re-enact this!

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

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?"

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

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

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

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

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.