Halloween-Eve

I'm not sure if Halloween-eve is a thing, but if it is then it's today! I was thinking today about the fact that I ALWAYS drag myself out of bed when my alarm goes off here. At first I was thinking, well I guess I do it because I have to go to work, then I thought....no, I've had jobs before. Then I realized it's because there is no easy solution to breakfast here!  At home or in Kingston if I was ever running late I ALWAYS stopped at Tim Hortons or sometimes Common Ground, here I can't really have breakfast unless I make it for myself! Without a toaster, a quick breakfast is kind of out of the question! I hope that I haven't now jinxed myself into sleeping in!

Today I woke up and made myself cheese eggs; with cheese slices that I'm fairly certain contain no cheese, but they are tasty so I don't even care. I finally brightened up and realized since I eat the same type of meal for dinner every night (a stir-fry) I should just start making enough to have leftovers, so today at lunch I ate leftovers and it was so nice to not have to do so many dishes and to have it ready right when I got home! Two sections of my students handed in their make-up assignments today, some of them STILL aren't answering the questions properly, blows my mind!

I watched the assistant bring the mail in today and kept thinking, "I hope something's for me!" Then sure enough she brought not one, but TWO things to my desk! The first was from Nipissing University, it was some information for my students (who will probably NEVER go to Nipissing, they don't have a lot of the programs the kids are interested in and next to no international students). I was happy (and so were they) that more stuff came though! The next (and more important) package was from my friend Amanda. This is the same Amanda who worked at the greenhouse with me. She sent me a package FULL of chocolate, I honestly don't even know how she fit it all into the bag. I was so excited! I think my favourite part is the Reese's. I was talking to my cousin's wife the other day who lives in Korea and she mentioned that her dad was coming to see them and would bring them Reese's and all I could think about after that was how much I missed them. Then sure enough, Amanda read my mind! Now I just have to make sure I don't eat it all at once!

Today was the first day I have been legitimately cold. I have felt a little cold at night a couple of times, but today was actually cold. It felt kind of nice. The rain however, sucked! Luckily I brought a rain coat with me and when my parents come they're going to bring me my winter coat; I have a feeling I'll use my rain jacket more, but I need the winter one for when it gets really cold.

I don't think I've mentioned how unbelievably safe sports day is here. I have 3 students with broken legs. In all fairness, one broke his leg prior to sports day, but two were AT sports day! And that is just MY students, other teachers also have students with injuries; I think they really need to look into making it better for them! One student has been gone for 2 weeks and is going to be SO behind. The other is apparently going to miss at least a week; he had to have a 3 hour surgery to fix his leg and I feel even worse because he's one of the kids who dances, I hope it heals properly! It really seems like entering into sporting events at the school may be automatically putting your safety into jeopardy here! It is also annoying to have crutches in the classroom. I remember being in school and someone having crutches and EVERYONE playing with them, but now it's annoying!

Every time stuff comes from the universities it always triggers a bunch of questions from the students about university, and I love answering these questions for them, because they cannot call or look up the universities themselves for the most part. It's hard though when they ask "What is the best school for....." or questions like that. I want to try to stay neutral and let them pick whichever university they think is best, but it's hard. Today I explained that everyone usually says their school is the best, which is why I try not to talk-up Queen's too much. I went through the schools I knew stuff about (Carleton has a good Aerospace program, Waterloo is good for Math, Engineering and Computer Science, etc). But the students don't seem to understand that no matter where you get a business degree, you have a business degree. No matter where you get a math degree, you have a math degree. No matter where you do engineering, you're an engineer. They are obsessed with, "but which is the best?" It's so hard! Especially to be thinking, well....you may not get into the "best." It's going to be even harder when it comes time to do the applications!

But I should focus on the present and get this marking done! Tomorrow I am going to wear my cow costume to class (and probably sweat to death because it's such a warm costume) and hand out chocolate to my kids! So excited! I love Halloween. AND it's also my friend Vee and my friend Amanda (who sent me all the chocolate)'s Birthday on Halloween! So Happy Birthday to them!!!