If I'm working (or in training as I am right now) then I wake up at about quarter to 8. Getting ready in the morning is a lot quicker when I have a uniform, there is no time needed to pick out clothes. There's also no need to bother with makeup. At 8, Nancy and I walk from the White House to the Den to find something for breakfast. The only tables are in the tent that is attached to the Den, our bosses call it our dining room, we call it the party tent. So we eat either sitting on the bigger freezer in the kitchen or in front of the TV in the living room.
At 8:30 we meet in the staff room and then one of the lead instructors takes us 14 new volunteers for training. The three leads are Emma, Phil and Ian. They all seem pretty nice so far, other volunteers beg to differ. Ian is said to be the most easy going, but according to Francisco, "when Emma mad, you run. Fast."
Over the last week we have done a lot of different things in training. I now know the basics about the revenue and expenses of the centre, how to work in both the gift shop and the coke bar, how to check customers in and out of all four lodges, how to work the log splitter in the woodpile and lead a session of low ropes. I had one afternoon of reception training where I learned how to make bookings for the centre (and how much some of accommodations cost!). I had a four day archery instructor course where I was taught by a national champion and assessed by a woman who coaches the GB Junior Olympic Archery Squad.
I've now had two days of ropes training: I can set up the climbing equipment of most of the high ropes and climbing wall activities and I can belay people and teach kids to belay. These days were both really fun and I actually remembered to take my camera out on one of them!
Patrick and Su Jin hanging out on Jacob's Ladder
Benjamin and Patrick tackle the Wobbly Pole. I failed quite miserably on it.
Su Jin and Gustavo (I think?) on The Gauntlet
Me belaying someone on the Rope Ladder
Our training usually ends between 4 and 5pm , depending on how our leads are feeling (or how busy they are with other things.) I usually go back to my room in the White House, check my computer then gather up any laundry I have and go back to the Den. My evenings are spent in the Den, eating, watching TV or more often a movie or two. People hang out in the tent a lot because it's the only place most people can get internet access. The Brazilians, Allan and Rodrigo, spend a lot of time playing guitar and singing in there and sometimes they convince me to join in, and then I sing very badly.
This past weekend provided something new and interesting because I went to visit Emily at her placement in Sheffield. I booked my tickets online during the week (35 pounds return) and got up very early on Saturday morning to catch the train from Chingford to Liverpool Street Station in Lodon. From there I caught the tube to St. Pancras Station where I succeed in picking up my tickets from the automated ticket machine and getting on the right train to Sheffield. Two hours later I was there and Emily met me at the station. We waited for a bus and made our way to Castleton in Derbyshire. The buses in that area are pretty awful. They're not exactly cheap, they're never on time, and because there's about 4 different bus companies, getting any sort of bus pass is pointless. Victoria's transit system is flawless compared to Sheffield's.
Emily and I chatted non-stop on the double-decker bus to Castleton and probably annoyed our fellow riders. The weather was typically English: over cast and occasionally raining. Just the ride there was beautiful. Castelton is the Peak District; full of lush, green, choppy hills dotted with sheep. It was so English countryside. The thing about being Gilwell and Chingford is that I could almost forgot sometimes that I'm not still in Canada, but up north was exactly what everyone thinks of when they think of England.
So what did we do in Castleton? Visit the castle of course! Peveril Castle is almost 1000 years old, though not much remains of the oldest parts. It's set way up a steep hill, perfectly defensible, though apparently it rarely saw any military action. It seems it was the residents of the stewards of the forest who collected taxes and fines from the villages and enforced laws concerning the forest. Other than the remains of some walls, the only part left standing is the Keep. We explored it quite throughly (it didn't really take long) and ate our lunch in one of the deep window ledges. The whole time we kept saying to each other, "Guess what? We're eating lunch in castle!" We took tons of pictures and were in awe of it all the whole time. For more pictures, see my album on Facebook.
This is one of my favourite shots. I would love to go back and do some real hiking in the Peak District
I nearly fell asleep on the bus back to Sheffield. We took another bus to Totely, the suburb of Sheffiled where Emily works at Mickely Hall, a home for adults with disabilities. Emily has her own room with an extra pull out couch, which I slept on, and in that way she's better off than me. But there's just one other overseas volunteer who lives there, all other staff and volunteers come in on shift work. It was great to see Emily but I don't think I could be happy living there. To me it feels like living and eating in a hospital, and she admits it is kind of lonely. Maybe it's because I'm used to living with a roommate and working and eating with dozens of people every day, but I found her placement extremely lonely. That in combination with seeing Emily again made me a little homesick.
On Sunday Emily, the other volunteer, Karina, and I went back into Sheffield and did some shopping. My train wasn't until 7:18 but everything in Sheffield (and Chingford too for that matter) closes at 5pm. So there wasn't much to do for two hours. Emily and Karina caught the bus home at 6, and I read in the train station until my train came because changing my ticket to an earlier time would have been way too expensive. The train ride back was 3 hours and I was quite tired by that point. By the time I got to London, and then back to Chingford it was 11pm. There is a 24 hour taxi service in Chingford and I had a very talkative Indian cabby drive me back home. By the end I felt quite proud of myself for navigating public transit so well in a foreign land.
Despite having been gone less than 48 hours, I was very happy to be back at Gilwell, surrounded by all these people who I like and who like me, doing work that I thoroughly enjoy. I told Emily to come and visit me whenever she wants, and since Karina knows a couple of the girls here at Gilwell they are both going to come down the next time we all have a weekend off.
This is what life in England has been like so far. I'm greatly enjoying it, though I still miss some things from home, and already I feel like this experience is changing me.
One more thing. Emily and I have decided that we are going to Greece for Christmas! We're going for at least a week since I get two weeks holiday over Christmas and Emily is going to request time off. We want to get some other Lattitude and/or Gilwell volunteers to come with us. We're thinking of doing one day in Athens to see all the mandatory tourist sites, the on to one of the islands. Except we have no idea which island. I would be very grateful if anyone could suggest a good island to go to stay on, it seems impossible to choose.
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