Grotto Creek-The Rocky Mountains

We spent the day in a beautiful creek in the Rocky mountains. It was completely frozen over and we edged our way up the ice to see a frozen waterfall. It was really gorgeous and the weather was perfect for a hike!

I got my hair wet!!

It lashed rain last night and it's been raining on and off all day today. It was so strange to get my hair wet involentarily-this hasn't happened for a while...The rain here is so disgusting that it's really not nice to get wet in it. My car is filthy now!
We had a huge Thanksgiving meal in school today. Parents brought in dishes and we stuffed ourselves. I even have leftovers for dinner tonight!! :)
That's good seeing as I need to get packed for Calgary...

Cold in LA and other ramblings...

Today it is cold in LA/Santa Monica...I had to turn the heating on in my classroom. I have the AC on now though, cos it got too warm. It's a quiet week this week because it a three day week and on Wednesday we're having a big Thanksgiving feast in the school, which I'm really looking forward to. Then it's off to Calgary on Thursday morning, which apparantly is the right time to go because traffic on the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving is always the busiest in the year...I dread trying to just get home from work...
I don't know if I have enough warm clothes for Calgary. We may go ice skating or skiing!! I have a big bruise on my knee from ice skating on Saturday which I'm rather proud of, but I should probably try to not bang my knees on the ice too much... I may need to borrow some warm clothes from my Canadian friend. We Irish people aren't too into our warm clothes despite the weather we usually have :)

Christmas Shopping in California

My Apartment

From left, clockwise: Me, Debbie, Tiff, Sarah, Yoonah, Becky

Introduction to the girls in my apartment:

Becky:
Becky is Andrew's former apartment mate, Pete's, girlfriend. Pete's in dental school now in New York so our roles have reversed from me and Andrew being long distance and she and Pete living in the same building to she and Pete being long distance to me and Andrew living in the same building-it's strange :) Becky is a part time student/part time dental assistant and is applying for dental school next year. Becky has a crazy streak and is a lot of fun :)

Debbie:
Debbie moved into the apartment just after me. She's studying linguistics in UCLA, it's her final year. Debbie is our resident chef and can be found most days in the kitchen cooking up a storm. Debbie usually has to put up with me barging into her room to talk most evenings :)

Sarah:
Sarah was the one who had to let me into the apartment regularly before I officially moved in. Sarah is a part time student while applying for nursing school. Sarah is my shopping buddy. She loves getting second hand dresses for really cheap and doing stuff to them to make them look really nice. She's a very brave shopper :)

Tiff:
Tiff is our resident Electrical Engineer (I have to have one of them nearby at all times :) ) She's doing her final few classes in UCLA this year. Tiff is great, she's always ready to help, however don't try to get her to do anything that even resembles girlyness-she'll run a mile! :) She can make a great gift tag though :P

Yoonah:
Yoonah and I have lots in common :D Well Debbie has a lot in common with us also :P Yoonah is working in a lab in UCLA and she's also applying for graduate school, she wants to be a physician's aid. Yoonah's great fun, she and Becky have the funniest interactions :)

We really get on well in our apartment. I'm really thankful for a nice bunch of girls to live with. They really make our apartment feel like home and I feel like I can talk to any of them about anything. I think this a pretty rare thing for a house of six girls :)

I was too vain to pull a funny face :)

Election Day

So today is election day. It began with rain this morning, and by this morning I mean 3am which means that when I left home at 7:30 the ground was wet from rain instead of sprinklers and the sun was out again and most of the roads were already dry and there had been road accidents already.... The queues at election points here in LA are stretching 2 hours already-there are too many people here! It's really strange for me not to be able to vote here cos I love voting usually and am usually caught up in the excitement of being able to vote and then watch the polls come in. Everyone here is shouting for Obama and 'No' on Prop 8. I dread to see reactions should either of those things go against them...
I'm looking forward to an interesting couple of days.....

Dim Sum

Andrew and I went for MSG free dimsum on Saturday with one of my colleagues and her boyfriend. The boys had great fun listening to our work talk :D

Visit to San Francisco

We visited San Francisco a couple of weekends ago to see Andrew's two sisters, brother-in-law and nephew. We really enjoyed our time. His nephew, Matthew, is really cute and really sweet and the weather was lovely-which is not always the case in San Francisco!

International Fair

We had our international fair today in school. Each of the children in my classroom had to research a country and set up a display board with artifacts. Today the parents and grandparents came around and looked at the displays and tasted the food that the children brought in. My room was very interesting. I had projects on Egypt, Denmark, France and Switzerland, Iran, Australia, Spain, Mexico, Russia and Japan. The child who was studying Iran (Persia) had his grandmother make some Persian food and also brought some delicious Persian pastries to his display. They let me take the leftovers home :) The privileges of being the class teacher :) Andrew came to have a look around the classrooms too and try out some of the food. It was really good fun, but also really exhausting!
I'm ready for bed!

