Back in the saddle

The school year will be half over, not that I'm counting! We have booked out tickets home in June as well as our tickets to the UK for a conference in March and then to the UK to attend Jill's (Roger's sister) investiture as Head of the Congregational Church in the UK. So our Visa is maxed out!!! Oh well, we don't spend much here.

Roger is out birding with a friend and I am just back from a 'Jumble Sale' at the Rec Centre at Education City. It's an amazing place with Fitness rooms, (1 just for women), coffee shop, bank, photo shop, post office, Fedex place, Laundry, meeting rooms galore, an Olympic-sized pool, gyms, and tons of programs like Yoga, Fitness, aqua aerobics...and everything is free to employees and families. The Jumble Sale was small with mostly expats selling the same kinds of stuff you would see at a garage sale at home. Those of you who know me well will understand my compulsion to buy cheap things quickly!!! So, I bargained for books and DVDs and mugs etc. that I really don't need and will probably give away when I leave. But it is all recycling, and reusing (my justification). I am looking for a bike to ride only to school or to our local government grocery store (Al Meera)...one that doesn't usually have what we are looking for. The local bike store seems to be closed most of the time but through their extremely dusty window we can see a lady's bike...pink, no gears, lovely big basket, big tires and a fender! So, we will continue to drive around 5 roundabouts to get to the store....maybe it will be open soon. I would never bike any further and even that short distance (maybe 15 minutes tops) will be fraught with adventure. I will have to run across 4 lanes of traffic stopping in the middle. This will be okay in the morning at around 6 am but in the afternoon I will have to time my runs well. At least the bike will be bright pink and I'll be wearing a helmet!

The teaching was interesting this week. My grade 11 boys told me ("honestly, miss") that my classes are very boring. I tried not to take it personally....Ha! Philosophically speaking school has been boring for students forever! So, I can understand that. Realistically speaking they are probably 50% correct. So, today I downloaded some 'football' articles for them...we'll see. Next year I will be the ESL consultant at the school, which will mean no teaching of classes. I will withdraw some students for extra help but I will mainly be helping the teachers to make the content of their courses more accessible to the students. Those of you who are teachers will know just how much teachers love having consultants come in to 'tell them how to teach'. So, it will be a challenge. At least I won't be bored.

We have some Palestinian teachers at school who have family in Gaza and they are very preoccupied with the situation there. The students are also and the whole Arab part of the school (teachers and students) are beginning to work toward raising money etc. It is a terrible situation for them and it really isn't possible to talk about another point of view. So, we stay quiet and try to support them. They are such lovely people, gentle and kind and right now very sad. All the news here is about it all the time.

Yesterday we drove out to Falcon Races in the desert. It was really something to see. I'll include some pictures because it's too hard to describe. It reminded me of the big field days (small rodeos) we used to go to when I was young in Saskatchewan....except that they had camels instead of Palomino horses. It's warm today and we are beginning to talk about camping again...maybe in 2 weeks. This time we'll rent a 4X4 to be able to drive across the desert. I have started Yoga again...on Thursday after school which leads into the weekend. The teacher is from Calgary but is going to buy a place in Comox on the Island! That seems to be what people do with their money from here. We, of course, are trying to pay off our debts...I say good luck to that.

We'll go to a friend's house (Judy..American) to watch the Inauguration on Tuesday. I guess Francie and Mike will get a good feel for the energy and have some good stories to tell us. What an exciting time to be in Washington...Take pictures for us.

I'm not sure if some of you heard about Steve's grandmother's death. She had been a principal with our board for years and was very well-respected.

To those of you in the deep-freeze, We send warm sunshiny wishes.