Dang Assignments!
I still can't bring myself to really "swear" on my blog ..hahah! SOO... I'm procrastinating again ..hehehe! I really shouldn't be considering I have TWO assignments due next week.. one of which I'm barely halfway through and the other that hasn't been even started.. not to mention, while all these assignments are going on, I need to keep up with my readings, posting and reading other people's posts. ARGH! Actually, I'm enjoying the courses, it's just that it's so hard to read THIS much stuff! OMG... two assignments due next week.. I'm starting to freak. Actually, I think I'm making one assignment MUCH more complicated than it actually is... but I don't really know how to shorten it up...!?
This past weekend was pretty yucky. I ended up spending the majority of the weekend feeling like crap.. sinus headache along with a stiff neck all day Saturday and most of Sunday. Fun. We wanted to go to Granville Island but by the time CE got home from work (ya.. putting in SO much overtime lately) and my brother got ready, it was already past 2. Given the fact that it takes about an hour to go from Richmond to anywhere in Vancouver (traffic), we would have arrived and needed to turn back and go home as my parents expect us for dinner :P
Although living at home has it's bonuses, sometimes it's more work than living on our own. We spend a huge amount of time helping everyone... in fact, I don't think CE & I have taken one weekend to ourselves in a very long time. Because we live with my parents, brother and cousin, we feel this guilt if we don't ask people to come along when we go out. Not that any of them would complain or anything, but it's just that feeling of being mean or selfish. I guess we need to find a better balance. However, we won't be living here forever, so I guess we should enjoy it while we can.
Speaking of not living at my parent's place forever, we are beginning to shop around for Mortgages. Sounds like a fun way to spend the weekend huh? :P
Oh yes. Last thing before I force myself to get back to work. Over the weekend, the house across the street has been in the process of being demolished. The stupid crane thing has been bashing all the broken up pieces and OUR house has been freaking vibrating! I was sleeping on Saturday and started to feel nauseous... why? BECAUSE OF THE SHAKING! Felt like I was on some sort of amusement park ride. When the bus goes by, it vibrates, but not like that! Anyhow, I'm glad that house is gone, it's been a real eyesore and there seems to be a lot of 'activity' that goes on over there. I don't know how many times we've seen the cops drop by to look at it..
OK BYE!
True Sign of Procrastination
When you see me posting frequently, it probably means I'm avoiding work :P Yes indeed, that is what I am doing. I have one more question on my Special Education assignment that is worth 10 marks and I am really too lazy to open up the document and just finish it. Tisk.
I was talking to my colleague in Saint John on Monday afternoon and she was sort of updating me on how my kids from last year were doing. They did me proud! She is working on rounding numbers and apparently, they were telling her about some car. She said, "You remember the car thing you taught them last year?".. me: "Ummm.... nooo? What car thing!?". The kids described it for her... a car driving up and down a hill.. numbers 1-4 are going up the hill and number 5 in the middle and 6-10 going down a hill. Anyhow, it was just a way to help them remember which way to round. I spent about 10-15 minutes on that!! One of my students stayed afterschool one day to teach my colleague the method we used to round larger numbers.. we circled the number we looked at and ... I forget. I guess it really stuck with them. Go figure! After hearing that, I pretty much floated around for the rest of the day :)
Speaking of Math.. I received the results of the district math assessment from last school year. My colleague kindly forwarded the results to me. It was a breakdown of the results from the grade 3's of our school. I am really proud of my kids.. they all did pretty well and their marks were the highest overall (I think the other class "beat" us in maybe 1 or 2 units out of about 10 units) out of all the grade 3's at that school. I am curious to see how they did in comparison to the rest of the district though. I'm doubtful we even compare to some other schools around, but it would be nice to know whether they faired at least average marks or not.
So CE & I are starting to seriously look into purchasing a house. OMG.. I really should add an "F word" in there :P. Freaking ridiculous!! If you want to purchase a new townhouse, you have to spend at LEAST 400K.. I don't think you would even be able to buy a newer one with that amount even (unless you live waaaaaay out). A bungalow... think half a MILLION. HALF A FREAKING MILLION DOLLARS!?!? WHAT!? A MILLION!! Ok.. you get my point. It's INSANE. It got to the point where I was starting to think perhaps I need to accept that we'll live in a condo for the remainder of our lives and never go on vacation... ever. No eating out, no buying clothes, no vacation, no getting sick allowed. It's sick I tell you! Anyhow, we managed to work our budget so it was more manageable and more realistic. I am not feeling as outraged/depressed as I was a few days ago. We can afford a townhouse.. an old townhouse.... but it's a townhouse. Even average sized condos can cost anywhere from 400-500K. Whoever said there was nothing good about a recession?
Christmas Yet?
I'm feeling like getting ready for the Christmas season....it's a bit early. Plus, it feels like Christmas will not be Christmas over here. I mean, no snow... no space for a tree... how is that Christmas?! How is it Christmas without SNOW!?
