Here are three students that have won my t-shirt. As you can probably make out, it's a modification of the shirt I made for G.Lang. They have become somewhat a hot commodity at my school. I've only given out a handfull but everyone is working hard to get one. Besides the draw, I've devised a second method for students to win one. On a day that I teach them if they're good, they're given a puzzle piece. If they can collect all the pieces they'll get a shirt. There are 7 pieces to the puzzle all together. They love it, however I don't think any student has more than one piece of the puzzle at the moment. As you can see I haven't done a terribly good job at centering the print. However, I have found a paint made in Germany that glitters. The young lady in the middle has one of only two glittering gold Mr. Jay tees in the world...so far.
(That's Declan in the background. He's going to be Prime Minister one day. Well, maybe not.)
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Tutor group/home room
The Year 11s went home Friday for the remainder of the year. They are now only expected to come to school for revision and to write their final exams. I had a year 11 tutor group and this is our class picture. They all seem nice and presentable but don't let that fool you. Really, the only thing I had to do with them was take their registration in the morning and the afternoon. On Tuesdays I had to take them to assembly in the Hall where the big-wigs (like Headmaster, Head-of-year, or Deputy Head) would tell them things. The assemblies were really awkward for me because (a) as I had to do register quietly as the speaker spoke it was a constant reminder that I couldn't remember any of their names (in class, I just do a role call and if they don't answer positively or I can't hear them I'd mark them absent) and (b) they treated the students like kids in front of the Pope. Most times the students applaud the speaker and the lectures were invariably about morals and how bad their morals were. On Wednesdays I had to do a CAPP lesson with them. We called it Personal Development Education or Personal Safety Education (PDE or PSE) and most of mine turned into little competitions. Cool for some, not cool for some others. Whatever.
Friday, May 12, 2006
Dubai - 12 May 2006
So, Neil from ITN came to see me today. Came all the way from London to see little ol'me. Of course, he didn't come empty handed. He brought gifts including: an ITN mug, an ITN pen, and the suggestion that I could work in Dubai next fall. Dubai, the richest country per capita in the world. I spoke to Odette about it. She said that they may pay for everything. All the transport, accommodations, and taxes will be covered by the school. He also offered Angolia, Brunei, and a country called Kroto (though I thought Kroto was the name of a Nobel Laureate and not the name of a country...as you can see I haven't done any research on these places yet). I'm thinking about going to Dubai. I'm sending in my CV for a job possibly in January.
Monday, May 08, 2006
T shirt rewards
Periodically, I've been handing out homemade t-shirts as rewards to my students. They seem to like them and they're actively traded on the open market in Ramsey by those that have one and those that want one. I haven't made many and the students are all asking if they can buy them from me. Obviously, I tell them that the only way of getting one is to win one from me. This has helped a little bit with management and those that want to win one show up ready to impress.
Like this guy here, they all have big smiles after winning.
BTW, Arsenal won 4-2 and finished 4th in the Premiership table. Hotspur lost and finished 5th.
Like this guy here, they all have big smiles after winning.
BTW, Arsenal won 4-2 and finished 4th in the Premiership table. Hotspur lost and finished 5th.
Waddesdon - May 7th
This is a picture of Waddesdon. It's a summer home built by the Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in the late 1800s. This is the same family that Fiona worked for during her last few months in London. She worked for Lord de Rothschild. The de Rothschilds are one of the richest families in England. Waddesdon, which is in the city of Aylesbury just outside of North London, is now kept by the National Trust. Len and Carol took me along on this which is only one of the many different weekend jaunts they take to check out National Heritage sites around England.
Naked Homer is the new Dwarf and this was his first job.
Naked Homer is the new Dwarf and this was his first job.
May Day: Sunderland v. Arsenal
My first ever football match. We drove 3.5hrs north to Sunderland - an industrial town on the east coast of England. It was a pretty nice town but the people's accents were very deep and hard to decipher. We left at 1000hrs and arrive at about 1345hrs. We checked out the shopping district before heading over to the Stadium of Light at about 1600hrs for a 1715hrs start. The game wasn't a great one. Arsenal won 3-0. Arsenal came out very slowly and didn't show much interest in the match. Sunderland came out with a lot of pressure but couldn't do much with their chances. Sunderland, which will be relegated to the Champions league next season, just didn't have enough talent to keep up with Arsenal while Arsenal looked bored. The goals were all scored within the last third of the first half. I missed the first one and didn't get a good look at the second but I know the third was put away by Henry via a free kick. The stadium is only 8 or so years old but it isn't very much to look at. There wasn't a color replay screen so we didn't get a look at what we missed during the game and a lot of the fans were taking to kicking the walls and seats. The atmosphere was amazing, though. The fans - 44,000 - sang throughout the game and chanted whenever they wanted something to happen. They even game Thierry Henry a standing ovation when he was substituted out of the game, which in itself is pretty amazing. The drive back was much quicker with no one on the road. We arrived back at the flats at 0030hrs.
