Update from Chisasibi

Packed up, said goodbye to teachers at school and got driven to the airport by J., the principal. Ate at airport restaurant - cheese, lettuce and tomato sandwich, coleslaw, onion rings and real Tropicana juice (total $13) . Flew into Chisasibi this afternoon, napped most of the half hour flight. Perfectly clear skies and good flying weather. We only paid $420 in excess baggage, versus $560 when we first came.

Chilled at the apartment, happy to have Internet where YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr, Dropbox and Blogger are not blocked. Went to the Northern to get groceries, spent $96. Everybody and their mother were there -Easter weekend coming so no chance tomorrow. I got some chick'n nuggets and tofu! Avocados were pretty expensive so I held off. Not been eating as well the past 2 weeks as we were working 12-hour days with little free time. Looking forward to doing some proper cooking again.

Tomorrow, E. and C. are driving me to Waskaganish. I am sad to leave S. and A. Us three girls were getting along perfectly - it is hard to find coworkers that you work so well with. A. and I will be going back to Whapmagoostui after the Goose Break. It has been awesome up in Whap. Kids are lovely. The only thing that drives me crazy is inconsistent attendance. It is normally to have no one show up on a Monday morning because they were partying on the weekend. Sometimes attendance is 50%

Update on computer: Someone was suppose to bring my new MacBook Air from Collingwood to Waskag. Now departure is delayed and I won't see it until the 16th ... when my online course is already over! I was expecting to get it this weekend so I could finish the last part of my course. I was so upset when I found out about the delay I started crying at school. I just felt so frustrated, trying to do my online course with my laptop screen burning out and practically researching and calling Apple for 4 days before I could just ORDER a new computer. Yeah, whatever ... first world problems. I realize that when I have not been eating well I get more emotional. It's just part of overall mental, emotionally and physical health - it's all linked together.

Bed now. Another Travel day tomorrow.

Last Day with Students

LEGO Mindstorm

It doesn't feel like work when you sit around and help kids play with LEGO all day!

MacBook Air

Yay! After 4 days of phone calls to Apple.com, the order finally went through and is being prepped for shipping!

Stupid Firewall

Although I am blogging intermittently and publishing my posts from Dashboard, I can't actually look at my blog.

Today I fed the kids spaghetti with TVP. Nobody knew that they weren't eating meat. Hahahahaha!!!!

Sitting in the computer lab at 11 pm in the school alone, still working on an AQ assignment. Less than 2 weeks before my course is done!!!

Awesome Week (despite computer issues)

It's been a very productive week so far! Highlights of the week:

• We have been getting a steady stream of Sec IV students (Grade 10s) daily!
• T. made pizzas from scratch for us. There was a vegetarian for me too! Monday pizza night was busy and we didn't leave until after 9 pm. I actually had students do a lab with me from 7-9 pm!
• I finally got 2 Sec IV A students! The Bs have been good but we have been struggling with getting the As out. They are the older students who have repeated Grade 10, some a few times. They are more jaded and likely not going to come back to school if they fail high school another time.
• S. has been working her ass off. She had two students writing essays with her until 11:30 pm last night!
• I ran a Rocks and Mineral workshop by myself! S. led it in the morning on Tuesday with the Grade 4s and then I did it solo in the afternoon with the 5s. S. and I split it up for the Grade 6s.
• When I get serious, kids listen to me because they know I am annoyed / stern / strict. It's sort of funny that they will pay attention to me. I am better at "yelling" than A. and S. I had to "yell" at some kids for S. when they weren't listening to her during a robots workshop.
• I finally ordered a refurbished MacBook Air to Collingwood. I will meet it in Waskaganish when I head there in 2 weeks. I got a small teacher's discount!

And last but not least:

I love students shouting my name and saying hi to me everywhere I go!

I Just Wanna Computer

Frig!!

I'm trying to order the Macair and Apple doesn't ship to PO boxes!

I refuse to go to the Northern and buy a laptop there.