one of the girls who i went to kenya with back in 2009 just posted a picture on facebook of herself with two of the massai warriors we travelled with as they are currently in canada promoting their new book...

i'm ready to go back...

i am exhausted. i guess that's what going to bed at 5:30 am and waking up (naturally i might add) at 9:30 does to you. it's my own fault really - this final paper for my philosophy class was harder to write than i expected considering it has basically been floating around in my head for a month. for whatever reason this rumination did nothing to help with the actual formation of words and sentences but that's ok - i'm finished. alaina is currently editing for me (i know you said you would dave - but i left it so late it seemed unfair to add that on to everything else you have to do today) and then i need to fix it up and submit it. at that point i get 2 weeks of no homework before starting my next course - "ways of learning" which i'm taking online to put towards my christian school teaching certificate. it's looking like the option of plugging through and taking school all year while teaching school may be what i choose.tiring - yes. stressful - probably. worth it - i hope so and think that it will be.

anyways, the remainder of my summer went well. i completed driving the trans-canada highway (with the exception of where it splits out west - i've only done the south route... and the occassional short section where something off the beaten path called me to explore). i experienced what new brunswick, nova scotia and pei had to offer to some degree. i met extended family in pei that i didn't know before which was awesome and hung out with friends that i haven't seen in years in nova scotia. i didn't see as much of new brunswick as i had planned due to the delightful experience of having the flu, but that just adds incentive to head back. i drove to new york city (well conneticut, and then took the train in) and experienced that in all its wonder without having to be sure that my 41 17 year olds were keeping up. i saw two more shows on broadway:

evita - terrible. ricky martin played che and he was great - it was fun to get to see him live, but the girl playing eva was annoyingly bad. having grown up on the original broadway cast soundtrack, her mutilation of the rhythms bothered me to an extent that she ruined the show for me. even jennie who didn't grow up on the soundtrack found herself questioning her choices - they did not seem to make musical sense. basically the version i saw in stratford a couple years ago was much better.

wicked - we saw this the last night of our trip and it was a fantastic way to end. they also played the characters differently to the soundtrack or to the version i saw in toronto a couple years ago, but their decisions made sense. their characters were consistent. the actresses playing glinda and elphaba were powerhouses and although their voices didn't always seem to blend, it worked with the story they were telling.

upon returning from my trip i have gone on the staff retreat with school which was a great opportunity for us as staff to catch up on what we've been doing all summer, i went back home to celebrate my parent's 30th anniversary which was a nice dose of family, i spent a week in school getting ready for the new year/having meetings/participating in registration activities. i have been hit by allergies in a force i haven't felt since high school. i was kind of hoping that i had outgrown them - but it turns out they just went into hiding.

tomorrow school starts - a new batch of students to get to know. a routine to rework. lesson plans to create. i am revamping my grade 10 drama course this year - i wasn't really happy with what i had used last year, so now with a year of drama under my belt i am making changes. i am crossing my fingers that kids come out for band despite having to give up two lunches a week (or that they take the one lunch/one before school offer). we will see what happens. i like this time of year where everything is new. i am hoping to get through it without too many difficulties.

now i am off to fix up my paper and submit it before heading over to school to practice some Bb concert scales on all the instruments that I have not played in about a year.
later

i had a chat with ruth (head of music masters program) today... we came up with 3 options for me to finish my program. at the moment i have 4 courses (or will once these 2 are completely finished and i manage to get my ghana course credited) and need 3 more and then the final oral exam thing.

option 1 - stay on course with the summers - two in the summer of 2013 and one in the summer of 2014
option 2 - take two in the summer of 2013 and one in the fall of 2013 or the winter of 2014
option 3 - take one in the fall of 2012 or winter of 2013 and two in the summer of 2013

i'm leaning toward option 3... i could be done by next summer which would be awesome... but in order to do that i need to figure out something to do an independent course on (and find someone to oversee it) and it would mean being in school all year as i'm pretty sure i also need to take a cstc course for work in the fall or winter... maybe that would be better tho - stay in the schooling mode...

any ideas / suggestions / wisdoms --- feel free to pass them along.

so i have finished up my stratford adventures for the season - this makes me a little sad...
last night kirsten, amber and i saw pirates of penzance...
amber and i sat next to a grossly sick woman in the upper seats of the balcony in the avon... we were in the middle so the angle was good - but the closeness of the seats meant that we had huge divots in our legs when we needed a break of having them pushed on an angle into the aisle or the small space between the seats in front of us. but that is not the musical.
pirates was great. it is gilbert and sullivan and fits in their style - i enjoyed the costumes and the versatility of their stage - but story wise it probably isn't my favourite g&s (i think i prefer hms pinafore but that could be sentimental), and production wise it wasn't really near the top for shows this season - however i've enjoyed all the shows i've seen - so that's not a bad thing either.
today i joined christina, lisa, and mrs. n. in the balcony of the avon (but in row b instead of row k) to see charlie brown. i actually enjoyed this one more than i thought i would. the spectacle of it was a lot of fun (even debating trying to figure out how to do this one with school... it would be a blast...) i enjoyed how their backdrop was just a giant tv that changed with where they were.... the simplicity of the set and the limited cast (although i would have to see about making some of those boy roles - girl roles) makes me think it could be a possibility... and there is no drinking, or swearing, or mention of sex (as all the characters are meant to be around age 5)...
after the show we wandered around down town and got ice cream and were talking when lo and behold charlie brown and snoopy and random other person walked be --- fairly certain they were unrecognized by most (other than us and all we did was pull out our books to look up their real names)... heading off to wanderlust perhaps?
i then found a bench along the river to read my "chaos in the classroom" book (research for a paper). stratford has this new thing where they have decorated pianos placed in random locations around town with the invitation to play - so while i sat on my bench, some guy serenaded me on the piano attached to the bus stop across from the tom patterson... all in all a pleasant afternoon...
now i'm off to write a philosophy of jazz - should be good times :)

classes are done. on one hand it feels like a long time, on the other - this month has sped by. i'm living in my 3rd house this month - this time with company - we'll see how that helps my motivation. i have 2 more trips to stratford (tonight and tomorrow) so i'll let you know how those go... a meeting with the head of the masters program about next summer... camping this weekend with the london crew... hamilton for 12-24 hours to see the fam jam and hopefully jen... ottawa for 12-24 hours to sleep in my own bed for a change... then off to the east coast - pei, ns, nb... haven't even come up with the order yet - but that will come. then i'm heading to nyc with jen for a couple days and then back to work already.
amidst all of this i also must write a short jazz philosophy which hopefully wont take me long - and a longer paper for philosophy that hopefully can be finished before friday.
overall it has been a good summer so far...
met some cool people... i love hanging out with music teachers because it's such a rarity that i do my best to appreciate the moments...
anyways - off to catch my bus.

today was not super productive... i sat at school for 5 hours - gathered all the information i need to actually do my work and am heading home - i have little interest in being here today and need to come back tomorrow anyways to use the printer and pianos and what not anyways - may as well just head home now.
i've taken over a little cubicle in the grad office which has a loverly mac that i have figured out how to use now after a month of playing around... i am very appreciative of this little room and the free printing it allows me... plus i like feeling special because i know the code on the door... small things make me happy???
i have nothing major to report - i've been doing homework for the last 2 days fairly steadily... last night i had sweeny todd on in the background while i typed out my reflections... i always forget how gruesome that movie is and how much i want to vomit while watching it... i do like the music tho... if it weren't peppered with sound of throats being slit it would have been better... anyways - my bus comes soon so i should leave this little room and find my bus stop...

