Bits and bites

Last week I neglected to mention that Neha had her baby, a beautiful tiny boy! His name is Parth and we still need to meet. Mom and baby are doing just fine. Look at this awesome photo a photographer at the hospital took. So excited to be Janice masi!!


Work is going really well. I feel like I have developed some kind of routine for my class, and I can see what I want to work on with them. Putting it all into action is daunting, but, one day at a time, right? Today we were talking about safety in the workplace, and how you have the right to safe work. If you are a welder and your boss asks you to do a small job, but he doesn't have a mask for you, should you do it? Seven people said "no way" and one kid said "yeah, of course. He's the boss. In my country, I did it." Okay. Which led to a somewhat condescending discussion about how some things that were okay in your country are not okay in Canada. Like, for instance, in your country, hanging on to the outside of a bus or sitting on top of a train is totally cool, but in Canada it's not. Is it safe to hang on to the side of a bus? Two students shrug their shoulders - I guess not, but we did it every day. To which someone else said "But it's a free ride, right?" Nope, we still had to pay. Really? And so on... Can you imagine people just hanging on to the top of the c-train on their commute home from work? It makes me laugh just thinking about it, but it's so common elsewhere. Today I was invited to be a guest blogger on our work's ESL Literacy Network website in February, so I'm looking forward to that opportunity. I know you're thinking that I barely pay attention to my own blog, how will a manage a second? I'm wondering the same thing...

Here are some photos that belong with last week's post:

Snow shoeing at Lake Louise


Skiing at Sunshine

Life is back

It's so great to not be working nights. I feel like a normal human being again. I go to work, get the job done. Come home, go to the gym, spend time with friends. Starting up a new class last week was stressful, as it always is, but by the end of the week I felt like I had a handle on where the students are at and how we will progress through the term. I love my new little class. I have eight students who come from Nicaragua, DRC (Congo), Albania, Vietnam, Philippines, Nepal, China, and Ethiopia. Yep - 8 learners, 8 countries. They're hard little workers and we've had some fun. Most of the students are returning and are already friends. One of the students from Nicaragua is new and quite shy. The first three days he said almost nothing. On Wednesday, we were having a discussion about our favourite actors. When I got to him, he said "Arnold Schwarzenegger." So then I said, "Oh yeah...like I'll be back..." and some of the students gave me a weak pity laugh. Then he was like, "Hasta la vista, baby." Everyone was so surprised to hear him talk that they started laughing and clapping, it was awesome. Since then he's been opening up more. It's only been one week but I'm already in love with my students.

Dan's been out of town for work this week, so I've been getting some stuff done and getting together with other friends. On Wednesday I went to this pub with Sarah Baugh and friends for 1 cent ribs. I didn't believe it at first, but it's true - we ordered 100 riblets, and the bill came to $1.00. I can promise you I'll be going again.

Back track to New Year's - I was going to add photos here BUT I can't seem to download them from Dan's google plus so you'll have to wait until I do. Dan and I went to Lake Louise on Dec 31 for some snowshoeing and skating. Then on January 2 we went back to Banff for skiing at Sunshine. We were really lucky to have beautiful weather!