Mother's Day II, 2020

Sunday, the 10th of May, 2020

Sunday was Mother's Day in the US. 

Mother's Day in the UK was Sunday, the 22nd of March, the day before we were formally put into lockdown.  I say formally placed into lockdown, because as a family, we began socially distancing ourselves, and not going out on Friday, the 13th of March.  We skipped our clubs and activities that Friday and the weekend, didn't go to Church, and the kids stayed home from school that next week, even though all their friends were in school.  At that point, it was a novelty, and the kids thought is was kinda fun to stay home.  The government had advised families not to get together for Mother's Day.  Then Monday (the 23rd of March) evening came, and the Prime Minister told us that we must stay at home, and we were officially put into lockdown.  

Due to the US and UK having different dates for Mother's Day, I typically am appreciated by my family (at least!) twice yearly.  The UK Mother's Day this year, March 22, we just relaxed, and enjoyed each other's company, and was rather subdued, with the impending pandemic looming.  The US Mother's Day, which was this past Sunday, the 10th of May, was very enjoyable, despite the fact that we remain in lockdown, and shops are closed.  It helps that the weather was cooperative.

We generally celebrate Mother's Day as a family on the date of the US Mother's Day, and we traditionally go to afternoon tea at one of my favorite places for tea in Chester.  We don't usually have difficulties getting a reservation on the US Mother's Day, whereas on the UK Mother's Day, things book up rather quickly.  So in March, I'll get extra hugs, and people will clean their room after only one asking, etc, but in May all that happens AND we go to tea. (I must say, it does work for me!!)

As we couldn't go for our traditional tea this year, we had tea at home.  Someone even made the clotted cream for the scones (you can buy the clotted cream here, but it must've been left off the grocery list).  We used my antique English tea set that I received one year for Christmas, and had a selection of teas.

Dining table set for tea

Selection of teas, and my
Union Jack teapot for one

Scones and sugar

More tea choices, and my
favorite small teapot

More tea choices, and
jam for the scones

Fresh roses cut from outside

A favorite brand of jam-
they take produce from
abandoned orchards, and
use the profits for planting more.

And they have unique and
British flavor combinations

Mmmm....scones!

I hope that you all had an enjoyable day, too!  Weather starting to turn warmer......

Also hoping that you are staying safe and well.  xx

Cheshire Hike 2018

Cheshire Hike 2018

The younger two kids belong to a fabulous Scout group.  It was a bit ho-hum when they were Beavers, and on to Cubs, but now that they are in Scouts (actually have been for the last 2-3 years), it is FANTASTIC!!  The difference is the leader, as your group is only as good as your leader.  Their leader is so organized, and manages the kids well.  He takes youth leaders of the Scout group away for a weekend every January where they plot what the group will be doing for the upcoming year, then he produces a calendar, which we receive still in January (customized w Scout photos from the previous year's adventures) with all of the doings for the year, all color-coded as to where the event will take place, if it's a fund-raiser, etc.  I honestly do not know what he, as a Scout leader, could do to improve.  And he manages all the finance too.  We currently have at least 35 Scouts, and 10-15 "older" youth--I'd range their age from 17-22 who dip in/out of the Scout doings.  I really just love their Scout group, and the great things they do.  Am so glad to have found it, as the first year or so that we were here, I didn't know where our local Scout group was, when it met, etc.

One of the things our county Scouts does is the Cheshire Hike.  Now, anyone (living in Cheshire who is a Scout-male or female, or Girl Guide) can do the Cheshire Hike, but not all local Scout groups enter teams or promote it amongst their Scout group.  Our local Scout group that our boys belong to is 1st Great Sutton, and generally do have several teams participate in the Cheshsire Hike.  About five years ago, our group put forward winning teams, several years running, who won the Cheshire Hike.

It's a very big hike.  You enter in pairs.  Juniors (aged 11-12 1/2) hike 19 km Saturday, and 12 on Sunday, Intermediates (age 12 1/2-14) hike 25-30km on Sat and 16km on Sunday), Seniors (age 14-16) hike 29-39 km Saturday and 19 km on Sunday, and Senior Plus (16-18 years) hike 34-39 km Saturday and 19 km on Sunday.  They achieve scores for various things they need to have in their backpack, if your backpack is under the weight limit, check points (where they are tested on various skills/knowledge), observation points, map reading, your tent and how well you pitch it, adequacy of your food and drink, etc.   There's an award ceremony at the very end of the weekend.  (I'd be happy just to finish it, and my reward would be a hot shower!!)

