And this time it was because I was creating a lesson plan about blogging. 'Magine that!
Although I've been working in the classroom at WK as a Pre-service Teacher since the first of September, today was the first day of my second practicum, where I am supposed to actually begin teaching. My cooperating teacher has been going by the book, so according to "the book", I start inching into it this week, and take over more by next week, then should be teaching 30-60% of the course load for weeks 3-5.
I'm definitely antsy to get teaching, but also just now realizing how much time I'll be spending on lesson planning. Fortunately, I will be following my coop teacher's ready-made lesson plans for the most part, apart from changing them around where I want, and apart from the week long Media Literacy unit that I'm creating from scratch.
I'm excited to be able to plan something out myself completely, but I'm also super nervous about it, because I've had very little experience with practical lesson planning in my classes at Acadia thus far. I've done a bunch for English (all focused on grade 9, and semi-unrealistic for my grade 12 classes within my teacher's classroom confines), and I've done a few for Science (obviously not applicable). In my Social Studies methods course I've done diddly-squat for lesson planning. There have been issues there between wonderfully horrible prof and many students. But that's another story...
Practicum comes early... it's a 45 minute drive and we must be there by 7:30, which means leaving at 6:45. It is now 1, which means bedtime!
When you drink decaf coffee at 11:00 at night because it's yummy and you need a warm drink to keep the drowziness away, but can't do the caffeine because you don't want to be up all night, because you have class at 8:00am.... (way to go run on sentences!!)... and then it's 2:00am and you're still awake, and then you realize that the mocha powder you added to it has caffeine in it!!!!! AND THEN YOU SLEEP IN!!!!
Yes, that is what sucks!!
Quebec was amazing. After I finished my immersion course, Sacha came to pick me up and we spent a week travelling around Quebec camping, and then spent 2 nights at a hotel in the heart of Quebec city. for Saint-Jean Baptiste day, which was amazing. It was a total drunk with about a million people partying in the streets. Our room had a view of Chateau Frontenac which was directly across the square from us and we were a short walk from Rue St-Jean and everywhere else. We spent our mornings eating delicious french crepes at the creperies, our afternoons shopping in the quaint lil french stores and our evenings dining and sipping wine at various french restaurants. There was a beautiful light show that was put on by the people who do Circe-de-Soleil on the waterfront, which followed the history of Quebec culture for the celebrations of St Jean Baptiste day. The night before there was an AWESOME free outdoor concert on the Plains of Abraham which Sach and I partied to en Francais along with the thousands of other drunk Quebecers and Canadians alike.
After our awesome Quebeccing experiences we drove straight home, deciding not to stop in to camp in NB on the way b/c we were anxious to get home and see the animals. Insert sad tale here. So Pepper hadn't seen me in 6 weeks at this point, and I guess she figured I was dead. She was still a pup and apparently her memory sucks? So when Sacha's parents brought her home and I came up for a long-missed-and-expected kiss, she sat shaking in the van. She was TERRIFIED of me and refused to come out!! After about 5 minutes of her shaking like a leaf and me crying b/c my lil baby had forgotten me, I went up to the van and slowly approached her with my hand. After 1 sniff it's like she suddenly remembered me and decided that I was NOT, in fact, a ghost and suddenly I was smothered with kisses and licks and sharp lil claws. So that was fun. I will never leave my babies for that long again!
The other thing that I left that obviously missed my presence was my garden. When I first got home, I was so ecstatic that my garden was so leafy and huge (it was about 2am. pitch black). The next day I realized those were all overgrown weeds and that all the proper vegetables were tiny and shrivelly and non-existent. That was a sad day. So I replanted some things, transplanted others, and we planted a very late onion, potato, corn garden in the garden patch I had prepared at the top of the property before leaving. That one worked out well, as we now have tons of beautiful delicious potatoes, a few baby corn and a bunch of tiny (still growing) late spring onions! The square foot garden, however, has left much to be desired for this year. Next year will be it's year to shine!
I accepted the position at Fort Point Museum as Collections Manager, and actually spent much of the summer giving tours as well as working on the Collections project when there were no site visitors. It was a really neat, interesting job and I think good experience for a future field of education. Today is my last day here and tonight will be my last shift at the Bar as well. Super excited about that, but sad to go as well. After 5 years, a place will grow on ya. As much as I hated giving up every weekend and holiday, I loved the job, the boss, the coworkers and many of the customers. Last Sunday we had my going away party there where I was awarded with a sweet and sappy card, and an open bar party.... needless to say it was a drunken blast!
