Kids and Crowds

I finally feel like my life has settled into routine here (although I'm still struggling to find the motivation to complete even the simplest homework assignments). It seems as though I am always tired, and I've been maintaining a fairly constant 11:00PM bedtime (much to the amusement of my fellow interns, who apparently would prefer I come into work as hungover as they do).

This week I met a few more of Behavioural Support's favorite students, and worked a bit more with the ones I already knew. The kids are getting used to me, I think, and they are certainly determined to test my limits. Sherife was concerned that they were giving me a hard time; but although they can be uncooperative, most of them have generally been friendly to me so far.

The work gets more manageable every day. There were some definite high moments this week--I got one student through an oral exam on Romeo and Juliet, an essay on the play East is Easy, and a creative writing assignment (she actually named her main character after me, which was cute). My co-workers in Behavioural Support are confident that she'll get through English if we can keep pushing her through coursework. I worked with one student on a science assignment who is notorious for being entirely non-communicative (no one can ever get eye contact out of her, and her voice is typically almost inaudible). But she actually asked me content-related questions about her science work--always a good sign. Results are always mixed, though. Jade might have handed in an essay on East is East, but it wasn't in paragraph form and didn't really address the prompt. She learned Romeo and Juliet, but without reading any Shakespeare. Lisa showed interest in her science assignment and worked on it for a bit, but I don't think she ended up completing it. When I was in sixth grade, my father told me to pick my battles (if you see this Dad, I was listening) and that phrase has always stuck with me. Never more than during this internship, though. With every class period there seems to be a dozen possible battles, and it's always difficult to decide which ones are worth pursuing.

There were low moments, too. Ceylan, a student that I've been doing a lot of work with, got thrown out of a science class that I was sitting in with her. That was a big failure for me; Ceylan normally gets on quite well with me, but I couldn't get her to focus in class. Then I couldn't convince her to get back to class. When she decided to go back to class, she wanted to demand an apology from her teacher (who, in her defense, was being a bit of a jerk to her) and I couldn't get her to see why that was unreasonable. Once back in class, I could not get her to actually do work. Nor did I succeed in getting her to stay after to speak with her teacher, who has quite clearly given up completely. She's right; he does pick on her. But she can't (or won't) understand that the best way to revenge that is to prove him wrong and show him how smart she is.

Never a dull moment in that place. I think the entire school will combust the day Sherife leaves it.

I spent the weekend in London. Friday night I went to the British Library. I didn't spend too much time there because I plan on going back. While there, I saw the Beowulf manuscript and handwritten Beatles lyrics in the same room--I was thrilled. I actually worked Friday during the day, and I was exhausted by the time I made it home. I was out by 10:30PM.

Saturday morning I went to the British Museum, although again I did not see much. I feel like that museum deserves several trips. I concentrated my time there on the Enlightenment exhibit, which actually wasn't as cool as I had thought it would be. I saw a bit of the Egyptian galleries (well, I saw the Rosetta Stone) and I perused the Pantheon galleries. It's unrealistic to do more than two or three galleries in one visit; I only saw a small fraction of one floor. Earlier in the week one of my professors had joked that the British Museum only glorified the Brits' tendency to steal things, and I am inclined to agree. In the Pantheon galleries there is literally an entire Greek temple, and there is also a little pamphlet explaining that the Greek government has requested the return of much of the British Museum's Greek artifacts. Can't blame them; the entire enterprise reeks of Imperialism. But I suppose once you started ordering the return of artifacts to their homeland, it would be difficult to stop. I could see it feeding nationalism and isolationism. An intriguing debate.

