What is new with me?
What’s new with me you ask?
It’s been close to two months since I last posted up on this blog. It’s not for a lack of things going on in my life…perhaps it’s the opposite…because let me assure you life has been very hectic. I’ll do my best to bring you all up to speed.
February-
The hockey season continued unabated. I started finding myself working the games at Braehead, the big rink in Glasgow where the Paisley Pirates have moved to. I suppose as the local linesman I made sense, but I got sick of spending so many weekends there. I spent 7 straight weekends at the Pirates games…fun as it was I would have appreciated a change in venue.
I started my nursery placement and it was a lot of fun. They were busy days…playing with 40, 3 and 4 year olds can be more than a little draining let me assure you. However, the teachers were all very supportive of my efforts and seemed enthusiastic to help me. I got a nice review from them, so that appreciated. The best story from the 9 days in placement was the little boy who suffered from a learning disability ( he had developmental delay and could hardly speak). He took an immediate liking to me because I was a man…to be honest most of the boys liked having me around. However, this little boy liked me so much that he decided that he wanted to hang on my shoulders…which was fine…until he pooped his pants. Yeah…the wee one pooped his pants…he was only 3 after all…but it was a bit of shock to my system.
On the plus side Dave Humphrys stopped by “sunny” Glasgow for a few days. I think he appreciated being in a modern society after his trip to Africa climbing mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya. I met him in the pouring rain on Tuesday night (the 27th) and had to leave him to his own devices largely because I was also in placement. However, I think he had a good time and I did my best to help him enjoy.
March-
Dave stayed until the 5th of March and we celebrated the weekend by heading out to Stavca, a Russian themed bar on Sauciehall street. Let me assure you, I don’t usually head out and so this was a special occasion. It ended up with us wandering around the residence, well “augmented” and settling down for a midnight snack in the flat of some of the girls. Dave fell asleep…so Ed and I left him there…silly fool! He was woken up several hours later by some of the girls who did not recognize the giant sleeping on their couch…and Dave, being well “augmented”, could only respond “ummm…Bruce’s Friend…apartment?” The girls were nice and sent him in the right direction…priceless.
Hockey started to wind down. The pro games were almost over for the season, which suited me fine, but the last three in March saw me showing the ropes to my replacement. Young Scotty Dalgleish is only 17 years old and has only been reffing for a year and half but he has been picked to work the Elite league next season out of Edinburgh. Well, he was getting a taste of what the “show” was all about and I was supposed to show him the ropes…in Canada we call this “babysitting” although that isn’t exactly fair to Scotty. He’ll be fine, but it sort of left me wondering why I was being charged with such a task. I’ll do it…I don’t much mind…but surely the logical choice would have been the guy he’ll be working with next season.
I started my last placement with my P3 class. I’m at the same school as the nursery was at…just across the road. That’s a good deal for me because it’s a nice school and the train runs straight there. I walked in to the school and asked initially to which class I was supposed to be in…and nobody really seemed to know. They called the office and after three calls they finally got the answer. Swell. The class is nice although I will have a harder time planning lessons. In my class are several students who have significant learning difficulties including an Autistic boy, another who suffered brain damage as an infant, a dyslexic girl, and other issues. However, the teacher seems nice and prepared to help me do well at this. Now it’s just up to me to do my work and to be a good teacher.
Last but not least, my parents came to visit me. I felt bad that I couldn’t spend more time with them, but I did enjoy seeing them while they were here. I think they enjoyed the time in Scotland because on their last visit they had avoided Glasgow. So, a few nice meals with them and some news from home and they too had to return back to Canada. A little sad, but I’ll be home soon.
April-
April started with us getting off school. We have a two week break around Easter and so I took the opportunity to do a little travelling. Ed and I went to Dublin on the 2nd and spent a few days in Ireland. The weather was a amazing and I loved the city. I would certainly go back again. We saw most of the major attractions in town and walked all over the city. I liked the National Museum of Ireland who had a very interesting exhibit on the Irish Rebellion of 1916. I also liked the Temple Bar district where you were able to experience authentic Irish music and pub culture without the sense that you were being trampled. It was very nice.