St. John's Hospital

I spent the afternoon in the "ER" in St. John's Hospital Santa Monica today with one of my colleagues who fractured and dislocated his elbow. The hospital was like a hotel with Valet parking and everything. I was wondering if I'd need to pay an entrance fee :P

Wildfires in North LA

I don't know if people have been seeing news reports about this but yesterday most of my colleagues were glued to the television watching the fires in Porter Ranch which is just north of LA. The strange thing for me is that I've been in this area several times. I bought my car up there, in fact the road we took to the guy's house is the very road that was blocked off for emergency vehicles yesterday. Also, Andrew and I were in Porter Ranch on Saturday for a picnic. It seems strange to me to be so close to the wildfires that I usually hear about from thousands of miles away.
Yesterday two of my colleagues had to leave work early because they were being evacuated because of the fires. I hope their properties aren't damaged and that this evacuation will only be temporary!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-me-wildfire14-2008oct14,0,2457219.story

Tickets Home!

I booked tickets home for Christmas!! I hope to arrive home on Sunday December 21st and leave again January 3rd. I hope to get to see lots of you when I'm around!

I did it!!

I passed my driving test!!
Matthew McBride is so so cute!!!

Weekend

I'm off for the weekend to San Francisco. Andrew's sister Michelle and her husband and little boy will be there. Andrew's other sister Amy lives in San Fran as well so it will be a little sibling get together that I'll be tagging along with :) Andrew's very excited to be seeing his nephew again. I'm looking forward to sizing up Naomi's future husband-they've been matched since birth :P

Hot!

My goodness! What's going on in this city? It's the 2nd of October and the temperature is 36C! This kind of heat should not be allowed, and we're right by the sea-so it should be cooler like! Today's a beach day but not for me...
I thought I'd give an outline of my day-it might be interesting for teachers at home to see.
I get into school at 7:30 ish! I have an hour of prep before the children come in. I get so much done in that hour it's great cos a lot of staff are not in yet and I think your brain works better first thing in the morning. Classes start at 8:30. We have class straight from 8:30 to 12 without a break. The children can take a snack if they wish, but usually we have a lot of work to get through so we just keep working. At 12 I have a 30 minute break-and that's 30 minutes exactly cos I have to relieve another teacher from yard duty at 12:30. I'm on yard duty from 12:30 to 1:00 then it's inside for afternoon enrichment classes.
Some days I teach history to the younger children and World Literature to the older children, on Thursdays I teach art appreciation to all the students. 2 days I don't take any afternoon enrichment classes so I am free to get planning and administration done.
On Mondays I usually stay in work until 6 getting all my planning done for the week, every other day I stay until 3:30 or 4:00.
On my way home I often have to do some shopping (I love Trader Joe's). Or else Andrew's dragging me out for a run-he won't manage today though-it's ridiculously hot! I make dinner (this is when I miss my mother the most :P ) and then I clean up and maybe relax for a little while and try to get to bed by 10-this doesn't happen much...
On Thursdays Andrew and I have our bible study with a group of people who live in South West LA and then on Fridays we have another bible study/service with another group of people in Westwood.
That's my day, and here's a photo of our first bible study meeting:

Ice Skating

Naomi may be learning to walk at last, but I feel like I'm learning all over again - on ice. Andrew gave me my first lesson today:

Andrew's Birthday

For Andrew's birthday we went whale watching on Newport Beach. Newport Beach is like the Kinsale of the Los Angeles area, really beautiful. We got to see a fin whale, which is one size smaller than a blue whale. It was amazing to see the whale turning in the water and spotting the spurt of water through its blow hole from afar. Seeing such a magnificent creature makes you marvel again at God's wonderful creation. We want to go whale watching again in March when there is an influx of grey whales to Newport Beach area. To see all of the photos we took that day click here.

Santa Monica Montessori School

Here's some photos of the things we staff get up to in Santa Monica Montessori school such as getting a heavily pregnant staff member to demonstrate an earthquake drill and taking random photocopies while posing for photographs in the staffroom....

Stuff

Hi, I know I haven't updated this in a while. Today I've been here 2 months exactly. I'm really tired, long weekend I think. I'm very excited to hear that Naomi's walking, I want to see a video of her!! This weekend is Andrew's birthday so I might have some photos of his birthday celebrations.
For now, here's some photos of my classroom













Language Corner



My messy desk and shelves....



















Culture Materials









My classroom with the Math(s) wall behind

Andrew and Sharla Fanous Wedding

Andrew and I were at a wedding in Ottawa. Here are some photos: