If you couldn't tell from my strange silence, it has been extraordinarily busy on my end since the end of Half-Term break. Student teaching and sleep demanded all of time, then it was traveling again and the wonders of a certain series of books I'll go on about later. So now, let me take you back in time and give you Part 1 of Things That Happened After Wales...
After a blissful Occasional Day (Holiday) on Monday, which I used to finish up my planning and get myself back in the school mindset, the week took off like a gunshot. I had fully taught all of my classes the week before break, but now everything, including the year 10's, was mine and much more me-directed. A little team-teaching for the beginning of commentaries for the year 13's - which apparently still remain challenging, bless them - and then it was up to me to tackle the tail end of non-fiction, academic writing, and scrambling to finish The Crucible.
Before I could believe it, it was the weekend and I had a heap of marking and planning beckoning me away from London's pretty city lights. Before that, however, I had my year team social event! I stayed at school to work before meeting up with a few others. We all met at Covent Garden and headed to an Italian place that was included in our tickets. I had a delicious Cesear Salad and enjoyed relaxing and getting to know everyone better.
Following dinner we walked to the theatre to see the fabulous show Million Dollar Quartet. Through song breaks - jukebox musical? - and events, the musical told the tale of one day when Johnny Cash, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins all got together and played. By the end, everyone was standing, dancing, and singing. From Blue Suede Shoes to Great Balls of Fire, the musical talent of the cast was to die for. I was surprisingly entertained. The night was fabulously exhausting and very worth it!
Nevertheless, my time was rapidly becoming limited, so I wanted to have at least a little break and see something new. It appeared that during the week, the Christmas decorations had begun to spring up around the city. The famous Oxford Street and luxury department store/maze, Harrods, had decked their halls and what could be more fun and cheery than taking a moment to walk about, see the lights, and snap some photos? So Maggie and I hit the streets...
Decorations floating above Oxford Street.
In front of the entrance to Harrod's Christmas World!
The one, joyous and Christmas-y digression was it for me that weekend as I had lessons to finalize and prepare and essays to read and mark. The 14th ended up being a fun day, despite the busy. My year 12's got to have a debate on John Proctor's confession and they ended up deciding that he should have confessed because then he would have had more time to redeem himself, become an even better person, and help his wife raise their unborn child. The change was an interesting one to me, as it had altered in their minds since they walked into the classroom. They were animated and seemed to enjoy it. I was glad to get everyone talking and arguing, leaving them with a positive impression of the book before they began thinking about their essays on that Friday.
That week overall was a bit of a mixed back. Behaviour issues and planning stress swarmed around me, but it ended my career anxiety. I was flipping my proverbial lid about whether to teach high school or college, grad school and phd's, America or England or somewhere else, and there were some questionably sane moments at the end of my break, bless my mother for dealing with me. But in these two weeks after break I fell in love with kids, my classes, my department, my amazing, amazing school all over again. I felt at home and wished (and still wish) that I didn't have to leave.
When it was once again the weekend, however, I had myself a bit more together and was able to actually go out and see some sights. To feed my inner English major who's a bit too obsessed with Romantic Era poetry, I hopped the tube and London overground to get to John Keats' house. And not any Keats house: the house where we lived nextdoor to (read: in the other half of the house as) Fanny Brawne! The museum even had her engagement ring!
View of the front of the house by a bench and mulberry tree
I was able to explore the common rooms in both his and his friend's side of the house and see where Fanny and her family lived. The house focused more on what the house would have felt like to live in, and while they had quite a few of Fanny's items, they had little else. It was worth a visit, and the grounds were lovely and enchantingly laid out - you could see how he could be inspired there, even on that oddly warm, winter day.
Still desiring to be out and about, and with another literary man on my mind (Thomas Hardy), I went to explore Hampstead Heath, which was right down the road. The expanse of grass, hills, trees, and ponds could have held me captive for days. They preserve the area to conserve some of the region's last remaining heath. I wandered idly and thought of The Return of the Native, with its quirky heath characters and vivid landscape descriptions. I saw how Hardy could take the land as a cue to play with time; it disappeared rapidly as I ambled along in the grass.
View across the heath; the warm weather brought people out that Saturday afternoon.
That night, a group of us took a stroll through Winter Wonderland. School stress and missing Thanksgiving necessitated regular Christmas themed adventures. Recently opened, the fun faire was mobbed but still adorably kitschy with its rides, German food stalls, and fancy Christmas market.
The next morning I was up bright and early to head to the train station to visit my uncle in Milton Keynes. He had been to London, so it was my turn to head out to visit him and meet his daughters. Despite the trains being severely delayed - that allowed me to make it sans bolting through the station - due to problems on the line, I arrived just in time for them to start back up about half an hour later. The train I took had been scheduled for approximately 3 hours previous...Nevertheless, I made it and the day's adventure commenced.
My uncle and I headed to visit Bletchley Park, the location where German coded messages were broken by the Enigma and Bombe machines during WWII! How crazy and exciting was that? It was a phenomenal complex-turned massive museum and he and I were lucky enough to see full working demonstrations of both machines!
Fully rebuilt Bombe machine for decoding the standard Enigma messages, such as commands, sent to regular Nazi soldiers during the war.
Still working enigma machine! We encoded and decoded "London"!
We explored the complex and got to see the mansion, the world's largest non-private collection of Churchill memorabilia, the office used by Alan Turing, old film equipment, ancient radios, and the world's first computer: Collasus! It was so top-secret, it was destroyed after the war and is being rebuilt based on the two surviving photographs and information from the remaining living engineers that built it. Thus, when we were there, the machine was one and producing/reading/decoding ticker tape!
The man was loading up new paper for the tape. The computer (all of that) took up the entire room.
The Churchill Room! The man who had collected it was there and offered us help. Crazy.
Afterwards, we headed into the town and took a stroll through the mall/entertainment area before grabbing lunch/dinner with my cousins, one of their husbands, and their sons. It was great to meet them all. We had some great food and conversation; I was happy and felt welcomed. The 8 year old was crazy and active while the baby cooed and was adorable - the swimming videos were too cute to handle. Alas, I headed back to the train for I had school in the morning and things to sort before then.
The week called and before I had realized it, the week of Thanksgiving had arrived...
Now, my bed and sleep call. The final two weeks of student teaching and the end of London are all to follow! :)
Best,
Fallon
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