had older classes talking about this subject it provides an excellent opportunity to bring in a current story to aid the lesson.

The Life lessons have been going well too. Unfortunately a lot of the older classes don’t care too much about this subject. When they have so much on their plates from GCSE classes something like Life (it’s compulsory but there’s no assessment) it’s easy to cast it aside. Luckily there are a lot of videos watched in this subject which makes it go by a lot faster.

Other than this I’m just trucking along one day at a time. The past weeks have gone by very quickly and each day has been neither extremely good nor really bad. I find that each class may have some problems but I have a lot more faith in my behaviour management abilities that I can cope with issues and move on in the class without too much disruption. I don’t let things get to me too much and, like I said before, the behaviour of the students has improved greatly the more I’ve been around.

Apparently I’ve developed quite the reputation in the Drama department as well. Students tend to ask where I am and why I’m not teaching their classes anymore. I’ve been helping out directing a lot of GCSE and A-Level (Sixth Form) work too which has given me desired experience working with these age groups. It’s really cool working with Year 11, 12, and 13 students in Drama because it is very much approached from a professional theatre standpoint. Their exams are largely performance based and sometimes they have to be teacher directed and other times we just help them put it together with suggestions and notes. It’s funny, but I’m developing theatre and teaching skills at the same time which is something very unique to Drama. The goal is to be able to apply these to my extra-curricular theatre work and vice versa. What a lovely subject don’t you think?

I suppose I’ve rambled on a bit too much and repeated ideas a lot but I’m sure you get the point. I just want you all to know that the bottom line of this post is: I am happy. I am in a good place right now and just trying to enjoy every moment of it while I can. I’m not going to be at Cheam the whole time, and I know that, but I’ll worry about then when it happens. I’m focused entirely on the here and now and cherishing those relationships that I’ve built while continuing to develop and hone my teaching practice and skills. I couldn’t have asked for much more than this and I am so grateful this experience has happened…know that J.

I’m going to stop this post here because I need to go to bed soon but that covers my last few weeks from a work perspective. Obviously I’ve also been having quite the time from a social perspective as well, including being cast in a show recently as most of you know! I’ll save all of those updates for the next one.

I hope everyone is well and I wish you all of the best. I send my love out to each and every one of you.

Cheers

Erik

A Trip Through The Tower To Finish It Off...

Well, now for the final act in the string of Christmas holiday blog posts that seemingly never end and take me until almost a month to finish. Sorry about that, I’ll do one big catch-up blog post about what I’ve been up to since the holidays ended. To be honest, my days at Cheam have been flying by without too much event. This is very nice however it doesn’t present much of a writing opportunity for me. Either way, we’ll get into all of that later as I’m getting ahead of myself.

Once the New Year’s celebrations were over and we all recovered from the night before, Jer only had a couple of days left in London. We spent a good chunk of the time walking and seeing a lot of the sights in the city itself that we hadn’t hit yet plus we went on a couple more London walks to occupy our time and see a lot of the city in one fell swoop. The last major sight we wanted to hit, that Jeremy hadn’t seen in his previous trip to London, was the Tower of London. Going to see the Tower itself can take a good three hours total (that’s what the ticket people say is a sufficient amount of time) but we didn’t necessarily want to see every little nook and cranny in the place, just the really important and famous bits. So, naturally we opted for the London Walks tour of the Tower with admission included in the cost (at a cheaper rate too). We met up with the rest of the group (mostly Americans as per usual) and headed over to the Tower with a guide who had some serious historical knowledge.

We received a heads up on different sights we were passing on our way down to the Tower itself including the original site where public executions would take place (you would only be executed in the Tower if you were royalty or upper class). It seemed like an unnecessary amount of time spent outside of the Tower talking about what was inside before we finally went through the gates. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable but also rambled….a lot. So we ended up standing around for long periods of time while he discussed things that didn’t have any relevance to what we were visiting. We did however eventually make it inside.

I was actually surprised by the look inside. I knew that the original tower was the White Tower and everything else was slowly built around it over the years but I was unaware of the village feel it had. Different rows of housing as well as buildings all around the edge, different towers here and there all conveniently placard with name plates. There were also a lot of different exhibitions going on throughout the Tower including one on medieval torture devices and one displaying famous suits of armour of English Kings past. With our tour we spent the time outside of all of the areas while our guide talked about them all. Which was fine but we had arrived so late in the day that by the time the tour was over we only had just under an hour before the place closed to wander around! Jeremy and I bee-lined for the Crown Jewels exhibition first to make sure we saw that.

