On Packing Up and Moving Out

•  I have too much stuff.
• A car would really help right now.
• A beer would taste really good right now.
• I don't remember it being this difficult last year.
• Does one really need all these things?
• Wouldn't it be easier to just buy all this stuff when I get back home?
• With four days to go, is it a silly idea to buy eggs?
• There is a lot of leftover taco seasoning here (my mom sent me 13 packages).
• What am I forgetting?
• Who can I give my extra airmail stamps to?
• I sure buy a lot of post cards.
• My ankle hurts.
• How am I going to pack my mugs so they won't break?
• Where is my friend Mo to help me with all of this (she's really good at it, just 5000 miles away)?
• Shouldn't I get off the computer and get back to work?

Pay Attention

You know, after I wrote the last post on Sunday, I went out to run some errands.  Errands on a Sunday take a bit of time.  See, the buses run much less often, so it has to be factored into the trip.  Stores also close early (around 4 pm), if they open at all, so the few hours of shopping time are completely packed with people. 

Anyway, caught the W8 into Enfield Town, bought some sudafed and two boxes of Kleenex for my head cold (which is still lingering on) and some Ibuprofen for my headache.  Got some sweets for my students for the last two days, spoiled myself with some scones, clotted cream and strawberry jam from Marks & Spencers, and started making my way back to the bus stop.  The plan was to go home and mark papers for the rest of the afternoon and evening.  Because here you see, in England, Year 10 students (would be 9th grade back home) have something called coursework.  This coursework is required.  They can't skip it and take a bad mark.  They complete six pieces of this during the school year, or one piece of writing every six weeks.  Or they are supposed to. 

They don't.  I got the first three pieces from most of them, and then they just turned off.  It's been a major fight to get the rest of their work in before I leave.  Of course, lots and lots of papers came in the week before school let out.  How I was supposed to mark all of them was beyond me.  I was feeling horribly guilty because I knew I wouldn't get it all done.  I would have put a very good dent into it on Sunday, however...

I fell down.  Running for the bus, which was already at the bus stop, I did  a spectacular drop.  I tripped on the pavement/sidewalk, and went over.  My right ankle (which I've messed up twice before in the last 15 years) rolled under in a way that ankles are not supposed to bend.    After two very loud shouts of a bad word, two people came over to see if I was alright.  I was sure I broke my ankle, but you know... embarrassment?  "No no... I'm okay... could you just help me up?"

Limped over to the bus stop, where of course the bus had left just a minute before, and sat down.  I leaned over to  put my bags on the ground, and then I was on the ground.  Yep.  Fainted.  So charming when out alone in public.  No one was at the bus stop, so no one helped this time.  Those who saw me probably thought I was  on drugs.

Got the next bus, limped back home, put my foot up with a bag of frozen raspberries, and thought, "Hmm... that really, REALLY hurts.  I should probably go to A & E (stands for "Accident and Emergency") and get it checked out.  Because you know, if I didn't go, the next morning my foot would be swollen up like a balloon.  So I called a friend for advice, called a cab, and went to the hospital.

Three hours and an x-ray later, I did not have a broken bone.  Possibly a torn tendon (what I did last time), a compression sock, and that's about it.  Could I go to work?  Well, it might be very painful tomorrow morning.  Yes, but it's the last two days, can I go to work?  You are a teacher right?  You stand all day and when you sit it's with your feet on the floor under your desk?  It could really swell up.  Yes Doctor, but will I injure myself more if I go in?  No... I don't think so.

See, I'm kind of used to doctors telling me yes or no for stuff like this.  You know, or "light duty only" or something like that.  It was really hard to get a straight answer out of him.

Anyway, I hobbled out to the bus stop, got the bus home again, and put my foot up with some more frozen food. 

And I didn't get any marking done at all.  Major guilt, especially when the teacher taking over my class made it clear he did not want  any of the papers from this year left over for him for next year.  Gah. 

But then, I went to school yesterday to do more work.  I know, school is out, but still, wanted to leave things as tip top as possible.  I realized, alone in the department on the first day of vacation, at 3:30, that most teachers have the same problem as I do, but they have the same students for two years (year 10 and 11).  They've gotten papers late, but they can mark them over the summer, or even the beginning of next year.  I can't, because I'm leaving.  I still feel guilty, but not as totally horrible as I did a couple of days ago.  It's been quite a ride, that's for sure.