Some Scout groups do various drills in their meetings leading up to the Hike.  Setting up a tent quickly and correctly, map plotting, etc.  Our group did a few hikes in preparation-one at night, and I think one night they worked on plotting map courses.  They were advised to take hikes on their own with their back pack filled with dog food, to simulate the weight.  They get I think six points (lat-long), and from these, they have 5 minutes to plot their route to the next check point.  Checkpoints are spaced about every 5 km.  There are MANY different routes, so you can not just follow the group in front of you.  There are 4 separate camps (based on the age groups).  The hike follows the countryside

W chose not to do the hike the first year he was eligible.  He did do it last year, but N did not.  This year, both W and N did the hike.  Here are some photos. 

Entry number affixed to W's bag.

W-before adding in the tent and camp stove and some of his food.....

W-side view.  Doesn't look too bad, but he has more
 to put in that bag, and I know its heavy!

W-Rear view

N-front view

N-Side view

N-Rear view

You are not allowed to contact your child per mobile, nor to follow their location, over the weekend, due to child protection laws.  Teams are equipped with pre-programmed mobile phones to be used if they need help, if they feel they are lost, for guidance, etc.  They are in sealed containers, so it's obvious if the team received help on the Hike.  There are various twitter feeds and fb feeds over the weekend, to keep parents aware.  On Saturday evening at 9pm, everyone received a text saying that all junior, senior and senior plus teams were in to their base camps, but that there were a few inter teams still out and being bussed into the Intermediate camp.  Of course, they couldn't say what team number, or who, so I was worried all night.  I needn't have worried.  N and his partner were district Junior winners (different than county winner), and W and his partner were district Inter winners.  I'm not sure how many teams entered from our district, but county wide, there were hundreds of teams across the ages.  Lots of blisters on their feet, and sore shoulders and arms from carrying their rucksack/weight so far, so long.  After a hot meal, and a hot shower, to their warm, soft, quiet beds they went.  Lights out!!  They left Saturday morning from our house about 715, and got home Sunday evening about 730pm.  A long weekend.

In other "news", spring is trying to arrive and stay.  Here is a current photo of one of our tulip patches.

Budding tulips

Daffodils at our roadside

Our daffodils are blooming well.  There are a few tulip buds in there too (can't see them in this photo), and we planted rose bushes in here in autumn.  Roses will still be small this year, but hopefully for next year.  The climate here is so good for roses--they just go and go.

That's all for today, folks!!  Have a good week. xx

W's Music Trip to Paris

Hi everyone this is W here and I haven't posted in a LONG time so here goes.

A few days ago I went on a 5 day trip to Paris with the Schola Cantorum (the school's best choir) and the Brass group. If you don't already know I play the trumpet and cannot  sing for my life so I was in the Brass group. Overall, there were 29 students that came on the trip, and 5 teachers to supervise us. We travelled to France by taking a bus to the bottom part of England and then driving the bus onto a large train carriage that carried us through the Chunnel. We arrived at France in Calais and from there took a drive to Paris. On day 2, we had breakfast at the hostel and then made our way to Sacré-Cœur Basilica, a big church in Paris. After that we went to Eglise Saint Sulpice, the Cathedral in which we performed in.

Sacré-Cœur Basilica, Paris, France

We then had dinner at the hostel before going to bed.

When day 3 came we were used to what it was like so we ate breakfast pretty quick before getting on the bus. We were meant to have a guide called Jose (pronounced "hoe-say") but he cancelled at the last minute. when we got on the bus there was a man at the back of the bus who was French. No-one noticed him except for the person who was sitting next to him but he thought he was Jose. Luckily before we set off someone else noticed he was there and kicked him off of the bus. For the rest of the trip we joked about it and called him 'hor-hey', but little did we know he would come back to haunt us. The first thing we did that day was go to the Arc de Triomphe and went shopping down the Champs Elysees. We then went to a perfume museum before making our way to the next Cathedral we were performing at called Eglise de la Madeleine.

Eglise de la Madeleine

On day 4,we had breakfast at the hostel and hurried to Notre Dame Cathedral where our next performance was, checking for strange French men along the way. Unluckily, Notre Dame cathedral did not except instrumentals so we (the brass group) couldn't preform but we got to skip all of the long lines to get in! We then had dinner at the hostel before we went to bed.

Notre Dame Cathedral

On day 5, we had a speedy breakfast at the hostel and hurried on to the bus to start our 12 hour ride back to school. The ride went smoothly and with no problems (or so we thought),and we arrived at school at 7:45pm. Us kids went home thinking everything was fine meanwhile at the school bus bay things were definitely not fine. It turns out that a man (or 'hor-hey' as we like to call him) had stowed away in the engine part of the bus! He was taken to a nearby hospital before being arrested on suspicion of entering the country illegally. Here is a link to a news report on the incident. (https://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/suspected-illegal-immigrant-found-hiding-14069053)

Overall it was a very successful trip and I really like how my school gives me so many opportunities to experience and do so many amazing things .

