Saturday, April 28, 2007

Been too long.. sorry




Whoa! its been awhile since I last posted. No excuse.. just lazy.






Today has been a good day! Nothing particularly great happened just a number of small things that added up to a good day. Woke up this morning to a call from Keith. Knew it would be him calling because well he is the only person who calls me. This is not intended to be a dig at anyone else just a simple fact. Keith called to explain how he won't be working night shift, which is great for him, but bad for me. You see Keith on night shift lives on the same time zone as me, so we'd get to chat all the time while he was at work... not any more. I also managed to sneak in three of my favorite meals all in one day breakfast: Fried egg sandwich lunch: Sou and Dinner: pizza. Not exactly gourmet food, but great comfort for a rainy Saturday. Went for a run for the first time in a bit. It was not a great run as my cracked ribs made breathing somewhat of a problem, but can't really complain about running in the rain. An older gentleman was running the other direction and as he passes me he said "Nice day for a run" and I couldn't agree wit him more. Made two great cups of coffee! Erin also read the comments from my latest assignment twice and it made sweet music to my ears... ummm yeah like I said nothing overly exciting just a good day.

Well I had a week off of school and went on a hiking trip to the Flinders Range. Its about 2h30m away from Adelaide. Parked in the parking lot and hiked about 15km to our camp site. Anyone who tells you that hiking with a 70lbs backpack is easy.. well that person is lying. Because its still fire season there are no bonfires, which is crappy, so it was early to bed because it was pitch black by about 8:30. Next day hiked to Alligator Gorge (picture at the top to the left), which looks similar to the drive towards Thunder Bay with those tight cliff like structures. The Australians that I were with really seemed to enjoy this hike, but I had a "been there done that" attitude. The scenery looked very much like Canada, so it was nothing new to me, however, I can appreciate how the others liked it so much because it was very much un-Australian. Day 3 was a 7km uphill hike to the top of Battery (name of part of the Range, which overlooks the Range on one side and the Ocean on the other...picture to the right). Very nice hike with a rewarding view at the end. Had perfect weather... sleeping conditions were not ideal as my bony hip dug into the ground, but my shoes made for a surprisingly effective pillow. I did see one snake.. a brown snake that was about 2 1/2 feet long. I thought if I encountered a snake I'd be scared, but it was more of a "oh there's a snake." Despite my bravery I was happy to only have bumped into one snake.


When going through grade school and had a bad teacher did you ever wonder to yourself "How did this person become a teacher?" or wonder that when they were going through university if they showed promise of becoming a good teacher or if there was just no hope for them? Well there is a mature aged student who is in a couple of my classes who has no hope. We start our practicum on Thursday and she still hasn't been placed into a school. I would be slightly worried about this, but the fact of the matter is that the university has to find some school for you. Well she went off complaining to our tutor who has nothing to do with finding a school and all the tutor said was "don't worry things will work out" to which she replied "I'm freaking out and you just made it worse!" Ok someone is overreacting just a touch. Well that wasn't the end of it. Towards the end of our class out tutor asks "Does anyone have any concerns about the practicum?" Well same lady pipes up and says "If my mentor talks down to me I'm going to tell them to piss off!" I wonder how good that practicum is going to work out when before she has even been placed in a school she is preparing to tell someone off... way to be flexible! Not only that.. I've worked with lots of people I don't like and even me of the quite willing to be confrontational can bite my tongue.


Well I thought this woman would be finished for the day, but she managed to squeak one more gem in... just out of nowhere she says "girls get better marks than boys" Sure its true that on average girls get better marks, but who cares and why is she bringing it up? Well it seems that boys are so busy getting in trouble they don't have time to focus on their studies and what is even more shocking.. this woman has two boys who happen to get in trouble quite a bit because their teachers favor girls... can anyone say "Oh gawd!!" Yes I'm sure its their teachers fault, but I had finally had enough at that point and decided to make mention of the fact that "maybe it isn't the teacher favoring the girls, but rather the boys having a bad mother." It seems that the people who were in earshot of my comment agreed.


THINGS I LIKE THIS WEEK


  • Its raining here.. for three days in a row!!

  • Getting back into the swing of things at school

  • Sweat pants... I love them

THINGS I DO NOT LIKE THIS WEEK

  • The Vancouver Canucks, but I do not like them any week..

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Easter Weekend

Hola!

Not much to say... its been a long couple of weeks. I have the next couple of weeks off, which will be nice. Hockey is starting, ultimate frisbee is continuing and I still have a little bit of school stuff left to do.

I think I've mentioned this before, but I say it again. Everyone should read 'Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' by John Boyne. I'm currently in the process of reading it for the second time and its still a great read.

Happy birthday Momma Mitchell and Little Mitchell. With Erin in Melbourne I think this Easter Weekend would be more fun back in Canada... oh well though.

THINGS I LIKE THIS WEEK
  • Nice to see the start of the baseball season
  • Very happy to have received a nice little package from Pappa and Momma Mitchell... its always nice to get magazines in the middle
  • Good Will Hunting is a great movie