Thursday brought about the first day of the job with students. I was incredibly nervous about this on Wednesday night, as I always am about meeting new classes. However, despite all the time we had had for planning and getting ready I still didn't feel I was there so on Thursday I woke up at 5.30 am (!!) and went into school for half six. Once there I rearranged the tables in my classroom to have them as I wanted and then looked at several maps of the school and pieces of paper to ensure I at least looked like I knew what I was doing and where I was going!
School for the students starts at 7.35am and so it was that at that time I found myself walking onto the school field (along with about 1400 students!) to meet my tutor group. Once the chaos had dissipated somewhat I took said students to my classroom to register them and then we proceeded to the headmaster's assembly.
The headmaster's assembly was something else. Let me create the scene. In my school there is a quad between the main office building and the library. It has four squares of lawn (quite large squares) with aisles of paving cutting down the middle (horizontally and vertically) and all around the edges. This lawn is strictly off limits to the students, except for during a Headmaster's assembly when hundreds of chairs are laid out on the lawns. So it was that (eventually) 1400 students were sat in chairs on the lawn and we were all then asked to stand for the Headmaster to arrive. He and his procession, which included his wife, the national school director and a few others, walked down the centre aisle and arrived at the podium. I had never witnessed anything like it before and was already stunned. I was even more stunned when instead of asking students and staff to take a seat, the national anthem began rining out of the speakers and in unison, a little over 14oo voices started to sing. I have never seen anything like it. Ever.
After that, the assembly proceeded in what I gather was it's natural style. The students are obviously accustomed to starting the year like this but I still remember being pleasantly stunned whenever the school captain was called forward (in his gown!) to present all the prefects and captains of house teams, sports teams, councils and committees with their own gowns. A truly splendid sight and something that really set the tone for what is expected of the students at this school.
After standing and waiting for the headmaster to depart, it was then time to deal with the admin side of starting a new school year. Timetables, lockers, combinations for said lockers, passwords, etc. After all this was accomplished, it was time to meet classes I would be teaching and start the teaching side of the job.
After two days of meeting new students I must say, it is nice to be teaching again. Although all the preparation time was great and much appreciated, nothing quite compares to actually having children in front of you to teach. It was nice to feel like I've properly started my new job. As for the students themselves, it has only been two days and one never likes to feel too pleased with themselves for fear of really being in for a fall later on. Still, what I've seen is definitely better than what we've come from in the UK. The students are polite and really quite lovely. They all say hello or good morning and most have left the classroom with a "Thanks miss, see you tomorrow!". Stunning.
I look forward to teaching them and so far, have no regrets at all about leaving the UK.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Social life
The staff at the school are all incredibly friendly and so we have found that over the two weekends we have been here, there has always been some party or other to attend.
This past Friday one of the depute heads at the school invited all the new staff to his beach house for a BBQ and drinks - and very nice it was too. We stayed until sunset and then tootled back into Lima. However, this was only half seven and we felt it was too early to head home so a group of six of us went to Avenida las Pizzas (that really is it's name!) for some more drinks.
And drinking there was! Pisco everything and drinking games, it turns out, are not necessarily a good combination for your head but it was a great night out.
The following day we had people coming round to fix up the internet, phone and cable tv. They were very polite and incredibly efficient. John was just pleased that he had internet at home... Once that was all set up we invited Dave round to watch the rugby (now that we had internet) and then went off to Jeff's for his BBQ. I like this idea of having BBQs every weekend. I can definitely get used to that!
So, Sunday has rolled around and we are just relaxing in the flat awaiting the arrival of the children on Thursday. However, I think it's nice that most weekends it seems, we will probably have somewhere to be. How very civilised and sociable.
This past Friday one of the depute heads at the school invited all the new staff to his beach house for a BBQ and drinks - and very nice it was too. We stayed until sunset and then tootled back into Lima. However, this was only half seven and we felt it was too early to head home so a group of six of us went to Avenida las Pizzas (that really is it's name!) for some more drinks.
