I'm off again!

I'm headed to Italy for my first official teaching job, and that trip will also have a blog, if you're interested. Check out http://teacherinitalian.blogspot.com/ for my next adventure.

While I was gone...

It's been seven months since I was last at UVA, and it's been interesting to be back.

Things that have changed:

- Entire new buildings have appeared! Classes are meeting in the South Lawn building already and the new Ed School building is supposed to be done by the beginning of the summer.

- There's lots of new first years in the groups I've been in. I've met so many SotLites this week! It's odd to have some people in the group that I know so well and others that I've never even heard of.

- Other people graduated and moved away to grad schools and jobs in other states. I miss you guys!

- New apartment, conveniently located across the street from the best Chinese food in Charlottesville, less conveniently located to Central Grounds.

- UVa's computer system. The old one wasn't good, but neither is the new one.

Things that haven't changed:

- Classes. And homework. I didn't miss homework.

- Weird schedules. College students eat and sleep at odd times, which I've slipped back into easily.

- The direction the cars are coming from when crossing the street, the side of the sidewalk people walk on, and which of a set of double doors to open. Liz and I had lunch together today, and kept running into people on the way there.

- How people talk. Things don't get "sorted," unless it's us trying to figure out how to get our Cambridge group class to work in our schedules.

Also, Aunt Su suggested that I should keep posting on here. What do you think?

Written on not much sleep...

I am sitting on a plane in Switzerland waiting for take-off, which has been delayed due to the fact that it’s snowing, and I’m bored, so you get to read about my trip.

After a weekend spent mostly sick in bed, except for a trip out to see Liz’s band perform at a Christmas Fair (yes, she’s here for the same program, and yes, she joined a samba band while she was here.) and presentations on Monday morning, we abruptly packed up all of our things. Apparently the Finance Office had changed the dates that we had paid for to stay in the B&B, but had forgotten to tell us, so we had to move out sooner than expected. That afternoon Hilary and I took a train to London, then the Underground to a hostel to stay for the night. We got up at 5 the next morning to get on another train to the airport to fly to Basel, Switzerland, where Hilary’s relatives live. They were kind enough to let us stay in their gorgeous apartment for four days. We went out to lunch and picked up the kids from school on Tuesday, then went to the Christmas Market in the afternoon. Basel is home to the largest “Weinachtstrasse,” or Christmas Street, in Europe, if I translated the sign correctly. There were tons of cool but overpriced handmade craft-type-things. For dinner, we had Raclette, (sp?) which is a traditional Swiss meal of a type of cheese melted in a type of pan then poured over potatoes, broccoli, and cauliflower. Yum.

They’re done de-icing the wings, so I’ve got to take a break to put the computer away.

Back now. On Wednesday, we wandered around the city for a while. (Warning! Random story! It was not as lame as it sounds.) At one point, we came across this fountain that was pouring water into a bucket with a spout, and the bucket was full, so the water was pouring out of the spout. Sitting on the edge next to the fountain was another, very similar bucket, and for some reason, I felt the need to switch the buckets, so after some deliberation, I did. I have no idea why they were there but it was greatly satisfying to hear the new, empty bucket fill up with water. We then took the tram to join Hilary’s aunt and uncle for lunch at the company where he works. It’s huge and basically has it’s own town to support it within the city. There’re restaurants and even a supermarket. We stayed around the house in the afternoon, then went to pick up Liz from the train station that evening.

Thursday was the most exciting day, as we took a train into Germany, to the city of Freiburg. It was only about an hour train ride and that’s with stopping at most of the many stations. After acquiring a map and some Euros, we went to a café, where I successfully ordered our drinks and snacks in German. We had the giant, amazing pretzels that I practically lived on when I was in Germany in high school. They are still really good, even though I forgot to order any sauces for them. Freiburg has a Christmas Market too, so we wander through that, then around the city. We did a bit of shopping, but only a little, as none of us has any room in our luggage to add things. Just before we left, we went to another café, where the other girls had Gluehwein, the traditional Christmas drink. I think it’s disgusting, so I had ice cream instead.