And now, gimpy and with a sinus infection, I'm leaving for Dublin this afternoon.  Why oh why did I leave my Netty pot at home?

I hate drama

Not that there is any in my life, but wow.  Everyone (including me) has their own idea of how things should be done.

People that know me, know that the "Well, if it was me..." argument just drives me up the wall.

You aren't me.

It's an odd time right now for me.  The past year has gone so quickly, and I'm only realizing now how very diffferent my life has been for 11 months.  Actually 11 months to the day I left for London.

Yes, the house and school and my lifestyle has been different, but I've been different on the inside too.  I've been able to be selfish.  Not worry about anyone else's wants, needs or desires.  I do what I want, when I want, and how I want.  How easy it would be to be absolutely set in my ways.

Last year at this time, I was so excited about my exchange; what would it be like?  Would I make friends?  Would I do a good job?  What would I learn?  What would I see?  Where would I travel? 

Now, it's back home.  I miss my family, my friends, my Charlie-boy... I'm ready to be with them.  I'm ready for my life to be easier too; from washing my clothes to taking a shower to getting to work.  Work itself is easier.  So much easier.   Not just because I'm used to it, but because I'm required to do less than British teachers.  I've been astonished at the amount of work expected of teachers here.  More work with more student contacts, more lessons/classes to plan, and much less planning time.  Yikes. 

However.

Every time I want to see a show, or go to a 600-year old church or see a world-class museum (for free no less!),  I hope on the train or the subway, and I'm there.  I've not taken it for granted, but I've gotten used to it.  Santa Barbara is beautiful, and I love it; I don't want to live anywhere else right now, but... it's not a big city.  It doesn't have an endless amount of things to do and see.  I love the beach.  Have missed it terribly at times here, but exciting it's not.

Maybe that's it.  My life, for better or worse, has certainly not been boring this year.  At school I've heard people say that "The only people who get bored are boring themselves."  It sounds like something my friend Torn would say.  There's also the Chinese curse about "May you live in interesting times."

It's a fine balance between interesting and difficult.  No, my life has not been difficult here, but definitely challenging at times. As I'm getting ready to go now though, I'm a little nervous.  Have I changed at all?  Will this just become a memory that a few people hear me talk about once in a while?  Will I bore people with my stories?  Will I be like that character on Friends who comes back from England talking about her mobile phone and her flat with a horrid English accent? 

Okay, don't worry about that.  Even after a year, I can't mimic a British accent to save my life. 

What have I learned from this year?  What will I take back with me? 


I can't answer that yet.

Who pulled the rug out?

God.

Three days left of school.  Two more days and I'm off to Dublin.  Four days and I'm back here. Six more days until I'm back in California.  Nine more days to Las Vegas.  And then three days and I'm back to work.

Shortest summer ever.

With the most to do.

Argh.

Not too much tonight

I'm actually here in the house tonight; I'm cleaning and getting ready for the folks from the English department to come over for Sunday dinner tomorrow.  Oh no, I'm not making a roast... I'm making Jambalaya, cornbread, salad, and for dessert?  Watermelon, lime juice and mint salad.  It's so good!  Better when it's hot out and I don't have three hundred thousand papers to grade, but still.  Very simple recipe, but it's really sweet and refreshing and healthy for you.  Now, the original had Feta cheese in it, but trying that once was enough.  There is too much of  a good thing you know.

Made my reservations tonight to go to Dublin in July.  It will be my last trip before I go home.  Whoo hoo!  Home.  Lots to do before I go, and it won't be like last year when I had weeks and weeks of summer to get things done.  Nope.  Last day of school is the 20th of July, I go to Dublin from the 22nd to the 26th, and then five days later?  I'm winging my way back home to Santa Barbara. 

{Side note here.  I had about three more paragraphs written, and just hit some button and lost it all.  How did I do that? Not my whole post, just the second half of it.  I hoped that it had automatically saved it, but no.  Now, what did I write?)

Oh, I know, it was about all the things I had to do before I left.  One of which is ending my contract with the minions of Satan Virgin Media. I had to sign up for a year-long contract, although I was told I could pay it off before I left.  Now, it took almost three months just to get through to someone and get it started (so I only started the contract in October), but that wasn't the worst bit.  I didn't actually have a working internet connection until January, if you all recall.  Oh yeah, and it means I will have to call them, which you might remember gentle reader, cost me about 40 pounds being on hold and having my calls to their service center dropped, the last time I tried calling them. I so very much hate that company and the way they do business.

