Last Sunday I went on an adventure with the school I am currently working for, namely a week long school trip into Wales. There were 12 of my students and 19 of Year 5. I was second in command to the headmaster, Jim, and had lead responsibility for the girls. Wow, first off, lots of medications going around for asthma and hay fever. As a sufferer I am familiar with them, but have no memory of that many students in LA having allergies, nor that many children in my own childhood having any either.
Well, I grabbed my gear, mainly old sweats, trainers, and t-shirts and headed towards the train. These are the only times when I miss a car. I hate dragging suitcases through buses and trains and WALKING with the darn things up and down London's hills. Anywho, somehow I made it to Barking, where my work is, and got on the bus with the students and three Year 5 parents. The trip took 6 hours and luckily no one was sick on the way. One little Year 5 girl, Jessica started to just before we got there but I talked her out of it and distracted her by having her sing "High School Musical" songs to me. Hey, it worked!!!!
Trewern House is an old estate house turned into an activity centre for learning run by the borough I work for, Barking and Dagehham. It is approximately 200 metres from the Welch border near a town called Hay on Wye. It has several wings and tons of fields and forest around it. Absolutely gorgeous!!!!! I had been prepared by Kathy Judge, the deputy head, as to where I should look for a room. I found a nice one at the end of the upper hallway, where the girls were located. I was winging it as I took control of the unpacking and moving of belongings, but fortunately many of my girls had been the year before and coached me as to what to do next. Thank you my ladies.
After the initial dinner, goals, etc, I had to put the girls to bed. Try putting to bed 16 ten and eleven year old girls on their first night away from home. . . it is not easy!!!!!!!!! I actually resorted to telling bedtime stories from Grimms . . thank GOD for my memory! Even then I had to sit outside in between both doorways in the corridor reading my Slash Autobiography until they went to sleep. Great book by the way, for all the G N R fans! Anywho, after that we, the parents, met downstairs to enjoy a bottle of wine and recuperate from the journey. It was nice to get to know the parents, they were very kind and disappointed to learn that I will be teaching Year 5 next term. I however, am not, no pressure for the SATS!!!!! Yes!!!!!
The next morning I had to get the girls to rise and shine by 7 and downstairs by 8 for breakfast. All the students had chores assigned to them on a rotating schedule. It was very summer campish and I felt like I was living my dream of being a camp counselor. It was funny to see the girls scrambling for the shower and then trying to get away with messy rooms and unmade beds! Ha . . . as if I would let them do that! It was also interesting to see which girls and boys were pampered at home . . . Jessica obviously was after it took me three times to get her up and she forgot many things on her way to the shower. She also turned to me at one point and said, "I don't know how to make my bed." Oh boy!!! Thank you Mum and Dad . . . I think you know why.
It was very good that there were two mothers there that week. They were mothers of the boys in Year 5 but still, they were definitely more motherly and patient than me. I am all about getting on with it, I guess I get that from BOTH my parents, but when the kids needed comfort both Michelle and Debbie were there. Thank you to you both as well.
My first day my 12 students and I were going down into a cave. I had been terrified all week since I found out I would have to go through a small small SMALL space called the Post Box. You literally have to be pushed through because it is that tiny. Most of you know . . I AM CLAUSTROPHOBIC!!!!!! I hate tiny spaces and crowds. That is why I always left for work early, avoided traffic, crowded elevators and don't enjoy flying. I can control it. I have learned to get through it for the most part, the London tube has certainly helped, but oh man, I was stilly very scared. But, the moment we got in the cave, Porth yr Ogof in Wales, one of my students freaked so I didn't have time to freak myself. I had to stay strong. It was amazing. My class is very agressive towards each other usually, it comes from their backgrounds. But they helped each other through this whole cave system. The guide was even impressed. One difficult space was called the washing machine. You went down a tiny hole into darkness, found the tunnel and crawled halfway in water until you were out at the base and then crawled back up to the top of the hole. Most of the kids had no problem. But Kamile freaked out when Lisa crawled too far ahead and there was no light to guide her. Barry and Shamari, two of my agressive but saveable boys convinced the hysteric girl to go down in between them. They were so encouraging and selfless that I was in shock and teary eyed. The rest of the cave was one tight crawl space after another. There were so many times I banged my head that I was really glad to have a helmet on. OH, and did I mention the caving suit from heaven! We went down natural waterfalls in those things. Still got soaked, but not too bad. Well, Theo was pouring the water out of his Wellies but that is my Theo after all. He is loveable, but well, I think you get it when I say . . . simple.
Once we got back up to civilization the kids were stoked that they had survived their tight corner and started singing High School Musical songs. Good LORD, even the boys were singing word for word! Then they started singing Old MacDonald and were all fired up. Suddenly my Barry starts improving by saying, "Old MacDonald had a teacher . . . . with a detention there, a detention here, there a detention, here a detention, everywhere a detention!" It was hilarious. He came up with a few more that were really funny, on the spot!
Well, another evening of dinner, games, and trying to put the girls to bed on time. At least afterwards all the adults met downstairs for wine and snacks. Majel's father, the only male parent, played opera, blues, and jazz which was sweet for that time of night. He ended up burning me some CDs so I now have it on my laptop as well. Once we were all tired we went back up to bed and tried to sleep. I had my trusty little mini-DVD player with me, thanks Mom, to help me fall asleep at night.
Next day we were hiking up a mountain. Now I had already had issues getting Lisa up and down the hill from the parking lot to the cave the day before, so I was not looking forward to this day. I couldn't believe I had never realised how babied she was. Fortunately the house, Trewern house, provides boot and other hiking gear for all students and staff. You should have seen their room of boots! Well, we were climbing a place called Hay Bluff, but not only climbing, we were doing a circular climb around, up, and down onto it, which meant we were going further up because it was supposedly easier. Yeah . . . . . easier, (hear the sarcasm in my voice).
We climbed 703 metres, at some points almost vertical, I mean I was crawling up that darn mountain with feet and hands because it was so vertical. AND yes, I did say mountain! I know from watchng that stupid movie, "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain" that a mountain is anything over 1,000 feet. 703 metres is 2, 306 feet to be precise, so I am now officially a mountain climber! No, this is not a painting ladies and gents, this is the top of Hay Bluff!
What was really nice was how the kids helped each other, except Lisa, I was a little disappointed in how they didn't really help her. It was like they sensed weakness and did not want to be near her for fear of catching it. So . . . I was stuck with her, being mean, not babying her, punishing her if she sat down, and she sat down quite a lot ladies and gents. She sat and wailed, it wasn't pretty. Teaching has definitely gotten rid of all my mothering skills let me tell you. I felt very much like Mum when one of us is ill . . . " Go take care of yourself and quit bothering me!" Instead I said, "Get up Lisa and quit your wailing, you're annoying me and you can't stop!"
The greatest fun was when we were almost to the top and we saw a sheep on its back. At first we thought it was dead and kept climbing. But then one of the kids saw it move its legs. Our guide, Andy, said that once a sheep gets on its back, it can't get up and it will die. Majel's dad, Cash, walked down to where the sheep was, all the kids following him, running back down the mountain they had just struggled to climb up, screaming, "We are going to save a sheep!!!!" Cash kicked it over as gently as he could and it went running. Only then did we realise that next to it was a small baby lamb who was waiting patiently for someone to help the adult. She ran after her mother and we all realised that two little lives had been saved that day, not just one.
Anyway, we had a good day overall and the hike was a lot of fun, after the huffing and puffing of course.
The next day we went to a mine. You should have seen the students faces when they thought, I was kidding by the way, I wasn't going down with them into the mine. They practically grabbed both my arms and hands and dragged me onto the lift with them. Then they all joined hands as the lift went down. It was neat, and REALLY cold down there. The hardest part was to hear about the horses that were born, lived, and died down there without ever really seeing too much daylight. They had to practically knock them out before they brought them back down into the mine after a holiday. The funniest part was when another boy, who was there with his parents, put a booger on one of my girls coats in the dark during one of the films. Now that was hilarious! The look on her prissy face! Still laughing, sorry, know it is wrong, but yeah, still funny! (laughing to myself yet again)
It was a great trip overall. The girls enjoyed their stories every night and the boys really became less aggressive as the days went on. The scariest thing of all was when we started to get back into London during our return coach trip. The baseball caps came on, the aggressive talk started to pick up and boys that had gotten along started to talk trash to one another. I asked Jim if I was seeing and or hearing things and he said no, that it happens every year, right about this spot on the road. How sad that city life can do that to these boys.
Hopefully next year, since I am staying with this school, I can go again and tell you about new experiences. I already told my boss, Jim, that I am ready to go again. Wales was beautiful! Beautiful! I actually woke up on the coach guiltily disappointed that I was looking at the English hills I have come to love rather than the rolling hills of Wales. But as I said before, on to next year! After all, I didn't get to go canoeing or go along the waterfall walk. Who knows . . . . new adventures await!