We had grand plans for Friday, but when we woke up to rain, no one really wanted to go anywhere. We haven’t had access to a kitchen or living room in three months, so we sat around and ate and watched movies and played games, including Looping Louie, an amazing game Liz bought in Germany. The premise of the game, as Hilary later explained it, is that Louie is a crazy pilot who is flying so badly he is knocking chickens off of barns. Players try to protect their chickens by hitting a lever that knocks Louie back up and away from your chickens. I’m not very good at it, but it’s fun.

And now the computer has to go away again. I’ll post this when I get back to the B&B.

Saying Goodbye

On Monday, I had talked to the kids about how I was leaving after this week to go back to the US, which was a hard concept for them. They weren't really sure why I couldn't stay at first, but we got that sorted out. Tuesday morning is PPA (planning time), so I wasn't in the classroom, and when I came back after lunch on Tuesday, I almost got bowled over by all the hugs. Their concept of time isn't solidified completely.

Their concept of surprise isn't set yet either. On Wednesday, I was observing phonics assessments during maths time. We finished just before fruit time, so the kids were coming out of the room as I was getting ready to go back in. One little guy looked up as he was coming out and said with complete sincerity, "We weren't doing anything. And you can't go inside."

What they had been doing, however, was making an absolutely adorable little thank you book that they gave me on Friday. Each student made a page and the teachers bound it together. They got better at keeping secrets, however, because they knew about our Friday afternoon tea party and didn't tell me. (Seriously! There were nearly 60 five to seven year olds with tea cups! They drank squash instead of tea, but still. It was so cute!)

Everyone was so sweet to us on Friday. The teacher and TAs gave me two books and a set of teaspoons, the kids gave me their book, and the bakery we get our lunch from even gave us each a package of their mince pies!

The Great Punting Disaster

After we had all been on the guided punting tours and spent several evenings at pubs along the river making fun of (studying!) the self-hire punts, three of us decided that we'd like to have a go at it ourselves.

All of our studying paid off, and we punted around for almost an hour, making pretty good progress for our first time. We were all pretty good at it for our first go, compared to some of the other self-hires we'd seen over the weeks of watching. We went along the backs of the colleges in the late afternoon, getting back just as it was starting to hint at getting dark. Quite an enjoyable Sunday afternoon activity, really. Once I get the pictures off of Liz's camera, I'll post some here or on Facebook.

When our time was almost up, I was nominated to steer the punt back into the dock area (apparently some canoe skills transfer). There was a bit of a current in the way, so I aimed upstream of where I wanted to be in hopes of using that to help me steer in. Good idea, right? Apparently not. We weren't moving as fast as we appeared to be, unfortunately, and one of the professional punters/tour guides ran into our boat, knocking me into the water, coat and all. According to Liz, who was the only real witness, I mostly jumped, but I defend myself with the fact that his boat was on top of ours where I had been standing, so jumping was probably a good idea, even if it was a reflex. Liz and Hilary were both doubled up in our boat laughing. The professional tried to "help" me out of the water into his boat, then retrieved our pole for us and took me to shore.

Now, did we get a discount, or even an apology? Nope. We had to pay more, actually. I think we would have been on time to get back within our allotted hour if it had not been for the collision, but we didn't make it with the delay, so we were charged for going over the time limit. How silly.

So as to not end there, here's a few other things that have happened:

1) My mentor teacher had us over for a delicious Sunday roast at her house and I learned that I quite like fresh roasted parsnips. I'm glad I tasted them before I knew what they were.

2) I've started taking over the class- I had them for almost the entire day today, just not literacy.

3) I was teaching phonics on Friday, and the sound was l. The first picture I pulled out was a popsicle. Huh? It was a lolly. The dump truck I pulled out next was a lorry. Next were ladder and leg. Those I knew.

We'll be home in less than a month- hard to believe!

