Friday again? Are you sure??

It's friday. What can I say? It's been a long, tiring, cold, wet, exhausting day. Make that a long, tiring, cold, wet, exhausting week. My kiddies should be so proud of all the adjectives I just used. We learned about adjectives today. I was working with my lowest ability group. The assignment was to look at a picture (I had cut out from a magazine and pasted to a white paper) and pick something from the picture, draw a line from the object to the white space, and write an adjective describing that thing. Now I know that not all kids are at the same ability. I get that. But honestly, some of these kids are just baffling. One boy (the boy who drives me insane, and I think I might throttle before the year is up) was not getting it. Well, I mean, he was. Sort of. We were looking at a photo of an unuit couple during a summer in Nunavut. They were standing on a shore next to what appeared to be their boat. Sajmir points to the rocks and says, "Rocks!" I said, "good job, what word can we use to describe those rocks?" Moment of silence. "Umm...boat!!" Ok. "Sajmir, can we say that those rocks are Boat?" Momentary look of confusion. "No." "No, we can't, so what word can we use to describe those rocks?" "Brown!" "Very good Sajmir, write the word brown." The paper went around the circle and back to Sajmir. Once again he pointed. "Boat!" Like he had been waiting for his turn just so he could tell me that there was a boat in the picture. "Very good Sajmir, what word can we use to describe the boat?" Get ready. "Rocks!" Hmm... "no, Sajmir, it doesn't make sense to say the boat is rocks. What other word could we use?" Moment of confused silence. "Brown!" "Very good Sajmir, write brown." I didn't even include the fact that he asked me how to spell brown both times. Nor the fact that neither the rocks nor the boat were actually any variation of a brown. I was just glad he was describing. It was a bit of a long morning.

The day over all went quite well. The kids were actually listening, and they even quieted down during their silent reading time. That in and of itself was a bit of a miracle. Even though it is supposed to be silent reading, the kids are so starved for attention (some of them) that they just want to be listened to. I will be turning that time into a time where I listen to them read, but for now, I have just been listening to one or two key kids who really need it. I have a couple of kids (mostly girls) who really like to walk with me (I had duty at recess today) and hold my hand and get a hug in the morning, and help me with EVERYTHING!!! I know, I know. If Mike Parr heard that I was hugging these kids he would have a heart attack. But too bad for you Mike. There is one little girl who comes in most mornings crying because her mom was in a hurry and didn't give her a proper hug goodbye. I asked her the first day if it would help if I gave her a hug. She said yes, so I did. Ever since, she comes in in the morning and comes and gives me a hug. At this age they are still short enough that they only come to my belly button anyway!!! I just give them a quick squeeze, and send them on their way. Same when they hurt themselves. I just give them a quick squeeze if they need it and send them on their way. No harm no foul, right?? I remember from camp, Aunt Jessica always used to come round after lights out and ask us if we wanted a hug. If we wanted one, great, she would give us one, and if not, then she would just wish us a good night and move along. I did that for years with my kids at Pine Orchard, and it worked great. It works here too. If they are crying I will always ask first if they want a hug. Sometimes that's all they need. Or at least someone to say "aww...", right Steph?
They only kids I don't ask if they want a hug are Stacy and Caleb. They don't have a choice!!! I would hug them all day if I could!! Especially now that I am so far away. Ok, little tear.

So the day was good over all. We had a nice little discussion about fiddling at their desks (fidgeting, whatever) and I explained that I was tired of telling them, even though they know what they are doing is wrong. Often all I have to do is look at them (with the evil eye, mind you) and they will stop what they are doing. But I am tired of having to stop a lesson to ask someone to stop doing something they aren't supposed to be doing to start, and that they know they aren't supposed to be doing. So I sat down and asked them what I should do. We came up with some good suggestions, one of which was to give them a single warning, then a time out. This appeared to work today since I warned them, then didn't have to give any time outs!! There was the occasional kid who I knew would need another warning, but I just used the eye, and didn't actually say anything. We'll see how it goes on Monday.

It rained today. And yesterday. I guess I should get used to it. I am growing my hair out so that I can pull it back and it doesn' t look all frayed and frizzy and crazy like. I do have my hair straightener, but I am scared to plug it in. I might just save it for a real hair emergency, just in case. It's really amazing what you can live with (and without) when you need to.

Christy moved out today. She was another Canadian in our house, and she moved in with her Australian boyfriend (Ish). She only mentioned yesterday that she was thinking about it, but today she was packed and gone. That's ok. Now we won't have to worry about taking her one piece of laundry out of the washer and hanging it up when she isn't around for days at a time. We are sad to see her go, honestly. It was nice to have people around, but we are settling in nicely with the people we have. We aren't advertising the fact that we have two spare rooms now. We are happy with who we have, and we don't want to end up like another TimePlan house that we know of that has 10 people!!! That's too many.

Well, that's it for my day. Ryan is busy playing video games again, so don't blame me this time when you don't hear from him!!!!!!!!

Can't wait to hear from some of you (hint hint, nudge nudge). The only people who are excused are Julie and Steph, because they are somewhere in the mid western united states. Otherwise they would be expected to leave comments too. So there.

Miss you all, and love you muchly, oh ever so muchly (sorry, too much Dr. Seuss)

Pay as you Go gas service? What??

