burn, baby, burn. disco inferno
so last night i took part in one of the most odd, morbid traditions of the british culture: guy fawkes day. here's a short tutorial for anyone who is unfamiliar:
guy fawkes was a catholic revolutionary who attempted to burn down the parliament in 1605. He was caught, tortured and executed on Nov. 5 and as a result, everyone celebrates his death by setting off fireworks and making huge bonefires where effigies of guy fawkes are thrown in to be burned. swell isn't it?
after missing 4 buses (because they were full) we finally made it to kenilworth to find out we had actually missed most of the fireworks. We did however, toss some guys into the fire, eat some pork on a stick, and step in sheep dung. it was a complete cultural experience. We then went to a pub where a cute greek boy asked me if i wanted to go back to his flat for "whiskey and coke"...apparently he didn't mean the carbonated kind. neat.
I started my fieldwork on Thursday at Fenham Secondary School in Stoneleigh, about 20k outside of Coventry. Secondary school in the UK goes from grades 7-13. I quickly got brought to the Year 7 class and got introduced to a boy named Geoffrey, who was to be my escort for the day. Geoffrey was an interesting fellow, a little chubby with a charming regional accent. He got "isolation" (equiv of detention) before we had even had lunch. In his defense though, that kid totally deserved to get punch in the arm because, "the fuckin' chav kicked him in his giives and then guffed off with his mates". nice.
Friday I went to Balsall Common Primary School which is in Coventry, and visited both a Year 1 (5 and 6 year olds) and year 4 (9 and 10) class. These kids were so adorable i just wanted to squeeze them. One of the Year 1 girls was from Canada, and was in England because "her mummy and daddy said she had to". The Year 4 class was a little bit more advanced, and I had to actually lead some activities with them during their drama class. Afterwards one of the teachers came up to me and Joe and said that one of the children who has mild autism had taken part throughout the class, following instructions and interacting without help (which he had never done before). Neither Joe nor I could even identify which child this was, so it was obvious he fit in with the rest of the group. It certainly makes me optimistic about some of the work i'll be doing in the coming weeks.