Solid White Rain in Vancouver
Well! I got my wish.. it's going to be a white Christmas afterall!! HEHE!! I don't think the Vancouverites are very happy about it and I can barely blame them. The city (at least Richmond), doesn't seem to have a plan when a storm hits as the main roads are not in terrific condition and the sidewalks are barely walkable.I was out and about in the last few days and found it difficult to contain my twisted glee at how people here are handling the cold and snowy weather. For example, yesterday, I was at the library and a Mercedes was STUCK and couldn't get out of the driveway.. there wasn't a whole lot of snow, but just enough so that his tires were spinning... I guess he just kept stepping on the gas and digging himself further and further into the snow. I couldn't help but chuckle (silently in my head) that our Chevy didn't have any trouble.... The more admirable side to all this is that everyone who passed by stopped to see if they could help. Another funny thing was that the roads were nearly deserted on Sunday.. the conditions weren't bad, but I guess people are really afraid to be out walking and driving around when the "solid white rain" (as it's fondly called) is coming down.
I guess the amount of snow that's come down is really abnormal. I would say a good 24cm (or more) fell over the weekend. I was so delighted! It was so peaceful and the streets were beautiful Sunday evening. It's too bad they don't get snow like this every year!! HEHEHE!!
Anyhow, this past weekend, I met up with two friends that I haven't seen for quite a number of years. Joanne, an ex-UNB Malaysian student and Clara, a fellow youth group alumni (she was treasurer and on the executive with me the first year we started youth group up). Both of them are now mothers and are settled down into the Vancouver lifestyle. It's great to see familiar people, especially during the holidays. I am greatly missing my annual reunion with the old youth group gang.... not that I don't miss my high school buddies, but the yg gang is a group of friends that I grew up with and now that we are so far from one another, I wonder when we'll have the chance to meet again. The good news is that they are a few of them that live in Vancouver, so I'm not totally lost :)
I had a few "job excursions" in the last few weeks leading up to the holidays. Now that I am finally on the "TOC" (supply) list in Burnaby, I have access to their job postings. I applied to a few positions and even went so far to drop off my applications to the schools. However, no luck came out of it. Some positive feedback, but I think that the timing is just really wrong for me right now. It's the middle of the school year and I'm basically an unknown teacher to them. I'm pretty set against seniority hiring practices - basically what it says is that you will be hired because you've stuck with it long enough and not because you are GOOD. Anyways, I guess Burnaby is controlling that to an extent. They require that you teach a certain number of days within 2 years to qualify for the seniority list. So, if you are a crappy teacher, I assume you won't get called... but schools get desperate when the flu season is in full swing....
Anyhow, the other set of news I have is that Forest Hills (my previous school), had Steven Harper visit. They were selected by the Feds because someone over there saw the initiatives that we had put in place last year. I had organized an Afghanistan supply drive in the Spring (I believe it was in March) and had created a package of information for teachers to present to their students so that it wasn't just a supply drive, it had a lesson attached to it. Anyhow, not all of the teachers actually USED the stuff I gave them, but I also posted the information on the school website. So really, the whole reason why the school was identified was due to my intiatives. Ya.. I know, I'm bragging! Actually, my intention isn't to brag but to b*tch. I was not really acknowledged. That project took up a lot of time too.. the planning and implementation of the whole thing was not just a simple 2 hr project. Argh. Another reason to be seriously annoyed with the whole situation. It's just another thing to make last year a bitter memory (and I can add another dent to it too - went to Chapters today and tried to spend the $10 gift certificate they gave me as a "farewell gift" and guess what.. there was no money on it!?!?!?!). In all honesty, I have such mixed feelings towards last year. I remember the actual year with fondness in how much I learned, the friendships I found and even with my class and the staff in general. However, I really, really did not appreciate how it ended.. I still have the utmost respect for the admin team and like each of them very much, but it's just really hard to wrap my brain around what happened especially since I invested 120% of myself to that job.
Alright. Enough complaining. We were originally going to head to San Francisco for a few days over the holidays but decided against it after realizing it would take about 40 hours in the car (round trip). We then decided to try Seattle as it's only 2 hours away. However, now that the snow has come, we've cancelled everything. It will just be too difficult to drive considering the lack of snow removal over here. Ho hum. Too bad. I was hoping to check out the outlets.. (guess it's not the ideal time anyways with the Cdn $ being the way it is).
Well, that's all for now.. it's a pretty long post. Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday. May 2009 bring everyong lots of good fortune and great health!
posted by jaryee @ 3:39 p.m.
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