On Saturday I decided to have a quiet day and headed to an amazing museum located just half an hour by bus from my flat. The Imperial War Museum. Dad would have been in his element... it was quite remarkable. It was really well laid out too, and looked really nice and organised. The 'Children at War' section was excellent, giving you an insight into what children might have experienced. What an awesome place to take kids! The kids at my school went to this last week and seemed to get a lot out of it. The section of WWI and WWII was really well laid out and had *so* many items on display, I guess they have more people here to have more stuff?! I went in "The Trenches Experience" which was a replica of what the trenches might have looked like. At each station you reached voices would talk about what was happening, there were sound effects etc, but what was most amazing is that I *swear* they had scents coming from the displays, for example the part with a soldier cooking on a hob and talking about 'bully beef' smelt like beef - I thought I was imagining it, but further around there was an open trench that had a stench of dirt and sweat... I was quite impressed with this as it all added to the experience.
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The entrance to The Imperial War Museum
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I also went through the London Blitz experience, which was quite good, and a real eye-opener to what actually happened at that time. The Holocaust exhibition was good - again, lots of information all well laid out, with some artefacts from Auschwitz and Birkenau. It was weird seeing pictures and scale models of the prison camps, having been there before. In fact I heard several people saying 'Gawd wouldn't it just be amazing to go to these camps' and I was thinking to myself... 'Indeed!! I've been!!' There really is something about being at the actual location where this Genocide took place. They had some shoes and some other belongings recovered from the camps, but nothing quite like actually being at Auschwitz/Bikenau and walking through the Crematoria etc. I'm so lucky I have been to somewhere as historical (although really awful...) as that. Other smaller exhibitions don't really compare.
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| The section on Gallipoli - I'm going there!!! |
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| Fancy having to continue teaching and wearing a gas mask... good lord! |
Today (Wednesday: hoo-fricken-rah for hump day!) was an adventure... it started this morning with a girl who looked dreadful turning up in Reception (before they go into Year 1) and was complaining of a sore belly, so I suggested she lie on the little couch in the classroom which she did. About 20 minutes later she got up and vomited into the rubbish bin. Thank heavens it was into the bin and not on the floor! She did this twice more throughout the course of the morning - this school has no sick room. I was like, Whhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaatttt??! Where do children go when they are unwell? I was told to keep her in the classroom until her parents arrived, two hours later. At least she was sick into the bin though, thank goodness for the small things.
The afternoon was not the best either. I have heard of classroom fights in London but have been yet to witness one. Today, the biggest, blackest and angriest child in the room threw some scissors across the room. I said in my angry teacher voice: "Get out - go next door" (to another teacher to be dealt with - that's how they roll here!) and he did. He got to the door and another child across the room said something I didn't quite catch, and this boy was off. He was *furious*. He threw the cymbal stands to the ground and trod on other percussion instruments to get at this boy, fists out. I didn't even think, but ran across that room and grabbed his arms from behind and held on for dear life as tight as I could - telling the other kids to go get the teaching assistant from next door. It wasn't until I was already restraining him (at times being lifted into the air on his back!) that I suddenly thought, what will I do if he turns on me?! But being I thought he was so angry he would pummel that other child, I kept hanging onto him.
A teaching assistant came and took him away - I caught in the corner of my eye some boys in the corner high-fiving, little blighters. I was standing there in a little disbelief, and another teaching assistant came into the room and said to me "Are you alright?", to which tears welled up in my eyes and I realised it actually was quite frightening! I had to leave the room for the rest of the lesson (aout ten minutes) to compose myself and write out an incident report. Evidently you are not supposed to lay a hand on kids when this happens, but stand between the two fighting. There is no way this side of earth I would have stood in front of him - not with how furious he was. I feel like I did the safest thing at the time. And even now I am amazed I did something like that. What an adventure I am having.
I met Cameron on Oxford Street this evening and we went to Kathmandu where I got some more supplies for my trip - thermos, hand warmers, mat to sit on at Gallipoli, day pack, antibacterial wipes (hehe)... I didn't end up buying a sleeping bag because for the few hours I need it to sit on the bank of Anzac cove, I don't think it is worth it. I will be wearing thermal underwear, ski pants, a down jacket (SO warm!) so think I will be OK - the girl at Kathmandu said even if I was inside a silk liner it would keep me warm - so thanks Oli for letting me borrow yours ;)
We then went to have Dim Sum at a restaurant called Ping Pong. http://www.pingpongdimsum.com/
I was impressed how adventurous I was with the food - and they could offer me an MSG free menu which was fantastic! They also made AMAZING virgin cocktails, like Pina Colada but even nicer... mmm. All in all it was a nice end to what was an incredibly crazy and hectic day. I wonder what will happen tomorrow?
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| That was a LOT of food... but very nice and... interesting! |
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| Cameron and I - and the best virgin cocktails that have ever existed! |
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