| Before I begin, I find it odd that my husband leaves messages prompting me to update my LJ when he gets "updates" on my life everyday. I suppose many of you out there who still actually visit my blog on the rare occasion are disappointed each time you reach my page only to see that I'm still "getting married in 20 days." Well, it has been nearly 3 months since being married and it's been 3 glorious months. It's wonderful having someone to converse with who cares so deeply about even the most mundane things in my life, cooking with him, coming home to a place that's vacuumed and to fresh laundry folded on the bed ready to be put away, cooking and eating together, spending a day here and there visiting random nearby places together, having someone to warm up the bed for me...simply living with the love of my life; is a beautiful thing. What I also absolutely enjoy is the freedom to invite people over without feeling like you're bothering anyone else in the house. The other night, we had 6 of our friends over for some games till 12:30 at night. And tonight, his cousins are coming over to hang out. Great fun!
I often here that the first year of marriage is always the hardest but it hasn't yet been the case. So far so good. We've definitely learned a lot, that's for sure. Thankfully, it's all been enjoyable! | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment   |
| Remember those days when you thought the teachers had it easy because all they had to do was create the work and then mark them? I'm in my second year of teaching and I'm beginning to wish I were the student. Ok...maybe not. But tempting especially as I sit here at the end of a long weekend with a pile of marking waiting to be completed. The fact that I'm even on LJ updating my blog tells you how much I really want to do this marking! Alright, time to change the attitude. Time to want to mark. Time to get it over with. bah! Well, at least at the end of the day, I'm being paid to work and I'm not a starving student in debt.
*trying to convince myself that marking can be fun...*
It's not working! Who am I kidding, the fun of marking wore off when I received 60 compositions, 30 projects and 30 quizzes all in a one week last year. Not to mention the other 60 compositions and 30 tests over Christmas break that same semester. And to think that I even wrote personalized comments for each composition!! Not what I call an ideal Christmas. I guess it was the eager-first-year-teacher syndrome! This past Christmas I didn't have compositions and tests to mark but some projects. Not quite so bad. But after much "reflection", I've concluded to never give compositions and huge projects before any holiday ever again. Jason, you'll remind me, right?!
Ok, I neeeeeeeeeeeeeeed to get this marking done before the weekend is over. motivation, discipline, concentration.... and GO!
*drags feet* | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| It's always a relief when embarrassing things happen without an audience.
I have a big black chair at work with pointless, right angled armrests. As I went to go sit down at the end of the day, the bottom part of my back pocket got caught on the armrest. Not knowing this, I moved toward the center of the chair and heard "tsssssssssssssssssss". *PANIC!!* I touched my jeans. There was at least a 3" tear and I felt like my bum was hanging out! I hadn't quite finished my day and needed to get things accomplished around the school before going home. But how on earth was I going to go anywhere now?! I thought about my PE sweatshirt...that could cover my bum! but, of course, that was one of the things that I needed to go pick up because I'd accidentally left it in the gym after PE. Do I walk around the school with a binder covering up my bum? *ugh* Then I looked down at my school bag - saving grace! I have a "mailman" bag. I flung that over my shoulder, covered my bum and made my way around the school without anyone noticing anything but with the fear that my bag might get knocked and my bum revealed to the world of Charles Best. Thankfully not. Sadly, they were my favourite jeans. *sigh* Time to shop for a new pair! | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| I generally always have great weekends but this weekend topped them all! Why? Because Jason and I got engaged!! My faithful readers, you're probably wondering how it happened (or you're my new fiancé hoping to see a post about it!) It is definitely post-worthy so here it is in brief.
On Saturday, we went snowshoeing. He made it seem like I had planned what to do that day (so not to make it seem like a planned engagement event) and led me to think that an engagement was coming later in time. Then we took some pictures during our trek, at which point he complained about his hand hurting and possibly had something in it (which actually did happen a month ago when we went mountain biking - so it was believable). He said he would look in the first aid kit for tweezers. Meanwhile, I was playing with the camera as I waited for him to take them out and didn't even realize he was taking out a ring box. I was busy playing with his mom's new camera when I saw something out of the corner of my eye; I did a double-take thinking "Is that what i think it is?!" I realized a split second later when he started opening the box that he was down on one knee and asking me to marry him! And of course, I said YES! :)
Beautiful, huh? *love-struck sigh* | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| Apparently test taking provides the perfect opportunity for students to clear their schnoz with their digits....'cause apparently no one is looking...?! I had two students in two different classes do this during their test today! Teachers see it all, peeps! Yes, we can also see you examining your nose nuggets.
Note to self: must not touch face or eat with hands while marking and must wash hands after marking tests! | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Once in a while, I participate in the sport the students are learning. But to give students full opportunity to play, I only join in if the teams are uneven in some way (usually in numbers). This week, there's been an even number of students and thus, no opportunity to play. And of all sports, it's FLOOR HOCKEY, one of my all time favourite sports! I'm itching so badly to play!! *sigh* | | comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
| Teaching high school always has it's amusing moments.
"I'm manly! Look, facial hair - it's there! I just shaved yesterday; that's why you can't really see much...but look! Feel it!" | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| Calling parents can always be an interesting experience. Yesterday, I phoned up one parent whose child continually disrupts the class, particularly during instructional time. Upon addressing the concern, she immediately responded, "It looks like it's time to adjust his meds." I couldn't believe what I'd just heard. Apparently to some, behaviour is a medical problem and not a choice on the kid's part. Anyway, after a rather lengthy discussion, we concluded that she would speak to him as a means to change his behaviour before dealing with the situation on a medical level. Thank God!
I'm really learning a lot about boys through my PE class. As much as I think some of them are truly great athletes, the majority of them are so quick to put others down and/or do a lot of not-so-well-thought-out things. Not only that, I'm currently teaching a wrestling unit; being small and a female, teaching guys how to wrestle is nothing short of a challenge. Just because they're boys they think they know how to do it all, or at least better than me, a female PE teacher who's half their size. To them, taking pointers from me means surrendering their pride, especially in front of their fellow, also hormonal, friends. Funny enough, the girls have beat them every time in setting up and putting away the awkward 200lb wrestling mats. Though they're less skilled, girls seem to listen and respond much better; they also communicate really well and encourage one another. While I do my best not to favour them, I must say I enjoy teaching girls more. If I could teach an all-girls PE class, I think I'd have a lot of fun. However, most of the guys in my class are much more skilled than the girls, and that's nice to have as well.
On a different note, we've started a prayer meeting for teachers at school - every Thursday morning. I'm so blessed to be in the company of so many other Christian teachers. All the staff members, in general, are really great - extremely nice and really helpful when you need help. I will miss working with such a great staff when I finish there. Pray that I get to continue teaching at Charles Best in coming years! | | comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
| What a day! I can't remember the last time I was literally pointed and laughed at...that is, until today. But i think it was in a good way...? I dressed up as Miss Piggy (evidence presently unavailable). The students seemed to enjoy that and as did I. It took extra work to get my morning students to take me seriously though. But, I don't blame them, especially when my big piggy head kept getting in their way as they tried to read the overhead. It was fun while it lasted. I think this was the first time I really made an effort to actually look for an outfit and dress up in something a bit more out of the ordinary.
Tonight, a bunch of us got together and dressed up according to the 80's TV Show theme. We had Rainbow Bright, California Raisin, Jem, Magnum PI, Michael Knight from Knight Rider, Smurf & Smufette, Carebear, Perry Mason, Della Street and of course, that was why I was Miss Piggy. Jason managed to fit into my jean shorts while I managed to fit into a 7 year old's costume (with some minor alterations). And now the day is just about over. It's NOVEMBER!! Now that Halloween is over, let the Christmas craze begin! It's insane that Christmas is less than 2 months away!!
Well folks, good night!
PS. Jason, can I get some biking pictures from you to post?
PPS. Nichole & Jason - I finally posted again but this time it didn't take months! ;) | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| What an awesome weekend!! Friday, Jason and I went biking up at Belcarra. I'm addicted to big rocks & wheels! We quickly ate dinner and then met up with Nichole for a movie. It's so awesome to be able to spend time with my two best friends - it's a rare occasion because Nichole's only back for a few weeks before heading back to Europe for another 9 months. Saturday, Jason and I went to a wedding (and took some notes :D!) and Sunday we went to Timberline Ranch with his family. It's an annual event for families on Thanksgiving weekend and because we know so many families there, it's always a hoot! Today was another day of biking since it was such a beautiful day. This time we went with one of his friend's, Rodney. He saves lives for a living - any takers? As for biking, I'm learning to do things I never imagined myself doing. Weeee! More details on that another day.
