Day Trip to Cardiff

Our first week of classes was long and draining, so by the end of the week, we were definitely ready for a break. That's why, when Saturday morning rolled around, Amy, Chelsi, Madeline, Megan and I boarded a train for Cardiff.

To those of you who watch Doctor Who or any of its spinoffs, I'm sure you understand why I was a little excited to go to Cardiff for the day. Sure, there's wonderful shopping and marvelous museums. An interesting pairing of old and new architecture across the city. Restaurants to try and attractions to see. But then there's the Doctor Who Experience.

After an hour-long train ride through the (severely flooded) English and Welsh countrysides, our group split into two. Amy and Madeline went in search of museums and shopping, while Chelsi, Megan and I set off for nerdier attractions. We decided to walk just over a mile from the center of Cardiff down to Cardiff Bay, and we were very grateful for signs pointing us in the right direction. Once we arrived, we bought our tickets and in we went! It's safe to say that I spent the following hour or so completely geeking out, especially as we toured the exhibition hall, which had all the costumes of the doctors and recent companions, plus a look at the many bad guys that the Doctor has encountered.

We rejoined the rest of the group at a local pub for lunch, and then we set off for the local castle. Yes, the "local" castle. We had at least 3 options from which to choose, and our selection was the closest, right on the edge of the center of town. We bought our tickets (and got discounts with our Doctor Who receipts) and our tour of the castle started with a walk along the battlements. When we reached the furthest we could walk, we descended a level to walk back through tunnels that served as bomb shelters in WWII. We emerged on the castle green and began the ascent up to the old tower. Steep stairs guided us into the stone structure, which hid a small green of its own. Our last stop was the apartments, which are still fully furbished. We walked through ornate banquet halls and a beautiful library among other rooms, all fit for royalty.

Finally, we walked back to the train station, ready to head back to Bath after a long day. We hung around the train station waiting for our train to come up on the monitors with the platform number, but as soon as it did, its cancellation was announced! We rushed to the ticket office, where the attendant kindly rerouted us to Swindon, where we could switch trains in order to get to Bath. We ran up the stairs to the platform just in time to watch the train pull in and hop on board. A few stops later, we arrived in Swindon and gathered our things. To our dismay, the train we were initially supposed to board - which would have brought us to Bath on its way to Bristol Temple Meads - was also cancelled. The information desk was temporarily unmanned, so Amy and Chelsi looked for other options while the rest of us waited for an attendant. Luckily, we were able to hop on a train heading past Bristol that would stop in Bath on its route. The train had been delayed, which meant that instead of departing 10 minutes before we arrived, which could have been devastating, we had just a 10 minute wait. At last, after a long day, we finally traveled the last leg of our journey. It felt wonderful to get back to Bath.

Cheers!

St. Andrew's Visit 1: The School's Ethos

For those of you who don't know, I'm working one day a week in a classroom while I'm in Bath. I'm working with the Year 4 students in St. Andrew's Primary School. We're required to keep a journal of our experiences each week, and I thought I would upload mine here. I'll also be submitting guest posts to my friend Alesa's blog, so you should check those out as well.

Our journals each week have a specific focus that we should consider while looking back on our visit, and this week's was ethos. For the purpose of the assignment, ethos was defined as "the characteristic spirit of a culture, era, community, institution etc, as manifested in its attitudes, aspirations, customs, etc"

My first visit to the school was really relieving. After the little snafu during orientation week, when my teacher was out sick, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I had gotten a glimpse of the school, but I had only met the receptionist, who walked me past the classroom so I could see where it was located.  What I found on Tuesday couldn't have been more welcoming.

When I first arrived, Mr. Barry (my teacher) gave me a tour of the school. He explained where each of the other classrooms were, introducing me to teachers and teaching assistants and pointing out Year 4's work along the walls. As he predicted, I quickly learned my way around the square.

When we got back to the Year 4 classroom, I was introduced to Laura and Connor, two student teachers from Bath Spa University who had been working with the students since October. They provided some wonderful insight on the diversity in the classroom as well as cluing me into the daily customs and routines, for which I was certainly grateful. I will admit that I was a bit disappointed when I learned that they would be finishing their placements on Friday, which meant that this was the only week that we would overlap.

The students piled into the school dressed in their adorable little uniforms. Because of the rain, a few of the girls slipped off their shoes while sitting at their desks. Mr. Barry had no problem as long as they slipped them back on when they walked around the classroom, but a woman to whom I was never introduced stopped in and argued that the students needed to wear shoes at all times. It was an interesting moment.

