Introduction
Another week has passed with a lot of fun things. I have worked on 4 out of 5 days, Judith has been very busy on choir stuff, I have had a cold for nearly 4 days now. So for the past 4 days every night I opted out on writing a new update and went to bed early. Judith is still having troubles with her arm being affected by the not so ergonomic desk and chair here, something we’re working on to improve. She is the main person behind posting pictures and everything and I have a nice piece of paper with some notes for this update written by her, but I am mainly doing the clicking and typing.
October 28, part II
After writing the update we gave Scott and Carolin a call and went over to their place. I got to meet Edgar, their enthusiastic, energetic and cute rabbit. He was hopping around the room. We talked a bit, played some Beatles Rockband; very nice and relaxing. Although I was a tad bit sceptic about Rockband / Guitar Hero and more games like that, it was enjoyable to do. Not sure if I could play it as often and much as the games I have played so far, but it was better as one would think after seeing the Guitar Hero episode of Southpark.
October 29
Quite uneventful. I went to school to pick up notes and instructions for subbing on Friday. I did some prepping for that, we had dinner and I went to bed early.
October 30
When I walked into school that day I was in for a surprise. Nobody told me that like 80% of the students and nearly 50% of the staff would dress up for Halloween, 1 day before the actual Halloween. But yet, there it was! At moments like these, one feels like a tourist :-). Applied Mathematics 10, Applied Mathematics 20 and Science 10 were the subjects I taught that day. Applied Math really doesn’t have too much too it. It’s like or a tad bit lower in level than “Wiskunde A” at a level close to “HAVO 4”. A lot of kids weren’t there because of Halloween.
Science 10 had almost all kids present and it was the class I had to prepare for the day before. I received some notes on the topic “Energy” on Thursday with the request to find a nice way passing them on to the kids. Since I couldn’t get some materials needed for a “placemat” activity, I ended up teaching it in a frontal instruction, in which I did try to keep them thinking actively as well by firing questions at random, doing some votes, advocating your choice, etc etc. It was fun and after I was done it turned out we (or rather I) had been talking about Energy for nearly 50 minutes. I did not realize it before because the class did not “feel” like a Dutch class after being in a frontal instruction for like 50 minutes. Especially if you realize this was the last period they had before weekend, before Halloween. Good kids they were!
After school we went to the Elks. Not as busy as usual, since quite a few teachers were in Edmonton for a teacher conference. It was very nice though! Talked a lot to different people. Afterwards, we were in a small group “leftovers” that went to Surly Bobs for some dinner. (See pictures below). We were invited by Travis to come over for some more wine, which we did as well. Turned out to be an evening with more wine and good conversation. A tad bit unlucky on the cab again, we had to walk to the main road to catch a cab home. At moments like these you realize a cellphone would be nice.
October 31
Halloween! Doing groceries, cleaning, etc etc. No kids came trick or treating at our place, so we went to Alan and Allison’s, who live just around the corner. In the Elks they invited us to bring our candy over to give it to kids that went by at their place. They already had had like 40 kids when we arrived, but at the end of the night, while watching soccer, drinking wine and hearing stories about Halloween when it is really cold (-20C and below) about 100 kids had visited Alan and Allison’s. Judith did a good job on handing out candy! 🙂
Travis forgot he would phone us at Alan and Allison’s, but remembered after he gave Allison a call about something else. Robyn and Travis picked us up a good 20 minutes later and after one glass of wine we went to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show. After we bought the tickets at the theatre we waited at the Black Knights’ Pub to admire the costumes of all the people there. Halloween really is a big thing here….. The Rocky Horror Picture Show turned out to be a cult movie that had a lot of traditions to it. People threw rice through the theatre at the moment rice was thrown in the movie at a married couple, sprayed with waterguns when it was pouring with rain in the movie, threw toast at the word toast and several decks of playing cards were thrown through the theatre as well. Also there was a united response to the characters in the film, like “asshole”, “whore” and “boring!”. One would expect such a thing to fade out over time, but the opposite was actually happening. It was quite a thing to experience.
November 1
Sleeping in! Some more shoppings. Judith went to rehearsals of the choir (sectionals), because of the performance at the Torch relay, later that week. While she was gone I made my own dough for pizza and used the leftovers to make a few tiny breads as well. It turned out to be so much fun! Breadmaking from scratch is really not that hard and the result is very good!
