So Similar, Yet Different

Its (sorry, cant find an apostrophe on this computer) a good thing that I know what the various options are on blogspot simply by where they are placed. Because I cant read them. Why? Ive just been immersed in a foreign language - French!

So I flew through the night and arrived in Quebec City to begin this Quebec adventure in a dazed state (airplane seats are simply not comfortable for sleeping - regardless of how many possitions you try!). My first impression of Quebec? Its much the same as BC. Everywhere I looked, I saw familiar restaurants or stores: Tim Hortons, Costco, Burger King, The Bay, to name just a few. If it wasnt for the French signs and the lights at the intersections being horizontal rather than vertical, I would have thought I was in some city in BC.

What surprised me even more was that the landscape that the bus drove through - from Quebec City to Chicoutimi - was surprisingly similar to what I had just left in Northern BC: Endless ridges covered with pine trees; dry, rocky ground; the occational clump of deciduous trees not yet green; and dots of blue lakes. Reaching Chicoutimi, I realized that I have, for the second time this month, gone back in seasons - most trees arent blooming yet and a cool breeze greeted me as I stepped off the bus.

While the place may look familiar, the language definately reminds me that I am in another part of the world. During the short van ride from the bus stop to the university, I began to feel rather intimidated when the Explore students (from all over Canada) began striking up conversation in French with the driver, laughing and talking. I felt lost. The staff that greeted us at the university were very friendly but they communicated entirely in french and sign language. If you havent guessed already, I dont speak french, except for je mappelle Miriam and a few other simple words. But its amazing how much context, gestures, and a single word will give me a good idea of what people are telling me. Its also amazing how much I miss...

Fortunately, I quickly met several other just as intimidated as me students and I felt a little better. Some of us played cards, speaking a mixture of french and english, while we waited for our host families to pick us up.

So, now here I am, at Paulines house. Shes a really nice lady, works at the university, and has four grown-up children. A lady from Morocco(whose name I cannot remember) is living with her for the summer - shes also super nice - she made dinner for us because Pauline had to go to the hospital. By we, I mean Julie and I - there are two of us Explore stduents staying at this house which is cool. Especially as Julie knows more french than I do so I have someone to help me understand what is going on!

Well, enough for now, dont want to bore you. Tomorrow morning we will be back at the university for info, a walking tour (I think, much of the info Im gathering is guess work at this point), and placement tests. Im excited to get into classes and really start learning - now that Im here, Im motivated!

Home Again

It's over. Yup, I've said my goodbyes and I'm back in Vancouver - never realized this place is so lush and green and colorful! Nothing like the dusty, stony, piney landscape I left this morning.

I'm happy to see my family and excited for Kathryn's wedding tomorrow but I was not ready to leave the school at Stone. I cried as AmyLou and I left the school this morning. It had been another one of those busy school mornings, complete with a mother's day tea in which the whole school took part in. During assembly, we were given cards and pens decorated with tiny beads, made by one of the Chilcotin staff. We had written cards for our students and taken numerous pictures of the beautiful children and staff. The sun was shining and warm, students were back in their classrooms where they belonged, and we were leaving... As we pulled out of the school parking lot and made our way down the dirt road through the reserve, AmyLou suggested we pray once more for these students that have so impacted our lives and touched our hearts. It was a beautiful way to end an amazing experience. I'm missing everyone already!

P.S. Sorry, had to take the pics of the children off my blog 'cause I found out that I'm not supposed to do that without parental permission. Just trust me when I say they are beautiful children!

Turning 23

So, I turned 23 on Saturday. And this is what I turned into...

Yup, that's me tearing apart a telephone pole on a gravel road on the way to some hidden lakes.

Okay, you know me better than that. It wasn't me. It was actually a black bear marking his territory until he heard our car and ran into the woods. Pretty cool to watch a bear leap through the trees or, rather, blunder through them - fast! But he had already done some pretty serious scraping. We though about reporting him to the RCMP for vandalism.

Jill took AmyLou and I out for linner, aka dunch, aka lunch/dinner at Tatla Lake. It's the closest restaurant to their house, only a 40 minute drive. :) Then she drove us to see some pretty lakes tucked into the forest in the shadow of the mountains. One of the lakes sounded just like the ocean as the wind was washing waves up on its pebbly shore. Aaah, the ocean. I miss it in this dry and dusty land.

