On With the Show

It has been a full two weeks. I'm teaching almost every class, and I begin my three week block on Wednesday next. With all of the days we miss in November, this means that my "three week block" is really a month. I appreciate starting earlier than later, as this means December will be less stressful, but starting this week means that I can't procrastinate any longer. I'm teaching To Kill a Mockingbird and Hamlet right now, and I start The Secret Lives of Sgt. John Wilson on Wednesday. Tuesday my grade sevens write their very first French exam, and heaven help them, the first exam I've ever had to make up.

Tonight is the Breast of Friends' Fundraising Dinner at the Community Hall. Mom is coming up to attend, and Erin is coming out as well. I've just come back from rehearsal for the fashion show that will end the evening. What a wide range of ladies! Size, age, everything...we have it on stage. It was a hilarious rehearsal, as no one in charge has ever really rehearsed a show like this before. We got through it, but we didn't try it with our fancy clothes on...I think we'd better have a gong ready for tonight. At least it promises to be entertaining! And the food will be spectacular from what I understand.

I'm also very excited about coming back to Regina in November. On the 3rd, I'll get to see everyone from school as we're called back for an internship seminar, and the next week I'm back in town because of the teacher's conference in Saskatoon. I'm not being required to attend, so I'm coming home. I've bought tickets to the Goo Goo Dolls show on the 9th, and I cannot wait. I swore I would go see them if they ever came to the province, and it's worked out really nicely. I"ll be a new woman after that weekend, as I'm going to visit Stacey as well. I just have to decide what we're doing to the hair this time...

Other than that, life up here in Foam Lake is just fine. Abigail is hilarious, Nathaniel is forever "Erin, you play monkeys with me?" (He hasn't figured out that I kill the characters more often than he does.) I can't believe I'm almost two months down, but that's the way it goes. I'm sending in my application for my visa on Monday, if the post office is still open when we get back from Wadena (CIF "Teacher" day), Tuesday at the latest. I'm hoping I haven't left it too long, but I really doubt I'd be ready to live and teach in England by January 3rd. That's seems a little quick, considering I'm not finished here until the 22nd. In my mind, I'm aiming for leaving in the middle of the month, but it's not really my plans that have precedence here. I can't even see the reins of this life.

Mom is supposed to be here in about an hour and a half. I'd better clean my room...it's just something you do when moms arrive. I'm now thankful it's not an entire apartment!

Turkeys of All Shapes and Sizes

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and I am looking forward to going home for the long weekend. Nevermind that I was just home. This is a LONG weekend, so it's supposed to feel important. We will be celebrating my birthday, Grandma Walter's birthday, Auntie Fran's birthday, Grandma and Grandpa Graas' anniversary, and, oh yeah. Thanksgiving. We do have much to be thankful for, especially that we are all still able to be together and celebrate these events. Our household will likely be serving turkey, but I expect there will be a Turkey or two in residence regardless!

I'm at the school as I write. My students in my Creative Writing 20 class have a major assignment due tomorrow, and I've opened the computer lab to allow them to type their final drafts. I don't think they realize the sacrifice here! Grey's Anatomy is on, is over! Not that I can't catch up of course. I am getting much more official class "stuff" accomplished here at school anyhow. This evening work period might become a weekly thing. After all, if students are expecting me to show up, I have to show up.

I'm debating how much to write here. I've been in touch with a teaching company out of the UK, and it sounds promising...I do not want to jinx it or get my hopes up...but there is a good chance I will be moving to England in January to teach. I've just started setting it up this week, but the question seems not to be "if I can get a job", but "when can you get here to start?". Those in a praying mood: this would be a very appreciated topic. I'd really like to do this, but I've learned the hard way that it needs to be God's will, not my own.

Anyhow, must mark. It's amazing how quickly that can become backed up. One more thing for my logbook, I guess. I really should start that thing...

Happy Birthday!

I just bought a rolling pin. I do not have plans to make cookies, nor do I know where to put the marble weapon, but it is my birthday present to myself. As long as I have the pin, I will know how old it is since I bought it on my twenty-fifth birthday. What does it say when you buy kitchen utensils for yourself? It says there isn't a clothing store within an hour's drive.

I'm also trying to figure out a way for everyone in the world to have their birthdays off work. So far, I'm able to shoot holes in whatever scheme I design. Suggestions are welcome!

One Month Down, Three to Go

October 1st. I've finished one month of my internship, I'm almost twenty-five, and I have a phone call to answer on Tuesday about possible "career options" in the UK come January. I think I have the right to feel a bit overwhelmed at the moment.

I had a lovely, if full, weekend these past two days. Mom and I went out to Kamp to cook for the fall supper. We arrived in separate vehicles Friday night, and I lef the kamp shortly after Mom on Saturday evening. The fall colours are amazing. I don't believe there is an artist alive or dead who could rival the Master's touch. My camera could not capture the day, though I tried, and words cannot come close to examining the individual leaves and masses of trees as they turn in the autumn air. God's artistry is awesome and inspiring, yet humbling. How can we as humans even think that we could create something "God-like"? We often forget we're to create works that honour our God, not attempt to rival his. Sure failure leads down the path of rivalry.

My classload is getting heavier, yet I'm attempting to add more extra-curricular at the same time. Things are going well at school. I'm feeling more and more comfortable about the expectations of the school and the university, and about the rituals and traditions of a rural school. Go Panthers Go! I'm really enjoying many of the students, and I believe the students who have been challenging me thus far have really come around. There will always be a few jerks, as there are a few in every classroom or boardroom of life, but those aren't my concern...yet. I still have to get it in my head that I have the power to send them to the hall, or to the office, or to detention...and have them go. I always thought that would be the easy part of teaching: If you're an idiot in class, get out. Now I realize that if I have a firm control of the class, there are very few idiots. As a student, you don't realize how much work teaching is. I mean, all they do is show up and talk, right? Even taking homeroom attendance stressed me out for a week. Administration? Teaching? Planning? Marking? They try to warn you at university that this will be a lot of work, but there can be no warning for this. I expect I'll sleep over the Christmas holidays. Holidays...that's a new thing!

Happy Birthday to Grandma Walter, Wade, and Marilyn. Hope the day is well. I blew out one candle today, and the rest I'll save until next weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadians, and to those who aren't, go cook a turkey anyways. It's good for you.

God Bless.