Swim on Home!

Happy Easter Monday everyone (or what's left of it anyway)! I hope you all had a fantastic long weekend filled with family, friends, food and chocolate of some sort! I had a great Easter, potentially my best yet, especially since this year I had more surprises up my sleeve than the Easter Rabbit himself. Speaking of that rabbit, he certainly spoiled me this weekend, delivering me presents in Ancaster and Lennoxville and something tells me that I haven't received all of his gifts yet. Anyway, now that I am all hyped up on chocolate, here is a look back on my fantastic week. 

(For Uncle Andrew - A Spark Notes Summary: Monday - exam, Tuesday - Lennoxvenice, Wednesday - practicum, Thursday - road trip, weekend - Easter) 

It was a busy week here leading up to the long weekend. On Monday, I wrote my exam for my Kindergarten and Elementary Curriculum class. Before the exam, my friend Vicki and I tried to guess what the exam essay question was going to be based on the hints our professor had given us and I guessed that we would have to relate Robert Fulghum's "Everything I really need to know I learned in kindergarten" to all of our other readings. Guess what the exam question was...exactly that!   So I felt pretty good about myself as I was reading the introduction page of the exam and I think that my actual essay turned out ok, but we will see. Following my exam, I had my last shift working in Mackinnon, which was bittersweet. I had a great semester working as a duty helper in Mack and made a lot of new friends along the way. I experienced everything from "Club Mitch" to watching residents eat cookies off the ceiling - they never failed to keep me laughing. I wish them all the best of luck as they begin their lives as off-campus students. 

As I walked home Monday night, it was raining pretty hard but I did not think much of it. There had been talk about the rising water levels in the rivers near campus, but up until Tuesday, there hadn't been any flooding. However, since Monday had been so hot, a lot of snow had melted and combined with the rain, we awoke to a very soggy Lennoxville on Tuesday morning. The rivers had overflown and our campus and the roads near school were covered in water. There was so much water that students were getting their inflatable rafts out to float around and someone even went waterskiing through a parking lot! Lennoxville became Lennoxvenice and by the afternoon, campus was shut down to off-campus students. All exams were cancelled and postponed. Luckily, I did not have an exam so it did not affect me, but Elizabeth and Jocelyn both had cancelled exams. Our biggest concern was that the student dinner would be cancelled (it wasn't, so we got to enjoy a bbq meal). It kept raining all day on Tuesday and the water levels kept rising, eventually flooding out the apartment buildings near the river. Students were evacuated via police BOAT on Tuesday night! 

Comparing our school to Hogwarts!  

This is usually a parking lot. 

Also, on Tuesday night, I entered an Air Transat contest to attempt to win plane tickets to Paris! Here is the link to go online and vote for me (and Jocelyn). We are re-creating the Mary Kate and Ashley movie Passport to Paris. Click the link, then click the thumbs up in the bottom right hand corner of our photo, click ok and submit your vote! Today (April 22nd) is the last day to vote and I need all the support I can get! 

 http://statigr.am/contests/transateurope/700052199754464419_289186566?langue=en#/detail 

On Wednesday, I went for one last visit to Princess Elizabeth. The streets of Lennoxville were still flooded so we had to take a different route to get around all the water. My students were all surprised to see me and it was nice to get to see them again and tell them about the flood. That afternoon, I was supposed to have my professional interview with my professor for my practicum course but campus was closed again so it was postponed. So instead, I went to the final knitting club meeting of the year. Two girls trekked through the water to come from campus - the things we do for knitting! That night, Jocelyn and Hannah invited our friends Mitch, Phil and Mark over for dinner, in exchange for Dewies guest passes to use for Easter brunch. It was also our friend Mike's birthday, so Taylor, Tim and Mike came over for cake. Unfortunately, Mike is gluten-free and Hannah had made the cake before he confirmed he was coming over so he was offered a gluten-free beer and a bowl of fruit instead. Post-dinner and cake, I spent the rest of the night working on my practicum portfolio to use in my interview the next day. 

The streets of Lennoxvenice 

Thursday morning, I showed up at my prof's office all ready for my interview only to find out that the schedule I had signed up on was actually for the following Wednesday and not this past Thursday. In her email, my prof said she was available to reschedule Thursday and Wednesday so I had assumed when looking at the online sign-up that the first slots were for Thursday. I was wrong. Anyway, she had time to do my interview while I was there, so I was able to present my portfolio that I had been up until 2am completing. Essentially, the portfolio is a collection of my lesson plans, evaluations and reflective logs from the year and its purpose is to show my growth as a teacher since September. In the interview, we had to go over our portfolio and discuss our development of Quebec's Professional Competencies for teachers. It was almost better for me that I showed up 6 days early for my interview, as it was only supposed to be 20 minutes but I was in my prof's office for 40! I guess I had a lot to say. 

