Happy Fall!

Hello from beautiful Ottawa everyone! I am here for the weekend to attend the “Panda Game,” which is the big football match-up between U Ottawa and Carleton, today at the TD Football stadium. I arrived on Thursday night and my family from Ancaster is coming up today so we can all watch Trevor, who plays for the U Ottawa Gee-Gees, in the big game. I have been staying with Zucker East, who have been simply the best hosts! There is nothing quite like a nice weekend with family when you are feeling bogged down by school work!

Photo from my experiential learning outing into Sherbrooke!

So not as much has happened since I wrote my last blog post, but September was a fantastic month and it flew by! Old traditions are back in place, new routines are starting to form and the semester is moving at a very quick pace. For example, I am again working with Golden Key and we are in the busy phase of recruiting new members and planning events for the fall semester, including: our information session, a school supply fundraiser and our new member dinner in November. We have a small but mighty committee and things are shaping up for a busy year for Golden Key members. I have taken on a “past president”-esque role, in which I do not exactly have a defined position but provide insight into how things have been done in the past to help out the new committee members. We are hoping to have our first executive social meeting sometime soon!

I also now officially have two jobs on campus this semester. I am a grader/teaching assistant for one of my professors and a note taker for the student accommodation services office. It makes my schedule slightly busier, but I can’t complain. As a future teacher, marking is actually something I enjoy doing and it never hurts to get paid to take notes in class. The extra income is also nice, especially as I prepare to move out of Lennoxville next semester (more details to come).

My classes are all going well, though to help you visualize how I feel right now, I offer you two metaphorical images. 1) For anyone who has taken swimming lessons, picture the typical “non-swimmer” of someone who appears to be climbing an invisible ladder to keep their head out of the water. 2) For a slightly nicer image, picture the quote about ducks – calm and collected at the water’s surface, but paddling like mad underneath. This is how I feel about trying to stay on top of my coursework demands. However, upon speaking with my peers, we all seem to be feeling a similar way. Graduates of the program have simply told us to hang in there. I do like most of my courses and the corresponding work. For example, in one class, we analyze case studies of different scenarios across Canada where teachers have been taken to court. While some of the cases have nearly scared me out of the profession, it is very informative for guiding my future career choices. For another course, Vicki and I are doing a research project on students who suffer concussions and then must return to school and how teachers can help with their transition back to learning, which is fascinating to research, especially after 2 of my close friends suffered concussions and had to transition back to school. Finally, one class is based on interdisciplinary and experiential learning, and in groups, we have to plan a field trip for the class. Thus, once to twice a week, we get to go on a field trip somewhere in the surrounding region.

In the second week of school, my former housemate Jen came to Lennoxville. We fortunately got to spend a good amount of time together while she was here. We also had our first B.Ed Elementary pre-Happy Hour potluck party. A bunch of us got together for a potluck dinner before all going to Happy Hour together, which was a lot of fun. A big thank you to Kirsten and Emily for having all of us over! On the Friday, Vicki and I went to the Lole Yoga tour, which was essentially a free yoga session in the campus Quad run by instructors from the Breathe studios in Magog and Sherbrooke. The Lole clothing store is sponsoring the tour, so all participants received a yoga matt and swag back. That Friday also saw the return of the free student dinners, which Vicki and I were more than happy to attend. Finally, on the Sunday, we went with our field trip team to visit La Miellerie Lune de Miel, a bee farm in Stoke, which is where we will run our field trip in a few weeks. It was very neat to learn how the keep the bees and how they make the different kinds of honey. Obviously, my favourite part was tasting the different honeys, everything from blueberry to dandelion honey! We are very excited to take our class there on October 17^th.

During the third week of school, we had our Education Wine and Cheese, which was ok, but they ran out of drink tickets and cheese before we arrived, which was quite the disappointment. It was still a nice social opportunity. The following day, I attended a BBQ at the Principal’s house, with other selected students, hosted by Principal Goldbloom and his wife, Fiona. We were supposed to eat in his backyard but it rained just as we were about to sit down so had to quickly shift to covered locations. It ended up working out, and was a great chance to meet some new faces on campus and chat with Principal Goldbloom and Fiona. I extend my thanks to them for welcoming me into their home.

