Anglophone Adventures

An anglophone in hispanophone land.

2009-09-17T20:26:00.003-04:00

I've moved again. Seeing as my life will be between two different places for the time being, it makes sense to me to split my writing between two different blogs.

So wander on over and take a look.

adventure awaits

2009-08-02T10:53:00.003-04:00

In just over 24 hours from now, I'm off on another "adventure".

Yes, plans have finally been more or less finalized (I say more or less because I still don't really know what I'll be doing once I get there -- at the very least I have a place to stay and a ride from the airport) and my flight leaves tomorrow around noon. I'll be down south for four months, and then back in Québec for the winter. I know, I know: winter in Québec. Next year I'll try to work it for winter in Panama.

For the first time ever in my life I'm all packed and ready to go. It's quite strange to not be running around last minute putting things together. On the plus side, I'm much less stressed than usual. But then again, it also gives me a lot more time to consider what happens when I get off the plane.

I've got an orientation first thing in the morning after I arrive and then for the first month I'll be doing a course in tropical biology. After that, my supervisor will be there and I'll be playing in the lab. And reading like mad. And enjoying Panama.

I'm sure I'll have many more interesting things to write once I get down there!

chez le dentiste

2009-07-10T12:31:00.002-04:00

In the never ending list of things to do before I leave the country I went to the dentist. I have nothing against going to the dentist, but it's not really on my list of favorite things to do. And after all of my orthodontic work, I feel like I've spent more than enough time in the chair with people playing in my mouth. But you know, it's a good thing to do before you leave the country for months at a time. So I went.

And lo and behold, what did they find on my x-rays? Another wisdom tooth (or en français -- une dent de sagesse)! I've already had them out, and here my body is, producing new ones. So that brings my total up to three -- two removed, and one grown in the last two years. I'm sure they would have mentioned something about that at my last check*.

It must be because I just keep getting wiser.

* Because dentists like to take them out. I was glad that the dentist here wasn't too excited about it though. Yes, he said I could have it taken out, but the choice is mine. And if it's not causing problems it's not such a big deal.

Grandescunt Aucta Labore*

2009-07-09T10:10:00.005-04:00

And now I can say it officially. Congratulations and welcome to McGill. The official letters came in the mail yesterday, and now all that rests is some minor administrative hoops to jump through (registration, etc.). And the rest of that getting ready to go to Panama stuff.

For those of you who follow this blog that aren't in the loop, I'll be starting my doctorate in biology at McGill in September (actually in August), with a concentration in the Neotropical Environment Option (NEO) which is run through the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama. What does that mean exactly? Well, I'll be getting a PhD from McGill, but the bulk of my research will take place in Panama with my primary supervisor. Other coursework will take place in Montreal with my co-supervisor.

So yeah.

I'm both excited and slightly terrified by it all, to be honest. Exciting things: new opportunities, new experiences, new contacts, new country, new language, and best of all -- doing something that interests me. Sorry English teaching. Terrifiying things: see exciting things. Except for that last one. Doing something I'm interested in is pretty exciting.

So, as of August 3rd I'll be in Panama, starting my first course in the program and getting my feet wet in Panama. I'll be staying down south until December, and then I'll be in Montreal. I know -- it would be nicer to be in Panama during Québec winter, but this makes more sense logistically (not to mention financially). Besides, like my Montreal based supervisor said to me -- I'm a Canadian girl. I can take it.

* For those whose Latin is rusty: By work, all things increase and grow.

back in the TR

2009-07-01T11:26:00.003-04:00

And we're back.

Back in stinky (literally) TR. Things here are as always, only muggier and rainier. I keep trying to banish the rains to the west of the country, but my powers must be on the fritz. Other than that, things are pretty quiet around here. The cats (and boy) are glad to have me back. I'm glad to be back too, but I think I'm experiencing withdrawal or something. We had a barbecue on the back patio the other night, but it was just with us. What's that about? No people, no playing cards, only one bottle of wine? I'm sure once I get deeper into my planning and lists I'll get over it, but it seems I miss spending time with family types.

For Canada Day yesterday we hid out from the rain in our fave local cafe with a few books, enjoyed a pint at our fave local pub, and sangria at a place near us -- it has our fave patio and okay sangria, but the food isn't too good and the service has been crap lately. The patio was full unfortunately. The crappy service made me cranky.

We did have a fabulous fireworks display, which the city has now moved so that we can see it perfectly from our balconies. Excellent. I'm told that these fireworks were much more intense than the fireworks for St-Jean Baptiste, but not as well attended. Does that mean some federal funding body is pumping money into Canada Day fireworks in Québec? I have to wonder, especially as they are cutting money everywhere else (cultural capital of Canada, festivals, etc.). Who knows. But there were a lot of Canada flags on the streets that I don't remember seeing last year...

Third time's the charm... almost

2009-06-13T10:35:00.005-04:00

What with all the changes in schedules that have been going on around here recently*, we decided to get out of Dodge for a few days. Somewhere not to far, preferably with something interesting to do. We thought about going back to Ottawa, but we were there last summer. The idea of pubs and British-ness held sway though, and we ended up in Kingston. And yes, I was just there last month. And in January as well. But neither of those trips count, because the one in January was to move my sister out of storage, and the other was as a chaperone. So it was like I had never really been after all.

So we booked a place to sleep, hopped in the car, and drove to Canada's first capital city. We ended up in a lovely little B&B near Queen's University, not far from the waterfront.

We ended up spending our first evening in a walk-in clinic. Nothing serious, and I found it excessively funny that somehow I always end up doing something similar whenever I visit Kingston. I swear I've spent more time in the Shoppers Drug Mart there than anywhere else in Kingston.

We had a very relaxed mini-vacation: we spent the morning touring Fort Henry, and the afternoon touring used bookstores and local pubs**.

The next day we were back home again. Short and sweet.

* Me heading off to distant corners of the globe mostly.
** Katie -- you were right. The Toucan really is the best pub in town.

quatre flashers

2009-06-09T10:43:00.000-04:00

Every day, I am amazed by the new driving skills that I have acquired by living in Québec. When we first got our car, I was criticized for driving "too safely". I was a danger to those around me. Crazy moves like coming to a complete stop at a stop sign, shoulder checking, using my turn signals, obeying the speed limit, and leaving 2 seconds of space between myself and the cars in front of me -- all of these caused no end of trouble for the drivers around me.

But experience on Québec roads has taught me the error of my ways. Besides learning the correct way to drive (eliminating all those pesky old bad habits) I've also learned the correct way to park. And I certainly don't mean parallel parking. Maybe people do that in Montréal*, where space is at a premium, thanks to all those scary foreigners with their strange ways and customs. And food**.

No, here in la région, it's much easier to just stop your car wherever you are and turn on your quatre flashers. The four-way flashers. Hazard lights. Need to stop in the middle of a busy street? No problem. Quatre flashers. Double parked? No problem -- quatre flashers. Just stopping for a minute and don't feel like feeding the parking meter? You guessed it -- quatre flashers.