It's been an interesting day. We got up this morning and got ready for church. We were even on time. This does not happen too often (that we are on time, that is). We even did a load of laundry before we left. After church we went to ASDA to get some groceries, and we decided to pick up a roast. It's sunday. People should have a roast on sunday. We bought a nice little roast and brought it home in anticipation of a delicious meal. When we got home we realized that we did not have a roasting pan. That's ok. Ever the ingenious and resourceful people we are, we scoured through the cupboards and found the perfect substitute. A round cake pan. Perfect. Just don't push on the bottom or it will come out. Still no problem, we will just line it with aluminum foil. Wonderful. Roast went in without a hitch. I didn't even rip the foil. Onions around the outside, water in the bottom. Beautiful. Into the gas oven it goes for, we figured, about four hours. No problem. Lots of time to cook it and eat it before we were due to meet John and Wynne online. At about 4pm I sniffed the air and realized I could no longer smell meat cooking. I panicked slightly and went to check on the roast. Turned out that the flame had gone out. Ok, no problem, I'll just relight the oven and continue on the process. No go. I thought, ok, maybe it is just the oven isn't supposed to be on so long and there is a safety switch that kicks in to prevent a gas leak. Understandable. Not exactly. Nothing worked. Not the stove, not the hot water heater, nothing. Full blown panic set in. Not only do we have a half cooked roast in the oven, but we also have no hot water and no other source of cooking our food. We called the head hancho at TimePlan. No answer. We called the 'emergency' number for Accomodations Solutions. No answer. We left a few choicely worded voice messages on both phones for someone to call us back. Nothing. We learned from the last 'emergency' situation, and were not about to call in outside help. Ryan and I made a quick decision to knock on the neighbours door and ask them for help. Well, technically we asked their oven for help. They were kind and generous enough to let us stick our sad little cake pan roast into their oven for an hour or so. They were also very distraught about our situation and had no advice. Oh, sorry, before we went to the neighbour we called the landlady who we are not supposed to have any contact with. She told us what the problem was. Turns out we are hooked up to a "pay-as-you-go" gas system. There is a key (about the size and shape of a credit card) stuck into the front of our gas meter. You top up your card and when it gets to zero pounds credit, your gas is cut off. No one told us this. No one mentioned that we should maybe keep an eye on the level and top it up when it gets low. No one mentioned that we might someday run out of gas and we would be thrown into a huge panic attack. Although, if someone had mentioned that, I probably wouldn't have gone into panic mode. Eventually Bob did call us back (the head hancho guy) and he said we should top up our card (duh). That's all fine and good, except it is sunday night and nothing is open. We did finally find an off licence (a convenience store that sells alcohol) that was open and would top up our card. That was after five other stops and people not being able to help us. And a nice long walk because the buses run sporadically on sundays. Murphy's Law did say that this would happen on a sunday. I hate Murphy.

So, now we are all back up and running. And I guess we can chalk it up to a learning experience. A very frustrating, annoying, maddening learning experience.

Love you all!! (except Murphy, I don't love Murphy. And I don't love TimePlan, or the gas company, or the places that couldn't help us, or Sally from Accomodation Solutions, or British gas for being stupid...but everyone else, I love!!)

Speaking of twins in England...

Ryan and I went to London again today. We checked out a little more of the national art gallery and also walked the millenium bridge and along the victoria embankment. That part of my story is kinda boring since we told you all about our last trip, and this one was almost the same, but there was one really funny incident.

So, Ryan and I were walking along the street toward Trafalgar square, and I saw this s/he walking down the street. If any of you have seen "Transamerica" you get the idea. That wasn't even the funniest part. Not two seconds later, Ryan turns to me and says "hey, I just saw someone who looks just like your brother" (just a reminder Julie, yes, we do have a brother). I turned to look and see if I could see who he was talking about, and he finishes his sentence with "never mind, I think it was a girl!" No offence Richard, but it looks like you have a twin here too.

We did have a really nice lunch today. We went into the city with the intention of eating at a real honest to goodness English fish and chips place. I really wanted chips in a newspaper. Unfortuntely, the farther we got into the city, the less fish and chip joints we saw. So now we were wandering aimlessly past lots of perfectly good restaurants because I was bound and determined to get my chips in a paper. We finally stopped and asked someone if they knew of a good place nearby, and he pointed us back in the direction we were coming from. We're not that blind though, the place was disguised as a greek restaurant. We were standing outside looking at the menu, when I guy inside started yelling at us (nicely, mind you) to come in. He asked us if we were eating in or taking away, and I said eat in, just to make it easier. They promptly ushered us into this back room which turned out to be quite a nice restaurant. I kinda felt like I was back at mom and dad's though, cause they had mirrors covering every wall. We opened the menu, and I wasn't sure what to order, cause it was all greek to me (hahahaha), but I finally decided on the chicken doner. It came in a warm pita with greek salad. Ryan had a sausage with chips, but my chicken was absolutely amazing!! I'm sure you've all seen the huge chunks of meat on like a rotisserie thing? It was that, bbqed to perfection, and served with onions and some spice, and garlic sauce. It was awesome. Ryan's was good too, but not as good as mine. We were a little worried going in, because it wasn't food we were used to, but it turned out to be a good adventure. And it was even within our budget!! I still have a hankering for some chips in a paper, so that might be another blog!!

I promise to keep my twin list going. But no, Steph, I didn't see Princess Diana yet. Maybe she actually meant Camilla?? (that was a joke, I don't mean to offend you, it's just really easy to poke fun!!!)

Oh, Julie!! We found the cutest shirt for B. I think we will have to go back and make a special trip just to get one. We went into the United Colors of Benetton and...well, hold on a sec. For those of you who don't know, Bronwyn has been called a boy recently, and Julie is starting to get a complex. We found this shirt that was for a baby, and it was pink, and it had a rhinestone heart on the front with the word "girl" in it!!! I thought it might be appropriate to get for B. It came in other colours too. Blue, purple, pink, white. Every shirt she owns could say girl on it!! Just in case. But I guess now she doesn't need it. All she has to do if someone isn't sure is whip out her passport and prove them wrong!! She is a girl with many resources!

Ok, that's it for now. Love you all!

Elaine's Adventures in England

I seriously am considering changing the title of this blog. Don't blame me if you never hear anything from Ryan. He would rather play his computer games than update you all on his life. So not my fault!!! But since my bossy bossy sister is telling me what to do (again, what's new eh?) I'll write a little diddy about his day. I will try my best to get him to dictate, at least so the details are accurate, but there are no promises. Maybe I should just start making stuff up. No one will ever know the difference. Except now I've told you all, so, yeah...(head hung in mock shame).

