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!!!!