Based on a highly scientific study of parking habits in downtown T-R, conducted from our balcony, people in these parts have serious problems with parking. The spaces may be big enough to accomodate a tank, but it's still problematic. And that's not even counting having to figure out how to use the parking meter... True story: we were once stopped by a young woman who had apparently NEVER SEEN A PARKING METER and asked us how to use it. Not a question of what are the hours or something similar, but she actually wanted to know HOW to work the machine. So apparently, it's not just me who is learning things about how to drive in Québec.

* Where it is illegal to turn right on a red light.

** I'm dying for restaurant options that don't include bad Italian (overcooked spaghetti) or pub grub (variations on burgers, fries, poutine, and club sandwiches). Hello Indian? Thai? Chinese???

j' heart montréal

2009-05-31T12:04:00.002-04:00

In the middle of a torrential downpour I drove into Montreal yesterday. Usually it's Francis who does the driving in the city -- the excuse being that he knows his way around better, so there's fewer navigational problems. But he was already there. I was meeting him and one of his friends for breakfast. Miraculously, I survived, and thanks to our GPS, I even found the spot*. The weather even cleared up.

We had a lovely brunch and wandered around Mile End. We went to used bookstores and bought the best bagels in the world. We found my birthday present -- a used copy of the two volume Compact OED. Including magnifier. Completely unnecessary and impractical. The perfect gift. We had coffee, went to a movie (Star Trek -- quite good actually, and nothing like the terrible previews suggested), and finished with Reubens smoked meat sandwiches.

Now that's the way to celebrate the end of the session.

* I am totally exaggerating. Montreal is not the impossible navigational challenge I make it out to be. I just never have the opportunity to drive there. But the traffic? There is no exaggerating that.

fin du contract

2009-05-29T14:57:00.004-04:00

It was my last day of work as an English monitor today, and I couldn't be happier.

Okay, so being an English monitor is actually a pretty great job. Go in, do activities with the students, and take no responsibility for anything. For the majority of people who work as monitors, this is a great deal. And you get a chance to experience life in another part of Canada, and improve your other official language. The pay is pretty good, and the benefits aren't bad (i.e. not having to deal with disciplining students, not having to deal with administration, not having to deal with parents, not having to be at school when there are no students, free trip to Québec City for "training", money for your flights home, etc.). And then there's all the other people who find themselves in the same situation, living away from home in a second language and looking to speak their mother tongue.

I feel almost like I didn't experience the intended purpose of the program. I already lived in Québec when I applied for the job, and will continue living here now that my contract is finished. I have a lovely apartment, a boyfriend, and a (small, too small for my liking) social network here, and my French was pretty good even before I started the job. So I didn't go out of my way to get to know my students, the teachers at the school, the community. I don't even live in the community where I was working*, so I didn't spend a lot of extra time there. Which is hugely different from my experience in Japan, where I may not have gotten to know my students either (what can I say -- I'm lazy, and they all had funny names, were they French or Japanese), but I became much more a part of my community. Let's put it this way -- there was not send-off for me today, and nobody cried.

So somewhere between the differences in culture, linguistics, and my personal living situation, I didn't have quite the same Odyssey as other participants on the program. But then again, I don't think I went in with the same expectations. I think I'll miss the steady paycheque most of all.

*This made it awkward to prepare a guide for whoever takes over my position next year. No, I'm sorry, I can't give you practical ideas about community activities you could join during the year.

la session achève!

2009-05-15T15:46:00.004-04:00

I can't believe I haven't updated in such a long time! What can I say -- the end of term does that to you, especially when it makes you write long paper in your deuxième langue. It was an excellent challenge for me, and really gave me the boost I needed with my French, not to mention a good kick of the old confidence.

Well, I won't go bragging about my mad skillz yet -- I had a lot of help, and I had to ask for an extension for said term paper. Thank you gentle professor.

Not only has university finished for the year, but I'm also two weeks away from the end of my contract as an English monitor. A contract that has gone by extremely fast. I've been doing a lot of thinking about this past year, because eventually I'd like to write a juicy tell-all book about the strangeness of pretend English teaching abroad and nearly abroad (hey -- Québec is almost a foreign land -- they talk funny, and have whole other government institutions for my taxes, because everyone loves to do two tax returns).

Next up, I'll be -- hey! look over there! The patio is open and the 5 à 7 is about to start!
Bonne fin de semaine!

Three days in Kingston with Option Anglais

2009-05-09T09:26:00.002-04:00

It was 5am, and I was up and getting ready to go for the day. Usually, I'm a late sleeper, but today I was getting a ride to Shawinigan to get on a tour bus with 59 students and three other teachers. Destination: Kingston, Ontario. Canada's first capital, home of Queen's University and known for its many penitentiaries. We'd be spending three days there to give the students a chance to visit a real anglophone community, and hopefully learn something along the way*.

Our departure was timed so that we would arrive in Montréal to pick up our guide** just in time for the morning rush hour. Oh joy! Having requested an anglophone guide for our English speaking tour, we were a bit surprised to find out that our admittedly very nice guide was not terribly comfortable in the language of Shakespeare. Nor that of Molière, according to the francophone teacher. Ouch. You know its not good when the tour bus of Secondary 2 students is snickering when the guide tells them when it is time "for to go" somwhere or asks them "are you understood?".

We had a very full schedule though: a tour of Upper Canada Village (a collection of turn of the previous century houses manned by guides in period costume)***. Like Heritage Park in Calgary, but on the shores of the St. Lawrence. After that, a quick cruise through the Thousand Islands, and finally on to the hotel for supper**** before a Haunted Walk of Kingston. Ooooooo... scary stuff kiddies!

The evening was less fun. Our hotel was out in the middle of fast food wasteland, so after the haunted walk, two of the teachers volunteered to take interested students to McDonalds for a snack. I stayed with another teacher to keep an eye on the students who opted for swimming in the hotel pool -- much to the consternation of the guides. Understandably, they were concerned about liability and accidents, having had a death in the past. We were more concerned with the students having something to do for the three hours before lights out. No mishaps, and we were off duty at 11pm when a security guard arrived to keep an eye on things.

The next day it was up bright and early again. After breakfast we were off to Bellevue House, and then on to a guided tour of Kingston. The students were less than energetic, and there were a few we caught sleeping during the tour. Not that I blame them. It's hard work travelling in another language!

