Great British Problems

This morning, after saying goodbye to Georgia, I prepared my lesson for today on 'England'- cities in England, stereotypes of England, weather in England, sport in England. I took these to the school and showed them to the teachers, who showed me the sheets they had prepared- from a map of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales the students had to colour in the countries that constitute Great Britain, and the countries that constitute the United Kingdom. Then they had to fill in the capital cities of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. On both of these subjects my knowledge is a bit* sketchy, but I thought I'd be able to work it out.

rainy morning

I started with the oldest class, where I asked the children to think about stereotypes they know of England. They sat there dead pan, staring at me while I jovially explained the English like to eat fish and chips and play cricket. So I started the colouring exercise but had no idea what was the distinction between 'Great Britain' and the 'United Kingdom' I had to check with the teacher. She didn't know so I cautiously tried to tell her I thought the difference was that Great Britain was not including Northern Ireland. She promptly explained to the class Great Britain was England, Wales, Scotland and Southern Ireland. At this point I was close to banging my head on the wall so I started with capital cities. London was no problem- thankfully- and I had just opened my mouth to explain Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland when the teacher said it was Glasgow. Wondering how I had got to the tender age of 21 without realising Glasgow was the capital of Scotland I then came round to Wales and hit a blank. 

Two hours and two classes later, it was all going much better and the classes were enjoying my stereotypes and starting to join in. I was confidently explaining the capital of Scotland is Glasgow, silently thanking the powers that be that I hadn't embarrassed myself by saying Edinburgh, when this teacher stopped me. 'Glasgow is the capital of Scotland? Not Edinburgh?' 'Ahhh-' I smiled indulgently, 'Interestingly, until today I thought it was Edinburgh too. But according to Madame Bessoneau it is actually Glasgow.' The children were painstakingly carefully writing Glasgow on their beautifully coloured in maps. She frowned and pulled out a dictionary, flipping through to find the correct page and showing it to me. 'Edinburgh...capital of Scotland.' Ahhh. Awkward.

When I got home I put my pyjamas on and took my make up off immediately, and got into bed. Then I ventured to the fridge where I found a tomato and a bottle of wine. Realising desperate times mean desperate measures, I did what any self respecting woman would do, and got dressed again to venture out to the supermarket on a chocolate run. I was just looking guiltily at the array of chocolate on the conveyor belt, feeling very Bridget Jones-esque when I heard a gaggle of 10 year old boys behind me; 'ahhh! c'est la prof d'anglaise!' I did tell them I like chocolate.

*VERY sketchy