Farewell 2005!
Well, new year's eve night right now. I have to start gettign ready to head out in a few minutes but after surfing through a couple of friend's webpages, I ended up back at my own blog. I was reading some of my entries through last year. Lots of thoughts. But we won't get into that now ;)
First, I'd like to excuse my grammatical errors in my blog. HEHEHHE.. as most of you can probably tell, I don't go back and re-read my entries before I post!!! Also, excuse me if I some of my thoughts are all chopped up.. I tend to become very "blurred" when it comes to remembering what I've already said or what I haven't already said!! teeheehee.. *guilty smile*
I'm going to be going to the Hilltop tonight to celebrate for a bit with some of my high school friends. Afterwards, we may or may not head over to Ricmond's house to wait for the count down. Who knows, maybe we'll stay at the Hilltop though that's really doubtful. It'll probably be the last time I'll get to see Ricmond until our next meeting (which will be in who knows how long).
Anyways, back to the reason I wanted to make an entry tonight. I was talking to Vern this morning and we were discussing how life can change so drastically over a period of 5 years. Who knew some of us would be where we are back in 2000! I mean, take one friend for example, I would have figured he would be working on his PhD by now.. but he doesn't want to (kudos to him for pursuing what he wants to do!!) and he's now working at RIM. Even for myself, I look at my entries last year and think back at how life was last year compared to this year - big differences. Although I don't think I've changed overly much as a person, life has changed a lot. The things I'm working towards are different, though I'm still interested in the same things. I guess that's what makes life exciting, oui?
I was also telling Vern today that I would sort of be interested in looking into the future..finding out where I'd be 5 years from now. In one way, I hope it would be comforting to know that things turn out OK.. but on the other hand, it makes me very nervous (goosebumps thinking about) to think of the more negative things that will hit over the next 5 years. I mean, a lot can happen in 5 years.. esp judging on what's occured in the past 5 years! It'd be nice to be able to find some personal way to commemorate some of the losses that I experienced over the last while.. at least to be able to really find some way to come to terms with them....
Anyhow.. enough of the darkish talk. I hope that everyone has a fine time welcoming in the new year, but more importantly, that this year is a better year than last. Maybe a really great new year's resolution is to take time to count our blessings more often.. afterall, we have so much to be thankful for!
Cheers to 2006 Everyone!
Vacation is going, going, .....
Upon arrival back home, it felt like time was slowly walking by (not running this time!). Now, as school days draw closer and closer, it feels like time is speeding by. Typical.
Finally made plans for New Year's.. actually, I had already assumed that I would be attending Ricmond's get together, afterall, he'll be leaving for Vancouver on the same day I leave to go back to Ottawa and who knows when I'll get to see him again (though I am sure that we will meet again someday in the future). So we've now decided that we will be heading to the Hilltop for dinner and then proceed to go to his house to count down the last seconds of 2005.
I also started getting my lazy self to do some things that needed to be done today.. hahaha!! I still have a number of things that I still need to do but I still have time. (So much for reading textbooks over the holidays). Still have to visit a number of people and would also like to spend some more time with my family before I leave. I'm sort of sad these days because there's a constant reminder that I won't have a whole lot of time to spend here at home (in this particular house). I think my parents plan to sell it off and move in 2007. I'm happy and excited to see the new place on one hand, but terribly sad to leave this old home where I grew up behind.. there are just so many memories here. I think the worst part about it is that it won't be ours anymore so it's not as if I can just come back in for a visit. Even if I could, it won't be the same.. know what I mean?
I have a dilemma. My luggage. I anticipated putting the smaller bag into the larger bag and bringing it back that way. Unfortunately, I now seem to have acquired a lot of stuff from home that I am going to take back to Ottawa. My parents are also asking me if I want this food and that food (of course!!!) and I'm now wondering how on earth I'm going to fit everything into two bags?? BLEH..
