What a waste.

I've just been to Wal-Mart and the cashier put my stuff in two bags. It was easily fitable into one bag, so as he took the next customer, I threw the stuff from the second bag into the first. I handed it back to him politely and with a smile, I said, "I fit it in one bag."

As I walked away, I turned to look just in time to see him throwing my second bag away.

Are you kidding me?!?

I'm one of the interns...

...as in, "Get one of the interns to do it."

I'm only partly joking. But I am really excited to be "one of the interns" and to be there to do whatever they need us to do.

Meetings on Monday were good. A bit tedious at times (like when we spent 45 minutes discussing the procedures and rules for noon hour supervision...painful) but overall it was good. I'm starting to get to know some of the staff and they seem really great. Very welcoming.

The inservice today in Rosetown was BOOOOORING. As I expected.

In other news...I'm sick. Again. I can't talk for more than 20 minutes without my n's turning into d's, my m's into b's, and losing the ability to breathe out of my nose. So I went to the pharmacy today and explained my situation that I'll be talking all day and I need a clear head. She said Cold FX is a waste of money...something I did not know as I've never tried it...and that my best bet was a fast acting nasal inhaler.

SHE. WAS. RIGHT. I'm amazed. So I'm highly recommending Dristan w/ menthol to anyone with a stuffy nose.

And the most important news...TOMORROW'S THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! I am so so SO excited to meet my grade two class. I don't know what else to say on this subject but that I'm excited.

But now I need to go to bed to sleep away this cold. Goodnight!

And the internship begins...

Okay, for those of you who don't know, my internship placement was recently moved. I'm now interning in a grade two (hooray!) classroom in Biggar, SK. Don't worry; I'm not moving. The plan for now is to commute. There's another guy from here who's placed in Biggar as well so we may be able to share the ride a couple times a week. I'll probably end up staying at my Gramma's sometimes too. She lives in Rosetown which is a bit closer to Biggar than Saskatoon.

I had orientation today and I'm feeling overwhelmed. I'm home on Friday night brainstorming all kinds of brilliant (and not so brilliant) ideas for lesson plans and units. I'm off to Biggar on Monday for meetings and then an inservice in Rosetown on Tuesday and then Wednesday...dun dun dun....the kidlets arrive! I can't believe that in just a few days, I will be meeting them.



Right now I'm writing a letter to Tomie dePaola (have you ever read his children's books? I HIGHLY recommend his "Strega Nona" books) in hopes that he will write me a letter back that I can read to my students when we do an author's study/unit. One of my ELA profs has been to his house for a barbeque. I'm excited to tell the kids that story.





It's going to be a crazy 4 months, friends. Stay tuned for new installments of quotes from kids.

"Thanks for the day, comrades!"

That's what we said after singing our closing song at the campfire each day.

I barely know what to say about camp. It was wonderful and challenging and fulfilling and difficult and exhausting and so much fun.

I had a particularly difficult girl in my cabin who was a challenge all week. Many of the conflicts we had with one another were over small issues that escalated...halfway through the week, she took an argument about her taking a shower to the point of her pouring out her shampoo bottle onto her bed! God gave me patience and compassion in dealing with her...without Him, I could not have done it.

I had a break from this girl when we were all mixed up for our outtrip groups (where you go out into the bush for an overnight experience). Another cabin leader and I had a great group of girls that we had an absolute blast with. Four of the girls didn't want to use the outhouse, so they peed in the lake and thought it was the funniest thing in the world!





Oh, and I started a fire all by myself with just wood (no starter fluid, no paper) and THREE MATCHES!!! I was quite proud of myself.





On the whole, my cabin was great. Here's a picture of us on banquet night. (Our camp theme was superheroes). Such sweet girls.






You can see part of my cape here. All of the program staff, camp directors, and cabin leaders have camp names that we use exclusively at camp. Mine was Tango.





Here's me with one of the other cabin leaders, Hip Hop, who I met for the first time at camp and just love. She's really great and I look forward to spending more time with her!





The most beautiful lake. It was wonderful to be there, surrounded by so much beauty.

Gone campin'...

Okay, blog readers, I'm going to be gone for a week. I'm off to Pioneer Camp, a girls' camp for 8-14 year olds and I'll have seven 10-11 year olds in my cabin. Very excited.

Be good while I'm gone, okay?

Here's a picture of me to look at while I'm gone. It was drawn by Alyn, the 6 year old daughter of one of my clients at Day Grow. Pretty good, hey?