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Friday, April 28, 2006
The long weekend
We teachers in Britain don't get a lot of long weekends. This coming up weekend is actually my first since I've been here. Monday is May Day. For May Day, Zela, Jackie and I are going to Sunderland. Yes, that hot bed of fun activities. Actually, I hear it's pretty bad but I guess I'll find out in three days. Sunderland is a Premiership team that, unfortunately, is in the bottom three of the table. This, of course, means they will be relegated to the Coca-Cola Championship league next year where they will have to try to finish top two or three to get back up. However, they do have a couple of games remaining before the end of the season and one game is versus the all mighty Arsenal Gunners. And fortunately Sunderland is doing so poorly that we were able to garner tickets to the game. That's the fortunate part of this story. So, Monday we will be off on a 5.5hr car ride to the northeast coast and a 5.5hr return trip posthaste. Arsenal, for all of you non-football fans (like me) are 5th in the premiership table. They are in no danger of getting kicked out of the premiership but they are on the verge of missing top 4. The top 4 from all the european premiership leagues play in an exclusive championship knock-out tournament called the Champions of Europe. It's currently held by Liverpool and Arsenal is up for it this year.
Monday, April 24, 2006
Stamford
In our search for something to do on Sunday, Zela and I went on another road trip in hopes of finding a Sunday market somewhere. This is Naked Homer in front of St John Baptist Church in Stamford. Stamford is a great little town. Similar to St Ives it is a neat little town with a lot of old buildings and churches. Unlike Luton, it had a great feeling to it. Unfortunately, it was raining when we arrived and almost everything was closed. Damn, it was cold. This is where I purchased the little England home kit for Sparky Mark. Of the stores that they had the only one open in Stamford on a Sunday was a large sports chain store called Sportsworld. Good find, they were having a sale.
Luton High Road
Zela and I went to Luton on Saturday. It was a wonderful day with the temperature hovering new 17 degrees and the sun shining high above. Luten is a really weird city. It's huge (they have a football team in the championship league) and it's the city Odette was going to work in. This is the War Memorial in the middle of town. The city had a weird feeling to it. I didn't really like it. However, we were only there for an hour.
New "Dwarf"
So, as you probably know, Dwarf met a sudden end on the floor of the British Art Gallery as he/she/it fell to the stone floor as I wrestled with getting my jacket out of the bag he/she/it was in. The replacement figure is Naked Homer. Of course, my trips won't be the same without dwarf but Naked Homer has some benifits versus dwarf. For one, he's not as fragile so he'll definitely last the next trip I take to the British Art Gallery. Another, he's very lightweight (as Sir Alan Sugar would say). Here's Naked Homer raising his beer to the fact that we're heading towards that rough, tough North England city of Luten. Cheers.
Vancouver
My trip to Vancouver was pretty short but it allowed me to return home, have some Tim Horton's coffee and to see Emma. One week went very quickly and I don't really feel like I got anything done but it was nice to be home for that short time. However, I'm still miffed that I missed The Boatrace on the Thames. I may never have another chance to see that.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
spring break
It's spring break!!! I've been wasting the past few days away. I guess I coulda helped out with the revision days - where we require specific grade D students to come in to do extensive science work in hopes of getting them to a level that they may achieve a grade C - but I didn't. I'm heading to Vancouver tomorrow and I'm leaving in the next few hours to get the bus into Huntingdon. My plan is to try to get to Heathrow after the London rush hour but I don't exactly know if that's possible cause I don't know what hours London rush hour runs. I have a super heavy hockey bag that I can't lift myself. The courtyard is gravel so right when I step out of my door comes the first test since the wheels won't roll over the pebbles. Good work, eh?
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
The dead
Unfortunately, this is the last picture of the dwarf. His head caved in when I dropped him at one of the London art galleries. Tile floors don't go too well with ceramic dwarf heads. I left the remains in a hotel garbage can in London next to King's Cross - St.Pancreas underground station.
I've purchased a used one but he/she doesn't look anything like this one. I tried to find the store that I bought this one from - it's in Peterborough and they had millions of them - but I couldn't find the store. Damn it.
The sun is shining down here and the birds are chirping a lot. However, it's still very cold and my flat has moderate heating, at best. The food, candy, and clothing is expensive and I get paid a low wage. Only 5 more months, though.
ed
I've purchased a used one but he/she doesn't look anything like this one. I tried to find the store that I bought this one from - it's in Peterborough and they had millions of them - but I couldn't find the store. Damn it.