I was highly impressed by this…I mean, how couldn’t you? The amounts of gold, diamonds, and other jewels is just mind boggling and knowing that it is sitting right there in a rather heavily guarded and reinforced case is very other-worldly. I had no idea there were so many individual pieces for the Coronation ceremonies (all with very “World of Warcraft names….the “Spirited Sword of Giving” or something like that ha ha ha…+45 healing….I love everybody who understands this.) Even the Royal Spoon with which the new monarch is anointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. All very pomp and regal, including a vast array of gifts collected by monarchs through the years on their coronation days including many a solid gold plate and even a GIANT punch bowl capable of holding around 144 bottles of wine. Complete with a ridiculous ladle that looks like it would take 3 servants and a ladder to use. My particular favourite was the Imperial Crown of India made especially for King George V upon his one and only visit to India in which he needed a crown as Emperor. The English crown jewels cannot be taken out of the country so a different crown had to be made and it looks fantastic. Unfortunately the only comment old Georgie had for it was that it was heavy and it made his head hurt…oh, to be royalty.

Once we had gone through the Crown Jewels exhibition we made our way extremely quickly through the suit of armour exhibition and then out of the Tower. A lovely trip in which we received quite a lot of interesting and somewhat unnecessary facts but I would definitely want to go back at some point to truly finish exploring this wonder in the heart of the city.

My god….that pretty much sums up the entire holidays….WOOOOOO!!!! Now I can bore you all with mundane teaching life!!!!! Nah, I’ll jazz it up a bit. You’ve all been so patient and good that you deserve to be entertained…let them eat cake! At least…I assume there are people reading this….hello?

Until next time kids,

Same Erik time…same Erik channel

Cheers and love!

Erik

A Very Happy New Year...

I know, it’s taken me a while to finally rangle in this next blog post, eventually I will catch up to what’s been going on since the holiday break. I promise…cross my heart. Cool? Good, moving on!

So, New Years…….where to begin. Well, December 31^st would probably be the most sensible starting point. I had been thinking a lot prior to New Years as to exactly what we should do in the lead up to the midnight celebration. I definitely wanted to make it into London to see the fireworks that explode over and around the London Eye at midnight (you know, the ones you always see on TV when they broadcast the fact that it’s New Years in England). The only issue was that it was going to be crazy busy and we would need to get there early in order to ensure a decent vantage point at Victoria Embankment. Therefore, I felt that a good wander all through London to places that Jer hadn’t been to yet would be a good way to spend the day.

We woke up on the big day and ate a hearty breakfast (get something in the old gut for the celebrations to come) and loaded up a backpack with a few beers each to bring along with us throughout the day. We hit the tube up to Embankment station and this is where our story begins. From the station exit we headed south along Victoria Embankment towards Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. From there we swung south-west to Westminster Abbey for a photo-op in front of the beautiful building and continued on north towards St. James Park. Although it wasn’t as nice a day as the last time I was in this park (September) there was still a hustle and bustle of people everywhere and of course the plethora of ducks, geese, seagulls, squirrels, pelicans, and the like. Unfortunately we had a run in with a duck that was sporting a badly injured leg that forced it to hobble around. Definite damper on the moment but it eventually flew off and so did we.

Once hitting the north point of St. James Park we were on the Mall and headed west towards Buckingham Palace. After wishing the Queen a “Happy New Years” (or at least I assume she heard it) we had a sit down on the Victoria Monument and enjoyed a nice (and discreet) beer. From here we pressed onwards to Green Park on the north side of the Palace. In this park we stumbled upon a memorial to the Canadian war dead from the First and Second World Wars. I had no idea this memorial was even here and it was a lovely discovery for both of us. The memorial was split into two pieces of slanted bronze with maple leaves sculpted into them. Water cascaded down each one as well. After cleaning up a bunch of garbage that was just thrown around the memorial we pressed ahead towards Marble Arch and Hyde Park.

At this point the stomach was beginning to inform us of its desire to ingest something other than beer for a little bit. We obliged it tenfold by heading towards Harrod’s and it’s famed Food Hall. You can almost get anything you want in the hall so we were presented with many different options. We decided to get a spread of a couple cheese, some meats, and fresh baked bread to take with us (picture on my Facebook page). After wandering around the store a bit to show Jeremy how absolutely ridiculous it was we headed out of the weeds and into Hyde Park for a sit down and to enjoy our newly acquired sustenance. While we were eating we noticed that Hyde Park Winter Wonderland was still going on and decided to drop into the German Beer Haus for a stein of beer each to enjoy before moving forward. Luckily they were plastic and only a £2 deposit on them so we obviously took them with us. They were to come in handy later on. After completing our steins we headed east out of Hyde Park to make our way back towards Trafalgar Square to meet up with Nicole and friends. Along the way we headed through Mayfair and played another rousing game of “PUB!”….of which I believe I am still the undisputed champion but Jeremy more than held his own. We rounded our way through Picadilly Circus and down Haymarket back towards Trafalgar Square. While waiting on the steps of the National Gallery we enjoyed another beer (using our newly acquired steins) until everybody arrived. Once we were all together we slipped up to Leicester Square for Noodle Stop and over to The Brewmaster for another pint. Once we were done there we headed on our descent to Victoria Embankment (full circle anyone?) to wait for the fireworks. A quick stop off for champagne along the way and we rolled into the area at around 9pm.

