Hand-painted mug

This morning, my little Estonian girl gave me a handpainted mug. It is green and has a gold and bronze heart on it and she made it for me. Teaching little children is a treat, they hug you and love you and tell you that you look like a princess. This term has been full of cuddles and gifts but I have to say that I won't miss the primary classroom.

On Monday I have an interview at a school for a secondary teacher or Religion and Citizenship. This will include maybe teaching A level Philosophy and religion. Just the thought of being in a classroom debate that is based around an actual subject fills me with excitement. The little kids are great but I am secondary trained and I like the older kids better. With high school teaching I get to work with the kids and the subject that I love, double the reason to like being a teacher for me.

Have I done all my packing? Am I ready to go home? The job comes with the prospect of renting a house in my home town. How does that feel?

Gone before I am gone

Well, my replacement is here and I have to say that I do not care for the feeling of being gone before I am gone. She is there and she will be there when I leave and that is hard because I love these children and I have had a great time teaching them. Why don't I want to stay here, with these children? Why can I not explian my own feelings, what is making me go?

With five days left in Poland I have to wonder what will be coming next. As I blindly stagger into what I hope my fate will turn out to be, I can only hope that my intuition knows what it is doing. Five days left of packing, five days of dinners and goodbyes.

Sleep, pale sister

I still have no job and still have no worries about that fact. The weather is dismal and the children are all inside for wet play and climbing the walls because they want to be outside and running around. This afternoon we are making paper mache Christmas trees. Wallpaper paste and 17 6 year old children. Wish me luck tyen.

Now that we are done with the inspection and there are only 7 working days left I feel like I can relax again. I got my first Christmas gift yesterday and actually slept well last night. I still have the feeling that I just want to get home and see the lights of Northallerton, but it is feeling like a reality now, not like a dream in the distance.

Warsaw

I need toi forget what that hell-bound inspector just said to me so I have turned my attention back to the last few days in my Warsaw. The sun is bright today and the bare branches cast strange shadows all across my classroom. The madness is nearly over and come the weekend I will have forgotten that there has been so much stress.

I like Warsaw more this time round, if only because she is like returning to an old friend. You know you will always be welcome and you know where to get the good coffee. I must return back to Yorkshire, my career and personal relationships demand it. The inspector proved nothing if not that this is not my place, this is not my job, this is not where I will find success. I find myself dreaming of the purple heather, the lights of Barkers and the chatter of K and S. I want to be with my family and be back in the arms of Yorkshire.

Warsaw is not gone yet, she is still here and there is much to be enjoyed over the next 10 days. I got my first Christmas gift today. A hand made card and a little sad face when it was handed over.

Oatmeal and Hot Tamales

When I went to Nova Scotia this summer I was in a shopping craze. Part of this manifested itself by buying Ralph Lauren wallets in discount stores and part of it was manifested in hundreds of trips to the supermarket. When I got back to England, I had a whole box full of goodies that are still packed away and waiting to be enjoyed. In my box there is...
Aunt Jemimas breakfast syrup
Box of pancake mix
Hamburger helper
Kraft Mac and cheese
Cinnamon oatmeal
at least a million packets of cinnamon gum
cinnamon toothpaste

I have to admit that I was pretty influenced by D in my shopping, she used to bring Canadian gum to all our little coffee meetings. I went a bit overboard on the cinnamon, but who cares? The thing is that I only brought some of these things to Poland, forty packs of gum, some oatmeal and one box of Hamburger Helper. With the exception of the gum, everything else is still in the cupboard. I guess all that excess baggage seems worth it now eh?
other stuff that I have forgotten

One of those moments

Inspection week starts in less than twnety minutes and here I am having a moment. It started when I got my usual bus past Lazienki park and spotted the statue of Chopin all lit up in the morning darkness. It then carried on when I played Idlewild on my ipod while I walked down the street to school. The same one that I have walked down a hundred times before. I was still having my moment.

You see, I find myself again close to the edge of leaving this city that I love. I can't stay here, there is just no way, but I do love Warsaw. In another couple of weeks it will be packed boxes, locked doors and airplane rides again and I will be walking without looking behind once more. But I do love those moments when I find myself in love with where I am.

The Edge Chronicles

I have a friend, L who is my book buddy. We both love contemporary childrens fiction. Harry Potter, Wind on fire, Northern Lights, all the big collections of the last few years we read and chat about and then we go off searching for other new authors. I also love Cornelia Funke, Mary Hoffman, Garth Nix and too many others to talk about. A couple of years ago one of my students told me that I might like the Edge Chronicles, another series of books.

For any-one new, this is not the blog of a teenager. I do read adult stuff too, but there is something amazing about the stories that authors choose to capture the imagination of children, like they are the only ones with the ability to suspend their disbelief enough to get into any story in a true way. I like fairies and goblins and adventure. I am not ashamed.

Anyway, I am on book two of the Edge Chronicles and I am loving it. In particular, the pictures that illustrate the book (illustrations by Chris Riddell) are wonderful and reall bring the story out. I like the main character 'Twig' and will enjoy reading the other books over Christmas. If you have kids to buy Christmas presents for, any child over the age of 8 will love these.