Back and Forth, Back and Forth...

"Back and forth, back and forth; I'm beginning to feel like Sisyphus!" -some merchant, Zeus Master of Olympus

Once again, I took to the task of driving back to the homeland, while Jorghnassen had the monumental task of keeping me awake and calling for rest stops at every other service station. Our primary goal was the week-long vacation in our home province. Our secondary goal was to obtain the Rav4's summer tires from Jorgh's dad in Quebec.

Our first stop was in Toronto, to attend the pre-wedding Ning fling at a Dave & Buster's out in the middle-of-nowhere-Toronto. All I know is that one of the Ikeas was next to it. (I-KEEEEE-AAAAAHHH...) I haven't seen Ning in a long time, and even then it was a brief coincidental meeting in Quebec City as she was walking in old town with her now-fiancé Steve. They're supposed to be getting married this week. So happy...! :)

After spending overnight in Toronto with my cousins, we spent all day driving to Montreal, and then I spent all evening correcting Calculus final exams. The marks had to be submitted the next morning at 8 a.m. by email, otherwise I would have had one hell of a commute. I called Davy up as soon as I arrived, certain he would be having his party, to send my regards, and he promptly told me to get our butts over there. Unfortunately, I could not complete my corrections until 10 pm.

By the time we arrived, Ian had already scuttled off, having waited all night for our arrival. On the other hand, Ivo had been asleep and appeared half-dead on our arrival. Then he slept some more. ;) We spent the rest of the evening chatting, sipping tea and whatever else was left, and singing more Beatles songs.

Checklist of Montreal/Quebec Things to Do Eat:

• eat poutine


• eat poutine from Ashtons


• buy maple syrup in cans


• buy bagels by the dozen


• eat and buy tasty bread


• buy or eat own weight in cheese and curds


• eat sushi (!?)

(The last one actually makes sense if you remember what my mum does for a living.)

My favourite thing to do with friends is to make food for them. (Heck, any excuse to get the old roomies together.) So we ended up having one supper in Montreal with homemade sushi (unfortunately not Sushi Sunday but still good).

I managed to secure some of SUMS' doorstops Calculus textbooks for the school. Another reasonable excuse to make this trip's expenses tax-deductible. :)

Eventually we made our way to Quebec, but none of my siblings could make the trip. My bro is recording a new album, so all his evenings are taken up; my sister was entertaining her 'rents-in-law. And arriving in Quebec... my mum was working. Alas, we were also booked for pre-Easter supper with Jorgh's parents and brother in downtown Quebec, so we had virtually no time to go anywhere nor do much shopping. :(

I do feel like we ate a lot though...!

I was pretty bushed by the end of the week. And I still had to drive back to Waterloo, and then the next day yesterday was the first day of school.

... also I had to stop in Toronto for about an hour or so to drop off the bags of bagels, cheese curds, and beans for my cousin. We got back in Waterloo at about 10:30 p.m. and I worked late into that night at making new lesson plans.

Ooh you can bet your sweet patootie I'm completely off my rocker. I made a class blog for my computer class and I think it shows. (In order not to let random strangers get to this blog from the other one, or vice versa, you'll have to ask me what it is.)

Ms C's Random Food Review: Barley

What: It is called barley.

Comments: One puts it in soups, like Davy showed me that one time he made us mushroom (and more) soup. I remember the giant Ivo pot in which we made enough soup to feed us for weeks afterward, and the peppercorns that had been left in the bottom for one poor sap who had the last bowl of extra peppery flavoured soup-ness. (Lil V should have had that one, knowing how tolerant I am of spices.) But the soup was good, and much of it was because of the addition of barley. I would not have thought of adding it otherwise, nor thought of putting it in nearly all the soups I can possibly add it in.

Review: A small amount in water puffs out into a lot of barley. I learned this the hard way. (When have I not learned anything the hard way...!? #@_@) I have yet to correctly proportion the dry barley:broth volumes, as every time I put a bit less it still sops up most of the broth and expands like a marshmallow in a microwave.

