Friends in Far Places

As I told you in an earlier post, my friend from Brazil is here to visit for a couple weeks.  It's hard to believe, but she's already been here for almost 1 week.  We've had a few fun projects since she got here, so I thought I'd put up a few pictures.  Mostly we were engaging the inner child in both of us!  It's always nice to have some creative releases.

This P and I.  We've been enjoying the summer weather out in the backyard.

One day this week we were kind of bored, so I decided we should build a kite!  That's right, a kite.  Our materials included: 1 plastic bag, a bamboo stake, some tape, yarn and fishing line.  We took it up to Clear Lake and flew it out in the field.  It worked pretty well, but the kite seemed to like dive-bombing.  We almost took out Indy a few times;p

Our next creative juncture was tie-dying.  At the cabin was the perfect place to try our hand at this messy art.  It was a blast!  We made our little martian men from elastic bands and t-shirts and then dunked away in our various colours of dye.  Gloves were a must since we didn't want our hands to match our attire after finishing the project:)

And here is our 'finished' product hanging in the sun to dry.  We plan on getting pictures of everyone wearing their shirts this weekend after they are completely dry.

Yesterday We took a little adventure to the Carberry Spirit Sands.  A great hike the cumulates at the sand dunes.  We went with my mom and little Indy.  It's not just your eyes, this picture is a tad blurry but it was the best one of the 4 of us from yesterday on the camera.  Sorry:(

Tilt your head sideways, and you can see how high one of the dunes was that we climbed up during our hike yesterday.  It made us feel a bit like nomadic wanderers.  P and I also decided that we would not like to die in the desert (given a choice of course:)-

Teacher Stuff

A random photo from this summer...i think it's kind of cute:)

I put in my first morning of official teacher work today.  I went in with my dad to his school to scavenge and pillage whatever I could from teachers there.  I think it was a fairly profitable adventure.  I've filled my memory stick with files, tests and all the other good stuff that comes from stealing from other teachers.  It's exciting to think about doing all this teacher stuff but also a bit overwhelming.  Sometimes I have minor panic attacks thinking about all that lies ahead of me in the upcoming year as a first year teacher but then I have to remind myself of one day at a time and the fear passes.  

Onto other news...

Tomorrow my friend from Brazil arrives in Canada.  I'm looking forward to sharing Manitoba with her in the summer.  When she lived here last time, she spent most of the winter months with us.  I'll hopefully be able to post some pictures soon from our upcoming adventures.

I'm heading out to enjoy the summer sun a bit more today.  It is just so lovely and wonderful to be able to spend so many hours outside these days.

ciao!

Home Again

Well i made it back home this evening.  My time in southern ontario was wonderful.  I really had a great time hanging out with my family and camp friends.  It is great to have friends that you can just settle in with even if it has been a while since you last saw each other.  A true blessing.  After leaving southern ontario I spent a few days in Winnipeg before heading to ultimate home.  I got to spend some quality time with my Baba which is special since I"ll be heading away for the year real soon.  Baked some things with her of course! and also did some more shopping with Julia.  Value Village was our friend yesterday.  We found a lot of good 'teacher' things for a small price tag.  Honestly, Julia bought, I think 9 items, for like $60 which is pretty awesome when you consider that all those clothes are 'teacher clothes' and that she could have spent the same amount on one pair of pants if she bought new at the mall.  I added to my teacher-shirt collection.  I think I need to stop soon though because it all needs to fit into my suitcases along with whatever else is coming with me to China!  

I also found out recently (like yesterday) that I will be teaching 3 different courses this fall.  Originally I thought I was going to be in the resource department, but now it looks like the majority of my time will be in a classroom (or maybe several).  I am supposed to teach consumer math (gr 11) and grade 10 science and math.  That mostly means that now I have to spend some serious time in the remainder of my summer prepping and getting things organized since i only have 1 week from the time i land in China till when I start teaching.  NOt really enough time to figure out my first month especially with all the meetings and general orientation of a new city and job.  But that's ok.  I was given ample warning about my schedule so I can't really complain.

