Well, as you have gathered from my last post, my time in the North has come to an end, but this is not the end of my adventures. I am now attempting to navigate the stormy waters of the Ontario public education system. If has been difficult, but has left me with a great deal of free time. As a result, I have begun a new blog of food and nutrition. It covers a lot of the Science behind how ingredients affect our health. Soon I will get into how these Ingredients work together in a recipe. For now, I have begun posting recipes and tutorials for some of the more difficult things to cook.
Should you feel like checking it out, you can do so at: http://cookinwithmarc.blogspot.ca/
Hope to see you there!
Sunday, 2 September 2012
Sunday, 17 June 2012
The Final Week
Well, here we are. In 4 days I will be on my way to Montreal and then back home to Ontario. In the last month, there hasn't been a whole lot going on (hence my lack of posting). Spring was brief, and quickly evolved into a significantly hotter summer than I had anticipated. Right now the weather is 20 degrees Celcius and partly cloudy. It has been excellent weather for walking and hiking up the mountains, aside from one other unexpected thing, Insects!!! I have no idea how they are able to survive the winter here, but there are wayyy too many for my liking. I went on a 2 hour hike yesterday and came home with about 20 something mosquito bites.
Last Friday (June 15) was graduation. I spent 3.5 days working on the graduation cake, but the grads were all very impressed and I was just happy that they liked it.
Now I'm going to take some time to reflect on my time here. There are several points I want to mention.
1. Apparently there is no nice transition between the seasons. It is either Summer or Winter here and probably about 2-3 weeks of transition between each.
2. The people here have learned to live simply. I have had discussions with people about this and the simple living is the easiest explanation.In regards to education and the like, most people don't take it too too seriously since the future they have in store for themselves does not necessitate it. We discussed people who drop out and work at the grocery store versus the people who graduate...and work at the grocery store... The problem/blessing is that there is not very much infrastructure here. This is a simple place, which is quite nice since we can go camping, hiking, hunting, fishing...etc whenever we feel like it and we really don't need to travel long to get 'back to nature' so to speak. The downside though is that the job market here is extremely limited. There are only so many teachers or nurses that are required. There is essentially no place for someone with a Masters or a Phd here. It's is a little sad, but higher education doesn't seem to open many opportunities here and would really require people to find jobs in the South if they want to go that route. This is not necessarily something people want to do since they are very in love with the land here and want to keep their traditions.
3. The Quebec school system is very messed up. The way that we are schooling the kids here does not do them justice. As I said in point 2, there is not a lot of work here for a University graduate, but a trades graduate? There is virtually unlimited potential for a skilled trades person here. There are no certified electricians, plumbers, mechanics, cooks (aside from myself), or anyone with any real skill in even cutting hair. All of the services that we would have a hard time opening in the South, people are crying for them out here. The number one reason why we don't have them, is the school system! The way that things are set up is to train kids to go to University. That is all. There is only 1 stream, academic. With all of the changes that I have seen happen to the school systems in Ontario, especially the introduction of the SHSM program, I simply do not understand the benefit of this one stream program. It is especially appalling when I go into a class and I have kids that should be in a workplace level program and I have kids that should be in an academic stream program. The programs at KSB have been designed to be done by anyone in the class, but that means that at one end, you have kids that have no idea what is going on (and usually drop out), and on the other end we have kids that are so bored because the material is too easy. I mentioned these to many of the administrators, and they share my frustration. They have been pushing for multilevel programs for quite some time, but KSB refuses to introduce them, preferring to stick with the single stream. For this reason alone, I am happy I am leaving this board.
4. The most profound point I have realized while being here is how the community is a family. I suppose like a normal family there are elements you like and others you do not like, but in the end, everyone works together. People go fishing or hunting and come back with a huge haul, but they would always drop the meat off at the community freezer where it would be distributed to the whole village. I will always remember how nice and friendly everyone was to me here. I is amazing that people will see you walking in the cold, or heat and offer you a ride back to town on the back of their vehicles. A lot of the time I was offered rides by people I didn't even know. It may seem like a simple thing, but it is normal here, but almost unthinkable in the South. What if the person is a crazy homicidal maniac?! I think it's safe to say that most people aren't. There is a lot to be said for giving freely, especially when you don't have a lot to begin with.
Goodbye GR, I'll miss you ;)
Last Friday (June 15) was graduation. I spent 3.5 days working on the graduation cake, but the grads were all very impressed and I was just happy that they liked it.
Now I'm going to take some time to reflect on my time here. There are several points I want to mention.
1. Apparently there is no nice transition between the seasons. It is either Summer or Winter here and probably about 2-3 weeks of transition between each.
2. The people here have learned to live simply. I have had discussions with people about this and the simple living is the easiest explanation.In regards to education and the like, most people don't take it too too seriously since the future they have in store for themselves does not necessitate it. We discussed people who drop out and work at the grocery store versus the people who graduate...and work at the grocery store... The problem/blessing is that there is not very much infrastructure here. This is a simple place, which is quite nice since we can go camping, hiking, hunting, fishing...etc whenever we feel like it and we really don't need to travel long to get 'back to nature' so to speak. The downside though is that the job market here is extremely limited. There are only so many teachers or nurses that are required. There is essentially no place for someone with a Masters or a Phd here. It's is a little sad, but higher education doesn't seem to open many opportunities here and would really require people to find jobs in the South if they want to go that route. This is not necessarily something people want to do since they are very in love with the land here and want to keep their traditions.
3. The Quebec school system is very messed up. The way that we are schooling the kids here does not do them justice. As I said in point 2, there is not a lot of work here for a University graduate, but a trades graduate? There is virtually unlimited potential for a skilled trades person here. There are no certified electricians, plumbers, mechanics, cooks (aside from myself), or anyone with any real skill in even cutting hair. All of the services that we would have a hard time opening in the South, people are crying for them out here. The number one reason why we don't have them, is the school system! The way that things are set up is to train kids to go to University. That is all. There is only 1 stream, academic. With all of the changes that I have seen happen to the school systems in Ontario, especially the introduction of the SHSM program, I simply do not understand the benefit of this one stream program. It is especially appalling when I go into a class and I have kids that should be in a workplace level program and I have kids that should be in an academic stream program. The programs at KSB have been designed to be done by anyone in the class, but that means that at one end, you have kids that have no idea what is going on (and usually drop out), and on the other end we have kids that are so bored because the material is too easy. I mentioned these to many of the administrators, and they share my frustration. They have been pushing for multilevel programs for quite some time, but KSB refuses to introduce them, preferring to stick with the single stream. For this reason alone, I am happy I am leaving this board.
4. The most profound point I have realized while being here is how the community is a family. I suppose like a normal family there are elements you like and others you do not like, but in the end, everyone works together. People go fishing or hunting and come back with a huge haul, but they would always drop the meat off at the community freezer where it would be distributed to the whole village. I will always remember how nice and friendly everyone was to me here. I is amazing that people will see you walking in the cold, or heat and offer you a ride back to town on the back of their vehicles. A lot of the time I was offered rides by people I didn't even know. It may seem like a simple thing, but it is normal here, but almost unthinkable in the South. What if the person is a crazy homicidal maniac?! I think it's safe to say that most people aren't. There is a lot to be said for giving freely, especially when you don't have a lot to begin with.
Goodbye GR, I'll miss you ;)
Saturday, 5 May 2012
Week 35 - Spring has finally sprung
Ever since I have been back, things have just been a 'business as usual' sort of routine. I can tell that both the teachers and the students are beginning to wind down. It has been a pretty long year and everyone is starting to feel it (except for myself maybe?).