I left the Museum and headed to a football match with a group from CAPA--it was Queens Park Rangers vs Reading; QPR was at home. I was freezing most of the time because I only had my coat and my lightweight scarf on. The game was quite exciting. I enjoyed the fast pace, particularly since my favorite sports to watch at home (baseball and American football) are sometimes unbearably slow, even for me. But this was ninety minutes of continuous action, and there's no denying the sheer athleticism the sport requires. It was fun being in the stands. I'd heard a lot of hype about "football hooligans," but I honestly thought they were pretty much on par with American sports fans (although perhaps the Premiership games are crazier; this was a Championship league game). Most people sat down for most of the game though, which I found to be a nice change from Pitt football games, where everyone stands and you can't see anything if you sit. I decided that sporting events are a bit like Catholic churches; unless you're a regular you have no idea when to sit, stand, or say things and you just have to take cues from everyone around you, who all seem to know every ritual. There were a group of small kids sitting just behind us--couldn't have been older than five--who cheered loudly throughout most of the game ("QPR! QPR! We are QPR! Rangers!"). They were adorable. The match was a draw, 0-0, although (in my very uneducated opinion) QPR played a better game.

This morning I went to Camden Town to visit the market there; it's probably the most famous of the London markets. Having learnt my lesson from yesterday, I put on long underwear, a long-sleeved shirt, my thick scarf, and gloves before leaving the house. It was a wise choice, since it started flurrying mid-morning and I was outside most of the day. The markets (there are several in Camden Town) were an interesting mix of touristy trash, hipstery trinkets, and good food. The first street of stalls is basically all just cheesy UK souvenir stalls, but once you get into Camden Lock there's better stuff. It's very international; there's a lot of jewelry and crafts as well as vintage clothing stalls. Every foot of it was thoroughly crowded. Browsing and people watching were quite entertaining. I had hoped to be able to pick up a few gifts while there, but I didn't really find anything I thought would work. That part of it was a bit disappointing, because now I really have no ideas about what to get for people.

I left Camden and went to Trafalgar Square, where I met Alan and Rachel. We were headed for the Chinese New Year celebrations. There were enormous crowds from Trafalgar Square to Leicester Square and overflowing into Picadilly Circus; the cold hadn't deterred anyone. We watched a couple of performers in Trafalgar Square. It was cool to see the Chinese decorations contrasted with the neo-Classical architecture of Trafalgar Square. Then we walked to Leicester Square and into Chinatown proper. There we fought against very pushy crowds to catch sight of a couple of dragon dances. They were great fun to watch. We got a late lunch (or possibly early dinner?) there in Chinatown. The food was good and I would guess it's more or less on par with American Chinese food, except perhaps more expensive and less deep-fried (and no General Tso's, unfortunately). With time to kill before the fireworks display and no real desire to push through any more crowds, we walked away from Chinatown towards St. James' Park and all the way to Buckingham Palace. I enjoyed the walk immensely. The sun had begun to set, dramatically backlighting the bare trees, whose branches all tangled together. Winter really is a beautiful season, but even as I enjoying seeing the park and Palace through the sunset flurries I caught myself thinking about how lovely that same street will be when things start to bloom. The fact that we had just walked, in about twenty minutes, from Chinatown to Buckingham Palace delighted me.

We went back to Chinatown for the 6:00PM fireworks. I love fireworks, and I love Pittsburgh's usually fantastic firework displays, but this one was unlike any I have ever seen. We had a great viewing spot, literally as close as we could possibly be, pressed right up against the fence in Leicester Square. There weren't many fireworks that went up into the air and burst the way most American fireworks do; I suppose these were more properly firecrackers. There were strings of firecrackers hanging vertically from a cable in the park; they were probably about six feet long and suspended from about nine or ten feets. And they lit the strings, and the noise was fantastic. There were also stationary spinning wheels of colored sparks that were awesome. There were other hanging strings of a different sort that just rained blinding sparks--and noise. Meanwhile, they were setting off rockets almost continuously, which exploded with a bang and a flash of light. The smoke was unbelievable also; by the end of it you could hardly see into the park where they had been lighting them. To give you some idea of how close we were and how intense it was, Rachel informed me as we left (between coughing fits) that I had bits of fireworks in my hair. She was right, and I had them all over my coat as well. I still smell vaguely of gunpowder. It was a brilliant display.

Another week of work and school ahead...