Save The Wales!

Well, after a good amount of time away from this blog I feel like I need to commit a little bit more. Mind you, it has been hectically busy around here. I’ve made a couple of fantastic trips out to Wales and Ireland over the past couple of weeks. Combine this with rehearsals and script work for Dog in the Manger (DIM) and teaching responsibilities and it gets pretty exhausting after a little while…but in a good way. This post is going to be dedicated to my trip to Wales followed swiftly by a description of my time in Dublin for St. Patrick’s Day and then a general update on the goings on over here. I really want to get back to some of the commentary work that I had been doing before, especially with a lot going on in the realms of education, theatre, and a certain wedding next month. All in good time though, first Wales!

If you don’t remember from a post way back in November, I had one a trip through Protocol at the Christmas Dinner Social I attended. I had to choose between three different trips and decided to travel to Wales, as I had never been, on a trip that culminated in a three hour horseback riding session, of which I had never done. It was a perfect combination of new experiences and I had to jump at the chance. We left London extremely early (well, 7:30am….it was a Saturday!) on a little bus/van thing. There were only 16 of us on the trip but it was great because everybody (except me) were college exchange students from the U.S. I was afraid I might end up on a trip with a bunch of older people and was excited to find out that it would be a very chill group. I got on right away with one group of people specifically here from U of Maryland. Of course, as fate would have it I sat on the bus beside the guy taking a degree on theatre performance and that kicked off conversation right away. Even in a group of Americans I’m still a token novelty being from Canada. Combine that with being a teacher and not a student and all of the ingredients were there to solidify my reputation as “Mr. Smith” with a group of very fun people. Our first stop on this trip was to Chepstow Castle.

The ride to Wales itself was pretty uneventful. Most people slept along the way and I took the opportunity to finish a book (a book on Wikileaks by writers from The Guardian, great read!) and then get through my Saturday newspaper. Once we finally reached the bridge over into Wales the trip really kicked off. Our tour guide, Mike, was extremely knowledgeable about the country and even lived there for a period of time. He speaks Welsh and was able to give us a phonetics lesson of how words on signs were pronounced and what letter combinations gave what sound. It is a very complicated and strange language to be honest but it sounds very cool at the same time. We drove for a little while through Wales until we reached the small village of Chepstow. Now, I will definitely be saying “small village” a lot in this post because, unless you are travelling to Cardiff or Swansea, this country is entirely made up of small villages. It gives it a very quaint and homey feel and you learn to appreciate the scenery more due to the lack of industrialization. It seemed like we were much farther away from London than we actually were! Anyways, Chepstow is a small village just inside the border of England and Wales. The village really revolves around this castle that exists from the times of the English conquests over the Welsh. It was a very unique castle experience because it seems to be endless. There were constant twists, turns, nooks, and crannies to peer into. The tour around is completely independent so we just explored on our own for a certain period of time. I took a bunch of pictures (including one of me posing with a crossbow) on my Facebook album. Once our castle experience was finished we walked up into the village centre to have a poke around and get a bit of lunch before boarding the bus and heading out into the Welsh countryside.

Our next stop was to a little village called Hay. Officially it was called Hay-On-Wye because of it’s location on the Wye river. Apparently this village as a really huge book festival every summer and is considered of the central book areas in the world. Walking around the village I realized that this was definitely true. There were bookstores EVERYWHERE! Most likely the highest bookstore per capita anywhere you could possibly imagine. We popped into a couple of them and managed to sneak around into a few other stores (including a puzzle shop with a 32 000 piece puzzle!!!) before everything closed up. It was a charming little place but we didn’t spend much time there before we had to head back to the bus and move on to our lodgings for the evening.

