Throwback to First Year

Good evening everyone! Tonight's post comes to you from the comfort of my own couch where I am sitting icing my achilles tendon. Jocelyn and I just did a quick 1hr living room workout and I am exhausted, both from the workout and from the week in general! The semester is winding down here in Lennoxville but that doesn't mean my life has gotten any less busy! But as I always say, I would not have it any other way, so here is a look back on my week that went by in the blink of an eye! 

As per usual, Monday was a fairly typical day, with my three classes, a quick swim at the pool and my weekly trip to Provigo. In my EDU 216 class, I presented my practicum research topic for my winter semester project. I will be looking at the use of iPads in the classroom, as all of my grade 6 students just got their own iPads for use at school. I am going to look at the effective integration of iPads in the classroom because there is a lot of controversy over them being used as toys or as "crutches" for the teachers. Specifically, I am thinking of looking at the training that both teachers and students should receive in order for the iPads to be used as an effective assistive technology, but I will do some reading over Christmas before I narrow my focus. After my classes, I got together with Vicki (who I seem to be attached at the hip with these days) to work on a project for our other education class, a video about our teaching philosophy. Following that, I went to the grocery store, then lugged everything home, though I highly contemplated taking a cab, made chicken and quinoa salad for dinner and then rehearsed my lessons for practicum the next morning. 

Tuesday was practicum day and it was wonderful! I showed my grade 6s a super cute video (posted below) and taught them about what a pep talk is. Apparently even I am getting old-school because they did not know what a pep rally was, and I am sure that they used to talk about pep rallies on every tv show I watched as a kid. For my grade 3/4s, I showed them a website called Storybird, on which they made electronic visual stories. They loved it! Their faces lit up when I brought the laptop cart in (oh yes, not only do my grade 6s have personal iPads, the school also has a portable cart with a class set of Mac Books) and they were super into creating the stories - I checked their accounts the other day and they have been working on their stories at home. My one student even made a book called "Thank you Miss Erica." The lesson went so well that my associate teacher asked me to teach my grade 6s about it this coming week!

I got back to campus and went to class and then the gym and then came home to study a bit before astronomy. Of course, it was the windiest night of the year and I had to drag my poster to campus for our presentation. It couldn't be rolled up because of the stars attached at the top so I honestly looked like I was flying a kite to campus. I was also carrying my desk lamp and a box that we had made into a 3D display of what the Pleiades open star cluster looks like in the night sky, so luckily, I ran into Elizabeth on the way to campus and she helped me carry everything to class. It reminded us both of the times when our moms would drop us off at school when we had big projects to bring in. I was really wishing  that I had my mom to drop me off in her mini van with my project instead of lugging it to campus on foot. But I made it, and our poster and standing display were beautiful, if I do say so myself. 

I had a late night study session for one for my French quiz and then was up early to pick courses. I got into all the courses that I wanted, which is good, but now I really have to get on figuring out where I want to go on exchange in order to make sure I will meet all of the course requirements for my degree. The way things are right now I only need to take one required course on exchange and the rest can be electives, as long as they are in French, so that takes a little bit of the stress off. Anyway, after picking courses, I went to class and the gym and then locked myself in the library for 4 hours to finish my visual story for my ed tech class. I made a story based on the story about a man asking a crowd if they wanted a $20 bill, even if it was crumpled or stepped on. When they all said yes, it showed that it was still valuable, no matter what circumstances came its way; I used this to talk about bullying and how you cannot take someone's value away from him/her. After a long afternoon in the library, I came home and ate dinner with my housemates and continued doing homework late into the night. I really need to start going to bed earlier. 

Thursday morning I had another appointment with the athletic therapist. Apparently, I had made progress but I still cannot run, which is sad. I am starting to become slightly bitter about this, so I would like to make a public apology to all the people I have been complaining about this to, mainly my housemates. I am acting like my grade 6 self who consistently asked her doctor when she could go back to skating, even though she was still wearing a sling, only now I just want to run. She gave me some more exercises and stretches to do, so hopefully I will be back to running again soon. After my appointment, I did some homework in the study lounge and went to class and then hung around in the computer lab with a bunch of my education friends. My friend Sarah made the nicest comment to all of us; she said "In high school, I thought that I had made all of my friends for life, but then I came here and I just met so many more amazing people like you guys." This just about melted my heart. On that positive note, I left to go to a free yoga class in the art gallery with Jocelyn. There was a new instructor this year, and the class was great, but the best part was, we all got a pass for a free class at her studio in Sherbrooke. I took 7. I looked it up and am going to try to go there in between my exams, so I will give a review of her studio once I make the trek out there. Following yoga, I went to knitting club, where I learned how to pearl (exciting) and then came home for dinner with Sarah. After dinner, I made Skor bars for my practicum school's Christmas bake sale on the weekend and then made a brief appearance at Happy Hour (for the first time this year). I came home, finished up some work and packaged up my Skor bars to take to school the next day. 

My taped up tendon! 