One of the interesting things that happened last week was the fact that we had an oil leak in the school. The school was closed from Friday April 27 until Tuesday May 1 to clean up and air out the building. We went back to school on the Tuesday afternoon, and although the smell was still evident, it was not unmanageable. These circumstances effectively gave everyone a 4.5 day weekend. I'm still not sure whether this is a good thing or not since the students are much more difficult to handle when we have these non-routine weeks. Instead of rest, everyone decides it's time for fun! and they all come to school even more tired than if we had actually had a normal school week. ie: less school = more tired kids
The second exciting thing that happened this week was the fact that Spring has finally arrived (although today's weather is no indication of that). We managed to get temperatures in the +5C to +9C range and a LOT of the snow has begun to melt. This is great, but there are some annoying consequences. Water and Mud, and we have a lot of both. Around town, the municipal workers use heavy machinery to actually redesign the landscape so that the water does not pool and actually flows downhill into the bay. It's actually very interesting, but can also be very annoying when the path you walked to school is no longer there when you walk home for lunch. I was going to post some comparative pictures, but having forgot my camera cable in Ontario, I have to wait a little bit.
Finally, I though I would show a little comparison of a fewof weather screenshots I took this year.
December 6, 2011
March 4, 2012
May 5, 2012
Take a look at the Sunrise and Sunset times. I unfortunately cut that part off on my December screenshot, but the sun was rising at about 8:15am and it set at about 2:45pm. It's interesting to see the kind of change we get over the year.
At any rate, I am approaching the end of my time here. In 6 weeks I will be preparing for my final 3 days in George River.
One of the interesting things that happened last week was the fact that we had an oil leak in the school. The school was closed from Friday April 27 until Tuesday May 1 to clean up and air out the building. We went back to school on the Tuesday afternoon, and although the smell was still evident, it was not unmanageable. These circumstances effectively gave everyone a 4.5 day weekend. I'm still not sure whether this is a good thing or not since the students are much more difficult to handle when we have these non-routine weeks. Instead of rest, everyone decides it's time for fun! and they all come to school even more tired than if we had actually had a normal school week. ie: less school = more tired kids
The second exciting thing that happened this week was the fact that Spring has finally arrived (although today's weather is no indication of that). We managed to get temperatures in the +5C to +9C range and a LOT of the snow has begun to melt. This is great, but there are some annoying consequences. Water and Mud, and we have a lot of both. Around town, the municipal workers use heavy machinery to actually redesign the landscape so that the water does not pool and actually flows downhill into the bay. It's actually very interesting, but can also be very annoying when the path you walked to school is no longer there when you walk home for lunch. I was going to post some comparative pictures, but having forgot my camera cable in Ontario, I have to wait a little bit.
Finally, I though I would show a little comparison of a fewof weather screenshots I took this year.
December 6, 2011
March 4, 2012
Take a look at the Sunrise and Sunset times. I unfortunately cut that part off on my December screenshot, but the sun was rising at about 8:15am and it set at about 2:45pm. It's interesting to see the kind of change we get over the year.
At any rate, I am approaching the end of my time here. In 6 weeks I will be preparing for my final 3 days in George River.
Saturday, 21 April 2012
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.
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.
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!
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.
Saturday, 31 March 2012
Weeks 28-30 - It's been an interesting month
It is the end of March. Finally. All those crazy things I was writing about are finally done, and there were even extra events that I didn't mention since they were a last minute sort of deal. My SMARTboard training and first aid training were pretty straight forward, but as usual it was quite a bit of information to take in. As one of my colleagues said, "now I know how the kids feel every day!" The best part of my training days is the fact that I got a free 4GB USB drive. It might not sound exciting to you, but my last two 16 GB drives died and all I had was a 256MB one, and let me tell you, that doesn't get you very far.
On March 18 I began my stint of sleepovers. I volunteered to take several people over the next few weeks so that they would have somewhere to stay. It was kind of weird having people in the house with me again, but the pay is quite good (it's more than my actual salary). So on March 18th I had the arrival of Tatiana Garakani and Emilie Peter, two researchers from ENAP. They were wonderful guests and we had some very good conversations. For one, in a long time, I actually spent my dinner in engaging conversation rather than in front of the television. These two ladies were researchers that were working with staff and students at the school in an attempt to create ideal pedagogical practices for Northern communities. I rather enjoyed our research session and I look forward to being a part of the research (at least for the next 3 months). Tatiana and Emilie sadly left on March 21. On March 22, I had two pilots stay here that were spending the night since they were flying a charter out the next day. Finally, on March 26, Danny Fafard from the NYHDP for the Bantam hockey tournament that is going on as I write this. He is a nice fellow and will be staying until April 2.
One of the events that occurred that wasn't on my original calendar was the Nunavik International Adventure Challenge. There was a student race that was 10Km on March 25, and an International race that was 60Km and started on March 26 and went until March 28. The race was on foot with the challengers skiing or snowshoeing. There were contestants from Quebec, USA, Italy, Germany, Australia and others. It was interesting to see so many people from different places come all the way out here. One of the funny things that happened was that the team that is from George River actually took a wrong turn that set them back. We're not sure how they managed that since they LIVE here.
One of the exciting things that happened this past week was that someone was out Ptarmigan hunting and actually managed to shoot a polar bear instead. They brought it back to the school for everyone to see before they butchered it down at the beach. It is too bad that it was dead, but it was interesting to actually get a chance to have a very close look at a polar bear. He was very skinny and they saw him eating garbage at the dump. I think they decided to shoot him since it is a safety concern having him there since the dump is only a few kilometers outside of town. I took a lot of photos of it, but I'm only going to show the mild ones on here.
Next week is our Math Teamathalon. Joetta and Heather have been spending an immense amount of time developing and organizing this event. I have helped whenever I can, but between my normal prep, working on stuff for my Bantam tournament fund raiser and finishing my AQ work, it hasn't been a substantial amount. Although, we have actually taken on the job of the snack committee teachers who thought it was 'too much work' to do it and just wanted to throw money (that we do not have) at it as a solution. So Joetta, Kirsten, Vicky and some of the students worked away this weekend to bake 250+ cookies and rice krispie squares. In addition to that, I made 50+ ham sandwiches and Joetta and I made 176 cookies last weekend for the tournament. It has been a good fund raiser, so far I have made $537 and I still have today to sell the rest of my stuff.
Last, but not least, I have less than a week to go before I can come home and see Ashley!!! I only have to get through another 5 days and then I will be leaving early on Friday morning for a very full day of travel! can't wait!
On March 18 I began my stint of sleepovers. I volunteered to take several people over the next few weeks so that they would have somewhere to stay. It was kind of weird having people in the house with me again, but the pay is quite good (it's more than my actual salary). So on March 18th I had the arrival of Tatiana Garakani and Emilie Peter, two researchers from ENAP. They were wonderful guests and we had some very good conversations. For one, in a long time, I actually spent my dinner in engaging conversation rather than in front of the television. These two ladies were researchers that were working with staff and students at the school in an attempt to create ideal pedagogical practices for Northern communities. I rather enjoyed our research session and I look forward to being a part of the research (at least for the next 3 months). Tatiana and Emilie sadly left on March 21. On March 22, I had two pilots stay here that were spending the night since they were flying a charter out the next day. Finally, on March 26, Danny Fafard from the NYHDP for the Bantam hockey tournament that is going on as I write this. He is a nice fellow and will be staying until April 2.
One of the events that occurred that wasn't on my original calendar was the Nunavik International Adventure Challenge. There was a student race that was 10Km on March 25, and an International race that was 60Km and started on March 26 and went until March 28. The race was on foot with the challengers skiing or snowshoeing. There were contestants from Quebec, USA, Italy, Germany, Australia and others. It was interesting to see so many people from different places come all the way out here. One of the funny things that happened was that the team that is from George River actually took a wrong turn that set them back. We're not sure how they managed that since they LIVE here.
One of the exciting things that happened this past week was that someone was out Ptarmigan hunting and actually managed to shoot a polar bear instead. They brought it back to the school for everyone to see before they butchered it down at the beach. It is too bad that it was dead, but it was interesting to actually get a chance to have a very close look at a polar bear. He was very skinny and they saw him eating garbage at the dump. I think they decided to shoot him since it is a safety concern having him there since the dump is only a few kilometers outside of town. I took a lot of photos of it, but I'm only going to show the mild ones on here.
Next week is our Math Teamathalon. Joetta and Heather have been spending an immense amount of time developing and organizing this event. I have helped whenever I can, but between my normal prep, working on stuff for my Bantam tournament fund raiser and finishing my AQ work, it hasn't been a substantial amount. Although, we have actually taken on the job of the snack committee teachers who thought it was 'too much work' to do it and just wanted to throw money (that we do not have) at it as a solution. So Joetta, Kirsten, Vicky and some of the students worked away this weekend to bake 250+ cookies and rice krispie squares. In addition to that, I made 50+ ham sandwiches and Joetta and I made 176 cookies last weekend for the tournament. It has been a good fund raiser, so far I have made $537 and I still have today to sell the rest of my stuff.
Last, but not least, I have less than a week to go before I can come home and see Ashley!!! I only have to get through another 5 days and then I will be leaving early on Friday morning for a very full day of travel! can't wait!
Sunday, 11 March 2012
Week 27 - Ivakkak Race
I haven't have a chance to post lately since these last couple of weeks have been extremely busy for me. Our end of term was March 2 so I had to finish up all my marking so I would have grades for all my classes. In addition to this I had to create some extra lessons since some of my students were taking off on March 1 to go to the Arctic Winter Games until March 11. Finally, The AQ I'm working on only had a 2 week period for the module instead of 3 weeks (because of March Break) which made all of that work due on March 9. Lets just say I've definitely been working my 60 hour week lately.
That is all in the past now! Next week should be much more simple for me and the rest of the teachers. On Monday we have the 2012 Ivakkak Dog Race departing from here on their way up the coast to Kangirsuk. Tuesday all Secondary teachers have Smartboard training, Thursday we all have First Aid training and Friday is a holiday. I'm thankful for the break since it will let me plan some advanced lessons. Since I'm getting very close to the end of my material for one of my math classes I am really looking forward to teaching whatever I want! I find it very interesting as I sit back and reflect on all the knowledge I have on different subjects. Given the chance I could probably design several math and science courses based on topics that I find interesting and useful. Too bad that's not the way things work.
Anywho, this weekend I decided to go for a nice walk out onto the bay to check out the doggies that will be participating in the race. I think it's interesting that there is such a variety of different looking dogs on all of the teams. It's a good thing I wore my snowboarding gloves since it let me take pictures with my hands covered. Let's just say that even though winter is gone, it is still extremely cold. Here's a picture I took of myself. It was cold enough that the moisture from my breath was frosting up on the fur ruff of my parka.
I find that the best way to make your way out onto the ice is to just follow the snowmobile trails. In this case, you definitely want to follow the well beaten path. Stepping off that path can be hazardous as you can easily step into a soft snow covering and end up hip deep in snow.
I made my way to the dogs and got some interesting shots. I feel bad for them though being tied up on the snow on such a cold day. Windchill was -32 yesterday.
As I made my way back I saw these interesting areas that looked like they had actually melted. Considering the fact that it was still -20C outside I knew that was impossible so I decided to check it out. As I got closer I noticed that there were these fragile looking formations on the ice. They sort of looked like very large snowflakes but I'm fairly certain they were made of ice, so I shall call them ice flakes!
The North is a wondrous place! some people may think of it as just cold and desolate, but if you take the time to explore on a cold sunny day you can see that there is beauty everywhere.
That is all in the past now! Next week should be much more simple for me and the rest of the teachers. On Monday we have the 2012 Ivakkak Dog Race departing from here on their way up the coast to Kangirsuk. Tuesday all Secondary teachers have Smartboard training, Thursday we all have First Aid training and Friday is a holiday. I'm thankful for the break since it will let me plan some advanced lessons. Since I'm getting very close to the end of my material for one of my math classes I am really looking forward to teaching whatever I want! I find it very interesting as I sit back and reflect on all the knowledge I have on different subjects. Given the chance I could probably design several math and science courses based on topics that I find interesting and useful. Too bad that's not the way things work.
Anywho, this weekend I decided to go for a nice walk out onto the bay to check out the doggies that will be participating in the race. I think it's interesting that there is such a variety of different looking dogs on all of the teams. It's a good thing I wore my snowboarding gloves since it let me take pictures with my hands covered. Let's just say that even though winter is gone, it is still extremely cold. Here's a picture I took of myself. It was cold enough that the moisture from my breath was frosting up on the fur ruff of my parka.
I find that the best way to make your way out onto the ice is to just follow the snowmobile trails. In this case, you definitely want to follow the well beaten path. Stepping off that path can be hazardous as you can easily step into a soft snow covering and end up hip deep in snow.
I made my way to the dogs and got some interesting shots. I feel bad for them though being tied up on the snow on such a cold day. Windchill was -32 yesterday.
As I made my way back I saw these interesting areas that looked like they had actually melted. Considering the fact that it was still -20C outside I knew that was impossible so I decided to check it out. As I got closer I noticed that there were these fragile looking formations on the ice. They sort of looked like very large snowflakes but I'm fairly certain they were made of ice, so I shall call them ice flakes!
The North is a wondrous place! some people may think of it as just cold and desolate, but if you take the time to explore on a cold sunny day you can see that there is beauty everywhere.
Saturday, 18 February 2012
Week 24 - Goodbye Winter
A funny thing happened the other day. I was going through my profile pictures on facebook and I found one that I had of an Environment Canada weather report. This was in early December and I was showing that it was cold here, which I guess it was since the average temperature was -16C while everyone back home was getting temperatures of 5C. It was just ironic seeing it since the first couple weeks of January had an average temperature of -28C and a windchill of -45C. The truly funny part is actually the fact that right now it is only -12C outside and I'm sitting here thinking that Spring has arrived. It's funny how your perceptions change.
This was an odd sort of week. As it ended up, we had a 4 day weekend of a sort. Friday was a PED day so we had no class, but still went to school to get stuff done. Monday was a snowday, the first one of the year! Sadly no one told me so I went to school anyway, which was fine since I was able to get some extra work done. The snow and wind were pretty high, but fully equipped I had no trouble getting to school. All I have to say is I'm very glad I have a balaclava and snowboard goggles!
It's actually kind of interesting the way the daylight has been changing. It is getting lighter out for longer, but not in the way that I'm used to. In December, during the solstice, it didn't get light out until about 8 or 8:30am and the sun would set around 2:30 or 3pm. Now the sun rises around 6:40am and sets around 4:30. I did a little calculation that showed me we gain 2min of daylight each day. I guess one minute is in the morning and 1 minute is in the evening. I've been told that once June gets here, it is light out until 11pm and it just gets dusky until the sun rises again around 5.