My portfolio! Blood, sweat, tears and 8+ hours of work all in one binder!
(Good thing I had sheet protectors)

Following my interview, I met my friend Ashley in Tim Horton's to work on a project and I went to the gym. Then, I had to hurry home because....I WAS BEING PICKED UP TO GO HOME FOR EASTER! Here is the backstory: up until Wednesday morning, I had been planning to stay at school for Easter, as I had exams to study for, projects to do and only one week left of school, so I did not want to go through all the travel hassle to go home, come back and then go home again, especially via public transport. However, on Wednesday, the girls from Dundas who drove me home last Easter messaged me to say that they were going to be renting a car to drive home and offered me a ride. I hummed and hawed about it, talked to my mom and finally decided that I would go. My grandparents were flying in from Winnipeg, I did not have too much to do here and Danielle and Alana are graduating this year and won't be around to drive me again, so I decided to go home for the weekend. However, I told my mom that I was going to stay at school. Alana and Danielle picked me up in the rental car and we spent the afternoon on the road back to the GHA (Greater Hamilton Area). We pulled up to my mom's house around 10pm and conveniently, my grandparents had just arrived - I went up to door and surprised them all! I think they all got a bit teary-eyed. My plan worked! I had been worried that my mom wouldn't fall for my trick, as my text the night before had been pretty vague and I had been avoiding texting her all day to make sure I didn't give myself away. The one downside to surprising her was that my bedroom aka the house storage closet was full of stuff so I had to sleep in my sister's bed that night. However, the bed sacrifice and the 9 hours on the road were all worth it to see the looks on my mom and grandparents' faces when they had opened the door that night. 

I knew that my dad and siblings were going to my granny's house on Friday so I had my mom text them and find out what time they were leaving for Toronto. At approximately noon, my sister sent my mom a message saying that they were leaving at 12:15, so I had to scramble to get ready and go over. My mom called my sister to say she had something important to drop off to be taken to Toronto, but my dad was impatient that morning and had no desire to wait around. Luckily, we met them on the road and I was able to surprise my dad and siblings when I hopped out of my mom's car and climbed into my dad's. I bet they are glad they waited around for the "important package."

Phase 3 of the surprise happened at Johnny's Burgers in Scarborough, where I surprised my granny while she was waiting in line to order food. I then had a Johnny's Burger for the first time, which was surprising to everyone as apparently they had all been multiple times before, especially my dad - it was the burger joint he had gone to all through high school. We took our 6 hamburgers, 1 hot dog, 4 cartons of fries and 2 cartons of onion rings back to my granny's house to enjoy. Then, I got to call upon my landscaping experience to help my dad and granny with some yard work, including digging out a tree stump and chopping down some cedar trees. Around dinnertime, Terri and her kids and my uncle and aunt showed up and I got to surprise them all! We then had Good Friday supper, complete with salmon (for the holiday observers), turkey, scallop potatoes, spetzla, napa salad, pink pudding and blueberry strudel and a side course of mini eggs and Lindt chocolate rabbits. It was a great meal and a great day, and Phases 2, 3 and 4 of the surprise were successful! 

Surprising Granny at Johnny's! 

Saturday, I woke up expecting the Easter Bunny to have visited my dad's hunt but unfortunately, he had not yet stopped by. I spent the entire day waiting, passing the time with studying and trips to the grocery store, pool and Walmart. He came right before Easter Saturday supper but we had to wait until after eating to hunt. Tyler, Connor, Lauren, Jamie and I each got out own pails and raced around the house to collect mini eggs and malt eggs that had been sprinkled on various surfaces on the main and second floors. I just want to point out that we were a group of teenagers running around the house and fighting for mini eggs - just goes to show that one is never to old for an Easter egg hunt! After collecting (and for me, eating) all the candy, we watched Saving Mr. Banks, another treat from the Easter Bunny and ate Easter cupcakes made by Lauren and sous-chef Tyler. 

Easter hunt #1! 

Sunday, I had planned to have an Easter sleep-in but those plans were foiled by the home reno team that showed up at 8am. I was up and ready to hunt for Easter eggs by 9am but Lauren and Jamie were still sleeping so the hunt was post-poned until 11. The Easter Bunny made the hunt a bit more challenging in our mom's backyard but we successfully found all 42 hidden eggs, with some assistance from our grandpa, who was pointing out eggs from the balcony. After our hunt, I went to visit my friend Alex and his family down the road and spent the afternoon there before coming home to help get ready for Easter supper. Our cousins from Oakville came over for dinner, however they were down one member as my cousin Claire had left for Florida that morning to cheer at the World Championships. Her family and my grandma are flying down on Wednesday to cheer her on. Too bad the competition wasn't two weeks later because then I could have gone as well! It was nice to see the other 4 though, especially Jaye, as she has been accepted to study at Bishop's in the fall, so I was trying to not-so-subtley promote my school to her throughout the evening. 

Easter hunt #2! 

After dinner, Alex and his brother came over for leftover carrot cake before heading over to a different neighbour's house for a backyard fire. We were obligated to share our cake with them because during the baking process our electric beaters had broken so they kindly lent us theirs. I made a brief appearance at the fire and after reliving the typical Ancaster high school party scene for half an hour, went back home to spend one last night with my family. 