So, as of today, Jason and I have been dating for 1 year & 1 month. Where does the time go? In my family's terms, a year isn't all that long since everyone we know dates at least 3 or 4 years before getting engaged. In "Christian couples" terms, everyone expects you to be engaged by now. And so it begins. This past week, we were asked almost 10 times by several different people, "When's the wedding day?" One lady even asked "So, are you married now?" The time of engagement and marriage is uncertain as of yet; but the beauty is being certain that we both want it with the other! I am so thankful!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!! | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| Driving home from church on Sunday, I noticed some dramatic changes happening to the 7-11 by my place. Apparently twelve 7-11's were chosen for "renovations" as a way of promoting the up-coming Simpsons movie. Who knew that Coquitlam's 7-11 would have been one of them! I'm thinking of going out for a walk later so maybe I'll take some pictures and post them on here for your viewing pleasures!
Edit:
I didn't end up taking pictures. There were WAAAY too many people there...fanatics. I didn't want to be like one cause I'm really not. So here's someone else's pictures:
http://www.eatvancouver.net/2007/07/03/kwik-e-mart-coquitlam-greater-vancouver-bc/
Enjoy! | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| | The first real weekday of my 2 month holiday starts tomorrow. What am I going to do?!? I'm not used to having time off. It's in times like this that I'm reminded that I actually love being busy and don't know what to do with myself when I'm not busy. AhhhH!!! | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| My grandpa passed away tonight. He had a stroke nearly 2 months ago and his health had been getting progressively worse. I must say though, he had it pretty peaceful. The last week, he spent most of his time sleeping and consequently faced very little pain.
On a more positive not, since my last post, work has surprisingly gotten much better and I've been enjoying my last month and a half at Charles Best. Only 1 more week of teaching to go. I'm looking forward to the end and even more so to the summer. It's not going to be quite like my past two summers where I had 4 months to have fun but that's ok - 2 months will suffice. It won't be long before I'll have only a couple weeks in between should I decide to teach during the summers in future years. We shall see. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Should I continue French Immersion or should I not? In many ways, what I want may not make a difference because I'm only on a temporary contract. But it's never a bad thing to consider the options. After spending a ton of time thinking reflecting (just as I'd been taught in PDP) upon the past year, I came to realize that I didn't really enjoy my year in French Immersion, at least not to the extent that I had hoped. While one might say "first year teaching is extremely tough", I think that it's toughest when you know that you're not "yourself". French is not my first language, nor my dominant language. I can't communicate and express myself nearly as well in the language as compared to English even though I speak it fluently. I find that my personality is lost in French, which is what i mean by not being myself. As strange as it may sound, I have a hard time showing compassion, humour and enthusiasm in French. It's like I've lost my identity when speaking in French to my classes. And to make matters more challenging, I've had no training or experience (not even a drop) in French Immersion prior to my year at CB Secondary.
Adding to the discontentment is the fact that I had extremely tough students this year. I'm actually glad that there's only 5 more weeks of teaching. In all honestly, I'm tired of the students. I hate to say it but they fatigue me and that make me feel stressed and even up tight at school. I guess I need to start changing my attitude if I want the rest of the year to go well and right. But it seems so difficult when the students aren't motivated or when I have to spoon feed them constantly or when I feel like my efforts and good intentions are beaten by bad attitude. I guess I feel discouraged. I tutored Elden today and I just absolutely loved explaining to him the basics of French that usually scare so many people away. I love teaching FSL and inspiring students to enjoy the French Language. It's not something I feel I can do in French Immersion. I realized, the only reason why I'd be holding onto French Immersion is so that I can keep up my French. But I've concluded that I'd much rather lose some of my French speaking abilities (temporarily) than to not enjoy teaching. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| 1. FIRST NAME: Stephanie
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? my daddy, Steven.
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY & WHY? two nights ago. Spring is an emotional time of year for me.
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? sometimes.
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE LUNCH MEAT? not sure...don't eat lunch meat all that often but I saw one at Save-On that had sundried tomatoes with turkey or something rather...that sounded mmm-licious!
6. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? nope, but a cute little nephew!
7. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Yup!
8. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? yes, it's called LJ and I'm not very good at keeping it updated.
9. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? Yes, some get it, some don't.
10. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? *ahhhh* (opens mouth...that's how you check for tonsils, right?!) yes.
11. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? it'd take A LOT for me to do that...
