And we're back...

... from a wonderful Christmas break in "snowy" Canada (seriously though, where was all the snow?!)  The flight back went much more smoothly but I didn't get much sleep so I'm basically running on caffeine and sugar at the moment :).  It was great to see people who I haven't seen in 1 1/2 years and I'd like to thank everyone for their hospitality, generosity and patience - it really meant a lot to me.  This was a busy holiday (I believe I traveled around 12800km all told) and there were the occasional hitch (i.e. airport woes), but very enjoyable.  My only complaint would be how short it seemed - I could've definitely used another week :)

So, 2011... what does this year hold?  I may not have my crystal ball and its only a few days in, but this looks to be a year of change for me:

• I'm starting work at a new school with a brand new class coming in.  This will be the first class I've had over here that will be "mine", not taken from someone else.  I will be responsible for teaching and assessing their progress and accountable for the results.  I'm both excited and nervous about this... 
• My current UK Visa is going to expire this year meaning that, unless I find a school to sponsor me, I'll be looking to move on to another country.  Perhaps Australia, the Middle East, Northern Canada...
• I've decided to try and grow a full beard... we'll have to see how the new look turns out.

Well, I have a few errands to run and a huge pile of laundry to do before I crash (who am I kidding - the laundry will take me about a week to do lol) so I best get cracking.  Happy New Years to all and may 2011 be even better than 2010!

Travel Chaos or The Long Road Home

After a grueling 22h of delays and cancellations, I'm pleased to announce that I have made it safely to Toronto and am currently at Krystal's house.  It was a bit dicey for awhile and I wasn't always sure I was going to make it... near the end I was feeling a bit light-headed from the lack of sleep (and a developing cold).  The only thing that made the 12h wait at the airport bearable was the company of several friends - its interesting how travel adversity brings people close together.  Though the airport was jammed full of people (some sleeping on the floor for up to 3 days!), everyone was nice and helpful to each other.  It was also funny just how many young, Canadian teachers waiting for flights...

I think the most annoying part of the whole experience was the lack of information provided by the airport.  There was no poor weather yesterday, so it left many of us wondering what the delay could be.  Have you noticed how much easier it seems to bear bad news when you know the reason for it?  A simple "due to the adverse weather conditions yesterday, many of the planes are out of place.  We are now waiting for the plane to arrive" or "due to transport issues, the pilots and many of the ground crew staff were unable to make it to work in a timely manner" could of alleviated a lot of stress.  When we boarded our plane, the captain was really nice and explained the reason for the delay... one funny moment came when, after waiting an extra 30-ish minutes for the short-staffed baggage handlers to load the plane, the captain came on again and said, "Sorry folks, but I have some more bad news - since we've been sitting here too long we now have to arrange for our wings to be de-iced."

Ah well... I'm just grateful I made it.  I heard from several friends that their airlines were canceling all flights - some were told not to expect any flights until the 24th!  Crazy that a bit of snow could cause all of this travel. 

The important thing is that I'm in Canada and ready to spend a great Christmas holiday with my friends and family :).

The sleigh will soon be in the sky... hopefully

Its been awhile since my last posting, so  figured I better do a quick one before I leave for Canada. 

As you may know (apparently it made the news over there), the city of London just got dumped on again.  We were doing so well with our weather these last two weeks too - sure it was cold, but no precipitation whatsoever!  Then, the day before I leave, it decides to snow... and not just any snow either.  You know how we all  giggle about Britain's inability to cope with foul weather?  This time they actually had an excuse for the travel disruption - the snow really was heavy.  Luckily it only lasted 5 hours or so and the airports are starting to clear the backlog of flights.  So, hopefully I'll be able to make it home relatively on time.  I'll keep you posted - wish me luck!

Another Winter Wonderland

... And the countdown to Christmas has begun!  December has come and with it, snow.  This passed week London has experienced heavy snowfalls causing transportation snarls (traffic was trapped on one of the highways for 6h and commuters on an overground train overnight), cold related injuries and, more important to me, school closures.  I've been lucky in that today was the first snow day I've had - some of my friends have had all week off.  I've used today to go and buy a pair of winter boots (I figured after 14 months, it was time to invest in a pair :). Hopefully, I'll be able to get to work tomorrow.

Speaking of work, good news on the employment front - I got the Reception job I talked about in my last post!  Its a January - July full-time position and I will be team teaching with another teacher (there's two classes).  This is good for me as it will give me more insight on medium-long term planning (which I haven't had a lot of practice with).  I've already told several of my classes and I've had a few sad students... the hard part of being a supply teacher.  The class I'll be taking will be made up of the January intake so I'll have a new start with new pupils :).

Only two more weeks until I head home for Christmas - I'm getting excited :).  If anyone has any ideas for Christmas gifts, please tell me... I'm having trouble thinking of things for many of you.

Coming together and looking up

Its another long weekend (not by choice) for me, but not to fret - things are coming together and life is looking good!