Skor bars for my kiddies! 

Friday, I went with Guillaume to my practicum school because our teachers had invited us to come in for the planning day (like a PA Day). I got to help set up the book fair and mark some work for my teacher (which I loved), but mostly my teacher and I just chatted about the students, the school and my work so far. After a fun morning, we had to go to a workshop with the Dean of Student Affairs and then Vicki and I worked on our video for a bit before heading to the free church dinner. Vicki then went to the choir performance and I went to the gym and to the last little bit of the basketball game. The BU men's team played a tough game against Laval and ended up beating them by 6 points, I think. I then walked home in the rain and honoured the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination with Elizabeth by watching an episode of the Kennedy's (no, not my step-family, the presidential family). To cheer ourselves up afterward, we watched Legally Blond before going to bed. 

My knitting that I did during the movie!

Saturday, I had Big Buddies and I spent the afternoon at the Sports Plex with Hannah (my little buddy). We swam, and played basketball and soccer and badminton and ran around the jogging track - we were both exhausted afterward! During Big Buddies, there was an open house for prospective students going on, so when they all came to tour the gym, they walked right into 80 little kids running around wildly! Hope that doesn't deter any of them from coming to our amazing school! Speaking of which, my cousin Jaye just told me that she is going to apply to Bishop's, which is super, super exciting! I am trying to convince her to come visit me in the winter semester!! 

Following Big Buddies, Vicki and I put our video together. Our video is about our educational philosophy, so since we are both camp counsellors, we made our video about making the classroom more like summer camp. It is due this Wednesday, so I will share it with you all next week once it is finalized. Then, my friend Gaby, who had volunteered with the open house, told me she had gotten some free Dewies passes and invited me to come to dinner with her, so I of course took her up on her offer. I stayed there for almost 3 hours. A bunch of my friends who are RAs ate with us and it honestly felt like we were in first year again, all eating together in Dewies. Our one RA friends, Sean, invited us to his brownie and lite brute rez event, so after stuffing ourselves to the brim, Gaby and I, along with Jocelyn who had been in the library, headed over to Paterson, for black bean brownies, Coaticook frozen yogurt, Justin Bieber's Christmas album and lite brite. Dewies and a rez event - it was just like first year. 

Jocelyn and I doing lite brite!

Our final product (with contributions from Gaby)

Following that, Gaby and I were in total chocolate comas, so we came home and watched The Bling Ring, a movie about teenagers breaking into celebrities' houses. You can guess the ending on your own. I took a nap during the movie and then remembered that Sarah had gone to the mall and picked me up a Gingerbread Latte from the new Starbucks (ahhhh!!!!) so I decided that 12:30 would be a good time to indulge. It was heavenly, but there was no way I was going to fall asleep so I ventured over to our friends' apartment to meet up with Hannah and Elizabeth. We then got invited to another rez event, a 2am pizza party in NoPo, and there was no way we were turning down free pizza, so to NoPo we trekked. After some delicious pizza, we went to the Gait for the final time this year (but not really, since we will be writing exams there) and then I came home and watched the Wedding Planner before going to bed. Dewies, 2 rez events and a movie before bed - very typical of first year Erica. 

Today, I woke up and did some household chores (cleaned my room and the bathroom) and did some homework. With my video almost done, I only have one project left! My line of the day was "our house is one giant hairball" as I cleaned up soooo much hair when cleaning the bathroom. I then braced the elements (-9 degree weather and violent winds) to walk to campus to go to the public skate and show Vicki our video. While going for a solo skate was not as enjoyable as my skating date with Hannah, it was still just fun to be out on the ice skating around. I went near the end so it was not very busy and I was able to turn and spin without running into people or being yelled out by the patrols (common problem at Ancaster public skates). I guess I need to make some more friends that have skates here, or maybe just find a boyfriend that I can drag to the arena with me. I then went to see Vicki in Mackinnon, and there were two rez events going on while I was there - a ping pong tournament and a homemade spa product session, making for a total of 4 rez events for me this weekend (more than some residents go to all year). After stealing some snacks and showing my video to Vicki, I came back home and Jocelyn and I did a Jillian Michael's workout in our living room, which is how I ended up here, on the couch, icing my ankle. 

Selfie of me at the rink! 

Now, I am full of soup and cornbread, dressed head to toe in my salt and pepper roots track suit, and can barely keep my eyes open, so I think I will finish this up, work on my final project for a bit and hit the hay. I need to rest up for my final week of being 18! I cannot believe that the semester is almost over and that I will soon be heading home to work the month away at Bowring! There is still a lot to do here in Lennoxville before I head home to Ancaster, so wish me luck as I try to stay on top of it all!

All my love,

Erica xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

PS Shout out to my housemates who have been not only putting up with me, but have also been comforting me during the most stressful time of my year! 

PPS In honour of my old skating team's gala this weekend, today I wore my I <3 Synchro shirt and twice this week, I wore a full black lululemon outfit, once with skating tights underneath. And I will admit that I teared up a little while skating around this afternoon, wishing that I had been a part of the gala last night. You can take the girl out of synchro, but you can't take synchro out of the girl (made evident by my solo Russian stroking at the public skate)!