Today is actually a good day to start talking about Ryan because he had quite the day. He was observed today by his head teacher. She really liked his teaching style, and she said that he was doing a great job with his management of the class. He even made her laugh. He was trying to get the kids to write a dialogue between two characters in a book they are reading. He did a teacher demonstration with one of the kids, and something he said made the teacher laugh (I won't even pretend, I don't actually remember even though he did tell me less than an hour ago...)

He has 23 students (except for a long time he only had 22 because one was out with German measles). Ok, one quick story...the german measles kid was away for a week because of the measles, then another week, but the office wasn't totally sure why. At the end of the second week Ryan was waiting for the bus, and who does he see but german measles boy waving at him from across the street. Ryan turns to another teacher and asks, "does he look sick to you? yeah, me neither. He's supposed to have german measles!" Ok, so Ryan's stories aren't quite as funny as mine. I'll work on that.

So, yeah, he has 23 kids, and they are all pretty good. He was surprised on the first day that they were so polite. He handed out 10 books to each of the 22 kids (minus german measles boy) and he received 220 "thank-you"s. For those of you who are a little slow in math (hmgh...Steph...) that means that every child said thank you for every book. Are we all back on the same page?? Ok, good. (sorry, teacher talk coming out). I feel like I have already told that story. Sorry if you are reading that for the second time. To tell you the truth, I am not really sure what Ryan does all day. He does leave with me in the morning, and I have seen him get on a different bus, but he doesn't do any real work at home. Kinda reminds me of when he was in teachers college. Playing computer games on the couch was his idea of "homework". Here I am, all stressed out about marking and planning and teaching, and he is home hours before me, and doesn't do half the work I do. Ok, sorry, this isn't about me. He does make dinner every night. I think he knows that if he didn't make it we might never eat. Thanks for that honey.

Ok, one more small story (and I am sorry, but it has to do with me again...) There is one lady who cleans my classroom at the end of the day - she is super super nice by the way, she is starting to be my favourite lady in the whole school - and she was talking to me the other week about her son and how he was going through to be a teacher, and that he has his placements at none other than...da da da (sorry, that was my attempt at a drumroll)...Thomas Arnold!!! For those of you who are wondering why I am telling you this, Ryan works at Thomas Arnold. Come on people, try to keep up!! Anyway, I was just thinking how small of a world we live in. I thought Canada was small.

Speaking of living in a small world (well, not really, but I'm gonna say it anyway), you know how people say that everyone has a twin somewhere in the world? Just go with it, people do say it. No, I don't know who these people are. Anyway, I think that everyone that I know has a twin in Romford and surrounding area!! Just to name a few, I swore I saw Laura Restoule get off the train the other day, and yesterday we saw Chris Tuulos driving a car. And Ryan thought he saw Chris Douglas, but he honestly didn't look anything like him. I couldn't figure out who he was talking about, and seriously, he's only met Chris once, so I didn't know how he would know what he looked like in the first place. There have been many others too. I think I might start keeping a list so I can tell you if I see someone who looks like you!! No Bronwyn's yet. She is one of a kind.

Well, I think I am going to stop typing now. Although this is not really work, it is making my wrists hurt. And besides, I have all weekend, right? We are going back to London tomorrow, so I will blog about that too.

Love you all!!

Three weeks down, who knows how many to go!

Well, it's thursday again. I've had a couple of requests for an update on the situation with the head and my class. Here goes. So, Tuesday morning I went to an observation at another school that is partnered with our school. This school is supposably a "good" school, and ours is a "poor" school because we failed our annual inspection by OFSTEAD (an agency that moniters school success). I was supposed to observe a teacher and talk about things that went well and things that could be improved. I went with another teacher from our school, who, during the talking part kept saying "no disrespect" while bashing all of my ideas of what could have been changed about the lesson. She basically called my Ontario qualifications garbage because they were just theory and they did not work in the real world classroom. (for those eddie nerds who want to know, I was talking about wait time two, and not affirming an answer immediately, among other things).

Sorry, this blog isn't about her, or how she ruined my day. This is about when I got back to the school and talked to the head teacher. When I arrived back, it was just in time for the kids to make their way to the assembly. I could hear the head teacher yelling at them from down the hall. I stayed out of the way because I knew that they would all get excited if they saw me, and I wouldn't want them to get into more trouble. I did pick them up from assembly though, and they were all so excited to have me back. At lunch the head took me aside into my classroom and told me that I needed to be more strict. He said they were like "little animals that need to be trained. Like little puppies". He demonstrated how I was supposed to yell at them, and that I didn't have to worry about covering all of the curriculum right away, but that I should train them first. I don't think they are that bad. I have cracked down on them talking in the halls, and I do believe that they are the quietest class in the school. I have also cracked down on their fiddling, but I don't think that yelling at them is the way to do it. I have been yelling at them, because the head told me to, but I feel like I am being mean!! I was yelling at them the other day, and I just stopped, and I said "am I being too mean?" and they were so cute, and they all said "no, miss, you aren't too mean". Oh, they are so cute. I told them that if I get too mean that they should tell me. Yesterday I was frustrated with them because they were talking and not getting work done, so for the last ten minutes of the day I made them sit in silence. They hated it, and one girl came up to me after and said that I was too mean. I don't like being too mean. I don't like having to yell.

I was supposed to be observed by the head today, but he was out of the school so I was not. That was a relief. I am afraid that he will come in and say "you suck as a teacher in this school, you are not what we are looking for, and you are fired!" Just like Donald Trump. Then I will have to take my suitcase and leave, all dejected like, and I will be a failure. Ok, so maybe I am exagerating, but he did tell me that there was a teacher last year who couldn't get a handle on her class and she had to leave. And he said "but I don't want that to happen to you". Like that didn't scare the be-jeebers out of me!! So that is the only reason I feel like I have to yell at these kids. Usually we have a good time!