Let's see... the year 10's did two exam papers last week; between 5-8 pages each.  Then my year 7's took a writing exam, that's 100 papers. Found out with the Year 7 paper though, that we're using a different marking scheme than what we normally use, with three areas to be marked.  You know, like grading it three times. Year 8's, of course, but that's only 20 students, and then my year 9's will be taking their writing exam on Wednesday.  It's another 5-pager.  Oh, and marks are due starting Tuesday; we have one week to get our marks on the school computer system.  Yes, you read correctly, we are giving a written exam actually after we are expected to start entering grades.  And the exams ARE their year end grades. 

I may pass out.

But Rebekah, you ask, doesn't your school end in another month?  Why do you have to be finished with your student's marks so early?

Frankly, I don't know.  We also have our summatives (year end reports) due for our form classes by the 30th of June as well.  About three paragraphs each for 25 students.  Yeah, I'm really looking forward to that.    I'm sure there is a reason for all this, but I've not been privy to it.


See, this is why I almost didn't post tonight;  whining, complaining, whinging, moaning... who wants to read that?

Sent my mother's birthday present off to her today.  Still haven't sent my sister anything.  Poo.  She wouldn't give my any clues on things she might like from London/England, and when I go into a shop, I go into brain-lock trying to figure out what she would like.  I pick something up and then put it back.  "Will she like this color?  This scent?  The shape of it?" I convince myself that whatever it is, she won't like it, and then I buy nothing.  I've never had this problem before.  I'm good at gifts usually.  Not this time.  Sister, if you're reading this, help me out.  Do you like vanilla?  Lavender?  cookies, chocolate?  Tea?  Do you like dangling earrings or beaded necklaces?  What colors do you wear most?  What size are you?

Finally got myself to York

What a great city.  I really didn't have the time to go; although the end of school here is July 20th, I have to have all my final marks in by June 29th.  I also have to write 25 Summatives, or year-end reports, for all the students in my form (like a homeroom class) by June 30th.  We are giving timed writing exams to all our students for the end of the year as well as their classwork assignments.  That means I will have one week to mark about 160 papers from my students from ages 11 - 15.  I've been told another teacher is going to help me out, but I am still rather crazed thinking of what lies ahead. Oh, and I leave for a four-day end meeting for Fulbright in Edinburgh (you know, in Scotland?) on hmm... what day?  Oh yeah, Wednesday the 29th.

It's overwhelming and I've been stressing heavily about it.  What do we do those last three weeks?  I actually don't know.  I've been told that lots of students leave early so their families can go on holiday early, but three weeks?  argh. The consolation is that I won't have to worry about things as much after those early deadlines pass.

Back to York.

This is York Minster.  My crummy little camera doesn't do it justice, but it was impressive.  It's so huge!  And you know, about three times as old as my country.  Puts things in a bit of perspective, don't you think?  It took 250 years (15 different kings ruled during this time) to build it.

What's so fascinating about it is that there was an Anglo Saxon church, and a Norman church on this site, going back to the 7th century.  History man, history.

Of course, there are lots of other churches there.  This next one doesn't look too extraordinary, does it?

I was on top of a double-decker bus when I took this photo, and I'm sorry it's got the bar running right through it.  Do you see the main entrance at the left side of the church? That's where the people would come in to worship, or get married or to christen a child. But wait, see the small door to the right of the middle of the church?  That was the devil's door.  It was only opened briefly, right after a child was baptized.  It was to let the devil (because of original sin, the devil was in every child, of course) out of the church.  It would be closed again very quickly so he couldn't get back in.

Wait, there's more.  Even though the bar is running right over it, can you see the tiny double windows near the bottom of the church on the right? Those are Leper's Squints.  There were  a lot of people back then with Leprosy, and they weren't allowed in the church to avoid infection, but they were still expected to worship.  They would be able to watch the service through the "Squint" and stay outside at the same time.   Again, this history thing? pretty cool.

Here we are.  I didn't ask permission from M. to post this, but since she's hiding behind the shades, I'm hoping it's okay.  Got to be careful and all.  We took a bus tour, and the weather cooperated, which was nice.  You just never know what's going to happen.  Makes packing a pain, that's for sure.

I'm going to leave you with my last photo.  It's of the street name of the shortest street in York:

That's it. More like an alleyway than a proper street, but the name is funny.

I liked York.

You know...

It's really nice to see a comment or two after a post.   Just sayin'.