Late summer in the North was my favorite time.
Super nostalgic.
Survived first day of classes.
Oh, to be on this day in 2010, when everything was new, travel, and adventure (I Do NOT long for January, I assure you)
Estimated time of arrival: 8:05 AM
Minutes spent on lunch break: 20
Minutes spent held hostage in staff room by giant spider: 8
Current time: 1:45.
+:
First month of Sec 1/11 History and LA is planned.
I now work at a school with a functioning photocopier. Movin' up.
Rearranged books on bookshelf in an organized, functional manner
Disposed of giant container of used syringes discovered in my desk
No more science stuff or old beeshives in my classroom.
Giant spider did not attack me.
Finally know what to do first few weeks of Ethics class.
Much Moccasion Joe coffee consumed.
-:
Aforementioned bookshelf collapsed, spewing forth books everywhere.
Giant spider is on the loose.
Am blogging instead of working.
History 4? Not planned. Stressing stressing stressing.
Cannot figure out what to do in first Media V classes.
Have yet to write 5 sets of introductory letters to parents.
Time remaining in workday: 2 hours, 30 minutes.
This is Waskaganish weather.
People can complain, comment, be in awe all they wish to about the rain and wind formerly known as Hurricane Irene all the want, but really, this is nothing. Actually, it's evoking memories of October and November in the North last year. In Waskaganish, when storms blow off the Bay (which is, in the aforementioned months, pretty much every few days), it rains from the ground up.
On another note, I've been contemplating changing the blog title and URL. I mean, I've returned to my overly comfortable ho-hum Southern existence... 2 months ago today. And while Laval and Oka are, arguably, to the north of Montreal and the Townships... it isn't QUITE the same, one could argue.
I always find something depressing about the first in a new home. It might be the mountain of boxes to unpack, the furniture I need to buy, the paint job my fixer-upper desperately needs...or perhaps it's the complete lack of memories that the place holds?
Last nights in a home are somehow less depressing. Not to say that leaving both Waskaganish and Lennoxvegas weren't slightly heart-wrenching last nights, but at least there are, amongst all the boxes, happy times to reflect back on.
I hadn't bothered opening any of the boxes that returned from Waskaganish until tonight... it's an odd feeling, sifting through pieces of a life you recently left, and finding stuff waiting for you....
Now, if I could only find my toilet paper and my blender.
For now, the blog title/URL debate remains unsolved and I'm opting for status quo. I will, after all, be heading back to James Bay for a visit sometime in the next 10 months, and I am debating a move to Kuuj in the distant but rapidly approaching future.
Ok, enough for now.
Wow.
Summer is gone, and I'm sitting in my brand new classroom, 15 hours closer to Montreal this time.
I'll be honest; in the last week or two, I have actually found myself missing the North. I miss black spruce trees, a house with a view and space around it, I miss tides, and Rupert Bay sunsets, and real rivers with real rapids. I also miss my sec 5 students. The smell is much better in Waska than in Laval.
Enough of that!
I'd love to claim that my summer was full of adventures and triumphs and such, but so is not the case. Coming home, after living in such a small bubble, both in the metaphorical and physical sense, I found my comfort zone to be much smaller, geographically, until I took off to Toronto for vacation. Slow to start, but quick to finish, I guess, can best describe the season. Get your mind out of the gutters....
On a personal front, well.... I'm somewhat retarded when it comes to certain situations. Retarded as in slow. Possibly mentally handicapped. Had I the guts, I'd make some dramatic gesture to set things straight about where I stand/feel re: someone. I am, however, much more of a chicken.
My souvenir of the North has grown expontentially but has stopped chewing (Kito, not a tamarack goose).
Ok, back to lesson planning.