And drinking there was! Pisco everything and drinking games, it turns out, are not necessarily a good combination for your head but it was a great night out.
The following day we had people coming round to fix up the internet, phone and cable tv. They were very polite and incredibly efficient. John was just pleased that he had internet at home... Once that was all set up we invited Dave round to watch the rugby (now that we had internet) and then went off to Jeff's for his BBQ. I like this idea of having BBQs every weekend. I can definitely get used to that!
So, Sunday has rolled around and we are just relaxing in the flat awaiting the arrival of the children on Thursday. However, I think it's nice that most weekends it seems, we will probably have somewhere to be. How very civilised and sociable.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Not all INSETs are the same
The start of the second week brought with it the first full day at school. It is true that all INSETs, at any school, are pretty much the same. Meetings where information is thrown at you, and for the start of year ones you get to hear about the results from last year. It is not true that I felt the same sitting through this one that I have at other schools. Firstly, we have ten days before the kids are in. With lots and lots of department time. Any of you teachers reading this, yes, be very jealous. Secondly, I have never sat through results like these. 100% of students in the appropriate year group got at least 5 A*-C. What is alarming is that this statistic was already impressive, even though realistically we should be getting that in all UK schools. 46% of IGCSE results were A*-A. Ridiculous! And then they went on to talk about the IB results. Which they are disappointed with! 74 out of the 75 presented students passed the diploma. The average point score was 31.8 (the IB is out of 45 and a pass is 24 - just to give you the picture!). I had to try so hard not to laugh out loud at the sheer brilliance of their results compared to what I have known. But as John pointed out, being disappointed and expecting ridiculously good results is why they get them. Have a standard and then stick to it. Something many UK schools could do with...
First weekend in Lima
Saturday we were invited to go out for dinner and drinks with Dave, new Chemistry teacher who is also staying in the same hotel as us. We found a very nice little restaurant called Mama Lola's and whilst the boys were distinctly unadventurous and ordered lasagne, I had arroz con mariscos (or rice and seafood if you don't speak Spanish) which was unbelievably tasty and really good price-wise. We then proceeded to go to a few bars around Parque Kennedy, which seems to be what an awful lot of the young population of Lima (or Miraflores at any rate) were doing. It was very nice and I enjoyed more than one Pisco Sours. It turns out I would regret this slightly on Sunday morning, but it was a really fun evening.
Sunday was spent playing my xBox. Lego Harry Potter for several hours meant I got up to 80% game completion. This means nothing to pretty much everyone in the world but it turns out I am definitely a completist when it comes to video games and so it kept me very happy. As did the pizza we had for dinner in the evening. All told, a very nice first weekend in Lima. (Was it really only the first?!)
Sunday was spent playing my xBox. Lego Harry Potter for several hours meant I got up to 80% game completion. This means nothing to pretty much everyone in the world but it turns out I am definitely a completist when it comes to video games and so it kept me very happy. As did the pizza we had for dinner in the evening. All told, a very nice first weekend in Lima. (Was it really only the first?!)
Finding a flat
Finding accommodation is high on our list of priorities. Whilst the hotel we're in is very nice, we are living out of suitcases and with the new job looming it would be nice to be in our own place. Not least so we can wash socks and underwear. I cannot imagine that doing the washing is anyone's idea of fun but it turns out when you are denied the option of being able to do it, well suddenly it becomes something you look forward to. Who would have thought it?!
Cecilia - our lovely estate agent, who is also the wife of one of John's colleagues - took us round some flats on Thursday. Two were in the same building and very nice. One was a duplex 3 bedroom apartment which was incredibly spacious. Despite them all being very nice, and had they been provided by the school we would be very happy to live in them, they were not quite right. We did not get the feelings that you get when you just know it's right. We had that today.
We had been invited round to a colleague's house for a BBQ and we thought it would be a very nice way to get to know people a bit better and meet even more people (there are over 200 staff at the school!). Just before going we got an email from Cecilia saying that she had another flat that she would like to show us so we arranged to meet Cecilia in the afternoon, giving us time to go the BBQ for a couple of hours. It was very pleasant and being able to chat to people in a far more informal situation was a nice change to the 'on show' feeling we had had the rest of the week.