PPS GO TICATS!!! WIN THE GREY CUP!!!! 

Basketball, Birthdays, Best Friends and Books

Good evening everyone! Erica here, surfacing from beneath my giant pile of never ending school work! The end of the semester is officially insight and I have so much to do in the next two weeks!! Also, if anyone can tell me exactly where this past week went, I will give you a giant prize as I feel like I blinked and we went from last Sunday to today! So much happened and frankly, I am exhausted but as I said to Hannah earlier this week, sleep is for the weak - I must keep ploughing ahead! So now, here is a look back on one of the busiest weeks I have had this year. 

Monday was very typical, with my regular classes and a swim at the pool. I made my weekly trip to the grocery store and made bruschetta for dinner, which was delicious, if I do say so myself. After dinner, I buried myself in homework and spent a lot of time rehearsing my lesson for practicum. My friends thought that I was just talking to myself in my room, which I kind of was, but I promise it was for a purpose! It didn't help that I was also running around the house collecting random objects in a bag but I needed everything to be prepared, as my supervisor was coming in to watch me the next day!

Tuesday, I rolled out of bed at 6:30 to undergo my first practicum evaluation. I really need to start going to bed earlier otherwise it won't be my students falling asleep in my class - it will be me! Now I see why all teaches drink coffee! Anyway, I had a meeting with my supervisor when I got school, and we went over the lesson that I would be teaching and she gave me some suggestions. I then did some photocopying and went upstairs to prepare for my lesson. I was teaching my grade 3/4 ELA class. We started with a drama game for which I passed around my bag of random objects and the students picked an object out of the bag. They then had to perform an action using the object as a prop but they could not use the object for its intended purpose. We had a lot of fun playing the game and guessing what everyone was doing and my students got pretty creative. Then for the main lesson, we made the cubes that I posted a picture of last week. They wrote a mini autobiography on the cube template, then cut it out and folded it into a cube. At the end of the class, we played a game where we each took a turn rolling our cube and then shared the information on the side that the cube landed on. Overall, the lesson went really well and my supervisor was really pleased. She gave me such nice feedback, saying that everything seemed to come naturally to me (little did she know of my Monday night rehearsal) and that it looked like the students really enjoyed the lesson, which I was super happy to hear. Good thing she left the room when my students decided to practice their duck noises! 

I got back to school and went to class and the gym and then the free student dinner with Jocelyn, all before astronomy. We were learning about stars, which I found really interesting. After class, I went back to my friend Vicki's rez room to watch Glee. Her residents must think that we are crazy because we make so much noise while we are watching and squealing over the male cast members. Oh well, they would understand if they watched with us. Maybe. After Glee, I came home and worked late into the night on various tasks and assignments before crawling into bed. 

Wednesday, I had a busy day of classes and then spent the afternoon working on my astronomy poster with Maddy and Vicki. For our astronomy class, we have to make a poster presentation on an assigned topic and ours is the Pleiades Open Star Cluster, which is a star cluster in the Taurus constellation. We have been working on this project forever, and we met on Wednesday to cut everything out and organize our poster board. I  stayed with them until about 4:30 but then had to come home and quickly get ready for my Golden Key Induction Dinner. I think I talked about this back in September, but because I finished in the top 15% of my program after first year, I was invited to join the Golden Key Honours Society and we had our official welcome dinner on Wednesday. Before the dinner, I only knew of three other people in the society: my friend Gaby, who had seen on my blog that I was accepted so she told me that she had joined too; my friend Sarah, who guessed that I had qualified and told me that she had too; and my friend Julia, who the GK had forgotten to blind copy on the emails so I had seen that she was in. At the dinner though, I saw some more of my friends (Matt, Kevin, Arianne) and saw in the program that my friend Julie had also become a member. I've got some pretty smart friends, hmm? I also got to bring two guests, so Jocelyn and Hannah came with me. At the dinner, we were seated by department, so along with Jocelyn and Hannah, I was at a table with my friend Sarah, two other girls from elementary education in upper years, and the education dean, Dr. Aitken. It was a really nice night, with great food and great company. I also got to learn about some of the opportunities available for Golden Key members and I am excited to get involved with the society. Also at the dinner, three new honourary (non-student) members were inducted: the first was my professor from last semester Dr. Stonebanks, and the other two were the couple who started the free Tuesday night dinners. With members like these three, it is truly an honour to be a part of the Golden Key and I am happy that I decided to join. 

The new education Golden Key members! 

Julia, Gaby, myself and Sarah at the Golden Key dinner! 

Following the dinner, I met up with the Student Alumni Association to "tag" the campus for National Philanthropy Day. We went around campus putting purple tags on everything that donations from alumni and parents have provided. We tagged in the library, the SUB, the gym, the residences - pretty much everywhere! We wanted to be sure that purple pride would be on the forefront for NPD!