The Wall

September, 2017

It has been a long time.  It has been a really, really long time since I've posted on this blog.  That little thing called "Life" has gotten in the way.  So if any of you are still out there, and still reading..... here's a post.  (I do hope that you haven't been holding your breath since the last post!!!)

It's September, time of new beginnings, sharpened pencils, and of school resuming.  This being especially true for our clan.  When we first moved to the UK, obviously all three children started a new school.  Two years later, we moved the younger two out of the state C of E schools, into better independent schools.  (J had been in an independent school since the beginning.)  Last year, W made the move to secondary school.  This year, J made the move to Sixth Form, and N made the move to senior school.  I'll go into these a little bit more, as the whole school system organization is different than what I am used to, and we've learned it as we went along.  Kind of a rough school system overview.  I'll post the annual back to school photos throughout. 

Starting off with our eldest, dear J.  When we moved here, he was going into UK Year 7 (or US sixth grade).  Secondary schooling/Senior schools start here at Year 7, so it was a good entry point for him, and there were other new-to-the-school kids.  Therefore, J went right into his senior school.  I'll just put it out there, that people change schools a LOT more here.  They'll pull kids out in the middle of the year, middle of the week, whatever.  Not due to a move, or change in circumstances.  Just because, for whatever reason, that school over there will be better for Junior at this point.  I can think of five kids at the top of my head, that switched just like that.  They haven't moved house, or anything.  One day I was asking N about one of his classmates, and he says, "Oh, they don't go to school by us anymore.  They're going to (School x) now.  Kinda crazy.  We only voluntarily moved our kids school once-and we waited to complete the school year.  All the other changes in school have been because they've reached the end of that school.  I feel bad and feel like our kids have less continuity of schooling, as they've moved about a bit, not to mention that compared to their US counterparts, their schooling/education is coming at them from a very different angle-which is good in some instances, not so good in others.  By and large, I do think that it is probably comparable to US education-just very different, and the focus is much different.  Perhaps more on that later... 

Back to J  (I do get sidetracked, don't I?  Though Education is a rather large topic.)  He entered school here into Year 7.  He was called a "Remove" at his school.  Only his school, and I think some other independent schools, though none in our area, call Yr 7's Removes.  Year 7's are called Removes, and Year 8's are called Shells.  Year 9, 10, and 11 are called by their respective year group.  I have absolutely no idea why.  Just the way it is.  Don't ask questions.

J's school is an independent (called private by the US, public by the UK; I just call it independent-much easier).  You need to be at a certain "level" to attend--there's an admission test, interview, references, etc.  There is an associated infant and junior school with J's school.  You could have had your child attending from infant and juniors, but if they didn't pass the entrance exam, you are not into senior school.  Find a different school.  I can not even imagine if I'd been paying money from age 3, and my child takes the entrance exam and doesn't get in.  (Do I get my money back, as they obviously failed at teaching my child??)   Once you are "in", if you are not performing/getting the grades, you will be asked to leave.  There are nation-wide exams, and schools post their results.  If you are not performing, you may skew the test results, and hence the school's standings in the tables.  Perhaps this is how it is at all fee-paying secondary schools, US and UK?  I don't know.




Ready for school in his Sixth Form uniform

Back to J.  He attended his school in Yr7, 8, and 9.  In Year 10, and 11, you begin studying only 10 subjects (called lessons here), in addition to PE and Enrichment.  (In Yr 7-8, they are studying 17 subjects.  Year 9 it drops a little bit, can't remember just now how many subjects are studied that year.)   At the end of Year 11, there are national tests, called GCSE's.  (I never knew what the heck those were when I'd hear people talking about them when we first moved here. Stands for General Certificate of Secondary Education.)  They are a BIG DEAL over here.  Huge.  You are expected to be examined on everything you've learned in those 10 lessons for the last 2 years.  Like final exams, only they cover more in-depth.  Around January of Year 11 (sophomore year of US HS), J's school did mock exams, so predictive grades could be determined, and you would know where you need to concentrate your studying (called revising here) efforts.  I'm not sure if state schools do mocks or not.  Starting in May of Yr 11, the kids are put on study leave.  Exams start mid-May.  J had 22 (!!!!) exams.  Spanish speaking, Spanish listening, Spanish reading, Spanish writing, English Lit (drama), and English Lit unseen, and 2 more English Language, 2 each for Biology, Chemistry, Physics, History, Maths and Further Maths (don't ask me what Further Maths is, I don't know. Not all kids do it is all that I know), and one exam each in Economics, and Computing.  He came home with his exam schedule, and I thought another kid's schedule was printed on it with J's.  The exams are all serious exams-most being 120 minutes, though some were up to 150 minutes, and some were only 60 minutes.  If you chose Economics (or whatever subject) for your GCSE's, everyone in the country was sitting that Economics exam at that exact time.  The courses with more than one exam in them, they are weighted differently, and put together to get one grade.  Really just insane, the amount of pressure on these kids at this age.  Most days J went in to school, as one exam or another was happening, but as in a typical exam schedule, when you didn't have an exam you didn't HAVE to be at school, though you could be.  When the Manchester Arena bombing happened, I think they relaxed the exam schedule a wee bit in Manchester for a brief time.  All of J's exams were done by the 19th of June.  At that point, he didn't have to go to school anymore.  W/N had school until 7th of July, which is 2 weeks before state schools concluded.

