Easter Holidays :)

School's out! Woohoo!!

Instead of immediate rest and relaxation, a couple of YAGMs game down and we gallivanted across the country. The first Saturday brought a trip to Oxford with my housemate. It was a gorgeous, cloudless, sunny day and there was a literary festival going on! Basically I was in heaven. The next day we found ourselves in Windsor. Another absolutely stunning castle and very quaint town, and again, a cloudless sunny day! After one day of rest it was back up and about and out to Cambridge on, yet again, a cloudless sunny day. By now we were all starting the think the end of the world was near, for how often do we get 5 days in a row of sunny days in England!? Well, Cambridge was indeed lovely but after a short discussion we agreed that we preferred Oxford.

The next week my family came!! I had seen my mom and her parents for about a day in a half at the beginning of December in Paris, but this has been the longest I've ever gone without seeing my dad. It was wonderful to spend time with them! I met them at Victoria station and off we went to Canterbury. Unfortunately, my family do not know how to take a vacation. We were up and about every day, exploring Canterbury and its museums, down to Dover to climb the cliffs and tour the castle, down to Deal Castle (many jokes were made about what the deal was with Deal), up to Leeds Castle (i'm modeling my future home after that place) and again back to Canterbury for Maundy Thursday. Friday proved to be an interesting day of travel to get back to my house and then over to the Imperial War museum, but all was well. And guess what? Every single day was sunny!!!

My family left last Saturday morning, and I went off to Bath to meet up with some other YAGMs. We started a weekend tradition of them playing frisbee and me reading my book in front of famous monuments. For Easter Sunday we went to my friend's church, and then drove off to see Stonehenge! From Stonehenge we explored the Salisbury Cathedral, and then drove off to Avebury, where we explored a neolithic tomb about 5,500 years old, a man made hill that is the oldest prehistoric man made structure in Europe, and the Avebury Henge, older than Stonehenge. The next day we drove to Cardiff where I proceeded to get sunburned. Who gets sunburned in Wales?! It's like an oxymoron. The bay was lovely and the Castle was stunning! The park around the castle is possibly one of the loveliest I've ever been to. I wish it were closer so I could go there more often!

Leeds Castle, Kent

My dad and I at the Imperial War Museum

Stonehenge

Neolithic Tomb

 Cardiff Castle 

All in all it was a lovely break, with much quality time spent with friends and family. A rejuvenating experience that really helped me to remember that Christ is risen, Hallelujah!

Erin

I climbed down a building!!!

Yup. And I did it face first too! Turns out I'm easily persuaded by doughnuts. My boss told me that if I went down face first instead of in a traditional seated position, he would buy all the full time volunteers doughnuts. Well, I couldn't very well turn that up now could I?

Klara and I arrived at Guy's Hospital Tower a bit early, so she went to volunteer and I went to go walk around the Borough Market. The market was full of fresh breads, cheese, fruits, flowers, sausages, pies, and lots and lots of vegetables! The colors are so vibrant there, I was tempted to buy most of the food just to look at it. A couple of other YAGMs and abseilers went back with me after we successfully made it down the tower alive and we got lunch, so I was happy :)

Now, the actual abseil. We got up to the top of the tower and all those going down "the normal way" had a lesson and practice session. Those of us going face first didn't get any of that, they basically just pushed us over the edge. Nah, I'm just kidding, but we didn't get to practice. By far the scariest part was climbing under the scaffolding and onto the edge of the building. There was a man holding my ropes behind me and another man 35 stories below at the bottom of the building holding the other end of the ropes. They lowered me forward until I was parallel to the ground, and then told me to take my hands off of the rope. My answer to that was "WHAT DO YOU MEAN TAKE MY HANDS OFF THE ROPE!??!?" but it turns out they just wanted to take a picture of me doing the 'super man' pose. After that climbing down the building was actually really fun! A definite adrenaline rush, and way worth it to raise the money for the children.

If you have donated money to Springboard for Children by sponsoring me, thank you thank you thank you thank you so much!!!!!! And if you haven't, please consider doing so. Every pound helps! The kids are amazing and every new resource we can get helps them learn and grow. Your help is much appreciated! Just click on the link to "Just Giving" on the left hand side of this blog :-)

God's peace and blessings to all, I miss you so much!

Erin

Milano- not the cookie

Last weekend was an Ole weekend away in Milan, Italy.

A fellow YAGM and I are both Oles and were both itching to go traveling a few weeks ago. I mentioned that I wanted to meet another Ole, Danielle Lovaas, in Seville, Spain, where she is teaching English. Well, no cheap flights could be found to Seville, but I stumbled upon a very reasonable ticket to Milan so off we went! Seeing Danielle at the Bergamo airport was definitely a tearful. joyful, overdue event. It was so amazing to see her again!

Danielle then came up with a brilliant idea: Why not go to the Lake District of Italy? Oh, ok. So we went. I don't thinks words to it justice, so just look at some pictures.

During our day in Como, we were approached by three girls who asked for our permission to take our pictures. They were putting together an advertisement, the theme of which was "Beautiful." Well, since we were severely lacking in modesty we of course said yes. Here's their final product :)

By far our favorite part of the trip was eating Italian food, specifically gelato and drinking espresso. In fact, one day we ate only espresso and gelato. We realized this around dinner time when we found everything hilarious and couldn't understand why. The obvious remedy for sugar high in Italy is "eat more pizza" so that is what we did. 

Another favorite anecdote of the trip was Saturday night's dinner. Coming back from Lake Como we were all exhausted and prepared to stuff ourselves with pasta and wine, so we wet the first wonderful Italian restaurant we stumbled upon and settled ourselves in for a 2 1/2 hour meal filled with laughter and stories of "the glory days" at college. Throughout the meal our waiter would tell us jokes and dote upon us as only Italian waiters do, as well as make fun of me for eating very slowly. All was well in the end though, for after all the teasing he brought us dessert "alla casa"!

Milan is a truly amazing city, its Duomo is the fourth largest church in the world and lives up to the standard of elegance that that implies. We visited the Duomo on a Sunday, which meant that upon entering the church we were engulfed in incense and chanting. I was pretty sure we had stepped back in time. We also explored the famous opera house, the Renaissance era Castello Sforzesco, and St Ambrose's Basilica, which was founded in 387 AD. No big deal.

Il Duomo

Basilica of St Ambrose

My wonderful, wonderful friends!!! 

Now I am mourning the loss of authentic Italian food and the comfort of Oles. But adventures abroad are still to be had! It was an absolutely incredible weekend, I can't wait to go back to Italy!

Dani, I miss you. 

Love and peace, ciao!

Erin

I'm going to abseil...

Yup. You read that correctly.

"What is abseiling, Erin?" Well let me tell you. I am going to scale down the side of the tallest hospital building in the world. Apparently I have a bit of an adventure streak in me now, Lord knows why. This past summer I went sky diving, but that was for my own benefit. This time it's for my students.

The charity I work for, Springboard for Children, is hosting this fund raiser to provide the money needed to tutor children in socially and economically disadvantaged areas of London and I signed up to help.

(*gulp*)

That being said, I would really appreciate your help doing my part, which is to raise 250 pounds. Every penny (no pun intended Mom) counts! I have set up a website for easy, secure donations that go straight to the charity.

My Just Giving Page

Thank you so much for your continued support, love, and prayers as I continue my adventures across the pond!

Speaking of adventures, I've been seeing more of this beautiful country. Here are some pictures for you of York and Rochester, which is a city that Dickens visited many times and referenced in many of his novels! I was pretty much in heaven. 

Love and blessings,

Erin

Rochester Cathedral, England's 2nd oldest cathedral. The building dates back to 1080 but the church was founded in 604 AD

Rochester Castle, built in 1127

Jenny, Kari Beth, and myself

York Minster

New Years Resolutions

Happy New Year and all that jazz from London!

I brought in the new year with my brother, Nathaniel, and Nathaniel's sister Anastasia on Westminster Bridge right in front of Big Ben and the London Eye. The fireworks show was the most amazing thing I have ever seen! I kid you not, they shot fireworks out of the London Eye. Epic. Was it worth the 5 hour wait? Mostly. We brought blankets, which was smart, but forgot little things like a deck of cards or warm drinks. So we all busted out our Lutheran Camp Counselor Skills (mostly courtesy of Nathaniel) and played 1 minute mysteries, 20 questions, and ninjas for 5 hours. Yup. I'm pretty impressed myself. Nonetheless, I will never again attempt a big city new years eve, it was so incredibly crowded and getting home was a nightmare! But a definite London must :)

I haven't spent that much time in the schools this month. Our first week back was an administration week to get the schools up and running again, followed by one week of teaching which was followed this week by a conference in Wales with my fellow YAGMs! My students were pretty excited to come back, and I got two new students at my schools so it's been fun to get to know them. One is a fourth year who is very talkative and very sweet, and another is a little boy from Vietnam who can't remember my name yet but is also very sweet. My favorite part of the lessons? The hugs I get (sometimes) at the end. Health and Safety is a big deal in this country, and England is pretty protective of its children. Very protective. So if a student wants a hug, it needs to be very clear that the student is the one that initiates the hug and not the teacher. If you know me, you know that this is hard for me, because I love hugs! One of my students loves them too and will run up to me in the hallways to hug me (which I love) but I always have to make sure the hug is brief and that I never approach her for a hug. If not, I could get into major trouble.

Wales was absolutely fantastic. We were literally in the middle of the country, in the middle of nowhere, with no internet or cell phone reception. A much needed break from the excitement and busy life in London. I got up at 6:30 each morning to hike the hills with some friends and watch the sun rise over the hill tops. Absolutely stunning! Of course there were sheep everywhere because, well, it's Wales, but they made the walks more fun and provided inspiration for many jokes and stories. Catching up with the YAGMs was a much needed relief and rejuvenating experience. It also provided a chance to have some quality prayer time. I've changed how I pray after realizing that praying in my head turns me into Doug from the movie Up: I get distracted by anything. Squirrel! Yup. So now, I write down my prayers. This idea was inspired by reading the book The Help that my mom gave me (which, incidentally, is a GREAT read. I highly recommend it). I am able to get all my thoughts down and am much less distracted. Thank goodness.

Now, here are a few pictures from my new year's resolution: I am going to explore all of the parks in London. For the past 2 weeks (this week doesn't count, I was in Wales) I've been walking through Hyde Park and Kensington Garens. SO. BEAUTIFUL. If you come to visit me, we're walking through these parks.

Peace, love, and I miss you all!

Erin

Peter Pan statue, Kensington Gardens

The Moon, Wales, 6:30 AM 

YAGMs reunited!!

Christmas time in London Town!

SO SORRY for the ridiculous gap between posts- there was a small hiccup in my life: my laptop got stolen. Dana, Caroline and I went to Chipotle for dinner, the only one in London, because we were just craving some American food. It was really crowded, pretty much every American in London was there, and we were seated at a bar-style table with barstool chairs. We all piled our bags underneath the table and 15 minutes later I looked down and mine had been stolen. Inside was my ipod, wallet, laptop, and a book that my mom had given me that I was just about to finish. My first thought was that I wouldn't get to finish the book!! Everyone at the restaurant was super helpful, one of the guys we had been talking to ran out to check all the dumpsters and corner shops for my bag, and the manager of the restaurant gave me a handful of free meal vouchers! Woohoo! Lesson learned: I will back up my music and pictures multiple times in the future.

Other than that, life has been great! We gave all of our students books for Christmas and our last lessons were mostly reading stories and playing games, which they really enjoyed. At one of my schools we ate Christmas dinner with the kids, and one of my students flagged me over to eat with her and the other 3rd years. She finished before me and was sitting there for a while, then finally asked me "Are you almost done with your pudding?" "Well, pretty soon, why?" I asked. "I'm waiting for you so we can go play!" she said. So cute. I explained that I couldn't go outside and play with her so she should go on out with her friends, but then she got really sad because she wouldn't see me for 2 weeks. AH! I love these kids! 