Me tagging in Mackinnon residence!

Thursday morning, I had an appointment at the Sports Medicine centre for my ankle that has been bothering me. It turns out that what I thought was a sprain is actually achilles tendinitis. I spent two hours with an athletic therapist undergoing various tests and ultrasounds and learning how to do some exercises to stretch and strength my left leg so keep your fingers crossed that I heal quickly! I then had class and went to help at the LES Outdoor Club, where we again went for a walk and played Camouflage (which all the students loooveeee). While walking, I talked with one girl in grade 6 and she was telling me about everything from basketball to taking her French exams to asking for boy advice. At the end, she told me that she is really happy that I joined Outdoor Club because she likes to have someone to talk to. This was so nice to hear!! Following that, I went to Hope Church to the first meeting of the BU Knitting Club where I learned how to knit! I can only do one type of stitch so far, but it's a start. We are going to be knitting toques to donate to a local charity. Hopefully, I will be able to squeeze in some time to practice. I then came home, but as soon as I got home, I got a text from my friend Sydney, who is the daughter of one of my mom's university housemates and also a co-worker from the summer, that she was in Lennoxville for a high school basketball tournament. She was at Jerry's Pizzeria so I literally took off running down the road to go see her! I was in shock to see her in Lennoxville but it turns out that BCS, the private school across the river from BU was hosting a tournament and so her team was playing in it. How crazy that they came all the way from Hamilton to Lennoxville for a tournament! After promising to go to her game the next day, I left her with her teammates to enjoy their pizza and came home to watch the Great Gatsby with my housemates. 

Friday, I got up to go to the gym by myself, but when I got there, I saw my frosh leader going into a cross fit class and she invited me to come with her. The instructor said that I could try it out, so I accepted the invitation and underwent a very tough workout. I almost couldn't move by the end of it! It was great though, and I think I might sign up to take the class next semester. Following that, I went to the School of Education's Individual Differences Conference, which is where students in their BEd year present their research projects that they have been working on all semester. I learned a lot and ended up winning a door prize! I then went with my friends Jared and Gavin, who know Sydney because we all worked together in the summer, to watch Sydney's basketball game at BSC. Unfortunately, they didn't win, but they only lost by one point!! 

Following the game, I did homework until it was time to go to my friend Gaby's birthday party. She had about 20 of her girlfriends over for a classic girls' night, complete with a grilled cheese bar, cupcakes, goodie bags and sparklers. Her best friend from home Maggy was visiting and the two of them had put together a Jeopardy game for us to play, which was super fun! It was a great night - the food was delicious and the company was even better! So Gaby, happy birthday and thank you for a wonderful evening! 

My housemates and me enjoying our grilled cheese!

Saturday, I again went to the gym and then to watch another basketball game. This time, they won and Sydney even got some playing time in! After the game, I met up with Vicki to work on our Pleiades poster a bit more and we got some ideas generated for our video project. Then I went back to BCS to watch another basketball game, which again, they won. At the game on Friday, neither team was from Quebec, so there were not a lot of fans, but both games on Saturday were against local teams (BCS and Stanstead College, which is about an hour away) so I was the lone Hillfield fan in the stands. After a very busy day, I came home to do some more work and help get ready for a party we were throwing as a pre-party to the Gait Gatsby party at the Gait. We called ours "The Great J(ulia) Gabs-by" in honour of our friends' Julia and Gaby's birthdays. We had Christmas lights and birthday cake (courtesy of Hannah) and the soundtrack from the movie playing all night. I then headed to the Gait with my friend Jason and later met up with Jocelyn, Vicki and some more friends who all came out for Gatsby night. The Gait was decorated with streamers and balloons, there was a black and white silent film playing in the background and there was a photo booth set up outside the Gait with props to take pictures with. To top it off, the DJ was great too. It was overall a fantastic night. 

Myself, Gaby, Maggy and Jocelyn glomming it up for Gatsby!

After a late night movie with Jocelyn, I dragged myself out of bed this morning to go watch Sydney's final game and I am glad I did, as I was able to watch them capture the bronze medal for the tournament. At the game, I was the ONLY fan in the stands for almost the entire game, and was joined only by a group of girls waiting to play in the next game. I deserve a #1 fan award or something. I think I watched more basketball this weekend than in the rest of my life combined. Anyway, it was great to see Sydney and while I wish I could have seen more of her, it was exactly the boost I needed at the end of a very busy and stressful week. Following the game, I went to the library for a bit and then Hannah and I WENT SKATING!!!! Pre-skating, I was almost crying tears of excitement I was so happy to be going skating. While there, I do not think that I stopped smiling once - I was like a kid on Christmas morning. So hopefully, this will become a weekly occurrence and maybe we will pick up some more skating buddies to come with us. 