we got out of class half an hour early today which was nice... more time to spend in the library updating my blog... i got one of my reflections back today with the comments "well done but i disagree with everything you wrote"... i'm debating the wisdom of revisiting that argument for reflection 4 which is the only one i'm not finished yet. it's hard to believe that we only have 2 days left of class - i have crazy amounts of assignments to do yet and they are causing me to feel a little less that class is nearing the end. the problem? is that while course work is done as of tuesday - our assignments aren't due until the end of august - at least the major philosophy paper (dave vance will you edit that for me if i ever finish it?? i promise to use proper punctuation) isn't due until then... jazz assignments are due on monday - so they may be the cause of some panic - but perhaps not... we'll see where i'm at after spending tonight and tomorrow in the library.
last night i went to see snow white and the huntsman at the uwo theatre with one of the girls from my class... i actually enjoyed it despite kristen stewarts uninspired performance...
my goal is to complete reflections 3 and 4 (3 is written just not typed or edited) before the library closes and then find a piano room to plunk out the rest of my transcription assignment with enough time to bus home and drive to pub - which isn't until 10... so i should be able to accomplish my goals - however i am the worst student ever (i have references) so that may not happen haha...
i'm off. 

yesterday was a bit of a downer day... probably had something to do with the fact that i was at school for 14 hours --- 5 of which were spent sitting in "my" chair in the 3rd floor lounge trying desperately to finish a presentation on an article about american educational policy that i still don't really understand. but i have a presentation prepared - so that's good i guess.
jazz started yesterday with an exam - i've been fairly at peace with the whole concept until sunday night when the panic struck and did not really subside until after the exam. i know the theory stuff - it was not hard for me to re-pick up --- but the listening killed me. anyways - we took up what the listening was after the exam and i got some of them right - so that's good... we'll see what that ends up looking like overall. At this point I have 5 days of classes left - 4 major assignments and 2 or 3 smaller assignments. I am hoping to knock off a large part of one major assignment and 2 of the minor assignments tonight but we'll see --- i also have to leave school early enough to bring my glasses back to get fixed and to head to the music store downtown to pick up a book that i ordered 3 weeks ago. the end is in sight... i can do it.
other than yesterday - this whole school thing has been pretty fun. i'm not loving the homework - but who does really... the classes are good - i'm learning a lot - i no longer feel like i'm too stupid to be here. life is good.

i sincerely hope that whatever i am learning in this jazz class this summer i am able to replicate in my classroom. dr. watson's teaching style is positive and encouraging and allows us to try new things despite the fact that we often fail - or feel like we're failing anyways.
today we learned to play the drum kit in a swing style - i think i did alright... it was especially fun when we added the double bass and the piano back in -- and i felt successful playing each part.
now i just need to figure out how to have a drum kit in my classroom to use in band and class without taking away the worship team kit... hmmmmm
the cottage this weekend was fun- not super relaxing as most of the time was still spent reading and writing for school - but christina came up and we spent some time floating around the lake on airmattresses which was mostly relaxing - the only non-relaxing part were the boats zipping around not really watching where they were going...
oh well we survived...
i should go back to my work - i have 2.5 hours (self given) to complete about 4 assignments... good luck to me.

Wild heart, child heart, all of the world your home.
Glad heart, mad heart, what can you do but roam?
Oh, I'll beat it once more in the morning, boys,
With a pinch of tea and a crust;
For you cannot deny
When you hark to the cry
Of the Wan-der-lust.
(The Wanderlust, Robert W. Service)

we went and saw wanderlust at stratford last night. it is a musical based on the poetry of robert w. service. it was my favourite show so far this season. the setting was a bank and other than a brief stint in a boarding house,  at a train station, and deep in characters' imaginations, the bank is where they stayed.  despite this rather drab setting the musical was great. all about adventures and the dream to go and move and leave which i totally understand. it has a male heavy cast which is also fun because it provides for different musical opportunities. there was of course a love story woven in but it wasn't predictable and it doesn't turn out the way you expect at all - and there was a cremation of sam mcgee which of course is necessary when dealing with anything to do with service --- all in all --- go see it!

when i got home at around midnight it was to find 2 policemen and a police dog in my backyard... fortunately there was a dude across the street who told me they were there when i got out of my car because the dog running around the side of the house and sniffing me would not have been quite as peaceful an experience if i didn't know there was a possibility for it. 