12. DO YOU UN-TIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? very rarely.
13. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? no, not really.
14. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ICE CREAM FLAVOUR? Vanilla swiss almond
16. SHOE SIZE? 8 most of the time.
17. RED OR PINK? depends on the shade...but I think pink!
18. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVOURITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? my torn meniscus in my left knee and my toe-like thumbs
19. OF THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE PASSED AWAY, WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My daddy.
20. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? nope.
21. WHAT COLOUR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? pastel green plaid PJ pants & slippers.
22. WHAT IS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? toast
23. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? classical music & baby talk.
24. FAVORITE SMELL? fresh clean laundry
25. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED WITH ON THE PHONE? My mommy
26. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU MEET? Their smile...or lack thereof for some.
27. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Yep
28. FAVOURITE DRINK? water or cranberry juice or grapefruit juice.
29. FAVOURITE SPORT: softball and biking
30. HAIR COLOUR? black with left over reddish bronze streaks
31. EYE COLOUR? Brown
32. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? nope
33. FAVOURITE FOOD? don't really have one but as of yesterday, my boyfriend's aunt's quiche! Oh man that was good!
34. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDING? Happy ending
35. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? part of the Departed.
36. WHAT COLOUR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? my navy blue "Centre Linguistique du Collège de Jonquière" shirt that I won
37. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer!
38. HUGS OR KISSES? hugs
39. FAVOURITE DESSERT? not a huge dessert fan...but a nice hot apple pie with vanilla ice cream on the side is quite good.
40. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND THE QUICKEST? Nichole?
41. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? *shrug*
42. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman (I hugely recommend it for anyone in a relationship, especially the married.)
43. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? my fingers from time to time (i use a laptop)
44. WHAT'S ON YOUR DESKTOP? Windows XP "Peace" desktop background with a bunch of icons.
45. FAVOURITE SOUNDS? large waterfalls and joyful laughter.
46. ROLLING STONES OR THE BEATLES? I think the Beatles...but I'm not all that familiar with either of their music. (I know, how sad.)
47. THE FURTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Korea (but I'm not Korean!)
48. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? massaging...I always get the raw end of the deal when it comes to massages.
49. WHEN AND WHERE WERE YOU BORN? first day of summer in the year of this year's Chinese zodiac animal, two cycles ago. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| It's that time of year again - SOFTBALL SEASON! The games don't actually start until next week because, as we all know, it's Easter this weekend. Many of us were itching to play so a few of us decided to set up a get-together/practise anyway. We did our typical warm ups - passes back and forth with a partner, catching out in the field while taking turns at bat. Oh how I love softball! It's a sport I'm not extremely good at but one that I really enjoy because we don't play competitively; we play to have fun!!
I'm really enjoying coaching Track & Field, even though it's taking up time I really should be allotting to family and/or marking/planning. It's nice getting an opportunity to connect with students on a level outside of the academics. And, it gives me an opportunity to be outside in the fresh air after being cooped up in classrooms all day long. So with my "extracurricular" activities, softball, track & field and hopefully biking, I'll regain some sanity back. Praise God for summer holidays, a time to re-energize and regain sanity.
Anyway, I am literally falling asleep at the computer (and it's only 6:30pm) so I'm off to take a cat nap. zZzzZz! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| About a week ago, my friend Adrienne wrote me an e-mail with the subject title "Urgent! Can you help?" She's the director of the Surrey Crisis Pregnancy Centre. Their non-profit organization has a baby bottle drive every year starting on Mother's Day, ending on Father's Day during which time, baby bottles are given to different places in efforts to fund-raise for their services. Much like the "Children's Hospital" cans, people are to fill these bottles up with money. If you see these around - fill'em up! As a way to further promote their cause, they created a video presentation. The music they initially used was from Delerious, but they actually didn't have permission to do so. This issue came up shortly before I received the e-mail from Adrienne who then came to me in hopes that I could write/create something. If it weren't for Jason, it wouldn't have been possible. He has a program called Garage Band, which was what I used to create the music for our film "Loading". But without a midi keyboard, the program would've been useless. Thankfully, he was going to school the following day so I was able to use the same fancy equipment as before from SFU. Much time was spent in a windowless room creating music for the 2 minute video. I can't say that I'm 100% content with my music but as Adrienne and Jason quickly learnt, I could've stayed in that room all day, all evening and even all night to get that music "perfect" if I wanted. Thanks to them, I managed to pull myself away from the keyboard & computer with these results:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2018347201
Enjoy! And don't forget to look for the baby bottles & support the Crisis Pregnancy Centre! | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| Hello world! Here I am! I haven't fallen off the face of this planet yet. Too much has happened in the past month I don't even know where to begin.