Over the weekend, we've seen plenty of wildlife, like the bear mentioned earlier. Also, deer (we see them pretty much every day when we drive to school), several grouse (they're mating right now), countless birds and ducks, a beaver (or was it a mink?) in the marshes that we visited Friday night, a cougar - oh no, wait, we didn't actually see a cougar. But Boycy - Steve's friend who is over a lot - keeps trying to friek us out by talking about a cougar he has supposedly "seen." He said we should let him have the cat first... :)

By the way, this is what my current "home" looks like.

Yeah, that little white square looking thing to the left of the road is Steve and Jill's house. The white blurb on the path is Kate, their dog. She came walking with me Sunday afternoon - or I should say bouncing, 'cause she can't hold still for two seconds. Hence the reason that she is so far ahead of me. But, yeah, I've posted this pic 'cause it's pretty typical of the landscape - pines (some infested with the pine beetle), dusty ground (never realized that the forests near where are I live are really rainforests until I walked in the forest here - had to wash my feet after 'cause dust got into my shoes), endless telephone poles and fences, and the desserted highway except for the occational truck or car that goes whirring by. People say it's beautiful and sometimes I agree but I do miss the lush green and the many colors in the lower mainland. One thing I do appreciate here is the silence and the open space.

So, besides some exploring and enjoying the outdoors, the weekend consisted of reading, playing piano, working on lesson plans, eating good food, having good conversations, and sleeping in.


That's plenty for now. To end, here is the view from Steve and Jill's porch, early one morning. The white in the distance are snow-covered mountains - the coastal mountains.

Friday

On Friday, I did "math" with some of the K/1's. Actually, the painting pictures using foam shapes turned into more of an art lesson than a math lesson on shapes! They got really excited about mixing paints and then we somehow ended up doing fingerpaints. They loved it! I was scrubbing the table for a while after school was out...

Wish you could meet them - they're wonderful kids!


Friday was a short school day. It ended at noon and fewer students showed up than normal 'cause it was the day that everyone goes to town (i.e. Williams Lake). Apparently, you can't go to the store in Williams Lake on Fridays without running into people you know and having a chat with them - it becomes a social event! To my teacher's surprise, six out of the nine children in our class showed up. I got to do a gym lesson with them outside which was fun - played octopus and tag on the playground. Felt a little like being back at Barnabas - especially when the children insisted that I be It for tag and they were all too fast for me!


I wanted to add some more scenic pics but this dial-up connection isn't the greatest, so it might have to wait until Monday when I'm at the school. In the meantime, I've been having a relaxing weekend and Jill has taken us to some pretty places in the region. We've seen lots of wildlife, including a black bear! But more on that later...

A Typical Day in the Chilcotin

So, what's life looking like here in the Chilcotin? Well, I've been getting up at 5:30 am and leaving the house just past 6:30 am with Jill (she's the principal of the school) and AmyLou (the other "student teacher," as we are known). Then we drive down highway 20 past many telephone poles, countless trees, miles of log fences, numerous cows, the occational deer, and several reserves. After about an hour of this, we turn off the highway at Lee's Corner and follow the dirt road to the bottom of a canyon, cross the Chilcotin River and drive up the switchbacks to the other side of the canyon. And be about 8 am, we finally reach...Stone Reserve (Yunesit'in).

Stone Reserve is a small community of Chilcotin First Nations and they have a school of almost 40 kids (and you thought West Coast Christian School was small...). And that is where I've spent most of my time! I'm absolutely loving it. After my first few hours in the kindergarten/grade 1 classroom that I'm helping in, I totally fell in love with the kids. They are so much fun, they love having me in their class, and most of them have a real eagerness to learn. My class has just nine children (when they're all there, which hasn't actually happened this week): three in grade 1 and six in kindergarten. The teacher I'm working with is awesome - she has a real passion for teaching, loves her students, and manages her classroom well. She's also First Nations but comes from the Yukon. Even though her classroom is well structured and managed, it feels so relaxed to me! I think this is because I'm used to being in a classroom with 20 children all needing to be occupied or seeking your attention. When you're working with only seven or eight children, it makes for a much calmer environment - I love it! I'm not as exhausted by the end of the day as I was with my other practicums and I feel more at ease. The whole school feels small. Besides a couple of the other teachers, the rest of the staff are all from Stone Reserve. And they've been really friendly and welcoming to AmyLou and I.

Yeah, I've only been here for four days and I already know I'm going to miss Stoney and the school and the people. Today one of the students in my class asked me about having a snack and I said, "I don't know. Ask your teacher." Her reply: "But you are my teacher!" Aww, my heart melted, of course. After school today, I was outside in front of the school trying to take a couple of pictures (but apparently my camera battery was dead) and two of the girls from my class were playing on the playground and came over to me when they saw me there. Hailey, after showing me the rocks she and Saraphine had collected and were "selling," asked me where I lived and wanted to know if she could come visit me. I really wished I could've said, sure, I live just down the road, come by sometime!