Today, I got up bright and early at 7am to hit the road with Danielle and Alana at 8. My one request was that we stop at a Starbucks somewhere along the way, which we did before we even reached the highway. It's not a complete trip home without a Chai Tea Latte! We made really good time coming back, despite missing the turn off for Autoroute 30 and having to go through Montreal. I think I am cursed with being bad at directions and getting lost, even when I am not the navigator.  Anyway, I was back in Lennoxville to spend Easter Monday with my housemates by 5pm. I told them all about Easter in Ancaster and they told me about the Easter dinner they had gone to with all our friends on Saturday. I would have liked to have gone to the dinner but I am glad that I went home and got to spend some time with my family. As a bonus, when I got back to my house, my mom's Easter package had arrived (not that I need anymore chocolate). 

Lapin de Pâques au Québec 

Somehow it's past midnight already, meaning it's now Tuesday and I only have 5 days left in Lennoxville. Providing everything goes well with my exchange application, these will be my last  days in Lennoxville for the year, which is a scary thought. I have 5 days in Lennoxville, then 17 days in Ancaster and then it's off to Florida for 3 months! My dad and granny are driving out on Friday to pick me up (the day after my dad's birthday) and we will head out on Saturday. But right now, I need to bring my attention back to my school work and finish the semester off before my brain goes on vacation! So good luck to everyone on their final exams! The end is definitely in sight! 

Wishing you all a wonderful week! Next time you hear from me, I will be in a different province, halfway done my BA and packing to go to the happiest place on Earth! 

All my love, 

Erica xoxoxoxo

PS Good luck to my cousin Claire as she competes with Team Canada in Orlando this week! 

PPS To my best friend Elena, if you are reading this, I did not forget your birthday!! I am just planning something extra special for you when I get back to the province! Happy 20th birthday!! xoxo

¿Alguien Dijo Fiesta

First things first: 

Not only is it Jamie's 13th birthday, but it is his champagne birthday (turning 13 on the 13th)! So happy birthday to the world's best baby brother! Jamie, your present is wrapped up in my suitcase, awaiting delivery at the end of April. 

So good evening everyone! I hope that wherever you are, spring has started to blossom! I am happy to report that here at 27 Rue William-Paige we have had our first sighting of our front lawn and the path to our front door is now cleared! All that remains is a small pond at the bottom of the steps down to the road, but as long as you are either a) wearing rain boots or b) have a long stride, you're good. it has been sunny and warm(ish) here for the past week, a nice change from the eternal winter. The challenge that exists now is fighting the urge to go outside and forcing myself to stay inside and study for my exams. 

Alrighty, so Monday was a rough day as it was my first week without practicum. While I missed seeing my students' smiling faces, I did appreciate sleeping in past 6:30am. It was also the Quebec provincial election on Monday, so we all had the day off of school. I did not get to vote unfortunately,  but for those who didn't hear, the Liberal party came out on top with a majority government. I spent most of Monday writing my essay on Matilda and went for a swim with Hannah. For her job in the summer, she had to time herself performing a rescue in the pool and I got to be her victim. I am happy to report that I survived, so I guess we can consider her qualified to do her job. After swimming, I went to the grocery store and then came home to get ready for the knitting club potluck dinner. Hannah made a really good pasta salad, Sarah made brownies and I pulled out all of my culinary skills and chopped up a pineapple. We had a great assortment of food at the potluck, ranging from a curry dish to a vegetarian crock pot dish to a zucchini chocolate chip cake (made by Gaby).  We had a great time eating and knitting, and we joked that we were all acting like stereotypical domestic housewives.  Regardless, it was a great potluck and I was able to finish one of my purple leg warmers - a successful ending to the knitting club season!

Tuesday, I had a group meeting with my Vision School project team so we met bright and early in the library to go over our lesson plans so far. After our meeting, one of my groups members, Ashley and I went to meet with our professor to go over our work. Following that, I had my last Reading Process class, where we celebrated with Tim Horton's coffee, timbits and Easter chocolate. I spent the rest of the afternoon working and made a stop at the gym before meeting my housemates and Gaby at the final Student Ministry supper of the year. We had a great lasagna meal, but I was unfortunately too late to take advantage of the ice cream bar. I just want to extend a giant thank you to the Student Ministry for feeding me and my fellow students every Tuesday throughout the school year. The food was always delicious and filling and it was such a treat to have dinner prepared by the group each week. I will miss the community suppers when I am living on different campuses through the spring and fall. 