So this week we had glorious weather. Friday was -10C and sunny. It was a beautiful day and the kids were completely unfocused. This was fine though since we had saved up a reward day and they wanted to go for a walk. So we did go for a walk, up the side of the mountain..haha. One of the great things about the geography of this area is that there are a lot of great places to go for a walk. Mind you, I almost died as we were walking up the side, but I got to the top just a little bit after my students. Nothing like a physical challenge to confirm that you are old. We hung around at the top and took some pictures and collected some rocks for the tumbler.
As we made our way down the mountain the edge was very smooth, steep and snow covered. As a result of all these facts we decided that the best course of action would be to slide down the side! lol. That was a lot of fun, although I think I hit a rather thick section of powder and got completely covered with snow in the front. All in all, Friday was a great day!
Last but not least, This week Ashley and I booked our trip over Spring Break. We are going to be going to Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas from April 8-12. The hotel was very cheap and we are both extremely excited to finally get away on our first real vacation! Only 7 more weeks to go!!
This was an odd sort of week. As it ended up, we had a 4 day weekend of a sort. Friday was a PED day so we had no class, but still went to school to get stuff done. Monday was a snowday, the first one of the year! Sadly no one told me so I went to school anyway, which was fine since I was able to get some extra work done. The snow and wind were pretty high, but fully equipped I had no trouble getting to school. All I have to say is I'm very glad I have a balaclava and snowboard goggles!
It's actually kind of interesting the way the daylight has been changing. It is getting lighter out for longer, but not in the way that I'm used to. In December, during the solstice, it didn't get light out until about 8 or 8:30am and the sun would set around 2:30 or 3pm. Now the sun rises around 6:40am and sets around 4:30. I did a little calculation that showed me we gain 2min of daylight each day. I guess one minute is in the morning and 1 minute is in the evening. I've been told that once June gets here, it is light out until 11pm and it just gets dusky until the sun rises again around 5.
So this week we had glorious weather. Friday was -10C and sunny. It was a beautiful day and the kids were completely unfocused. This was fine though since we had saved up a reward day and they wanted to go for a walk. So we did go for a walk, up the side of the mountain..haha. One of the great things about the geography of this area is that there are a lot of great places to go for a walk. Mind you, I almost died as we were walking up the side, but I got to the top just a little bit after my students. Nothing like a physical challenge to confirm that you are old. We hung around at the top and took some pictures and collected some rocks for the tumbler.
As we made our way down the mountain the edge was very smooth, steep and snow covered. As a result of all these facts we decided that the best course of action would be to slide down the side! lol. That was a lot of fun, although I think I hit a rather thick section of powder and got completely covered with snow in the front. All in all, Friday was a great day!
Last but not least, This week Ashley and I booked our trip over Spring Break. We are going to be going to Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas from April 8-12. The hotel was very cheap and we are both extremely excited to finally get away on our first real vacation! Only 7 more weeks to go!!
Monday, 13 February 2012
Week 23 - Me and my Kindle
So not much really happened this week. Well...last week. I picked up a pair of mitts for Elaine's husbands birthday. He is apparently one of those gentlemen that are fairly difficult to shop for, but really enjoys home made crafts. I am happy to help out a friend in need, and also the sales will help out the community. I went to the municipal office to see what they had in stock and all I have to say is holy crap! Everyone was scrounging for mitts before Christmas and there was nothing! I go now and there's mitts coming out the butt. There were some truly interesting ones as well. Too bad they weren't there when I was shopping otherwise I would have gotten them instead.
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These were the ones that she decided on. Quite nice I must add.
For a good part of last week I was actually quite ill. I'm uncertain exactly what it was, but I was sick from Tuesday to Thursday. Of course I did try and brave out school on both Tuesday and Thursday. Being sick put a bit of a damper on my attempts to mail these mitts to Elaine, but it did give me a chance to do some reading on my Kindle. The thing I love about Kindles is the large amount of free books! I downloaded a bunch of them over Christmas and I'm just getting around to reading them all now. So far I finished two books: The Wizard of Time by GL Breedon. It was a fun little book. Something I would put under teen fantasy. Not literature by any means, but it was fairly entertaining.
The second book I finished off was The Time Machine by H.G Wells. This was an interesting sort of book with an introduction style that is unlike the authors that I have read so far. He does a good job of describing his surrounding and the story is pretty good.
My problems with the book like in a couple of areas. First is that the story itself is fairly boring for the first 40% of the book. Not much really happens, other than the main character hanging out eating fruit. I will admit though that the latter parts of the book do have some excitement, but nothing that compares to modern fantasy. My second problem is his projections based on his understanding of Biology and Evolution. The dichotomous evolution that occurs in this novel and the subsequent characteristics of the species don't correspond to evolutionarily stable strategies. I guess it can be excused though since at his time evolution was still a very new concept.
I am now reading the Island of Dr.Moreau by H.G. Wells. Now I'm starting to get a feeling for his style as he tends to begin his stories in a similar fashion.
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For a good part of last week I was actually quite ill. I'm uncertain exactly what it was, but I was sick from Tuesday to Thursday. Of course I did try and brave out school on both Tuesday and Thursday. Being sick put a bit of a damper on my attempts to mail these mitts to Elaine, but it did give me a chance to do some reading on my Kindle. The thing I love about Kindles is the large amount of free books! I downloaded a bunch of them over Christmas and I'm just getting around to reading them all now. So far I finished two books: The Wizard of Time by GL Breedon. It was a fun little book. Something I would put under teen fantasy. Not literature by any means, but it was fairly entertaining.
The second book I finished off was The Time Machine by H.G Wells. This was an interesting sort of book with an introduction style that is unlike the authors that I have read so far. He does a good job of describing his surrounding and the story is pretty good.
My problems with the book like in a couple of areas. First is that the story itself is fairly boring for the first 40% of the book. Not much really happens, other than the main character hanging out eating fruit. I will admit though that the latter parts of the book do have some excitement, but nothing that compares to modern fantasy. My second problem is his projections based on his understanding of Biology and Evolution. The dichotomous evolution that occurs in this novel and the subsequent characteristics of the species don't correspond to evolutionarily stable strategies. I guess it can be excused though since at his time evolution was still a very new concept.
I am now reading the Island of Dr.Moreau by H.G. Wells. Now I'm starting to get a feeling for his style as he tends to begin his stories in a similar fashion.
Sunday, 5 February 2012
Week 22 - Consolidation Time
Well, I missed a significant amount of time for blogging for two reasons.
1. It was so busy over Christmas that I hardly had a chance to sit still much less make a post
2. My computer died a week after I came back to George River so that made things a little difficult.
But now I have a new computer ( A Sony Vaio E-Series, 6 gigs of RAM and a 2.4GHZ dual core processor :D)
I was originally going to put of some posts of what I did over Christmas since I was pretty busy and all over the place, but seeing as how it is February 5, I'm just going to scrap that and move on!
So what have I been up to since I returned?
Not much, everyone got back into the same routine as before we all left. There were a couple of brutally cold weeks where the average temperature was around -30C and the windchill was -40 to -45. There was one awesome snowstorm one weekend where I could barely see across the road. Here's a picture I took of a statue that we have by the entrance of the school after the storm.