So after a couple of hours we went to see this new flat Cecilia had found for us. It is beautiful. Big 2 bedroom flat. Three bathrooms - all flats and houses in Lima have at least one extra bathroom to what you would actually use because of course they all have maids. In fact this flat has two doors into it - the main door and one for the maid! Nice separate kitchen. Big living and dining room. Two blocks from the ocean. Private parking (for when John sorts out a car). All day round security. Nice quite street in Miraflores (which technically means 'look flowers') but really close to everything you might need or want like bars, restaurants, banks, supermarkets, etc. Probably about 30 minutes walk from my school. We're feeling very pleased with ourselves and plan to celebrate with a few drinks on this Friday evening. 5 days in the country, accommodation sorted. Go us.
Cecilia - our lovely estate agent, who is also the wife of one of John's colleagues - took us round some flats on Thursday. Two were in the same building and very nice. One was a duplex 3 bedroom apartment which was incredibly spacious. Despite them all being very nice, and had they been provided by the school we would be very happy to live in them, they were not quite right. We did not get the feelings that you get when you just know it's right. We had that today.
We had been invited round to a colleague's house for a BBQ and we thought it would be a very nice way to get to know people a bit better and meet even more people (there are over 200 staff at the school!). Just before going we got an email from Cecilia saying that she had another flat that she would like to show us so we arranged to meet Cecilia in the afternoon, giving us time to go the BBQ for a couple of hours. It was very pleasant and being able to chat to people in a far more informal situation was a nice change to the 'on show' feeling we had had the rest of the week.
So after a couple of hours we went to see this new flat Cecilia had found for us. It is beautiful. Big 2 bedroom flat. Three bathrooms - all flats and houses in Lima have at least one extra bathroom to what you would actually use because of course they all have maids. In fact this flat has two doors into it - the main door and one for the maid! Nice separate kitchen. Big living and dining room. Two blocks from the ocean. Private parking (for when John sorts out a car). All day round security. Nice quite street in Miraflores (which technically means 'look flowers') but really close to everything you might need or want like bars, restaurants, banks, supermarkets, etc. Probably about 30 minutes walk from my school. We're feeling very pleased with ourselves and plan to celebrate with a few drinks on this Friday evening. 5 days in the country, accommodation sorted. Go us.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
The Peruvian adventure begins...
Almost exactly a year ago, John and I decided we had had enough of teaching in state schools in Edinburgh. This was for several reasons which are all very boring so I won't go into at the moment. We decided over our Valentine's Day romantic evening meal that we should just pack everything in and get a fantastic job abroad somewhere, since we love travelling and we hear international teaching is something of a wonder job that few people tell you about. So we applied to jobs all over and were lucky enough to be interviewed for one, and then chosen. Well, two jobs I suppose since we both got offered one.
Sunday 3am saw us leaving the Grange Loan for the last time in... well, quite a while. The taxi we had booked was waiting and so we bundled in with our five cases (containing all our worldly possessions!) and headed for the airport. The flight to Paris was fairly uneventful. In fact, it was totally uneventful because we were so tired by this point (having elected not to sleep at all on Saturday night) that we just slept right through. Landing in Paris did bring a shock to the system though! No: not the fact that we were in Paris; rather that it was -9°C!!
Stopovers in Paris for long haul flights are always really tight. Indeed, god help you if you need
the toilet as you will miss the bus taking you to the other terminal which means you will miss them boarding the plane (which I'm sure they started doing before we even landed from Edinburgh!) and probably end up... well, stuck in Paris! Still, fortunately for us the toilets were locked and so despite a very clear need to go according to my body we were able to get the correct
connections and board our second plane with no delays or emergencies (I managed to find an unlocked toilet at the second terminal!).
I was so tired by this point that I slept right through take-off, which was apparently twenty minutes late, and well into the flight. John was however kind enough to wake me when food came around. He knows me so well! The flight proceeded, much as the first, with little problems and we landed in Lima at about 5pm local time to a delicious 25°C. Lovely!