Our last stop for the day was Fort Henry, where we were signed up as soldiers in the British Army, circa 1867. Uniforms, muster, inspections -- the works. Including guided tours and a scavenger hunt. And another evening of ghost stories... It was a great visit, marred only by the presence of a pack of princesses in our ranks. They lamented the "icky" food, the lack of showers, and the humidity (we had some light rain) that curled their hair. And do you believe it, there were no outlets for them to plug in their hair straighteners! They had to wait to plug them in on the bus the next day! Seriously. During the ghost tour they almost injured themselves (and my ears) with their screaming and panic. I (and the other teachers) was ready to slap them. Especially the ones who refused to eat because the food was "gross". They reminded me of the group of Alberta students who did a homestay in Japan while I was there, and reacted much the same way (much to the distress of their Japanese hosts). I guess it just goes to show that spoiled adolescents are, well, spoiled.

The evening was rounded out with a big show put on by the students, my favorite part of the trip I think. The students were given free reign to do whatever they wanted, and came up with some highly entertaining skits, songs and other entertainments. Even the teachers (myself included -- I gave an improptu Japanese lesson) participated. The evening wound down with a game of telephone, and then it was time for everyone to go to bed.

We slept in the "schoolroom" between the two girls dormitories. Well, I slept. The two other teachers didn't do so well what with the grandfather clock that chimed every 15 minutes and the heater that made noise every other 15 minutes. At least there were no ghosts!

We ended the trip with an hour of free time in Kingston and a quick tour of the penitentiary museum, before lunch at Swiss Chalet (holy nostalgia batman!) and getting back on the bus. Where we once again arrived just in time for rush hour in Montreal.

In all, it was a great trip and I think the students had a lot of fun (and maybe even got some English speaking in). In the words of our guide, "it was very fun to trip with you".

*One parent complained there was no reason to go to Kingston -- what was there to do there? Wasn't there more to do in Boston or New York? Keeping in mind that this is a group of Grade 7 and 8 students. Because you really want to be crossing international borders and dealing with passports with that age group. I blame a lack of knowledge of Canadian history (and tourism). I heard much the same question from francophone friends.

** No, the guide didn't come with the bus to Shawinigan. It's much more fun to go through the middle of Montréal to pick them up. Weird.

*** Another bump in the road here -- UCV wasn't actually open yet, so the buildings were all locked. So instead of a free visit, we had a guide. Not a grave problem, but not something that speaks well for the tour company organizing the trip.

**** Another problem: hungry, cranky teens; small hotel lobby; and not enough food for everyone. Well, according to the guides there was enough, but there were only drinks for half. If they understood drinks for 30, wouldn't there be food for 30? Hmmmm...

but we didn't stop for ice cream

2009-03-29T19:36:00.004-04:00

It was a very spring-like weekend around here. The weather on Saturday was warm and sunny, and we were at the Jardin Botannique in Montréal with la belle-soeur and her chum. In an effort to help people forget that there are still big ugly masses of snowbanks everywhere, covered in sand, dirt, and a winter's worth of garbage, the Gardens hold an annual "free flying" butterfly exhibit. Despite the crowds, it was good to get out and see some green growing things. The butterflies, despite being the main attraction, were the least fun part of the day. Due mostly to their being surrounded by people: parents and children with strollers, amateur (and not-so-amateur) photographers with their miscellaneous gear, and of course, the blathering idiots who make you wonder who let them leave the house without a brain. Well, it was to be expected for a Saturday afternoon. Next time I go to the Jardin Botannique, I'll pick a less crowded event.

Now I'm all ready for spring to hit those of us who don't live inside a greenhouse...

Icebreaking in Trois-Rivières

2009-03-14T09:12:00.002-04:00

Unfortunately, you also have to listen to Rick Mercer. I find him extremely annoying, and fail to understand his popularity. But you can also see the Canadian Coast Guard hard at work, keeping the St. Lawrence clear of ice.

Ice breaking action. Yes.

The Martha L. Black is stationed just across from our apartment, and the "bridge" (better known as the Pont Laviolette) is visible just about everywhere in town. It's huge.

Last winter, they opened the ice breaker up for tours by the public for a few hours. I took some photos, and you can see them here, on my flickr site.

re-enact this!

2009-02-17T15:20:00.001-05:00

I swear, if I hear one more interview about the cancellation of the re-enactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, I am going to scream.

Possibly for ice cream.

Which is difficult to get this time of year.

perfectionism + second language = grrrrr

2009-02-10T16:59:00.004-05:00

My first hand-in assignment / take home exam this term is for my course on legislative aspects of the environment. We had a week to work on it, and I was really good about getting a good head start on things so that I wouldn't be leaving it all until the last minute, as I am wont to do... So that part went relatively well. I found all of the necessary information, had all of the answers, and was not terribly concerned.

And then it came to the writing.

For starters, the assignment was not taxing in and of itself. A take home exam with all of the answers to be found in the course notes? The course notes that we had read together as a class? A grand total of four questions?

Ordinarily I'd be laughing. But then again, ordinarily, I'd be writing in my native tongue. That one where I can pull a four question regurgitation take home exam out of my ass in under an hour. Unfortunately, my French is not nearly up to the task. Oh sure, I can read, speak, understand, and all that useful stuff. But I avoid writing as much as possible. Well, that and answering the telephone at school (I think that's a hold over from Japan, where I answered the school telephone a grand total of one time over a two year period). It's one of the reasons for my doing a Certificate in French in the first place. I want to improve my writing and having to write for a course is a sure-fire way to force myself to write.*

So I wrote. Most of Sunday afternoon, and a few more hours on Monday evening. Which for me, marks probably the first time I haven't been frantically writing and revising up to the hour before the paper is due.

I had my in-house editor read it over, and asked specially that he not correct all of the errors, but highlight them so that I could fix them myself.

Terrible idea**.

Not that the help with the language wasn't wonderful and greatly appreciated. It was more that it made me feel like an illiterate idiot. I think the problem was and still is more that I know I'm not an illiterate idiot. At least not usually.

So, while rationally I understand that I will have to work hard and suck up that perfectionist streak to improve my writing and accept that no, I am not able to write perfect prose en français***, I really don't like it and it does not make me very happy.

* I tried setting up a blog in French to practice, but it was no fun! I never wrote a single post. Which defeats the purpose.

** Another terrible idea? Asking him to read over my stuff while the Flames of Calgary were kicking the asses of the Canadiens of Montreal. Hm. This could prove problematic if my dream of seeing both of these teams in an all-Canadian Stanley Cup final match-up comes true...

*** YET!

In the immortal words of my sister, "Is there any time you're NOT busy?"

2009-01-30T16:21:00.004-05:00

And the answer to that my friend, is "no".

Oh, you mean you want specifics? Well, there was that whole "Christmas in Alberta" thing, which was a whole lot of fun (and surprisingly relaxing -- considering we spent all that time with the family, touring what is in effect a very large province). Then it was back to work, school and everything else. My work is, well, work. Francis is busy with putting together another new course (Medieval History), but he's more busier with going back to school and tackling his doctorate. I'm taking more courses, but mine are first-year undergraduate ones. This term it's Population Geography, Environmental Law, and Physical Environment. They rate a whole other post...