Following dinner, I had my last Children's Lit class, which was only a 20 minute quiz, and then went to the library for a bit. I felt really bad because I made a huge ruckus choosing a seat and getting my work station set up and then when I finally went to turn my laptop on, the battery was dead so I had to pack up and move to the computer lab. Sorry to my fellow studiers. Wednesday was the last day of classes - which I could not believe - and I started my day early with a meeting with my Children's Lit professor and my Alice in Wonderland group project team. We discussed how our presentation went and got a really good review, ending with a 92% overall! The class gave us some really nice feedback and it was great to hear that they enjoyed our activities and our costumes and not just our food! Following the meeting, I spent the rest of the morning in the Education computer lab before having my last K-E class. In this class, Dr. Stonebanks gave us some parting thoughts to carry with us in our teaching careers. He said that traditional teaching often seems to follow a script but if we want to be great teachers, we have to be willing to change the words. He encouraged us to remember all that we had learned in his class and not be afraid to take risks with anti-traditional teaching approaches. I hope that I will be able to do this. 

After class, I did some homework on campus and went to the gym before heading home to make dinner. I got in touch with my grade 9 food and nutrition class roots and made spaghetti squares, the dish I made for the high school culminating task. Despite the fact that it was almost identical to dinner the night before, with only a pasta substitution, my housemates did not seem to mind. Following dinner, I holed up in my room to get some studying done for my fast-approaching weekend exam. I also managed to watch an episode each of MasterChef Canada and Hell's Kitchen  - good thing I'm a great multitasker!

Thursday, I had a morning appointment at the Writing Centre to go over my Matilda essay, following which I had to hustle to finish it up at the library so I could hand it in that afternoon. As I was writing, I kept wanting to reference the musical that Elizabeth and I had seen over Spring Break, but unfortunately the opportunity to incorporate the song lyrics did not arise. Anyway, I was able to finish my essay before my Reading Process exam review session and got it to my prof before the end of the day. Also, the Education sweater order came in that day so I was able to pick up my new hoodie. It is white with BU Education written in purple on the front. It was fun to see everyone wearing the sweaters around campus over the next few days. I proudly wore my sweater home, but unfortunately had to take it off to go for a run. Then, Jocelyn and I had a shovelling party before I headed down to campus for work. Since we are in exam season now, my work shifts only go until 11:45, meaning I am able to walk home after my shift, so my sleepovers in Mack are done for the year! Security has also been great about giving me lifts to the front of campus at the end of the night, which cuts a good 7 minutes off of my walk home. On my way home, I ran into my friends Matt and Sarah, who were at the Mardi Gras Fundraiser at the Lion. We had a nice chat outside the bar and I would have gone inside to chat longer, but my bed was calling my name and I didn't want to it to be lonely. 

Friday was my first day that I did not have to be on campus for any meetings, appointments, etc. However, Macky was having a rough time again, so I decided to take her to ITS to have them open up the back and see if they could figure out the RAN drive problem. They looked inside for me, reset the parts and gave me a complimentary screen cleaning. I went for a swim and then had a workshop with Dr. Stonebanks' wife Melanie who taught us how to use an online Learning Evaluation Situation creator called DotPlan which is going to be so, so useful!! At the end of the workshop, I was able to talk to her about my group project's unit plan and she gave me some great input on that as well, as she had done a similar unit with her students when she was still teaching. Following the workshop, I had an information session with all the students going on exchange in the fall to pick up information on applying for a VISA. Also, applications to my school officially opened on Wednesday so this week I will mail in my official application to the Université Francois-Rabelais! Keep your fingers crossed for me! I have picked out most of my classes and now just need to get them approved and then I should be all set! The one problem now is my VISA application as I need to do it before I leave for Disney World for the summer. Hopefully, this will not be a problem...

The meeting went until dinnertime, so Gaby, who is also going on exchange to France in the fall and I  went to the last free Friday church supper. They changed the location for it, so we had to go on a bit of a hike to get there, but it was definitely worth it. There was ham, mac and cheese, quinoa casserole, bread and salads and about 4 different kinds of pie for dessert! Gaby gave up desserts for lent, so I felt a bit guilty enjoying my sampler of pies in front of her, but she did not seem to mind too much. Luckily, it is almost Easter so lent is almost over. I admire her commitment to no desserts, as I don't think I could have stuck to it with the dessert spread they had there!

Following dinner, I went back to Gaby's house to study before heading home to rest up for my exam.  During one of our study breaks, we checked out the residences at UFR and watched videos of the different room styles, which was a lot of fun. Saturday, I woke up and walked to campus with Hannah, who also had a morning exam.  I spent the next 3 hours recalling everything I knew about the Reading Process, and I am happy to say that I think my exam went well overall. There was a lot of writing required, so I needed to give my hand a little break after finishing. 

Then it was time to come home to get ready for our FIESTA! On my way back from campus, I went to Provigo to get ingredients to make mojitos and the only thing they were sold out of was soda water. Who runs out of soda water?? Luckily, the drug store next door had some, so the day was saved. While walking, I called my brother to wish him a happy birthday, realizing mid-way through singing that his birthday was the next day. Oh well. I just really wanted to be first. After my trip to the store, I came home to a s a Mexican themed taco dinner prepared by Elizabeth and then we had a house cleaning and decorating pre-party. Thank you to our friend Kirsten who assisted with the preparation. Hannah, with some assistance from Jocelyn, made two different pinatas and Elizabeth hung up a pin the tail on the donkey game. We really wanted to get in the Mexican spirit! And then before we knew it, guests arrived and it was time to stop siesta-ing and start FIESTA-ing! We had fun Spanish/Mexican playlist on for a while and we had a costume contest for the best dressed guest. We had a few people sporting sombreros, some all-inclusive resort guests, a border worker, a destination wedding group - quite the variety. I was dressed as the Mexican flag. The night was a lot of fun, making our final party of the semester a definite success! 

