Youth

Already in the middle of October?! Where is the time going?? My time here in London is SO much different than my time in France. I remember counting not only the months, but the DAYS that I had been gone, as well as how much longer until I’d be going home. I knew my halfway point, my quarter way point, my ten percent point, and everything in between. Now that I look back, maybe I wasn’t TRULY enjoying my time there. Being my young and naive 18-year-old self, I’m pretty sure I was only trying to get through it to prove to everyone else (as well as myself) that I could do it. It was a tough situation to be in though! Living with a family on the opposite side of the world, with everything you know and love back at home. Here in London, I’m just living. Sure I miss home every once in awhile, but it’s not like I’m counting down every day until I come home. I’m really not counting down at all, which I think means that I’m really enjoying myself here. So let’s hope that continues! On Saturday, I met up with an old friend (Kim Hassard) for lunch. Our moms ran into each other at the dog park in Saskatoon and soon found out that both of us were living in London! We went to this AMAZING Indian restaurant, with heaps of food at a cheap price; it was so delicious! We also got to catch up on the past ten years of our lives, which ended up being a lot to talk about. After that, it was already about 4 so I headed home to get prepared for my next outing. Becky was having her birthday dinner that night with a group of five girls. We went to an Italian restaurant with crappy service but great food! And we ended up getting our dessert on the house (due to one of the girls complaining) so that saved me about five pounds! 

The next day (Sunday), I woke up and Jess insisted that I look outside. I wasn’t too sure what I was supposed to be looking for, but I found out quite quickly when I looked down and saw that our front yard looked like a dumping ground. The neighbourhood foxes got into our garbage and made a complete mess of everything! Jess and I decided to go to Chinatown for dim sum before attempting to clean it up. So we went to a restaurant that was one of the only places left with dim sum cart service (as opposed to choosing from a menu). We had to wait about 30-40 minutes to get a table, but the food was so good so it was well worth it! Until we got our bill. They don't have any prices on the papers that they use so we had no idea how much it would cost, but we were shocked when it came to 55 pounds! Guess we won't be going there again for awhile… We then went to look for white vinegar in the Chinese grocery stores, because for some reason uk grocery stores don't sell it. We got our vinegar and then did a bit of grocery shopping before heading back home to drop everything off. That night, we went to the Weird Al Yankovic concert! While I wasn't familiar with his new album, he still sung tons of the classics. All I had to hear was Fat and I was happy (and he even wore his fat suit!). He's extremely entertaining and kept the audience laughing throughout the entire night; I would definitely recommend  seeing him if anyone gets the chance! 

On Monday, I went back to the same school for the third week. This week marks the time that I've officially been at the school longer than the actual teacher was! It was good though because the students started getting used to me and realised that maybe they should actually get some work done. I still hardly had my voice left since I lost it the previous week, so it made things a bit difficult. One of my year 7's asked me, "Are you our permanent teacher now?" "No, I'm still just supply teaching," "But are you going to stay here?" "No, I think I'm leaving after this week," "Awww but Miss, I really like you!" I swear during the end of each week, the school hires the nicest kids to say stuff like that in order to convince you to stay one more week. Not gonna happen this time! The week actually wasn't too bad (minus Tuesday with the four periods of year 10's) except for the boys constantly being violent with each other. There were a couple times when I almost lost my cool and went on a swearing rampage, telling the boys that it was completely unacceptable to put their hands on each other. "But Miss, it was all in good fun!" "You were choking each other for fun...?" As both the choker and the chokee nod in unison. I will never ever understand boys... I also realised something this week. You know that rolling "Mooom" that every kid yells when they're looking for mom and about to ask her a question? I didn't realise how annoying it was until it started happening to me. Literally every five seconds, I hear, "Miss" "Miiiiss" "Miiiiiiiiss!" Mostly with my year 7's, but at least I know their trying to learn. I know it's probably already annoying when you have 1 to 4 kids, but imagine it with 26. I guess I've come to the conclusion that I'll never have 25 kids. 