Prior to the leaving of the jobs, and post accepting the museum job, Sacha's bro, wife and new baby came to Nova Scotia for a long anticipated visit. The whole family took time off work and rented a cabin in PEI for just under a week which was amazing. Fun, relaxing, and jam-packed with adventures all at the same time. Nathan is the sweetest happiest lil baby yet!
Around this same time, early August, Sacha surprised me with a new car! My beautiful new VW Beetle has found a loving home, as I have been drooling over these cute bugs for a good 2 years now! *heart* Now that I am back to school, last year at Dalhousie, the doodle-bug is my transportation. To all who don't know what I've been up to and were shocked at my Facebook post over "moving some stuff to Hali", no Sach & I are not going our separate ways, no I did not move to Halifax!! Some time ago Sacha had suggested that rather than commuting to the city 3 days a week for 8:30 classes I look into getting a place there. So I've got a room on Robie St, in the Hydrostone area that is perfect. I spend some weekdays there so that I don't have to leave at 5:30am from Lunenburg in order to get to school and get a parking spot on time. Wednesday nights are my least-stressful night, with less homework than the others, so if any of my ladies want to visit that would be beautiful!
That's more than enough rambling for now, it was a quick an update as I could manage! I will try and update on my classes soon and hopefully will have an adventure or two to include!!
XoxoX
- Location:Fort Point Museum
- Mood:
busy - Music:Leaving on a Jetplane - John Denver
It honestly feels like I just got here 2 weeks ago, max. And now I'm anxiously awaiting Sacha's arrival in just a couple days!! Tonight I am going for supper at the caf in a few mins, then wandering up town for some shopping with the girls, and then there will be a recital tonight where students that practiced various activities throughout the course, like the Jig, Gumboot, Chorale Chant, Theatre, etc, etc, will be performing. That should be pretty entertaining! After that a bunch of us are hitting up Le Bistro for possibly one last time for some singing/dancing/drinking/pool, and then possible a campfire afterward.
Id forgotten to mention before, but that secret campfire park place that I'd discovered is now that late night party hang out and is pretty awesome lol. I told a few people about it after I found it, then when my friend Megan and I wandered down there Monday night to check it out before hitting up the Bistro, we found like 20 people around the fire... I was like, "DUDE!! I thought we were gonna be the only ones here!" then this one guy from my class pops up out of the crowd and is like, "Uh, yeah... You told me about it at poker last week, then I told everybody else about it and now everyone's here" lol. It was pretty funny, everyone was thanking me for discovering the firepit. :P Needless to say, it was awesome and we never did make it to the Bistro!
I don't know when is the last time I wrote... sometime last week, anyway, our class went to Lac Simoncouche (the same place that I go for canoe once a week) for the day where we just chilled all morning while each of us took a turn at a 1 on 1 oral test. I was the SECOND last one to go for my test, which meant that I had 3 hours to be nervous... and I was! It was basically just a french convo which sentences getting more difficult every minute. After puttering around the lake nervously for 3 hours, it turned out that all worrying was for naught. When I finally went into my test, it was a breeze... I was in for the whole 10 (impressive, considering those that weren't understanding or communicating well finished in 3-5 mins) just rambling on in french about whatever I could think of and responding to all of his questions. While he told me that some people had a whole sheet full of corrections to take with them to study, I had 2 words, which meant 2 mistakes... I couldn't remember the word for "since", which is depuis and I forgot to pluralize les sciences :P In the end, the prof was very happ;y with our convo and said that my vocabulary was excellent and my pronunciation and conversation was very comfortable (which I was surprised at!!) and that I got an A+, and also that my mark in the course so far is A+. Then he went rambling on about how awesome I am and that he's considering devoting a temple and a worship circle to me and all that sort of normal stuff... ;)
So that afternoon, when we were finally free to go hiking or canoeing or play beach volleyball or do whatever we wanted Al and I got ready to pull out a canoe, when BHAM!!! The heavens opened up and the rain poured down... I guess God was worried about a lil competition from the new French Goddess and upset over my new following.... ;P So, there was thunder, there was rain, and it never ended.... All of our exciting plans had been foiled as 32 students sat around in a tiny cabin for the next 3 hours. Fortunately, though, we were occupied with a nice lil feast for lunch and a few card games, then a few of us got together for a good ol game of texas holdem. I joined a little late, after the attempted canoe ride, so I started off with a tiny chip pile, but came back and was undefeated champion after 2 moves. By the time we had to leave, I was still in the lead with a close second, and only 2 others left in the game with diminishing stacks. Good times. We've been trying to gather a nice table for Thursday night, since we finish class at 4 and have no evening activities. We've got the poker set with 200 chips, but haven't found an appropriate venue to play at yet. Residence would be best, preferrably somewhere we can knock back a few drinks.... I've always found I do best at poker when drinks are involved, as I encourage others to drink back while sippin slow! ;)
Annnyhow... I should skidaddle, get some homework done. I Can Not Believe there is less than 2 weeks left in this program! I can also not wait to see Sacha, but I'm also kind of sad that it's coming to an end so quickly b/c I feel like I just haven't learned enough yet. Otherwards..... off to the homework! Adios! .....err.... Au Revoir!