Pin the tail on the donkey! 

Recipe: http://australianfood.about.com/od/alcoholic/r/strawberry_mojito.htm 

Mixing my mojitos! 

I was wearing green tights and had the eagle design pinned to my skirt to complete my flag costume!

Today has been a typical Sunday, with studying, procrastinating and a late evening run, just to get out of the house for a bit. After finishing this, I am going to make my cheat sheet for my exam tomorrow and then work on my professional portfolio for a bit before going to bed to rest up for my final busy week. I have an exam tomorrow and my professional interview on Wednesday. I also have to finalize my exchange forms, choose my residence at UFR and send everything across the pond. I have two last assignments to finish up, a Golden Key Dinner on Wednesday and an Easter supper with my friends on the weekend. It will b my first Easter away from home, but I have a lot to do and have only two weeks left in Lennoxville for 2014 so I have to make the most of every moment of my time here!

Oh yes, and as of today, there is only one month left until I jet off to Florida! Sunshine and Mickey Mouse here I come! 

Wishing you a wonderful week! 

All my love, 

Erica xoxoxoxoxoxox   

Free Food, Farewells and Finals

Good evening everyone! Tonight’s post comes to you from my temporary room in Mackinnon, which I am now proud to say has a personalized nametag on the door! I felt since I’ve been working here for 3 months, it was time to stake out my claim, even though there is only 1 month left. Can you believe it’s already April? I for one cannot. Have you ever heard the saying “Be like a duck – Swim gracefully on the top but paddle like hell underneath?” Well, that is definitely how I am feeling these days, though I do not know how well I am doing on the calm, cool and collected appearance side of things. Regardless, I am doing my absolute best and am hoping that I will get everything done on time.

Ok, just had the scariest moment of my student life – my computer shut off and it took me three times to restart it. I just took a temporary break to transfer all the files I need over the next few days on to my USB. I’m back now.

Last Monday was a sad, sad day in the life of Miss Erica. I had my last day of practicum and it was heartbreaking heading to school that morning knowing I probably wouldn’t be back. I had one final lesson planned for my grade 3/4s and it was based off of the robin hunt my principal had introduced to my students the week before. I used the same lesson format as I did when I did the endangered animals research brochure activity in February. We started the class with a sharing circle and then I asked the students if they remembered the robin hunt. This led us into a discussion about robins and the arrival of spring. I introduced the activity for the day, which was making a WANTED poster for either the robin or the Canada goose, as both are migratory birds and when they arrive in Quebec in the New Year, there is hope that spring is on its way. The students were really excited and they worked really hard for the entire class. I let them work in partners and use the MacBooks, which helped to keep them engaged. My associate teacher asked if I was planning to leave the posters with the students, and I said of course. I had hoped that they could finish them during the week and hang them up in their classroom, which my associate teacher said they would definitely do. When there was about 20 minutes left in class, my associate teacher called all the students to the carpet and pulled out a cake that she had made for the students and me. As she handed pieces of cake out, she had the students each say something they liked about me. Some of their answers were so, so sweet. It was a good thing I had worn the waterproof mascara that day, as I was on the verge of tears through the entire circle. A few said I was the best student teacher they had ever had and one even said that whoever has me as a teacher in the future will be very lucky. As you can imagine, I started to cry. But, I had to pull myself together as the ethics teacher asked me to teach a lesson to the grade 6 class on gender stereotypes after recess, for which I had 15 minutes to prepare. It wasn’t my best teaching performance to date, but I am happy that I had one last chance to teach my older students. We unfortunately ran out of time for the closure circle with them, so my associate teacher gave me the second cake she had made as a treat to take home. 

I am so, so thankful for every moment I got to spend at Princess Elizabeth Elementary. I learned so much from my students and I hope that they learned something from me. I hope that they will remember all of the fun things we did together (and forget the not-so-fun things), as I will never forget any of them or any of the things we did. Also, I am forever grateful to my associate teacher, Ms. Doheny for all of the guidance, support and teaching resources she gave me over this year.  She has had a huge impact on my development as a teacher, and I am truly lucky to have been her student teacher.

Ok, so enough with my sappy last day of school story. After this really touching morning, I had to carry my cake around campus for the rest of the day. It wasn’t so bad, as I had a snack on hand at all times. I had a presentation in my afternoon class and then had to run around campus finalizing an award application. I had then planned to go to the gym but it was such a beautiful day that I could not pass up the opportunity to go for a run. The snow is melting here finally, so the roads have a bit more pedestrian room; however, there are lots of potholes filled with puddles, so every time a car passes me, I get a nice, muddy shower. After my run, I met Jocelyn at the grocery store and came home for dinner and homework.