As for the rest of the day, I have been working away and have been fairly productive. I have finished my big poster project, completed my homework for tomorrow and now just have a lesson plan to finish for Tuesday before I can go join in on the mini Christmas party going on in my living room right now. Oh yes, in other exciting news: 1) I called my manager from Benix last year and will now be working at Bowring in Ancaster over Christmas break and 2) My wonderful grandma sent me the David's Tea advent calendar and it arrived in the mail this week, so now I can't wait for December 1st. But I've got a lot to do before then so I must get back to work! Have a wonderful week everyone! 

All my love, 

Erica xoxoxoxoxoxoxxo

Busier than the Average Bee

Important events from today: The first snow of the season fell and stayed for a short while on the ground in Lennoxville, Quebec. I learned that Bridget Jones is based off Pride and Prejudice. And I watched One Direction's new music video for the first time. 

Pretty exciting life, hmm? Unfortunately, my life has not been much more interesting than that this week but I will do my best to make it sound like it was. So good evening everyone! This comes to you from the kitchen of William-Paige on a dark and rainy November night. November has arrived here and with it, the cold weather is creeping up on us and for some, winter sicknesses are starting to make appearances. So hopefully, the age old saying of in like a lion, out like a lamb will apply this month (even though I realize that this is usually associated only with  March) and the final month of regular classes will pick up a bit! As usual, my time here is flying by and I am spending every minute I have just trying to keep up! 

Monday was a fairly average day, with going to class, for a swim and then to more classes. My friends and I got together to work on an assignment for a bit, following which I went to Provigo and then made  meatball soup for dinner. Making meatball soup again unfortunately earned me the title of "Meal Repeater" as it was the first meal repeat we have had here (cue Lizzie McGuire clip of Kate Saunders telling Lizze that she is an outfit repeater at grade 8 graduation). But it was delicious and provided me with leftovers for lunch for the next two days, so, as Cinderella and my high school music teacher would say, oh well. 

Tuesday, I had my practicum which was exciting as always. My grade 3/4s were performing plays that afternoon for their parents, so I got to see all the different ones during the class and give them feedback, There was a play with puppets, one about pumpkins, one about an old lady and a bear and one about a singing grasshopper. They were all so cute! They told me that they would videotape each other so that I could see them this week. I also got to teach a lesson and taught them about the difference between describing someone's outward appearance and their inner qualities, which is something that I will apply in my lesson this week. My evaluator is coming in this week and I will be making autobiographical story cubes with my students (see below). They will be using the worksheets we have been doing over the past two weeks to make the cubes. I originally wanted to make online storybooks but could not find a good website, so I had to find something else to do. But I did find some cool electronic resources to use in weeks to come! Anyway, wish me luck as I undergo my first evaluation! 

These are the cubes that I will be making with my 3/4s on Tuesdays!
The one on the left is the one that I made and the one on the right Hannah made for me! 

I then went to astronomy where I got my midterm back - I got 98/100! Not too bad for an amateur astronomer. After class, Vicki filled me in on everything going on in rez life and let's just say I am glad that I chose to live off campus and not be an RA. Due to the loss of a team member, all of the RAs on her team have to take on extra shifts so she is so overworked right now. Poor thing. In other exciting news, I came home to a large package from my mom and inside was my winter coat!! I could not have been more excited. She also included some leftover Halloween candy and my sister's school picture (which I didn't find out was in the box until I had to go dig through the recycling to find it). But I am happy to have my coat and a new picture for my wallet to show off to my friends so thank you Mom!! 

Yay mail! Especially when it has candy and a coat! 

Wednesday was fairly average as well, though I did have a Students' Alumni Association Meeting and the girl in charge bought Tim Horton's drinks for us which as a nice treat. On Friday of this week it is National Philanthropy Day so we will be involved in prepping for that on Wednesday night. As well, we did some planning for next semester and are looking into potentially taking a lead role with Career Day and starting up some mentorship programs for students and alumni. We are looking at having one-to-one mentoring and also a "Lunch and Learn" series where alumni and students can socialize and discuss the future. I hope that we bring in a teacher grad, and it would be really interesting to have an elementary education grad who went to teach in Ontario or another province and hear how they adapted to another province's curriculum. I then came home, had a quiet dinner for one and did some homework. I did some research for my exchange year, looking at potential schools and areas to live in France. The Winter timetable was posted so I really have to get serious about picking a school and looking at course equivalencies - I am on a very tight time schedule!

On a side note, I also called and caught up with my mom on Wednesday night in order to tell her about some of the schools I had found. As well, I talked to her about the ankle pains that I have been having and pretty much, her over-the-phone diagnosis was to stop running, take advil and ice it three times a day. Not running sucks!! I have been using the bike at the gym but it is so boring!!!! I just want my ankle to heel and to be able to run again! 

Thursday I spent the entire morning in meetings, first with the Dean of Education, then with the chair of the French department and then with the Exchange coordinator. The first two meetings were very helpful, the second was not so much. I now know what courses I should probably take next semester as well as which ones I could potentially find an equivalency to in France. As well, the French chair gave me some good advice on picking courses based on my level of French. The Exchange coordinator on the other hand was very nice but not very helpful. I think that I will have to do some more research on my own before I go back to see her. 

