Don't make me

I absolutely need to write my last blog entry from Solihull in English. I've been to the UK many times before, but never before have I felt so... I don't know... integrated into society, as it were. I can't belive we came here just a bit more than two days ago. I can truthfully say that today has been one of, it not THE, best days of 2010.

Coming to Langley Primary this morning, the very nice head teacher, Mark, told us that the older pupils, more specifically year 5 and 6, were going to be away almost all day. I was cursing the situation in my head, as my main priority for the day was to spend time with just those classes. As it turned out, though, everything worked out perfectly! I started out in year 4 in the morning, staying there practically all the time until lunch. I watched them doing maths, reading... and I showed them our photo story from Sweden.

I had lunch and then I went out into the schoolyard where I made plenty of new friends. I played some football and some other games with the children, and I was almost struggling to get inside again after that, having kids hanging on to me like leeches. :)

After lunch, year 5 came back, and so I spent an hour or so with them, talking to them and showing them our pictures. At 2:30, year 6 also came back and I did the same thing all over again. It's a wonderful feeling, standing in front of 50 children who all speak another language and that you have never met before (except for the ones that I'd already talked to yesterday) and not feeling a bit nervous. They wanted to know what Sweden was like, and they couldn't believe that we can actually meet deer in our forests just next to the city, that we have free school lunch, that Swedish school children never have to wear uniforms, that boys and girls play football together in their breaks, that we allow our pupils to climb trees in their breaks as well... stuff like that.

In many ways, though, I feel that the English school system is better, or at least as good, as the Swedish one. English children are taught to be polite and respectful, to treat each other well, and most importantly education is taken very seriously all the time. I really enjoy the fact that I can play around and be ironic with my pupils in Sweden, but this is the first time that I've actually felt that there are downsides to that as well.

In conclusion, this day and the whole stay here has been nothing short of wonderful, and I most certainly do not want to go home tomorrow morning. So Liam, Jamie, Dowd (?), Danni, Zaina, Joshua, Edward, Josie, Jasmine and all the other wonderful children who have introduced themselves to me but whose names I can't recall at this time... and all the others that I haven't had the time to get to know... I really hope I will see you again some day.