Carolin and Scott came over for dinner and, like the week before, I had prepared well and planned on a nice dinner. I made:
- mushroom risotto with scrambled eggs and lettuce. I would normally use rocket, but it wasn’t available in the store 🙁
- a bonbon of goatcheese, drizzled with honey, wrapped in zuccini which was spread with a thin layer of green pesto, wrapped in prosciutto ham, baked shortly
- 2 different kinds of pizza, one with fresh tomato, pancetta, mozzarella and oregano and one that would be my standard overloaded salami piccante, less picante than normal on request by our guests. Still good though 🙂
- Semi freddo with speculaas served with warm apple compote. Yes, you have to love freezers. 🙂
The bad thing about so much food is it fills you up: we had no space for the delicious cookies Scott and Carolin brought. But it was a nice night, good food, pleasant company!
November 2
Another day of subbing! I did Arts and Car Mechanics. Half a day for one teacher, other half for another. Judith went to the gym in the morning. Huge compliment from the students at Car Mechanics: after like 30 minutes of class with me they finally understood the physics of breaking, something another sub had spend three days on last week. At times like these you do realise that being educated to teach actually matters, something that seems to be disputed by all the “experts” on your average birthday party. But as we used to say: the quarter dropped (kudos for Canada for still having quarters) Because it would be a busy week we did not do much more. We ate the leftovers from the day before (still good!)
November 3
Judith had a choir practice. For me this day was mainly spend relaxing. Looking back at this week, it was the only day I did not have to work.
November 4
Another day of Arts and Car Mechanics. Both are actually fun to teach. Of course, that may be because the Arts class is very nice and the Car Mechanics class did not have too many students and mainly good students. Last choir practice for the day of the Torch Relay! Judiths choir was practising with the kids choir and the official Montreal choir that travels with the torch! I was not feeling too well, so I went to bed early. Start of my cold. 🙁 I made a nice soup from the leftover mushrooms, which was enjoyed a lot, basically cause I yearn for soup when I have a cold.
November 5
Judith went to Mildred Hall Elementary School. At the district Cheese and Wine party, a few weeks ago, when I was in the Netherlands, she met one of the teachers there, who invited her to see a class in Elementary. Judith spend the morning assisting seven and eight year olds reading and doing other things. I slept in, feeling not too well. Around 10.30 am I got a call to sub for the afternoon. After a few seconds of hesitation I accepted, hung up, showered, took a paracetamol and off I went! Pure Mathematics 10 and 20, in the French Immersion program. Quite interesting again. I was abled to help them on the math, so that was quite OK. Some girls were a bit excited, because the 4 day volleyball tournament would start that evening and they were playing. So the last period was a tad bit restless at times.
After school I went home, just in time to see Judith before she left to the Torch relay preparation. That night the Olympic Torch would come to Yellowknife! After some resting and a paracetamol, I put on my thermo underwear and went to the city hall. Standing still at -5C to -10C is not that funny without thermo underwear and I was glad I put it on. Only my feet were stonecold at the end of the night. Walking home started circulation again, but it turned out not to be that well for my cold.
But it was worth going there! For sure! It is a very special moment seeing the torch nearing the stage, feeling the arousement. Canada really is proud having the games and that really shows off. Food was available from different stands, including a fundraising stand from Sir John, which I of course sponsored by buying a hotdog. After warming near ther barbeque I positioned myself fairly close to the stage. It took like 45 minutes from that point before Judiths choir entered the stage. I kept warm by moving a bit and keeping my gloved hands in pockets. First Judiths Choir sang Oh Canada, together with the “Fireweeds”, the childrens choir of Yellowknife. After that the Montreal choir joined and they sang the Torch Song, which, in the opinion of many choir members, was a bit cheezy. But it was a good performance, very powerful and it made quite an impression on many people. Afterwards we went to warm up again at the SJF barbeque and walked home. This really was something special to experience!
November 6
Armed with black liquorice I went to sub for Kirstin. That meant I got to teach my own subject. Neat! Judith brought in some paracetamol I forgot to bring during the first 10 minute break (thank you Facebook chat) and it was just fun to teach Chemistry 20 (twice in a row) followed by Science 9. Nice reactions by a lot of the students, because they had seen me quite a bit before, since these were the classes I visited and helped in the weeks I was exploring the Canadian educational system.
We ordered in some food, after I made another portion of mushroom soup. Although I have been quite annoyed by my cold, the soup has been very good. 🙂
Finishing….
If we keep postponing writing updates, stories keep getting as long as this one. I know, I know, I know. And it must have been quite a bit to read. But we hope you enjoyed it. We surely enjoy being here! Thanks for all the calls, e-mails, PM’s, Skype conversations and what not more. Although we are surely progressing in making friends here, it is always good to hear from friends and family back home and from around the world!