Today I had one girl who was being rude. I asked her to stop talking and she looked me in the eye and said "no". I sent her to the hall where she sat crying for the rest of the period. The following is the rest of the converstation I had with her after class.

me: "why are you mad?"
sophie: "I don't know."
me: "are you mad because you couldn't read the words?" (she can't read)
sophie: "no"
me: "are you mad because the work is too hard?"
sophie:"no"
me: "are you mad at me because I yelled at you?"
sophie: "yes. My mom doesn't like you because you take us out late every day and you weren't the teacher that I was supposed to have."
Like that's entirely my fault??
Then, she said something that broke my heart. I said I was sorry that I had to yell at her, but that she was acting rude, and I couldn't have that in my classroom. She said that her mom yells at her because she is stupid. I promised her that I would never yell at her because she is stupid. I might yell at her because she is acting bad, or because she is not listening, but never because she is stupid. She and I have a little joke that she will someday be the smartest girl in the class. I think we both know it won't ever happen. But she likes to pretend and I like to encourage her to try her best, even if she isn't as smart as the other kids. She is really cute. I don't like her mom so much anymore. I say, if you have something to say to me, say it. If I am doing something wrong, then let me know so I can fix it. Don't be rude about it.

Only 21 working days til mid term break. Yes, I am counting the days. It's not that I am not enjoying it, I just think that there are things I could be enjoying more. Like travelling, or shopping, or I don't know, whatever. I do enjoy the kids, I won't lie. There are some really cute ones. They drive me up the wall, but they are so cute! Oxy-moron? Probably.

I'm so tired!! It's not even nine yet and I am wiped. I can't seem to get any work done at home, but I should at least try. I'll blog again soon.

Love you all!

Why am I a teacher? I should have been a barber!!

I just wanted to show off my mad skills as a hair dresser. Ryan was complaining that his hair was too long, so I helped him out. Ish (Christy's bf) had a razor so he brought it over tonight, and I worked some magic. It's a thing of beauty, I say! K, forget it, I was going to post a pic, but blogger isn't cooperating. Maybe later?

At least cutting his hair got my mind off what my headteacher said to me this afternoon. He had the nerve to come to my classroom at the end of the day when the kids were lining up and say that I didn't have a good routine, and that they shouldn't be talking in the hallways. If he had seen them a week ago, he would be impressed with how quiet they are now. But, he'll get a taste of it tomorrow. I am going to observe a class at another school, and he is teaching my class for the morning. We'll just see how well he does!! Ok, just one quick story. When he came into the class they were just getting lined up in the classroom to head out to the hall to get their bags and coats and whatever and go outside. One of the boys (who has autism) wasn't lining up with the rest of the class, but I couldn't deal with him at the moment because I was busy handing out letters to go home and answering a million and one silly questions from the kids that they always come out with at the end of the day.

So Head teacher comes in and says to me, "what are they doing?" (pointing to the autistic boy and someone else who was finishing packing up his things), To which I replied - quite honestly - "I don't know."
So he turns to the two boys and says to the autistic one, "Hey you, get up and get ready to go home." The boy doesn't even acknowledge that he is being spoken to (probably because he was being called 'hey you' instead of his name) and continues doing what he was doing before. The head teacher then turns to me and asks, not "what is his name", but "does he speak english?" I must have looked at him funny because he asked me again, not quite so nicely this time, "does he speak english??" to which my stunned and seemingly obvious answer was "yes." Good luck tomorrow Head, good luck.

part two...read the previous post first!!

Ok, let's start out with the pic of the National Art Gallery. For those of you who are wondering, the art gallery is at the head of Trafalgar Square. The first time we were there I didn't even realize where we were.

We wanted to see the whole thing, but it's absolutely enormous, and when I got in there and started reading all the little plaques that go with each piece I realized I would have to either not read every one or read faster, or something, or we were never going to get out of there. We actually only made it through about 6 or 7 of about a million rooms. Then we decided not to over do it, and we would come back again another day. It was neat to see paintings from like, the 1500's still in perfect condition. Amazing stuff. And it was amazing too how the artists created paintings of images from the past (mostly about Christ and Mythology) but they also used aspects of their present day. One that really stuck out to me was a painting depicting John the Baptist preaching to a crowd, and they were all dressed in Reneciance period clothing (sorry about the spelling). I said to Ryan, "I am pretty sure that the people that John the Baptist preached to weren't men wearing bright red and yellow tights." All in all the art gallery was fantastic. We will have to go back and see more, but since it's only a couple of bus rides away (which are free with our bus pass) and admission is free, it won't be hard to do.

After we left the gallery we walked up the road and went part way across the Waterloo Bridge. From there we got quite a good picture of Big Ben, the Parliment Buildings and the London Eye (big ferris wheel thingy). We were stopped by a couple who asked us to take their picture, which we did, then we asked another person to take our picture, and she didn't even get any of the sights in the picture!! We tried to do a self-portrait, but that didn't work out too well.

Ok, sorry but you aren't getting any more pictures!!! This is kinda frustrating!!

After the bridge (or maybe before? I don't remember) we walked around to find the theatre where "Stomp" is playing. We had heard it was really good, and we wanted to see it the week of our October break. We had looked online this morning, and when prompted to buy tickets online they said they were unavailable, so we walked over just to see what was up. Long story short, we have tickets to see Stomp on Oct. 26th. Third row, middle. Fan-friggin'-tastic!!!!! So that is our big plan for the break. That and maybe travel up north of the country on one of those guided tour things. We still have to look into that one.

I hope this is satisfying your need for me to blog more often. Now you all have to keep your side of the deal and leave lots and lots of comments!!! I look forward to them!!