My big bit of news is that I've gone to an interview for a 2-term (January - July) Reception position (Kindergarten for all of the non-British out there) at a relatively nearby school.  Even better, I was given some very positive feedback by my agency - they said I was one of the top candidates!  There was still one or two others they were going to interview and I should hear something by Tuesday.  This is great for me as it shows I'm learning from my mistakes and improving.  Fingers crossed for good news!

Teacher interviews over here are about 2 - 3h long and usually include two parts: a trial lesson and a formal interview.  The practical lesson is where you go in and teach a lesson to the class.  This can be difficult as you aren't familiar with the class' level or exact spot in the curriculum.  Some schools will give you a specific subject to teach while others will allow you to choose.  Regardless, a member of the senior management team will be there grading you (similarly to your B.Ed practicum evaluation :).  Its usually expected for you to bring a formal (typed) lesson plan and offer a copy to your evaluator (forgot this last time). 

The second part of the interview is where you sit down with your evaluator and "have a chat".  You'll talk about the lesson (good and bad parts), your experience, qualifications, plans, etc.  Its a good idea to have researched the school (esp recent OFSTED reports) so that you have some constructive things to say.  OFSTED is the organization that is responsible for inspecting and grading schools on a range of criteria to ensure that the schools are delivering quality educational experience for the students... needless to say, most schools do not have a high opinion of OFSTED :).  I think I performed fairly well on this - the only area where I am lacking is experience in long-term planning.  Then again, most new teachers are.

Otherwise, life is going well.  I only had 3 days of work (plus my interview day) so I decided to explore a different part of London.  I hopped on the train and went up to Victoria Park.  Its a nice area - the "Hyde Park" of the East.  Being a Friday afternoon, there were very few people out and I enjoyed a rare bit of peaceful solitude in the city.  A nice time to think and reflect... but as this post is already quite long, I'll save those ruminations for another day.

Back from the icy north

As many of you know, last week was the Autumn half-term break over here in London which means another "outrageous" travel adventure for Bryan "Globe Trotter" Kearney.  At least, that's what my teaching agency, Protocol, called it and if they're willing to give me 50 GBP just for going, who am I to argue?  This time I decided to buck the trend of going somewhere warm and opted for chilly Iceland - the land of lava fields, hot springs, geysers and glaciers.  See below for a map of where I went:

In these travel blogs, I usually take this opportunity to moan about how early I had to get up in order to make my departure... well not this time!  Learning from my past trips and how much I hate early starts, I booked a later flight out this time (hmm... would this be a good example of Pavlov's Classical Conditioning?) and had a much nicer flight.  Unfortunately this foresight did not extend to my return and I ended up flying back on 3 1/2h of sleep ... I'll get it right one of these times.

Fortunately I received a window seat and was able to get a good look at Iceland as the plane descended.  My first impression was of a brown, cold, sparsely populated land and, upon closer inspection, it was still a brown, cold, sparsely populated land.   One of the major contributing factor (to the "brownness" at least) is the lack of trees due to the volcanic and seismic activity as well as the wide-spread demand for firewood the early settlers had.  There is a reforestation program that has been ongoing for several decades but it takes a long time for the trees to grow.  Despite this, there is a really stark beauty that the landscape has.  You can really see how nature has shaped it - first the glaciers scraping over, then the high frequency of volcanic eruptions, lava flows and earthquakes...

I have posted the pictures from my trip with details so I'll just do a general overview here of what I saw:

•  Blue Lagoon:  If there is one thing Iceland doesn't lack, its hot water.  Its well known both for the number and quality of its geothermal spas and the Blue Lagoon is the most famous of these.  Its fed from the output of a nearby geothermal power plant (Iceland uses 99% renewable energy) and the waters are rich is sulfur and extremely good for your skin.  Its located on a lava field with an indoor and outdoor bathing area with a temperature of 36 - 39C.  It was really neat swimming around - the lagoon was carved right out of the rock and looked completely natural, the water varied in depth from a wadding pool to neck height and you could feel the temperature changing.  There were also steam rooms, mud plasters and a massaging waterfall.  The only thing I didn't have time to try was the in-water massages.  I'd highly recommend trying this out!
  
  
  
• Northern Lights: I was fortunate enough to see the sky light up with the Aurora Borealis because, being a natural phenomenon, you can never know when it will appear.  We traveled out of the city to a dark, windy field and waited.  The first night we saw nothing, but the second night we were treated to two ribbons of light lazily waving across the sky.  Unlike on TV or photos, the lights were pale, greeny-white in colour - this is due to the wave-length our eyes can normally see as well as the particular activity of the electrons in the atmosphere.  The reason that the pictures are usually very colour is simply because a camera can capture a wider spectrum of colour.  It was very inspiring though... amazing what nature can do.  We also drove past  Yoko Ono's tribute to John Lennon (a great beam of light shinning to the heavens. 
  