On Tuesday night, I did something completely out of the ordinary. I can guarantee that no one would guess it, nor expect it. I went and got a gym membership(!!). Looking at my past history of living and travelling abroad, I know that I'm bound to gain weight with all the delicious food that's available. I figured I might as well start ahead of time and try to stop that from happening. I'll most likely use the membership just for the fitness classes, but at least I have access to the pool, hottub, and sauna! 

On Wednesday morning, I was transferring trains to get to school and an announcement came on: "We're sorry to inform you that this train has been delayed due to a person getting hit by a train." My heart just dropped. Never in my life have I heard an announcement being made like that, nor do I think I'd like to hear it again. There was a hush amongst the entire station. Not sure how something like that even happens.. Again, Wednesday was my easy day since I mostly just had year 7's for the day. Not only that, but all that was planned for them that day was to make their own health and safety posters for the science lab. Since the kids were only colouring, I let them listen to music on our classroom speakers and took song requests. When I played "Watch me nae-nae" (which I've never heard before), I was quite surprised (and entertained) when the entire class stood up to sing and dance in unison. Must be the new Gangnam Style, which was OUR Soldier Boy when we were in high school. That evening, I went to my very first Pilates class and actually liked it, yay! So I guess I might have to make that a regular thing.

Thursday, I went to work and soon found out that it would be my last day there since the students didn’t have school that Friday! The best thing about this day was I only had to teach during the first 3 periods, and then I had the last 3 periods as spares. So they gave me a whole bunch of marking to do and I got to sit in a quiet classroom by myself for three hours :) On Friday, I went to an all girls’ school, which was actually the very first school I went to when I started supply teaching. And which I THOUGHT was the worst school I had been to, until I went to the one that I’ve been at for the past 3 weeks. It’s funny comparing my behaviour management between the two schools: at the one school, I was constantly breaking up fights, hitting and punching between the boys, and at this school, I was constantly telling the girls to put their nail polish away and to not do their nails in class. However, we did have ONE major mishap at this school. One (or more) of the girls decided it would be a good idea to play with the sink in the classroom, which went completely out of control and got half the classroom (and the girls’ work) soaking wet. And then the majority of the class was spent a) cleaning up the water and b) with the girls playing the blame game, crying, and yelling at each other. So that was fun. I was definitely counting down the minutes until the weekend! After school, I went home and then Jess and I went to Decathlon (a camping and sports store, since I’m pretty much an athlete with my new gym membership now) and Ikea to do some shopping. And have dinner, of course. The Christmas decorations have already been put out everywhere; it’s insane! Ikea had Christmas trees and decorations, wrapping paper, etc. They seem to completely skip any Halloween decorations here, as I haven’t really noticed any. 

On Saturday, I met up with Becky because she invited me to go to another rugby game! This time, we went to the Wales vs. Australia game so we ended up cheering for Australia, and they won! But many people were really disappointed with the game because no one actually scored any tries (equivalent to a touchdown in football); the only points that were scored were from penalty kicks (equivalent to a field goal in football). I still liked it though! :) Getting back home was crazy, since we took the train instead of a taxi this time. When 80,000 people leave one building at the same time, of course it’s going to be mayhem! I was actually quite impressed with how organized and quick it was though; the staff definitely knew what they were doing. The train ride was absolutely insane! Everyone was still in the rugby mood, so they pummelled their ways onto the train, because everyone refused to wait for the next one. I’ve never been so close to so many strangers at one time. Like uncomfortably close. I could have kissed the guy in front of me. The twists and turns usually cause someone to fall over if they’re not holding on but this time, we all swayed as one massive body and there was absolutely no need to hold on to anything. There wasn’t any room to fall anywhere, so you just had to lean on the person beside you. Thank goodness we only had to stay on for two stops! And now I’m home, finishing up this blog! I hope everyone is having a lovely Thanksgiving weekend! Love always

Youth - Foxes