This weekend was actually the most busy one so far. Friday night we decided to have a belated Chinese New Year celebration dinner. We had Ants Crawling up the Hill, Vegetarian Spring Rolls, Tofu and Vegetables wrapped in rice paper, BBQ Pork, Egg Foo Young, Fried Rice, Steamed Rice and Soup. We also had some Aloe Vera Juice, Jasmine Tea and Tikuanyin. All in all it was a good time. Too bad I couldn't get my hands on a duck!
Saturday was also an interesting day. I finally got to go dog sledding for the first time! Mark, my principal, has a dog sled team and he was taking them out of a training run to their tent out in the woods. It's about a 18-20Km run so I thought I would tag along. It was a pretty nice day outside (Sunny and around -20) so I thought I would be good with my normal gear. I was wrong about that one. Snow boarding gloves do nothing for warmth out here and normal hiking boots suck too. I went most of the way on a skidoo and by the end I could barely feel my toes or my fingers.
One of the cool things about being out here is that you actually hang out with your students. On this ride, one of my students was driving the Skidoo. Fortunately we didn't die or crash which is always a plus!
Now the sledding part was pretty interesting. Mark let me go at it alone for a little bit since it was a straight path and it was very difficult for the dogs to get lost. Before we go out they actually make trails in the snow with snowmobiles so that the dogs have something to follow, although sometimes they remember the trail from last year and follow that instead of the new one. You have to fight with them sometimes to actually get them to listen, but for the most part they are pretty co-operative. The hard part was also watching Mark go up a hill. When that happens you actually have to get off of the sled and run with it so that its easier on the dogs. Overall they don't run as fast as I had thought. They definitely go faster than I could jog, but they only run around 10-12Km/h. I can imagine that it would take people quite some time to get anywhere back in the day. Here's the view I got from the front of the sled.
Next week promises to be a normal week, although the administration will be gone for meetings. Too bad, it's never the same without them. In 9 weeks Ashley and I are going to go on a vacation to Cuba! That will be fun, now we just have to keep an eye out for deals!
1. It was so busy over Christmas that I hardly had a chance to sit still much less make a post
2. My computer died a week after I came back to George River so that made things a little difficult.
But now I have a new computer ( A Sony Vaio E-Series, 6 gigs of RAM and a 2.4GHZ dual core processor :D)
I was originally going to put of some posts of what I did over Christmas since I was pretty busy and all over the place, but seeing as how it is February 5, I'm just going to scrap that and move on!
So what have I been up to since I returned?
Not much, everyone got back into the same routine as before we all left. There were a couple of brutally cold weeks where the average temperature was around -30C and the windchill was -40 to -45. There was one awesome snowstorm one weekend where I could barely see across the road. Here's a picture I took of a statue that we have by the entrance of the school after the storm.
This weekend was actually the most busy one so far. Friday night we decided to have a belated Chinese New Year celebration dinner. We had Ants Crawling up the Hill, Vegetarian Spring Rolls, Tofu and Vegetables wrapped in rice paper, BBQ Pork, Egg Foo Young, Fried Rice, Steamed Rice and Soup. We also had some Aloe Vera Juice, Jasmine Tea and Tikuanyin. All in all it was a good time. Too bad I couldn't get my hands on a duck!
Saturday was also an interesting day. I finally got to go dog sledding for the first time! Mark, my principal, has a dog sled team and he was taking them out of a training run to their tent out in the woods. It's about a 18-20Km run so I thought I would tag along. It was a pretty nice day outside (Sunny and around -20) so I thought I would be good with my normal gear. I was wrong about that one. Snow boarding gloves do nothing for warmth out here and normal hiking boots suck too. I went most of the way on a skidoo and by the end I could barely feel my toes or my fingers.
One of the cool things about being out here is that you actually hang out with your students. On this ride, one of my students was driving the Skidoo. Fortunately we didn't die or crash which is always a plus!
Now the sledding part was pretty interesting. Mark let me go at it alone for a little bit since it was a straight path and it was very difficult for the dogs to get lost. Before we go out they actually make trails in the snow with snowmobiles so that the dogs have something to follow, although sometimes they remember the trail from last year and follow that instead of the new one. You have to fight with them sometimes to actually get them to listen, but for the most part they are pretty co-operative. The hard part was also watching Mark go up a hill. When that happens you actually have to get off of the sled and run with it so that its easier on the dogs. Overall they don't run as fast as I had thought. They definitely go faster than I could jog, but they only run around 10-12Km/h. I can imagine that it would take people quite some time to get anywhere back in the day. Here's the view I got from the front of the sled.
Next week promises to be a normal week, although the administration will be gone for meetings. Too bad, it's never the same without them. In 9 weeks Ashley and I are going to go on a vacation to Cuba! That will be fun, now we just have to keep an eye out for deals!
Saturday, 17 December 2011
Weeks 14 & 15 - The Countdown is on!
So here I am. Three days from now I'll be arriving in Montreal, the halfway point on my journey back home for the holidays. Before we get to that though let's see what's been going on for the last two weeks!
This is a random picture of the mail pickup truck. I thought it was interesting to see the little modification to the tires so that there is a little bit more traction. There is a massive amount of ice on the roads right now so this is probably a very good idea.
Last Saturday was our school Christmas party at Omerone's house. It was an interesting evening. The food was pretty good (Omerine and Raymond are an older french couple and definitely know how to cook!). I'm glad that some of the younger people were there so that I had some people to talk to. It gets a little awkward for me sometimes when I'm surrounded by older people and little children. At one point though someone busted out their accordion and people started singing Christmas carols. This was my cue to hit the dusty trail... Anyway, I had been warned that there would be massive amounts of food so I decided that I would make some Ciabatta as an accompaniment to the main course. Everyone seemed to enjoy them and Omerine was quite happy to have the extras.
I think they turned out reasonably well considering I haven't made these in over 2 years. Although they weren't as airy as I wanted. Next time I'll have to let them rise more.
One of the interesting additions to our school was a new ornament designed by the art teacher called the Northern Lights.
It's a fairly interesting construct made from pieces of green and purple glass wired together. It's quite nice when the light illuminates the glass.
Over the last couple weekends (last weekend and this weekend) I have been working on making Christmas cookies for all the students. I thought it would be nice to have the teachers come down on the last day of class and get some for all their students. I made them some sugar cookies, belgium cookies and mexican wedding cakes. I think in total there was around 200-250 made. This week Nancy came in and lent me a hand! It was nice having her there since decorating the sugar cookies on my own generally becomes very tedious and makes me question my 'good ideas.'
Here is the Maestro in the middle of decorating some cookies. She brought some of the kids in too and they have fun decorating too. :)
Finally, here are some of the interesting things I have bought while I've been here. Some of these are made from soap stone, others are made from bone or some other type of stone. It seems a little strange to me that no one carves things out of wood, but it kinda makes sense though since there aren't that many trees around here, and the ones we have are soft wood.
Anyway, this is it! The next time I post I will most likely be sitting in Delhi with a nice mug of hot chocolate and a cookie!
Last Saturday was our school Christmas party at Omerone's house. It was an interesting evening. The food was pretty good (Omerine and Raymond are an older french couple and definitely know how to cook!). I'm glad that some of the younger people were there so that I had some people to talk to. It gets a little awkward for me sometimes when I'm surrounded by older people and little children. At one point though someone busted out their accordion and people started singing Christmas carols. This was my cue to hit the dusty trail... Anyway, I had been warned that there would be massive amounts of food so I decided that I would make some Ciabatta as an accompaniment to the main course. Everyone seemed to enjoy them and Omerine was quite happy to have the extras.
