Football, Helicopters and Parks

Here are a few piccies from a staff vs students football match that Matt played in.  They lost 5-7, but played really well (much better than last year), and Matt even scored 2 of the goals!!!

On Tuesday, it was our whole school 'fun run'.  Definitely not two words I would ever put together, but there you go!  The sports teacher had asked me to take some photos of the kids running throughout the day, which I was happy to do.  It was a very busy day, with everyone running, from pre-nursery (2 year olds!) to 6th form, and parents.  The distances were divided up based on age groups.  The kids really enjoyed themselves, despite it being 35 degrees!

Just as we were about to start the year 1 and 2 run around the sports pitch 3 times, a helicopter started circling.  There were lots of jokes of 'oh, it's going to land on the field, haha', but then it started circling lower and lower, and we decided to move the kids behind the fence just in case.  Then the helicopter landed on the field!  The kids were going absolutely crackers.

It turns out that it was a medical helicopter, called out to an accident several miles from the school.  Our field is the only place large enough for it to land in the area, and this is the 3rd time this has happened at school apparently.  Two paramedics went off, but the pilot stayed with the helicopter.  He told our head teacher that since it wasn't an emergency, he was happy for the kids to come over and he would talk to them about what was happening, and they could ask him questions.  He spoke great English luckily.  The kids thought it was the best thing to ever happen!  I took some photos of the year 2s in front of the helicopter, and got my picture taken too with my friend.  Then the paramedics came back (without any injured people) and off the helicopter went. It certainly livened up the fun run!

On Wednesday, I went on the year 4 trip to Gruga Park in Essen.  They have been learning about the rainforest and we had a great talk for the afternoon in the greenhouses.  It was over 30 degrees though, so after an hour and a half in a greenhouse, no one felt particularly great!  The park is beautiful, and the kids loved running around and just playing on the swings.  There are a few bird areas there too, and I got some nice photos of some owls.

Below is in the park.  It's called Ronald McDonald House, and is right next door to the children's hospital just outside the park grounds.  The charity boxes you see in McDonalds are used to fund places like this, where up to 20 parents can stay for free for as long as they need, while their children are very ill.  It's sad, but a great thing too.   It will certainly make me donate next time i'm in McDonalds.

 

On Friday night it was the annual Staff Quiz, which is always good fun.  Matt's team won this year!  (I won 3 years ago), and my team came 4th (out of 8), so not too bad.  Matt went off to the airport straight after the quiz to go to Dublin to see Pete.  I went to the pub near work and didn't end up getting home until midnight!  Whenever we are in Enzos, we always seem to get home much later than planned, but this was late even for our group!

On Saturday was the summer fair.  We only had to work for 2 hours this year, compared to the 4 hours in previous years.  I chose my stall based on who else had signed up for it, but we made a bad choice!  We went for the 'can shoot', but didn't realize how much physical work it would be!  The children had 3 beanbags and had to try to hit a stack of 10 cans to win a prize.  But some genius had put us on a slope, so the cans just rolled everywhere, and we spent 2 hours constantly bending down to pick them up, and chasing them everywhere.  My back really hurt afterwards, and today, I feel like I've done 100 squats (which is probably not far off from what I did do!).

Still, the atmosphere at the fair is always nice, and it's my good friend who organised the whole thing, so it's good to support her.  We stayed for some food (pasta and amazing cream cake), which teachers get for free.  And we listened to the choir performances, before Laura, Sean, Liz and myself went off to Dusseldorf for coffee and shopping.  I got some lovely black sandals, and a swimming costume with flamingos on it.

I have now started packing up the flat, since getting 4 big boxes from the library at school.  The flat looks very odd without it's pictures on the walls, and all the photos stuck to the mirror, but I do at least feel like I've made a serious dent in the packing.  Still a long way to go, but I'm not feeling quite so overwhelmed by it all anymore.

Oh, and I signed my contract for China this week, so it's full speed ahead on that front.

Matt gets back later this evening, so I've had a productive day of packing, and spending several hours on my TEFL course, which is nearly finished.  I've completed all of the modules and tests and am currently working on assignment 1 of 2.  It's a lot of work, but I should have it all finished before we move.