classes are going well - i LOVE the jazz pedagogy class... this morning we spent 2 hours playing the double bass.... if this entire masters could be taken in practical courses my life would be much happier - and i'd learn a lot more... because as much fun as sitting around being hoity toity and discussing philosophy is - standing and playing bass is sooo much more. 

anyways - i'm off to tackle at least part of my transcription... hopefully there are pianos available...

saturday was the day i was going to get all my work done... i had to move from week 1's lodging and head to week 2's place but there is no internet there so i went to western for the day to do said work.
apparently the music library is closed on weekends- which i guess makes sense - as far as i can tell they have 8-12 grad students this summer and not a whole lot else to cater to. so i hunkered down in the 3rd floor lounge and started to work. i read through my article about economics and disney (again) and understood about as much as the first time - something about numbers and budgets just makes my head spin... i started to create my presentation for it which was going to start with a clip from mr. holland's opus because the author talks about that movie for the first 2 pages of the article - so i found the clip and proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon watching the rest of the movie...
so with very little work done - i grabbed some dinner and picked up hannah for my 3rd stratford show of the weekend. she had gotten free henry v tickets and invited me along - while not a huge fan of shakespeare's history plays i am a huge fan of free stratford plays - so i went. sandra met us there having also scored a ticket.
so my non-review review...
henry v was awesome. there were points when i was confused if the people talking were french or english... but eventually you could figure that out. they made strong artistic decisions that while i didn't always agree with them - they were bold and made us talk about it - which is something i can totally appreciate. i picked up a bunch of ideas for artistic decisions for our plays too - i will probably forget most of them as they wont necessarily work for whatever play i choose but their use of flags and props were really cool --- the horses were just tall saw horses with a saddle... very effective.
sunday was spent taking the bus to church - hitting up sunfest for a while (yum samosas) - taking the bus back home - working on my reflection (that i did not finish :S) - going to bible study - going home and to bed... good day over all
now i'm at school 10 min away from jazz class - fortunately i'm done all my work for this class --- we'll see how long i hang out on campus tonight to finish the philosophy stuff...

stratford mini reviews - and by reviews i mean thoughts - and by thoughts i mean - i may be a drama teacher but i have no idea what is "good theatre" - and by good theatre i mean that my philosophy class has taught me that is all relative anyways so it doesn't really matter - and with it being relative i don't actually plan to say a whole lot about the play anyways... and with all that -->

much ado about nothing: i saw this one with my sister a couple weekends ago. we had fun despite not seeing the biebs (he was busking outside the afternoon show at the avon - we were the evening show at festival theatre). the play is shakespeare - basically about a guy who loves a girl but things go wrong of course - shenanigans ensue and we end with a girl who is "dead" but the guy gets to marry her "cousin"... my favourite characters were the friends of this couple - i think they are classified as the leads and i found out later watching interviews that they are married in real life --- i thought that would be really fun - getting to act as a couple with your real life couple in a theatre company where you do the same play for months - the chance doesn't come around a lot i'm sure.

42nd street: i saw this one with christina this afternoon. the story line was weak but the singing/dancing was GREAT. cynthia dale was one of the leads - i love her... i spent a lot of time super confused about what was happening - basically it's a musical about creating a musical... lets just say the musical they are creating would be the worst show ever! but the show 42nd street was really fun. tap dancing is something that i may have to try someday... maybe if the ghanaian dancing doesn't happen next year i'll try tap...

matchmaker: i saw this one with my momma tonight. i loved most of it - actually hoped it would pass my stringent guidelines for a play to do with the school but i'm not sure it will - i'd have to read the script and see if some of the semi-inappropriate parts are actually semi-inappropriate in the script or just in the portrayal of it... and to be clear - when i say semi-inappropriate i don't really think it's inappropriate - just maybe in the context of my school... anyways - moving on. also, the kid who would do really well in the lead has now graduated... and it doesn't highlight the girl's i'll have this year as good as i'd like.... so i'll have to read the plays i have stacked up in my car and cross my fingers something comes of that...