The sister came for a visit as well, for a whole week! It was great! It was just as well the Australian went home, because I think all of the snow and serious cold (we had a few -30 days) would have scared him. Next time he can come when it's summer. We had fun showing her around, throwing her into snowbanks and making her clean our house. Just joking about that snowbank one. We made a side trip to Ontario to clear her stuff out once and for all, and discovered that shipping to the other side of the world is pretty expensive.

We're also gearing up for more visitors. It seems all of Francis' friends have accepted that we live here, and they're just going to have to suck it up and visit «la région». As a result, we're fully booked until after February. Busy is good, right?

This weekend though, is a big one. We're going for our Christmas present weekend -- tickets to the opera on Saturday, and then the big hockey game on Sunday. That's right. The Bell Centre. The Canadians. The Bruins. Sunday. Sunday, Sunday. Did I mention how spoiled we are? Yeah. We're spoiled. A lot.

Hope your weekend is as good as ours.

the end of terms

2008-12-19T10:35:00.003-05:00

Thank goodness, the school year is over. No more commuting, no more studying, no more exams, no more students, no more teachers. Yesterday was the last day of work for both of us. We celebrated by kicking back with a beer and watching some hockey in our pajamas. And going to bed early. Yes, we are old people now it seems. I'm sure there will be more than enough excitement in a few days...

I'm keeping an eye on the weather in the hopes that the big storm hitting Ontario won't interfere with our Tuesday flight to Alberta. Things look good so far. It's funny though -- I was doing some prep on Thursday for next year's activities, and was scanning headlines across the country. Everyone is complaining about snow, bad weather and poor road conditions. Even Vancouver and their "extreme" weather conditions*. One of the English monitors from Vancouver Island stayed at our place on her way home for Christmas and we all got a good laugh out of the advice that she'd recieved from her parents to "bundle up" because it was below zero there. It was almost as good as the laugh we got out of her observation that scarves were actually really useful, and not just good accessories.

With school of both the secondary and university variety being over, things are much more relaxed. We've got some last minute preparation to do -- mostly cleaning up the appartment** and posting instructions for the cat-sitter that will be staying here while we're away. And packing. I think I'll leave that for later...

* I understand that those west coast people don't see any snow ever, and have no infrastructure to deal with it. It's still funny to see photos of the minimal snow there causing such problems.

** It took three tries to spell that correctly -- stupid cognates!

marshmallow world

2008-11-28T11:52:00.002-05:00

The winter has arrived in Québec. The white stuff arrived Tuesday morning -- a big dollop that would have been beautiful if I didn't have to drive to Shawinigan. Slowly. Verrrrry slowly. For the first snow of the season the snowplows weren't too quick to get moving. Worse was the drive home. Even with snow tires, it's pretty slick out there.

I choose to blame certain members of my family for winter. They came out for a visit last weekend, ostensibly to watch the Grey Cup final. And to visit us as an added bonus. Convenient, that.* It was a fun weekend, even if it was extremely windy and cold, and we all seemed to have issues with dropping things. And with hotels. Mom, Dad and Nick were staying out by the airport. Conveniently located for getting to the airport, but not for much else. We had a bed and breakfast close to downtown. Lovely home, nice location, but terrible service. There was nobody there on Sunday morning so we left without breakfast and without paying. **

Long story short, they brought the cold with them and left it here, where it turned into snow and winter.

I suppose I'll have to forgive them though, because it was so good to see them! And now I'm extra looking forward to being in Alberta for Christmas. Not to alarm anyone, but that's less than a month away. And coming sooner than you think... At least with the snow on the ground, things feel a little more Christmas-y.

* I wonder how much more often they would come to visit if Montréal still had a professional baseball team?

** The excuse offered? It's a private home. Yes, like just about every other bed and breakfast I've stayed at. Usually though, there's an understanding that the private home has also decided to function as a business and to accept your money for the service. Implying that there will be some service offered.

memories of an ALT

2008-11-20T10:24:00.002-05:00

This week is the end of term at school.

The students and teachers are all busy with end of term exams -- sorry, "learning evaluation situations" as they're called now. If nothing else, the educational reform in Québec seems to have come up with some interesting new terminology (management-ese) to describe otherwise easily understood concepts. And in two languages!

But I digress. As the English monitor, I have very little to do this week. I had 6 out of 11 classes canceled outright, and one rescheduled. I don't mind so much -- I have exams and an oral presentation to prepare for -- but it does remind me of working in Japan. The difference being, that I'm allowed to go home when I don't have a class.

Not that it's not depressing when you realize that you've spent more time in your car than you have in the classroom... the joys of fake teaching.

Howl - o- ween

2008-11-10T21:20:00.002-05:00

So this year, for the first time in a long time, I had my favorite kind of Halloween. Oh sure, I dressed up (and someday soon I'll even post pictures -- although if you saw me as a singing, dancing stripper in northern Japan, it's old news) and whatnot. But this year, I sat at home in the dark watching scary movies, eating bad Chinese takeout and scarfing miniature chocolates. And not even by myself. I had a girlfriend over. Isn't that what everyone likes to do for Halloween?

I didn't carve my pumpkin though. It became a delicious pumpkin pie, and tubs of frozen pumpkin to be used at a later date. Mmmm... citrouille...

Well, there's always next year.

Did you know I rock?

2008-10-17T17:09:00.002-04:00

My first round of midterms is already over. I have a few more exams to go, some projects and a presentation but the results are so far so good. An A+ in chemistry, and an A in botany. Not bad for studying in a second language and holding down a full time job... then again, I'd be pretty disappointed with myself if I wasn't getting straight A's.

Case in point: we were given a third of the questions to the botany exam in advance, and the chemistry exam had such difficult questions as: what is the chemical process that occurs in plants and involves chlorophyll?

First person to answer, gets a prize!

Friday night rumble

2008-10-13T12:19:00.004-04:00

Last Friday was opening night for the Montreal Canadiens. We stayed in to watch the match, because we're boring old people it seems. Sadly, the Habs lost to Buffalo in a shootout. The shootout was boring, but the match was pretty intense. This being the 100th anniversary of the team, people are already buzzing about their chances for the cup. I always kid with my students that the Flames will take the cup this year, but everyone knows that won't happen...

After the game, we were crying into our beers and looking for televised entertainment to cheer us up. All of a sudden, there was a loud crashing sound, and the whole building shook. We thought a truck must have rammed into the side of the building. And being downtown, that isn't entirely out of the realm of possibility. So we checked outside -- nothing. We went downstairs to see if the building (it is 100 years old this year after all) had suffered any damages. Nothing. The neighbors were all outside too -- they had felt the same thing. The local consensus was that since there was no truck sticking out of the side of any of the buildings on the street, it must have been an underground explosion. Nothing. No smell of gas (thankfully), no accidents (ditto), nothing. There were calls to 911, the gas company, everywhere. Nobody knew what was going on. It was, incidentally, a great way to meet the neighbors.

