First day of playscheme

After all the phone calls, schedules, to-do lists, spread sheets, shopping trips, e-mails, references, trainings, and chaos the playscheme finally started today!! Unable to actually get into the building was our first problem... But after about 15 minutes of panicky phone calls we got in. The children arrived shortly after. Only a few of the buses were late, which was a huge success. They usually are all really late on the first day. The "monkey room" was short staffed today so I joined in with them. I was paired with a 6- year old child named Adam. He was too cute! We played Hungry Hippos and did a puzzle. After snack, the "monkey room" went on a walk to the park down the street. Adam was a bit slow but we eventually made it there. He was smiling the whole time, and asking a million "why" questions. He was definitely one of the much easier children I have worked with thus far. We got to do arts and crafts and visit the soft play room. It was a long exhausting day but no major problems. Well, at least not in my group... One of the only groups had a girl who told her playworker that she was playing to run away with her 50 year old boyfriend... Social service will have to deal with that one, sicko. But other than that it was great. Tomorrow we can start taking trips and actually do different activities. Hayley ( and the straightener) came back today!! So long peace and quiet..j/k love ya! Rachel broke the washing machine and the landlord is in Italy so that sucks... I have to visit the laundromat before Parissssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss :D

Glasgow

On Friday Magda suggested that I visit Glasgow. So Rachel and I got up early and took the train from Waverly Station to Queens Street Glasgow. First, we decided to check out the Barrow Lands. We jumped on a bus that took us there from the train station. We didn't really have any idea what it was besides a huge market. Basically it was just a big flea market. Lots of junk. One stand even had funeral accessories, like stuff for gravestones. lol. I did end up getting a fabulous pursue. We weren't too impressed so we headed back to the city centre to look for something to eat. After awhile we found a little Italian place called Dino's. Rachel and I both got the lunch special pasta. It was great food and the service was perfect. After a coffee we headed out to look for the David Livingstone Estate, which I found on the internet. No one really knew and finally after asking a bus driver we discovered it was a town over. We decided to just walk around the city. We spent a lot of time in H&M and some other little cute boutiques. The Burrell museum was on our list of things to do but unfortunately it was closed because the museum workers are on strike! So, no luck going to museums because they were all closed. We ran into a gay parade/concert. Lots of spikey haired girls and drag queens. It was funny. Next we headed to the Glasgow Cathedral, which was beautiful. The cathedral has had many renovations but was first built in the 1300's!! Since it was pouring outside, we took our time looking around and took lots of pictures. On our way back to the train station we found an awesome used book store, so cheap! I got two books for a pound each. Even though Glasgow was really cool, it always feels good to come back to Edinburgh.

wham bar

Sitting in my window seat, drinking a class of shiraz, listening to the Rod Stewart concert going on.... Ahhhh

hump day

wet.
rainy.
cold.

Grab the thistle with a fist!

Another day at Oaklands playscheme. It was a really pretty day so we got out the blow up pool and let the kids play in it outside. The staff is really laid back, which makes it more fun. Guess you can't really be tough working with these kids or expect to go home clean. We had a water balloon fight which all the kids loved.Also, one of the kids got a hold of the hose we were filling the pool up with which was hilarious. He got EVERYONE soaked. I got the job of putting on suntan lotion for one of the classes. It was a challenge, to say the least. Some of the kids can barely stay still for two seconds and don't enjoy when you put sticky white stuff all over there body. Spent about 1/2 chasing a kid and ended up with bite marks on my arms and shoulders. But we still had fun. Talked to Meghan on skype tonight :( Miss her and Taylor! Paris in a week !!! yay!

Oaklands Playscheme

Today I went to the office at my usual time and as soon as I got there, they sent me to Oaklands because they where so short staffed today. Probably due to 1. T in the Park was this weekend 2. Spain won yesterday. So I caught the bus to Oaklands and was thrown into one of the active classrooms. Things started off pretty casual, most of the kids were doing their own thing outside. I played ball and got to blow bubbles with the kids. Most the kids were ages 8-12. Then around lunch, I was left alone with three of the kids and things started to get crazy. Screaming, leaving the classroom, stealing lunches,spilling drinks... These are special needs children who really need 1-1 care. I couldn't turn my back for two seconds without someone getting into something else. I got bit, scratched, pinched, slapped, etc. But you cannot stay mad at them because they can be really adorable as well. After lunch we went outside again and played in the water. A few of the active class kids went on a trip but I stayed behind. It was a very hectic day but I had fun.

Giant Shannon Fruit

Rachel(the new roomsie) and I woke up late and headed over to the Museum of Scotland. I have been there before but it's so huge, there was a lot I missed the first time. One of the main exhibits was the Lewis Chessmen. The Lewis Chessmen, which are chess pieces craved out of walrus irovy from the 12th century. They were all different cute little characters. It was pretty cool. A replica of the set was even in Harry Potter!! Also, the museum had lots of historical pieces,etc. After walking around the museum for awhile we headed across the street to the Grey Friar Bobby cemetery. It was beautiful, the gravestones where so elaborate. Some of the graves even had little courtyards. We went to Tescos and made some dinner and then watched the final world cup game. Viva la Spain!