anyways - those are my non-review reviews... stay tuned for henry v tomorrow and wanderlust on tuesday or whenever i get around to posting them...

hope you're all surviving this heat :)

it's break time on day 3 of my summer master's program.
things i have learned this week:
- i procrastinate with the best of them
- there is a good reason i don't have tv at home
- i honestly love school (nerdy i know)

i am taking 2 courses - a philosophy of music education and a jazz pedagogy.

the philosophy course has 8 students and we sit around a large table and just discuss philosophy and how does that impact what we do... it is overwhelmingly theoretical which is fun to be hoity toity and sit around discussing music education - it seems like an odd sort of luxury. at some point this afternoon i have to present on the history of how music education has been justified in the united states - good thing creating prezis brings me great joy - hopefully it all works.

the jazz course is much more practical - i spent a good portion of yesterday sitting at a piano plunking out the melody he was playing - if i can duplicate this in my classroom it will be fantastic because i quite enjoy it and know that some of the kids will too.

i have pretty much done school all day and returned home to study/read/create presentations all night. so much for hanging out with the london crowd while i'm here --- we went to the beach on monday and i spent the whole time on a blanket under an umbrella doing course readings instead of swimming or playing football or whatever...

tonight i'm moving across town and going to pub (yay!!! i miss pub night) and tomorrow i'm hitting up stratford to see 42nd street (with christina maybe - otherwise by myself...) in the afternoon and then i'm hitting up the matchmaker with momma at night... tuesday i'm heading to see wanderlust with erin, sandra, and kirsten AND kimberley and i saw much ado about nothing in stratford a couple weekends ago-- gotta love stratford's play on tickets. i'm excited for the brief break tomorrow and experiencing different culture where i get to be passive.

UPDATE: going to see Henry V in stratford with hannah on saturday (for free)... i am so cultured... now if i could just find time to do my homework life would be great...

my prof just mentioned labrador... perhaps i should start re-focussing....
later!

i haven't had students in my classroom since june 8th.  i have been in school pretty much every day since then for longer than i normally spent at school (as well as after school commitments).... it has been pretty crazy.

week 1 without kids involved marking and report card comments
week 2 without kids involved moving, organizing, cataloguing, alphabetizing all the school's music
week 3 without kids has involved meetings, lesson planning, course planning, organizing various rooms in the school

that's a very simplistic list, but i've actually been quite busy... mixed in with the boring work we've gone out for lunch as a staff, mike and i went shopping for good bye presents, we've played hour long 3 on 3 basketball games (that took DAYS to recover from), hilary jason and i went shopping for grad food, we've had hour + long lunches as a staff which never happens during the year, and today i learned to change my oil... basically fun times all around tho now i smell a lot like oil.

tomorrow i need to pack up my stuff here and friday i'm heading home, saturday is jason and maddy's wedding and that night i'm moving back to london where i begin my semi-homeless living for the next 2 months... we'll see how this summer goes...

my to do list was excessively long for this weekend... so far i've accomplished 2 things off of it - this is a little problematic as i do want to complete it all...i'm so not interested in marking any longer... guess i should have avoided procrastination a little better... at this point i am done marking my band stuff... just need to mark little women papers and drama portfolios and combine marks for drama summatives and i'll be done for marking... i plan to write report card comments on monday (if all the marking is completed)... this post clearly has no point other than to prolong the procrastination... adios

i went camping this weekend with a bunch of people from church. i still feel very much on the fringe of the group - but this was a good start in the right direction to becoming more integrated. i definitely feel like i'm part of the group - just not IN it? i don't even know...
highlight of the weekend was being canoed UP stream / UP rapids by a fireman/rower in their underwear discussing disney princesses... that and winning a bunch of hands of euchre.
in other news - school is almost done for the year - crazy.