The sun is shining down here and the birds are chirping a lot. However, it's still very cold and my flat has moderate heating, at best. The food, candy, and clothing is expensive and I get paid a low wage. Only 5 more months, though.
ed
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Guinness Factory in Dublin
Another well timed visit. The Guinness Factory had just recently been renovated and we got to visit it with its new viewing bar. This is Dwarf with his free pint of Guinness. The Guinness here tasted less bitter and much smoother. It went down like iced tea. The tour itself was something like 900 floors - or felt like it. We didn't get to see everyting because we wanted to get our drinks but it was well worth the money. I wouldn't doubt you could make a whole evening of it.
Cathedral of Our Lady
This is the large cathedral in the middle of Antwerp. We arrived after a 90 minute train ride from Brussels and we had an Italian dinner here. It was a very nice city but everything was closed by the time we got here. Well, everything except the Red Light District, of course.
Atominum stairs
Here's Narv inside the belly of the Atomium. Cool pic which makes him look like he's Cuba Gooding, Jr. in Gattica or something.
Atomium
The famous structure built for the 1958 World's Fair. Though we weren't lucky with the date to visit the European Union, we were lucky with this date as the Atomium had just re-opened after a couple of years of renovations. We were allowed to move into all of the little spheres except for the restaurant sphere and the kid's sphere which were not yet open.
European Union
This is Dwarf outside the European Union. The EU building is only open to the public 1 day of the year. The day we went was not that day. We were promptly told that we weren't allowed in. We left and it started raining.
Girl pis
To make things fair, there is also a statue of a girl peeing. Unlike Manneken pis, the city of Brussels are would rather visitors not see this one. There is no mention of the Girl in conventional travel guides and it took us a little while to find her. She's found in a dead-end alley and she wasn't peeing...they'd turned her off. As well, she was behind bars, unlike Manneken. There was a lot of weird things written on the wall about her and I think a lot of people don't like the idea of having a statue of a girl peeing. We were the only tourists at the site.
manneken pis
This is the famous mascot of Brussels. It's a statue of a boy peeing. There are two stories that go with this statue. One of the stories has the boy being statue-worthy because he was found peeing on a stick of dynomite or a large firework. By peeing on it, he put it out. Otherwise, it would have exploded and burned down the city. The other story is a very prominent and rich man of Brussel, his son went missing. The statue marks where he was found and what he was doing when he was found. They dress him up depending on the special occasion. He has something like 500 or so different costumes and there is actually a museum that you can go to and see them. In this picture, he is wearing an old Vancouver Canucks uniform celebrating the 15th anniversary of their last visit to the finals. Actually, it's him dressed up with an Olympic Gold medal.
Cathedral of Saints Michel and Gudule
This is the inside of the magnificent Cathedral of Saints Michel and Gudule. It was a very nice cathedral. This is Narv standing in front of a wooden thing. I don't remember the significance of the picture. Though, doesn't Narv look stunning?
Place du Petit Sablon in Brussels
This is one of the statues within the large park that is Place du Petit Sablon. The park was across the way from our hostel and though it was a nice park, it looks much better in the books than it is in person. A little shady and somewhat unkept, it had the same feeling of walking around portions of Stanley Park. Plus, it was really, really cold.
Duomo in Milan
This is the roof of the Duomo Church in Milan. As all things with height in Europe, for a moderate fee anyone is allowed to climb the stairs and run around on the roof of this church. It's pretty neat to be able to climb the roofs of everythng but when we got up to the roof it didn't feel as sturdy as it seems it should to allow people to run around on it. However, having said that no one died during our visit and that's good, right?
Torino Arcade
This is the enterance to a large arcade in Torino. It's really quite neat but being open at both ends, it was pretty cold.
Monday, March 13, 2006
Gold Medal
The Canadian women posing with their golds. This was a pretty cool thing to see as it was the only game that we went to that the team we wanted to win did win.
Canada vs. Sweden - Gold Medal
This is the view of the game from our seats. This is right after the end of the game and Canada winning the Gold Medal. It was very loud and very exciting but it was disappointing that it wasn't sold out. I'm sure that a lot of Americans that had purchased tickets didn't show up when the US women didn't advance to the final. I'd say the place was only 2/3 full. The crowds were good but not as loud as a Stanley Cup playoff game or anything.
USA vs Finland
This is the view of the US/Finland game from our seats. The game wasn't that great. The US won handily and we were really tired.
Canada House
Here's Canada House, the most popular pavillion at the Winter Olympics. It took something like 3 hours to find and when we got there it was closed because Wayne Gretzky decided he wanted to see it. So, for safety concerns, the police closed it down as Wayne and Vicki Gabreau ate Canadian bacon or what ever inside.