Things since then have been a bit of a blur. We have done an awful lot, or perhaps it just feels that way because we have been dealing with the heat (yes I know, it's terrible!) and for a day or so with jetlag as well as doing all the things the school had lined up. Sunday night was pretty boring
(well, no, not boring, after all we had just emigrated from the UK but apart from that nothing really happened so you know what I mean!). Katrina the human resources lady from school met us at the hotel where the school is putting us up and then John went to find a shop to buy some water and sandwiches. Shower, food and then bed was the plan for the night - and jolly good it felt by then too!
Monday we were taken on a tour of both school campuses (by Katrina). Let me explain before I go any further: Katrina seems to basically run the school single handed! She is in the human resources department and seems to be in charge of all new staff arrivals. As you read through this my most boring account of what we have gone through, keep in mind that there are about 20 new staff starts this year. This includes local as well as foreign, all of whom Katrina has to look after. So, we get picked up from the hotel and taken to the Upper School campus where I will be working and later in the day to the Lower School campus where John will be working. They are fabulous. To try to give you an idea, imagine the area of Edinburgh Uni around George
Square. The Library, David Hume tower, the economics building whose name I always forget - all of that around the square. That is about the size of my new school campus. That's just mine. John's is a fairly similar size - perhaps a little smaller. John was running around the campus possible even more excitedly than the 8-year old who came with us (one of the teachers who also arrived on Sunday, his wife and son William came with us as William will be attending the Lower School). When John saw the Big Ben and Tower Bridge two-storey high climbing frames I could barely hold him back!
It was really nice to see the schools and get an idea of where we'd be working, and we were so happy when we got back to the hotel. Totally sunburnt, but happy. More about the sun later but briefly: it's a round yellow thing in the sky that produces heat. Who knew?! Anyway, by the time we got back to the hotel on Monday afternoon we were absolutely exhausted from walking in the sun all day and we were still jetlagged, having only arrived in the country about 15 hours beforehand. A siesta therefore, in true Spanish style, seemed very much in order.
A couple of hours of really good sleep later, we woke and got ready to go out because we had arrange to meet friends of ours (Izzy and Neil) for dinner. They have been travelling for 5 months and in fact went home yesterday but we were fortunate to catch up with them before they left. It was probably one of the oddest nights out I've ever had. Not because of the content - indeed we had a great time with them and it was great to catch up on all their travel goss - but because here the four of us were, in Lima, where we now live. Very bizarre!
Tuesday brought Valentine's Day, and with it a tour (again provided by Katrina) around residential areas of Lima near the school so we could get an idea of where we might want to live. John and I have decided, and are hoping to view some flats this afternoon. Further updates on that next time round! After the very pleasant tour we went to the bank to collect bank cards associated with our Peruvian bank accounts, which were already set up courtesy of... you
guessed it, Katrina!
Tuesday evening was very relaxing. We stayed in. Now, it might have made sense to go out for a nice romantic meal on Valentine's Day in a new country, having made the commitment to move half way across the world together. And indeed, it may have been nice. But let me explain about Peru and Valentine's Day. It is HUGE over here! I saw massive displays on the sides of several buildings spanning the entire height of the building. Huge, ridiculous displays. Katrina was explaining that everyone goes out on Valentine's Day. No you don't understand, not just couples. Everyone. We decided, having at this stage been here all of 48 hours, that perhaps a nice bottle of Chilean wine and some air conditioning in the hotel room would be preferable! Indeed it was very
nice, and as we would find out on Wednesday, probably for the best.