I then went to the gym and tried to make an appointment in the sports medicine centre for my ankle with no success. I will try again tomorrow. I went to class and then to the LES Outdoor Club. The kids were divided into three stations, two indoor and one outdoor. I helped out with the outdoor station where we took the kids on a walk around the neighbourhood. We went back to the school to rotate stations but the indoor kids did not want to come inside. So I took the same group outside and taught them how to play a Wenonah-favourite: Camouflage. They loved it (hence why it's a favourite) and eventually, all the other kids wanted to join in! After all the kids had gone home, I spent a half-hour talking with a girl in grade 6 who is the daughter of a teacher at LES. We bonded over our love for One Direction and I was invited to her 1D karaoke birthday party in June. I then went by the Jean-Coutu and picked up some photos that I had developed and went to the gym for an hour. I came home to what I thought was an empty house and found out half an hour later  that Elizabeth was at home sleeping in her bed! I had another lonely dinner, as Hannah was at happy hour (aka Happy 5 hours) and Jocelyn and Sarah were working. Except for Hannah, we all stayed in on Thursday but Sarah left to go help at the hydration station. I skyped with my friend Hannah who I work at summer camp with but then her internet cut out and our conversation ended. All in all, it was a calm night at 27 William-Paige. 

My update photo wall! 

Friday, I got up and trekked to campus for a workshop on ELA in the elementary classroom. I was expecting a large group of people but given that it was a Friday and early in the morning, there ended up being only 6 of us. But it made for a nice intimate group and I learned a lot about the ELA program. This will be really helpful with my practicum with teaching ELA to the grade 3/4s. My friend Vicki went to a workshop on the Quebec kindergarten program that was at the same time as mine so we then had lunch together and went to another workshop to prep for our teacher English exam. After that, we went to listen to a guest speaker who was a survivor from the Holocaust. He was born in Poland and was just 15 when the tragedy began. It was horrible to hear what he went through and very moving to listen to his stories. Vicki then took me to the Jewish club's shabbat dinner and the guest speaker was also invited so he shared some more of his story over dinner. On another note, the food was delicious - with a variety of salads, matzah soup and a chicken entree. After dinner, I met up with Jocelyn and Hannah at the rugby game, watched the boys team win their final game of the year and then went to the gym before heading home to bed. 

Saturday. we had our third Big Buddies event so I spent the afternoon with my Little Buddy Hannah at the SUB. However, before Big Buddies, I had my shining moment of the day. I went to the gym and got all ready to go for a swim, took my shower and then went out on the pool deck, only to learn that the free swim did not start for another 45 minutes!! Talk about embarrassing, especially when all the kids in swimming lessons were not-so-secretly giggling at me. After this incident,  I went to find Hannah and we had a lot of fun at the space-themed event - we made astronaut badges, played space tag and other games, did astronaut exercises and had space chips and juice. She is one of the cutest kids that I know and I had a blast (no pun intended) playing with her. We even played some soccer outside and she's got quite the kick to her! I think that half of the Big Buddies club is related to Hannah - she has two stepbrothers, one real brother, three stepsisters and multiple cousins in the club, but that's just Lennoxville for you. 

  

I then spent the afternoon with Vicki working on our astronomy poster and watched MasterChef in the Mackinnon common room (to use their free internet) while she went to dinner. After watching 13 year old Alexander prepare a meal that no pre-teen should be able to cook and seeing him win the competition, I trekked home for a much simpler dinner with the housemates. We all stayed in on Saturday night, and Sarah, Elizabeth, Jocelyn and I ended up on the couch together watching Bridget Jones. We could easily relate to the scenes where she was laying on the couch, eating food and watching TV and prayed that we will all find our own Mark Darcys one day who will (to quote the movie) like us just the way we are. Because honestly, what's not to like about all of us? We're fantastic! 

Me on girls night, sporting the flannel pj look also seen in the movie

After a fun girls night in, I woke up Sunday morning and prepared my lesson plan for Tuesday and finished some other homework. I then went to the gym (again - stupid ankle) and then met up with Vicki to work on our video project (projects=life of the education student). We made some progress and then, similar to Saturday, I came home for dinner with Hannah and Elizabeth. Following dinner, we finally brought to life our project that we have been talking about since spring break:

Our Wall of Shame - you get a sticker for anything "shameful" that you do
Thanks Aunt Stacey for the idea!
(Credit to Uncle Andrew whose university house had the actual Wall of Shame) 

And now, here I am, having just hung up from a nice chat with my father who just got back from Arizona. We were discussing my travel plans home at the end of the semester and exams. It is crazy to think that in one month and two days first semester is completely over! It is scary to think about all that I have to do in that time, so wish me luck as I complete endless group projects and lesson plans! I'm sure I've got some late nights ahead of me, so think of me in your dreams in the wee hours of the mornings!

All my love, Erica xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

PS I have become slightly addicted to Pinterest. I am probably going to go do some pinning now. 

