Happy 4th Nonetheless!!!

  Gatwick, United Kingdom
Sunday, July 6, 2008

Well, I am thoroughly behind, but to finish talking of Thursday...

In the evening, Beibei and I had to take over one of the classes of the younger Russian groups.  It was an easy lesson time for them cuz all they were supposed to do was write a postcard home in English.  So we helped the kids talk about everything they saw in London that day.  It was hard to keep a couple of the kids in their seats to concentrate, especially once they finished the postcard, but we still survived!

On Friday, my 4th of July Independence Day turned out very well.  A number of people knew I was excited about the upcoming American holiday, so they wished me a happy 4th.  I spent most of the morning running around doing errands.  At 11:00, I met with a Russian teacher.  The Russian group that is here is all from the same school so a few of the teachers came along to keep track of them.  One of the teachers wanted some private English lessons too so the teachers, along with Beibei and I since we are TEFL certified, have been taking turns giving her a private lesson everyday.  Most of it was easy to teach and she was willing to do anything, but towards the end of the 1 1/2 hour lesson, I started running out of things to say and do!  An hour and a half is a long time!

After lunch on Friday, we were supposed to take the general group to Smugglers Cave since we had done it with the Russians.  We were all ready to go and we were waiting for the bus to pick us up in the parking lot for quite a while when we found out that it couldn't come cuz the road was closed that leads to Plumpton College.  So we had to improvise and we had that group hang out at the sports fields all afternoon where they have enough room to play anything they want plus they have tennis courts.  Christian, Gordon, and I monitored them and some of us got a game of good ol' classic American baseball going to celebrate the 4th!  I sang "The Star Spangled Banner" and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" while we played and talked about American phrases and terms while we played which Christian and Gordon tried to imitate.  No one really plays baseball here.  The closest thing they play is rounders which is a kids game similar to baseball.

When dinner came, the staff had arranged for hamburgers on the menu for the 4th of July!  I couldn't believe they did that for me and Beibei!  They had a couple signs near the food that said Happy 4th of July with fireworks on them.  So at least I got my American meal.

Happy 4th!

It was so nice of them!  And what would have been even better, is that I almost got real fireworks!  Christian had decided to try to give me a 4th of July celebration so he helped get burgers on the menu, and almost pulled off fireworks.  He had ordered the fireworks and they were ready to pick up in town!  He was going to have someone on the Plumpton College staff get them.  It turns out at the last minute that the people in charge at Plumpton said we couldn't have them cuz it would freak all the horses out that live on the farm.  I was so disappointed!  Christian had done so much to get them all ready to go!  Buy anyways, at least I was still able to celebrate for part of the day and teach my new English friends to imitate and learn the American Ways for a day!

The evening of the 4th was spent helping the teachers in the classrooms with videos they were making with the students.

Videos in the graveyard.

Part of it I was in a creepy looking graveyard near the school.  For another class, they stayed in the classroom and had it be about a cowboy town called Mesa in Arizona and they had James Bond save Independence Day!  I was surprised to hear all that when I went in!  Yay for the 4th of July!

That day I spent quite a bit of time with Amy, a young 8 year old girl.  She is having a hard time staying at Buckswood cuz she is so young and she misses her mom so much!  She is here at the camp for 2-3 weeks and has never been away from home so long.  She is a very sweet little girl and I spent quite a bit of time comforting her and talking about her mom with her.  I stayed with her as she went to bed for a few minutes so she wouldn't cry.  I told her the best thing to do is pray!  She said she was a Christian and that she would pray in Mandarin when I left! :)

Plumpton College is basically in the middle of nowhere with lots of trees and hills around.

Plumpton College - View from the hill

The nearest small town is about 5 miles away so directly surrounding the college is farmland.  I have been wanting to explore this huge nearby hill but I'm usually busy all day.  So yesterday morning, Christian and I got up for a 5:30 AM hike up the hill!  It was perfect weather at the time and the sun was already up.  It was a pretty steep hill cuz we went straight up.  We got a great view of the college from above and could see the small towns in the distance.  From the top of the hill, we could see the other side where there was a city off in the distance along the coast.

Cows! They kept turning their back to me!

Cows usually roam on those hills so we passed by some on our way down.  It is interesting to hear all the English talk about America cuz they watch all our American movies so that is what they think we are like.  I've been explaining what has been exaggerated in movies and things and that was most of our conversation!

The rest of yesterday morning after breakfast was spent making posters and dealing with a stubborn student.  The young Russian girl that had been picked on during the bus ride does not comply with anything very easily and while I was in the office making posters, she was screaming in there.  Beibei and I had to move all her things to a new room cuz new students are coming.  She didn't like that and it made it all worse.  I feel bad for her cuz she is having such a hard time but she can't seem to be reasonable!  She has been a challenge for all of the staff!  Thankfully, most of the kids are pretty good!

I supervised while the kids played sports a little bit and then went to be part of a murder mystery game!

The murder has been committed.

The students had to solve a murder crime in English by interviewing the suspects.  I was the cook so each small group of students came in to interview me and they got very into it so it was adorable!  Debbie, Gordon, and Beibei were the other suspects.  Debbie, who played the wife, was the murderer and the students figured it out after having a great time looking for evidence and asking questions.

Marta, Me, Alvaro

Last night we had a disco (dance) for the kids.  We cleared out the common room and put on some loud music.  The kids had a great time jumping around and they liked doing  the dances together where everyone does the same moves.  I think the staff had as much fun as the kids!

This morning I had to get up at 4:45 AM for an airport transfer.  Right now I'm sitting at Gatwick airport waiting for a student.  I'll be tired today!

England Pictures:
6/27/08 - 7/1/08 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=5892&l=d4548&id=1022010001
7/1/08 - 7/9/08 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=5895&l=4db83&id=1022010001
7/9/08 - 7/12/08 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=5902&l=70663&id=1022010001
7/12/08 - 7/16/08 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=5905&l=962b3&id=1022010001
7/16/08 - 7/22/08 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=5909&l=c56b8&id=1022010001
7/22/08 - 7/26/08 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=5914&l=74de8&id=1022010001
7/26/08 - 7/28/08 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=5916&l=2f8ca&id=1022010001