Second week in Scotland, First in Glasgow

hi there - good to see you're still here :)

As some of you may've noticed, I've not updated my blog in at all this week. There's a few reasons, let me explain the main one;

When you're applying for a teaching position in the Scotland (and the Netherlands) you're to hand in a full police disclosure, which basically says you've refrained from taking on any criminal activities. I wasn't told to bring this document until one week before I left for Glasgow, which can be a problem, seeing as it takes two to three weeks for an applied disclosure to arrive. The head of the bilingual unit in Shawlands Academy didn't consider my lack of a disclosure to be too bothersome for the first week, but I wasn't to come in my second week. I did, however, receive an e-mail from my parents yesterday saying that the document arrived and they were going to fax it to Shawlands. This means that I can go back there on Tuesday (long September weekend, everyone had Friday and has Monday off).

This whole situation left me with a huge gap in my schedule. Which I filled up with..

reading a lot this week (almost finished Vernon God Little, Jules, I'm actually really enjoying it) and drinking ridiculous amounts of coffee. It's come to the point where I prioritize making coffee over going to the loo first thing in the morning..

Anyway, I also spent quite some time on a new project of Harry's and mine;

e-trasheindhoven.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/etrashehv


it's a blog dedicated to the (Eindhoven's) electro scene. We post news items, brand-new tracks, there's a gig calendar, we're planning on doing interviews and of course, exclusive home-made mixes. go and check it out, I'm very proud of it.

Last Wednesday, I tagged along with Aman and his friends Zaheed and Margo to visit the city of St. Andrews. For those of don't know, St. Andrews is home to Scotland's oldest university. The weather was absolutely fantastic, so I really enjoyed walking around and sight-seeing the old and oh-so beautiful buildings, towers and castles. Margo grew in this area of Scotland, so she was able to tell some interesting stories and anecdotes about the things we saw. Lovely.

Here I am, enjoying the magnificent view of St. Andrews.

We also made a wee walk on the beach and had a who-has-the-prettiest-shell competition. Aman and Zaheed verbally trying to throw each other in the water;


Did I mention that I feel very welcome in Aman's flat? Well, I do. I've met some of his friends and family, went to the movies with him (we went to the Glaswegian Plaza Futura, so to speak, and saw a film called Omaret yakobean - an Egyptian film it was excellent) and joined his dinner parties. We even have good talks for two people who've only known each other for a week. I couldn't be happier with my flatmate (and no, I didnt write that here because I know you read it Aman :p)

Oh, here's a small slideshow of the flat - the poor picture quality is because I made them with my phone (my docking-station has not yet arrived :/)

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y49/rub0n/Flat/?action=view&current=885c61d7.pbw

My schedule for today; clean the post-dinnerparty kitchen, do my laundry, go grocery shopping at Tesco EXTRA (the British AH XL, I suppose) and continue reading. I'll be teaching the rest of the week, hopefully get a chance to meet up with the Frenchies and go to a Duke Dumont gig next friday. :D

love,

r x

<3 Scotland

There we go, back on the posting-track! I hope you are doing well in the Netherlands, because I’m really enjoying myself here in Glasgow. It’s taken me a few days to get used to the Scottish ways – the accent, obviously, how the public transportation system works, life at Shawlands Academy etc. – but Glasgow already feels a bit like home (how romantic is that?)

To start; I met my future roommate, Aman, two days ago. As some of you may know, he used to teach at Shawlands, (the most insane coincidence) gives lectures and works for the university and he happens to be a lovely person as well! We went for coffee on Tuesday and it was nice to see who I’d been chatting with on MSN for the last few weeks. I didn’t think I could possibly be any more excited about moving into my room on Saturday, but it seems that I am!

I’m also relieved to say that I found my niche at school. Names of teachers and pupils, the countries they’re from, locations of classrooms, it’s all starting to stick! I was reluctant to tell Kenny, but yesterday we took all the first year pupils to Celtic Park (the football stadium) Some sort of educational centre, stuffed with computers and beamers, is set up over there, in which the pupils took on various assignments about the EU. The facilities were excellent, Celtic Park’s coordinators however, were not. They seemed very impatient and were easily annoyed by the less capable pupils, which is simply not-done if you’re in the educational business.

Before I forget; you Dutchies really shouldn’t feel too sorry for me not being to attend STRP and I (L) Techno, as several clubs in Glasgow are host to mind-blowing gigs. I’ve been here for six days now and already found out that Soulwax Niteversions, (performing all the remixes they’ve done live – including LCD Soundsystem, Justice, Kylie Minogue) Richie Hawtin & Troy Pierce, Vitalic, St. Vincent, The National and Frank Turner are playing over here. BOOYA

r x

in yir faces, dutchies

While you're stuck with red bull and euro shopper energy drinks, I have this;



:evilgrin:

the first day at shawlands

Today I had my first day at Shawlands Academy and it was quite wonderful!

First of all; my department is incredibly diverse! the pupils, as well as some of the teachers, are from various countries - Poland, Latvia, Somalia, Slovakia - and are very differently skilled (English-wise). While some of them are perfectly capable of communicating in their second language, others were staring blankly at me when I was trying to explain something to them, like they had absolutely no clue what I was on about. It became very clear to me that I'll have to speak a lot more slowly than I normally do when addressing the pupils.

As you may know, the pupils that I'm teaching are following a course (which has no set duration as the levels between the kids differ so greatly) which prepares them for the regular educational system. They're taught English through regular subjects, such as maths, geography, social studies instead of getting full-time grammar and syntax classes. These are also the subjects that I'll be taking on (me a math-teacher - mental!) The classes are quite small - not more than twelve pupils a class - and are therefore quite managable.

I do feel though, that it might take a while for me to get used to this way of teaching and getting on with the pupils. I spent the entire day feeling kind of awkward, not really knowing how strict I am supposed to be towards my class, let alone when to correct their English (one girl, quite adorable in a way, wrote 'I is like pizza') Ah well, I'm sure I'll get a feel for that sort of stuff soon.

r x

the first weekend

Welcome back everyone! It's great to see that you decided to take a quick peek at my shiny new blog. I take it most of you read my Canada weblog (you should have!) and I'll be trying to continue my posting in a similar fashion.

Right, what's to tell?

I just arrived here yesterday, had to get up ridiciously early to catch my 10 o'clock flight - but it wasn't that bad. Kenny picked me up from the airport and we spent the rest of the day drinking cans of Tennet's (Scottish lager, brewed in Glasgow as a matter of fact) and playing videogames - and it turns out; I'm absolutely rubbish at Guitar Hero. It was also good to see Martin again, although sitting next to him in his car is life-threatening!

To give you an idea of what Schotland is like; Saar brought her videocamera when we (Tobie, Sid, Saar and I) visited Kenny two summers ago. I came across the clip a few weeks ago and it was put on Youtube - enjoy! :)



Anyway, school starts on monday and I'm very excited and a wee bit nervous about that. I also have a meeting with the co-ordinator of the Erasmus programme (scholarschip) and fellow-students at the University this week.

I'll be back soon with photos and more things to talk about.

with love,

r x

before I forget; I have a UK phonenumber now, so if you're in desperate need.. -> +4407943257930