PPS Happy Birthday to the most wonderful Granny! You do not look a day over 27! Wish I could be at the family dinner on Tuesday!

Halloweekend 2.0

Happy Halloweekend, Happy Daylight Savings and Happy November everyone! Hasn't today just felt like the longest day of the year? (Sorry, classic Daylight Savings joke, I had to). I do not know about you, but I certainly needed that extra hour, especially over the busiest weekend of the year. This week was probably one of my best yet this year - I had an absolute blast doing everything this week, from teaching to dressing up. There are very few ways in which it could have been any better! So let's quit the small talk and begin the recap! (Lots of pictures this time, I promise).

Monday was a typical day: I went to class, went swimming and then worked on a project with my friend Vicki. However, there was a slight change up in the fact that I did not make dinner, as Jocelyn and I switched nights. I still made my weekly trip to Provigo and ended up spending over $130! However, I did buy two and half night worth of dinners, my own groceries and Halloween candy, so it was money that needed to be spent. Two bonuses came of that grocery trip though - I got 10% for spending over $50 on a Monday and learned that if you spend over $50 on any day, you can take a cab anywhere in Sherbrooke for $2, so Jocelyn and I took a cab home from the grocery store! Waiting for the cab was longer than the actual ride but I honestly don't think we would have made it home with everything we bought. 

Tuesday, I had practicum in the morning. I taught the grade 3/4s again and I taught them about autobiographies. I then had them fill in a worksheet about themselves; I read through them all today and was super impressed with what they wrote about themselves and I learnt a lot about them as well, which will help me with my lesson planning (Example: over 50% of them prefer working in pairs). This week, we will be going over the difference between a physical description and personality traits, so wish me luck! We also had the second pink shirt day which was led by my grade 6 class. They performed a play called Stone Soup for the school at the assembly and then again in front of community members as it was also the school's annual soup day, where they make soup for everyone with the vegetables grown in the school garden. I unfortunately only got to see and smell the soup in the making and did not get to try it. 

After practicum, I went to class for the rest of day and also to the last Empty Bowls meeting of the year. We ended up raising almost $5000 for the three local charities which was pretty impressive for our first year. After a bit of debrief and doing a draw for our raffle prizes, we started planning for next year! Mark your calendars everyone - it will be the weekend after Thanksgiving 2014. I then had astronomy,  during which, we tried to go to the observatory but the observatory team could not get the technology to work so we could not see anything. I came home and did some arts and crafts for my Halloween costume - I constructed a cotton ball beard and a tall red hat to wear the next day for Trick or Eat. Trick or Eat is a national campaign to help replenish food banks during which volunteers go "trick or treating" but instead of collecting candy, we ask for canned goods and non-perishable food items. Jocelyn, Elizabeth, Gaby and I all went, dressed as a tourist (Jocelyn), a cat (Elizabeth), a whoopee cushion (Gaby) and the Travelocity gnome (me - hence the beard and hat). I do not know the exact count but I think we collected quite a bit of food. Funny story though - at one house, Gaby and I knocked on the door and waited for someone to come to answer. We heard a lady in the house banging on the window so we looked and she started shooing us away. When we started to leave, she came to the door and began to lecture us about how we were a day early for trick or treating and that Halloween was tomorrow. Mid-sentence she realized that we were not kids and that we were carrying bags of cans around. Her jaw dropped and we all started laughing as she went to get us some cans. She apologized for thinking that we were clueless kids and we went on our way. While she was the only one to remind us that it was not yet Halloween, several times we were mistaken for kids - who knew beards could make you look younger? 

Thursday, I got up and did some homework and went for a run before class. After class, I ran some errands on campus and then came home to make the funnest Halloween dinner for my housemates! Every year at home, we always have mummies (hot dogs wrapped in Pilsbury croissants) so I made those, as well as a veggie tray in the shape of a Jack-o-lantern, eyeballs (hardboiled eggs with olives and red pepper on top) and worms and dirt (pudding and gummy worms) and my friend Gaby came over for our spooky feast! We also got to hand out Halloween candy to kids who came to our door! Unfortunately, due to being students on a budget, we were the house that only gave one candy per kid but it was a good thing we did or we would have run out! It was an awful night too, with rain and mist so good work to all those kids who toughed it out to collect the candy. We then got dressed up for night one (see picture below) and went to our friend's apartment and the Gait. Jocelyn and I, dressed as Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen got a lot of heat for our costume, but we did not care because we thought we looked great!

Mummies!

Our spooky feast!

MK&A - Passport to Paris 

Happy Halloween! 