It turned out that it was not such a localized phenomenon. People all over town had heard a crash and felt the earth move. And in fact, it was just that! Yep, right here in 3R, we had a mini tremor! It was something wussy like 2.3 on the Richter scale -- just enough to freak people out, not enough to do any damage.

And I thought that by no longer living on the west coast or in Japan, I was safe from earthquakes!

journée pédagogique

2008-10-10T11:50:00.005-04:00

Today is a professional development day at my school, which means I get a day off. No students = no monitor. I love my contract. I have so little responsibility.

And finally, I have some time to do something non-productive, like update the blogging hole. It's been a supremely busy month or so. What with starting a new job, starting back at school, and still trying to focus on getting my as into graduate school next fall, I have had very little time to sit back and relax.

First, the job. It doesn't pay as much as JET, but the conditions are better. If there are no students, I don't have to be at school. If I have no classes, I don't have to be at school. If I need to take a day off, I can shuffle my classes around no problems. The students are always happy to see me because I do fun activities with them and zero grammar. If anything, I get annoyed by the lack of responsibility. Much like in Japan, I kind of get ignored most of the time. But then again, I haven't done a lot to get to know teachers and staff outside of school. I've been too busy.

Two nights a week I'm going to three hour lectures at the University. I decided that because my job is the opposite of challenging, I would do a certificate in environmental sciences. Half of my courses I've got credit for, so I only have to do five to get a certificate. This term, I've got two classes. It's interesting and keeps me out of the house. Unfortunately, it does mean I have to study and do exams. Well, it's good for my French. And it forces me to write. And boy, does my writing need help!

I've been doing lots of English writing -- I've put in two big applications for big grant money for next year. I'm hopeful that they'll give me funding, but they're extremely competitive grants. To me, my proposals look worthy of funding, but I guess that's what everyone thinks of their research. I've been working on them in all of my free time so hopefully they pay off. Now that they're done, I should have more breathing room.

It hasn't been all work all the time though. I've been able to go and do some sightseeing in the area. There are a few other language monitors in my area, and we've been able to go to the Western Festival in St. Tite -- a huge rodeo and festival in the area. We've also gone to visit the local national park. I'm slowly getting around to posting pictures on my flickr site.

What else? Francis and I were at a friend's wedding in August. He's a guy we know from Japan (we actually met at a party he threw), so we got to hang out with a bunch of people from the JET program and go out for a karaoke night. The wedding was fun too.

My good friend was in town for a few days, so I got to enjoy hanging out with her. I don't think we stopped talking to whole time -- it was great. But too short. Isn't that always the way?

And now I guess I have to go and be productive with my day off. The apartment is disgusting because neither of us is ever home long enough to clean up, and I want to invite the in-laws over for dinner on the weekend. I should get some studying in too seeing as I have an exam on Tuesday I have to study for. Yay botany!

Have a lovely long weekend!

howdy!

2008-10-02T23:31:00.004-04:00

Things have been busy out here.

I've been at my new job as an English language monitor up in Shawinigan for about a month, I've started classes part time at the university, I'm in the midst of major grant applications (fingers and toes crossed, not to mention the t's!), working with a few private students and joined a choir to round things out. Phew.

In my free time, I enjoy sleeping. And studying biology jargon in French.

More detailed updates to come. No really. I promise.

****

I did an activity with my students called "Rodeo Role Play". Where I live, there are people who have never heard of the greatest outdoor show on earth, the Calgary Stampede. It gets trumped by the Festival Western in St-Tite. A teeny, tiny town very close to the middle of nowhere. In honour of this shared cultural heritage, namely cowboys, I taught francophone students such useful terms as "howdy", "y'all", "yahoo" and verbs like "mosey" and "vamoose". All of which I'm sure will prove useful if they ever meet John Wayne.

The goal was to get the students to speak, even if they were using silly words. After some tweaking, the activity was successful.

Now to teach them all to talk like pirates!

vroooooom!

2008-08-17T14:07:00.004-04:00

Well, it seems the summer is just zooming by. Appropriate, seeing as this weekend is the big GP3R -- Grand Prix Trois-Rivières... there's been plenty of zooming, a fair bit of vrooming, and even more "vroum"ing.

Last night, besides a beautiful full moon, there were fabulous fireworks just outside our door. Apparently, they weren't organized to celebrate my one-year anniversary of living in Trois-Rivières, but that's what I've decided to think. Why *wouldn't* the city put on fireworks just for me?

And of course, with everyone gearing up to go back to school (myself included), the weather has decided to actually be nice for a change. Just to rub it in that summer is winding down.

***

We fled the city for a few days to wander (very quicky) through the nation's capital. It was my first visit ever -- shocking, I know. More shocking that it was only the second visit for my conjoint, his first having been last fall. Well, at least that saved us from having to worry about who had seen what, and what was worth a second viewing.

Well worth a second viewing (even after he had spent a full day there the last time) was the Canadian War Museum. A good mix of artifacts, points of view, interpretation, and tanks. A whole giant room full of the latter. Okay, so maybe that last one is more for the boys. I enjoyed it more for artsy photo opportunities.

And what rounds out a day at a museum better than a day at the pub?

We did much the same thing for the rest of the trip. Just change the museum and the pub, and you pretty much have the whole trip.

My favorite part, and something I hadn't considered was the confusion factor that a bilingual couple can present to people who work in bilingual facilities in an officially bilingual city. We have the very bad habit of switching between French and English. With the occasional smattering of Japanese, just to throw others off the scent. Asking a relatively simple question becomes more complex the more languages you throw in, especially if you unwittingly change in mid-phrase. On the upside, the person you're talking to is free to pick the language they're more comfortable with. On the downside, they may be extremely confused for the first little bit. I much prefer some confusion to the automatic switch to English I always run into in Montreal. If I address you in French (or English), why change? Even if you detect an accent, if I've made the commitment to starting the transaction in one language, why switch to another? But that is a long and complex topic, best suited to another post. This is supposed to be about Ottawa!

A very pretty city, that reminded me strangely of Victoria. I blame the hordes of tourists, plentiful pubs, and gorgeous gardens. And the overwhelming British-ness of it all.

That must have been it...

and we played records

2008-08-01T19:25:00.002-04:00

This week, I'm in the process of discovering music. The boy's parents were getting rid of their old turntable, and we, packrats that we are, have given it a home here. It came complete with their record collection -- mostly French-Canadian folk singers. The collection also includes fine 80's specimens of Miami Vice (not one, but two different soundtracks!).

So I've been enjoying the snap, crackle, pop, and occasional skip of old records. It's a sound that goes well with the falling rain and thunderstorms, at least until the power goes out.

aaahhh... Gérard Depardieu...

2008-07-23T20:35:00.007-04:00

I heard this song not once, but twice today on the local campus radio station, CFOU -- it's number two on their anglophone charts.