When we reached the hotel/hostel I was not expecting what I saw. It was basically an old English country house that is apparently from a Sherlock Holmes story (The Baskerville Hound), the name of the place was Baskerville House. When you walk inside there was a grand staircase with a piano on top the broke into two smaller staircases heading up but in the opposite direction. The place looked like it was straight out of a murder mystery and we all thought that one person was definitely going to die through the night and we’d have to figure out who the killer was. We got settled into our rooms which were hostel style with four bunk beds in each room. All of the guys shared a room and since there were four of us and four beds we each got a top bunk (no fighting!) and two pillows each with one from the bed below. A pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

After exploring the building for a while and eating some food we made an ill-fated attempt at an alcohol run. Of course, everything in small village Wales closed before 7 o’clock so we were a little SOL. Luckily there was a bar in the hotel and we were the only group there apart from a bunch of guys having a rather low key stag party. We ended up getting some wine and playing a hilarious game of Kings in the bar while the bartender just laughed at us. We heard there was a club around the back that opens at 11 o’clock and headed over there eventually. It was bizarre…it was literally a big city style club inside but attached to the back of this building and from the outside looked very derelict. We stayed there for a little while but the combination of really sketchy old dudes and extremely young girls created a cocktail of creepiness that we started to feel really uncomfortable with.

The next morning we headed down for breakfast (lovely full English) and then loaded up our stuff into the bus before heading over to the stables. Eventually we got suited up and were able to mount our horses before heading out. I’ve never ridden a horse before and it was definitely a strange experience. My horse’s name was Stranger and he apparently did not like other horses so we had to stay at the back of the queue during the trip. It didn’t take much to make sure that we stayed in line and the horses were extremely smart and just followed one another. With the beautiful day that it was and being surrounded by mountains and tiny villages while riding a horse…it was a really breathtaking experience. Once we arrived back (after 3 hours!) we dismounted…which was painful and it felt weird to walk…before gathering up our things and heading back to the bus.

After a really great lunch in a tiny local pub (real authentic feel to it) we headed back on our course to London. Of course we were impeded by traffic but eventually made it back to the central city so I could catch a tube back to Colliers Wood.

This was an incredible trip even though it only lasted a couple of days. I met some great people who I plan on meeting up with later on in London and we had a blast. I definitely want to try and get to a lot of other places on day trips like this to see a lot more of the country beyond London. Really worth it in the end. Speaking of trips, next time we’ll be discussing a certain trip to the Emerald Isles for St. Patrick’s Day! Until then…

Cheers and Love

Erik

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Well, I have quite busy over the last few weeks I’m not going to lie. I am going to warn everybody right now however, these posts are going to be less and less frequent over the coming months. As much as I would like to be updating everything on a daily basis there’s just so much going on! My own fault I know, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve been getting so involved in different areas and I’m finally going to be getting some travelling done shortly which I’m definitely looking forward to. Combine this with teaching, acting, writing, and a new blog…it gets pretty exhausting. Believe me, I’ll update everyone when I can about what’s been happening on my side of the pond when I can.

I really wish I had new things to talk about when it comes to my teaching. Honestly, it has been very routine and normal on a week to week basis. I suppose this is a really good thing because most of the time when something big happens it’s a bad thing. I’m just very comfortable with where I am and the classes I have. It’s the first week back after half term break so the kids have been pretty rowdy. They must still be in holiday mode and it causes them to be quite mad. On a plus note, the classes so far this week that I’ve had issues with have been a lot better. I guess they’re finally warming up to the fact that I’m going to be around for a little while and might as well accept it. Whatever the reason is, it makes the classes more productive overall which is good for everybody. The school musical has been grinding along and I’ve been trying to participate as much as possible. They’ve been coming along really well and it’s been amazing to see the student’s progress from the beginning to where they are now. There’s still work to do but the show goes up for two days at the end of this month. I have full faith they’ll pull it off and I look forward to seeing it. On another educational note, I’ve also been looking into and applying to various full time Drama openings within London for a September 2011 start. I really want to find something full time so I can be with classes from the get go and I really want to be in a Drama department. I’ll keep everyone updated on how this goes as I hear back from schools (or don’t ha ha ha).

As I mentioned before the half term break was last week. It was a really nice week off that seemed a lot longer than it actually was. I was finally able to get some solid lie-ins and spent some time just lounging around the house getting some writing done. I also attended my fair share of football matches during this time. I ended up attending two FA Cup matches, one at Fulham and the other at West Ham United, at the beginning of the week. Later in the week I was FINALLY able to see Liverpool play live as they took on West Ham. I got my seat from an extra season seat that one of the guys who manages my flat had. I was sitting amongst West Ham fans so opted to show West Ham support but secretly be rooting for the Reds. West Ham ended up with a 3-1 decision which was crushing but I put the smile on and went with it. I’ve been getting to a LOT of matches recently and there’s plenty more to come!

