Sunday, March 29, 2009
Whistler/Blackcomb
We are sooooooooooooooo lucky!
The trip to whistler was an absolute blast. It met everyone's expectations and all had a wonderful, wonderful time. Kez was keen to get into snowboarding but because she didn't get up enough experience on the east coast she stuck to skis. Emily was the mogul animal and lokked
for, sought out, actually had a death wish in landing in any mogul she could find. I think we have to put em down as the one who had the most stacks, probably the biggest stack, and was the most gung ho. Steve was an absolute animal and continued to try and out ski 'the legend' but alas apart from going terrifyingly fast Steve, as usual, was outclassed. We lost Alex more than once I think as like em with her mogul fetich Alex always found the really deep soft stuff and was often found burried.
The trip to whistler was an absolute blast. It met everyone's expectations and all had a wonderful, wonderful time. Kez was keen to get into snowboarding but because she didn't get up enough experience on the east coast she stuck to skis. Emily was the mogul animal and lokked
for, sought out, actually had a death wish in landing in any mogul she could find. I think we have to put em down as the one who had the most stacks, probably the biggest stack, and was the most gung ho. Steve was an absolute animal and continued to try and out ski 'the legend' but alas apart from going terrifyingly fast Steve, as usual, was outclassed. We lost Alex more than once I think as like em with her mogul fetich Alex always found the really deep soft stuff and was often found burried.We got to whistler by hire car from Vancouver airport. We spent a night in a cheep hotel and they let us leave our homeward bound bags (all 18 of them) in storage allowing for a modest load of ski gear and clothes and food to take up in a 7 seater van. The accomodation was perfect. It was a two story apartment with kitchen, loungeroom, fireplace, two bathroom in a complex that had a spar and pool. At the end of each day they youngens would head to the spar whilst Chris and Jenny viewed the proceeding from the loungeroom with refresshments. Very civilised!
Whistler village was just awesome. Plenty of shops, restaurants, coffee shops, ski hire and maintenance etc and all in easy walking distance from our place. We also had a courtessy bus that drove past our place every 10 minutes and was able to drop us at all the important locations including right in front of the lifts. The routine for each day was similar with Chris and Jenny getting up first and heading out the door early to catch the first lift. This generally motivated the other slugs into getting up and organised. It was not long before all were out and on the slopes. We all skied together and stuck mainly to blackcomb as they were the best runs. Very wide freshly groomed runs with plenty of variety for each of our skill levels. We had an early lunch on the slopes and kept skiing and usually ended the day around 3pm. Back home for showers, spas, refreshments and cooking. A couple of times we ventured further afield. Two memorable trips was one where Jenny got stuck in ungroomed tracks. She could not negotiate these with any style so decided that the 'bull at a gate' method was as good as any. Needless to say the frustration and injury meter went up with each spectacular stack. Another time we headed over to whistler mountain as we heard that the vis was a bit better on one of the low vis days. This was an absolute disaster as the vis was nil. The goggles iced over but you could not ski without them as the frozen mist stung and was very cold. Dangerous stuff but still we all got out OK and chalked the experience up as AN EXPERIENCE.
Margaret Avenue Senior Public School
Margaret Avenue Senior Public School was the school that the Waterloo District School Board had assigned me to as a swap between me and my exchange partner. I was hoping of course to be assigned to a school similar to a comprehensive high school. This would be the equivelent of a Secondary school in Canada which usually goes from year 9 to 12. Needless to say Margaret was a lot of fun and a real educational experience. The number one educational issue I got from this experience was the amount of extra-curricular activity the teachers did on top of their expected load.
Every teacher did something. They weren't necessarily bludgened into doing this extra activity but saw it as a necessary extension of thier teaching. Their were a lot of lunchtime clubs. The library teacher ran a 'garage band' club which was based on digital music software for students to compose their own music score. They could write their own opus. Other clubs included the chess club, a drama club, a writers club, a year book club, a photography club and others I can't remember. This club/extra activity stuff was not just an extension of primary school as high schools did the same thing. (look at american ra ra cheer squad type movies). Speaking of which, one can't forget the sporting clubs and school bands which operated every lunchtime and after school. Margaret had 2 school bands. When you consider we were a school of 400 consisiting of a year 7 & 8 cohort that is amazing. We had 70 students in the year 7 band and 70 students in the year 8 band. ???!!!%$/?? What. Most Aussie schools struggle to get 20 members 7 to 12 and sometimes rope in primary children. This also continued in the high schools by the way with similar numbers. Volleyball and basketball were really big and no wonder when you consider the winter climate where most sports were conducted inside. I ended up helping the volleyball teams by being the referee on all interschool competitions.