Alrighty, that's it for now. Bye!
ps./ Thanks CR for your phone call yesterday :)
Goodbye 2005!
Hmm.. is it already time to say toodles to 2005? Boy.. where did this year go? Seems like so much has changed since last year at this time!
Time has sort of strolled along and I've been home for a little over a week now. Met up with some high school friends last week for dinner, went into work for a day, volunteered at the 4 year old classroom for a day, went to lunch with some youth group members (old and current), and went to see Memoires of a Geisha with Jeff & Nancy last week as well. (Not a bad movie!)
Still have plans to meet up with a couple of other friends and have lunch with my colleagues from last year - looking forward to meeting a new baby of one of my old co-workers! Besides that, I don't really have any spectacular plans.. probably should really get cracking at working on my resume, cover letters, and interview question responses. There's going to be a job fair in late January so I was hoping to prepare myself over the holidays for any on the spot interviews.. *sigh*.. my brain is so not there right now!
I went shopping with my brother this morning.. you know, hit those boxing day sales. BLEH.. madness. Well, actually, it wasn't as bad as I anticipated, but I wasn't feeling all that great this morning (headache + lack of food) so it wasn't a very merry trip. I also ran into quite a few people at the mall.... Anyways, my main focus is that I didn't buy anything!! There wasn't much there that peaked my interest so I remained empty handed until Walmart where I proceeded to buy some everyday necessities.
It's been a very strange holiday. Maybe it was because there wasn't much time this year to prepare for the holidays, but it was very straight forward and very little fuss. My family exchanged some gifts, we didn't put up the Christmas tree, and we didn't really make a big deal about the meal either (even though we did have some turkey). I'm expecting that New Year's will be very similar....
Anyhow, that's basically been my week. Nothing overly exciting happening on my end.. just a whole lot of laziness! Well, if there's been no word from me here before Dec 31st, I'm wishing everyone a very happy new year with lots of happiness, good health and luck (that accounts for prosperity - hit the casinos, buy your 649 tickets!!)!!
Sleepiness Bearing Down on Me
My last day came and went quickly. We actually had a "snow day" on Friday (different from the meaning of "snow day" in NB). Many school buses were cancelled, but since schools are not cancelled, teachers are obligated to get to school. With my school, most of the students take the OC Transpo (public bus) or get rides from their parents, so the absentee list wasn't as high as I anticipated. It was a nice way to end in a way because it didn't feel as chaotic as it usually did.
We had a small pizza party for the teachers at our school at lunch time which was really nice because it was the first time we all squeezed in together in the office. That evening, there was a staff Christmas party which I went to for over an hour - man, who knew teachers could be THAT noisy!? When you went in, there was this roar of noise, you could barely make out what the person next to you was saying unless they put their mouth near your ear! GEE! I bet none of them would have been able to get the whole room's attention unless they knew how to whistle really loudly. Anyways, that was pretty enjoyable, had some nice chats with some of the teachers.
Saturday was spent running errands, visiting Costco and going to see King Kong. I originally hadn't planned on going to watch this movie, but got sucked into going with my friends. It turned out to be pretty good although my only complaint is that it was so incredibly long during the jungle scene that I was starting to get irritated. I mean, dinosaurs are enough, do you REALLY need to have giant insects and these alien looking worms too!? Come'on.. it didn't need to be a 3 hour movie!!
I spent the majority of the day waiting for planes on Sunday. Our flight from Ottawa to Montreal was all of 40 minutes which felt amazingly like 10 minutes. I really hate small planes though! I was starting to feel a bit clastrophobic in there.. lucky enough I had my Harry Potter book to keep me occupied. I was throughly tired when we arrived home. Two friends called that evening which made me feel pretty special ;)
I have been INCREDIBLY tired these past two days. Each time I take a nap, I can't seem to wake up! Maybe the term has just caught up to me? Who knew that my body would be this tired though.. I thought I was doing pretty good getting to bed on time every night..HAHAHAH!!!