Love you all!

"I won't expect a postcard from Trafalgar Square"

Gotta love the Caedmon's Call. All day while we were in London it was running through my head. About how London is such a nice town, and how we could see a Broadway show, and there's no crime. Speaking of Broadway shows...oh, wait, I'll save that diddy for a little later...

In case you haven't caught on yet, we spent the day in London. Well, we wanted to spend the day, but I got up this morning and started to do some laundry, and it didn't finish as soon as we thought it would - sorry, that's a whole other story!! We had been to London once before, but it was almost as soon as we arrived, and right when I was in the most painful parts of my ear infection, so I didn't have any fun. Today was much more exciting. I am going to post some pics from both excursions. The ones that include Buckingham Palace were from the first trip, most of the rest are from today. If you are wondering which is which, I am wearing my mu-mu ear infection kerchief in the ones from day one.

Ok, so let's back the London train up just a minute. Let me show you the pics from Buckingham palace first. They are fun.



I thought maybe the Queen would come out and invite me in for tea, but alas, she did not. It was a sad sad day for her!!

We also saw Big Ben that day, although not so much up close.

Ok, so after that I felt sick and we needed to leave the overcrowded, loud, annoying, dirty, rude city life and head back to our own little universe.

Today was a much better day. We were even almost proficient in getting into the city. It is so much easier when you know what is coming around the next turn. And there was so much stuff that we didn't see the first time, that we noticed or got to see the second time. I guess it can only get better. When we left Romford we knew what buses we needed to take, and even when to switch. We had gotten some McDonald's coupons in the mail, so we decided to eat lunch out. Not very healthy, I know, but we're on a budget!! We got off the 86 bus in Ilford, and walked across the street to a McD's for a bite. After we had ordered Ryan noticed that there were no debit machines anywhere. The guy looked at us kinda funny when we asked if they take debit. Like every idiot was supposed to know it was cash only? Anyway, we left there and hopped on the 25 bus that would take us into London, and hopped off just past Stratford when we saw another McD's on the road. We had a quick bite (and realized, stupidly enough, that their drive thru is on the opposite side of the building - of course it is! They drive on the opposite side...Oh, Elaine!) and then we hopped back on the 25 for the long drive into London. The bus was absolutely PACKED!!! Standing room only. Fun stuff.

Once we got into London we walked a short way to Trafalgar Square. We brought our tripod with the intention of getting a really awesome panaramic shot of the square, but unfortunetly (for more reasons than one) the square was shut down because there was a Scissors Sisters concert tonight. I've never even heard of them, but the set up was quite elaborate. Anyway, we went into the National Art Gallery and had a peek around. Oh, I just remembered, I have some pics from before. Let's put pictures with my words so you all have something to visualize!! Pictures on the blog are great!!

Ok, apparently I can't add another picture. I'm going to publish this then do more...

FINALLY!!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, please hold your applause. We now have internet at home. It took a long time, and a couple frustrating phone calls, but we are up. YEAH!!!

Just some housekeeping notes...

We do have a webcam, so if anyone else wants to talk, just let us know. Julie and I have already tried it out, and it's pretty fun. She even got to talk to my roommates. Life is good.

Also, thank you so much John and Wynne for the fantabulous package (just a side note, I think Michael Buble is my new favourite, because who wouldn't love a man who uses the word fantabulous in a song??). The package was a real pick me up after a really long and treacherous day. I loved all the little gifts, and the nestea was so very much appreciated. Ryan and I are going to have to think of an amicable way to divide the goodies!

I have heard from a few people that we need to post more pictures, so we will definitely do that now (how's that spelling mom?)

Love you all!

T.G.I.F.

Today was a bit of a disaster. It started out badly and only got worse.

Let me explain something...I start off my day with a fairly rigid routine. The alarm rings at 6am, I get up and get into the shower to be out by about 6:10. Then I get dressed, dry my hair and go downstairs for breakfast by 6:30. I eat breakfast, wash the dishes, brush my teeth, gather my things and am out the door by 6:50. This morning however, I woke up to the alarm and a sound in the hallway. "Scurry scurry scurry" and the bathroom door closing. The shower started. I freaked. If I wasn't in the shower on time I wouldn't be dressed on time, then I wouldn't eat on time, and I would catch the bus on time. Do you see where this is going? So I had to rearrange my schedule to do things all mixed up and backward. So frustrating. We are going to have to set out a schedule for the bathroom.

I got to school and everything seemed fine. I wasn't crazy about my subjects today, and not super comfortable with the lesson plans, but whatever. The morning went fairly well. At assembly I wasn't told that I needed to put a students name in the "good book" so I had to scramble during the ceremony to get it in. Then I had threatened some kids that if they didn't finish their work they were staying in at playtime, but I forgot that I was on duty, so some kids were sent in from the playground by the other teacher to get me. This afternoon the kids were just wild. They were shouting and wandering, and not listening, and not doing any work. It's frustrating to be a teacher in those moments. After lunch they are supposed to have 20 minutes of quiet time. I use it for silent reading. They use it for talking to their neighbour. They would not be quiet!!!

The final straw was last period when we had geography. They weren't interested in the topic, and when I asked them what they liked about Dagenham, one boy said "Nothing! It's boring!" They were supposed to fill out a sheet about everything they liked about it, and I had to specifically say that they weren't allowed to put that they thought it was boring!!! Then at the end of the day they wouldn't stop talking, so we were late getting out and the parents were mad because they were late. I felt like saying "fine, then you come inside and get your own kids to shut up!!" Of course I can't say that...

And I must have had one little girl ask me every ten minutes when I was going to talk to the deputy head about the girl who was bullying her. How many times do I have to tell her that the deputy head is not in the school, and I will talk to her as soon as possible??? I've learned that children only hear what they want to hear. Even if I say something five times, they don't hear it.