While this discussion happened, the students started their day with micro-writing. They were presented with a picture and asked to write one line of description, one of action, and one of dialogue. Connor called the roll, and instead of "here," they responded with "good morning," which I thought was very interesting. It felt much more polite and respectful, and having a set response also eliminated the various silly comments I recall from my early schooling, which always dragged the process on longer than it needed to be.

I spent the morning listening to individual students read while the majority of the class took reading and writing assessments. During lunch, I ate and chatted with Laura, Connor, and the other student teachers. It was nice to be able to hear what was going on in their classrooms, especially since they were more my peers than Mr. Barry or any of the other teachers. Laura led the afternoon lesson, PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education), and Mr. Barry joked that he had become spoiled; with two student teachers, he hadn't had to teach all that much in the previous few weeks. He pulled a student out to work individually, trusting Laura to run the lesson on her own. After she introduced the lesson and started the discussion, the students broke off into small groups. Laura, Connor and I moved from group to group, answering questions and making sure the students stayed on task. I asked one student to sit in his chair, and all of a sudden, 8 heads turned to me. One student exclaimed, "you're American!"

The day ended with assembly, where the students behaved impressively well. They sat, still and attentive, for a presentation before singing as they exited. They all participated in the singing, which felt like a very important part of the day for them. Even the teachers sang along, filling the space with music. Finally, we walked the students back to the classrooms to collect their things. We walked them outside to their parents, who waited in the playground area. Mr. Barry spoke to many of them, making a point to talk to the ones whose children had acted out or struggled that day as well as those whose children had done especially well in class. After they were released, I stayed after for a few minutes to debrief the day with Mr. Barry, Laura and Connor. It was interesting to see how they analyzed Laura's lesson, and it gave me a better understanding of what will be expected when it's my turn to lead a lesson. We also spoke about what Mr. Barry hopes to have me doing with the students, which will combine their curriculum with my dance training and should be very fun. At last, I was free to go, and my first day was complete! 

Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Lacock

What a day! The bus picked us up at 9 AM to take us away through the vast English countryside. One of our tutors (we don't call them professors), Andrew Butterworth, became our tour guide for the day, pointing out historical sites along the way. In addition to being a member of the staff, he's a certified blue badge guide, which means that he's one of the most knowledgeable people about the South of England. On top of that, he's decidedly everyone's favorite person. We liken him to the best Grandpa you could have - he makes jokes, tells stories, and is genuinely interested in your thoughts. I'm so glad he's in charge of the Education programme!

When we got to Stonehenge, we got to explore the new visitors' center, which has a simulation of Stonehenge through history. The simulation places you in the center of the stones, projecting the images on the walls. The simulation, of course, was no match for the real stones, which probably would have been even cooler if the wind hadn't been strong enough to freeze my hands. It wasn't long before we all trekked back inside for something warm to drink (in my case tea).

After Stonehenge, we hopped back on the bus to go to Salisbury. We kicked off the afternoon with a tour of the local cathedral, which is over 750 years old. After a tour led by the wonderful Andrew Butterworth, we grabbed lunch at a local cafe before continuing our journey to our third and final destination of the day: Lacock.

Lacock has its share of history, but the most exciting part is that it was one of the locations at which Harry Potter was filmed! Specifically, Lacock Abbey held the corridors from the first and second films as well as the early potions classroom and Quirrell's DADA room. Since the Abbey was closed, a few of us are making plans to go back and take a look around. We got the chance to see the house featured in the first film for James and Lily, which was a treat, and supposedly Slughorn's house from the sixth movie is around there too, so we'll have to find that.

Anyway, after our little Harry Potter tour, we finally sat down to dinner for the night. I had a lovely roasted chicken with veggies, and a slice of chocolate fudge cake for dessert. After dinner, we hopped back on the bus for one last leg of the trip - coming back to Bath. I have to admit, it feels good to be back in my little flat :)

Time for bed - classes start tomorrow! Cheers!

The Flat

I've decided that I should probably start keeping a dictionary comparing British English to American English, starting with the fact that my apartment is called a "flat". It's quite a cozy one as far as they go. I'm not sure if I'm just getting over the jetlag, but I've actually been sleeping surprisingly well since I got here.

The kitchen especially has gotten quite a bit of use lately as we start to cook for ourselves. Last night after dinner, we baked cookies, which was particularly difficult considering we didn't have a hand mixer. Side note - today we bought a hand mixer. Today was my turn to make dinner, so I took this recipe, replaced the bacon with peppers and broccoli, and voila! Dinner was a smashing success. Side note to anyone who ever doubted my cooking abilities - ha!

