I am better

Sorry for so much time between posts folks.  I have been sick, busy and a teacher.  Enough said!! I am currently on the mend from a vicious cold (no thanks to ColdFX) and eating from my $9 bag of grapes.  Kill me. 

Last week was pretty uneventful.  Baby Puppy is still with us, still pooing EVERYWHERE and maybe still has worms, we'll find out the next time she refuses to use the outdoors as a toilet (ergo: using my bathroom rug) if she is still afflicted. 

Carmen's parents visited this weekend which was really nice! They flew up Thursday afternoon IN THEIR PLANE (one can dream!) and brought me some delicious feta cheese by request.  They cooked us a delicious steak dinner on Friday night and we stayed up long past our bedtimes talking about work, the town and lots of other things.  It was really nice to get to know Carmen's parents a little more and get all the puppies together.  Baby Puppy, it turns out, is a beast and beats up all her siblings with a ferocity that I fear at night.  She growls at me (and licks me) every time I pick her up.  I don't get this one.  She loves and she hates, I'm sick of the games!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday was the school's annual Terry Fox Run which was pretty great! My class raised a HUGE BAG of money which I decided to leave to someone else to count.  We were really proud of ourselves but the reason behind raising money for Terry Fox raised a few questions with the class so we had a few discussions about cancer, death, as well as what fund raising was and why we do it. 

This week is going to be a busy one at school, I am introducing spelling and poetry to the class and we have a week of fun Thanksgiving activities to do!

Oh god Baby Puppy just farted and it smells so bad.

Goodnight!!

I am sick

LIES!! It doesn't work.  I have my first official teacher sickness, one of many to come.  Or as I predict, I will never get better and will remain in a constant state of "having a cold" until the snow melts.. soooo June. :|

On another note, I have decided not to keep Baby Puppy (working name).  My better judgement (mother) persuaded me not to.  Just kidding. A dog, especially a big one like a lab is a huge long-term responsibility and I am living such a fun and fancy free life I can't see where my path will take me, so better not add a dog to the list of responsibilities such as paying off a half million dollars of debt or teaching.  I will remain a foster Mummy to those who need a home, dog babysitter to those who need a night (or week) off, and Auntie to all the rest.  Plus my house was FILTHY after just one night so F that.

Baby Puppy has a home waiting for her at Thanksgiving in North Bay, and until then I will shower her with love, nurse her back to health (a runt who really can't open her mouth big enough to eat soft kibbles!) and clean up her tiny poopies.  (Ps she just pooed on my heating vent, can't wait to crank that heat on those cold lonely nights!!!!)

To keep or not to keep?!

Foster Mummy dilemma!!

(SK)CANOE TRIP!

Note: apparently the giant boats that look like canoes but have motors are called skinoes (I have no idea how to spell it or if someone was yankin' my chain.  Whatever!!)

Yesterday there was a scheduled power outage in Wemindji, and since my classroom has no windows, it would be pretty hard to get much work done without light and a computer so I decided to embark on a fabulous journey hosted by the Cree teachers of Maquatua Eeyou School on a giant canoe on James Bay to an island.  Here is a little tidbit of information for you folks.  Islands belonging to the territory of Nunavut are located as far "south" in the Bay as Wemindji is so technically I was in NUNAVUT yesterday!! Ahh! 

We left around lunchtime on 2 big boats, about 20 of us in all! The trip was short but amazing! I sat in the bow of the boat with Karen and Marsha, where Marsha promptly mouth-violated me with her finger covered in salty water, "ITS SALTY!!" delicious!! I got a little soaked but it was really nice.  It was quite cool out on the water so I wore layers and a scarf but it was crisp and refreshing.  We walked across a little island once we landed and found a nice spot to light a fire and eat lunch.  We spent the afternoon gazing at the Bay, keeping our eyes peeled for animals (saw none) while the kids practiced their goose calls (eerily accurate!!) and collected sea monkeys from the water.  One of the Cree teachers brought the ingredients for bannock, a traditional bread-type fried thing which was pretty tasty!! I should have brought my Nutella though.  Note to self.  People generally stood around and talked, lay on the huge rocks, collected blueberries and cranberries.  It was really awesome.  I am so glad I went, even though I didn't see any polar bears or seals!! (SIDE NOTE: I forgot to mention that on my way home from Montreal on Saturday I saw a baby wolf AND a baby bear!!!!!!!!!!!! And Marsha hit a bird.)

As soon as word reached us that the power went back on, we hightailed it out of there and I spent the rest of the evening planning using the new GVC!  YAY!!

Getting a little roasty toasty on the Bay!

Tasty!!

Canadian Eh!

This is what sunbathing looks like in Northern Quebec

I am just going to go with "Giant Canoe" for the name of this thing

Chillin - literally

Gorgeous blond couple! Shelby and Alex

Excuse my finger

The rocky terrain of our lunchtime island!

Funky!

Action shot!

Crazy clouds!

WOO!!

GVC

AY AY AY! So much has happened in the past week, and to think - I thought I would bring along my laptop, do some blogging, do some work while in Montreal in the lonesome evenings.  Well let me tell you this: that did not happen.  Once. 

Day One in Montreal (Monday):
Arrive in the outskirts of Montreal - drop some serious cash at Dollarama.  3 trips inside x3 people in that place and we were already worrying about the lack of space in the truck.  Drive into downtown Montreal (just so happened there was a bike race which closed off the exact streets we needed to access to get to the hotel, convenient! I can still hear the freaky underwater voice of the GPS lady "Recalculating" *shudder*.)  We found an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant where we promptly gorged on delicious sushi as well as extras that arrived on a CONVEYOR BELT beside our table.  Obscene. Then we walked home and crashed. (However, not before a "chicken sushi" influenced photoshoot with Marsha ensued along Sherbrooke Ouest)

Day Two in Montreal (Tuesday):
Wake up early, eat at a little cheapie breakfast place and attend our first day of GVC training.  We got our massive curriculum binders which were filled with directions on how and when things should be taught.  Also a nice little package of lesson plan templates for us to use for each subject each day.  Hello teacher's college, I missed you!!!! After that, an interesting night took place and I will only say that a nice meal was had with great company.

Day Three in Montreal (Wednesday):
Repeat Day Two for GVC training.  Started to feel overwhelmed with the amount of content expected to teach the students (according to the GVC schedule we are already 5 weeks behind... funny since we only got the GVC that week.. WHATEVER) as well as the degree of complexity of the content.  See, the Cree School Board discovered that most of their students were approximately 2-5 grade levels behind what they should be, so the Guaranteed Viable Curriculum was designed to give a clear and detailed plan to teachers who previously had little direction and curricular support.  This "living, breathing document" better be able to cook me dinner and massage my feet after a day's work because it is INTENSE the amount of stuff expected to cover.  The stakes are high, the expectations higher and the stress immeasurable.  But, I am very happy to have such a well-laid out curriculum map.  The Mathematics document is very well done, the weekly expectations linked to resources and assessments will soon follow.  Neither documents are complete but hopefully the rest of the plans will be given to us soon! Anyways, after our fun-filled conference day we went to TROIS AMIGOS! Delicious food and fantastic margaritas, terrible service, but they had guacamole so I was happy. 

Day Four in Montreal (Thursday):
Last day of GVC conferences, spent mostly planning with my BEAUTIFUL AND GORGEOUS AND WONDERFUL PARTNER STACY!!!! I love her.  And Marsha.  And I guess Carmen too.. LOL.  Anyways, yep pretty good day, topped off with a delicious "Goodbye Montreal!" dinner at - you guessed it! - ALL YOU CAN EAT SUSHI! To leave a civilization without going for sushi at least one more time would be blasphemous, so we hit up the ole' conveyor belt once more!

Day Five in Montreal (Friday):
We woke early so we could check out of the hotel and hit up the shops before arriving at our destination Matagami about 12 hours later!! A LONG day finished by a weirdo photoshoot in our "suite" and texting to each other while in the same room... We left Matagami the next morning and made it home in record speed!! I was (and still am) pooped but very glad to be home in my little bed.  I also managed to score quite a great deal of toilet paper and toiletries which just tickles me, although Marsha does think I am a klepto.  HEY until my half-million dollar debt is paid off, I will take every roll of toilet paper and every complimentary shampoo to feed my stock!!

In all, it was a fantastic trip where I really got to learn about what is expected of me as a teacher this year and became really close with my fellow teachers. We ate great food, had great conversations and enjoyed a beautiful city together. 

Timmies!!!

McDonalds!!

Dollarama! Carmen's first trip. 

Our haul after the FIRST trip inside!

Little story behind this one. I was walking up behind the truck after using the facilities at McD's and I saw that at the drive-through beside the car there was a plethora of dropped change!! So I bent down to retrieve said change! Marsha, already disturbed by my cheapness called me "CHEAP ASS!" took a picture and proceeded to "accidentally" hit me in the head with her car door.  "Accidentally"...



Oh boy.  Street art and Aidan don't mix. 

I was hoping this was an art installation, otherwise Montreal goes over kill with the traffic reflectors.

Hearts in Montreal!

Siip! Me blogging...

Igloo in Montreal? Right at home!!

My "Scared" face which I apparently did a lot this trip

My hotel room! (What you can't see is the dead moth on the ceiling, the wad of chewing gum on the ceiling and the old skool gym flushing toilets!)

In Mexico!!!

Really Fun Training!!



I am ready to jump out of the car and kill myself after having to listen to Nickleback one to many times this trip.

I MISS YOU ALREADY!!