Maroc

Hello from Casablanca!

I'm currently sitting in the top level of Joy and Jer's house and can see the ocean and the waves. I arrived here Monday night, after something like 14 or 15 hours of time in the air, never mind airports and terminals and waiting and everything. The trip over was long, but extremely uneventful - a good thing! Jer was waiting right at the exit from baggage pick-up / customs. Nice to see a familiar face after all that time.

Since then, I've been seeing bits and pieces of the Moroccan way of things. The Perrotts live in a little neighbourhood by the beach, a ways outside of Casa itself. I don't really have a frame of reference to compare to. Greece comes closest - older buildings, on the water, etc. Casa also reminds me most of Athens, although to say that they are alike doesn't sound right either. Signs are in French and Arabic, but you'll see English occasionally (if it's something fancy!).

Yesterday I mainly slept off jet lag and general school exhaustion, and went to the beach for a bit. In the evening, we went to a restaurant at a gas station - Moroccan fast food. You go to the butcher counter and buy your meat, then take it to another counter and give it to them to cook. Very tasty. The cumin is so much more... spicy? vibrant? fragrant? than the Safeway Select container at home. Not surprised. The kids like this gas station restaurant because there is a big play area. You pay a certain amount for 15 minutes of play time, though Joy said if you came with a group you could negotiate a flat rate.

This morning, I went in to school briefly with Jer so he could pick up some things from his office, and then we went downtown to the American Consulate. The city is something else! Strangely placed Americana like Starbucks, KFC (apparently all over the place here), and I saw an ad for the Gap. Mix that with Arabic signs, crazy traffic patterns... very different from anything I've seen before. I'm very glad I speak French, because at least I can pick up on some of what's going on. A lot of the buildings were built by the French so it's not entirely a foreign feel. The driving is nuts - you have to pay very close attention. The lane lines are really just suggestions.

We drove and parked, and couldn't figuring out the parking meter, so Jer ended up with the boot on his car. One of those "what do you do" moments because there's a number to call, but chances are, the person on the other end speaks Arabic... thankfully parking dude showed up a few minutes later.

Now, I'm back here while everybody else is at school. Time for more beach, or the little nearby cafe (thankfully I know the French word for coffee) or something. Tomorrow I'm going to be nerdy and hang out at school - go to physics, grade 6 math, and hopefully an AP math class - then Friday Joy and Jer took the day off work so we'll drop the kids at school and go sightseeing. Not sure what the weekend will bring - Sam has lots of ideas.

A la prochaine.

packed

Pulled everything together in to my backpack tonight. That included bubble-wrapping a jar of dill pickles...

You never know what you'll miss until you can't get it!


I taped the lid down, bubble wrapped it, then put it in a ziploc bag. Here's hoping it doesn't leak.

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.