Personally, I don't mind having such a bloated soup full of barley, as I can't get enough of the partly crunchy texture and the way it complements vegetables. It absorbs the beefy taste in beef broth, which adds even more depth to the soup. But alas, Jorgh doesn't think soup should look like wet foodstuff + some water so I have to experiment further.

Rating: A gajillion stars!!!/5 potatoes

Montreal Blues

I was sick all of Saturday with a flu-like headache that made my head feel like it was going to explode. On Sunday, I thought I was better, although I still had lingering cold-like sniffles. It got much worse on Monday when I arrived in Montreal, because my voice started to give way to a diseased rasp. I did attend Lil V's convocation, followed by Ivo's birthday supper at Mon Nan, followed by an evening gaterhing at Davy's apartment. By then I was already slipping downhill on the voiceability of my voice box. I wanted to stay indoors for the most part of this trip, but now I think it is too late. :(

So today (and for the next few days), I am refraining from talking at all, which sucks because I spent so much time in Quebec not having anyone to talk to anyway. Ivo, Lil V and I are planning to watch the Inu Yasha movie 4 here though (although all I could manage to scrape up wasd the dub) so less talking needed. I heavily dislike being sick. :(

Above all, I blame the elementary school kids with all those germs and things (pokemon cards) they bring to school to infect everyone else. >:(

On a related note, I am sorry to have to miss my friend's (brem's wife) birthday tomorrow and having (the ability) to call and wish her such greetings.

Congratulations, Lil V!

(She knows what this means.)

Happy Birthday Ivo-kun!

Norm and Davy!

I had a devious plan. It was to organize a (reverse) surprise party for everyone (especially Norm). In fact, it was so devious that I had others do my bidding without knowing what it was for! Bwaa-ha-ha-ha-ha! Like the classical evil masterminds, I divulge my plans to you, dear readers. Here's what happened in chronological order.

Felix went to visit Davy in Seattle. Davy told Felix that he was quitting MS and coming back to Montreal. Felix told me, correctly surmising I would be ecstatic. I told Jorghnassen. Then Davy told Felix not to tell anyone. Of course, the buck stopped at Jorghnassen, since he was too busy to tell anyone else, but I was almost ready to publish a front page story in the National Post. :| In the end, we agreed not to tell anyone else since Davy wanted to surprise everyone.

The second step was to produce this surprise to everyone at the same time, otherwise it would have been impossible to keep it a secret from everyone. So I had to mastermind a party plan, which wasn't hard. The hard part was to get this plan going. I don't know how other people make parties in cities they don't currently live in, but I just had no bleeding clue.

Hence, the puppets! Now, Norm is usually the one who plans the gathering because he has the most contacts and the best ideas. On the other hand, it would be too much to ask him to do the arrangements, so I had sent out an email asking for suggestions. This was around 2 weeks ago, to ensure people would not make other plans for the event.

After a week of consultations, I was ready to get Jorghnassen to make reservations and I was about to send out a last email to confirm these things, but then Norm sent out an email to everyone, as he had gone out of his way to set up a reservation for us. He sent to people on and off the initial list (which I was expecting, since it would reach more people), thus started the confusions.

What works the best for surprises is to make sure that the planner is completely in control and the planees are not suspicious of anything off the mark. So I had to justify getting more seats than people had confirmed. (Of course, this led to more confusion after.)

In fact, it turned out no one had any idea who was coming because Norm had been waiting at the restaurant with place for exactly 8. I had counted 10, but I was also expecting more. The waiters didn't want to arrange for more if we weren't sure.

In the end, after Davy arrived (after running into Ivo and Donnah, of all things), we ended up being 14. That's the last time I'm going to organize these things! >:|

Anyway, it was enough to get (some sort of) reactions from everyone when Davy announced he quit MS. It was all worth it though to see Norm completely dumbfounded while he kept asking if we were all kidding him, and Davy showing him the newly signed lease to his new apartment downtown.

Yeah, all you suckaz who didn't make it, don't say I didn't tell you this stuff could never be repeated again. In verbatim:

It is also imperative that you attend (with whomever I haven't done
gone put on this mailing list), for the sake of an evening that will
never be reproducible again forever and ever. Even for the first two
hours or one hour. I'm serious!!! ... I mean, I'm serious.