Tuesday marked the first day of  Sodexo’s first-ever Servathon. This was a fundraiser on campus for which you could exchange canned goods for food on campus.iter Grill and 4 cans got you breakfast or lunch at Dewies. All of the cans were donated to the local food bank. I had a group meeting on Tuesday morning for my Vision School project and had suggested we go to Dewies; this was unfortunately rejected so we met at the library instead. I then went for a swim and to my afternoon classes. After class, I spent an hour and a half filling out scholarship application for some Golden Key awards and then met Elizabeth and Gaby at the free dinner for tacos. Following dinner, I had my night class, during which we had the final two presentations on Charlotte’s Web and Peter Pan. Both groups fed us Easter chocolate for participating in their games, which was a “sweet” treat. The Peter Pan group did a Who Wants to be a Millionaire style game show, which was really fun and the Charlotte’s Web group had us all help out Wilbur and Charlotte by coming up with words to write in our webs to save Wilbur. My group’s word was “Wonder-pig” (Credits to WonderBread and Wonder Pets, the hit children’s show). After class, I went to the library until midnight to finish my scholarship applications.  Within those two days, I applied for $10 000 worth of scholarship money, so keep your fingers crossed that something good comes of it for me!

On Wednesday, I made my first contribution to the Servathon and went to Dewies for lunch following my morning gym visit. Goodness, I miss the convenience and options of Dewies. I had way too much food, i.e. soup, salad, rice and two desserts, but I definitely got my 4 cans worth of food. I then had my two afternoon classes. In my final class with Sunny, I presented my research paper on iPads in the classroom. I went way over my 5-minute time limit, but I had a lot to say, so thank you to my classmates for listening to me. My classmates had researched some really interesting topics, including combatting homophobia in the classroom and building good parent-teacher relationships. Following class, I came home to make dinner, which I took a bit of a risk with. I had found a recipe on Pinterest to make chicken pot pie cupcakes, but the recipe called for Pillsbury biscuits and Prov only had crescent rolls, so I took a chance and…..THEY WERE DELICIOUS! I highly recommend them. 

(Recipe: http://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/chicken-pot-pie-cupcakes/88c3fb89-0b08-466d-bb26-27c50aac24fd ).

And then disaster struck. Before dinner, I had pulled my laptop out of my bag and when I opened it, the screen was black and it was beeping. After dinner, I called Apple and the support guy said it was a problem with my RAM drive and I would have to go to an Apple store to get it fixed. As I had nothing major on my computer to work on that night, I wasn’t panicking too much. Thursday, I got up bright and early and took an hour bus trip into Sherbrooke to the Mircroboutique Apple Store. Classic technology – I opened my laptop in the store and it turned on justtt fine. The man in the store said that my RAM drive must have come loose and then shaken back into place while I was carrying it into the store. Fantastic. Glad to know I could have just taken Macky for a walk around the block. Anyway, I was glad that at least Macky was ok. On the way home, my bus transferred at the mall an d I was able to run in, sample two different kinds of David's Tea and purchase a sock bun donut so that I could return Elizabeth's. The sock bun has recently become my go to hairstyle, so I felt it was time I purchased my own donut. I got back to campus in time to go to the gym and then to Dewies for falalfel lunch, my all time favourite meal. I had my two afternoon classes and then went to an SRC forum in Cleghorn, at which the current SRC executives gave a recap on all the things they had done this year and gave some recommendations to next year’s president and vice-presidents. I have some feedback as well that I need to email in. After that, I was on duty in Mack with Vicki. It was a quiet night, but Jocelyn and Hannah did come and visit me after Happy Hour and they brought Bananagrams, so overall it was a nice night. (It was also my last long night shift, which was kind of bittersweet).

Friday, I got up and went to see one of my profs and then went for a swim, where I ran into Sarah (my housemate), also swimming. We went to the library together, and by together, I mean we walked there and then went to individual study carols to work. I spent the afternoon in the library and came up with my essay thesis – great progress Erica. I walked home with another friend Sara and her boyfriend Jim who was visiting for the weekend. After about an hour at home, during which I gave Hannah some great ideas to use at her frosh leader interview, I turned around and walked back to Mackinnon for another shift. Side note: the Frosh week theme is Survivor, so I suggested that Hannah and one of her male partners should go dressed as Amazing Race participants, as a tribute to Rob and Amber. She didn't go for that. Anyway, it was a quiet night in Mack and I spent majority of my time watching reality TV with fellow RA Rob, who is an avid Family Feud addict, like me. Best answer of the night: Name a candy bar with nuts. Answer: Corn nuts. While I appreciate the effort, unfortunately that was not one of the survey answers.