Remember, Remember...

the fifth of November. Yep, tonight's Guy Fawke's Day, also known as Bonfire Night. After school, HIlary and I ran home to change into warmer clothes, then went to a lovely dinner at my mentor teacher's mother's house, where we got to meet some of her family. All of us then walked down to the edge of the river to watch the fireworks. It was probably the most intense display I have seen in years, with over 15 minutes of constant booms and sprays of light. With the breeze, we were pretty much directly underneath the fireworks, with little bits falling down on us. My neck was starting to hurt by the end, and I was flinching from the loud booms that we felt as much as heard, but it was breathtaking. After the crazy finale, everyone started to look for the bonfire lighting. We were a little thrown off by a tent that seemed to have caught on fire from a firework bit, but once the bonfire was lit, it was impossible to miss. It was as tall as the streetlight. I took some pictures, then thanked our hosts and headed for the other side of the river, towards the fire, which had been converted into a fairgrounds. By the time we got there, the crowd had thinned a bit, so we were able to get up to the fence around the fire. We were still a good forty yards away, half an hour after it had been lit, and we could feel the warmth of the fire. Amazing (and scary)! This was followed by some wandering through the fair to look at the rides, games, and food (my favorite was the hot dog stand next to the falafel stand). I completed the experience by purchasing an overpriced, but totally worth it, plastic, light-up, spinning butterfly toy. I had seen several small girls carrying them around and decided that it was the perfect souvenir of my first (and possibly only) real Bonfire Night.

Scotland

After the National Railway Museum, we got on a train (how appropriate) to Edinburgh. It was already dark when we got there at 5:30- Scotland's far north and it was the first day after British Daylight Savings- so we checked in and went in search of dinner. We stayed at a hostel below Edinburgh Castle, just off the Royal Mile, a major, now touristy street that is the main approach to the castle. Also visible from the hostel was the school said to have inspired Hogwarts, and yes, we ate at the Elephant House, where JK Rowling wrote the first two books. On Tuesday, we went on a fantastic free walking tour. It was 3 hours long and raining for over half of it, but our guide was so good that he held our attention the entire time. Hilary and I were observing on the way back that he was using many of the teaching strategies we've learned, like telling the group what we would be learning about at our next stop before we left for it. As you can imagine, in 3 hours we covered most of the major sights on and around the Royal Mile. We didn't go terribly far since we were on foot, but we learned about lots of famous people from Edinburgh, including Adam Smith (economist, if you don't remember that detail from middle school), John Knox (founder of Presbyterianism- I later went on a religious history tour lead by reenactors dressed as John Knox and Cuthbert) Robert Louis Stevenson (author, also from middle school- Treasure Island, anyone?), and lots of others. Unfortunately, since it was raining, I didn't take many pictures.

After the tour, we went to the Museum of Childhood, where we learned that an entire room of dolls is actually really creepy.

That night, we cooked our own dinner for the first time in almost two months. We made mac & cheese from a box and vegetables. It was delicious.

On Wednesday, I took another train to Glasgow to go to the Glasgow Science Centre. I spent several hours there learning random science facts and analyzing different ways of information presentation and exhibition construction. There were some rather familiar exhibits that there are versions of at the VDM, so they were especially interesting to look at. After the Science Centre, I completely switched museum gears to go to the Gallery of Modern Art, where there was a very different sort of looking at interesting things and analyzing. This busy ball clock was in the Science Centre, but now that I look at it, it could be modern art, too...

Thursday was a bus tour back to Glasgow, out to Loch Lomond, then over to Stirling Castle. I got a bit more information about some of the things I had seen the previous day and saw a lot of pretty countryside. This was a pleasant change, as we have been spending most of our time in cities. At Loch Lomond I chose not to go on the boat tour, but instead walked a path that lead to the loch and took pictures. Here's one- I may post more at some point.

Friday morning was a bit of an adventure, actually. At friends' suggestions, Hilary and I decided to climb up to Arthur's Seat, a hill/mountain/large geologic feature that overlooks the city of Edinburgh. We took the wrong path from the very beginning, however, and ended up walking nearly all the way around it without making much progress to the top. If you ever attempt this, go left. The path to the right looks like it goes up, and it does, but then it goes back down, then back up, then back down... you get the idea. We still got some pretty views of the city, and I enjoyed resting on the grass, which was very soft.