Oh... P.S.... It hailed here today!!! Forgot to mention... yup... Juin 7!! HAIL!!!!! Then it poured, then it hailed, then it poured. Then it was sunny and nice, so we left for the lake for our final canoe trip. And, then.... as soon as we got there it started pouring again! (But, the hail had stopped, which was good...) So Al & I had decided to wait out the storm in the cabin b/c neither of us had brough raincoats to Chicoutimi... and then after about 3 minutes we decided we would brave the downpour b/c we didn't want to miss our final canoe trip, annnnd.... as soon as we stepped outside the rain stopped! It was absolutely georgous for the next 2 hours while we paddled, and enough like hot hot hot for about 20 mins! And you wouldn't believe, but it started to rain again as soon as we pulled the canoe out of the lake! Turned out to be a perfect day! Un jour parfait!
- Location:Chicouti-Rez
- Music:Fire & Rain - Me First & The Gimme Gimmes
We left Friday after a short class in the morning and arrived just before dinner time after a 3 hour bus ride. We checked into our rooms at l'Universite Laval (which were absolutely disgusting compared to our AWESOME rez at UQAC, and then headed out to Parliment then off for dinner. I ate with four other girls at a fancy shmancy and awesome restaurant just in front of Chateau Frontenac. Average $25 pasta plates and a $20 cheese plate that I split with another girl that had 5 entire slices of cheese on it. Thank god the wine was cheap! ;) All in all, it wasn't too high of a bill and the taste was delectable. Absolutely worth it. I had also decided I was able to have one fancy expensive dinner a month, and that was it ;)
Apres diner, we spent hours upon hours touring vieux Quebec (old), which was utterly beautiful. It's like a cute tiny lil village inside an already beautiful village! There are tiny lil cobblestone streets that could just barely squeeze in one old fashioned car but are mostly only foot traffic and some random artsy shops here and there... I fell in love with one that sported those creepy-awesome medieval masks that I love so much... like with the long crooked noses and stuff... can't WAIT to have a medieval masquerade!!!! one day...
The 5 of us were still wandering when night fall hit and the city was even more beautiful then... everything was lit up... parliament, Frontenac, churches around the citadel, and even some random building on the water that was such a brilliant blue that it looked like a huuuuuge waterfall. It really was a cool experience just walking around the city all night. We also happened across a few ghost tours going on in the shadows which seemed super cool but we didn't end up going on one. That was just fine and dandy though, b/c Natalie had been on one there before and ended up remembering most of the stories to tell us, anyway, as we passed a lot of the creepy haunted buildings! I have, however, decided that Sacha and I are definetly going to have to go on the ghost tour when/if we go through Quebec City after the program... can't wait!!
Saturday we got up super early for breakfast then hit up a few museums and a yummy scrummy creperie for lunch, which I am definetly returning to. The art museum was kind of blah. Which is weird, b/c I normally love art museums, but first of all was exhausted from the day before and lack of sleep that night (due to drunkards running through the halls singing until 4:30am then waking up at 7:00am)... and secondly it sucked that I and a couple others ended up getting separated from the group (because the tour was in french and after she stood and talked at the entrance to each room of paintings for 5 minutes, she said "Okay, 1 minute to look around... the HUMUNGOUS ROOM!!" So... after I got tired of seeing absolutely nothing in that 1 minute, I started going more at my own pace so I could actually See Art... imagine that... wanting to actually see the art and not just hear about it in a language you only half understand to begin with! Weird!!! So, needless to say, it wasn't long before I and several others got lost, and subsequently yelled at in french every time we entered a room, for not being with a group and therefore apparently stealing the viewing of the art....
