off again

You may or may not remember, or you may or may not have known me at the time, but I originally created this blog in 2007 to keep friends and family up to date on the adventures of 3 months of backpacking around Europe.

I have not been very good about updating since then!

Jumping forward in time, I spent 2 years at the University of Winnipeg doing a B.Ed. We had to do a lot of writing and reflecting, so a blog seemed redundant. Then last year brought Vancouver and adventures of a more outdoor variety. Camping doesn't lend itself well to maintaining a blog, though I have two "rite in the rain" journals full of notes.

One week from today brings the beginning of another large-scale adventure. I'm heading back across the pond, this time to North Africa, to see dear friends from camp who are working at an American school in Morocco. 9 posts ago, which was 2 years ago in time, I wrote about camp and our lives in community there coming out of something I'd heard in one of my B.Ed. courses. The people who I am going to visit are very much in that category of people in my life, and I haven't seen them since about 6 months after I wrote that post. Crazy!

I fly from Vancouver, leaving in the morning on March 25. Four planes and some amount of time later, I'm not sure how much, I get to Morocco in the evening on March 26, and spend a week there, followed by a few days in London and a night in Toronto. I can't even imagine the culture shock that will hit me all of a sudden, at whatever point it begins. The plane safety instructions? The customs and immigration card? The airport signs? I've never experienced anything but western culture.

What is it like to be the minority in such a clear way? Being a white female makes me a total anomaly in my own classes, but that's so different than being in an environment where the underlying foundation isn't the same.

4 months

Sometimes, the kids come out of nowhere with something that makes the stress and lack of sleep worthwhile.

Ms. Holmen,
You are my first physics teacher ever in my life. Your passion towards physics affected me to be more and more interested in physics. I learned a lot from you; specifically the calmness and the thinking process when I see a question. Thanks a lot and have a wonderful Christmas holiday.

Well, shucks, kid.

mottos

I was asked an interesting question yesterday.

It's been ages since I blogged, but the nutshell version of the last 12 months is that I moved to Vancouver, spent a year working in the outdoor ed and boarding programs of a prestigious boys' school called St. George's, went on some amazing trips and saw some amazing parts of BC and Alaska, and ended up being hired by a different independent school to teach IB physics.

I was asked... didn't it feel like a step down, to leave St. George's and come to where I am now? It was an interesting one, but not a hard one to answer. I love Saints. I loved living there, the friendships (particularly with the boarding staff), the kids, the routine, the rhythm of work life and personal life being integrated. I miss going home to a building of extraordinary young guys about whom I care very deeply.

But I wasn't a teacher there. I come to St. John's as a very new, very rookie teacher, but a teacher nonetheless. I have classes. I'm not someone's student teacher or someone's intern - I'm no longer defined in relation to someone else. It's stable. I can think about a plan beyond June.

I realized on my walk to school this morning that what I should have answered was "sine timore aut favore." That without fear or favour, we must forge ahead, as Mr. J would say. I've been given two amazing chances to be a part of the life of two amazing schools, in two very different capacities.

So no, not a step down. Maybe sideways.


Edit: Instead of "we must forge ahead," what I should have said is ad futura cum spe

a great need

Kelly posted this the other day. I don't know why it's resonating.



"Out of a great need

we are all holding hands

and climbing.

Not loving is a letting go.

Listen,

the terrain around here

is far too

dangerous

for that."


- hafiz

east and west

It's been quite the summer.

I've been in Gatineau, Quebec and Vancouver, British Columbia, and many places in between!

Right now, I am sitting in a house belonging to a school where I am working this year. I am going to try to blog regularly, so for a start, here is a synopsis of my summer in picture form:

A six-province summer

No, you don't need to be a facebook member to see the photos (or so it tells me).

I am spending this year here at St. George's working in their Outdoor Education and Service & Charity departments. It's going to be a great year.

this week

Here we go... week 2 of 4! April 30 is coming, slowly. I both want and don't want it to get here!

Things to look forward to this week:
-fine dining
-going by the university - there's a book I want to read that's not in the public library. And maybe I will actually get to the gym! Imagine that.
-Benji-ducky and dinner at the Milnes
-Career Fair - a different sort of morning, and a guy for whom I have a great deal of respect coming by Tec Voc
-WSD Science Fair - evaluating projects and seeing what neat ideas the kids come up with

And then, there will only be 2 weeks left! Crazy thought.

time for a new one?

Out on the front porch,
watching the cars as they go by,
Eighteen blue, twenty one grey,
Looking ahead for the first time that we could drive,
Out on our own,
To speed away


-"Sidewalks" by Story of the Year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6NtK44T8AU