No, I can't get it out of my head. And yes, the French word for fish is Jacques Cousteau.

once upon a time in the east

2008-07-18T11:37:00.006-04:00

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.

***

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.

trying to stay positive

2008-06-09T13:42:00.003-04:00

The malaise is setting in. The weather may be gorgeous here, but I feel like crap. I'm underemployed and unhappy about it. I read somewhere that most people are satisfied with their work, be it clearing drains or waiting tables, as long as they were working more than a certain number of hours. And I fall shy of reaching that magic number of hours. Which leaves me with plenty of time to sulk around the house -- I can't afford to go out -- and obsess over the lack of communication from a certain university.

So, I'm expanding my options.

I've decided two things. One: that I'd like to be working in biology -- that field I trained in that I enjoy. Not that I don't enjoy teaching English, it's just not what I want to do when I grow up. Two: if I want to get a real job in my field, I'm going to really have to work hard to improve my second language skills. Those real jobs are about having writing and speaking skills, both of which are still difficult for me. I've been lazy about my French. I don't speak it enough at home and I haven't done much to improve my writing skills. Improving those skills means getting out more, be it volunteering or working at a less-than-exciting job (as long as it's all in French), means doing some actual writing, means studying and looking things up in dictionaries, means being an active learner. Just like in Japan, learning a new language doesn't happen by osmosis. Unfortunately.

Here's to making things happen!

*new kount added because I got locked out of the old one :(

everyone loves a prime

2008-06-08T13:53:00.000-04:00

This geek moment brought to you by PBS.

pimp mon char

2008-05-27T11:20:00.002-04:00

With gas prices around here averaging 139.4 per litre, and looking to go up, we thought there was no better time to buy a car. Yar. But it's good. Now we don't have to time grocery shopping with the bus schedule, I don't have to wait around for an hour after work if I want to take the bus home, and best of all we can get out of town with minimal effort. Like this weekend, we drove out to see the waterfalls at St.Ursule. I'd forgotten how nice it was to be able to leave the city and go somewhere where you can almost hear the plants photosynthesizing. Here's some video of the falls, photosynthesis not included.

damn hippies! get off my lawn!

2008-05-17T13:32:00.002-04:00

Living downtown is fabulous*. At least until the weather gets nice and everyone else decides to head down to enjoy the fabulous-ness.

Especially the hippies that live in Trois-Rivières. All three of them. They've decided to take up residence in the small park across the street from our appartment. So on any given sunny afternoon, they're out there drumming. I don't have any inherent problems with drumming, but come on. Who really enjoys listening to drumming circles? Especially when they're trying to listen to the radio? Or trying to do work? Or trying to enjoy the sunshine? Or a beer on the balcony?

I think I might have to invest in a pellet gun to convince them that they should go elsewhere...

Damn hippies.

*Even a tiny downtown like we have here. What it lacks in class it makes up for with proximity to waterfront. And lots of ice cream parlours. I likes me some ice cream.

reverie

2008-05-09T11:49:00.002-04:00

I've taken to dreaming in French these days. It's a bit of a strange experience, particularly when I realize while I'm dreaming that I and everyone else is conversing in perfectly fluent French. My next thoughts are of course that I'm creating all of this in my head. And inevitably, everyone loses fluency and I wake up.

But it's neat while it lasts.

not just giant, it's colossal

2008-04-29T18:52:00.001-04:00

Just stumbled across this on the BBC News website. A museum in New Zealand is in the process of dissecting a Colossal Squid -- this thing is even bigger than a Giant Squid, a creature near and dear to my heart.

You can watch a live stream here.

It's pretty cool.

fur-based technology

2008-04-24T16:11:00.004-04:00

I am not what you would call a "morning person". Once upon a time, I used no less than four alarm clocks to get me out of bed in the morning. I had them all: the loud obnoxious alarm clock, the quiet obnoxious alarm clock, the radio alarm clock, the alarm clock on the other side of the room -- all going off at staggered times for optimal waking power. They never really worked. I just got better at sleeping through noise. Which is something that has come in handy.

These days, I still don't like to get up early, and I've pretty much reduced my alarm clock needs to one. Or two.

But I've unwittingly introduced a new form of alarm -- the fur-based alarm.

When I was teaching full time, I would get up at 6am, feed the cat, make the coffee and get to work. The cat, understandably, got used to this pattern. He started "helping" me wake up in the mornings. He's a big boy, and currently on a diet. So feeding time is a serious business. He's very punctual. At the time, it was nice. I didn't have to worry about sleeping through my alarm because the cat is very persistent.

And then my schedule changed, and I realized that I wasn't so keen on being awoken at 6am every day. Especially weekends.

So his feeding time has shifted to the evenings. The only problem is that the cat still likes to wake me up at 6am. But only on weekends.

public service announcement

2008-04-18T13:09:00.004-04:00

Friends of mine have started a super cool awesome website called kountr.

The basic premise is simple: count stuff.

So please, go visit their website and make up a "kount" or two or three or four or... you get the idea. Although the site doesn't automatically provide authentic "The Count"* laughter, you can easily do like I do and add your own.

One!
Ah, ah, ah, ah!

*uhhh, ever heard of Sesame Street?

vocabularily challenged

2008-04-17T14:24:00.004-04:00

(presented in French for extra humour and practice for me)

Ring-ring! Ring-ring!

"Oui, allo?"
"Allo, c'est moi. J'ai juste appellé pour te dire que je vais revenir tantôt avec les amis."
"Bon. Je suis en train de faire un peu de ménage. J'ai passé la souffleuse --"
"La souffleuse?"
"Oui... l'appartement était plein des poils du chat, et j'en ai eu assez."
"Mais, il n'y a pas beaucoup de neige dans l'appartement, et en plus, on n'a pas une souffleuse."
"..."
"Je pense que tu veut dire l'aspirateur ou comme on dit, la balayeuse."
"Et qu'est-ce que j'ai dit?"
"La souffleuse. A snowblower."
"Shit. Ce n'est pas ma faute. Ils parlent toujours des souffleuses à la radio, jamias aux balayeuses. Même pas les aspirateurs. T'as raison. J'ai passé la balayeuse."

Effective language learning in action. On the phone last week with the boy I told him I'd done some cleaning around the appartment. And done the snowblowing. I will never mistake a vacuum cleaner for a snowblower ever again. To be fair, all anyone ever talks about are snowblowers, not vacuums. No wonder I got the wrong word. And then there's the fact that balayeuse is a québecois word. Crazy province. Making up their own language as they go along!

I have seen the light.

2008-04-15T17:02:00.002-04:00

I'd just like to point out that the real maple syrup, straight from the tree to your mouth (via a kettle for a little boiling) is the most amazing thing on earth.

That crap from the bottle you got at the store?

It sucks.

I will try to make this the last maple sugar themed post of the season.

