Out With the Old, In With the New
It's been a busy weekend! I can hardly believe that today is Sunday and a new week is glaring at me in the face (yuppi).
I managed to go skating on Friday afternoon after my career fair. Let's start with that..
The university hosted a bunch of school boards from around the country on Friday. Unfortunately (or maybe it's fortunately considering I was no where near ready to start the process of applying for work), the boards were not accepting resumes. I spoke to a couple of the representatives who were really friendly and informative. I semi expected some grouchy people from the school boards because they would be answering the same question over and over again with people bombarding them wanting a job. A couple of the meetings felt better than some of the others (some of them probably just didn't feel like talking so they basically gave you the information and left it at that). One lady in Kingston said that there is a demand for teachers in elementary school with a technology background and given that I'm a minority, it's even better for me. One man from Rainbow Schoolboard (up in Sudbury) talked for quite a while with me. He did mention at one point "I can see you working for us, you have the personality I can tell - I've been doing this for 33 years". I've gotta think more about that one because it's located so far away from Ottawa/TO... but the school board looks really great. I also met with a lady in Calgary who said that they are going through a major hiring boom over there.. over 650 teachers for the last two years, and more to come (they expect to hire the same amount this year). Maybe it would be good to go out West .. more new teachers so the education field should be more of an equal playing field (??). Another thing that was encouraging was that they were saying that there is a demand for teachers with special education which is what I'm going to acquire this summer as an additional qualification.
On ho hum thing about the career fair was that I finally woke up to the fact that I better get my butt in gear and apply for jobs and get ready for interviews. The application deadlines are in February and interviews begin at the end of the February. OMG. Guess I better place an order for an interview help book. *sigh*.. I wish I had time to actually read it!!!!!!!!!!
Anyhow, after the career fair, I went for my first skate on the canal. Boy.. I'm starting to panic for next week's triathlon. 8km on the rideau.. mmmm.. It's not so much the pain of skating that far.. it's more the fact that if the ice conditions are poor, it's going to be really brutal because you can't go very fast else you'll fall. BOOO. I'm also worried because I am going to start the race for my team.. that whole starting line thing seems intimidating.. plus people are going to be watching!??!?! AHHHHHHHH!!!! I've gotta find some time to get down to the canal and practice a few times this week!
Yesterday was 團年飯 at my friend's house. We cooked waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much food. I think one problem was that they went to get groceries on an empty stomach and most of us spent quite a number of hours in the kitchen so by the time we sat down to eat.. we weren't so hungry? (good diet eh?). I think we didn't even finish 1/2 of the food that was cooked :S. They are going back to finish it today (lunch + dinner I assume). It was fun though.. most everyone was in a great mood. I'll post some pictures when I get them. (We look like some sports team because we all wore read shirts).
With all this excitement, I managed to get some work done. I think I worked in spurts this weekend. Instead of sitting here and procrastinating, when I worked, I worked; when I didn't, I didn't. One thing that probably helped is that I prepared some of the assignments due this week last week so I'm not feeling as stressed out about getting stuff done (though I am going nuts in my brain thinking about all the things that are still pending).
Next week Winterlude starts here in Ottawa. I hope to find some time to go enjoy the activities. There seems to be a lot going on: ice sculptures, demonstrations, winter sports, etc.. Anyone want to come and join in the fun? ;)
Alright, I best stop here and get back to my readings. TATA!
Happy Chinese New Year!
The Canal is Open!!
Yuppi! The Canal is open! I hope to go skating this afternoon when the temperature goes up (it's currently -15 (not sure if there's any windchill to consider) and it plans to go up to +1 this afternoon!!) - better get there before the ice melts again!
Today is going to be a busy day. I plan to go downstairs to the gym in a few minutes.. do my workout, come back, finish an assignment then go to the career fair at school. By then, I will be in need of a nap which I have allocated about 2 hours (no, I probably will not sleep for 2 hours because I will find things to do before sleeping :P). Afterwards, Skating!
My sleep schedule is so messed up these days. I haven't been sleeping very well at night either.. I keep waking up for some reason. I really need to stop going to bed so late on the "weekends". Ugh. Just me wait.. I will be so screwed when I have to start teaching 100% in late March.
Anyways, time to get moving. Don't want to get myself off schedule.
Oh yes, before I leave, do want to say Happy Chinese New Year!
