Quick Catchup

Today was Remembrance Day, and it went completely unrecognized at my school today. I actually forgot in the morning until I was doing the date and weather with my grade twos. Luckily I had third period off today for prep so I went to the library where I can pick up wireless and watched the Remembrance Day Assembly in Ottawa on the CBC.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted but I don’t really have a lot to say. I’ll try and keep it chronological though. Two weeks ago was training in Quebec. All of the language monitors working in Quebec Province got together and it was a lot of fun.

The first night was pretty laidback; we had a cabaret, and dressed up and danced to some folk music. In the morning we had our first day of training, which was also very aid back. We had the chance to get anything off of our chests that was bothering us, while also sharing things that make our jobs awesome, and finally we shared ideas for activities. Everyone had really awesome ideas, and it was funny having to pretend that we were francophone students in elementary school while people demonstrated their activities.

Other highlights of Quebec were; after party in our room with guitars, swimming, and Moroccan food avec Joel, Jacqueline, and Anita.

Friday night was the costume party; I dressed up as Cat in The Hat and Jess and Laura were Thing 1 and Thing 2. We looked pretty schnazzy. We also got to party with the British monitors, which is always a good time, and the dance floor wasn’t too shabby either.

Saturday I got to visit Yan, Micheline, Alex, and Mireille in Montreal and it was a really good time. T’was very nice to see some good friends and hang out in Montreal. We went to a cocktail bar for drinks and had some pretty intense cocktails. I can’t remember the name to any of them but they came in Mason jars. ☺

I have some other stuff to post here. But I will do that tomorrow. I’m tired and going to bed now.



Goodnight.

Fun in Quebec and a few thoughts.

I feel pretty peaceful tonight. I just want to get some thoughts out while m mind is settled, and not caught up in a million things.

It's hard to look at the big picture a lot of the time. Like I said, when a million things are going on around you, you just end up caught in the middle of it all. I feel like tonight I'm standing outside of it, watching it work the way it does all around me. It feels nice, but also temporary... so I don't know about that.

At the moment, I'm not quite sure what I'm getting at or where I want to go with this. I just wanted to start and see where I end up. I don't really know what I'm thinking about in words; I would consider it more emotion and reflection. Which now that I think of it, is how I dream a lot of the time. I always wake up not knowing exactly what I dreamt about, but I'm still left with how the dream made me feel. (Although sometimes it does work out that I remember my dreams as images also, and I much prefer those)

About two years ago I remember going a little bit crazy wondering what I was going to do with myself after college. In high school my concerns in this regard were pretty short term; decide what school to go to after grade twelve. After college though, is 'real life' right? I felt like I was wandering in to the unknown and it scared me for sure.

When I think about it now, the future is a little bit unnerving at times, but it’s in a totally different way. I have no fears about not getting anywhere with myself, because I’m trying to just take life one year at a time for now. Somehow I’ve made it through 21 years already and nothing too fucked up has happened. I also know that I’m laying some grounds for good things to bloom from, even though I don’t know what they are, I have faith that they will take me somewhere great. (not to sound narcissistic)

On another topic, I need a new personal project. I posted about this a while ago, but I’m still trying to figure it out. I do have a couple very small things I’m trying out right now including NoPoo. Instead of buying and using shampoo, I rinse my hair with a little bit of baking soda/water mixture. Once that’s out I rinse with an apple cider vinegar/water mixture. So I’m planning on trying this out for a while and seeing where I go with it. I just started, so I will do this every few days at the moment, but I’m hoping to get to once a week.

Aside from the fact that this is much more natural than using shampoo, it’s just another thing to reduce my footprint (although I’m kind of doing a bad job in a few other areas). I am a fan of natural shampoo, but I just wanted to take it a step farther and see how it goes.

Last weekend I went to Quebec to see Paterson and the rest of Olenka and the Autumn Lovers. It was amazing; the atmosphere of Fou Bar and the performance combined was very awesome. The place was pretty packed, which was good for the band, but bad if you wanted to get a beer. It was nice to see some familiar faces again, and to have the chance to see them perform and not just practice in the kitchen. I also got to meet the rest of the band, who are all very cool people.

Jane Ehrhardt who set up the show, had the band stay at her boyfriends large, and very awesome apartment in downtown Quebec. I slept on a red velvet couch and had a spinach and apple smoothie in the morning.

Wishing that I had made this a lot shorter than I have, I will wrap this up here. I also have a jeopardy game to create for my grade fours tomorrow.