I’m also going to be finally getting some travelling done soon. I ended up winning a trip through Protocol back in November which I’m cashing in this week-end. I’m going to be heading to Wales to do some sight-seeing and go horseback riding (right?) I’ve never ridden a horse before so that should be an interesting experience. It’s only a two day trip over the course of Saturday and Sunday but I will make sure to bring my camera and recount the experience here ASAP when I get back. I’ve also recently booked a flight to Ireland for St. Patrick’s Day. This trip should be absolutely EPIC and I’ll be there with Jeremy as well as other friends from Queen’s who are around Europe on exchange this term. I’m really looking forward to being in Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day itself, you don’t get many chances to do that! Again…will bring the camera and will recount the tale (what I remember) when I return.

Lastly, my play’s now in full swing at the South London Theatre. Rehearsals began last week and so far they have gone very well. I really like the group of people that the director has assembled and we all get on really well. Everyone is very committed to their roles and done a lot of character work already. We’ve already gotten so far with only the blocking in place but I’m really looking forward to this show and the upcoming rehearsals. This is one of the reasons that I’ll be blogging a little less. Three rehearsals a week combined with a 5 day teaching week is a lot (especially when I get back from rehearsal at 11pm on a school night every time). This combined with the line memorization and work I have to do mean I’m going to be devoting my time elsewhere for a while. Don’t worry, I won’t forget about you!

Look out for a regaling of my trip to Wales very soon! Until then…

Cheers and love,

Erik

Quite a Creative Week...

Last week was a very typical one for me when it came to teaching. I’ve actually had many days throughout the last seven weeks that have been very similar. It’s been really nice having a lot of consistency within the classroom by having the same classes of students every week. The students really seem to like it as well and they’re (seemingly) happy to have me there. I do get asked quite consistently if I’m going to be teaching them for the rest of the year, not because they would be disappointed but because they want that apparently. One Year 12 student in Drama called me “Mr. Wonderful” to another Drama teacher and when asked why she apparently replied “I don’t know, he’s just wonderful!” Obviously it’s nice to feel wanted like that but I don’t want to take away from the teacher whom I’m covering. They are her classes and she deserves to come back and be able to re-establish those relationships she forged earlier in the year. At the same time though, it’s kind of interesting to note that I’ve been teaching these students almost as long as she has this year and for the Year 7’s that’s quite a big deal. The Year 7 students are attending their first year at Cheam so having me for such a long period of time is not a big change because they aren’t used to who is around in the department and who is not just yet. I’ve actually been having a lot of fun teaching the Year 7’s in particular. They’re still so young but they can be very funny and we have a wonderful time together. I finished up a Year 7 Life class today and told them I needed one more thing from them before they left the classroom and proceeded to demand high fives as they walked out the door. The kids ate it up! They beamed with smiles that were nice to see because I’m pretty sure they were expecting me to assign homework.

I have been having the expected problems with some students in certain classes however. These problems arise from students who have been at the school for more than a year and are a little more resistant to change when a different teacher is standing at the front of the room. I’ve been working with a lot of the other teachers in the department to quell these issues and it hasn’t been so bad within the last couple of weeks. As a supply it can be difficult to come into classrooms when students have a strongly forged relationship with their regular teacher, or are simply resistant to change. Either way, I keep trucking through and I’m learning just as much as they are along the way. I have good days with some students and bad days but the important thing is to not let it get to me, keep putting on a smile, treating them equally, praising their good behaviour to reinforce it, and continuing to work with them for consistency. As I’ve been extended at Cheam until the end of this term (April 8^th) hopefully my continued presence in the school will help.

I had a wonderful week-end just passed and I was actually very productive, from an artistic point of view. I’ve had a lot of ideas and projects that I’ve been putting off for a little while now and recently had an explosive desire to start working on a lot of them. I think beginning work on my script for Dog in the Manger has fueled this fire. I’ve had the kick in the pants to start using my creative side a lot more now that I don’t have to worry about whether or not I’ll be working on a day to day basis.