One of the interesting additions to our school was a new ornament designed by the art teacher called the Northern Lights.
Over the last couple weekends (last weekend and this weekend) I have been working on making Christmas cookies for all the students. I thought it would be nice to have the teachers come down on the last day of class and get some for all their students. I made them some sugar cookies, belgium cookies and mexican wedding cakes. I think in total there was around 200-250 made. This week Nancy came in and lent me a hand! It was nice having her there since decorating the sugar cookies on my own generally becomes very tedious and makes me question my 'good ideas.'
Here is the Maestro in the middle of decorating some cookies. She brought some of the kids in too and they have fun decorating too. :)
Finally, here are some of the interesting things I have bought while I've been here. Some of these are made from soap stone, others are made from bone or some other type of stone. It seems a little strange to me that no one carves things out of wood, but it kinda makes sense though since there aren't that many trees around here, and the ones we have are soft wood.
Anyway, this is it! The next time I post I will most likely be sitting in Delhi with a nice mug of hot chocolate and a cookie!
Saturday, 3 December 2011
Weeks 12 & 13 - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Well, just like most of my favorite television shows, I decided to take last week off of posting. Unlike the mass media, my inactivity was not due to the American Thanksgiving weekend, but rather the complete lack of anything of note happening! Over the period of two weeks though, I actually did some stuff that was interesting.
On a personal note, I am quite happy that Movember is over since now I am able to shave off my ridiculous looking mustache. Although as my mom would point out, all I need is a sombrero, a poncho and a sash of bullets and I'll be ready for an old school Mexican standoff.
But allow me to back things up a bit. November 26th was Heather's birthday. We had a small gathering at Gillians house and made pizza for dinner. Nancy also brought over the stuff to make Sushi and I made a tray of Eclairs. Fortunately eclairs are very easy to make and really aren't too time consuming.
Everyone had a good time and a few people had a little too much to drink. I hadn't thought that they had drank too much more than me, but they were in pretty rough shape the next day and I was fine (I actually went to school and did some work). The highlight was definitely when Gillian spit her drink across the room. I was watching her as she did it and I really wasn't sure what was going on. Apparently she heard someone say something funny and she couldn't help it. I also learned that some of my fellows have interesting talents.
Recently I have been going to the gym trying to get into better shape. I usually go around 3-4 times a week although some times it is hard since it's so bloody cold outside. Last Wednesday when I came home I looked up and noticed that the Northern lights were out. It was pretty neat! I got a picture of it, but sadly I didn't have any sort of tripod and it was exceedingly cold outside making it hard to sit still and take the picture.
When I go home for Christmas I'll grab one of my SD cards for my other camera. I bought an 8gig SD card from amazon for $15 but apparently my camera is too old to recognize the chip and I haven't been able to use it! On a positive note though, it's only a little bit over two weeks until I jump on a plane and come home!! It's all very exciting. I have seen a few people around here hanging Christmas lights on their houses as well.
This is one of the houses across the street from me. It's nice to see everyone getting into the holiday spirit! I'm thinking next week I will get started on my Christmas cookie workshop. I discovered that on December 20th it is a day when classes have activities or Christmas parties so I thought it would be fun if we had cookies available that we could take around to all the kids! Since there's around 200 students I think I'm going to have to get started early! I think 2 weeks should do it no problem though since I will have some helpers as well! That fact is probably a good thing since decorating can get tedious and makes me want to shoot myself sometimes..haha
On a personal note, I am quite happy that Movember is over since now I am able to shave off my ridiculous looking mustache. Although as my mom would point out, all I need is a sombrero, a poncho and a sash of bullets and I'll be ready for an old school Mexican standoff.
But allow me to back things up a bit. November 26th was Heather's birthday. We had a small gathering at Gillians house and made pizza for dinner. Nancy also brought over the stuff to make Sushi and I made a tray of Eclairs. Fortunately eclairs are very easy to make and really aren't too time consuming.
Recently I have been going to the gym trying to get into better shape. I usually go around 3-4 times a week although some times it is hard since it's so bloody cold outside. Last Wednesday when I came home I looked up and noticed that the Northern lights were out. It was pretty neat! I got a picture of it, but sadly I didn't have any sort of tripod and it was exceedingly cold outside making it hard to sit still and take the picture.
This is one of the houses across the street from me. It's nice to see everyone getting into the holiday spirit! I'm thinking next week I will get started on my Christmas cookie workshop. I discovered that on December 20th it is a day when classes have activities or Christmas parties so I thought it would be fun if we had cookies available that we could take around to all the kids! Since there's around 200 students I think I'm going to have to get started early! I think 2 weeks should do it no problem though since I will have some helpers as well! That fact is probably a good thing since decorating can get tedious and makes me want to shoot myself sometimes..haha
Sunday, 20 November 2011
Week 11 - I Don't have the Powaaa!
This week was a pretty average week, aside from one major difference. The Village shut down power to the school and our apartments from 8:30 - 10:30 on both Wednesday and Friday. As a result, there were no classes until after lunch. This was a little bit weird to me since I ended up missing 8 periods. It was kind of nice though since my Wednesday and Friday classes are both usually very busy.
Last Friday I started tumbling some rocks using the schools Lortone Big Rock 3lb Tumbler. Over September I collected a bunch of rocks on my walks and decided that it might be nice to smooth them out and make them shiny! I finished the first round using the course grit this Friday and it was amazing how smooth they already are. I started the medium grit and I have high hopes for the final result. I think I may even order one off of amazon. They usually run around $160 on amazon, but it seems like it would be a worthy investment.
Another interesting thing that we did in the lab was to try out our new static electricity generator. Heather was using it for her physical science class, but I thought my sec.5 Science class could probably learn something from this experience as well. Here's a picture of one student using the ball.
I also used the static ball. We used a chair to elevate ourselves off of the ground as recommended in the guide. Unfortunately standing too close to the metal parts of the chair tended to cause static shocks that started to feel fairly uncomfortable. I'm not sure why but I ended up getting shocked 5 times more than everyone else!
Early in the week it was actually a little exciting. The weather started to warm up and reached around +2C. This was great since it was warm and sunny, and also caused a lot of the snow to melt! Unfortunately, after this it cooled down to -6C and all of the water generated from melting snow solidified into ice. This started to make by walk to school a little more interesting, but it would soon be followed by the following:
This storm dropped about 3-4 inches of snow in a very short period of time. It sucked having a bunch of snow back, but at least I didn't have to worry about falling on my face crossing the road anymore! I should mention that this picture was taken around 2:45pm. It's a little bit depressing, but it starts to get dark around 3 and is usually completely dark by 3:30-3:45.
On another plus side I got my second grocery order from Marche Daoust, and all I have to say is this place rocks! Aside from the fact that I asked for 12" tortillas and got 8" ones, everything else was spot on. Also, unlike IGA online their produce and meat are FRESH. In addition, as a result of the Northern Healthy Eating Program, my $185 bill ended up costing me $82. Which is great considering I bought all kinds of meat, vegetables, fruit and meat. My grocery bills are in fact cheaper here than they are in the South! I'm just afraid of the fact that I will definitely run out of food cargo well before the end of the year.
Since this month is Movember I have decided to grow a mustache in honor of prostate cancer awareness. I cheated a little bit though and grew a goatee with it.
It feels weird having this again. I can't wait to shave, my face is itchy!!