Peace,

Action de Grâce

After two weeks of hiding behind the clouds the sun made an appearance in Thetford Mines. It made my week; I went for a walk around town, to show my appreciation. I had a little bit of homesickness smelling all of the delicious Thanksgiving dinners that were whiffing through Thetford.

This weekend was looking like it was going to be pretty uneventful. I had talked to almost everyone I knew in Montreal, who were all busy or leaving the city. I tried Quebec, but that wasn't working out. Then I realized that Heather is placed there, and was still kicking around for the weekend. So I hitch hiked (sur le pouce) to the city and hung out with Heather, Micheal, his sister Catherine, and Catherine's friend Gardener.

The first person that picked me up was a retired teacher, who was pretty cool and we chatted it up a bit. My next ride was a little more bizarre; this guy was so hard to understand, and I'm pretty sure he was high... red eyes, big smile, and I think he was talking about the sun when I first got in. Right when I got out of his car, this woman yelled "WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" I turned around... wtf? "Quebec..." I replied. So were they, and I got in their car and they got me there in no time. They drove pretty fast, but they were a pretty hilarious couple, just the way they interacted with each other.

So we drank beers and shot the shit, headed down town to Ozone, which wasn't the greatest music/atmosphere-wise. But the company was good, as was the poutine that followed... and the entertainment of people butting us, some chick telling me she HAAAATES Ontario, sporadic fights in Chez Ashton while eating, and people being hilarious.

Back home now, school tomorrow, and some time to reflect on what I am thankful for.

Since it is Thanksgiving day, I'll just share a short list of things that I appreciate in my life right now.

First off is definitely my family and my friends and everything they have done/do for me. My overall situation in life right now; the school I work at, the people around me, being able to practice a new language, pay cheques, and every situation that led me to where I am now. I'm thankful for my health; so thankful for my health. I'm thankful for my freedom; not just the freedoms I have because I'm Canadian, but the freedom I have in life to do what I want with little to no restraints on that (I mean, to a certain extent haha).

I certainly reflect on that more than I make known, but today is definitely the day to let everyone know what I'm thankful for, and show my appreciation. Donc, merci tout le monde.


Peace :)

I am The Lorax, I speak for the trees.

Every morning when students arrive to class, I have bellwork on the board. It was something that I was used to in elementary school; a simple activity on the board that students can start to work on as soon as they enter the classroom. In our class we give five minutes for this, and each student can collect points for finishing the task correctly.

At the end of the twenty day cycle, the students with the highest number of points gets to come out of the class and we do fun activities for the period. Yesterday and today were my days and they were a lot of fun.

For the younger grades I did simpler things like reading a book, I spy, English songs and etc. For the older grades I played a game called 'hot seat' where a student sits with their back to the chalkboard and a word is written above their head. The other students have to give clues to try and get that person to figure out the word... all in English of course.

Besides making a point of sharing how fun my past two days were, I wanted to speak mostly about the book that I read to the grade three students; Dr Seuss' The Lorax, which I'm sure most people are familiar with.

I love The Lorax; it's probably my favourite Dr. Seuss book. I like the moral of the story, especially since it's an old story, and you can relate everything in the story to so many things happening today. I like it because it simplifies capitalism, corporation, and economy and their social and environmental impact in our world, enough for kids to understand.

I was so happy to see that the students understood why all the swammi-swans, hummingfish, and barbaloots had all left. They understood where pollution was coming from and how it came to be, even though they only understood key words from the book.

Reading this book again has kind of left me with a strange feeling. Not of nostalgia; I just feel like I haven't been actively involved in anything progressive lately, nor have I been motivated to do so. I feel pretty lazy actually. I don't know if it's just me being in a small town where I don't know anyone, and barely speak the language, or if my mind has just been somewhere else. I'm going to say it's a combination of both. 

Another thing that kind of got my mind moving again was an e-mail from Kyria last night. For anyone who doesn't know, Kyria was part of my Canada World Youth group last September but had to leave a month in. She was probably the person I connected with the most, so it was definitely sad to see her go. I am happy to hear she in living in Montreal and loving it, and keeping up with the busyness that MTL is.

I guess what it boils down to is that re-reading The Lorax and getting that e-mail have kind of sparked something. Maybe a new branch of motivation; for something I need to figure out still. But they were both definitely a prompt for something good.

This should be wrapped up here, so that's what will be done. I will end with clip 1/6 of The Lorax on Youtube. If you let it run after the end, it should start with part 2, and so on.


Cheers,

Hahah... wow.