What a weekend!
Things are in full winter/Christmas mode here in Wemindji and at the Triplex. I am really excited to begin Christmas festivities at school and am anxiously awaiting a package of Christmas decor my mother sent me so I can decorate my house for the next 2 weeks before I leave!
Friday night I enjoyed a nice holiday gathering at Stacy's house (where I ate so many secret onions).
Yesterday I had a quiet night as I was quite tired from the week (but still had quite an exciting experience. More to come.)
Today I ventured out with Monika and Carmen to chop down my very first real chopped-down Christmas tree!!
You see, I come from the family that buys our tree, wrapped up in fishing nets from Ikea or Canadian Tire. Nothing wrong with that at all in my opinion, especially since I abhor doing things the old-fashioned way (long live microwaves!). However, the local tree farmers don't just come to Wemindji's grocery store parking lot and set up shop for the month of December. I knew that Danielle had not 1 but 2 sharp and dangerous looking axes so I asked to borrow one and set off into the wilderness to chop down my own mini tree!! It was pretty hilarious. I didn't have to look too hard for one the right size (about 2.5 feet tall) however I am fairly certain the snow was so high that these mini trees I kept finding were actually tree-TOPS but whatevs. I axed that tree down with such force and power that frankly I surprised myself. I am convinced that I am so self-sufficient that I will never need a man to do anything.......................... I take it back. My arms hurt from chopping. JK (Nehh)
Then came the search for something to stabilize my tree top in a bucket Carmen lent me. So I chopped up frozen gravel and threw it in the bucket and Bob's your uncle!! (Side note: Carmen I forgot to clean that bleach out of the bucket before putting the tree in....) ANYWAYS.
Now my tree sits in a bucket in my living room waiting to be decorated in the traditional McCaffrey way, with Christmas tunes playing and a box of Turtles being passed around as the matriarch hides all the childhood ornaments in the back of the tree. Not bitter at all Mother, no hurt feelings here!!!!!
Anyways this week has been super busy as I am now tutoring
full-force. 7 sessions a week at an hour each and I am pretty busy.
However, it is very beneficial to be able to give students the extra
help they need to succeed as there are just too few hours in the day to
be able to provide the intensive 1-1 support that many of these kids
need. My class, while adorable and hilarious, requires a lot of
supervision, monitoring and reinforcement, so there isn't a great deal
of time to pull the students who need 1-1 support aside and bring them
up to speed. Anyways, its also a great way to earn a little cash on the
side. No complaints here!
This week should be an interesting
week. My principal, VP, acting-VP and about 5 other teachers are going
to Montreal for a conference so I imagine things will get a little
chaotic. There is a great need for good supply teachers in the
community so I am not entirely sure how well things will run but I will
do my part to help out if need be! I do have a very large classroom so
if worse comes to worse and I need to supervise 2 classes at least I
have a Smartboard and plenty of floor space, movie time!
Now on to Saturday. Let me
just preface this story by saying that our Triplex's "front lawn"
consists entirely of asphalt. So there is no lawn. Just driveway.
Like 100 yards of it. So shovelling is a pain in the booty. When the
plow comes by the end of our driveway gets those annoying huge piles
that block the entrance, just like everyone else's in winter. Carmen
and I decided that rather than shovelling 2 separate end-of-driveways
every time the plow came by, we would just park next to each other and
shovel one small entrance and then shovel little pathways all over the
driveway to our houses and garbage cans. It looked kinda ridiculous but
functional if you are lazy and its -20 degrees. Problem solving!!!
Anyways, so on to what happened last night. As I was hanging out, out
of the
corner of my eye I saw huge lights going across the Triplex driveway. I
was like "DANG we just shovelled and there is the plow ruining
everything." Well actually it was a HUGE John Deere construction
machine thing with a plow PLOWING OUR ENTIRE DRIVEWAY!! He gestured to
us to move our cars and continued to clear the entire length of our
driveway and move all the compacted snow from the plow from the end of
our drive!! Monika and Carmen and I watched from the window the entire
time with hot chocolate and cameras in hand, documenting the exciting
experience. We ran out to thank the man from VCC (a local construction
company) and gave him a loaf of my chocolate chip banana bread as a
thank you. He told us that the next time there is a big snowfall to
call him personally and he will come back and clear it again!! Since it
snows EVERY DAY ALL DAY here, I am sure we will be seeing him again soon! Soo
nice. See, it pays to shovel your driveway in slippers and look like
you are dying the entire time, the right people notice!!
Anyways, after a whirlwind weekend, I am pooped and ready to tackle a new week with my students!
Love Aidan
Ps, I hope all my family who is sick at home right now is feeling better soon!! I love you!
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| Letters to Santa! |
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| Ugh |
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| I think that is my snow angel. |
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| Thank you Vital aka Snowplow man!! |
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| Amazing! |
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| Modeling with my Christmas tree! |
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| Sharp |
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| Fell into very deep snow!!! |
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| I am the Iron Chef of tree chopping |
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| Shwing! |