I'm looking forward to seeing everyone.. meeting up with some of those yg guys and Jeff later this week. It shall be enjoyable to see everyone once again. Ah look, Jeff is online with his "(Fredericton)" sign.. (I should continue talking about him to see if I can get a response out of him).
Oh.. just thought of something I should definitely do over the holidays (get ready to find work!).. better go do something productive. Take care everyone and Happy Holidays to one and all!!!
Today + Tomorrow
Count down has begun. Actually, it began a long time ago. :P It's down to the last two days of first term practicum. I can hardly believe it, yet I'm also excited to be finished. Even though this practicum has been a good learning experience, things are going better than they were originally and I'm getting along well with the students, I don't think Middle school is the place for me. Hopefully next term's placement will be within an Elementary school where I will be more at home.
For those that are curious, evaluation was really not much. I didn't get a whole lot of feedback from my reflective group leader.. only positives, which sort of took me by surprise. I figured she'd have some suggestions at least? Oh well. She said it looked like I had a good handle on the class *shock*! I always feel like I have some control, but not 100% control. Somedays are worse than others if I let a few things slide. I still have to learn to have a fit and perhaps some tantrums in front of the class (shock effect). Beh.. it's hard to do when there's another adult in the room and when you aren't really teaching your own class.
The weather predicts a snow storm today and tomorrow.. no chance that school would be cancelled? Actually, that'd probably throw my plans really off course. Two classes get a quiz on my last day... isn't that nice for them? ;)
Alrighty, Ciao!
JY
Tomorrow is Evaluation Day
One day + One week and first term practicum is over. Amazing. I always imagined it would seem like a long time, but perhaps I'm used to the NB system where the student teachers are there for 6 weeks straight. Anyways, I'm being evaluated by my seminar group leader tomorrow, wish me luck!
The students are all filming. Yesterday I almost gave out a detention to one student for giving me attitude. I'm not sure I did the right thing by walking away after giving him a stern look and telling him that the issue was not a laughing matter, but in the end, they got the work done.
Anyways, I can't believe that I will be flying home in another week or so. Boy, Christmas is almost here too. When did December even arrive!? I have my first set social gathering on Dec 23rd to catch up with those youth group guys.. interested to hear a report from you guys ;)
I also plan on working (yay! Money!!), volunteering at the preschool, meeting up with high school friends, going out to lunch or something with my ex co-workers, and going out with some of my friends in Fton. Hmm.. will I really have time to do all this? One of my biggest priorities is to SLEEP you know!!!!!!!
Anyways, better get moving. The elevator takes insanely long to get to my floor these days. Ciao.
OHh ya.. A Semi-Long Weekend!
Yuppi!! Today is Friday! Actually, it's been a slack week but I'm still happy :P I only have 2 hours of "work" today - it's professional development day throughout the school board and our school is doing a 2 hour thing on assessment techniques. We're also being served breakfast which is probably going to take up a portion of the 2 hours.. mmm wonder exactly how much professional development will be received?
Yesterday we held "student led conferences". Something similar to parent/teacher interviews except that students do most of the talking. The present their portfolio of work done throughout the term (selecting the "This is my best ____" and the "I can improve most on _____" types of work). This makes them accountable for the quality of work they've done. Each student must do this some time or another. It was interesting seeing what the parents were like for some students. Surprising in some cases, and not so suprising in others. It told me a lot about their backgrounds which will help me understand them better. The highlight of my day was when I was actually introduced to one parent..hehe.. since it's a grade 7 homeroom class and I don't teach them, not all of them are that familiar with me. (could have hugged that kid).
Anyway going to spend the rest of today shopping! Not that I have a lot of $$ to shop with.. but it will be nice to get out and about. Rented a car and will have the freedom of the bus for a few hours. YA!
Alright.. gota get moving or else I'm going to miss the bus and be in trouble. Ciao