School starts at 8:30 but some students come early to get breakfast. The school provides lunch for all the students and staff so we eat together in the lunch room at noon. And then dismissal is at 3. But, since Jill is the principal and always has plenty to do or people to meet with, we usually don't leave the school for another couple of hours. (Fortunately, the school has several computers which AmyLou and I make good use of to check email, write lesson plans, do our required journals, etc.) So, by the time we leave the school, make the hour + drive home, and get dinner ready (if Steve hasn't already - today he barbequed some excellent salmon for us...), it's 7 or 7:30. And by the time we're done eating a large, scrumptious meal (and they eat lots and well in this cowboy country!) and we've had some good discussions (just had an indepth one on global warming this evening), we try to get some lessons and journals done before dragging ourselves into bed by, well, I've been aiming for 9 but it is currently 10:15...

And that, is a little glimpse into my daily life in the Chilcotin. I'd love to tell you more about the people and culture here but that'll have to wait for another day. Let me just tell you that today I had to teach music to the K/1's so I taught them Silly Willy - they absolutely loved it! In fact, they wanted to sing it a second time but I was to sweaty and exhausted to do it again...

Picking up Garbage

Yup, that's what I did all day today. Literally. School was cancelled for the day and the entire community of Stone Reserve worked together to pick up garbage on the reserve. We were given garbage bags and latex gloves and off we went to pick up the empty chip bags, syrofoam cups, glass pieces, pop cans, plastic bags (partially rotten so they disintegrate into a million pieces when you touch them), rusty car parts, pieces of metal, ... all scattered beside the roads and in people's front yards. By the end of the day my back was sore, my knees hurt, my arms were scratched up from the prickle bushes, and my clothes, face, teeth, ears were covered in dust. But it was worth if. It felt good to be outside in the fresh air and open space. We were able to help out the community and, therefore, bless the people. And, best of all, we got to meet lots of the people from the Stone community and spend some time with them and understand their culture a bit more. We all ate lunch together that some of the ladies had cooked. I love these people - everyone was friendly to us and they seem excited to have two strangers around.

Monday and Tuesday we spent the entire day at the school. I've learned so much already! But it will have to wait for another day because I'm almost falling asleep after a whole day in the fresh air and I need to get up at 5:30 tomorrow morning. So... keep checking back!

Arrival in the Chilcotin

I wrote this last night...


It’s too late to blog right now, i.e. it is 9:39 p.m. and I got up at 5:30 this morning and will again tomorrow morning… But I do want to just say that I’m here in the Chilcotin, slowly adapting to life in the middle of nowhere, and teaching some of the sweetest kids ever. I fell in love with them right away!

So ya, AmyLou and I drove up here on Sunday: 7 ½ hours straight with a quick stop in Cache Creek for gas and a Subway dinner. Other than that, we spent a good part of our trip talking about finding your ideal spouse, differences in culture between the North and the City (she’s from the North and I’m from the City but she says that I don’t act or appear like a city person which I took as a compliment!), friendship, the role of women, the life of a tree planter (AmyLou tree planted for several summers), and our understandings of the Aboriginal people in BC. As we drove north, we left the fresh green leaves and blossoms of the Lower Mainland, headed through red cliffs in the canyon, passed the dessert region of the Kamloops Forest District, and ended up in ranch country on a plateau covered in ridges of evergreen trees, small strips of weak, rocky grass, and birch trees still stripped of their leaves. Although we’ve headed backwards in season, we do have longer days up here. We drove into a lovely color-streaked sunset as we headed west out of Williams Lake and made our way into the Chilcotin region.

And now we are here, in a real ranch house with bear skins and antlers hanging off the walls, dishes decorated with moose, and chickens and horses in the backyard. Steve and Jill are both great people and I feel at home already. Steve is a real fun, cowboy type of guy – he told us stories of crazy pranks he did when he was a student at Trinity over 30 years ago (like picking the lock to the presidents office and smelling up the place by smoking a pipe. Apparently, he was never caught…). He cooked us bacon and omelet (with fresh eggs, mushrooms, and peppers) early this morning. Jill is doing her very best to ensure that we get the most out of our stay here and we’ve had some really insightful conversations with her today as we drove to the school and back.

So much for going to bed early. But I really am going now. I’ll try to post about the school soon…