The friends we met on Monday night were due to fly out Wednesday evening so we had said tentatively, that it would be very nice to meet them for lunch before they left. However, we had to alter this plan to coffee instead as we had been invited to lunch by the Headmaster. So this was
to be our Wednesday plan. John was unable to do either. Indeed, John was not well and very much needed a nice cold room and... facilities. Katrina had warned us that most foreign staff got a bad stomach within the first few weeks of being here (temperature, humidity, water, diet, etc being to blame) but I think even she was surprised that John had succumbed quite so quickly. Anyway, this meant that I was to go and meet up with Izzy and Neil for coffee on my own, and then go on to Mr. Dowdles' for lunch on my own. On my own. In a foreign city. With my sense of direction! That said, you will be delighted to know that I only got lost once. Go me.
Lunch at the Headmaster's house was very nice actually - it was just him and his wife, me and the family we had gone with on Monday (Ben the drama teacher and co). His house has to be seen to be believed. It is lovely. Big garden, giant rooms, swimming pool. Just lovely. Apparently he does
this with all staff and then we are invited back after about a month so he can check if we are settling in ok and if there is anything else he (or of course Katrina!) can do to help. The school, it must be said, are definitely looking after us.
We have of course, in our free time, gone for walks around the area and I am now confident enough to walk to school on my own and not get lost! The area near the hotel is actually very nice and all the one way streets mean that I actually stand a good chance at getting about since there are no traffic lights to be seen and well, you know what I'm like! Indeed, due to the lack of traffic lights the cars don't feel the need to stop, or even slow down at junctions so they just honk their horns to indicate to anyone else who might be on the road that they are crossing that junction and don't you dare crash into them! Traffic on the way to school is slightly different to this as I walk down two fairly major roads and so there are (occasionally) traffic lights. On these roads, traffic is more... well, chaotic! Fun times await.
Sunday 3am saw us leaving the Grange Loan for the last time in... well, quite a while. The taxi we had booked was waiting and so we bundled in with our five cases (containing all our worldly possessions!) and headed for the airport. The flight to Paris was fairly uneventful. In fact, it was totally uneventful because we were so tired by this point (having elected not to sleep at all on Saturday night) that we just slept right through. Landing in Paris did bring a shock to the system though! No: not the fact that we were in Paris; rather that it was -9°C!!
Stopovers in Paris for long haul flights are always really tight. Indeed, god help you if you need
the toilet as you will miss the bus taking you to the other terminal which means you will miss them boarding the plane (which I'm sure they started doing before we even landed from Edinburgh!) and probably end up... well, stuck in Paris! Still, fortunately for us the toilets were locked and so despite a very clear need to go according to my body we were able to get the correct
connections and board our second plane with no delays or emergencies (I managed to find an unlocked toilet at the second terminal!).
I was so tired by this point that I slept right through take-off, which was apparently twenty minutes late, and well into the flight. John was however kind enough to wake me when food came around. He knows me so well! The flight proceeded, much as the first, with little problems and we landed in Lima at about 5pm local time to a delicious 25°C. Lovely!
Things since then have been a bit of a blur. We have done an awful lot, or perhaps it just feels that way because we have been dealing with the heat (yes I know, it's terrible!) and for a day or so with jetlag as well as doing all the things the school had lined up. Sunday night was pretty boring
(well, no, not boring, after all we had just emigrated from the UK but apart from that nothing really happened so you know what I mean!). Katrina the human resources lady from school met us at the hotel where the school is putting us up and then John went to find a shop to buy some water and sandwiches. Shower, food and then bed was the plan for the night - and jolly good it felt by then too!
Monday we were taken on a tour of both school campuses (by Katrina). Let me explain before I go any further: Katrina seems to basically run the school single handed! She is in the human resources department and seems to be in charge of all new staff arrivals. As you read through this my most boring account of what we have gone through, keep in mind that there are about 20 new staff starts this year. This includes local as well as foreign, all of whom Katrina has to look after. So, we get picked up from the hotel and taken to the Upper School campus where I will be working and later in the day to the Lower School campus where John will be working. They are fabulous. To try to give you an idea, imagine the area of Edinburgh Uni around George
Square. The Library, David Hume tower, the economics building whose name I always forget - all of that around the square. That is about the size of my new school campus. That's just mine. John's is a fairly similar size - perhaps a little smaller. John was running around the campus possible even more excitedly than the 8-year old who came with us (one of the teachers who also arrived on Sunday, his wife and son William came with us as William will be attending the Lower School). When John saw the Big Ben and Tower Bridge two-storey high climbing frames I could barely hold him back!
