Summer slowly walking...

I moved to a place that is celebrated for it's summer sunlight... mounds of sunlight, buckets of sunlight. There's so much sunlight here in the summer that you should be able to bottle it and sell it wholesale at Wally's World. But alas, this summer has shown just a hint of itself before retreating and hiding behind Spring's unpredictability. Some days are full of cloud and rain. Forecasts have called for thunderstorms. There is still snow capping the mountains outlying the city. And it's nearly July. However, summer still wants to linger slowly into town, waiting oh-so-long to make it's official appearance, even though solstice has come and gone. May was blistering hot and I nearly suffocated in the days of 36 degrees. But May left and took much of the heat with it, and rarely has a week passed without the threat of precipitation. So goes the crazy world of weather, I guess.

In other news, K and I are away for a camping trip this weekend. Yes, we're going to fight the masses of long-weekend campers and head down to Kettle Valley for some Rn'R. We've made some of the vital purchases now, including a camp stove, new portable BBQ, an axe, some cheap pots and dishes, citronella candles and a variety of other such nonsense that will be important once we get to the campground. One day we'll track down some fishing rods and figure out how to catch some trout, but I'll need some tutoring in that area from my pop before that happens. One day, though. On this trip, however, hiking, reading, card playing and vegetating will be the names of the games. And I'm just fine with that.

Finally, it's only three days until the end of the year. I have not yet secured a job for the fall, but in time all good things come. Or so I'm told. The nice thing about the end of the year, though, is the massive amount of food that is consumed and offered and provided around the school. It's almost like Christmas, but without the Toblerones and holly and tacky decorations. In the back of my mind, locations like Costa Rica and Thailand and the Yukon float around as possibilities for employment for the future, but no stones have been set down or carved. It's just a waiting game. With a lot of sitting. And a lot of hoping. And with the image of unpaid bills lingering immediately behind. But that's a thought for another day.

- T

The end of the beginning

It's the end of the year at the school. The smell of carpets being shampooed can be experienced throughout the humanities wing. Lockers are emptied, and abandoned student work is piled up, waiting for recycling. You can smell the stress on some students, the fear of an F (or of missing an A by 1-2%) is looming large in their eyes and they're scared witless.

I've said goodbye. Actually, I couldn't even say goodbye. Since the last posting, I actually received a part-time, 3 week contract at my school which actually took me out of my own classroom and into 2 other classes. For the past 2 weeks, I've been covering a Foods class as well as a different English class, which happens to run at the same time as the one I was teaching before. Needless to say, this has caused a bit of random havoc, and in the confusion, I wasn't even able to say goodbye to my last class of the year (that I actually taught for any length of time).

But tomorrow is officially the last day of classes. The only thing remaining is a bit of marking, some major cleanup, and invigilating some exams while the year wraps up. I also have to borrow and steal any and all resources I can before I leave so when I venture on to new courses and/or new schools, I'll have a much deeper arsenal than I have right now. I've signed some yearbooks, said farewell to a few students, but all in all, I can't even believe that the year is already over. I still have a bit of time, but I'm not sure where I'll be teaching next year or if I'll see a lot of these kids again, so being the sentimental bugger I am, I'm sad to see it drifting away. Guess the only thing I have left to do is really say goodbye and try to forge the resolve to get ready to start fresh somewhere else. "The readiness is all..."

- T

It's hot... damned hot

So, it's midnight and the temperature is still about 24 degrees outside. This means that keeping the windows open to cool my apartment is pretty much a Sysiphian task... uphill all the way. It was 35 degrees earlier today. My apartment is hot. I'm sweaty. And I need to get some sleep tonight. I teach in the morning, but I'm still scorching and I haven't been sleeping much since our heat wave. Hell, I haven't even planned my lesson, but it's going to have to do with it being damned hot. Sure, rain is coming tomorrow, but that doesn't solve the problem of excessive sweatiness tonight. I feel like a damp dish towel which has been crumpled into a ball and recently opened... you know, that kinda damp feeling that you knew should've evaporated hours ago? It's not so much dirty as just unclean. Sticky. Someone may have simply slapped me in the chest (and other areas of my body) with a bag of tepid laundry. Not the cleanest of laundry either. Am I making my point? It's hot. And I don't think Rip Van W. is going to be too generous with his pixie dust tonight. Damn you R. Van Winkle and your hatred of hot climates for pasty prairie folk!

-T