I had to teach at Margaret and the tradition was for Vice Principals to teach art. This was mainly due to the fact that the school counsellor was art trained and had to have RFF so to make sure all students experienced art the VC filled in. As it turned out I had two fabulous art teachers who had the curriculum totally organised and I stepped into a great program and learnt heaps considering I had not taught art ever in my life. I did have the opportunity to vary the curriculm so got a bit of woodwork stuff thrown in by introducing Aboriginal art into the course. The kids researched Australian Aboriginal art and looked more specifically at dot painting. My Aussie program variation involved students designing their own dot painting artwork on a boomerang! I bought some plywood and cut out some boomerang blaks where the students sanded and filed the boomerang into a shape that could be thrown. They then transferred their artwork onto the boomerangs before we went out into the field and threw them. So out into the freezing cold snow we went to throw the boomerangs. It was fantastic as 90% of them worked. Of the failures I usde the excuse that it was too cold in Canada for them to fly as the best conditions were in a hot Australian climate. Even Em/Kez n Steve joined in on the act by visiting the school to tell some tall stories about Kangaroos hoping down George street. Steve had a crocadile back scratcher that created much interest.
I met up with some good mates at the school and had some wonderful times comparing Australian and Canadian culture and lifestyles. They did promise to come visit one day but the days, months and years keep ticking by without any sign of a Canadian out n about in Oz.
Em/Kez/Steve
These three vagabonds came over to visit and experience some American Kulcha. Beside hanging around Kitchener/Waterloo they also went to Las Angelas, New York, skiing at Chicopee, Niagara Falls, Toronto and the CN Tower and of course Whistler. Unfortunately the weather was not what we had hoped (the locals were happy) as very little snow fell. We had a big drop of snow soon after E/K/S arrived allowing them to ski at Chicopee then no snow untill Christmas.
Kez had a fall at Chicopee and got concussion and was rescued by the ski patrol and carried down the hill in the blood bucket. It was really great Christmas eve as about 10:00pm (I think-long time ago now) it started snowing just as we were going to bed. The pics show Em n Steve carrying home our live christmas tree which we selected from a cast of thousands. We all decorated it with chrissie bawbles and kept it alive throughout the christmas period.
Kitchener had a central square in front of the council chambers where they have free public ice skating. This was great fun eevn though we had an Australian sense of skating and no skating ability to show off. All the little tackers were better than us.
On Christmas eve, just before the snow fell we went outside and had some Caribou. This fortified wine was from Quebec (we bought a bottle way back in January when we went there) and it is the traditional drink for the fur hunters of yesteryear. We had it warmed up, as is the tradition, just like mulled wine served in the european snow fields excepe Caribou is a little rough (much like McWilliams royal reserve @ $2.50 a bottle). Another adventure with Em/Kez/Steve was to Niagara. The pic shows the hire car we got to fit all 6 of us.
Kez had a fall at Chicopee and got concussion and was rescued by the ski patrol and carried down the hill in the blood bucket. It was really great Christmas eve as about 10:00pm (I think-long time ago now) it started snowing just as we were going to bed. The pics show Em n Steve carrying home our live christmas tree which we selected from a cast of thousands. We all decorated it with chrissie bawbles and kept it alive throughout the christmas period.
Kitchener had a central square in front of the council chambers where they have free public ice skating. This was great fun eevn though we had an Australian sense of skating and no skating ability to show off. All the little tackers were better than us.
On Christmas eve, just before the snow fell we went outside and had some Caribou. This fortified wine was from Quebec (we bought a bottle way back in January when we went there) and it is the traditional drink for the fur hunters of yesteryear. We had it warmed up, as is the tradition, just like mulled wine served in the european snow fields excepe Caribou is a little rough (much like McWilliams royal reserve @ $2.50 a bottle). Another adventure with Em/Kez/Steve was to Niagara. The pic shows the hire car we got to fit all 6 of us.