Earlier this afternoon, I had the first chance to visit the school I'll be working in. Unfortunately, my supervising teacher was out sick, but the secretary was kind enough to show me where I'll be working and explain the process of signing in and such. I didn't get lost on my way there, luckily, but I managed to get turned around a bit on the way back. 

Pictures will be up this weekend after my field trip to Stonehenge.

Cheers!

Arrival

I'm here! All settled in to my new flat in Bath, England! And what an adventure it was. Many thanks to the kind people who held doors, lifted my luggage, and pointed me in the right direction along my journey.

My flatmates and I are finding ways to keep ourselves awake until around 9 PM tonight before we crash. I refuse to even change into my pajamas until it's bedtime, because I know I'll never make it if I do. It's 8:15 right now, so I only have about 45 more minutes.

I'm writing this from my bedroom, which overlooks the river and the street. The room is fairly large, with more than enough space for my roommate and I to be comfortable. There's a guitar randomly sitting on my new desk. It was in the other bedroom when we arrived, but since I'm the only one who plays, it has become mine for the semester. Our flat has a kitchen large enough for two people to work comfortably, plus a separate dining/study area. None of us are exceptional cooks, but we're definitely good enough to make sure everyone is properly fed this semester. The four residents of my flat share 2 full bathrooms, which hopefully will make mornings a little easier on us all. Even better, our bathrooms were just renovated last summer, so everything is in really good conditions.

In addition to my flatmates, I met our other house mates today. There's only one girl moved in upstairs so far out of the three living in the flat, so she hung out with us for part of the afternoon. We all met the 3 girls on the ground floor and the 4 living directly below us when we had a house meeting today to go over rules and all that fun stuff. After the meeting, my flatmates and I decided to go grab a bite to eat, since we only really had snack foods in the flat. We wandered around for a bit and discovered this cute little Korean Bistro, which was pretty good. We were going to grab dessert at one of the many pastry shops or cafes we had seen along our route, but they were all closed by the time we finished eating just after 6.

I did more reading on my journey than knitting, which meant that I finished The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I immediately started Me & Emma by Elizabeth Flock, which I'll likely finish within the week. I have a bit of yarn with me, so maybe I'll try some new cozy patterns in the coming weeks.

Anyway, it's almost time for me to be off to bed! Tomorrow starts orientation!

Final Countdown

I've spent the last few weeks busily preparing for my semester abroad, which kicks off this Sunday at 6:30! I've been joking that I'm flying out of the Meadowlands (aka Newark Airport) right as the Superbowl starts, so folks should root for my plane getting out on time as well as their favorite teams :)

I had a chance to visit Rochester over MLK weekend, which was absolutely wonderful. I had a great time seeing friends and watching Frozen (which I highly recommend to anyone who still hasn't seen it). Once I got back, I've had a hectic pair of weeks trying to get everything done before I finally leave. I hit the mall to pick up an adapter (so my laptop will function in the UK) and a few sweaters (it doesn't get as cold as in Rochester, but it does get chilly). Today I hit the salon for a quick haircut ("quick" meaning it took 2 hours instead of the usual 3).

Right now, I'm tying up the last of my loose ends - literally! As I had mentioned, I've been taking regular breaks from my first ever sweater to knit my own mug cozies, including one that's pictured here. I haven't sewn it together or added the button yet, but other than that it's done. The fire engine red (poor photo quality doesn't do it justice) wool yarn came from my extensive donated stash and the button will be from my collection of random buttons. Side note- yes, I have a collection of random buttons.

I've been keeping up my advocacy work while I'm home as well. This week was especially tough because it was Eeva's birthday. For those who don't know, Eeva was a classmate of mine growing up. We were in the same second grade class, and though we weren't close in the years that followed, I still distinctly remember the day she joined my group of friends on a field trip. On January 27, she should have celebrated her 21st birthday. However, she passed away in May 2009 after a lifetime battle with Leukemia. She was only 16 years old. 

Tomorrow, I'll spend one last Friday night with people from home. Saturday, I'll go to lunch with my family and pack up my life. Sunday, my adventure across the ocean begins. 

But tonight, I'll just remember Eeva.

Knitting my way through Europe, one skein at a time

Like the new tagline? I'm prepping for my semester abroad, and thought I'd give blogging another go since my visa just arrived! I'm home for the rest of January with nothing to do but watch TV and knit. Since I have all this free time, I'm knitting a sweater. OK, to be fair, I started the sweater during the semester. Knitting a few hundred stitches in the round has served as a wonderful stress relief, but it can get boring at times. For that reason, I've started designing my own mug cozies. I haven't gotten the pattern quite right yet, but I'm having a lot of fun trying!

Countdown: 24 days