On a last note, only 4 more weeks until I go and get a Big Mac :)
Last Friday I started tumbling some rocks using the schools Lortone Big Rock 3lb Tumbler. Over September I collected a bunch of rocks on my walks and decided that it might be nice to smooth them out and make them shiny! I finished the first round using the course grit this Friday and it was amazing how smooth they already are. I started the medium grit and I have high hopes for the final result. I think I may even order one off of amazon. They usually run around $160 on amazon, but it seems like it would be a worthy investment.
Another interesting thing that we did in the lab was to try out our new static electricity generator. Heather was using it for her physical science class, but I thought my sec.5 Science class could probably learn something from this experience as well. Here's a picture of one student using the ball.
I also used the static ball. We used a chair to elevate ourselves off of the ground as recommended in the guide. Unfortunately standing too close to the metal parts of the chair tended to cause static shocks that started to feel fairly uncomfortable. I'm not sure why but I ended up getting shocked 5 times more than everyone else!
Early in the week it was actually a little exciting. The weather started to warm up and reached around +2C. This was great since it was warm and sunny, and also caused a lot of the snow to melt! Unfortunately, after this it cooled down to -6C and all of the water generated from melting snow solidified into ice. This started to make by walk to school a little more interesting, but it would soon be followed by the following:
This storm dropped about 3-4 inches of snow in a very short period of time. It sucked having a bunch of snow back, but at least I didn't have to worry about falling on my face crossing the road anymore! I should mention that this picture was taken around 2:45pm. It's a little bit depressing, but it starts to get dark around 3 and is usually completely dark by 3:30-3:45.
On another plus side I got my second grocery order from Marche Daoust, and all I have to say is this place rocks! Aside from the fact that I asked for 12" tortillas and got 8" ones, everything else was spot on. Also, unlike IGA online their produce and meat are FRESH. In addition, as a result of the Northern Healthy Eating Program, my $185 bill ended up costing me $82. Which is great considering I bought all kinds of meat, vegetables, fruit and meat. My grocery bills are in fact cheaper here than they are in the South! I'm just afraid of the fact that I will definitely run out of food cargo well before the end of the year.
Since this month is Movember I have decided to grow a mustache in honor of prostate cancer awareness. I cheated a little bit though and grew a goatee with it.
It feels weird having this again. I can't wait to shave, my face is itchy!!
On a last note, only 4 more weeks until I go and get a Big Mac :)
Sunday, 13 November 2011
Week 10 - A Long Weekend...
This was a bit of a boring week in that nothing terribly interesting happened. Friday was Remembrance Day/James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement anniversary. As a result Friday was a holiday and it was only a 4 day week at school.
On Friday I went in to school to try and get some work done. I had been coming down with a cold on Tuesday night so I didn't stay for too long on Friday since I was still pretty tired. There was a bit of a storm on Friday morning and Heather was worried that her Circus guest may not be able to get on the plane for Montreal. The storm dissipated for a while though and everyone got out no problem! Although I did find it quite humorous that the weather network said it was 3C and partly cloudy and then when I looked out my window it was friggin' snowing!
Anyway, I ended up going for a walk on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday it snowed too much and the dogs were hiding underneath the houses. On Sunday though it was much nicer out and I was joined by this happy little fellow:
I made a few steaks for dinner this week and I saved the fat and grissel for him. He seemed more than happy to have it! I figure that the dogs here have pretty low body fat and they can always use more, especially since Winter will soon be here in full force.
While I was out I came across a traditional tent. Apparently people just set them up and leave them as they sometimes just go out and sleep in the tent on nice days.
Since I had so much time off I decided that I would do some baking as well :) I still had a bunch of wild blueberries left from when I first went picking.
Here is one of two bags that I collected off of the slopes. I decided that I would use them to make myself some danishes.
Finally, I figured I would give everyone a snow update. It's been a little difficult to gauge exactly how much snow is on the ground since the winds blow it around so much. The least amount is probably 4-6 inches and the deepest is about 8-10 inches. I was a little tempted to build a snow dragon or something since we had all this wet snow, but I got too lazy and played Mass Effect 2 instead. Here is what the country side looks like now.
This week should be busy since we all have to get ready for report cards. Term 1 ends on November 23. It should also be interesting since Mark and Nancy will be away for meetings next week. Hopefully everything will run okay without them!
On Friday I went in to school to try and get some work done. I had been coming down with a cold on Tuesday night so I didn't stay for too long on Friday since I was still pretty tired. There was a bit of a storm on Friday morning and Heather was worried that her Circus guest may not be able to get on the plane for Montreal. The storm dissipated for a while though and everyone got out no problem! Although I did find it quite humorous that the weather network said it was 3C and partly cloudy and then when I looked out my window it was friggin' snowing!
Anyway, I ended up going for a walk on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday it snowed too much and the dogs were hiding underneath the houses. On Sunday though it was much nicer out and I was joined by this happy little fellow:
While I was out I came across a traditional tent. Apparently people just set them up and leave them as they sometimes just go out and sleep in the tent on nice days.
Since I had so much time off I decided that I would do some baking as well :) I still had a bunch of wild blueberries left from when I first went picking.
Finally, I figured I would give everyone a snow update. It's been a little difficult to gauge exactly how much snow is on the ground since the winds blow it around so much. The least amount is probably 4-6 inches and the deepest is about 8-10 inches. I was a little tempted to build a snow dragon or something since we had all this wet snow, but I got too lazy and played Mass Effect 2 instead. Here is what the country side looks like now.
This week should be busy since we all have to get ready for report cards. Term 1 ends on November 23. It should also be interesting since Mark and Nancy will be away for meetings next week. Hopefully everything will run okay without them!
Sunday, 6 November 2011
Week 9 - Snowed In!!
So this week started off with a Bang with our Halloween event at school and lil trick or treaters at night. In the afternoon on Monday all classes were cancelled and the kids had a Jack O Lantern carving and Scarecrow making competition. Since I don't have a homeroom I helped out with three of the classes that I usually see. It was pretty fun and the kids had a pretty good time. I lent one class my carving implement and let them go at it. They did a great job and ended up winning the best pumpkin!
After that we went home and got ready for the little kids. We figured it would be more effective to have Halloween as a group so then we could pool our resources. I had a Zombie Costume, Heather was a mad scientist and Jeanne was a Smirf (too bad I didn't get a picture of that). I still recall being mad as a kid when mom used to make me wear a coat over my costume. Well....in George River EVERYONE was wearing a coat! (That's what happens when it's -8 outside and there's 6" of snow on the ground).
At about 8:00pm there was a gathering in the community centre for their Halloween event. Basically a ton of people get dressed up and kinda hang out in a big circle. The Centre community judges the best costumes and give away prizes. First place was $800, Second was $600 and third was $400. They also had a bunch of $100 and $200 prizes.
If you look closely there is someone near the middle wearing a blue bathing suit and bunny ears. That was actually one of my students and he won second prize! It was a complete surprise to everyone since he's such a tough guy. We all got a pretty good laugh out of it though. :)
Later on in the week I decided to give the gym another try (I had to wait a few days and heal from my first time). It's been 2 months since I've done any weight lifting and it was a little rough getting back into it. I think I'll be okay to restart my 3 day program in a couple of weeks. It's nice that the gym is soo close to my house. It's actually even close than the one that I went to in Burlington; I can walk there in 4 minutes. The place is set up pretty good too! Although I do think that they tried to cram as much possible equipment into this room as possible!!
At school I got my Secondary 5 class (they are the ones in their last year of school) to design and execute an experiment on their own. I was happy to see that they did a great job of it! They're finally starting to take a step towards independence!