Now, wasting three hours actually wasn’t as difficult as it sounded. Luckily they had a radio station playing music and we had a crazy dance party in the middle of the embankment to ourselves with people looking on and probably wondering how long we’d been drinking for. Long story short the time actually went by fairly quickly and as we counted down to midnight I prepped the champagne and popped the cork as the fireworks began flying through the air. It was actually an absolutely amazing moment to be there. You can kind of get the feel through the pictures on Facebook but it’s hard to really describe how amazing it was knowing where I was in the world and to with the people I was with…it was really special. After a quick phone call home to talk to my parents we began the long and arduous journey of getting back to Colliers Wood. Luckily the city was smart enough to keep the tube running until 4am and thereby moving people a lot quicker than could be possible. It actually wasn’t as bad or long as I thought (albeit one moment in which we lost Jeremy) and we walked through our front door at approximately 2am completely knackered and ready for bed.

All in all it was an epically epic day and I was very pleased. Although I didn’t really the chance to say it before, I just want to thank everyone for making last year one of the best ever. I met so many new people, got to participate in lots of theatre, completed my education degree (and university in general) worked about 4 different part time jobs, and said good-bye to come here and continue on my journey. I can’t wait to eventually celebrate the dawn of a new year with everyone back home. Until then…

Cheers and tons of love,

Erik

Teachers outside of teaching...

I got the inspiration to write this post while I was walking to the train station from the secondary school I’m currently working at. I began thinking about just how important it is for teachers to be constantly aware of whom they are and how they behave outside of the classroom and outside of the school. Not only this but how this would be perceived and interpreted by students and their parents. Now, I know that this is something we as teachers are reminded of time and again, not only through our teacher training but once we begin employment as well. There are many stories that are trickled through the press about teachers being sacked for indecent photos being found on Facebook and I know many fellow teachers who changed their whole names on the social networking site just to make sure that students would not be able to search and find them regardless of the content of their profiles. It’s a fact that remains with us throughout our entire careers: as teachers our jobs follow us wherever we go. Our profession is not like a lot of others who leave their job title behind when they leave the office at the end of the day. We are teachers during the school hours yes, but we are also teachers when we walk out of the school, when we’re at home, when we’re shopping for groceries, and so much more. If somebody recognizes us out in public they remember how they know us and immediately (whether they want to or not) will make judgments on our suitability to manage and teach children based on how we carry ourselves outside of working hours.

I’m not saying that we need to be paranoid that there will constantly be a set of eyes watching us at all times, but I think it is always important to make sound judgments when it comes to activities outside of school. In a bigger city like London it is easy to get lost in the crowd of people and you may never bump into people you know from work (teachers, students, or parents) because you may not live very near to the school. When you look at a lot of cities and towns however as the populations become smaller it becomes more and more common that people will recognize you wherever you go.

I know this all sounds a bit preachy but let me enlighten how this came to enter my head. I had just finished the last class of the day which was a Year 7 Life lesson. We were covering road safety in this particular class and spent time reviewing different road signs and how to recognize them, as well as discussing safe practices for walking, cycling, driving, and taking the bus to and from school. I spent the class leading the discussion and contributing extra information for my students about why certain choices make for safer journeys than others. Once I was leaving the school I was in a bit of a hurry (to make sure I caught the previously mentioned train) and when crossing a main four lane roadway near the school I saw an opening in the traffic and bolted across the road without pressing the crossing signal and waiting for the lights to change. When I got to the other side I quickly realized the hypocrisy in my ways. I had literally just lectured my students about safely crossing the roadways (including using the crossing signals) and here I was having directly contradicted that. There weren’t any students around at this point but if one of the kids from that class had seen me I’m sure they would have giving me quite the talking to about it later in the week (in a “caught ya!” type of way).

Although this is a very mild example it still got me thinking a lot about the implications of practicing what we teach in the schools. As a teacher I’m committed to making sure I project the same image and compose myself the same way in and out of the classroom. Although I obviously can’t tell anybody else how to behave (we are adults after all) I would still highly encourage everyone to do the same.

Cheers!

Erik

Skating and Greenwich!