恭喜發財，萬事如意！ 身體健康，心想事成！
Stress is Starting to Get to Me
Ok.. this is not good. It's only the end of January and I'm feeling an immense pressure right now. This term seems to be so much more stressful than last. The assignments seem to take more time, we have more presentations that are longer and are harder to prepare for, the pressure of applying for jobs and applying for the college of teacher's, etc. To make matters worse, the whole thing with people in my section is making me stress out. We seem to be constantly circling around the topics of ethnicities, equality, sensitivity which make ME feel really sensitive. I think it hits a sort of sore spot for me and whenever we (I really should say they) start discussing it during class, I want to either crawl into a hole or run away so that I don't have to hear it. (How very mature of me eh?)... *SIGH*
Onto a more cheerful subject. Congrats to Jeff who is now "master Jeff". Boy.. what is he going to be like when he gets his PhD and becomes Dr. Jeff... hehe! Hope you have a great time celebrating on Friday :)
Alright, I have more work to do.. Maybe I'll go watch a movie tonight or something.. I need to get away from all of this stuff.
It's the Weekend Again!!
Heheh.. it's Wednesday night and I really do feel like it's Friday! It feels like a week has gone by since Monday too!!
This week's weather was truly BIZARRE. It was pretty warm here last week and then all of a sudden on the weekend, we got this "Flash Freeze" warning which I believe means a rapid drop in temperature since it got really cold really fast. Monday and Tuesday were pretty cold with temperatures in the -30's with the windchill. Today - well, well. Everytime I went out today, the weather was doing something different. Last night, we had freezing rain and I guess that turned to rain sometime early in the morning. Needless to say, when I stepped outside this morning I almost "Pok-kaied" (fall down). There was about 1cm of water over a very thick layer of ice on most sidewalks!!! !@_#)!@# By the time I reached school (and I didn't walk too much!) my pant legs were pretty wet. Heard lots of stories about people having to grab onto anything solid to keep from falling down. BLEH. When I went down to our large group session (gather of all Junior/Intermediate & Intermediate/Senior students for information sessions) at the Ottawa Little Theatre (about 4-5 blocks away from campus - all because there are no facilities at that hour to hold all of us), the temperature had climbed to a pretty mild degree and it had stopped raining. When we left the session an hour and a half later, it was snowing and a little bit of freezing rain and it was COLD! What the!?
I hope to get a jump on assignments this weekend as I don't have anything due this coming week except for readings. Unfortunately, I was going to go to Toronto, but I think I won't be going afterall (sorry Jeff & YB - I really wanted to come!!). I'm sure I'll get to go down another time this term. I also have to attend a workshop on Saturday which I'm not really looking forward to even though I heard it's good (I mean, who LOOKS FORWARD to workshops on a WEEKEND MORNING!?).
Yesterday during our Social studies class, my class intelligently walked into a sensitive topic. We were discussing global education and someone mentioned that our faculty itself isn't really promoting global education since the majority of the professors are all caucasians, people were saying it would be better to have a more multicultural faculty. Then this guy in my class that can be sort of annoying at times went on to say "Well, I think we shouldn't hire people based on what ethnicity they are but based on how qualified they are." OK... at first, there wasn't much to that statement, but upon further analysis of it, I felt that the comment was totally uncalled for. I mean, who even MENTIONED anything about not being qualified for the position? Where did the discussion even go towards how someone's ethnicity is correlated to how well they teach!? I just felt that he was inadvertently bashing minorities. The whole discussion made me terribly uncomfortable, especially since I was the only minority in the class. I also didn't feel like speaking up and saying anything so it made the discussion pretty one sided. I have a feeling this topic isn't going to be mentioned just once this term since they are on the agenda for some of our classes (about ethnic differences and such). *Sigh*.. why am I the only minority once again, I feel so pressured to represent when all I want to do (as a typical Chinese person) is keep quiet in class!!!!!!
Alright, that's all for now! Wish me luck ....
Hello Monday
The weekend is over! BOOOOOOO
Actually, I haven't accomplished as much as I would have... but oh well, I got my assignments and enough done to survive tomorrow.
This weekend I hosted dinner on Friday evening (my friends and I decided that we would take turns hosting so that we didn't have to eat out so often on the weekends). That meant Thursday and Friday were pretty busy. We had steamboat yesterday (and tonight!) as a farewell to another friend who found a job in Vancouver. We had steamboat again tonight because we had purchased toooo many ingrediants yesterday and people didn't seem to have a huge appetite for some reason?? I think it's partly due to the fact that they finally realized that we have 3 more weeks before Winterlude.