today i biked to work - it took four or five minutes - it takes me between three and fifteen minutes to drive to work... i biked home from work with dan... it was nice to chat and it meant that i couldn't be super lazy - it prolly took us five or six minutes to bike to my place because of the crazy wind- but i did it.. and hated it. i really do not enjoy biking - but i'm going to try to bike to work for the rest of the year.

the rest of the day was fun - it was "grandfriends day" so it was great to meet the grandparents of these kids. i had a bunch come visit us in drama class which was madness today because the kids were working on 15 minute hamlet productions in a tiny room (we usually split up but today all the classrooms were occupied due to grandfriends day). i think it went well - the kids stayed mostly on task.

i ended up eating lunch with dan, dave, hilary, four students and 2 grandfriends. one of the students was not connected to either of the grandparents so he hung out on our side of the table and we frightened him with just how insane his teachers are when we hang out in a group... today we planned the teacher band band... a concert band made up of teachers who play terribly... the boys want to play jurassic park - they sound like my students...

after getting home i made dinner (another plus of biking - eliminates the temptation of picking up dinner on the way home from school - especially with dan biking with me) and then went to zumba. i have never had this teacher before - it was a lot more dance-y than workout-y i think... so when i got home i went for a walk/run... i'm attempting to complete the learn to run thing - in 10 weeks i should be able to comfortably run a 5k... we'll see if that happens - but day 1 of the plan was successful. my goal for the next 2 months while i have a lot less teaching is to get into shape - or at least in a habit of exercise. i just need to fight the temptation of collapsing on the couch and watching netflix/dvds as soon as i walk through the door... so hard to find that motivation these days.

oh well - i'm off to sleep now... all the exercise today did make me exhausted so that's a good thing for me :)
g'nite

Last week was good - I spent Wednesday to Saturday hanging out with the grade 12 students in New York - it was great to experience the city through their eyes. I have decided to go back in August to actually see the city for myself - but this was a great introduction (the 9 hours last summer not withstanding)... Sunday I got to hang out with Brandon and Danielle - they joined me in church and then we went for lunch - it was great to catch up - I haven't seen either of them in a long while.
The rest of the week has been interesting... I finally had time to come crashing down from the stresses of the play and the exhaustion of New York and have been feeling a little tired and blah and alone in this city.

Lately I've been noticing that God fills my life with what I need to know or needed to be reminded of. Bible passages that are read in church are repeated in chapel and then again in homeroom. Songs pop into my head that fit the situation. This has been the song of the week... it seems that whenever the lonely has been creeping in this song pops in my head and fills the void...

Never Once by Matt Redman

Standing on this mountaintop
Looking just how far we’ve come
Knowing that for every step
You were with us

Kneeling on this battle ground
Seeing just how much You’ve done
Knowing every victory
Was Your power in us

Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say
Yes, our hearts can say

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Kneeling on this battle ground
Seeing just how much You’ve done
Knowing every victory
Was Your power in us

Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say
Yes, our hearts can say

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say
Never once did we ever walk alone
Carried by Your constant grace
Held within Your perfect peace
Never once, no, we never walk alone

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Every step we are breathing in Your grace
Evermore we’ll be breathing out Your praise
You are faithful, God, You are faithful
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

You are faithful, God, You are faithful
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

update: it is 2:22 am and i have figured out how to consolidate so the email address i use most often is now associated with this blog - perhaps this means i will update more since i don't have to remember what other combination of things i have to do...

life is going well - very busy - but still going well...
it's 2 am and i am currently wide awake - it has been a stressful couple of weeks with the play and now that it's over my body still can't figure out how to stop the constant flow long enough to sleep despite the fact that i now have time during the day to figure it all out. i leave for nyc with the grade 12s super early on wednesday so that should be fun - especially pumped for seeing phantom on broadway - which means i get to cross see a musical on broadway off my bucketlist... woot!
my goal is to get back into blogging more regularly - but i may have to change my blog title as i'm sick of having to sign in to this account when i can just associate something with another email address which seems easier - unless i can figure out how to switch this one over...
i hope all is well with the 2 people that read my blog :)