Paparazzi

So, after Rachel and I got let in by our landlord (we went shopping and BOTH forgot our keys) I was sitting on the window seat talking on Skype. There were P.K.E film and lighting trucks parked outside and there has been a lot of people with walkie talkies running around but I didn't think anything of it. So, then they start to set up some serious equipment. Also, all the people working just so happen to all be Indian. After awhile of watching the light crews set up and people hosing down the street Rachel and I got curious and headed down to the street to figure out what was going on. We asked some guys working and they said they were shooting for a Bollywood movie but they "pretended" not to know anything else about it. We stood on the corner and waited for about 10 minutes and finally they shut off traffic. The big event was a man in a horse drawn carriage transporting a man and a lady in a red dress. They did it a few times but now they are packing up.

pictures from my hood

Television, telephone, video cassette recorder, finger printing, home of golf, tarmacadam, tyres are penicillin were all Scottish inventions.

Only stayed in the office for about an hour today before Kirstin and I went for an adventure in the Kidzcare van. We had to buy some last minute supplies, like pillows, paint, napkins,etc. for the playscheme. Because we are just using the Royal Blind School campus we have to decorate the rooms ourselves so that takes a lot of supplies. First, we went to ASDA, which is owned by Walmart but the Scottish version. The store was in a similar format as Walmart and had a great selection of everything. No checkout ladies with missing teeth! Kirstin and I spent about 2 hours picking out supplies. We spent along time in the lotion isle picking out different scents because the texture and scent are very good for kids with visual impairments. We also got a lot of outdoor games.Next we went to a home goods store near Morningside to pick out seeds and planting material. At around 3 we made it back to the office just enough time to check e-mail and make a few phone calls. Hayley left today for her 2 week travel around Ireland, Spain,etc and Matt came back today and is leaving again for the U.S. in the morning. Germany just lost :(

excursion to Germany & France

Day 1 Took off work Friday and Monday so Hayley and I could celebrate Fourth of July. We left Edinburgh around 10 AM on Friday. My first Ryan Air experience was disgusting... The plane was extremely late, uncomfortable seats,bright yellow color scheme, screaming babies,turbulence, & lady who stared at Hayley and I the WHOLE time. Although we had no problems going through customs once we got to Germany. We walked through the gate and couldn't find Hayley's aunt or uncle. There was someone whistling but we couldn't figure out where it was coming from, finally after looking around for awhile a girl pointed into the corner where Hayley's uncle was grinning. Aunt Tammy and uncle Curt just moved to Kaiserslautern from St.Louis, for 4 months while Tammy completes an internship on the air force base. Curt stays at home with Tia, 9 and Trevor, 11. They were really cute family. We drove about 45 minutes from the airport to there apartment. Kaiserslautern was having some sort of a festival in the street so we had to maneuver our way through the massive crowd. There apartment was on the fourth floor and had 2 bedrooms and Hayley and I stayed in the guest apartment next door. There apartment was in a great location, right in the middle of everything. We had to change our clothes because the weather in Germany was HOT! After walking around for a little while, we got in the car and drove to the base. Our plan was to go to the PX so that Hayley could get her Taco Bell fix. The PX was HUGE. They had about 10 restaurants and about 25 stores. A little different from the one in Cape May... After we got back to Kaiserslautern, Tammy took the kids to bed and Hayley, uncle Curt, Jamie ( a girl who works with Tammy, who also moved from Illinois) and I went to walk around the festival. There was SOOO many people just walking the streets and hanging out at the beer stands. There was a stage the was playing American songs like Sting and Madonna. The first thing that I tried that is apparently pretty popular in Germany was the banana beer.... Not a huge fan, tasted more like a milkshake. Then since, we were in the homeland we took a Jagger shot. Curt wasn't too happy about that. After listening to the band, we decided to get a sangria bucket. It was soo tasty! We met up with Hans, the landlord for both Jamie and Tammy. It was surprising how many people spoke English. I only had one problem where some lady grabbed my arm and started jabbering in some language "jhdsuyui hdjhshyy !!!!" No idea what she said... But I responded with "WAHOO" and that seemed to be okay...???

hoist moving day

I didn't go into the office yesterday because I had a really bad cold. Laid in bed watching "The Hills" and "Breaking Bad" all day. Feeling better today but not quite perfect, still sniffley. So, met Kirstin in the office and we walked over in the pouring rain to Ace car hire service and rented a HUGE white van (perfect for pedophiles). Kirstin had to drive because A. I don't have a UK license B. I am used to driving on the OTHER side of the road C. I don't know how to drive a stick shift. We had some issue backing out of the lot because the van was huge and there were no rearview mirrors. We drove back to the office and pick up Marc and John who drove the Kidzcare van. The school we were supposed to be driving to is only about 3.5 miles away from the office but Kirstin and I tried to take a short cut but got lost :(. When we finally got there we piled about 12 hoists into the two vans. We made the guys do it because they were extremely heavy, only one folded up. We need each child's hoist for the playscheme so that we are able to move them around. The hoists are battery powered machines that go around the child's wheel chair to lift them if they are not able to move themselves. I've seen it done a few times at the blind school, it's not a hard process but it is time consuming especially if the child is being difficult. We have training next Friday for it. So, we drove back to the blind school and stored them for a few weeks. After all the work was done Kirstin took us all out for 'tea and cake' for all our help. We walked down the road to Black Medicine and got cake. My rocky road crumble was awesome. Hayley and I are flying out to Germany (!!!) tomorrow to see her aunt.