On the 5th Ed and I flew to Paris and experienced all that France has to offer. We visited Vimy Ridge on the Friday, which was spectacular because the weather was fabulous, the 90th anniversary was fast approaching, and the place was a hive of activity. The voyage to Vimy was ok…I rented a car and that worked out ok, but the ride home was an adventure. It took me 2 hours to negotiate the last 15km of highway and city street to return the car. It got a little wild highlighted by me breaking the law with U-turns, taking bus lanes, illegal turns, and some daring manoeuvres. However, once Vimy was taken care of we turned to the Metro as our primary form of transportation and got everywhere we wanted. The Louvre, Musee D’orsay, the Eiffel tower, Arc de Triomphe, and pretty much everything else eventually found themselves into my camera sights. My personal highlight was visiting Napoleon’s crypt housed at l’hotel des Invalides. For someone who lost the war Napoleon has the single grandest crypt I have ever seen. All his generals surround his coffin…which is 5 coffins one inside the other and housed in a Cathedral gilded with 12kg of gold leaf. Kind of Pompous if you ask me…but that’s ok…I didn’t wage a war across Europe either.
After Paris I returned to Glasgow long enough to sleep for 6 hours and then I was back on a plane…but this time back to Canada for a short visit. My visit was to Fredericton where I visited Katie. It was a nice visit and the change of pace was good…a good deal less hectic. I needed the respite and a chance to spend a little quality time back in Canada.
So…I’m back to Glasgow…and 6 weeks of teaching. The end is in sight…it seems hard to imagine that in about 9 weeks I’ll be back in Canada for good, but I’m looking forward to it. Scotland has been great and there will be a few last adventures before I’m done…but I’ll be happy to set foot in Canada and stay there. It just seems hard that when I return I’ll be a trained teacher and looking for work…it seems surreal.
It’s been close to two months since I last posted up on this blog. It’s not for a lack of things going on in my life…perhaps it’s the opposite…because let me assure you life has been very hectic. I’ll do my best to bring you all up to speed.
February-
The hockey season continued unabated. I started finding myself working the games at Braehead, the big rink in Glasgow where the Paisley Pirates have moved to. I suppose as the local linesman I made sense, but I got sick of spending so many weekends there. I spent 7 straight weekends at the Pirates games…fun as it was I would have appreciated a change in venue.
I started my nursery placement and it was a lot of fun. They were busy days…playing with 40, 3 and 4 year olds can be more than a little draining let me assure you. However, the teachers were all very supportive of my efforts and seemed enthusiastic to help me. I got a nice review from them, so that appreciated. The best story from the 9 days in placement was the little boy who suffered from a learning disability ( he had developmental delay and could hardly speak). He took an immediate liking to me because I was a man…to be honest most of the boys liked having me around. However, this little boy liked me so much that he decided that he wanted to hang on my shoulders…which was fine…until he pooped his pants. Yeah…the wee one pooped his pants…he was only 3 after all…but it was a bit of shock to my system.
On the plus side Dave Humphrys stopped by “sunny” Glasgow for a few days. I think he appreciated being in a modern society after his trip to Africa climbing mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya. I met him in the pouring rain on Tuesday night (the 27th) and had to leave him to his own devices largely because I was also in placement. However, I think he had a good time and I did my best to help him enjoy.
March-
Dave stayed until the 5th of March and we celebrated the weekend by heading out to Stavca, a Russian themed bar on Sauciehall street. Let me assure you, I don’t usually head out and so this was a special occasion. It ended up with us wandering around the residence, well “augmented” and settling down for a midnight snack in the flat of some of the girls. Dave fell asleep…so Ed and I left him there…silly fool! He was woken up several hours later by some of the girls who did not recognize the giant sleeping on their couch…and Dave, being well “augmented”, could only respond “ummm…Bruce’s Friend…apartment?” The girls were nice and sent him in the right direction…priceless.