I am tired now. It's been a stressful day, and a long week. I think I am going home.

Love you all.

another day, another child crying...

Today started off kind of rocky. It started out with a little girl in my class in tears because she thought she was late, and didn't get to say goodbye to her mom. That happens surprisingly often. Then there are other kids who don't want anything to do with their parents dropping them off. One of my boys kept turning around and yelling at his dad "go away! go away!" I said that it was just his dad making sure that he got in ok and being a good parent, and to that Liam said, "yeah, but if he just stands there all day, he's wasting all his time!" Oh, to have the perception of a little one again!!

I decided that today we were going to crack down on the talking. As in, no talking during quiet time. I even threatened with time outs. One boy in particular who was talking tried to threaten me back. He said "my mom said that if I get another time out, I am going to have to go to another school!" Like that was going to stop me? One less trouble maker is what I say!!

Ryan and I went to bible study last night. Ok, hold on, let me back the story train up just a bit. Ryan headed home after school, and I stayed a little later to get some work done. This means that we did not meet at the station and ride the last bit together, but that he went home and Megan and I travelled together as per usual. When we got to the station, Megan said that she needed to go to the grocery store, and so we parted ways and I went home. After Ryan and I had eaten dinner, we were watching an episode of Dark Angel (whoot!!) when we heard a calling from downstairs. It was Megan, calling us to help her because somehow she had gotten her key stuck in the door. Let me explain something...You may have remembered last blog, me talking about how stubborn our door was and how hard it was to get in? Well, there are actually two doors. One we use all the time, and the other we never use because it is a pain in the butt. Megan couldn't get the one door open that we usually use, so she stuck her key in the other one. To no one's surprise, the key wouldn't come out of the door. At first I thought maybe we could just leave it in, since no one could steal it, and lock the door from the inside. We soon discovered that you could still unlock the door with they key stuck, so that was no longer an option. Finally (after much discussion between Ryan and Megan about what the best course of action was) I called a locksmith. Long story short, Megan had to pay 85 pounds to get her key out (for those of you who are converting, that's $170). Sucks to be her is all I said!! Ok, so anyway, Ryan and I left her there to deal with they key situation and we went to bible study and prayer meeting at Salem Baptist. On our way there it was drizzling just a little bit. Nothing to cry over. By the time we got out, it was POURING rain. Of course we only have one umbrella here (silly Canadians) and we had to try and share it. Needless to say, we both ended up soaked at the end of our walk home.

I'm out of battery power...I'll have to continue this later!!!

Love you all!

two in one day, you guys are spoiled!!

I am going to try and blog this again. It didn't work the other day, so please be patient!!

This is a pic of our house. It's a row house (as are most in this area) so I tried to get a picture with as little of other stuff as I could. You should notice Ryan fighting with the door to get it unlocked. I still haven't figured it out, although he seems to be proficient. The lock is just funny, you have to turn it up to engage the deadbolt, then when you go to unlock it, you have the do the opposite, plus push all the way down and turn the key farther, and if you have anything in your hands it is impossible. We have almost perfected the double person door open.




We also found something when we first got here that made us both scratch our heads in confusion... I'll put up the pic, then try to explain.



You might notice a two lane road (one lane going in each direction) suddenly become a one lane road. The oncoming traffic swerves into the other lane for just a moment, then goes back about his business. I guess it was a measure implimented to help reduce the amount of speeding in residential areas, but when Ryan and I were walking down the road, all I saw was a guy driving crazy fast and suddenly swerve into oncoming traffic. It scared the living daylights out of me!! In that moment I was sure that England drivers were worse than even drivers from Quebec. If that is possible. I am still getting used to the driving on the opposite side of the road. When we are on the bus it's not too unusual, but when we are pedestrians I keep looking the wrong way for traffic. Maybe that is why we teach to look both ways before crossing the street!! Maybe I should be asking people to pray that we don't get hit by a car!! Another thing we have noticed is that motorcycles have the rule of the road. The weave in and out of traffic (on their side of the road or otherwise) and do pretty much whatever they like. Ryan was shocked and appauled when he first saw how they drove. If you drove like that in Ontario you would be driven right off the road!!

Well, it's now almost 5pm. I can't believe I might actually get out of here before 5!!! I'll try my best to blog more often.

Love you all.

I'M SORRY!!!!!

Ok, so I am getting the hint that some of you are missing your daily fix of "Elaine and Ryan", and I do apologize for that. Julie, just for the record, I am missing my daily Bronwyn fix too...

Also, for the record, I did try desperately to blog on Monday, but the site would not cooperate and would not let me post anything. I was even ready to post some pictures!! So, in my defence, it is not entirely my fault.

I don't actually read my previous posts, so if I ever repeat myself, I'm sorry. I guess if I repeat myself if must be pretty important!!!

It is now Wednesday (ok, one quick side story...Ryan and I were walking to the bus this morning at 6:55, and we were thinking "wow, it's actually 1:55 a.m. in Ontario." Then we kept on with that train of thought and realized that it was 10:55 in B.C.!! While we were well on our way with Sept. 13th, Julie and Randy were still in the 12th, and possibly not even gone to bed yet. It just makes us so much more aware of how big the world is. Ok, I'll go back to my blog...thanks for listening...) and we are into our second week of teaching. And it's hump day, which is always good for helping me realize how quick time goes. I actually have PPA this morning (Planning, Preparation, and Assessment - it's like prep time in Ontario, except instead of 30ish minutes a day we get half a day a week or like Ryan, a whole day every two weeks). I am glad to have the break, if for nothing else than to get caught up with some of the stuff that I have been neglecting. When I am gone from my house before 7am and don't get home til after 7pm, I don't usually want to do much at home. We eat dinner, and veg, and fall asleep. Last night I spent my last hour at school just cleaning off my desk. My classroom doesn't have a very good layout, and it's frustrating for me to try and work at my desk because it is kind of pathetic. I tend to dump loads of stuff on it, and then things get lost or misplaced in my piles of paper. I don't have a filing cabinet yet (well, I do, but it is filled with crap from last year, and I haven't had time to clean it out) so everything is in piles. The piles aren't the problem, it's when the kids start throwing stuff on top and digging down for the pencil sharpener or whatever. Long story short, I need a better system of organization. It can be depressing to walk down the halls and see other classrooms that look cheery and welcoming, and then walk into mine which has mismatched chairs and desks and no space. I was upset the other day (well, mad maybe, frustrated) that some of the bigger kids (year 4 and 5) have smaller desks that we do!! The desks in my classroom take up so much space it is pathetic. I have to rearrange them to suit my classroom, I just haven't found a good way to do it yet. I also want to find a new seating arrangement, but the problem is that I have so many talkers in class that I can't put any of them together!! I can't put two talkers together (for obvious reasons) but I don't want to "punish" the good kids by making them sit with a talker at a desk secluded from everyone else. Does that even make sense? Sometimes I say things and they don't make sense once they are out of my mouth!!