Winterlude you say? Yes, Winterlude = winter carnival in Ottawa. My friends and I have entered two teams in a triathlon event. 8km of skating (me), 7km of cross country skiing, and 5km of running. HAHA.. it's pretty sad actually, because most people are running the whole course all by themselves!!! Oh well, we're only in it to have fun and get some exercise. Everyone seems to feel that we need to start training............ (it's held on Feb 4th for anyone who's interested).
Oh. I came across a very "interesting" website this afternoon while I was trying to do my assignment. It's called echeat. Go and read their FAQ section .. especially the last one.. BAH to those retards.. corrupting young minds!!!!
Ok.. time to get ready for bed. I've been going to be at 3am for the last few nights and it's all very, very, very, bad!!!!!
Stay Warm! (Lucky Ricmond and Travis out there in nice and warm Vancouver :P)
On the Bus *yay*
I'm taking a picture with a future doctor!!! ;) (She's going to kill me for posting this)
Two of my previous co workers and I at Lunar Rogue
Week 2 - Done.
I'm suppose to be working on two assignments (more if possible), reading, working on my resume/coverletter, and putting together my portfolio (and probably other stuff that I can't think of at the moment). But what am I doing? Writing an entry here..HEHEHEHEHEH
Yesterday, I ran errands for FIVE HOURS. GAH. I had to go to the registrar's office to submit my application to graduate (retarded, they have no online system of doing this), go to the police office to submit a request for a criminal record check (yet again.. as if I've had TIME to commit a crime in the past 6 months :P), get groceries at both Loeb and the Chinese Groceries place, go get a course pack at Envirocopy (and now I need to go back there all because I forgot to buy one of the coursepacks I need.. grrrr), go to Agora Books to check out whether the last missing textbook I need is available there (cheaper than our campus bookstore), get cue cards at Dollarama, and lastly, get stamps and mail a bunch of applications. BOY were my feet sore. (BTW, it really sucks not having a car).
Job applications are on my mind these days. They are starting to take over my calmity - even though I have limited amounts as it is. Getting the resume to all fit onto two pages is hard, getting it properly worded, putting in experience that school boards want, etc. is very frustrating sometimes. I have lots to put on my resume, but not enough space!!!! Boy, what a change from 3 years ago. I also still have to get a cover letter written AND make my portfolio more presentable. I'm not even sure what a portfolio should consist of!??!?! Gosh dang it.
Lately I've also been sending in applications. Application to the Ontario Teacher's College to allow them to put me down as a pending licensed teacher (this requires lots of additional paperwork - transcripts, criminal record check, proof of identification, etc..). I've also had to apply to this thing called QECO COEQ which basically rates us in terms of our education to determine what pay level we should obtain when we get a job. Also applied to take some additional courses this summer so that I can get some additional qualifications such as special education. My poor, poor, POOR bank account :(
Another thing I have been pondering is where I'll be this summer. My lease is up at the end of June so I'll have to move somewhere. Perhaps I'll move in with some of my friends with houses for a bit. It's very up in the air at the moment.. if I find a job elsewhere, I shouldn't sign a 1 year lease.. but I'll be homeless at the end of June... :S Dilemmas..
Alright.. I should either get back to work or be more productive by going back to bed *grin*
Ciao.
It's Mid Week!
So I have now survived my first two days of classes of 2nd term. Things are piling on FAST. I am intent on starting assignments ASAP and getting my stuff together. I've actually accomplished things this evening and yesterday evening! YUPPI!
Most of my classes this term deal with special education and educational psychology (they seem to all relate back to these two topics anyways). I've started to gather some journal articles about the current issues - this is mostly because my UNB account is going to expire very soon and I'm leeching off them since they have a good resource of ejournals at the HIL :D
Most of my professors this term seem to be pretty decent. I have one prof for Schooling and Society who may run into major difficulties with my section. This is mainly because he seems to be a bit of a stickler for English and actually corrected one student's grammar in front of the whole class. I also think he has a very dry/odd sense of humour that the people in my class are not relating to. Anyways, there are already complaints and we've only had him once. I see last term starting to repeat itself in a way.. *sigh*.. so glad this program is only 1 year, I don't know if I could handle another term or two of this!!!
The plus side to all of this is that I have a couple of pretty good friends in my faculty who I can chuckle over some things with. It has been semi entertaining to hear some of the stuff people spew out and to see the reactions of the profs. It's amazing how unwilling people are when it comes to admitting that they have no clue with another person has just said (since 90% of the time it seems that what the person just said is a bunch of words that sound good just jumbled together to sound smart).
