My grandparents celebrated their anniversary this weekend. It was really nice and I had a great time. My sister and I sang, and although I royally screwed up on one of the songs, my sister recovered beautifully and everyone thought we were wonderful. Over the course of the evening I got really good at my one conversation, it went like this:

Some relative: Wow, I haven't seen you in such a long time. What are you up to?
Me: Well, I just graduated from Dordt with a B.A. in secondary education in Chemistry and Physics.
Relative: Already? Has it been 4 years already?
Me: Actually it's been 5 years.
Relative: *Puzzled look*
Me: I changed my major *sheepishly*
Relative: Do you have a job yet?
Me: Yes, I'm teaching at ___ Chrisitian School, teaching science and even a drama course.
Relative: You're going to teach high school science? For your first year? Won't that be difficult.
Me: Well, yeah, that's what I prepared for, not elementary, not English but high school science.
Relative: Oh. *pause* Well, you must be so excited.
Me: Yes!
etc.

I seriously had that exact conversation with 90% of the people I talked to that evening - I had that same conversation with the other 10% prior to that evening.

My parents leave for a month-long trip to Europe today, and I get to be in charge. Mwahahaha! (My siblings probably wouldn't agree totally, but... whatever) Mwahahahaha! It should be nice for them, and it should be very nice for me, I've gotten used to living on my own so it is strange to be home. Strange, but in a sense nice and appreciated because I know that I won't have that ever again and I'll probably miss it when I'm all alone in my apartment talking to myself - I won't have cats.

Pictures to come when I get them on my computer.

Canada is too cold! and other musings

I know it's a cliche - kind of, "Canada is cold" but really it is. At least in my area of the country. Here I was, used to the pleasantly warm climate of Iowa and then, I got back to Canada bam! COLD! The furnace in my house turned on!! (the furnace never turns on, my parents like to keep things an outrageously cold 60 degrees in the day, 66 when people are home) It even snowed in Calgary last night! Thankfully it hasn't been that cold, but it's only a little above freezing here. I'm not a happy camper, at least in that respect.


But, I'm having a good summer so far. I love my job at the U of A. and it is so nice to be home and to relax a bit. No more school for me! until I actually have to teach in school.

Other big news: My grandparents are having their 50th anniversary celebration this weekend. Everyone is in town, all of my aunts and uncles and their kids, great-aunts and uncles, cousins I don't know. It's going to be a "big to-do in Nottingham". It should prove to be a fun day even if some of the organizers are going a little over the top. We are having coffee and some refreshments after church and they are going to decorate the basement of the church and there has too be 'x' amount of squares, 'x' amount of cookies, 'x' amount of cake, etc and the 'x' is on the order of 10^2 - that's hundreds to the non exponent-savy. (I needed to throw in a little math/science nerdiness, too much left brain use recently) It's a little crazy but I'll just smile and serve cake awkwardly because it's at the church that we left :)
The actual party should be good though, great food, time to talk to the long-lost relatives and my sister and I are going to sing.

I'm getting so excited about teaching and setting up my classroom. I just bought Harry Wong's "The First Days of School" and I've been reading it, taking notes and just imagining my wonderfully run classroom complete with procedures for everything.

Sidenote: Andrea, you should read it, it's really good, Wong is the guy that Cella loves, you probably saw a video by him too.

See I actually posted within the time frame I set out. So there doubters - you know who you are.

Really, I'm still here

First off, I'll start with a promise to anybody who still reads this blog – I give my solemn oath that I will post at least once a week. I didn't post much when I was student teaching because I was either way too busy or I didn't have anything to write about except for complaints and I didn't want to do that.

Here's the news:
I had a phone interview with a school in B.C. while I was still at Dordt and they wanted to see me in person.
I graduated on Friday – Huzzah! I even got a degree. Got to say "Hi!" and "Good-bye" to friends and had an emotional last day - no more Dordt for me. Then I drove home Saturday and Sunday.
With very little sleep I left the house at about 5:00 am Monday morning to catch a flight to Abbotsford B.C. I went to Unity Christian School in Chilliwack, got the tour and they sold teaching at their school to me. I got to see some classes, talk with other teachers, and interact with the students and then I was offered a contract. And I accepted it!
I'm gonna be a teacher! I'm so excited about setting up my classroom and actually teaching - it'll be my class now, not someone else's with different rules and procedures.

Everyone told me that science teachers were in demand and I'd have no trouble finding a job, but I didn't have that many options that stuck out for me except for Lynden - which didn't happen and then Chilliwack - I think that there were only a couple of schools was a good sign for me. And, I probably wouldn't have considered Chilliwack if I hadn't already been interested in the Fraser Valley area (Lynden/Abbotsford, etc.) I really feel that God placed this opportunity in front of me and kind of blocked out the other ones. This is where I should go.

Now I need to find an apartment in August in Chilliwack, get a car, a teaching license in BC and then start thinking about actually teaching in Septemeber. Wow. I'm a grown-up now - kind of.

This summer I'm working at the U of A again - I've got a great job with great people. It'll be fun.

And again... I will post this summer.