Then, on the 24th of August, everyone across the nation goes in to school to get the results from these GCSE exams.  Every school is different, but if J wanted to stay on at his school, he needed to get A's in the lessons he wanted to study for A levels, and minimally 3 A's and a B. (If he wanted to study computers for A levels, and got a C in it for GCSE's, he could not study computers.  He could stay on at the school if he got his 3 A's and B, just couldn't study what he wanted, unless he got an A in that subject for GCSE's.)  If he did not get the 3As and B, he would have to find a new school.  On the 24th of August!!!!  I assume every independent school sets criterion on what you need to get to attend A levels (the last two years of your schooling).  I don't know what they do in state schools.  Between 9 and 930 am, you report to school.  All the kids file in, and get an envelope, which holds the results from your exams.  How mortifying if you don't get in!!  You open that envelope in front of all your peers, parents, teachers, headmaster, etc.  And there are the school photographers on hand, and the press, all snapping away.  Their grading system is different, too.  A*, A, B, C, D, E, F, G,and U, I think is how it goes.  We've never gotten on the lower end, so I'm really not sure, but I do hear people talking about all those grades (called marks over here), so you must be able to get them.  Just weird.

Luckily for J, he got in, and will be studying his chosen subjects for A levels. (Big, big sigh of relief from Mom and Dad!!!!)   G took a vacation day on Aug 24, as it is such a big day.  We saw some of his friends.  Then, when the group photos were being taken, all of a sudden, H was missing.  Hmmm.  And so was another lad.  H did not get in, and sounds like he knew he wasn't going to get in-he'd picked up his results, and left.  Another of J's friends didn't get the "Welcome to Sixth Form!!" letter with his results, but a letter saying that he needed to have a sit down with the Headmaster.  He ended up getting a provisional space at the school, after his meeting w Headmaster.  Another of J's friends, C, got in, but chose to continue his studies at a different school that offers Geology for A levels.  A lot of changing schools at the bigger junctions (between infant and primary school, and primary and secondary, and secondary and Sixth Form), as well as a lot of moving around at any point in time in a child's education.  Very different from the US version of education, where you may go for 13 years in the same school district.  J went into Sixth Form at the same school he has been attending here.  But they keep the Sixth Formers rather separate from the rest of the school, they have their own café and common room, lecture rooms, etc.  Lockers in different area.  And they are privileged to purchase at the school shop, a Sixth Form blazer and tie.  One further note on A levels/Sixth Form:  You further narrow your field of study, going from 10 lessons, down to three or four that you will study for your two years in Sixth Form.  (Sixth Form are the last two years of your education in England-the first year is Lower 6th Form, and the final year is Upper 6th Form.  Actually, mandatory  education ends with your GCSE's.  You can then go into an apprenticeship, or go to (what they call) college, which I think is to obtain some type of specialized diploma-but less than an associate's degree, or you go on to Sixth Form.  Although mandatory education is complete at 16, you can not just loaf.  You need to be enrolled in one of the education types listed above, or be working.)

On to W's education:  When we arrived in the UK, he was entering Year 3 (US equivalent to 2nd grade).  He went to a local village school for Yrs 3 and 4.  He had about 35 kids in his class.  When we made the decision to move to an independent school, we thought that the school J attended would perhaps fit him.  We had him take the entrance exam for the Jr school linked to J's school, and for Yr 5 and Yr 6 (his last two years of primary), he attended the Jr school of J's school. (Same campus, just different region.)   He and J wore similar uniforms-Jr school wore same blazer, but different jumper.   Yr 7, W entered Senior school, and we chose to keep him at the same school (but the senior part), and he is still there, now in Yr 8/Shells.




Ready to enter Year 8/Shells-with a happy smile!!

 

 

 



Still smiling the next day, with all of his gear:  book bag, sports bag, and trumpet

Finally, N's education history.  N also has a new uniform this year, as he is in a new school.

Ready to go to Senior school.  Year 7, here I come!