OK, even though I start class at noon tomorrow, I should still head to bed. Gnite!
ps./ So looking forward to having Thursday and Friday off! (well, sort of, there's a lot to get accomplished!)
It's Starting Again..
Yes, procrastination is back (or was it ever gone?) :P I found out from a couple of my friends from class that we have readings for this coming week's class.. *joy*! I went out and got myself some of the course packs (drat it, even though I started to get my textbooks together before Christmas, I'm STILL missing some course packs and textbooks!! ARGH!!).. and I've managed to read all of a few pages.. HEHE.. it's going to be a long term.
This weekend was composed mainly of sleeping and going out. I went to an interview skills workshop yesterday morning and then downtown. Was planning on coming back to the apartment and going back to bed, but my friends called while we were at the Rideau Mall so we ended up going out for Pho Bo Ga (Vietnamese food). Speaking of the Rideau Centre, I got a really good deal yesterday!! (Pretty much my only purchase during this whole boxing day event thing) I purchased a cardigan from Eddie Bauer. Original price: $98 + Tax, My Price:$44 - 50% + Tax YUPPPPPPPI!! Can you say bargain or what!
I've also been eyeing some shirts at Jacob.. I had previously bought one before Christmas (I was in serious need for sweaters that were more professional looking).. got that for $19. Apparantly the sweater is carried in various colours, but they are now selling for $29 (and the colour I have is still on for $19).. go figure???
Anyways, enough about clothes shopping. Yesterday, we were very close to going to Camp Fortune to go downhill skiing. I'm not really regretting not going since it was pretty cold yesterday (and we were planning to go for night skiing!!). Perhaps another week.
Today, I believe we are going to go skating on the Rideau Canal. It's finally open. I'm excited.. I don't think I went skating at all last year and I miss it. Plus, I've never gone skating on the Canal before, so it'll be fun!
Ottawa has this Winterlude in February.. just took a look at the website.. looks like it's pretty big: snow sculptures, ice sculptures, snow bowling, triathalon (which we might take part in!), etc. It'll help cheer the gloomy month of February up :)Chinese New Year is just around the corner. This year, it's on January 29th. My friends and I are planning to celebrate with a dinner party (this seems familiar, have I already posted this??) and perhaps attend a stage show presented by the Chinese Cultural association here in Ottawa. We've had a lot of discussion as to what we'll do besides the dinner (and a lot of discussion about what types of desserts we will be eating with this dinner).. I'm assuming we will only come to a solid conclusion the day before CNY ...HEHEHHEHE.. as usual :P
Alrighty, that's it for now.. Have a nice and warm and sunny week everyone!
Christmas Lights at the Parliment Building
The Flame
Oooo .. Pretty
So Long, Farewell
Tonight's the last night before I fly back to Ottawa. Ai yie yie. I hate good-byes.. they make me so sad!!
Anyways, I'm sitting here waiting for my BT file to complete.. 97.9%.. it's almost there. Boy, it can be pretty boring in front of the computer sometimes. Especially when you have no initiative to do anything productive..hehehe. I still have a resume that needs polishing and could do with working on preparing answers for any interviews I may get. *SIGH*.
On the up side of the job hunt, I noticed there's been a new school board opened. Just to be greedy, I'm not going to mention where.. *toothy smile*. It looks like there are quite a few new schools that will be starting up this fall over there. The only con to this is 1- it's not Ottawa, 2- it's in a city that's smaller than Fredericton. UGH. I'm not really liking the sounds of that, but I do like the sounds of having a job and my own class :)
These last few days have been pretty busy, especially yesterday. I had "appointments" with three different people so I was out basically the whole day. (Sidenote: Yuppi!!! My file is finished!!!!) I spent most of today cleaning, packing and baking.. all I can say is: BOY, am I a nice sister or what!! heheheeheh
I'm looking forward to seeing everyone back in Ottawa but am not quite in the mind frame for school yet. I guess I better face the facts, there's no running away from classes and assignments!! Bleeeeehhhhhh ... just thinking of all the readings that are awaiting me this term just makes me feel tired! Alright, alright, enough complaining. I should be joyous - all this reading will give me more knowledge!!
OK.. I'm going to stop right now.. I think I sort of sound a tad nuts at the moment (I think I just lack sleep). Good night! TATA!
ps./ What a good first entry for 2006 :P
