This week was the start of our winter “street sessions”. Since it is too cold and gets dark so early, we will now be going to various community centers and doing activities there a couple days a week. Today we went to the Monkchester Community Center for the first time. I brought decoupage and Abby brought pottery. Brioni will normally bring some music and do a dance activity but she had been sick and wanted to take it easy tonight. Several of the kids got really into the decoupage so that was good. Every Wednesday a group of parents have a dinner and activities for the kids while they sit and chat so we are just bringing new and extra activities for them to do. Part of the room usually has a football game going on and the noise level was off the charts but besides that, I think this “street session” will normally go pretty well. There were a bunch of kids who normally go to KK there but also lots that don’t so it was a nice mix of familiar and new faces.
Thursday Nov. 4
Thursday was a normal day except for the fact that we started night sessions at Daisy Hill youth center. It is a nearby center that has activities for 13-19 year olds, so basically it is a KK for teens. Bruce, Melissa and I went and brought wood carving as an activity. Well, as Bruce said at the end “that went”….and that was all you really could say. These teens made many of the kids at KK who give us trouble look like saints! They were older and more out of control. Some of them were really well behaved and got on with the activity and did a nice job carving but several others were wild and ruined a lot of wood. When we left the lady in charge said they had to close for awhile because the behavior was so bad…I can see why. She also said that it would be closed for another month or so but they recently opened again because the board made them open again. It will be interesting to see how this goes in future weeks!
Today was the first day that we had a new school group come in. A class from this school will be coming for 6 Fridays to do “art club”. I don’t think there is as much art in primary schools here as in the US or at least that is what it seems like. So we will run 4 activities while they are there: art (Melissa), pottery (Abby), woodwork (Will) and cookery (Me). I think it went really well for everyone this week and hopefully it will each week! It is really nice when we work with school groups because everyone is normally well behaved and even eager to clean up which hardly ever happens during the afternoon sessions.
The more exciting part of the day was Bonfire Night in Walker Park. On November 5, 1605 13 people tried to blow up the House of Parliament by placing 36 barrels of gunpowder in the cellar. In the process of blowing up the House of Parliament the King would be killed. Their plan was foiled and Guy Fawkes was caught in the act, tortured and executed. Bonfires were lit that night to celebrate that the King was still alive. Now it has become a big holiday and each year bonfires are lit and there are fireworks to celebrate the Gunpowder plot being foiled.
Saturday November 6
Melissa and I had a very lazy day on Saturday....we didn't even leave the flat! Abby left early to visit a friend in Birmingham so she wasn't around. I slept in till almost noon which was amazing! Then I spent the rest of the day getting my wireless internet to work again, watching tv online and reading. When I finally wanted to go out and do something active it was going to be pitch black in an hour so that didn't really give me enough time to do anything without buying a bus pass so I decided to just stay in. It is nice having lazy days sometimes.
Sunday Novermber 7
Although it was nice having a lazy day on Saturday I was determined to get out of the flat before we left for church. I made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, did some cleaning and then decided that since I would need a day bus pass to go to church anyway that I would go into town and take the bus over to Gateshead and check out the Metro Centre. The Metro Centre is a huge shopping mall so nothing really special but I have been meaning to go anyway just to see what it was like. It is huge!! I stayed in the shopping mall area but there are lots of other shops around it like an IKEA and Costco. I plan on going back and getting over to IKEA! When I went to add money to my phone in the Metro Centre, the guy who was helping me had actually been to Minnesota and Iowa! Apparently his wife is from the US and he has spent a good amount of time in the states. So we chatted for a few minutes and I mentioned that there were some things I missed from back home that I couldn't get here....and to that he said one thing he missed about the US was Taco Bell...haha! Not exactly what I had in mind! After the Metro Center, I wandered around Newcastle a little bit going to a few shops I wanted to go to and checking prices on a few items at different stores. I debated staying in town until church but decided that going home would be good since it gets dark really early and shops close earlier on Sundays.
Since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving, all the stores are already in Christmas mode! It is crazy and I don't like it!! I know there is probably a lot of Christmas stuff out in stores in the US already but I'm a fan of taking it one holiday at a time.
Monday November 8
Last week the weather was actually pretty mild but this weekend the weather made the switch again and it is colder and windier again. Bummer. I was hoping the nicer weather would stick around for another week or two. I had planned on finding the bike path near our flat that you can take into town this morning but there was a 90% chance of rain, lots of wind and dark clouds covering the sky so my plan was foiled. Hopefully I will be able to find the bike path before it gets really cold!
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