When we arrived in the UK, he and W were both in primary school, and they both attended the same local village school.  N entered Yr 2 (US grade 1) our first year here.  He also had about 35 classmates.  After a time, we knew we wanted to go to an independent school, but also knew that the school that J attended, and had in mind for W, would not be a good fit for N.  Lots of school shopping ensued.  We found a wonderful school in Chester that fit him so well.  In some ways, it reminded me of the school the kids had attended in the US.  The first year N went to the new school, when he was in Yr 4, he was one of 12 pupils.  The following two years, when he was in Yrs 5 and 6, he was one of 15.  It was a good school for both N, and me.  The parents were really tight knit, and kids and mums alike all got along so well, both in N's yr group, as well as other yr groups.  The final day of primary school for N was heart breaking.  The final assembly saw about half of the kids crying.  In the evening, the texting started.  Kids not wanting to take off their uniform, not letting the uniform be washed, sleeping with the uniform, etc.  I said they were very close.  I've never seen anything like it.  Since school has resumed, there has already been one reunion with all of the kids.  (That poor restaurant!!)  Kids and parents all were able to catch up after the summer holidays.  Those are the mums I mainly associate with, and we've had a few outings (mums only!) since school resumed, as well. 

Lots of room in that book bag at the moment-what will it look like at the end of the day?

There is no associated secondary school with N's primary school (there are more primary schools here than secondary schools), so the 15 students that he attended primary with ended up going to eight different secondary schools.  The secondary school we had in mind for N is where seven of his classmates went.  There was an entrance exam in January, as well as interview and references.  All of N's classmates took entrance exams for entry to secondary school, some kids taking more than one entrance exam to ensure entry into a preferred school.  I'm not sure if state schools require entrance exams as well, as a marker of performance level, or not.  His school is what you probably envision what an English school looks like. (Beautiful old stone.)  But its not what the school looks like-it's what goes on inside the walls.  Too soon to tell, but hoping it goes well.  N seems really "settled", and confident.  It helps that he has several classmates in his school, as well as older children from his primary school who also attend his school.  

Maybe another entry I can try to explain about forms, tutor groups, teaching groups, houses, etc.  All common terms in the English education system.  I think I've read just one, maybe two, of the Harry Potter books, but many, many years ago-when we were still in the US.  It's very much like that, how the education system is-with the houses and forms, etc.

And now......  one final photo!

Ready for the new year

I hope you've enjoyed.  And hope to hear from you soon!!  Let me know what you think in comments.  I need the feedback to encourage me to do more posts!

Scouts

10 March, 2016

Hello again, All!
I have not posted in quite awhile.  It seems the longer we live here, the deeper our roots and more settled we become, and the more fully ingrained into life we are.  (Read-we are just busy with life, and have lots to do.  Things that take priority over blogging, unfortunately.) 

I can't really recall with much clarity what we've particularly been up to thus far in the New Year that I can share, but I do have some photos that help me remember some of the higher moments. 

Back when we lived in the US, the kids were all involved in Boy Scouts, as well as 4H.  When we hopped over the pond, we were at first just busy with finding our way, and didn't really seek out too many activities.  We did look into 4H, and found there were no local chapters. (I STILL miss 4H-it is  a great organization, with many opportunities for growth and learning and discovering, as well as youth leadership.  Near the top of the list of things that I feel bad that we took away from the kids in our journey/excursion into alternate culture.)  I don't know that I necessarily sought out Boy Scouts or any other extra-curricular organizations for the kids over here, or if we all were just overwhelmed with getting settled, and trying to figure out how to do things, and the day-to-day of things.  At any rate, our first year here, we really weren't involved in too much outside of school things-little or no community offerings.  Then, one day, I heard some acquaintances of mine speaking of a local scout hut for Beavers, and the gears started turning.  I enquired a bit, and we joined Scouts near the end of our first year here, I'll say approx. April of 2013.

Scouts are organized a bit differently here.  First off, they are usually not with a school or Church, and they are all run in a hut (just like it sounds-a run-down, musty smelling building), that all the local groups use.  So perhaps dues/fees and fund-raising is more vigorous hence?  Not sure on that.  At any rate.....there are Rainbows, but I believe they are just for younger (age 4-5-ish) girls.  Beavers is next, which is co-ed, ages 6-8-ish.   They wear a turquoise-colored shirt.  But, oddly enough, there is also Brownies for the little girls in that age range.    The ages are rather flexible for all the groups.  Next is Cubs, also co-ed, for ages 8-11, wearing a dark green polo, or jumper.  Scouts follow, again co-ed, for ages 11-14, where they wear the same shade of green-this time in a long-sleeved button down shirt.  Ages 14-18 is called Explorers, and there is also a division called Young Leaders.  It's just boggling to me that its all co-ed, except for the brownies.  And..... there's no Girl Scout cookies over here!!!!!!! Can you even believe it??? That in itself just does not seem right!  I think they do have something called Girl Guides, which I know absolutely nothing about.  Recently, W/N were talking about the founder of Scouts, Baden Powell, and they were talking about the girls branch.  I asked if the founder was Juliette Lowe, and they weren't sure. (I interpret that to mean no, probably was a different founder over here, and is a totally separate organization.  Wasn't Juliette Lowe from Savannah, Georgia?)  That's your backdrop.