Both of my housemates are gone and safely at home for Christmas, and now I am at my house with a fellow YAGM Kari Beth. On Saturday we, along with another YAGM Nathaniel and his sister will attempt a traditional English Christmas Dinner. It's a pretty big deal over here. I'm not sure how I feel about the Christmas Pudding, it's mostly dried fruit that's been soaked in alcohol for months, but it might be worth it just to light it on fire. 

This past weekend Kari Beth and I went to Paris and I got to see my mom and grandparents! It was absolutely amazing, and it snowed which made it feel more like Christmas. The downside to the snow: My family were stuck there for a few extra days, and my Grandparents are still in Munich as I type this. KB and I made it out alright after waiting at the train station for 3 1/2 hours to be re-assigned to a new train, but all in all Eurostar handled everything very well. Now it's time to relax, make buckeyes, and enjoy the holidays! This will be my first Christmas away from home :( 

Love and peace to you all, Happy Christmas!

KB and I at the Galleries Lafayette 

HUGE Christmas tree given to the city of London by Norway, a tradition since 1947

Gram, me, and Mom at Versailles 

A Breakthrough!!!!! ... and Harry Potter

One of my challenging students, the one that can't keep still, has had a breakthrough!! I took me almost losing my sanity, but all is well. Here's what happened.

I was nearing my breaking point with this child. She started rolling around on the floor during lessons, throwing her shoes across the room, grabbing materials right out of my hand, and causing general mayhem. Lord have mercy, I was losing my mind. Throughout all of this, I was remaining extremely supportive and positive because I don't know what her home life is like. But I'm sure she doesn't get much attention there because she was sure asking for some from me. Finally my supervisor asked to sit in on a lesson with me. Boy, was this child unhappy about that. As soon as she was surrounded by myself and my supervisor, she put her hands behind her head, pursed her lips, and didn't say a word for the rest of the lesson. But she didn't roll around on the floor either, so I think we broke even on that lesson.

My supervisor then told me to try a different tactic. Instead of greeting this student with a smile and always encouraging good work and progress, be extremely matter of fact about everything. If she gets something right, move right on ahead to the next thin, and see how she responds. So the next day comes and I go down to pick this student up for her lesson. I don't even say anything to her, I just ask the teacher if she could please excuse this child for her literacy lesson. The child comes out into the hall and tries to go up the stairs but I stop her and say "Now listen here one minute. We are going to do some hard work today, but if you do good work we will play on the computer at the end of the lesson. If not, I will walk you straight back to class and we will have a talk with your teacher. Do you understand?" and she nodded yes. So then I asked "Are you going to do good work today?" "Yes," she answered. "Alright then, give me a high five," I said. And she did. And the lesson was... perfect. She even wrote a sentence!! I don't think this child has ever written a sentence before. Granted, the sentence was "The cat is fat" but still. Major, major progress. I am still so happy about this. And the next lesson was the same! It's amazing how different all these kids are. Tweaking the techniques used with all of them is an art I'm still learning.

So that's what's going on in my service life, but in my free time I am doing things like GOING TO THE HARRY POTTER WORLD PREMIERE. Yup. I did. Thanks to my friend and fellow YAGM Nathaniel reminding me about the date, because I thought it wasn't until next week. It was AMAZING. All the actors were there, and we could see them all! And, JK Rowling was there. I almost died. It was so great. I am so excited to see the movie now!

Living in England is seriously amazing. I don't ever think about how extremely far away from home I am because communication is so easy. I can watch live concert streams from St Olaf, call home from my house phone, and of course see everyone's pictures on Facebook. Sometimes I do think about the huge ocean separating me from friends and family, and of the events that I'm missing, helping my best friend plan her wedding, but it's totally worth it. I am so happy I am doing this year.

We're introducing Thanksgiving to the British and German volunteers next week! It's a bit early, but the weekend before actual Thanksgiving is when everyone can get together. I hope they don't mind high caloric food because I am definitely cooking Southern style: lots of butter.

Cheers!
xx
Erin