Week 7

So many things have happened that I completely forgot to write another blog, my apologies.

Saturday 10/10
As I have said in my previous blog, I went to the city centre with the other two volunteers. It changed to just Frithjof and me, since Hanna's brother and cousin came to Cambridge to visit her. Frithjof and I spent the day with going into shops to find some gifts for Frithjof's friends and family, bought some gloves for me and went to the Forbidden Planet to fan-girl together. For those of you who are unaware of what the Forbidden Planet is a short explanation, it is a shop that sells merchandise from games, films and series. They also sell books and comics. I think we spent about three hours in the Forbidden Planet, just looking around and being amazed.

In the evening we went to an Evensong in King's Chapel, where Hanna and her brother and cousin were as well. An Evensong is a church service that is, for the biggest part, sung by an choir of boys and some men. It was really beautiful, the church was just lit by candles and the voices of the boys sounded very angelic. I already had been to an Evensong when I was in Canterbury with school, but this time it touched me more, since it was actually dark outside and due to the candles. The atmosphere made it so much more beautiful.

Monday
Unfortunately my cold came back in tenfold after the long day that was Saturday, so I wasn't able to go to work today. I slept a lot and read some books.

Tuesday
Today wasn't a very interesting day, except that some of the children asked me where I had been yesterday. It all just went as it should, nothing really remarkable or worth mentioning.

Wednesday
Unlike yesterday, today was a very challenging day. When I came in, in the morning, Beate was really happy to see me. She told me that both assistants were feeling poorly, so it was just me and her. I think you can imagine that it was a very busy and tiresome day. Especially since the children were well aware of the fact that we were just with the two of us, and started to misbehave. By the end of the day I was really tired and Beate was a bit upset because some children had stolen something from her during the day, and had lied about it to other teachers. Luckily we found out they got it before they went home, and were able to get it back.

Thursday
Today Anita was still feeling poorly, but we had some help from Stephanie (woodlands teacher) in the morning, which made it a bit easier to handle. They still did not listen as well as they had before, but at least we had three pairs of eyes to watch the children. The rest of the day went well, I got invited to a lot of birthday parties (all happening somewhere in January or February) and in the afternoon I pretended I was an evil octopus and I chased the children around the garden trying to catch them. It was really funny, and we had a great time.

Friday
Yesterday Beate told me that the children from class 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 would have a Harvest of Work today, so I decided to go and see what it was. As it turned out, a Harvest of Work is a thing where they show everyone what they have learned so far. We saw some skipping, acting, singing, French, maths and many more things. It was nice to see them perform the things they had learned.

It was also Frithjof's last day at the school and he had made a goodbye-cake. The cake made me stay longer then I intended to, but it did give me something wonderful. Anne, the assistant in Buttercups, invited Frithjof and me to go an Indian festival called Navratri (nine nights) with her and her family. We borrowed some Indian clothes from Anne and went to the festival. It was such an amazing experience to see a part of a different culture and religion, to see all those beautiful dresses and to learn new dances. Frithjof made a lot of pictures and videos, and when he has send them to me I will put them on my blog so everyone can see what I mean. I also got some blisters on my feet from dancing, but that didn't matter, I had so much fun! It was also an amazing experience, because for the first time in my life I was really aware of the fact that I was white. All the people around me had coloured skin and dark hair. My blond hair really stood out, and in the beginning it made my feel uncomfortably but when the music and the dancing started I immediately felt welcomed. 

Saturday 17/10
Today I went to city centre again, this time with both Hanna and Frithjof. We went to the Forbidden Planet again, because Frithjof wanted to buy some more gifts their. After that we just strolled around a bit, talking about work and school and our families. In the evening we decided to go and eat at one of the Jamie Oliver restaurants that are in Cambridge. The food was really tasty and the prices weren't that high so we were quite happy. Afterwards we got a drink at a bar and then went home.

Monday 19/10
Though today is the start of our two-week midterm-break, I still went to work. This time to help Beate with a workshop standing puppets making for the parents. Since the parents would bring their children as well, she really needed someone to take care and watch those children. So that is what I did. I made bread rolls with them, went outside into the garden and helped them set up a puppet show with the puppets their parents just made. After we had some lunch together, I got an applause all for myself from Beate and all the parents because I was there on my free day and everyone was very grateful for my help. It made me feel very proud and happy.

Midterm-break plans:
- Tomorrow in the afternoon I will take a bus to Oxford (which will take me a very, very, very long time (almost 4 hours)) were I will spend the night. The next morning I will meet up with Kiran (my classmate) and he will show me around Oxford.
- I got a phone call from my brother that he and my dad will come to England for his (delayed) summer vacation and they will come to visit me and Cambridge as well.
- I am going to London somewhere in these two weeks.
- I am thinking of going on a Ghost Tour here in Cambridge.
- I really have to work more on my assignments from school, so that is something I will also do during this break.