Saturday was pretty boring. I accidentally slept in until 11, which was much needed but put me a bit behind schedule. I then stayed in my pyjamas all day until I went for a run into Sherbrooke. Elizabeth fed us tortiere for dinner and then Jocelyn and I went to the BU Choir Show. It was Bob Dylan themed and our friends Vicki, Daphne and Kirsten were singing. It was so, so good! I didn’t get to go last year and was on the fence about going this year, but it was a great show, so I am glad I went! Before the show, the art gallery was open, so Jocelyn and I stopped in for some more edible art (i.e. the cake exhibit) and then we stayed for the wine and cheese reception afterwards. We then came home and hung out with our housemates and two visiting friends and all 6 of us made an appearance at the large house party happening in the 10-man student house across the street. We had never been in our neighbours’ house before and we were able to meet 2 of the 10 boys who live there and one who is moving in next year. The cops then showed up, so we quickly scurried back across the road to the comfort of our own home. Hannah and Elizabeth went to the Gait and Jocelyn and I curled up to continue our Hilary Duff marathon and watched Beauty and the Briefcase.

Finally, today was filled with lots and lots of homework, a short run and then a literal run to work to help set up for the Mackinnon formal supper. I helped Rob, Sam and Vicki decorate the common room before all the residents came down for “cocktail hour.” We hung out in the common room, took pictures, ate snacks and mingled and then headed to Dewies for a catered supper. Dewies 3 times in one week – I am living the foodie dream here. We had half of Dewies closed off for just Mackinnon, and we had a delicious 3 course meal (cheesecake for dessert, my fave) and Sam and Rob gave out awards to each of the residents. I helped Vicki make a slideshow of pictures that was shown at the end of the dinner. Vicki was unable to attend because of the choir show, which was too bad. The dinner was so much fun and I hope all of the residents had fun as well! I want to thank each and every one of the residents for letting me be a part of their Mackinnon family this semester. Also, Vicki, Rob and Sam deserve all the congratulations in the world for putting on not just a great event, but for providing their residents with a great year. After attending their dinner, I can see that they truly care about each one of their residents and their residents definitely appreciate all that their fantastic RAs do.

So, now here I am, in the Mack common room, watching Dragon’s Den and preparing to work on my essay. We have the day off of school tomorrow, as it is the provincial election, so I will hopefully be able to finish up my essay and start studying for my exam on Saturday. With only two days of classes left, the semester is quickly coming to an end and yet, I still have so much to do. I was talking to my friend Anna who goes to the university of Exeter the other day and she is currently on a four week Easter break before her exams start. Right about now, I wish I could have a little break to finish everything up, but c’est la vie! Coming up this week, I have a knitting club potluck tomorrow, my first exam Saturday and applications to the school I am applying to in France open on Wednesday! April is off to a busy, but beautiful start – now, to quote from the Bob Dylan inspired concert last night, I just need to keep pressing on and finish the semester off strong!

PS Congratulations to my sister and her school project team FBI – Fierce Business Innovators who presented their business proposal for the Hamilton Art Gallery at the DeGroote Business School on the weekend. I haven’t heard how the proposal went, but knowing my sister, I am sure it was fantastic!

PPS Next time you hear from me, I will have a teenage brother! I do not know if I am ready for that yet. More importantly, I hope my parents are ready to have 3 teenagers for the next 8 months! Good luck Heather and Alan (#playa)! 

Marching Through March

“Most of the things you worry about never happen.”

This is what my dad said to me at the end of our phone call last night.  And while I probably did need to hear it, it is another thing entirely to actually stop worrying. I will admit, it has been a pretty stressful time for me out here lately and a few tears have been shed (luckily not on my laptop or on any major assignments, which is a plus). With planning for Disney, exchange, end of semester and exams, I have a lot on my plate right now. Now that we are in April, I have a lot to do and a lot to decide in a short amount of time.

So to flash all the way back to two Mondays ago, I had my second-to-last day of practicum. Even though I knew I still had one more visit, it was hard to tell my students that I would only be back one more time. So anyway, that day I had a lesson planned about writing stories on trips the students had been on but right when I was in the middle of explaining the activity, the principal came in to talk about the school wide robin hunt. This led us into a class discussion about robins, which was fun, but completely took away my students’ attention from my lesson. If it had been my classroom, I would have completely ditched my lesson and done something with robins, but since I didn’t exactly have that decision making power, I just took it in as one of the many lessons I have learned from practicum. After recess, I was unable to teach the grade 6 class but instead was needed in the grade 2 class, where we had a discussion about robins. We ended up talking about where we would fly away to if we were robins, so FYI Disney World - if the grade 2 PEES class turns into robins, they will all be coming for a visit.

After practicum, I had my afternoon class and then a group meeting with my Spelling team. Vicki, Shayne and Jason were such a fun group to work with. While I was working with them, I got a message from my cousin Jaye that she had been accepted to Bishop’s!!! So that was pretty exciting news! We tried to pick a date for her to come visit, but unfortunately her schedule is too busy this month, so she is coming out with my aunt in May. I hope she loves it!!! Jocelyn and Hannah will be here, so hopefully they can help convince her that Bishop’s is the best! We will see!