My kids are really cute though. I have one who is autistic, and he likes to get his own way and throw temper tantrums and stuff, but when he is in a good mood he also gives me hugs and says how great of a teacher I am. He also likes to be the leader of the line (which is fine, I can keep my eye on him that way) and he comes straight up and holds my hand. He's got problems for sure, and he drives me up the wall, but he does have his sweet moments too.

There is another boy who is super smart, but a talker, and yesterday I was cross with the kids because they would not listen or stop talking (especially this one) and at the end of the day he came up to me and said "Miss, I really like school...and I really like this class...I am glad the other teacher didn't come to school so you could be our teacher." How can you be mad at something like that? We're working really hard at making sure that they follow the rules, and are listening and not talking. It's hard to know how much to expect from 7 and 8 year olds. I guess I do expect them to sit quietly because I can see that they are capable of it, but I don't want to be too hard on them because they are just kids afterall.

I had one girl come to school yesterday in tears because the day before she had lost her jumper (cardigan) and she was scared to go home because her mom told her that if she didn't come home with it she would smack her. Even though the dad picked her up and assured her that it would be ok, she still cried and was afraid to go home. That's the hardest thing to watch, is a little one crying and genuinely scared of something, especially when it is someone that they should be trusting.

Speaking of little girls crying...Ryan and I went on an adventure on Saturday (or Sunday? they all run together...) to Tesco's. It's sort of like a Walmart/Costco/Zellers I don't know what to call it. We were going up and down every aisle just to see what they had, and suddenly I could hear a little girl (maybe 4) crying and calling for her mom. I couldn't see her, but I could hear her getting louder and more scared. As we walked into the next aisle I could see her frantically running up and down the main aisle looking up each one to see if her mom was there. Meanwhile she had adults passing my her like she wasn't even there. I walked over and knelt down and asked her if she had lost her mom. She nodded yes, and took my hand and I told her I would help her find her mom. Suddenly a lady started yelling from across the store (like, 5 or 6 aisles away) for the girl. She went running, and I could hear the mom say "what? do you want people to think you are lost?!? You just keep running away!" She was so angry, and the little girl was so scared, and I felt bad for her because she got yelled at when she was so scared. As a generalization (not a stereotype), parents in England are so young, and they tend to yell at their kids a lot. It makes me sad as a teacher because I get the leftovers of what they had to deal with that morning. I heard in the staffroom yesterday that Dagenham (the town we work in) has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in all of Essex county, and possibly the country. One of the teachers said that she was on the bus one day and she was the oldest one there (at 27) and the only one without a child.

Ok, I've gone off on a bit of a rant, and I have to get going and get some work done. I hope this suffices for now, and I may even try to get another one up before I head home for the day.

Love you all,

Another Day, Another Dollar...

Well, we survived yet another day. I cannot officially comment on Ryan's day, although he didn't call me in tears, so that has to be a good sign. No news is good news, right?

I do have to say, at the very least, even if my day is sucking (which they are, a little bit) at least I have the privilege of having internet at school. I can check my email at lunch, and blog after school, and the best part is - it's free!! No more paying up the wazoo to check my email!!

Today was not a great day, although it was better than yesterday. I don't feel like I have much of a handle on the noise issue in class. I have set up the "traffic light" noise monitor (for those of you who don't know, red is silence, yellow is whisper, green is indoor voice) but it doesn't seem to work. It's only day two and I feel like I am spiriling out of control with the noise. I don't have a secure system of getting their attention, and it's frustrating.

I took the kids outside today to read a story, and they seemed to enjoy it. They loved the book, they were laughing and coming up with great ideas, and they were getting a little bit of fresh air at the same time. If the kids are having fun and learning something, then why do I feel like such a lousy teacher? I find it hardest not to compare myself to the other teachers at the school, and that is destructive to me because they are more experienced and they also have been teaching at this school for more than two days. But I want to be just as good, meanwhile I am fumbling with my planning, and unsure about duties and when and where the kids need to be when. And then come the parent questions. I don't know the answers, but they expect me to because I am the teacher. I still have so much to learn.

Please pray that I make it through the next day (friday) and that I actually go back on monday. I am feeling like a bad teacher, and I am homesick, and I just generally need a boost.

Love you all!!

We Survived!!

Just a quick note to say that we both survived our first day of classes (and by the time this is read, probably our second day as well!)

Ryan was shocked and amazed at how polite the children are. He handed out ten books to each of his 22 kids, and he received 220 thank you's. So cute. And he also got a really nice compliment from one of the fathers about how it's nice to have young blood and someone from overseas to do things a little differently. He was really encouraged by that, and is looking forward to going back. And the staff were really nice too, that was one worry!!

My first day was good. I forgot how many 28 kids is, especially when I am the real teacher. The kids are likewise polite, but sometimes a little too timid. They don't offer suggestions or questions when you explain something, which could be a blessing in disguise, but at the same time, it's frustrating!!