Well, after a full day of recovery following the trip to Neale and Helen’s house (which may or may not have been followed up with beer pong during the Canada-Russia World Junior opening game) we decided to make a trip into the city and to meet my friend Laura for some skating later in the evening on the Tuesday (the 28^th). As I mentioned before, skating in London is actually hilarious. I’m not amazing by any standard, and if I was back home I would be horrendous compared to most other people, but here I look like some kind of a super star; this is especially true when doing a cross-over which Brits just cannot fathom. I also wore my Canada Olympic mitts that I received from my parents for Christmas, which of course didn’t add any pressure to perform well at all. I was actually pleased with how well I did, considering it was only my second time out this year. There was also an unfortunate misty rain occurring at the same time so I had to squeegee my glasses a couple of times to see properly. Though, this did lead to slightly funny spills by Brits falling into a puddle on the ice and getting soaked…I’m a bad person.

Following our skating trip we decided a true trip was in order and settled on Greenwich as our destination. This was a place that I was really interested in going to since I got here but I just never found the excuse to make the trek over. Luckily London Walks does walking tours of Greenwich a couple of times a week so Jer and I got ourselves mixed up into one of those tours and was it ever worth it. The payment included the tour as well as the price of the boat ride down the Thames towards Greenwich. It was a rather rainy, gloomy, and cold day out (becoming more and more common but very London-like in recent days) so the boat trip was not particularly enjoyable. Once we reached the other side however the history of this beautiful area of London began to unravel at our feet. We began at the Cutty Sark, a very famous British tea ship from the 19^th century that was extremely fast. Unfortunately it was under restoration until 2012 (for some reason everything in the city is under some kind of restoration or renovation until 2012 specifically…is there something going on?) We headed from here into the main high street area which is full of beautiful old London architecture and lots of churches. It has a very small town feel to it even though it is directly connected to and considered a borough of London. It’s far enough out and is full of lots of green space though so you do not feel as if you are in London at all. We wandered through the town streets and through the Greenwich Market where vendors are flogging anything from books to coins, medals, housewares, and albums. We eventually made our way up to the more historic aspects of Greenwich beginning with Greenwich Common. This common is a giant green space that literally made me awe as I stood and looked at it. There were rolling hills in every direction and tree lined paths that looked as if they belonged confined to a frame on the wall of a home. Everything invariably led upwards to the Royal Observatory at the top of the highest hill in the common, more on this in a bit. We made our way around the old Royal Naval Academy (which then became a Naval pensioners hospital before coming to its current existence as part of Greenwich University), past The Trafalgar Tavern which serves its famous Whitebait Dinners enjoyed in the past by Prime Ministers such as Gladstone and famous Londoners such as Dickens. We ended the guided part of the tour right in front of the Welcome Centre beside a statue of Sir Walter Raleigh before being let loose to explore on our own.

Jeremy and I headed directly back to The Trafalgar Tavern for a photo op with the statue of Admiral Horatio Nelson himself before tucking into an ale and the Whitebait dinner. Now, Whitebait are tiny little fish that are native to the Thames and they just fry the suckers whole and serve up a pile of them on a plate with a small salad. They were actually absolutely delicious and come with a really good paprika mayo to dip them in. Although extremely filling it is definitely something I would like to try again at some point. 

Once lunch was finished we made our way up the hills to work off the Whitebait and arrive at the Royal Observatory. I had already learned a lot about the observatory through a book I got in the Times one Saturday a little while back. The book, entitled “Longitude”, was about the race to find longitude so that ships could track their position more effectively. The book discusses the many parts of the observatory, the clocks of James Harrison (who eventually solved the longitude problem), as well as the red ball that drops from the top of the building (New Year’s Eve style) to mark 1:00pm GMT. This was a way for everyone in London to be able to either set their watches appropriately or know the time if they could not afford a watch. To be able to see all of these things was really cool after reading so much about them and visualizing what they looked like. The other obvious part of the observatory is the Prime Meridian. The point that marks where longitude begins, east meets west, and what determines our time zones. It was truly bizarre to be literally standing on the opposite side of the world as Jeremy for a moment and also to be standing on both sides of the world at the same time. It’s really corny and touristy but you couldn’t help but get caught up in the excitement of something so bizarre. We had a quick photo op at the Meridian (the queue was HUGE) and made our way back down to the Naval Museum. There were some interesting collections here but I’m not too interested in a lot of marine based history. They hold the actual uniform that Nelson was shot in, blood stains and all still visible, but it was out of the museum for restoration to be returned in…..you guessed it..2012! It began to get dark at this point and so we packed it in and headed back to Colliers Wood.

Greenwich was a really beautiful area and I really want to visit it again at some point in the Spring or Summer when it’s nicer weather (hopefully on a bright, sunny day) to enjoy the hustle and bustle of it all. We also missed out on a couple of areas to go in and view so I’d like to hit those as well…it gives me a great excuse to return that’s for sure!

Next up: a couple days off but culminating in New Years in London!

Until then…

Cheers and love,

Erik