I'm mostly sorry that I didn't write this in a 60 point font.

Year-End Update

Dear all,

Amid turkey leftovers, guest-receiving, chocolate overdoses, a new washer arrival, and a terrible, terrible mess to clean up from the delivery, I'm having a wonderful holiday. It lasts for another week, or two, or whenever. As it so happens, my long vacation is a result of a good and/or bad thing - being a supply teacher.

Anyway, I would like to start to end this year's blogging by trying to remind myself what happened over 2005. Uh...

January

Continued to work at the school. Constant reminders of why teaching is a hit-and-miss game pop up everywhere. Also, January tends to be the most depressing month due to nothing happening.

February

Ivo comes to visit and cheers me up immensely. :):):) ... Winter is also starting to look less ugly due to my first trip to the tubing place. Stupid shit happens with the landlord.

March

Nagging thoughts over purpose of obtaining two degrees.

April

The Pope dies. Why is this such a big event to me, I'm not even sure anymore... Waves of strike days further disturb the regularity of the school year at the school, not to mention the teacher turnovers during the year.

May

More of my strike escapades. 3/4 of the school disappears to the wild for a character-building camping trip, while the leftovers like myself are stranded at school to fend for ourselves.

June

Exam corrections, and biking diversions pepper my month. The anniversary of my father's death still hurts.

July

Trip to Cowtown and environs. Weddings strengthen the family bonds. Got to see Wesley. :D Also, got to meet the psycho vampire dog Bobo. :|

August

Disappointed with myself not getting a job for the school year. :( Nonetheless, I made a vow to continue working in Quebec.

September

Amazing training to run 5 km! Well, not really that amazing. I turn 25. Does that mean I'm just an old baby?

October

Amazingly completed the run. @_@ Also, amazingly obtained a driver's licence. @______@ Also, the start of a long supply teaching run...

November

Continued the long supply teaching run. Happily, it means that I shouldn't be as worried as the summer to obtain a job, hopefully for the reasons I'm thinking of. The word "pancake" keeps popping up. Eddie's grandma passes away. :(

December

Birth of PJ the 3rd. :) Along the same lines, I learned the virtues of ordering things online. The possible start of crazy buying sprees... Felix and Rachel separately visit for the holiday break. :D:D:D

---

Jorgh visits me every month or so. I also go to Montreal every so often to shower him with gifts and/or food. I mean "and."

I met many interesting people and had lots of memorable experiences. I keep reading more and more manga when I should actually try to read real books, but I find pictures and stories more attractive. Might this be the real start of a different path?

I'm so, sooo sorry that the picture came out so badly. :(
From left to right, front row: Stefan, Lisa, Donnah, Cheryl, me, Hana; middle row: Ivo, Derrick, PJ, Felix, Lil V; back row: Jesse, Stephen, Norm, Ivan. Josh was taking the picture. 

Blogging from the Dead

Happily enough, I have enjoyed the last few days (contrasted with the last entire two months). My dear Ivo-san came to Quebec this weekend to a chess tournament being held at Laval U. We spent some time yesterday at the Cochon Dingue on Cartier, which had a nice environment but a rather lacking menu. Anyway, they have fries which I'll try next time (for lunch, because their evening prices are nuts).

So in addition to having gone to a relatively relaxing trip to Village des Sports on Friday with the high school, I had the rather gut-wrenching experience of Parent-Teacher night on Wednesday. That was the first time I conducted it alone, and I was completely terrified. My favourite moments are when the parents vowed upon their wedding bands/mortgage/threat of inexistence of the child, extra work and tutelage for their son or daughter failing miserably in my class, only to have the student in question not really coming forward for any help. Fortunately, these parents do recognize that the teacher isn't one thousand percent responsible for the student's failings.

I also enjoyed feeling mildly depressed over the shortcomings of all my students at the secondary five level. Surely there are hard workers among them, are there not? Indeed, there are exactly 4 who are consistently hard workers, 3 who work sometimes, and 1 who is the class brain but isn't working even to semi-potential. Talented students, yes. Lazy asses, yes. Undesirable group, no. They're quite delightful when they're in class and at 100% working, but this is highly rare, and consequently seems disturbing when it does happen.