I don't have much time, so I will forward all my funny stories later.

Much love.

oh how do we communicate?? internet in this country is driving me nuts!

We are a little bit frustrated this morning. We got a call early that someone was coming from Sky Service to deliver our cable box. This was good news, because this means that we can finally get internet, right? Wrong. We also received a letter this morning from the same company giving us our account number, and when we originally signed up, they said that we could call them and give them the account number, and everything would be good for broadband. Well, when the guy came today to install the cable we asked him what he knew about broadband because we hadn't yet (after a few hours) been able to get through to ANYONE at Sky. He said that as far as he knew, broadband wasn't even available yet. As in, the service hasn't started, they are just having people sign up. He said it could take up to six months before we see anything happen. So, Ryan is going to have a nice little chat with the guy who got us to sign up, and we are sending it all back and signing up with someone else. The company we are going with now is more expensive, but it has no download limit, and we can get it set up in about two weeks. And I have to keep in perspective that I have lived without it for two weeks already, and these two weeks will fly by with work starting and everything.

We also went around today and looked at getting a different phone plan. When we got here TimePlan provided us with pay-as-you-go phones (aka crap) that are expensive to use, and aren't what we want. So we shopped around a bit and I think we are going to go with Virgin Mobile. They have the best rate for international calls, and we get a free phone when we sign up with the plan. Ryan didn't want to make you jealous Steph, but guess what phone I am getting for free?? ;) Don't worry, they don't have the 800 here yet either. We are paying a bit more a month up front, but the way we were flying through our pay-as-you-go, it seems like a better deal (and with a better phone!!)

And that is all we have done all day. It's already 3:30, and I feel like the day has been a bit of a waste!! Not that we have much to keep ourselves busy...

I washed the walls in the kitchen this morning, and vacuumed the stairs (with a vacuum cleaner that doesn't really work), and got frustrated with how dirty everything was so I stopped. We still have complaints in to TimePlan, but I really don't think that anything is going to happen. I am thinking that we are going to have to deal with everything and just let it go. Ryan actually talked to the landlady yesterday and she said that she wasn't going to fix anything. I think I might have said that already...

I wanted to thank everyone for their comments. It makes me feel better to know that people actually do read this thing!! Sometimes I wonder if I am just talking...but just as a side note, if you leave a comment, could you also leave your name?? Sometimes I know who they are from, but more often than not I don't. Julie, I love what you write! It makes my day. And I don't think the problem of accepting God's gifts is much of a question at all. If He wants to give you something better, there will be a reason for you to take it. I think we should accept all of God's gifts and let Him shower us with blessings. Makes sense to me!!

We're officially teachers!!

I wrote briefly yesterday about my new job, let me tell you more...

I was given today (officially) a position at Dorothy Barley Junior School for a year three class. The school is a junior school (hence the name), so it only has years three through six. I was a little worried that I might be given the year six job, and I wasn't sure how I was feeling about saying yes without knowing what grade, but God is good, all the time, and He gave me a peace about whatever it was I was about to accept. Like my mom said, it is sort of like Abraham and Lot. I let Christy chose the job she wanted (or at the very least, I gave up what I did want) and I was given something even better. This position is truly an answer to prayer, and I am so grateful for it. There is a huge weight off my back about finances and about getting from here to there. Now I don't have to worry about a lot of that kind of stuff. Oh, and one other super cool bit of God-coincidence...my newest roommate Megan is also teaching at the same school as I am. When Ryan and I got home yesterday from the mall we introduced ourselves to her and were asking about where she is teaching etc, and she said she was teaching year four at Dorothy Barley Junior. I just about fell over with relief and joy and thanks to God because now we can ride to school together, and bounce ideas off each other, and generally lean on one another when things get bad. At least that's how I imagine it. But it has been difficult for the last couple of days to be around negative people and negative comments. So we'll see how it is when I have to live with it and work with it too.

So, let me tell you about the newest roomie...her name is Megan, and she also went to Nip (small world). She knows Christy, but I didn't know her (or even recognize her) and she didn't know me either. She is also a first year teacher, and she is teaching year four at the same school that I am at (I think I already said that...)

So now there are four of us in the house. Even as I type Ryan is off to the TimePlan office to see about getting the house fixed up because he talked to the landlady today and she does not seem interested in helping us out at all. There are a ton of "unfinished" parts of the house, and she said today that she really has no intention of fixing any of them because she is not living there. Ryan is really frustrated, and I think he just wants to have someone listen. For the amount that we are paying a week, it seems really terrible that we should continue to live in these conditions.

On a seperate but kind of related note...Ryan and I were standing at the bus stop early this morning, looking in the window of an estate agent. There wasn't much else to look at, so we were checking out the prices of houses in our area (Romford). There was one house that was tiny tiny tiny, only one bedroom, and not very nice looking, for - get this - £189,000. If you have a heart condition, please don't convert that. For anyone who really wants to know, that is approximately $370,000. For a one bedroom house. I just about died. There was another house, very similar to ours except we have at least one more bedroom, that was selling for £485,900. That is almost $1M. Our house is not that great. Not a million dollars great!! So, that just reinforced for us that we would never in a million years be able to afford living here!! And it makes the outrageous house prices around Sudbury seem not so bad after all. It's all relative, right?

I am running out of time (again, this happens way too often...) so I will say goodbye for now. Please continue to pray for us as we start work on Monday. Ryan gets his kids tuesday, and mine come wednesday. And pray also for us in the house we are in. It is frustrating, and we don't want to keep living in frustration. Ok, one more thing...pray too that we find a good church home. We went to the Salem Chapel for bible study, and they are super nice, but I don't know yet if I actually want to stay there. And we can all praise God for His faithfulness and goodness, and that His mercies are new every morning. Love you all!!