The House!

Mother, as requested, a couple pictures of the house. I only took pictures of our main living areas, but it's a nice place. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen/living etc. Incidently a very nice alarm system that we have no idea how to work or what the code to disarm it could possibly be! One morning I was cooking bacon and stupidly trying to do the dishes at the same time so I of course set the fire alarm off! Then next was our house alarm. About ten minutes later a couple of municipal/fire vehicles showed up to make sure everything was okay.

My laptop near the couch for entertainment purposes! We watch all movies on that little thing!

And here's our house from the outside! Pretty simple; in fact, there are many houses in the area that look EXACTLY like this one! It's sort of like little townhouse complexes in the middle of nowhere. King of strange when you think about it, but it works. We also have a back yard that I have yet to check out because there's a lot of snow out there. You see that big pile in our front yard there? That's nothing, in fact, last week people we hauling huge piles of snow out of yards and filling big trucks to take it all away. So that pile is substantially smaller than it was. Not sure how it all works, but the snow-plow-men clean out every driveway in town. How sweet is that??

All of the roads in town are covered with a 6" layer of ice that is starting to melt now as the weather gets a little warmer. It's made walking home from work a bit of a mess, but other than that I'm looking forward to seeing everything in the summer. March is already almost over! Crazy!

Random Walking Around

This morning the alarm clock went off at 8am so that we could have plenty of time to get stuff together before going to Murray's Lodge, but it just wasn't happening. The last few days I've been feeling sick; a few of my students have had colds and kindly passed on the fun. So instead we slept in and went for a shorter walk on one of the trails near our house. Another beautiful sunny day, and nice and warm! Only about -8, so almost summer-like!

This is sort of a freaky picture, but I like it because the shadows look like they're blurred and moving. I also enjoy shooting directly at the sun (which is bad because it can cause damage to the camera's lens apparently...) but I get lots of interesting reflections and colours with them.


This is another favourite; he looks like he's about to fall over! In other news, things are still going interestingly as ever! Endless drama between students and trying to make them learn in between. I have a new student who has been EXTRA difficult and I was feeling very uncharitable towards her until her worker told me what had been going on in her life and I had to realize that the things she says to me are usually due to her frustrations with other things beyond the classroom. So I'm trying to get better at not taking things personally because these kids are acting out for all sorts of reasons beyond my comprehension.

My students are always telling me how boring I am because I don't have a t.v. They're always asking me if I've heard of this singer or that commercial and I always have to say no! It has made me realize how out of touch with popular culture I am (and have been for years now!). Haven't had cable since before University (well, except in Korea, but all for one channel were in Korean...), and I can't say that I miss it. I still see the stuff I want to see, I just find myself hating 95% of what is on t.v. nowadays.

Teepee (Tipi? Tepee?) Goodness

This past weekend was all about the socializing. Friday and Saturday evening we went to a neighbours (also teachers here in town) house for drinks and whatnot. On Friday evening I saw a teacher that I'd glimpsed at a few of the meetings and thought to myself "I KNOW that girl" but couldn't place it until I saw her up close. She also just happened to be in my orientation group when I moved to Korea! What are the odds of something like that? Bizarre!

Anyhow, on Sunday morning we were invited along for a trip to "the teepee". A couple of the teachers have built their own teepee in the middle of nowhere and go there every Sunday for hiking and bannock cooking purposes! Very awesome! The teepee is on Reserve land, so they went to the Band Council and asked for the space and they said yes; this struck me as a very excellent idea, and awesome of the band council to let people use the space. It's literally in the middle of nowhere and right on the bigger portion of the lake which I haven't seen yet. What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon?

The bannock was awesome; a few of the teachers had made different kinds, so we went for the cinnamon raison variety of course! I can't explain it, but everything tastes better outside, cooked on a fire.


We also made a stop at what appeared to be a gravel pit (a short hike from the teepee) and a few people slid down the big hill to the bottom of the pit. Very entertaining stuff, but I declined because I was just wearing my jeans and didn't want to freeze in cold wet pants.

Another beautiful day! It was also relatively warm; maybe around -10 or -15??

Students were driving me crazy today; they're getting comfortable with me and therefore acting like little demons and trying to get away with whatever they can. Sleep will make things better.

Clumsy Cathy As Usual

This post is a little late entirely due to my laziness, but definitely warrants a bloggin' I should think. Sunday afternoon, after Saturday's walk to Murrays Lodge, we decided we hadn't had enough I guess and went for a long walk in the woods that are in view when we walk outside the house. We're also situated on the hill above the lake, so you can see it from our house even though it's about a 10 minute walk to the water. Anyhow, we followed a random snowmobile track which led to a long and winding path through the woods. It was a beautiful, clear sunny day so this made for good photo taking opportunities as well!

We found a random fire pit along the trail that we stopped to check out. It's kind of funny to see a fire built on what is basically water! As the fire burns it's also melting the snow, so it all ended up a couple feet below where it started. I wonder how hard it is to keep a fire like that going?

Funny Story: As we were walking along we heard the sound of an approaching snowmobile. He was further ahead because I'd stopped to take some photos. I stepped off the main snowmobile track to make way for the incoming ski-doer and sunk in to just below my knees. This was no problem. As the snowmobiler passed I stepped back again into the "fresh" snow by accident and was immediately in over my waist and unable to get up! I started laughing and yelling "Heeeeellllppp! I'm stuck! It's cold!!" His camera was up and it took him a while to react or say anything (and come to my aid!!!) so I realized he'd been filming the whole thing! Hahahaha... the footage is priceless. Another classic Cathy moment, but on film this time so I can be reminded of my gracefulness! Lesson learned: do not step off the trails because the snow can be very deep!