Speaking of snow.... I MISS it. Maybe I shouldn't have written it like that...it seems to be in a way, taboo here. Whenever I say I'm from NB, people respond..."you must be loving the weather over here! It's so mild here! No SNOW!".. umm.. right... I suppose I will love that Spring comes earlier in the season.. but I miss my snow!! I miss seeing it fall, miss feeling cosy, miss the excitement of a big snow STORM!! I love it when the city shuts down and it's so silent and peaceful outside.... no more of that for me.....
Anyways, I'm also feeling like I'm on the countdown to the last few days on the job. I'm just starting to get into it too. I feel like I'm finally starting up a routine (not even completely into the routine) and it's time to finish up. Gee. I'm still not sure I'd like to do resource 100% of the time at the moment. I'm enjoying it in that I'm learning a lot and that it's a lot more of an "academic" challenge than of a management challenge. However, I really miss having my own group of kids and getting to know them and work with them on a daily basis.
My course work is keeping me really busy.. trying to read the endless amounts of notes and the textbooks plus posting and doing assignments is really time consuming! Lately, I've been thinking of going back to do my Masters... for now though, I think I'll wait until I get into a permanent job before heading in that direction. Why am I waiting? I'm not sure... perhaps a very tiny part of me is worried that I may end up leaving this field if I can't find something permanent in a few years.
I'm sure I've mentioned it before... the grass is greener on the other side.. it's so funny that I should miss NB these days. I guess being stuck in traffic all the time and being in a place where I don't really know too many people can be very frustration and isolating sometimes. I catch myself thinking "I should go to Odell park this afternoon" and then quickly realize that, no, that is not possible. I've even been frequently dreaming of my old home... sometimes they are nightmares of moving (literally) or just really weird dreams of strangers living in my house. I mean, I grew up there, spent over 20 years there, knew every nook, cranny, dent... and now, someone else is living there?? It's hard to process sometimes. On the flip side of it, I think back at how excited we were to "start fresh" and I realize that this was a good decision. In reality, I flip on a day-to-day basis if not an hour-to-hour basis. Give it a few years, and I'm sure I'll settle into a good place.
OK.. I've got to get back to my assignment.. as you probably guessed, I've been using this as a distraction from working :P Typical.. .somethings will never change ;)
Concert Packed Week
Well, coming to Vancouver has it's benefits. Yes, food is a huge one, but the number of concerts and theatre shows that are available to us has grown ten fold.
This past Thursday evening, we headed downtown to see....... no... not Madonna (she was performing her first concert in Vancouver a few blocks away that evening for a sold out audience of 50-60 thousand) but Lang Lang, the famous Chinese concert pianist who performed during the Opening Games this past summer.
It was full house that evening and traffic was a bit crazy that day because of MADONNA. Anyhow, Lang Lang opened with Schubert's Sonata in A which took up about half the program. This piece, in my opinion, really showed off his capacity technically and artistically. His pianissimo and fortissimo range was amazing. I don't think I've ever heard a softer touch. He followed with a Bartok Sonata after intermission which I wasn't too keen on. Mind you, I don't really enjoy playing or listening to Bartok to begin with. Anyhow, another fantastic demonstration of his technical abilities. Makes you really believe in practicing technique (shudder). After the dissonant sound of Bartok, was Debbusy. I originally thought he was going to be playing Au Claire Du Lune but he didn't... it was a variation I think.. but I'm not sure. I'm not all that familiar with Debbusy's work. After Debbusy, the composer I had been waiting for... Chopin! My favourite. He performed Polonaise in A flat Major which I have heard many times before. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to my expectations. I felt he sped through it and did not provide the justice that it deserved. The ornamentals he played flawlessly but they didn't have the opportunity to shine because he was going so fast! I read a review saying the purpose was to "energize" the audience.. but that just .... I don't have words.
I was a tad peeved off that evening with the audience because they were SO restless. During his pianissimo sections (which were very soft), it was extremely hard to really follow along because of all the shuffling, moving and whispering going on in the audience. ARGH. There were many in the crowd who were not frequent classical concert goers because they clapped between movements (in fact, Lang Lang decided not to remove his hands between movements because of this.. he would keep his hands at the piano and just continue on into the next movement). The other thing that irritated me was the stupidity of some of the younger Chinese girls there.. actually, one in particular who took a picture of him WHILE HE WAS PERFORMING even though they explicity said at the beginning of the concert that "pictures are prohibited". It seems like she thought that her boyfriend had turned the flash off, but that was not the case. It made me really want to slap the backside of her head when she proceeded to take ANOTHER picture about 10 minutes later. Ugh.
Anyhow, enough complaining. Onto my next concert adventure. Last night, we went to see Our Chinese Heart at the GM place downtown. There were about 15 celebrity artists including the likes of Kelly Chen. Not a bad concert, better than I expected. I thought there would be a lot more off tune singing than there actually was. HEHEH. The mayor of Vancouver was there and I was really impressed at his attempt to do the interview with the MCs in Chinese. He did a pretty great job, I must say :)
Alright. We are off to view some open houses that we will never ever be able to afford. *sigh*
Signing off from rainy Vancouver!