Tuesday, I had an early appointment at the Writing Centre to have them edit my paper for Child Development. It was really, really helpful to have the ladies there read over it. I even ended up going back for a second appointment the next day. I went to the library to continue working on my paper and then had a meeting before class with my spelling group. After my two afternoon classes, I went to the gym and then had a meeting for the Empty Bowls event 2014. This was an event I was involved with last year and the event was so successful that we wanted to start planning early in order to make next October’s event even better. Following the meeting, I had a quick dinner before heading to my night class. We had three presentations that night and the three books covered were: The Giving Tree, The Juniper Tree and Little Red Riding Hood. For The Giving Tree, we played a game  where we had to make a boat out of straws and tin foil to hold coins and the winning team won homemade applesauce. However, in the spirit of giving, if the winner gave away his/her applesauce, they got a surprise apple fritter! For Little Red Riding Hood, in one of the story versions, Little Red is tricked into eating her grandma’s flesh and drinking her blood, so the group had fake flesh and blood (Swedish berries, Nibs, and red juice) for us to “enjoy” along with Little Red.

On Wednesday, my Spelling team met to put the final touches on our presentation and the rest of the day was fairly typical. I made pasta and shrimp for dinner and put the final touches on my psych paper. My paper was on achievement motivation and I learned a lot from the paper, a lot that is relevant to teaching. The main thing I took away is remembering to praise students on their effort and not their end product. It’s actually hard to do, especially if you are used to giving product praise. Give it a try. Anyway, I finished up my paper and was able to hand it in in class on Thursday!

Before handing in my paper, that morning I went for a run and then had a meeting with my project team for my K-E class. We are making a mock school and designing curriculum for said school. We have been assigned a Vision School, which is a semi-independent school structure in Quebec. We are doing a unit on food and culture. After my meeting, I went over to my other class to begin setting up for our presentation, which ended up going really, really well! We started with a spelling bee, in which we had 4 student volunteers and our prof spell words, with Jason as the host and Vicki, Shayne and me as judges. After the bee, we gave some information lecture style and then broke the class into secondary and elementary to try out some specific activities that can be used in the classroom. We were really happy with how it went!

Following class, I went to a poetry reading at the bookstore while I waited for Jocelyn and Hannah to finish class and then met them at Happy Hour. The poetry reading was cool, but not really my thing. The refreshments at the end were good though! At Happy Hour, there was a Nintendo competition going on; unfortunately I did not get to show off my skills. Instead, Hannah, Jocelyn, Elizabeth and I ended up playing Bananagrams at our table, while munching on popcorn. I stayed until about 8 or 9’o’clock and then was hungry, so went home for dinner. When Jocelyn got home, we continued with our Hilary Duff marathon and watched A Cinderella Story.

Friday, Jocelyn and I went to the mall in the afternoon together. I was in search for a sock bun donut, but was unsuccessful so instead got tea and printer ink. Unfortunately, I got home and found out I needed coloured ink and not black, which is what I bought. Oh well. The Starbucks made up for it. That night, I was on duty in Mack, where nothing too exciting happened. My friends were all out bowling, so I was having some major feelings of missing out. But they (ie Mike) did come and pick me up at the end of the night, which was a really nice treat.

I found a candy and a note saying "Have a great night" in the bum pack on Friday - a nice treat! 

Hannah had a friend come stay with us that weekend. Her name was also Hannah and she goes to RMC. I really wanted to call her Cadet Hannah, after watching Cadet Kelly, but refrained. I didn’t get to spend much time with her, as I was busy with homework all Saturday. Jocelyn and I did get to the gym though, and on our way home, we went by the Art Galley to see the Graduating Students exhibit. One of the students' exhibit were cakes with replicas of famous paintings made out food coloured icing on the top. The idea behind it was being able to actually "consume" art. She made a different one each day, and gallery guests were able to actually eat the cakes. I have to say, the cake was delicious! That night, I was on duty again, so spent the night in Mack with Vicki. My friends made a surprise appearance in Mack after going to a party in Paterson, which was an unexpected treat.

The edible art cake!

Pictures of the other art cakes the artist has made 

Sunday, I should have slept in, but didn’t. I met Hannah at the rink for the final free skate of the year and Jocelyn joined us after a group meeting. I could barely keep my eyes open, and when I fell asleep sitting at the boards, I decided it would be best to head home. I stopped to pick up a reference letter for an award application and then put myself to bed as soon as I got home. I had been planning on going to see Treasure Island, but was just too overwhelmed with homework and such, so spent the rest of the night working and preparing for the week to come.

I didn’t plan on having this much to say about two weeks ago, so I will stop here for now and fill you in on this past week on Sunday! I promise I won’t leave you hanging! I will be on duty again, so I will commit to setting myself up in the common room and get back on schedule. Also, last week I wrote another post for the Bishop’s Blog Project, so you can check out my post on the Education Gala by clicking on the link on the left-hand sidebar! There are some pictures from the event on there as well!

Talk to you soon! I promise!

All my love,

Erica xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Some pictures from the Education Gala: 

Vicki and me with our Dean, Dr. Aitken 

Me, Kirsten and Janet - the Decorations Gommittee