I was lucky enough to have not just 1, but 2, travel opportunities with my schools this year. The first was to London back in February, and last week I went with a group to York. Even though the travel time was much longer (24 hours one direction) and the students were younger (12-14), the trip itself was much calmer and, for me, more enjoyable than the trip to London. York is a much smaller city, so the likelihood of them getting hit by a bus or taxi while not paying attention was also a lot lower. I believer there was an inverse correlation between that factor and my personal enjoyment during the 2 trips.
Although this was not my first trip to England, it was so different from my trip to London, that everything was new. Instead of taking the Eurotunnel on the bus, we took a ferry across the North Sea from the Netherlands. When I say a ferry, I mean a really big boat. Not a Carnival cruise ship (thankfully!), but multiple levels of cabins, shops, restaurants, and bars. Choosing to take the boat instead of driving greatly increased the travel time, but it allowed us to relax a little. On both legs of the journey, we took the ferry at night. We had cabins, so everyone was able to sleep in a bed instead of on the bus, take showers, walk a little, and we also got 2 hot, good meals on the boat. As a plus for me, leaving the Netherlands and returning through Belgium meant that I got extra stamps in my passport!!
The boat was run by an English company, so as soon as we got on the boat, we switched to English culture, food, and language. The students' reactions to everything, the food especially, were so varied. Some kids would not touch the meat filled English breakfast or the curries for supper. But we had 2 boys that ate everything. One boy, who actually has a mysterious allergy to something but he doesn't know what, literally tried every single food in each buffet. He was so curious and liked most of it. And thankfully no allergic reactions. The other, was just a growing teenage boy. He was always the last to leave the restaurant, at which point we always saw him eating alone, with his multiple desserts and a big smile.
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| English sheep! How do they baaaa with an English accent? |
York, as I mentioned, is much smaller than London and in the northern countryside. It was nice to see all of the small farms and sheep that I didn't see in my previous trip. And spring is just starting, so everything was green and beautiful! The city was founded by the Romans, fortified by William the Conqueror, and then became an important center of the wool trade and textiles. All of these pieces of history can be found somewhere in the city, and we had a lot of free time to just explore the historical downtown area. We also visited some other structured attractions in the city. The York Castle Museum is built were York Castle once stood and is housed in the old female prison and debtors prison. The museum displays recreated period rooms, a full-size Victorian street, as well as the history of the debtors prison. We visited the Railway Museum, which has multiple engines on display to show changes in engine mechanics and construction, but also more cultural things, like the royal railcars. Honestly, I wished we could have spent more time in this museum, because it was the end of the first day and everyone was exhausted. We didn't spend much time there and I didn't have the energy to fully see and appreciate everything.
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| Who knew?! |
The other major attraction in York itself was York Minister. The cathedral is beautiful, with an incredible amount of detail, like other Gothic cathedrals I've seen. There is a chapel devoted to St. Nicholas, multiple sets of celebrated stained glass, an ornate choir and a chapter house. The whole church is beautiful and we spent a lot time going through each section and discussing its history. We also got to climb the 275 steps up to the top of the central tower. The panoramic view of the city and countryside was beautiful. Unfortunately, the day we went, there were wind gusts over 60 mph, so we didn't stay at the top long. But the kids really enjoyed it and I always like seeing an aerial view of the cities I visit.
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| York Minster |
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| The choir |
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| View from the top |
Two of the days we spent at locations outside of York. We spent one day in the seaside city of Whitby. An hour north of York, on the North Sea, Whitby is small former fishing/sea faring. It also happens to be where James Cook, the famous explorer, used to live. In the morning, we had a guided tour of the James Cook Museum, which is housed in the house where he lived, although he only rented 1 room. The museum mostly focuses on his voyages and life, but has some general information about ship travel during the 16th and 17th centuries. We ate lunch in an old-cemetery, up on a cliff overlooking the sea. It was beautiful!! We had free time all afternoon in the town. Since Whitby is mostly a tourist town now, there were all kinds of small boutiques and gift shops that the kids loved. But we could also walk along the pier and watch the sea, which is what I opted to do. On the way home, we drove through the Yorkshire moors, and I was really excited to see a real English moor. I've read too many Romantic English novels not to appreciate the vastness and possible supernatural and emotional effects of a moor.
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| Whitby |
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| Where we had lunch |
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The moors. Thankfully, we missed seeing a glowing hound
from hell or the spirit of Catherine Earnshaw.
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My favorite visit was to Fountains Abbey. Fountains Abbey operated for about 400 years, opening in 1132 but closed when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries after he separated England from the Catholic church. The Abbey fell into ruins, but is fairly well preserved and is amazingly beautiful. The ruins are in a huge park, so we toured the ruins of the abbey and then walked through the park for the rest of the day. The Abbey is breathtaking, and the park was so peaceful and relaxing. There were multiple small lakes and a deer park, although we didn't see any deer. That evening, I got to visit my first English pub, though we didn't stay long. It was a nice country pub called The Dormouse. It was, by far, the best day!
The trip was long and tiring with the students, but was really wonderful. It was great to get to know the students outside of the classroom. Here are just a few anecdotes that why explain why they are fun. 1) Just like in London, they were enamored with the squirrels in the parks. As we were relaxing the first day, one of the boys came sprinting up to me and yelled, "Courtney, there's a squirrel! Come see it!!!!" They were obsessed with getting a good video of them and chased these poor squirrels all over the park for 30 minutes. 2) It was really funny in Whitby because a group of students actually bought the same sunglasses as me. They had them in yellow, like me, but also green, pink, white, and orange. They were all wearing them together, being funny, and then saw me and were surprised I had bought some too. They were even more surprised when I explained that I had had my for over a year already and that they just bought the same sunglasses as their teacher. 3) Another boy listened to a kids song about a little pony incessantly, driving the people around him crazy. So naturally, I taught him the pony dance from the 60s to go along with his song. It was so funny watching him and his friends try and do it. They really struggled, which just made it funnier. Someone, somewhere, has a video of me doing it with them in front of York Minster. Update: For anyone even remotely interested, a student has kindly posted a link to the little pony song on my facebook wall. AND, he made a very good attempt at translating the lyrics into English. See, doing silly things with my students is actually a teaching strategy, not just me being ridiculous.
It was really hard to say goodbye at the end. This trip was my last official action as an English assistant. When we arrived back at the school, it was the start of a 2 week vacation and I will be back in the US before they start classes again. This group of kids (2 of classes) were awesome all year and so much fun to work with. Going on this trip with them was really a fantastic way to end my time here in France.
From York with love
(extra love if you get the 2 explicit literature references)