Olympic Curling
The third event that we went to watch was Women's curling. It was pretty cool but no one was there. There were three teams playing on the four sheets and all three teams that we were rooting for - so Canada would have a better chance of making the playoffs - lost. Regardless, the Canadian women made the medals.
Mascots
Here's Narv with the images of the 20th Winter Olympic Games. This was funny not for what was happening during the picture but what happened afterwards. The blue thing on the right flicked Narv's hat and started laughing. I guess you had to be there.
Canada vs. Finland
This is the view of the ice from our seats. We were something like 5 rows from the ice.
Canada vs. Finland
Obviously, we thought Canada was going to cake walk through the Fins but, of course, Canada lost 2-0 and we had to deal with all of the talk from the Finnish fans. The atmosphere before the game was amazing...at least 2/3 of the crowd were Canadian and they were trying their hardest to get going. However, after the first Finnish goal we didn't hear much from the Canadian fans for the rest of the game.
Russia vs Latvia
This is my view of the ice from my seat. The Latvian fans are crazy and they were chanting heavily during the entire match...even as their team got their butts handed to them 7-1 or whatever. Narv's seat was suppose to be next to me but because he had all of his luggage with him the usher made him sit higher up in the stands. There, he met the most important guy of our trip: Eduardo. Eduardo, a high school student took us everywhere we needed to go and generally took care of us for the day. If it wasn't for him we'd probably still be there trying to find the enterance to the Curling games.
London to Turino
Our flight to my first Olympic experience was delayed by an hour our so by fog. The flight was pretty amazing because if I had to guess I'd say at least a half of the plane was full of Canadians making their way to the Olympics. Underneath this jacket is Narv trying to get some shut eye.
Casa Batllo
The fourth Gaudi that we visited, it is a weird building that the owner had asked Gaudi to redesign to increase the amount of natural light that entered the building. At night, they light it up and it looks even more impressive.
Parc Guell
Another Gaudi, it's a huge park that overlooks the city. It's made up of weird things built out of sedementary rock. In the middle of the park is Gaudi's last home which the city has turned into a Gaudi museum. (The city has like thirty different Gaudi museums.) Very weird park.
Casa Mila or La Pedrera
Another Gaudi, it used to be an apartment block but is now a museum. He built the roof up with weird statues of warriors that look amazing in the light of the night. It's super cool but enough of Gaudi, right?
Top of the Sagrada
This is the view from about the top of the Sagrada. I don't know what the phallic tower is in the background.
Fabio in Barcelona
This is Fabio. He's another med student that we ran into and I believe he was from Portugal. Here he's looking at a map of the weird wonderland-type place we decided to go spend half the day to find. If you can believe it - I can't believe we did it - this centre, which we paid 15euro to enter, was a tourist site that contained different pavillions representing Spanish life of all the regions of Spain. (Look, it's Sicily and over there it's Valencia.) The idea was to be able to visit all of Spain without leaving Barcelona. It was weird that we went to this to get a feeling for Spanish life while we were in Spain. Whatever. Never again.
Olympic Stadium
This is where the opening and closing ceremonies of the Barcelona Summer Olympics took place. Now, it is the home of FC Barcelona. Though it looks somewhat impressive here, it's actually a really crappy and delapidated giant stadium.
Barcelona Museum
This is the painting on the ceiling of the Barcelona Museum. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the Museum but we did anyways in the spirit of competition. This is my picture. The other picture is Karen's.
Barcelona
This is Barcelona from the top steps of the Barcelona Museum. I believe (but might be wrong) that it was the Royal Palace of Barcelona before it became the Museum. This was the first full day in Barcelona and it was very cold even though the sun was out.
Gothic Region of Barcelona
This is the Gothic area of Barcelona with its narrow alleys and super high buildings. The Gothic Area is suppose to be the party area of Barcelona and it had tons of touristy things to do. I met Karen on the plane. She's a fourth year med student from The Netherlands. She was really knowledgeable about Barcelona which was good because I didn't know anything about it.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Barcelona, Spain
Hi all. I got back from Barcelona two days ago. It was tremendous. The weather was a balmy 23 degrees and the sun was out for the majority of the four days I was there. I'll post more about it once I get back from Torino. The weather in England has been great, too. Today, it was at least 15 degrees and the sun was shining like it was summer time. I'm at Stansted airport right now waiting for my flight to the 20th Olympic winter games. It's going to be great. Narv just arrived after a tough flight from Vancouver but we're all ready to go.
Go, Canada, Go.
ed
Go, Canada, Go.
ed
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