We can move on to hockey or something equally awesome....

first balcony day of the season!

2008-04-13T09:44:00.001-04:00

first balcony day of the season!, originally uploaded by anyram.

Well, that was last week. We opened one of the balconies to take advantage of a day of warm weather and sunshine. Nothing says nice like a beer on a private patio. We only opened one though, figuring that there would be more cold days to come. And we were right. This weekend, winter is back. With snow and everything. Stupid winter.

But the snow is starting to melt, and outdoor tables are starting to take over the streets.

In related news, the cat who is afraid of everything is also afraid of the outdoors. We tried tempting him out with treats, but he thinks we're nuts. There's all those wierd smells out there! I'm sure he'll change his mind eventually...

les pouvoirs extrordinaire

2008-04-11T10:20:00.003-04:00

Last night, I discovered my maple sugar powers.

I have this theory. People here consume so much maple syrup (in all forms) that it has to give some kind of advantage. Special powers, if you will. I've never quite decided what those powers are, and I never expected to have them myself. As an Albertan, my special powers either come from putting Tabasco on my eggs or drinking crude oil as a nightcap. Maybe not.

We went out to a local bar in town where they brew excellent beer and make a pretty good burger. You may have heard that there was also a hockey game on. Which, incedentally, has been the lead news story everywhere today. They had a special spring beer on tap -- erabière. Get it? Erable for maple and bière for beer. A little on the sweet side, but tasty.

We drink our beers, the game starts, and when they drop the first puck I jokingly say, "et le but!", better know to non-French speakers as, "he shoots, he scores!". You get to use the same over-excited hockey announcer voice and everything. Thirty-four seconds into the game, there's a goal. The next face off, I say it again and laugh. Until the Canadians score again within the next minute.

I did't try agin. You know how it is. You don't want to jinx things. And I'd already finished my erabière.

But now I know. In beer form, maple syrup gives me special powers.

You want me to stay how long?

2008-04-05T12:31:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was the end of my three weeks teaching math. And just as expected, I was asked to stay on. Until May 9th. Another 5 weeks. 25 days of teaching.

I said no.

Things have definitely gotten better. I know the students better, both their names and their needs, which allows me to deal with them in the classroom. I've got a better idea of their skill level (or lack thereof -- I had to explain exponents to a Grade 9 student this week, during the exam no less). The students have become more comfortable with me and my teaching style. It's not great, but I don't feel the same dread about going in to work as I did at the beginning.

However, I am not prepared or qualified to teach this class until the end of the year. And despite the reassurances of the principal, I'm pretty sure that the teacher I'm replacing won't be coming back. Coming in on weekends to remove personal items is not a good sign.

Like I told the principal, I don't know the system, I've never taught the course and I don't have the resources to prepare these students for the end of the school year. I have nothing to go on, other than the textooks. We've almost finished that material, and will have to start revising and working on the "cross curricular competencies" that the government requires. I would have to learn not only the math so that I could review with them, but also learn the curriculum and the exam system to prepare them. Yes, one of the teachers will be going through it on the next pedagogical day, but one day is not going to give me an understanding of the reform. I am not willing to burn myself out working as a supply teacher. Part of me feels bad about it, but I know myself and I know my limits.

I agreed to stay on next week until they can find someone to replace me.

Like my boyfriend's dad said to me, you can bet I'll be happy to be finished.

Thank God it's not a school day

2008-03-29T11:24:00.002-04:00

There's a lot of ups and downs when it comes to supply teaching.

Ups:
I get paid pretty well.
Seeing the little lightbulb go on over a student's head when they understand something is a beautiful moment. Especially in math.
I really like doing math.
There are a bunch of entertaining ex-pat Albertans who have ended up teaching in Trois-Rivières.
I am only teaching in one subject area.

Downs:
I have never taught in this school system, never taught these courses, and the woman I'm replacing has left me with nothing. I therefore have no idea what student's have and haven't covered already, and I get the horrible feeling that I will be asked to stay on the rest of the year. I'm not ready for that.
Being the fourth or fifth supply teacher in two months makes it all that much worse.
I am not qualified to deal with students who have major behavioural issues.
Dreaming about lesson planning is not relaxing.
My French has deteriorated to the level of a junior high school student (and I swear a lot more).
Having a class go really well, and then realizing it was because a large portion of the class had been suspended.

It's been an intense week. In theory, I will be done with it at the end of next week. However, everyone but the administration has told me that I will be asked to stay on longer. So now I have to think about how to deal with that when the time comes.

this one goes out to all you teachers...

2008-03-21T12:28:00.003-04:00

Week one as a Math teacher is finished. Two more weeks, possibly more, to go. If it was just about teaching math, things would be fine. But of course, I'm teaching that very special age group -- grades 7 through 9. Yikes. These kids need more than a replacement math teacher. Yesterday I had a steady stream of other teachers stopping in to see how I was doing, maybe to make sure I wouldn't leave and never come back. Yes, it's that kind of group of kids I have. Lots of serious behaviour problems. All the teacher shuffling hasn't helped them.

Let's put it this way: I'm glad I have a four day weekend. And to all you people I know and love that do this every day -- wow. You guys are amazing.

me talk english real good

2008-03-18T12:29:00.001-04:00

I did an interview today to teach English in French schools, in the Canadian government's answer to the JET program. The goals are to teach English to French students, and to share the cultures of different provinces.

The interview was all in English, except for a brief batch of questions in French, to see if I was capable of communicating. The interview went well enough that they started talking about what schools they could place me in to take advantage my science background. Of course, being a government program, I won't find out for a while, but it would be a relatively easy, well paying job that would put me in a French-speaking work environment. And (hopefully) keep me in Trois-Rivières.

I'd rather get accepted at McGill and get back into the wide world of science, but it's good to have back-ups.

It's a good thing I have geometry homework.

2008-03-15T17:03:00.000-04:00

It's snowing again.

That is all.

I've made a huge tiny mistake*

2008-03-14T16:45:00.002-04:00

Guess who starts work next week? If you said Tommy, you'd be wrong.

I've been running back and forth all day between home and "English school street", and the final analysis is that I'll be teaching high school math for the next three weeks. I've got a load of textbooks and no idea what I'm doing. I'm sure it'll be fun. I'm the third replacement teacher for that class this calendar year.

Did I mention I have no idea what I'm doing?

* Arrested Development people. I'm telling you, it's gold.

almost good news?

2008-03-13T16:45:00.003-04:00

It's no wonder I've been feeling up in the air lately.

I've got numerous job applications on the go, two job interviews successfully completed but still no sign of actual work, an application for graduate school in the fall that seems to still be missing a letter of reference, and another job interview next week. In theory, this means things are going well for me, right? Yes, getting to the interview stage is great. Having a successful interview is better. Having an interview that leads to actual work and a paycheque? It seems that's too much to ask.