The next exciting part of my summer is the arrival of my friend from Brazil!  Paula and I met in grade 12 when she was an exchange student to my school and we have stayed friends since.  She arrives next week and will be here for a couple weeks.  We should have some grand times!  Hopefully some fun summer adventure pictures to follow while she is here:)

It's time for me to call it a night and enjoy the maiden voyage of my double bed!  that's right folks...after 23 years of sleeping on a single bed I will be resting on a double bed in my own bedroom!  pretty exciting if you ask me:)

Waiting

Hey.  So I'm sitting in my uncle's living room waiting for my friend S to come and pick me up for coffee, so I thought I would put up a little post of some random thoughts and facts from the past few days.

1. The flowers are so much bigger and happier here in Guelph than back home (at least right now since there has actually been some warmer weather here recently)

2. I love having family that lives in different cities than me so that I have an excuse to go on a little trip

3. I am super excited about watching two friends from camp get married this saturday

4. I am even more excited about having coffee with said friend this morning and catching up on a year apart

5. Solo shopping is not that much fun.  I had a couple hours to kill yesterday before I needed to head to the airport so I browsed around, but it wasn't nearly as much fun as when I'm with friends.  Walking around with my pack on my back probably didn't help my shopping mood either.

6. I found out the other day that I will be teaching 1 class of math each day while I'm in China along with working with language learners which is exciting, but also means I actually have a class I need to prep for during the rest of the summer.

7. Fresh coffee with cream is a delicious way to start the day!  

Ok, i think I"ve moved onto random ramblings so I'm gonna close it off here.  Make it a great day folks!

Graduation Celebrations

SO I decided to just make a picture storyboard of my graduation weekend.  It was a pretty fun time with friends and family making the trip out to be part of my exciting day.  I am so blessed to have such a super group of people who stand behind me and have supported me through every step of this process of becoming a teacher.  IT's still kind of hard to believe that I'm actually done the whole university thing unless I choose to go back.  When people ask me what I do, my first response is still a student, but I know I will be able to retrain my mind soon.  So, without further ado, here are some of the pictures taken on my graduation weekend.

My baba came to celebrate with me.  This picture was taken Saturday before the ceremony.

My mom took a bunch of photos in the backyard before I left for the ceremony.  I still have to choose which ones I want to get printed up to share with people but I think they look nicer than the ones I had taken in the studio during the winter.  A bit more natural looking!

An action shot of me moving the tassel from the right to left side of my cap.  the official moment when we have graduated according to the marshall of the ceremony.

Receiving my diploma from the dean.  I had to stop and pose for a picture opportunity even though I wasn't planning on buying the photo at the end of the ceremony.

Back at the house, we had a bbq and celebrated with friends and family who were not subjected to the 3 hours ceremony at the Keystone.  Here's me and my Baba looking pretty happy.  I"m the first grandchild to graduate from university, so it's a pretty big deal in baba's books.

Some of the friends that joined me for my celebration.  It was fun to get dressed up and have a fun time with old and new friends.  If only the day could have been longer so that I could visit with everyone more thoroughly.  

I think we might be related or something:~)

The Happy parents...finally she is going to be out of the house!

Only the 2 brothers were missing from this friends photo....actually Julia wasn't in Brandon yet so she's missing too but keep looking for a picture of her.

Yes, we definitely ate at the party!  I'm not sure how, but I managed to get that whole plate done and then have room for some dessert too.  I guess all those hours of waiting in cap and gown gave me a bit of an appetite...

On Sunday, I went out with some friends and we had a bit of a photo shoot.  Here's one of the 4 of us!

ANd one of me and Julia to show that she actually was out here for the weekend!  Julia and I are going to China together...

THis last picture has nothing to do with graduation, but I took it on the long weekend out at camp.  K and I went for a hike on the island trail, and we stopped for a break at the top of the trail.  It was pretty bare out there but still a beautiful time.

So that wraps up the graduation photo tour.  Of course there are more pictures that can be shared in person if you so desire...

THanks for sharing in my journey in whatever way you were part of my life...this is not a path I could travel alone.