That Wednesday, I went to see Bridget Jones’ Baby with Jocelyn and Sara. Oh my goodness, it was SO FUNNY! I think I laughed for the duration of the entire movie. If you haven’t gone to see it yet, you must, even if you have not seen the other movies! 2 hours of Colin Firth, Patrick Dempsey and Renee Zellweger = priceless comedy. Then, Thursday, I attended a fantastic Truth and Reconciliation workshop put on by my friend and classmate, Celine, and then it was the start of Homecoming 2016! Elizabeth and Hannah came down for Happy Hour on Thursday, and my other alumni friends, Gaby, Matt and Julia, came down on Friday for the weekend! It felt just like old times having all my best friends back in Lennoxville. We all went to the rugby game on Friday, where the men’s team was victorious against Sherbrooke. To start Saturday off, we went to the Alumni Pancake Breakfast at the brand new Alumni House and watched the official ribbon cutting ceremony for the new building. Then, we went to the tailgate for the football game at Coulter Field and eventually went into the game. It was a nail-biter of a game, with the Bishop’s Gaiters trailing for most of the game, then scoring but not getting the points for a touchdown and then scoring a touchdown to take the lead in the final minutes of the game to eventually beat the St. Mary’s Huskies! We went to Dewies for dinner, had a party on a roof, and then ended the evening at the Gait. I had to lock myself in the library on Sunday as a result, but it was worth every second I got to spend with all my visiting friends!

Monday we had our first experiential learning trip in which we explored the St. Francis river in Sherbrooke. The group set up 4 different interdisciplinary stations: 1) We walked by the river and the hydroelectric dam that powers Hydro-Sherbrooke, 2) We read a passage from the book Ru by the riverside, 3) we went into the Museum of Natural Science’s Library of Objects to play with taxidermied animals, and 4) we went into the wigwam behind the museum. We ended with a group debrief in front of City Hall, a beautiful location to bring closure to a very well put together morning.

Tuesday, Vicki and I brought back an old tradition with a twist. We started having dinners together again but this time, after dinner we will commit to working on our research project on student with concussions each Tuesday. We have to do this because we wrote in our project proposal that we would. It’s also nice to not eat dinner alone some nights and to have someone else to cook for, other than me. It encourages me to step up my cooking game slightly. We had a very productive first study date, and will continue these in the weeks to come. Is it cheating if I prepare one of the frozen meals my mom made me for one of our dinners?

Wednesday and Thursday I worked incredibly hard to prepare to go away for the weekend. Up with the sun in the morning and asleep long after the sun went down at night, but it paid off to be able to spend a relaxing weekend here in Ottawa. I took off right after class on Thursday and was met by my uncle upon my late arrival. Friday, I went for a really nice run along the Greenbelt Pathway and then went downtown via the Canal Walkway to meet up with my friend Maggie who is in her first month of law school at U Ottawa. We went for sushi at Byward Market during her very short lunch break. I went for a quick shop at Rideau Canal then had to force myself to leave before spending my non-existent money. I had a great evening at home with my cousins, aunt, uncle and granny, who has just gotten her hip replaced and is on the mend her at Hopsital Zucker East. We took Archie for a walk, ate pizza, went for blizzards and then watched Dragon’s Den (while I did homework).

Today my family from Ancaster comes up and we will all meet up at the stadium for the big game! We are hoping Trevor will have a good amount of play time and help lead the Gee-Gees to victory. Regardless, it is supposed to be good weather this afternoon and should be a great day of football!  Let’s go, Gee-Gees! (A rare time you will hear me cheer for someone other than the Gaiters!)

Have a great first weekend of October everyone! Hope the fall is treating you well! And if you don’t here from me before it happens, have a great Thanksgiving weekend! I’ll be off to Winnipeg next Friday for another weekend adventure!

All my love,

Erica xoxoxoxoxo

P.S. Who knew I was quoted in the Bishop's Viewbook?!