Yesterday, I met up with an employer for coffee. We've reached the coffee stage. She gave me a load of materials for teaching, but no hours. We've been trying to arrange this meeting for two weeks now. Sometime soon I may even get to sit in on and/or teach a class. But of course, it all depends on how many students sign up. Such are the trials and tribulations of working for a private language school.

Last week, I dropped off a few applications to work as a supply teacher. Conveniently for me, it was the last day before the start of spring break*. So there wasn't actually anyone around in a position to interview me. I should hear more this week.

And today, I got a call from a potential doctoral supervisor. It seems people are keen to have me, I've theoretically been accepted (with an entrance scholarship no less), but there's no guaranteed funding to make it a lock. So things are moving in a positive direction, but nothing is guaranteed.

I supposed I should be less thrilled about that last one than I am. Of course I'd rather be officially accepted, but hearing that I'm in theoretically is great. It's gotten me all excited about doing things that aren't teaching English. To be honest, the thought of teaching English again kind of makes me want to cry. Even if there's money involved.

Lets all keep our fingers crossed now. I'm going to go study some more Spanish, on the off chance I end up in Panama this summer.

And if anyone out there feels like funding my PhD, I would be happy to accept.

*Woo!
Sorry. Sometimes I have to let these things out. It's funnier if you've watched Arrested Development. "Say goodbye to these!"

it seems to have snowed here...

2008-03-10T10:18:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was (un)surprisingly quiet, after the super-snowstorm that started Saturday (ooooh - alliteration!). We were supposed to be busy as it was the boy's birthday, but festivities were cancelled due to snow. Just as well. He's getting ready to leave on a school trip to the Dominican Republic, and along with all the standard stress of getting ready to go on a trip there are plenty of extra headaches. It says something that one of the lesser headaches is that the hotel they were supposed to stay at no longer exists...

But back to the snow.

We went out for dinner Saturday night, and walking the two blocks to the restaurant was an adventure to say the least. Downtown was a ghost town and the wind was blowing hard enough to make my face burn. Getting all prettied up to go out for dinner was kind of pointless with all the wind and snow.

On Sunday morning after the storm, we hopped on the bus to go buy groceries. The sidewalks around the bus stop were not priorities for snow clearing, so there were hip-height snowbanks blocking the doors to the bus. On the way back home, the bus ran the residential slalom between cars parked on the street while people dug out their driveways. Have I mentioned how glad I am that I don't have to shovel here? Snow was piled up on lawns, reaching the same height as the houses in some cases. Our street was cleared in the early afternoon, but only because we live downtown.

The news is full of school closures, flight delays, road problems, and transit issues.

It's times like these when I'm glad I don't have a car.

Cat status update:
No longer hiding all the time, but remains torn between desire for affection and acute fear of human movements.

He! Mon ami!

2008-03-06T13:38:00.004-05:00

I don't know if Les têtes à claques exist outside of Québec (and by that I mean in English), but this video made me giggle.
Check ça!

Le LCD shovel

The fruits of a long collaboration between the scientists of NASA and Canadian Tire!

new addition

2008-03-04T11:57:00.002-05:00

It was only a matter of time. Say hello to Tommy. He arrived Sunday and has spent most of his time since then behind the couch. His previous owner had to give him up because of allergies, but secretly, I think she just decided she didn't really like having a cat after all. The hand-off was a bit weird that way. Anyways. He's sure to have a good home here. And he'll be able to learn English too. Because it's always good for a cat to have a second language.

yo soy...

2008-02-22T08:40:00.004-05:00

Things continue apace.

At the moment, I've taken to studying Spanish. From a book written in French, no less. No, it's not just for the fun and intellectual challenge. I've gone and applied to a doctoral program. And an overachieving one at that. It's based at McGill, but runs through a research station in Panama, so there's a language prerequisite. I'm finding it extremely enjoyable to study a language so closely related to French. As a side benefit it forces me to go back and refresh all those basic things in French that either I never learned, or learned so long ago I've forgotten. And it's much more gratifying to learn basic vocabulary than to study the appropriate uses of pronouns and verb tenses.

In any event, I'm really hoping for this to work out. Half of my potential supervisors (because the program is split between two locations I need two supervisors) are extremely keen for me to start, but nobody has the money to guarantee me a spot. And since I was in some kind of daze for the last few months of last year, I didn't apply for a grant and hence, have no money of my own (which would pretty much let me dictate where and what I wanted to go and do). It's all very much up in the air at the moment, but I'm planning for the best.

In other news, I kind of have a job. I'm not actually working at the moment, but in theory I have a job teaching English. Teaching English may not be one of my life goals, but it helps pay the bills. At least it will if I actually end up teaching. Yes, it is a weird situation.

language lessons

2008-02-12T11:52:00.000-05:00

J'ai besoin de quelque chose comparable en français!

Maple me this?

2008-02-05T15:38:00.000-05:00

One thing I've noticed living in Québec is the amount of maple syrup.

Sure, Canada is a country of maple: maple syrup, maple trees, maple leaves, maple cookies, maple candies, maple you name it. But in the west, probably because we don't produce maple syrup out there, I haven't noticed the same levels of saturation. Well, and maybe I'd forgotten just how much maple syrup there is here after two years in Japan.*

And that was before I went to a cabane à sucre, where each table gets its own litre of maple syrup to pour over plates of ham, tortière, baked beans and pancakes. And then you head outside to eat tire sur la neige -- maple syrup poured over snow and eaten like candy (Yum). It's all very good for you. Especially with a glass of caribou -- red wine or port mixed with some hard alcohol like brandy or vodka and a dash of, you guessed it, maple syrup.

Maple syrup is a standard condiment at breakfast tables, and those who know me, know I love breakfast. I don't quite have the same love of maple syrup as the rest of the breakfast eaters I see here. It seems to be standard practice for the waitress to ask if a diner wants maple syrup with their breakfast. I prefer my eggs with hot sauce, which is next to impossible to get here (the last time I asked, I got the bottle from the kitchen and some strange looks). I've even witnessed maple syrup in coffee, which I'll admit is tastier than hot sauce.**

So is this supersaturation particular to Québec, or is it an eastern Canadian thing?

Or is my theory correct: maple syrup gives French-Canadians special powers. What those powers are exactly I have yet to determine. Maybe it's something like being able to understand those really thick Québecois accents...

Next time:
Caramel spread on toast! Does that even exist anywhere else?

*That being said, I've been told that Japan is the third largest consumer of maple syrup and maple products -- right behind Canada and the US. Not surprising when you consider the gift-giving culture that flourishes there.

** Or HP sauce. Yes, I'm still going on about that.

Bienvenue

2008-01-30T12:27:00.000-05:00

We're not in Kansas anymore. Not that I've ever been to Kansas, unless you count the fact that Alberta is also a dry, dusty, windy flat place. It may or may not have been filmed in black and white.

Here, things aren't filmed so much in colour as in maple tones.

More to come.