It was really nice to see the schools and get an idea of where we'd be working, and we were so happy when we got back to the hotel. Totally sunburnt, but happy. More about the sun later but briefly: it's a round yellow thing in the sky that produces heat. Who knew?! Anyway, by the time we got back to the hotel on Monday afternoon we were absolutely exhausted from walking in the sun all day and we were still jetlagged, having only arrived in the country about 15 hours beforehand. A siesta therefore, in true Spanish style, seemed very much in order.
A couple of hours of really good sleep later, we woke and got ready to go out because we had arrange to meet friends of ours (Izzy and Neil) for dinner. They have been travelling for 5 months and in fact went home yesterday but we were fortunate to catch up with them before they left. It was probably one of the oddest nights out I've ever had. Not because of the content - indeed we had a great time with them and it was great to catch up on all their travel goss - but because here the four of us were, in Lima, where we now live. Very bizarre!
Tuesday brought Valentine's Day, and with it a tour (again provided by Katrina) around residential areas of Lima near the school so we could get an idea of where we might want to live. John and I have decided, and are hoping to view some flats this afternoon. Further updates on that next time round! After the very pleasant tour we went to the bank to collect bank cards associated with our Peruvian bank accounts, which were already set up courtesy of... you
guessed it, Katrina!
Tuesday evening was very relaxing. We stayed in. Now, it might have made sense to go out for a nice romantic meal on Valentine's Day in a new country, having made the commitment to move half way across the world together. And indeed, it may have been nice. But let me explain about Peru and Valentine's Day. It is HUGE over here! I saw massive displays on the sides of several buildings spanning the entire height of the building. Huge, ridiculous displays. Katrina was explaining that everyone goes out on Valentine's Day. No you don't understand, not just couples. Everyone. We decided, having at this stage been here all of 48 hours, that perhaps a nice bottle of Chilean wine and some air conditioning in the hotel room would be preferable! Indeed it was very
nice, and as we would find out on Wednesday, probably for the best.
The friends we met on Monday night were due to fly out Wednesday evening so we had said tentatively, that it would be very nice to meet them for lunch before they left. However, we had to alter this plan to coffee instead as we had been invited to lunch by the Headmaster. So this was
to be our Wednesday plan. John was unable to do either. Indeed, John was not well and very much needed a nice cold room and... facilities. Katrina had warned us that most foreign staff got a bad stomach within the first few weeks of being here (temperature, humidity, water, diet, etc being to blame) but I think even she was surprised that John had succumbed quite so quickly. Anyway, this meant that I was to go and meet up with Izzy and Neil for coffee on my own, and then go on to Mr. Dowdles' for lunch on my own. On my own. In a foreign city. With my sense of direction! That said, you will be delighted to know that I only got lost once. Go me.
Lunch at the Headmaster's house was very nice actually - it was just him and his wife, me and the family we had gone with on Monday (Ben the drama teacher and co). His house has to be seen to be believed. It is lovely. Big garden, giant rooms, swimming pool. Just lovely. Apparently he does
this with all staff and then we are invited back after about a month so he can check if we are settling in ok and if there is anything else he (or of course Katrina!) can do to help. The school, it must be said, are definitely looking after us.
We have of course, in our free time, gone for walks around the area and I am now confident enough to walk to school on my own and not get lost! The area near the hotel is actually very nice and all the one way streets mean that I actually stand a good chance at getting about since there are no traffic lights to be seen and well, you know what I'm like! Indeed, due to the lack of traffic lights the cars don't feel the need to stop, or even slow down at junctions so they just honk their horns to indicate to anyone else who might be on the road that they are crossing that junction and don't you dare crash into them! Traffic on the way to school is slightly different to this as I walk down two fairly major roads and so there are (occasionally) traffic lights. On these roads, traffic is more... well, chaotic! Fun times await.
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