I didn't enjoy feeling terribly depressed over the disruptive secondary fours. I am still in pain over ritalin kid's outburst this week, having swore so profusely in class that I very seriously considered kicking him out for the entire week. Instead, I kicked him out for the rest of class, and he was blindsided by the principal outside my door.

Other events like my new two students still adjusting to the class are rather interesting. My recent QHS-departed student is a bit of a nuisance at times for disruptive behaviour, but he doesn't seem to have a strong learning disability (for the moment). The PEI-departed student is quiet and somewhat shy, but she has yet to show difficulty in content. I will be giving them a test this week for them to catch up to the level of the rest of the class.

So there you have it. I came back from the dead to write this, and I'll be rolling over and sleeping for another week or so.

It took me three hours. :) 

---

I have yet to announce the grand news to everyone, but since I'm writing stuff anyway I might as well say it. I have a replacement teaching contract at DDO for the rest of the year (I think).

Other random postings:

• My charming and remarkably charismatic ex-roomie has her own IMDB listing. It's about time!


• My mother came back from HK with a promotional VCD from this company (in chinese) which sells certain tofu products. It's one hilariously sad VCD, where a guy dressed like an anime sailor is trying to show you how to cook one of their new products in 12 different dishes. One of them involves frying smoked salmon. ('Nuf said.)

And now my favourite part of taking photos of people: I like my friends so much that I enjoy catching them on camera when they're not watching. 

I had a much better picture previously but I decided to upload this one. (... do you believe me? I wouldn't.) 

I admit, Davie doesn't look like he's sulking in this picture. ;) 

A poor attempt at camera fun. 

I Took a Trip

I spent the last several days out in the sunny south called Montreal. How warm it was compared to this Quebec. Yeah. No. Well, somewhere in between. Actually, when I got back last night, it had snowed here at some point, so there were some icy patches and white fluff lying about here and there.

I managed to burn myself while making supper on Thursday for us (including Jorgh's brother and girlfriend). Blotches of hot oil will immediately cause burns because it doesn't evaporate and likes to spread itself on your body. You know, like hot oil massages. Mmm mmm... ... I'm not a masochist. Really.

But it was worth it! I made a butternut squash soup, courtesy of the Kraft Kitchens. Basically, since Caroline is vegetarian, I figured that she wouldn't mind a hearty soup made of a local (doubtful) gourd. And I admit that I took a long time to finish cooking the stir fry and the tomato-egg dishes, but only because the stove element seemed to be malfunctioning.

But I was upset with Jorgh's brother's remarks after he volunteered for the dish duty, It fell along the lines of "WTF if I had known it'd be this messy/long/inconvenient then I'd have just ordered out." And my reaction was more like a muffled "OMFGWTF IS HE ASKING FOR A BEATING LATER FFFF???"

Seroiusly, this is *not* what you want to hear after spending 3 hours in the kitchen.

Tho the tables were turned on him on Saturday, because he and his girl friend decided to repay (?) us by making a spinach flaky thing. (I forgot what it's called.) It took them 2 hours to figure out what to buy, and 3 hours to cook it. But strangely (and masochistically) enough, at the end, he also said the same remark as above. I think if his girl friend wasn't seriously second-guessing herself before this incident, then she probably is doing it now.

Or not. I find couples which compose of one strong-minded character will have the other quite complacent and flexible to a point. The stronger one extreme, the more the other will compensate to the other extreme.

At least that's my experience...

I had lots of fun seeing my old SUMS-ite friends on Friday night for supper. Norm, Vito, Derrick, Ivo, Donnah, Jorgh and I partook of the chinatown 8 person peking duck meal (while Davey, Lisa's younger brother, sulked and claimed he wasn't hungry but we forced him to eat something just for the sake of it).

Afterwards, we had a romp in Old Montreal with ice cream, and continued our rampage downtown to Tim Hortons on Rene Levesque, near University. It was a great evening. :D

I think I have pictures. I will get around to uploading a few later on today. (I have an excuse this time!)