Alive and Well

Hey all, I just wanted to give a bit of a progress report. All is well for me on placement. I am settling in to my new school and new classes, I teach my first lessons tomorrow. It will surely be a riveting lesson on the Sine Law. I am not nearly so anxious about it as I was last week. I think that I had some pretty awesome people (one in particular...you know who you are, and not just because you are psychic) calm me down and assure me that I will do just fine.

It's kind of funny, I'm normally a pretty relaxed guy and I don't tend to get stressed very often. I think because of that I don't really know how to deal with stress when it comes my way.

Speaking of stress, something that was mildly stressful but overall hilarious happened to me on Sunday. You see, I am at my dad's place but I am home all alone since the parental Unit is off in Mexico for another week...jerks. I spent the day being both domestic and handy, I was cleaning up the kitchen and shovelling the snow off the porch. Then when I go to make myself dinner I notice that the oven is not working. I look around and quickly notice that the microwave display is very low and so is the light on the fridge. Upon further examination some of the lights in the area around the kitchen are dim as well and the TV is not working. I look around, go get my super handy neighbour Ken, and we take a look at things. It turns out that there is not enough power coming into the house and everything that is on the left side of the circuit breaker is working but everything on the right side is not. Of course, the furnace, the oven and the water pump are all on the right side.

I realize that there is not much that I can do about it on a Friday night so I rig an extension cord from the fridge to a plug that is working, I make some awesome vegan chili on the barbeque, get the wood stove working overtime and I go to my first day of placement without showering. I figure what better way to have my students remember me than as Mr. Smelly-face?

Of course, at this point my dad calls me from Mexico to brag about the weather. Seeing as how I am in a house without a functioning furnace or hot water, I am really impressed with myself for not swearing at him.

This of course furthers my belief that I am living in the Glen Show and currently being observed by people all over the world. Some days I seem to be the king of Random Adventures.

And to think, I had been worried about teaching. Clearly, being concerned about warmth and personal hygiene takes precedence over such trivial matters. So if any of my NipFriends are reading this and you are getting stressed about placement, just turn your power off for a while and see how you manage. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised.

Until next time,

G