In the end, that museum was kind of sucky, but the next, Le Musee de Civilisation was super awesome and just may be one that I'll have to take Sacha to after... Of course it had exhibits for early Indigenous tribes of the area, and colonization, and then a wicked model of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, of the Seven Years War of which I have studied and was super impressed with. It also had an exhibit on the 7 Deadly Sins, which we didn't see b/c you had to buy an audio set, and it had a really lame Egyptian exhibit which was essentially play stuff for kids, but still pretty cute. Probably the coolest part was the Human Copyright Exhibition which started off with some evolution theory stuff with tons of reproduction models of Lucy and Homo Erectus, etc, etc, and then went into the thought stuff.... including artificial intelligence..,. among other cool stuff there was a wall of human skulls with robot eyes that followed you around to a creepy extent. I mean, like, I played with these guys for a while and I am damn near positive they were actually deciding who to watch and who not to watch... it was super creepy!!
That is probably most of the excitement from the weekend and Vieux Quebec, but I definetly plan on going back agin... it is an extremely beautiful city, especially when you find yourself away from the extra touristy areas and into the heart of the city with the real cool ancient history. :) *Pictures to come soon!*
- Location:Quebec City
- Mood:
artistic - Music:Hungry Like The Wolf - Duran Duran
- Location:Parc Saguenay
- Mood:
exhausted
I figured that I probably wouldn't be posting later tonight so I'd stop in now. Today was a bit of a short day. Class until noon as always, and we had two students transfer up into our class from 6B. I was a bit jealous that I wasn't transfering up :P I'll have to ask them about how it's done. If the teacher just tells them to transfer, or if they have to ask/and/or take a test...
I ate lunch with Shannon, the girl I drove up with, Adam, a guy I met on the first day, and Katie, a girl from my class and it was kind of hilarous. S is in 6B and A is in 3B. He's pretty good, I mean, he helped me understand what was going on the first day when they were asking me the name of the province that I came from and I was standing there with a blank look on my face :P So he seems to think it's important that he continue to teach me, so all lunch he was correcting my pronounciation and helping me with words, as well as K from my class, which was good. I love when people help me with pronunciation b/c that is my weak area... anyway, it was good until S talked to him and suddenly I realized he would speak english with her straight time, but as soon as he spoke to me it was in french again! lol and if I spoke something to him in english he would answer in french, so I would parle en francais as well.... it was kind of annoying, but I guess for the better, b/c I need to learn faster :P
After lunch my group went to the gym and learned how to dance to quebecois folkloric.... which was kind of stupid but COMPLETELY HILARIOUS!!! also, I've never touched so many people in such a short span in my life! we all had to hold hands and do random dances and kept switching partners... most of the time we were skipping into eachother laughing our asses off, so it wasn't so bad! ...then we went to some little dark cave where we watched slides and videos about quebecois artists for dance and song and poetry, etc. and whoever answered any of 5 ques correctly after had their name go into a draw for... something... from.the.bookstore... woohoo! regardless, i fell asleep through the second half, so no prize for me! :P
apres midi, we all returned home for dinner, where I realized that I could't get into the building b/c my roommate had my key's and I had her wallet and phone, so there wasn't even any calliung her for rescue to be had.... so while I was waiting for her or the other roommate (Audrey, whom I met 2 days ago and who is AWESOME and hilarious and I get along with so well...) I saw a groundhog run under a car.... Yes, they have groundhogs here..,. le marmotte... and they are, like, ALL over the place! the prof pointed one out in class yesterday outside the window, which made me squeemish, b/c I've never seen one upclose before... I tried to take a picture, so I'll check later if it came out or if it ran too quickly away, and if not then I'll post it.
So the groundhog was under a car, which I pointed out to a couple other etudiants and we were all down on our knees looking under the car and it disappeared... one girl started thwomping a stick on the ground to try to scare it out and apparently, she instead scared it UP!... I was there for about another 10 minutes waited for the roomie to return and still never saw the groundhog come back out... so somebody is going to have a rude awakening when they start up their car!!!!! or perhaps it will take the car out for a joyride itself!?
So now us ladies are off to the mall for a bit of shopping and tonight is the welcome party at the school. Not sure whether or not this is a rumor, but I heard there is open bar! ;) And apres le fete, a bunch of us are going to le bistro for drinks and karaoke ;P yes, there is actually a karaoke bar called Le bistro, with the lettering smaller than that of it's Karaoke sign a 3 minute walk for the university... should be fun!
Bientot!
- Location:Le Bistro
- Mood:
bouncy - Music:moi, me souvenir
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