When we joined Scouts in ~April of 2013, only W and N joined.  They were in Beavers, as N would've been pushing 7, and W'd had his bday and was already the big 8.  They both attended the same Beavers meeting, but W was soon ushered into Cubs, as he was older. For a year, they attended separate meetings.  The following year, 2014, in late Spring, N joined W in Cubs, and if I remember correctly, they attended camp together.  Now, W has turned 11, and he's advanced to Scouts.  (Again, in contrast to the US, where there'd be a ceremony, and kids would bridge over/graduate to the next level.  Here, you go pretty much individually, as you turn 11.)

Every year, they hold a Scouts District Night, where various people are given awards.  This year, W received the Cubs Silver Award.  (Beavers-highest award you can receive is the Bronze Award, Cubs the highest you can achieve is the Silver Award, and the highest Scout award you can receive is the Gold Award.)  Very exciting!

Another highlight for the evening, was that Cubs turn 100 years this year.  They brought a cake on stage, and chose two lads to cut the cake.  Luckily, W was near the cake, and so he was one of the lucky lads chosen.  Exciting stuff, if you're 10 (almost 11)!  (Cubs also had a cake to commemorate turning 30 years.)

W receiving the Chief Scout's Silver Award for his Cub work

W assisting with cutting the Cubs 100 year cake.

This represents one evening.  I'll attempt to post more, as time allows.  All I have to say is, "Thank goodness for cameras on phones, or I'd never recall anything we did."  I use it a lot, when I haven't remembered to bring the camera along, or didn't think I'd take a picture, but then everyone else is, so then I decide, why not, I'll look like an idiot too and take some photos. The kids grab my phone a lot and take some interesting photos, too.  It is always a revelation to look at my photos, and I have to wonder who took some of the photos, and sometimes I look at the picture, and try to figure it out.  What is it, who is it, where are we, just why on earth was this taken?  I guess we look at our surroundings and life with a different lens (ha-ha--I couldn't resist!), depending on our age.  I hope what you're seeing from your lens is something you are enjoying.  Miss you all!!!

Battlefield Trip

October 22nd, 2015 – Chester, England

What a tiring day!

To start off, I had to get up ESPECIALLY early to leave (3:30am) to get to school by 4:30am to leave school. This was really annoying because just the day before are school started its break and this was our first day off, and I STILL got no sleep. Despite this I was still very excited to be able to go on such a cool trip. Our family has never been on a WW1 trip (only D-Day 2 years ago, which was WW2), and this trip is especially relevant as its WW1’s centenary and I’m also currently learning WW1 as part of my GCSE’s (EU tests that occur in 10th grade but children begin to prepare for in grade 9), so this trip was really something special for me. After I got at school and said all of my final farewells to Dad who dropped me off, I hoped right onto the bus. I’ve included a picture of the bus so you can see what it looks like.

 The bus was “double decker” (all it really was was higher seating with 5 seats on the lower level next to the driver) and I sat on the top (really was no choice) near the middle so I had a good view of the outside, but so I was still close enough to the onboard TV’s where they promised to show videos during the longer periods of driving. I got on and was amazed to see they had these overhead blue lights, I thought these were pretty cool and thought nothing of them. These would later come to bite me as you will see. As I sat down I made sure to “accidently” put my backpack on the seat next to me and to make it seem as though I had a lot of hand luggage to stop anyone from sitting next to me. This plan worked excellently and as the bus took off, I spread my objects around me to insure maximum comfort while I spread across 2 seats. I then tried to ease myself to sleep. It was then that I was struck by the blue lights for the first time. I just couldn’t sleep with the blue lights on. I tossed and turned for about ten minutes until I resolved to put a coat over my face to block out the blue lights. This ended up working and I finally got some sleep. I slept for the next 3.5 hours or so and I woke as we were pulling into a service station off the highway. The staff gave us 45 minutes to spend in the station eating and generally relaxing and taking a break from the bus. I got myself a BLT sandwich, a 2 liter bottle of water and a big pack of Doritos. I instantly ate the BLT it was pretty large so filled me up pretty well and I then saved the pack of Doritos for later in the trip to snack on. We then got back onto the bus and sped away to the south of England and when we got there to the “Chunnel” we were all awake and up. During this time I had read and listened to music on the way down. I was very excited to see the Chunnel as I knew of it and was pretty excited to see what it was like. In case you don’t know, the Chunnel is an underground tunnel that goes underwater from the south of England to France on the other side. The tunnel works by having a huge train pull up and cars and buses (not public) will drive onto the train and it will speed away. Inside your carriages, huge metal doors come down to stop the spread of any possible collisions or anything like that.

