Week 33 - annnd we're back

This was my first week back after the Easter break, and not much has changed.

Just before the break we had our school wide TeaMATHalon.  It was a huge project that Joetta and Heather put an immense amount of work into.  I helped whenever I could, but the planning and execution was thanks to these two ladies.  For the event there were 9 coloured teams at 3 levels.  Kindergarden - Grade 3, Grade 4 - Grade 7, All Secondary and IPL.  We had 3 games: Fish Skinning, the Rocket Game, and Building a Shelter.  Each of these games had math related questions or tasks, but the focus was for the kids to have fun and not be afraid of doing some Math!  It went over really well.  I could see that the kids were enjoying themselves and there was a lot of school spirit, which was great to see.  I uploaded a small clip from one of the games at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zdy5OpDmlE.

The initiation of our Easter break was a little bit disappointing.  Due to weather conditions, no planes were able to land on Friday April 6.  As you can imagine, many people were very irked and many people had to rebook flights that that had lined up (including myself).  Saturday morning came, and nice clear weather came with it.  We all piled onto a King Air from Air Nunavut, and we rode it all the way to Montreal.  Since it was such a small plane we had to stop in Shefferville and Chibougamau to refuel.

Once I landed in Montreal it was only a short wait to get on my flight to Toronto (about 30min).  I like it when I only have a short stop over.  After arriving in Toronto, my parents and Ashley were there to greet me at the terminal.  We had some heart felt greetings and then we were off to the Mississauga Dragon Mall for lunch.  It was nice to go and get some Chinese food since all the Chinese I was making in GR was severely limited by the ingredients that I could actually obtain.  Ashley and I spent the day in Burlington, then the next day my parents were nice enough to drop us off at Pearson for our flight to Las Vegas!

Everything went rather well at the airport.  No problems checking in or getting through security.  Our flight to Vegas was a little long (about 5 hours) and we were very happy to land (especially since the bathroom in the front of the plane was out of service).

Ashley and I spent 4 glorious days in Vegas and saw a ton of stuff, from the M&M shop, to the Premium outlet mall.  We even checked out 9 different hotels and their shops.  Some of the highlights we had was going to the Bodies Exhibit in the Luxor, checking out every imaginable hangbag store, and just chilling out by the pool.  When you have spent the last 3 months in a place covered in snow, dry 30C sunny weather is like a dream come true.  This was one of my favorite pictures, and I took it with my iPod!

 All good things have to end some time though.  Ashley and I squeezed in as much time together as possible, but then it was time for me to depart (for the last time).  My flights back went without a hitch and I was back in GR at about 2pm.  Being back left quite a bit to be desired.  There was just as much snow as when I left (too much), and I also entered my apartment to find that the water pump was busted and I had no water whatsoever.  It was fixed around 7pm the next day, but I was quite irritated to not be able to take a shower.  It also made cooking a little difficult.  You don't quite realize how much water you use until you don't have any!

We're back into a routine now, but the school year is coming to an end.  Next week is the last week of April, and Exams are in the first week of June.  I only have about 2-3 weeks left to teach material, then I need to do review for the exams.  It is so strange to realize that there really is not much of the year left.  All we need is one last push and we'll be out of the woods.