Christmas!

Happy Christmas everyone! As the days were counting down to the end of the Autumn term, I honestly was getting more excited about the 20th of December (our last day of classes) than Christmas itself. Students were getting on each other’s nerves very easily over the past few weeks, verbally bashing each other. I even had to break up a physical fight during my lesson of one of my better behaved classes. In the last week, I had students come into class, asking for a free lesson because it was “almost” the last lesson before Christmas. (“Almost the last lesson” could mean 4 lessons before the end of term.) Added to this I had extra marking to do as well I got wrangled in performing with the choir in the school’s Christmas concert. I didn’t even have a chance to rehearse. I just stood in the back and sang the carols I knew, or learned as I went along. I remember back home, in a school of about 300 students, our Candle Light Services would be spread over two evenings because we didn’t have enough room for all the parents, siblings, teachers, friends and community members in one night. I’d say over 400+ people would have seen the performances over the two nights. Well, here in a school of 550, we had about 60 people show up. And we sang carols to synthesized piano with a funky beat. I’m not saying it was bad – just different than what I’m used to. I have also learned how many carols that I know have a totally different melody (and/or harmony) in the UK. I also tried to adapt an Essex accent while singing to make some sort of attempt to blend in. (“Follow now in merry measure” becomes “Faul-loaü now in merry meh-ZHA” with follow going through 3 vowel sounds in the second syllable. I’m glad I was standing in the back with 3 other teachers.

I am living the most north than I’ve ever been: around the 52nd parallel. Contrary to intuition, it does not mean that it’s colder here than back home. The weather we have been getting over the past month (by my standards) is rather mild: day time highs of around 8 °C. It does get quite windy here, though, which makes it feel colder. Instead of snow we have been getting rain. Fortunately, when it comes, it often rains at night when I don’t have to be outside. The locals are complaining about this cold snap, and how forecasts predict that it is to get even colder in January. I think they would have a tough time adjusting to a proper Canadian winter. Being so far north does have an expected difference: the length of daylight feels considerably shorter here. These days I normally arrive in school in the dark and leave in the dark. The street lamps turn off at 8:00 a.m. – about 30 minutes before the students arrive, and turn on again at 3:30 – about 20 minutes after the students leave. I’m glad the winter solstice has now past and I can anticipate the days to slowly get longer.

The last couple of days in class had some important bright moments - one being that I finally was granted loan of a laptop from the school. This means that I can do actual computer work at home in my preparations of my classes. With the CD ROM, I finally have access to several CD’s worth of resources that I brought from home but I could never call up because the computers at school don’t have a CD ROM. I have also been allowed to borrow a digital camera from the school for the Christmas holidays. I will bring both this camera and my other camera long with me on my trip to visit friends in Switzerland and Germany. When I returned from the last day at school, I was welcomed by two personal letters from Canada.
I am currently celebrating Christmas at the London Mennonite Centre for the next couple of days before heading off south to see how much German I still remeber. I'll put in some pictures in my photo alubum for you to see when I get back.

Kevin