I spent some of Friday doing homework and then went to the free church dinner with Vicki. As a special treat, the nice ladies gave me a whole bunch of leftovers to bring home! As I was walking home,  there was a huge wind storm and IT KNOCKED OUT OUR POWER!!! Of course it happened as I was heading home to get into costume #3! Luckily, I had a headlamp (to all those people i.e. my mother and housemates, who laughed at my headlamp back in September, look who's laughing now) which I used to get ready to go to the rugby game. Unfortunately, the Gaiters were not victorious against McGill, but it was still fun to watch and gave us something to do while our power was out. We were hoping it would be back on by the time the game was over, but as we were walking home, we passed the Couche-tard that was still without lights and our hearts sunk </3. So I put the headlamp back on and got to work constructing my costume which was the Twitter bird. Thanks to me, our house and our friends' apartment are now covered in feathers, but what can I say - I was a bird, I moulted. I wore a blue dress, yellow tights, 3 feather boas and an @ sign. I was going to draw a hashtag on my cheek but the lack of light made it a little difficult to see in the mirror. We went to a party where we saw one of the guys who used to live in our house and he said that it was not uncommon for us to lose power but that it should go back on by the end of the night. And sure enough, after ending the night at the the bar Mullie's, which was a lot of fun (better DJ than at the Gait) and we came home to POWER! All in all, a great night. 

Tweet at me! 

Hannah as Gretchen from Recess, and Jocelyn and Elizabeth as Party Animals!

Saturday morning I got up to do more arts and crafts and then Jocelyn, Hannah and I went to the football game. The Gaiters made the RSEQ semi-finals this year and hosted a home playoff game for the first time in my lifetime! (The last one was in November 1994). Since it was my first football game of the year, I pulled out everything purple that I own and we trekked down to Coulter field to support the team as they took on Universite de Montreal. It was so cold at the the game; I had to go into the Sports Plex a few times to warm up. Unfortunately, the Gaiters lost 51-8, but they still deserve a lot of congratulations for just making it to the semi-finals! Hopefully, there will be more RSEQ final games to come next season. 

Go Gaiters Go!

After a long sleep-in, Elizabeth joined us for the last quarter!

I then came home to finish making my costume, have dinner and get ready to go out. All 5 of us made homemade tutus because we dressed up as the hit TLC show Toddlers and Tiaras! I got to fulfill my (and my sister's) lifelong dream of being a pageant princess! I was on cloud nine the entire night! Our house is now covered in tulle but slaving over those tutus was well worth it! We all looked fabulous! I honestly think that I was born to be in beauty pageants - I have the walk and the poses perfected to a tee (that, or I need to spend less time watching the show and taking notes). Also, I am convinced that half the fun of going out is getting ready to go (except when the power is out), as I had so much fun doing my own hair and make-up, modelling different outfit combos and doing my friends' hair! We then also had a housemate photo shoot and took so many cute pictures. If you look at my Halloween photos, you probably won't believe that I talked to people other than my housemates, however I promise that I did, it just was not documented. 

My life is now complete - if only I could dress like this more often!

So much sass!  

We tried to recruit our friends to be a crazy mom in the audience - no one took us up on the offer!

We pageant-walked over to the boys' apartment (hands pressed, hand up, perm-smile) and spent a good chunk of the night there. Kevin and Mike both had friends from home visiting, and most had been here before so it was fun to see all of them again. There was a huge party in the backyard of Animal House (a student house) which we visited for a bit, but there were so many people there it was impossible to not get squished! We went back to the apartment for a bit before walking over to the Gait BUT for the first time ever, the Gait was over capacity! They could not let anyone else in! I got in twice somehow (my small stature enables me to be very sneaky), but my friends never did, so I kept leaving and getting back in line, hoping that we would all make it in.  Unfortunately, we all never did, which was not the best way to end the weekend, but it was probably best for my pageant wear that it not get squished in the crowd of people. We stopped at the apartment for a third time that night but didn't stay too long as all the boys' guests were passed out in various places around the apartment. We came home, had a snack, turned our clocks back and went to bed. 

The soother pout - a definite must for any toddler in a tiara!

HOWEVER, GET READY FOR THE BEST PART OF MY SATURDAY NIGHT!! At the boys' apartment, I decided to be social and introduce myself to some of the people I did not know. I introduced myself to a guy sitting on the couch, but after I said "Hi, I'm Erica" he said "I already know that." I instantly felt horrible, thinking that I had met him and forgot about it BUT NO! Guess how he knew me? From reading my blog!!! He is in first year, and last year, he read my blogs that I wrote for the school which linked him to this one and has been reading them ever since! So this is a shout out to you Amir, for being an awesome person! He was so sweet, saying that he loves reading it and was inspired to get involved at school after reading it, and I was tearing up because I was so flattered. I am so glad that I got meet him and who knows, maybe I have more unknown readers that are helping me become a minor internet celebrity. Watch out Perez Hilton! 

Today has been a bit of a recovery day, in terms of sleeping, eating, cleaning and catching up on neglected school work. I am not exempt from this and must now return to my stack of projects waiting for me upstairs. However, despite the long nights ahead of me, I had a fabulous Halloweekend so thank you to all of the people who made it so. I honestly do not know how I am going to top my costumes from this year, so I will have to start brainstorming soon! Send any ideas my way! 

Sending all my love to wherever you are! Erica xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo