once upon a time in the east

So it seems I've been a bit lax on the updates. Well, it's not entirely my fault. My computer is being naughty, so I've been taking it easy on that front. And trying to use the internets only for the forces of productivity. I've been pretty good on that front, but I miss writing on "ye olde blogge". So lets catch up on the last month or so, shall we?

Lets see... there was my birthday. A generally quiet affair. I had to work, which was dumb.

We took a mini-vacation at the end of June and holed up in a cabin in the woods way up north. The cat came along for the fun. He was surprisingly relaxed at the cabin, likely because he was relieved not to be in the car... no, he is not very good with being in the car. We had a really nice time, despite unending rain and a lack of lake access. We got in some nice hikes, and got to read lots and lots. Okay, I read a grand total of one book (in French) that drove me nuts because it took me so bloody long to get through it. On the plus side, because it rained so much, we had a good excuse to go and have a massage. It was really a nice treat to get out of town for the week.

Canada Day was a relaxed supper with some friends to make up for missing out on St-Jean Baptiste celebrations while we were on holiday. And the Bluenose II was in port for the day, maybe because Three Rivers has just been named the Cultural Capital of Canada 2009. Must be all the festivals.


We recently spent a lovely day in Québec City with the boy's family -- his sister lives there, so we carpooled with his parents and spent the day museum-ing and wandering around. Very fun. It is such a beautiful city.

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Seeing as it's summer, I haven't been working much. Just enough to remind me how few hours I'm working. For some reason, people just aren't interested in doing English classes while the weather is nice. Things should pick up in the fall, but all the same I accepted a job offer as an assistant English teacher. Those of you reading from Japan, I'll be an ALT at a French school. From some people I know here doing that job it sounds very much like ALT-ing, but without having to stay at the office if you don't have classes. I'm glad to have somthing stable, but at the same time, disappointed it's not more interesting. Or more biological. On the upside, it wil give me excellent material for a book... For those of you reading between the lines, that does mean that my grand Panamanian plans fell through. For the standard monetary reasons. Definitely a let down.

The job searching is still bleak, mostly because I have way more experience teaching than anything else, and because (according to me) any companies that are hiring are looking for fluent French speakers with English skills and not the other way around. But it's a tight job market all around. I'm still looking (and applying and waiting and... you get the idea), and I'm planning to pick up a few courses at the local university. It'll give me a bigger push as far as the language stuff goes, and ideally put me in contact with more people in the know here. As with everywhere, the hiring market here is very dependent on who you know.

So that's that. Now that we have a car, we've been getting out more -- going to Montreal to see movies (WallE - super good, Hulk - fun times, Iron Man - yay Robert Downey Jr., Indiana Jones - aliens? All this time for frikking aliens?) and fun stuff like that. We've booked a mini-holiday to go and visit Ottawa for a few days, and I'm looking forward to a visit next month from a friend from the Yukon.

I'll keep you posted.