Hockey started to wind down. The pro games were almost over for the season, which suited me fine, but the last three in March saw me showing the ropes to my replacement. Young Scotty Dalgleish is only 17 years old and has only been reffing for a year and half but he has been picked to work the Elite league next season out of Edinburgh. Well, he was getting a taste of what the “show” was all about and I was supposed to show him the ropes…in Canada we call this “babysitting” although that isn’t exactly fair to Scotty. He’ll be fine, but it sort of left me wondering why I was being charged with such a task. I’ll do it…I don’t much mind…but surely the logical choice would have been the guy he’ll be working with next season.
I started my last placement with my P3 class. I’m at the same school as the nursery was at…just across the road. That’s a good deal for me because it’s a nice school and the train runs straight there. I walked in to the school and asked initially to which class I was supposed to be in…and nobody really seemed to know. They called the office and after three calls they finally got the answer. Swell. The class is nice although I will have a harder time planning lessons. In my class are several students who have significant learning difficulties including an Autistic boy, another who suffered brain damage as an infant, a dyslexic girl, and other issues. However, the teacher seems nice and prepared to help me do well at this. Now it’s just up to me to do my work and to be a good teacher.
Last but not least, my parents came to visit me. I felt bad that I couldn’t spend more time with them, but I did enjoy seeing them while they were here. I think they enjoyed the time in Scotland because on their last visit they had avoided Glasgow. So, a few nice meals with them and some news from home and they too had to return back to Canada. A little sad, but I’ll be home soon.
April-
April started with us getting off school. We have a two week break around Easter and so I took the opportunity to do a little travelling. Ed and I went to Dublin on the 2nd and spent a few days in Ireland. The weather was a amazing and I loved the city. I would certainly go back again. We saw most of the major attractions in town and walked all over the city. I liked the National Museum of Ireland who had a very interesting exhibit on the Irish Rebellion of 1916. I also liked the Temple Bar district where you were able to experience authentic Irish music and pub culture without the sense that you were being trampled. It was very nice.
On the 5th Ed and I flew to Paris and experienced all that France has to offer. We visited Vimy Ridge on the Friday, which was spectacular because the weather was fabulous, the 90th anniversary was fast approaching, and the place was a hive of activity. The voyage to Vimy was ok…I rented a car and that worked out ok, but the ride home was an adventure. It took me 2 hours to negotiate the last 15km of highway and city street to return the car. It got a little wild highlighted by me breaking the law with U-turns, taking bus lanes, illegal turns, and some daring manoeuvres. However, once Vimy was taken care of we turned to the Metro as our primary form of transportation and got everywhere we wanted. The Louvre, Musee D’orsay, the Eiffel tower, Arc de Triomphe, and pretty much everything else eventually found themselves into my camera sights. My personal highlight was visiting Napoleon’s crypt housed at l’hotel des Invalides. For someone who lost the war Napoleon has the single grandest crypt I have ever seen. All his generals surround his coffin…which is 5 coffins one inside the other and housed in a Cathedral gilded with 12kg of gold leaf. Kind of Pompous if you ask me…but that’s ok…I didn’t wage a war across Europe either.
After Paris I returned to Glasgow long enough to sleep for 6 hours and then I was back on a plane…but this time back to Canada for a short visit. My visit was to Fredericton where I visited Katie. It was a nice visit and the change of pace was good…a good deal less hectic. I needed the respite and a chance to spend a little quality time back in Canada.
So…I’m back to Glasgow…and 6 weeks of teaching. The end is in sight…it seems hard to imagine that in about 9 weeks I’ll be back in Canada for good, but I’m looking forward to it. Scotland has been great and there will be a few last adventures before I’m done…but I’ll be happy to set foot in Canada and stay there. It just seems hard that when I return I’ll be a trained teacher and looking for work…it seems surreal.
Anyway...that's all for now. I'll try to do better on my posts so that you can all be kept up to date.
So long from Scotland,
Bruce
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These are some of the photos taken on my travels.
posted by Bruce @ 11:11 AM
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