        We got to the tunnel at 12:00pm and arrived out at the other side in France at about 12:35pm, on the train you could leave your bus or car, and go to the bathroom, but the train didn’t have anything like shops aboard. The bus itself got really hot while in the train (95 degrees) and as we were all suited up for the cold England and France we were all boiling so most of us stayed outside of the bus until we had to get back on again. When we arrived in France we drove for another 2.5 hours until we came to another highway service station and we got off for another half an hour to get some lunch. I had some French chicken sandwich with mayonnaise I think (it was in French so don’t really know what I actually had) and it tasted pretty good. We then carried onto our first stop of the trip at the Maroeuil British CWGC (Commonwealth War Graves Commission) Cemetery, in Arras. Here we laid a wreath to commemorate a former pupil of the school that died in WW1. Lots of these graves are in the middle of no-where and this in turn gives them a really peaceful feeling.

 

After this stop we then continued onto another cemetery, the Queant Communal British Extension CWGC Cemetery. Here we again placed a wreath for an old pupil who had also died in the war.It was now 5:45pm and we headed for our accommodation for the next 2 nights. This was located in the city of Albert, and our school had a floor, and a different school had another floor. The Wi-Fi in this place was horrendous and we couldn’t connect to even check the news. But the overall accommodation was ok as we had comfy beds, lots of room as well as a game room where we could spend time chilling. We put all of our stuff in our rooms and got ourselves situated and at 8pm we went out to eat at a nearby restaurant.

       

They served us all the same chicken meal. Now, the chicken was severely undercooked and tasted horrible, and those that did eat it (me not being one of them) later in the week had food poisoning. Luckily I didn’t eat it. Phew! We finally got to bed at 10:30 that night, after a VERY long day.

October 23rd, 2015- Albert, France

        We were woke up by staff at around 7:00am and got dressed, took showers, etc., before going downstairs to eat breakfast at around 7:30am. They were serving a continental breakfast, so I just had some toast and a bowl of cereal. We then departed the hotel to walk to the nearby Somme 1916 Shelter Museum. At this museum, they have converted the tunnels that ran under the city and church into a museum that convers the topic of the Somme. They had interesting accounts from the soldiers, as well as their weapons uniforms and also had many mannequins to show off what life was like to live in one of the grimy trenches. At the end of the museum they had a gift shop where I bought a used shell from the war.

After the museum we then continued onto the Ring of Remembrance. The Ring of Remembrance was built in 2014 and contains over 580,000 names of men and women who died in the north of France in the First World War. 12 former pupils from my school who died in the First World War are commemorated on this. Also, I found some Heller’s as the Ring named the people in alphabetical order. I later looked them up but they had no relations to the family. Opposite the Ring of Remembrance was the Notre Dame de Lorette French National Cemetery. We then visited this which was the largest French military cemetery in the world containing over 40,000 men.

After visiting the cemetery, we then continued onto the city of Arras where we were allowed to go out by ourselves to get ourselves something to eat in the 1.5 hours we had. Me and my friends got some Pizza in a nice restaurant and then got back onto the bus to leave to go to the Wellington Quarry Tunnels, where in WW1 troops had dug connecting tunnels in the already existing quarry to position themselves to “pop” out of the ground in the middle of no man’s land and surprise the Germans. We were able to walk through the tunnels and it was very chilling as they showed us the place where the night before they left the tunnels they had a prayer ceremony and how they carved some of their last words into the surrounding stone.

       

After the tunnels, we went back onto our bus and traveled over to the Mory Abbey CWBC Cemetery were again a former pupil is buried. We then continued on to a nearby Café to grab some drinks and light snacks before we would go on to our next cemetery. Here there was a very well decorated pupil who had been killed who had even won the military cross.

We then finally headed back home from a very mellow and depressing day where we packed our bags before heading out again to get some supper at a nearby restaurant, and instead of following our plan we headed to a different restaurant, after the failure of the other restaurant’s food. Here we had spaghetti which tasted pretty good. After which we got to bed again.

October 24th, 2015- Ieper, Belgium

        We got up earlier at 6:30 and stripped all of our beds and got ready before going downstairs for some more breakfast which included the extravagant toast and a bowl of cereal. We then left for Villers-Bretonneux CWGC Cemetery Memorial which is an Australian national memorial. I got some really nice pictures here.