How about the beginning of March! Our church had this AMAZING weekend conference/gathering - we've been changed in small but awesome ways - it's wonderful! In our last service of the weekend, various people shared their own testimonies/stories. Some people had some extremely moving stories. The whole evening, I felt God kind of "nudging" at me so I shared part of my testimony with the church. It was a rare and neat experience that allowed me to put pieces and puzzles of my life together that I'd never recognized before. God works in wondrous ways!
The following weekend was the 6 months mark for Jason and I. It's amazing how quickly time has passed. Unlike some relationships I've witnessed in the past, I don't feel like we need to work hard to maintain our relationship. From intellectual and spiritual to being completely wacky or totally serious, we somehow just function extremely well together. Our biggest challenge, though, is probably our cultural differences which, having been born and raised in Vancouver, I never expected to be a concern. I thought I was a "banana" (yellow on the outside, white on the inside) through and through. Apparently I'm a lot more rooted in my Chinese culture than I thought.
As for teaching - I somehow landed myself a coaching position at Charles Best for the Track and Field team. I haven't done track and field since...um... middle school?!?! high school?!? I loved it and was decent at it at the time but like I said, it's been eons! It's time I did some research on the events i'm coaching so that I at least sound like I know what I'm talking about! I've heard confidence is half the battle! So if I just coach with confidence, my students will follow?! I have between now and Tuesday to prepare - wooot!
I've been on spring break this week... now on the last stretch of this wet march break. It seems like nothing compared to those 2 week holidays in France every how often? Nonetheless, it's been wonderful not having to go to school and being able to sleep in. Of course breaks are never complete without some form of marking as a teacher (in her first year). I had a fair bit to do actually. But all-in-all, it wasn't so bad. The fact of the matter is, I actually had more time to do it thanks to spring break! And we all know that work (especially during holidays) isn't work without distractions and procrastination. The distraction of all distractions of course is the boy. In a regular week, we don't actually get to spend that much time together so it was nice to spend 2 (almost) full days with him. Then my newest, not so intellectually challenging, distraction is facebook... I recently went on there to find out who's been tapping in on our short film "Loading" (which was made available on the www without permission...arg!)... i was unsuccessful in my research and a bit too successful in creating an account for myself and finding a bunch of old and newish friends in life. I suppose that's a good thing but I spent a good couple hours on there when I should've been marking. Onto more productive distractions, I found a bunch of French Christian musicians at http://www.addsaintbrieuc.com/musicfrancophone.htm, some of which sing English praise songs in French. I always thought francophones to be non-Christians and/or nominal Catholics. Perhaps a bad generalisation on my part but because of pre(mis?)conception, I never expected a stream of Christian music from them. I've learned that, though the quantity may be small, it's there! And if you know of more, I'd be interested in hearing about it!
Time to either sleep or research high jump, long jump and triple jump! eep! | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| Gung Hay Fat Choy! (Wishing you great fortune)
Sun Tai Geen Hong! (Wishing you great health)
Sum Seung Si Sing! (May your heart's desires come true)
Last night we had a big Chinese New Year's dinner with my mom's side. Jason went to his first big family celebration and experienced foods he'd never seen or heard of. And he impressed all the adults with his amazing Chinese that he "crammed" for on the way there. When we went to go find my Grandpa from his care home, Jason and my Grandma were alone in the car. Apparently he received an applause from her after a run-through of all three phrases (My Grandma's so cute!). I get so excited inside when I hear him successfully saying different things in Cantonese. It's such a hard language to grasp and even the slightest tonal difference can change the whole meaning of what one is trying to say.
"Doh Tseh" is "Thank you" for when someone has either given you a gift or paid something for you (meals, etc). You change the tone slightly on those and you might get "lots of cars". The first word is also part of the word "lazy" and the last one on it's own can also mean "get the hell out of here!" all depending on the tone you use. I'm sure there's been many things I've said with a bit of an accent before, rendering my statements somewhat inaccurate; but rarely does my mom ever correct me. Sometimes I wish she would. Anyway, Gung Hay Fat Choy everyone! | | comments: 6 comments or Leave a comment |
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