"If you can teach here you can teach anywhere"

This was what I was told when I student taught in MPS. I found out that this was COMPLETELY untrue. My experience teaching in England became the new standard for the worst possible teaching situations. I realized that there was a lot a teacher staffing agent wouldn't say to convince a naive American teacher to come over to his rowdie country.

I remember looking at the school website with my mom when I was offered my position. We commented on all of the kids with their uniforms and how cute they were. I couldn't have possibly been more wrong. Belhus Chase was considered a school in revision. They scored low on a national standard for schools and I was dragged in unknowingly.

To begin with, my classroom was non-existant come the first morning of classes. I was finally shoved into a Barney- purple colored room at the end of a coridore that was not intended to be used.... In fact, this coridore had been abandoned for two years, completely locked off from the rest of the school, because it was contaminated with asbestos, and I found later had no heat. I cried that morning trying to organize my "new" abandoned room, complete with old posters falling off of the walls.

I was told by a guy giving us a tour at our local gym that the problem with the students around that area was that, "Nobody around here respects anyone. Everyone thinks that they are right, no matter how uninformed they are, and live life for themselves, never considering anyone else." This struck me as completely true. The majority of the students that I came into contact with that year were absolutely ridiculous. They were ridiculously disrespectful, running in circles around my room chasing eachother, screaming, hitting eachother, throwing paper balls full of glued in pins and paper airplanes with pins glued to the noses. Spitballs flew, along with profanities, and the most disgusting floor I had ever seen.

I found that my students' grades on the daily counted for nothing, and they took advantage of that, completing absolutely nothing in classes, which happened to be block schedules. It wasn't uncommon for them to tell me to "f off Miss" when I asked them to take care of something.. at least they said "miss", as if that was more appropriate.

During the course of the year I had a bird fly into my room and crap all over everything, a group of year 7's (6th graders) swinging chairs and getting into punching fights, a kid from the outdoor PE class run into my classroom THROUGH a window, and fights with my year 11's (10th grade) that involved screaming and flipping tables.... to name a few...

MPS had NOTHING on England.


My school- Belhus Chase



Trying to look prepared for my first real day of teaching!... in the hotel room.

Barney Purple classroom- Day 1

Fast Family

I somehow convinced my best friend from home, Mezz, to jump ship from her normal teaching job in Vegas and join me on my jot around the world. Through her research she decided that it was in our best interest to find additional North American transplants to take on for our new roommates.

Tree and Belinda are Canadians who didn't know eachother. Besides Facebook interactions, we had no real idea of who the others were, but all jumped in on a commitment to become roommates once all landed in the UK. The landing became our first problem.

We agreed to all board at a hostil in eastern London for our first few days... this was to be our meet up point At 6'11'' , Tree wasn't difficult to locate amongst all of the strangers. Belinda, on the other hand, became impossible.... for her airline went bankrupt while she was on the tarmac and she was suddenly stranded in Toronto. Two days later she had finally booked a flight and met us at breakfast one morning.

We spent the next three days wanderig the towns we hoped to find housing in... After many frustrating days to no avail, we finally faced the fact that we were homeless and starting work the next day. This forced us to gather all of our things from the hostil and move to a hotel closer to our schools, located in Chafford Hundred.

To save money we shared one room with two twin beds. Mezz and I jammed on to one twin bed, which was smaller than the average. I couldn't sleep the first night, half hanging off the bed, and worrying about my first real professional work day.. I remember laying there thinking to myself, "What have I done? I am on the other side of the world and homeless". I took a taxi to and from school every day, costing 20 pounds, or about $40 daily.

In the morning while waiting for the cab, the people who ran the breakfast bar in the hotel began giving us muffins and oranges. The typical guest would have to pay for these each day, but they understood our unfortunate situation and started giving the food over to us. We had room service and ate at the hotel pub and the local pub, which had fortune tellers once a week. At night we watched "Two and a Half Men" and "Sex and the City" reruns, the only American TV we got in.

Every morning we would pack up our stuff and take it down to the front desk for them to hold it. Tree was substitute teaching, and therefore, had the first few days off of work. While we were teaching, he would go to house showings, hoping to find our place. Most days we would rush in to the hotel to find that he had had no luck. We would recollect our bags and head back up to our room, which they quit cleaning and remaking beds for us after awhile.

The day we came back to find that Tree had finally found a two bedroom apartment in our desired location, we all packed into a cab and raced to the bank to take out and exchange all of the money we needed for the down payment. By now we had made friends with a cab driver named Fahim, who became our personal driver for the remainder of our year there.

Mezz and I lived with Tree and Belinda for the next month or so on their couches before we were able to find a place across the street for ourselves. Where their place came furnished, Mezz and I had absolutely nothing. This would eventually turn into kitchenware from the One Pound Store and foam furniture that I ordered from a catalog... I paid 100 pounds for a crappy bed with the springs that came through the mattress, and Mezz slept on one part of the foam couch, never actually purchasing a bed herself. We eventually ended up with a shopping cart in  the living room that Mezz found in the middle of the road. This became our clothes dryer amongst many other random uses. Our apartment was sparce, but it became a normal way of living, and  home eventually.

I will never forget the lessons that that short time taught me. The four of us became family for life, and I realized how unimportant it was for me to live with a lot. I know that if I am determined to accomplish something and wait it out, that it will eventually work out for me. These experiences have shaped me into a forever strong person.



 



Searching for a house in what would eventually become our neighborhood.





Waiting for Belinda at the train station.. before we realized her plane wasn't coming in...







Tower Bridge- Together











Leaving the hostil we first met in.

The hotel we lived in.



Psychic night at the local dining pub.. haha.



Don't blame me mom...

I have an addiction. All of my excess money (okay, there isn't a lot), I find, goes towards feeding one passion I have... It is not shopping sprees like most females my age, but a need for travel. I find that whenever I dig myself out of a financial hole that I can't help but book a trip with any excess money I have.

I decided that this need to learn about new cultures and take in entirely new experiences was enough for me to need to apply to work abroad after I graduated. I couldn't explain it to my friends or family why I thought it was a natural, and needed, step to leave everything I knew in anticipation of experiencing an unknown. My family, in particular, had a really hard time with it.

The best I came up with was, "Don't blame me mom, you know you did this to me." You see, my parents are both teachers, and their love for adventure took us on multiple long- term family road trips when I was younger. They showed me that there was so much more out there than just my experience living in Wisconsin. They opened my eyes to educational experiences that went beyond the Rocky Mountains, Niagra Falls, The White House, or the Everglades. Instead, they taught me the educational value in talking to a complete stranger, eating unknown foods, taking the road less traveled, and keeping my mind wide open to new opportunities and possibilities. I was addicted. 

So... I set out... London, England's eclectic lifestyle became my new home... and Europe, my playground.  

With my parents, sister Hailey, and best friend Julia at the Chicago Airport.

My first view of Tower Bridge from THE London Bridge!