  
  
• Geyser Park:  A steamy, sulfurous park full of pools of frothing water bubbling close to 100C and occasionally shooting upwards.  None of them were as large as "Old Faithful" in America, but it was still neat to see... An interesting thing  is that the Icelandic people give each geyser (regardless of size) its own name.  Funnily enough, one town we drove through used to use one of their dormant geysers as a convenient garbage dump - unfortunately, one day it erupted and sprayed the village with decades of garbage.  Needless to say, they don't do that any more :)
  
  
  
• Gullfoss:  A beautiful waterfall... not much more to say about it.
  
  
  
• Þingvellir (or Thingvellir) National Park:  One of the highlights of my trip.  This park straddles two tectonic plates, Eurasia and North America, which are moving apart at an average speed of 2 cm / year.  Between the two plates is a valley which is slowly sinking due to the plates' movement.  This is the location of Iceland's first democratic parliament (possibly the oldest in Europe) and the largest natural lake in Iceland, Þingvallavatn.  It was awe-inspiring... check out the pictures of this place!
  
  
  
• Leioarendi Lava Caves:  Since my glacier walk was canceled due to weather, I decided I would explore underground (let's see Mother Nature cancel THIS one :).  They were created as the lava flows slowly hardened and formed tubes.  The government has kept them as natural as possible, meaning no artificial lights or pathways - you have to walk over broken rocky ground, sometimes crawling on your belly in total darkness.  The tour provides you with the appropriate caving gear (that helmet was sooo useful) although I really have to wonder at the common sense of some people.  There was a girl on our tour who insisted on bringing her large backpack down to the caves and was surprised how much she struggled (we were told many times how little room there was).  She then asked if it would "get dark" - ummm... you're in a CAVE... there's no light!   Again, amazing rock formations... so glad I did this.

Its been a busy month...

I know, I know... I've been horrible at keeping this blog up-to-date this past month.  I'm not sure where the time's gone... its just seemed to get really busy all of a sudden, yet it also seems that I've done nothing at all.  Anyone else get that feeling?  Anyways, let's get to the part that you're all waiting to hear - what I've been up to for the last 30 days.

Work-wise, its been a good month meaning a fairly steady income.  I've been working 5 days most weeks although I sometimes end up doing a day of nursery nursing here and there, but its not too bad - less pay but easier work day :).  I'm still on the look-out for permanent work and actually had a trial teaching day for a Year 2 class at one of my schools.  Unfortunately I didn't get the position (I will however continue to supply there), but it was good to get feedback and hopefully improve.  My agent is taking my updated CV to several other schools so we'll just have to see what comes up.

A few weeks ago, I went with my agency to see "Blood Brothers" - its a musical about a poor mother who has too many children and gives one twin away to a rich family down the street in secret.  The two boys meet and become best friends despite their mothers' attempts to keep them apart, yet grow up very differently, fall in love with the same woman and come to a tragic end.  Its very well performed, if a bit gloomy - the opening scene is the of the funeral.  Its definitely not one to see if you want a bit of lighthearted entertainment (which is what I usually go to the theater for), but a great drama.  The next show I'm going to see is "Grease" ... we all wanted a bit of a change after that :).  What's really unfortunate and which has me kinda bummed is that "Avenue Q" is finishing this week and is completely sold out.  This was one show I really wanted to see... I guess this is what I get for procrastinating for so long.  Maybe I'll be able to catch it on tour somewhere.

For those keeners who noticed the time of this blog, you're all probably wondering why I'm posting something at 1pm on a school day.  Well, this week is the Autumn Half-Term which means schools are closed all week!  Its so nice to get up at 10am (that's "get up" not "wake up" because my internal clock still wakes me up at 7am... stupid clock) and have a  nice, lazy, "bitty" day.  Yes, I said "bitty"... its a new English slang term that I'm starting to use more... basically it refers to doing a bunch of small tasks/errands throughout the day.  Speaking of slang, on Friday I attended a school assembly where one of the classes performed a drama bit comparing the US to England and one part looked at different North American slang.  Needless to say, it was quite amusing :).

Since I am on holiday and have been making a decent wage for the last two months, I've decided that it was high time to jet off on another one of Bryan's European Adventures.  This week I'll be visiting Reykjavík, Iceland, home of the famous volcanic hot springs, glaciers and Aurora Borealis.  Yes, I like bucking the normal trend and will be going somewhere colder for my holidays!  I'll only have 3 days there so I'm trying to pack in as much as I can - I have a tour to search for the Northern Lights (since its a natural phenomenon they can't guarantee that they'll be visible) and another one to hike along a glacier.  A friend has also recommended the city tour, Blue Lagoon and/or geyser bus tour.  I'm not sure about the geyser park tour, but I'll try to get over to the Blue Lagoon... it would be a shame to visit Iceland and not experience a hot spring... maybe even a massage as well :).