On Friday evening I decided to take a trip into the city in the evening after finishing work and stopped at Oxford Circus first. I’ve been frequenting Topman a lot recently because I’m really trying to flesh out a new kind of style. I know it sounds a bit weird but part of my experience here in the UK is to do a bit of wardrobe overhaul to kill off the university sense of style (track pants and a jersey) for a more professional looking style. Obviously working in schools has a lot to do with this overhaul but my week-end look is still a combination of professionalism with laid back elements. Topman has been a crazy good foundation for building this with. After stopping in there I tried to get into a couple of my favourite pubs in the West End but on a Friday evening at Happy Hour it’s too much like a sardine tin for my liking. I decided to head to a little tucked away (literally) pub off of Trafalgar Square that was not very busy at all called “The Two Chairmen”. Jeremy and I ended up going there on New Year’s Eve for a pint and it wasn’t busy at all. I settled in for a couple pints of London Pride and started to do some long put off writing.

I have thinking, planning, and putting off writing a play since the summer and finally got inspiration to start. It’s a play about waiting…not the restaurant style mind you but what you do on Christmas Eve in anticipation for the morning. Waiting is something that we do at some point every day for some reason or another. The idea of it first popped into my head over the summer as I was eagerly anticipating my arrival in the UK. It was still months away and I wanted it to be so much sooner. I kept thinking about it more and more and realized just how much of my day I was devoting to waiting for something that would come in due time. From this point I really just started thinking of all different situations in which waiting becomes relevant and jotted them down. The most recent embarrassments of “Frozen Britain” over November and December of this past year in which so many people were stranded in airports across London waiting to get flights out of the country was really the last bit of inspiration I needed. The Times has also just kicked off their annual playwriting contest and submissions are due in about 4 months. My goal is to try and finish the play in order to submit it to this contest. It’s a goal I’ve given myself and I’m not concerned at all with winning anything (there’s a lot of talented writers in England and who participate in this) but I would be very proud to finish and say that I actually entered it into a contest. That’s satisfaction enough for me.

Saturday was another really big and productive day. I began the day quite early and managed to grab a copy of The Times to read while eating breakfast before heading out. The destination was obviously into London but this time to Carnaby Street. I really love being in the central city when I’m writing. It almost becomes a muse for me; I can really feel the energy of the many different kinds of people walking around. You hear so many different conversations, see so many different looks, and get many ideas for characters and situations just by observing. Plus, it’s London! This is the city of Shakespeare, Dickens, and Wilde. It has been the home for many a great writer and I try to channel that when I’m doing it myself.

In a Starbucks I got myself a nice bit Americano and pulled out my laptop to begin working. I had recently decided to start a new blog to go alongside this blog (as mentioned in my previous post) dedicated solely to sports. As most of you know I am a dedicated and hardcore sports fan. Although I go crazy for my teams, I also read a lot about sports including histories, I know a lot of stats, and I have an opinion about different elements of the games. After having many a rant to my family and friends about sports I figured it would be a lot more productive to put it in writing and post it for people to read and comment on at their leisure. I wrote my first piece on the issue of money in sports and how out of control payrolls are getting. You can read it here if you’re interested. I spent more of the day working on this piece combined with a bit of play writing and script work. I managed to squeeze in a couple of pints while watching the Manchester derby in a pub too. Later on in the evening I met up with friends at a pub in Borough to watch a folk band that never materialized so we had some pints there as well as at a pub right on the Thames. It was a nice way to end the day.

On Sunday I went with Nate to meet up with a few others friends to play football in Streatham Common. Yes, you read that last sentence correctly, I PLAYED football. I watch and talk about it enough I figured it would be nice to actually participate in it. There were only six of us and we just played three on three with breaks and switching up the teams. A couple of the guys are pretty good but the talent distribution was good so that I wasn’t just getting the run around by them. It was just a good kick-about and a definite good two hours of running around. Afterwards we grabbed a bit of food and beers to head back to one of the guys’ places to watch the 4:00pm match on Sky Sports. We’re actually going to make it a regular Sunday thing every week, getting together to play and then grabbing beers to watch the afternoon match. I’m really glad about this because I was hoping to get involved in actually playing football and finding a great group of guys who share the passion in the sport to play and watch with has been great!

This week has been going really well so far and I’m really looking forward to the end of Friday because next week is half term! A week off after seven weeks in the classroom in which I’ll be having my first rehearsals and attending a couple of FA Cup matches. It should be great and I’ll make sure to update as the week goes on. Until then…

Cheers and love!

Erik

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