London Bridge is Falling Down

Hey everyone,

If you get through this blog, you win a pathetic plea for comments :)

Table of contents, by paragraph (you laugh, but I'm serious):

1. Introduction and Tea
2. Job Status
3. Job Status part two, with tears.
4. Literary Butcher Shop
5. Broken Muscles
6. Gay Clubbing/Britney Spears
7. Running and Tea
8. Conclusion (pathetic plea for comments)

I am sitting here with Louise and Jaz, drinking tea and writing this blog. It's nice to sit around with housemates. There are so many of them that it seems someone is pretty much always around to hang out with, but it's also perfectly acceptable to hole-up in my room alone. I'm digging it. (We finally had a house meeting about how compulsive people like myself cannot handle the gross-factor of the bathrooms...and we set up a "rota." So now everything is clean and lovely and I am happy.) :)

It's been a bit more than a week, but I haven't had a second to sit down and write because...I GOT A JOB!!! Basically, I already had a job, but I was frustrated because my agency wasn't getting me work. As it turns out...they were waiting for my FBI CRIMINAL RECORD...and now that they have it (All Clean, All Clean!), I have been able to get work every single day. In fact, I will be working at the same school this entire week. It is REALLY nice knowing that I have the security of a job for the whole week. I have been offered interviews for permanent English teacher jobs starting in January, but I am kind of avoiding them right now because I want the freedom of substitute teaching, and it is pretty much the same money. Job security is a frightening thing, though. (How 'bout this recession, eh?)

I don't even know where to start with this blog (pictureless again, sorry...) because so MUCH has happened lately. My first day of teaching was on Thanksgiving. Since I have just given you the happy side of work, I'll now tell you that it was the worst day of my teaching career. Remember how I was not talking to Eamonn? Well, I called him during lunch break of my first day, crying hysterically, because it was going so poorly and I didn't know what to do. He's the only teacher I know here, so it had to happen. (Needless to say, we are definitely not, not talking. Stories for later, of course.) Basically, I have never seen such disrespect--to myself, and also to each other. I mean, I couldn't even SCREAM over these high schoolers and be heard. And then OTHER teachers kept coming into the class and yelling at the kids. And the teachers would also occasionally yell at each other. It was, in Roland Rivers words (yes DHS, that's a shout out to you...), a "toxic" environment. And it made me lose all faith in humanity. "Where are the parents of these children?" I know, I know, teachers aren't supposed to say that, but seriously, where are they? (And yes, in my day from hell, I DID actually ask the kids that question in exasperation. Yes, day one on the job completely broke me, but hell, we all make mistakes, right?) Needless to say, it could only have gone up from there, and it did. London is an interesting, extremely diverse, place to work. I think I'm going to like it.

Also on Thanksgiving, I hung out with Xan and we went to a "literary butcher shop." For those of you writers (and/or aspiring writers, and/or academics and/or lovers of gin), it was this small theater in the round where people send in their short stories and then the audience edits/butchers them. It's a great thing for writers, because they get feedback and criticism on their work, and if you aren't a writer, well, there is a free gin open bar. Seriously though, it is half theater half entertainment half literary genius (i know, three halves...) and a complete blast! I ended up on stage, helping to edit a story, wearing a cowboy hat and holding a gun. How American is THAT on Thanksgiving??

What else, What else? Well, I'm playing on a field hockey team here. I haven't played since I was 18, so it's been an interesting experience. (Read: I am in SERIOUS PERMANENT AGONY. Muscles I forgot I had are SCREAMING at the TOP OF THEIR LUNGS.) Nonetheless, the girls are great, it's great exercise, we are positively horrible, and apparently, we have an amazing club house with cheap drinks. More to come on that front. My first game will be Saturday, and I'm psyched. It's great fun to be on a field again, though I will say, it is rainy and 30 degrees here every day...which is FAR too cold to be playing outside!

OH. My new really awesome South African friend Melissa, and I (and her boyfriend and all of their awesome Safo friends) went to the gayest of all gay clubs on Saturday night, for free, and Britney Spears was there. I didn't see her, but damn, the tabloids say she was there, and they have the paparazzi photos to prove it, so it must be true. I spent the remainder of the weekend watching football/soccer (Go Arsenal, HOMETEAM!), sitting on a couch in dirty clothes, eating amazing home-cooked meals (proper breakfast fry-up and an even more proper Irish roast...I didn't eat the meat...but the rest of it was divine...I'll challenge the English to beat the Irish in a roast-off anyday), and being an all-around lazy bum.

AND, after work today I went to another new friend's house, Soren, (ladies, please picture Soren as the steamy scandinavian man that he is. sigh. next time we hang out I will take a photo of him for you to drool over.), and went for one of those runs that is just the right length--short enough that you still have a ton of energy left. It was SO nice to have someone to run with, as I haven't really found that yet since I've been here. It's also important to add that running when it is FREEZING cold out means you get tea made for you afterwards. Yay for tea. I am LOVING the tea culture here. EVEN better than in Ireland...and even the non-British here have adopted it!

Alright, you made it! I have SO much more to say, but most people have died of old age at this point and the rest of you want to peacefully enjoy the autumn of your lives, so, goodbye :) And comment, will you?

LOVE,
Sarah