Minimaali was very proud of her first experiment!
The last thing that I did last week was to go for a walk to the fire site. This time I was joined by a new dog. Not sure what his name was, but he was nice! I've decided that from now on instead of chucking my bread ends in the garbage I'm going to save them for my canine companions. Better for them to eat it than for it to go to waste in the dump.
Anyway, it was another exciting week in George River, but the countdown is on!! Only 6 more weeks to go until I head South for Christmas break. Also, the Christmas shopping has begun! Oh how I love the internet :D
After that we went home and got ready for the little kids. We figured it would be more effective to have Halloween as a group so then we could pool our resources. I had a Zombie Costume, Heather was a mad scientist and Jeanne was a Smirf (too bad I didn't get a picture of that). I still recall being mad as a kid when mom used to make me wear a coat over my costume. Well....in George River EVERYONE was wearing a coat! (That's what happens when it's -8 outside and there's 6" of snow on the ground).
At about 8:00pm there was a gathering in the community centre for their Halloween event. Basically a ton of people get dressed up and kinda hang out in a big circle. The Centre community judges the best costumes and give away prizes. First place was $800, Second was $600 and third was $400. They also had a bunch of $100 and $200 prizes.
If you look closely there is someone near the middle wearing a blue bathing suit and bunny ears. That was actually one of my students and he won second prize! It was a complete surprise to everyone since he's such a tough guy. We all got a pretty good laugh out of it though. :)
Later on in the week I decided to give the gym another try (I had to wait a few days and heal from my first time). It's been 2 months since I've done any weight lifting and it was a little rough getting back into it. I think I'll be okay to restart my 3 day program in a couple of weeks. It's nice that the gym is soo close to my house. It's actually even close than the one that I went to in Burlington; I can walk there in 4 minutes. The place is set up pretty good too! Although I do think that they tried to cram as much possible equipment into this room as possible!!
At school I got my Secondary 5 class (they are the ones in their last year of school) to design and execute an experiment on their own. I was happy to see that they did a great job of it! They're finally starting to take a step towards independence!
The last thing that I did last week was to go for a walk to the fire site. This time I was joined by a new dog. Not sure what his name was, but he was nice! I've decided that from now on instead of chucking my bread ends in the garbage I'm going to save them for my canine companions. Better for them to eat it than for it to go to waste in the dump.
Anyway, it was another exciting week in George River, but the countdown is on!! Only 6 more weeks to go until I head South for Christmas break. Also, the Christmas shopping has begun! Oh how I love the internet :D
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Week 8 - Happy Halloween!
We started this week off with our Terry Fox event on Monday afternoon. We canceled classes in the afternoon and used the time to show all the teacher challenges. The school really pulled together to raise money and the total was way above our goal! We had donations of cash and also donations of items that people bid on or bought raffle tickets for. Our goal this year was $1000, but what we actually made was:
Although I should say that this was the total at the assembly. There were still a few things that were for sale that hasn't been totaled. Its possible that we actually made $3000. This totally beats last years total of $1600!
Some of the cool events that were included were: Gillian got a mullet, Mark got his leg waxed, Josh got his head shaved and Anne took some pies in the face! (students totally enjoy abusing their teachers..)
I love the creativity that some of these kids have :) Here's a poster that they made to remind everyone to donate so Gillian could get her mullet.
Here's a great action shot of Anne taking one to the face. I love the expressions of joy on everyones face! I actually took a 5min video of her pies in the face, so I'll have to upload that to youtube asap.
After the challenges we all went on a 4Km walk around town. It was nice, although it was a little bit cool. On the plus side it didn't snow/rain and the winds were calm!
For the rest of the week there was a big focus on decorating for Halloween. There were some great doors from the secondary classes. Although as Josh would point out, his and my doors were the crappiest...which was soo true.
Here's some of my favorite doors!
This is Ali's door. He's the new secondary french teacher that we had been missing. I like how his kids used a picture of his head for the scarecrow!
This is Jeanne's door. Another Secondary french teacher. I like how she is pacman and is eating her students!
And finally, this is Heather's door. if you're wondering what the mummy's are, they're toilet paper wrapped barbies! lol
It's been a pretty good week so far. The kids I was having a lot of trouble with finally calmed down and are actually progressing quite well!
In my Secondary 4 class I have actually been able to maintain a 3 week advance on the material we need to cover. Given that we are ahead I have been making them learn extra stuff that isn't in their curriculum....muhahaha! If only they knew they would be rather upset. They are struggling a little bit with some of it since its a little bit harder than what they are used to. I have come to the opinion though that this is a great way of running the program for the following reasons. First, it will make them more knowledgeable. For the kids that actually want to go to Montreal to go to College, they will need the extra skills to do well. Second, having harder material requires them to become experts at the easier material (which they are actually graded on). If I stopped at what they only needed to learn they would think it was too hard. If I give them something much harder, they start thinking the other stuff is easy!
I ended up talking to the Ped councellor about being ahead on the material. She was surprised and wanted to know what I was doing that was working so well. As I sit back and think about it, I don't think I'm actually doing anything special. My room is layed back. I want them to learn and will help them to do so. They eat in class, talk to each other, help each other and we all talk. It's not a matter of cracking the whip and making everyone follow a rigid schedule. These kids come ready to learn and ready to succeed. I believe that it is their attitude and the fact that they want to do well that had been allowing them to do so. Not to say that they don't get off track and have lazy days, because that would be a lie. It would also be a lie though to give the impression that I am also not the same way at times. How can I get upset at them for being human and being themselves?
Some of the cool events that were included were: Gillian got a mullet, Mark got his leg waxed, Josh got his head shaved and Anne took some pies in the face! (students totally enjoy abusing their teachers..)
After the challenges we all went on a 4Km walk around town. It was nice, although it was a little bit cool. On the plus side it didn't snow/rain and the winds were calm!
For the rest of the week there was a big focus on decorating for Halloween. There were some great doors from the secondary classes. Although as Josh would point out, his and my doors were the crappiest...which was soo true.
Here's some of my favorite doors!
It's been a pretty good week so far. The kids I was having a lot of trouble with finally calmed down and are actually progressing quite well!
In my Secondary 4 class I have actually been able to maintain a 3 week advance on the material we need to cover. Given that we are ahead I have been making them learn extra stuff that isn't in their curriculum....muhahaha! If only they knew they would be rather upset. They are struggling a little bit with some of it since its a little bit harder than what they are used to. I have come to the opinion though that this is a great way of running the program for the following reasons. First, it will make them more knowledgeable. For the kids that actually want to go to Montreal to go to College, they will need the extra skills to do well. Second, having harder material requires them to become experts at the easier material (which they are actually graded on). If I stopped at what they only needed to learn they would think it was too hard. If I give them something much harder, they start thinking the other stuff is easy!
I ended up talking to the Ped councellor about being ahead on the material. She was surprised and wanted to know what I was doing that was working so well. As I sit back and think about it, I don't think I'm actually doing anything special. My room is layed back. I want them to learn and will help them to do so. They eat in class, talk to each other, help each other and we all talk. It's not a matter of cracking the whip and making everyone follow a rigid schedule. These kids come ready to learn and ready to succeed. I believe that it is their attitude and the fact that they want to do well that had been allowing them to do so. Not to say that they don't get off track and have lazy days, because that would be a lie. It would also be a lie though to give the impression that I am also not the same way at times. How can I get upset at them for being human and being themselves?
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