After this we went to another cemetery where a former history teacher from the school is buried, after which we went to a café to grab some light snacks and drinks and we then continued onto Serre to see where the first attacks in the Battle of the Somme took place. This place was very sobering because this was where many ‘Pals battalions’ were absolutely decimated. ‘Pals Battalions’ were battalions that were made up of everyone from the same community, so everyone who went to the same school would all join up at the same time, as well as everyone from the same sport team, and everyone from the local drama club, and so on. As these battalions were the first ones out at the battle of the Somme they were absolutely destroyed leaving the towns and cities that they came from absolutely destroyed by the loss of so many people at the same time. This is the very spot where the soldiers went ‘over the top’ and were all mowed down by German machine guns.

Here is the memorial to those men.

After Serre we then moved onto the large Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, which commemorates the names of 75,000 soldiers from the Battle of the Somme whose bodies were not found. On this there are 5 old pupils that are commemorated.

 

The scaffolding takes away some of the beauty of my photo here.

After Thiepval, we moved onto the Lochnagar Mine Crater, which is a huge crater from many mines underground that were remotely set off at the start of the Battle of the Somme. It’s difficult to get a picture of the crater so here’s one I’ve got from the internet.

I’ve also included the film footage of when the original mine blew.

                We then proceeded onto the Historial de la Grande Guerre which is a really interesting museum on the First World War showing off all kinds of equipment of both the soldiers and the civilians. After this we went to our accommodation for the next 2 nights which was actually ran by the same people as the one before. Here they Wi-Fi throughout the building but the rooms were horrible, having only one outlet per room (this isn’t enough when everyone needs to charge their devices and when there is 6 of us in a room this is even more of a problem. Also, we had some of the loudest people on the whole trip above us so that made the experience even less enjoyable. That night we had burgers at a nearby restaurant which tasted very pleasant. Then we got some needed shut-eye.

October 25th, 2015- Ieper, Belgium

We got up at 6:00 again and lo and behold I had a bowl of cereal and a slice of toast, we then made our first visit of the trip to Larch Wood Railway Cutting CWGC Cemetery where again a former pupil is buried. Departing, we started off again going to the Hooge Crater Museum where they had many relics of the war on display.

       

        We also had a brief stop here for some drinks and light snacks, after which we went to the Vladslo German war Cemetery which was our first and only German cemetery of the trip. The horrible thing about these graves were that not only were there over 500 individual grave stones, but that each stone held the names of 20 people on each stone.

After this we continued to The Trench of Death, which are a set of preserved trenches in Belgium and in case you’re wondering the trench got its name by the soldiers who were stuck in the trenches, waiting for reinforcements, got so desperate for the bodies to be buried as the reinforcements weren’t due for another 4 days, buried the bodies in the trenches themselves.

     

Right next to the trench was a post which marked the farthest the Germans had ever got, but in WW2 the writing that was inscribed on the post was rubbed off by Nazi soldiers commissioned to get rid of any anti-Germany text. Nearby, a farmer had a similar post of the same purpose next to his house and when he heard about what was going on to other posts, he covered his up with hay and the Germans never found it. Here is a picture of the post with its text rubbed off.

       

We then were given an hour to spend in the city which me and my friend spent eating a fancy Belgium waffle (I mean its Belgium so it’s obvious to eat a waffle) and then we just walked around taking photos and just generally experiencing the culture of Ypres. After this we walked back to the hotel to get ready for the night out. Here are some of the photos that I took.

After spending some time in our rooms getting ready, we all left and saw the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate. The Last Post ceremony, starting in 1927, has never failed to happen, even during WW2 were it was done in hidden locations, not necessarily at the Menin Gate. This was very touching as there was then a ceremony where people would put a wreath on the mantel piece to show respect for their dead. We laid 4 wreaths as 4 former pupils are commemorated on this. The Menin Gate commemorates the soldiers whose bodies couldn’t be found after the Battle of Ypres. We then went out to the same restaurant as the night before and this time had a traditional Flemish soup, which I thought tasted excellent. We then went to bed at 11:30.

October 26th, 2015- Chester, England

        We woke up again at 6:00 and guess what? I had a bowl of cereal and a slice of toast for breakfast. We then packed up our belongings ready to go back home. In the morning we had a proper look at the Menin Gate and paid our own respects to our former pupils.

We then moved onto our final cemetery of the trip, the Dozinghem Military CWGC Cemetery, which in the war served as a nursing station and those that didn’t live were buried next to the station. Here we again commemorated the death of a former pupil and then continued forward to the old Shooting Post and Cells, were rebellious soldiers were shot at dawn by a firing squad for acts such as deserting in the face of action. We then carried onto a more joyous topic of the Talbot House, where the soldiers relaxed and where daily shows where put on to entertain the battle-worn soldiers. From here we carried onto Chester where we would disembark at around 10pm that night, but on the way we watched the classic British comedy show ‘Blackadder’, which covers a different era in each of its seasons, and pokes fun at the era with its characters. I’ve included a clip of part of the show.

Well that’s all thanks for reading,

-Jaymeson