Art, information and games

I'm sorry for not writing something faster. There was a small problem with the internet not being stable and I must say I was really tired after Thursday and Friday. I'll tell you what I did the last couple of days.

Wednesday

As I wrote in my blog last time I wanted to go and find a swimming pool and go to the Fitzgerald (which was actually the Fitzwilliam xD). I found a swimming pool really close by, its only a seven minute walk. However, they did not accept my bankcard (still don't know why that is, but at some places they don't accept Maestro). So I did find a swimming pool but haven't been able to swim yet. I will someday though.
Later that day I went to the Fitzwilliam museum, which is really lovely, huge and completely free. As said in the leaflet: Housing almost half a million objects, the Fitzwilliam has an amazing variety of beautiful objects and art from around the world. See everything from Egyptian coffins to Impressionist masterpieces; illuminated manuscripts to Renaissance sculpture; rare coins to Asian arts.
I spent almost all afternoon at the Fitzwilliam looking at all the beautiful pieces of art.

Thursday

Today I had the induction on the Cambridge Steiner school. We started at 8.30 with a bring and share breakfast, which was really nice. We had German waffles, pancakes, different kinds of fruit, yoghurt, risk and so many more things. After breakfast we went to the meeting room and started the day with a song. I did not know the song when we started but since we repeated the same four lines over and over again, I did know it quite quickly. After some time we sat down and had some time to think about the answers to 4 things: a precious childhood memory, an inspirational person, an obstacle you had overcome and a live changing moment. This to get to know each other a little bit better. It was a very extraordinary moment. We cried, we laughed, we shared.
The rest of the day was filled with new information, for me at least. They talked about anti-bullying policies first and after lunch (again bring and share, this time with sushi and other delicious foods) me and the other new people got a lot of information about how the school came to be, how to spot abuse and which forms you had to fill in, what to do when someone says another staff member abuses their child, what to do when the fire alarm goes off, what to do with disclosures, etc.. We finished at 16.30 and by that time I was brain dead and so tired. We ended the day with a song again.

Friday

This day we had a team building day with a big part of the staff of the Cambridge Steiner school. We met up at the entrance of the Fullbourn Nature Reserve. I went by bike and Google maps actually sent me to the other side of the Reserve, so it took me some time to find the other entrance but I did. We started the day with a song and then walked into the forest in small groups, in complete silence. The entire day was filled with exploring your senses and using them to the max. We played a couple of games after we reached a meadow. We first played a game where we were blindfolded and had to move to the sound of the drum (played by David, the grade 5 teacher who organized the day). First we could pick our own spot, put on the blindfold and then walk to him. Later we had to put on our blindfold and we were placed around the meadow by others. It was a bit scary but also really fun.
The next game we played was a lot of fun. We went into the forest where David made a circle with rope he brought. Inside the circle was deer territory where 5 people had to sit/stand blindfolded and the rest of us where the lions/cheetahs who had to sneak up to them. Every time the deer thought they heard something they had to point out where it came from and the game was paused. If one of the deer pointed at you, you were out of the game. We played it three times, first two times in the forest and the last one in the meadow. The first time we played the game, I was the only one who made it into the circle. The second time, no one made it, but I was only two steps away. The third time, everyone got into the circle.
The next game we played, was a lot of fun as well but also really tiring. Everyone had a peck on their back and you had to try and get the peck of another player. I think everyone knows this game in some way or another.
The last game we played was called the Otter and the Herons (A large fish-eating wading bird with long legs, a long S-shaped neck, and a long pointed bill). The otter had to guard a fish (piece of cloth) inside a pond (again a circle made out of the rope). The herons had to try and steal the fish and then run out of the playing field to win. If the herons were touched by the otter they were out of the game. However, the otter was not allowed inside of the pond but if it did happen all the herons that were out of the game, could play again. 
For a couple of rounds it was fun, until an otter hit a heron so hard the heron had a bloody nose and a cut on top of her nose (due to her glasses). Luckily this heron wasn't me. 
After taking care of the injured heron and eating some lunch we walked a bit further into the forest until we reach a stream. This is where we had our last assignment of the day. Everyone gathered some clay from the bank of the stream until everyone had a ball as big as a goose egg. We where told by David that we had to make an egg out of the clay and while doing that we had to listen to what the clay wanted to become. After a while we where send off into the woods to make whatever your egg wanted to become. My ball of clay first wanted to become a penguin, since it was so cold, but half-way through it decided it wanted to become a duckling. So that is what it became (see picture). We placed our beings somewhere where they wanted to live and made them a house when necessary. Everyone showed their beings to each other and told something about it. Luckily I wasn't the only one not being very good with handling clay. 
After that we went back to the entrance, listened to a poem and sang a song to end the day.

The weekend

This two days I used/am using to gather some energy again, since the school will start on Monday. So a bit of gaming with my boyfriend, reading books for school, writing this blog, sleeping/resting, etc..