Promises, Old and New

At the start of 2009, I made some promises to myself. They were basically resolutions, but I like promises better. Anyway, I was good about monitoring my progress for a while but then I completely forgot about it, so I think now it's time to take another look at how I've done...

I will recommit to daily exercise
I was pretty good about this for a while, but my activity level is now pathetic. Signing up for a gym membership is now top priority.

I will commit to my distance ed courses this semester and finally graduate, 8 years later, with my BA.
DONE!!!

I will focus on what is most important to me right now: building the foundation for my career.
I've certainly done that. Next steps: finish my website and apply for PGCE programs.

I will actively seek a healthy and gratifying relationship but continue to live happily alone until I find one.
Oh yay, I'd forgotten this was a goal. Accomplished!

I will make it a priority to regularly spend quality time with quality people.
I'm spending as much quality time as possible with my boyfriend but less time with my other friends. Should fix that.

I will make it a priority to regularly spend quality time with myself.
Yes, I think I do that.

I will pay attention to the insight of the children I work with.
Yes!

I will improve at money management.
Uh, sort of. I'm shopping less, anyhow.

I will improve at time management.
This isn't especially relevant to me right now, but I am still awful when it comes to procrastination.

I will attempt to document more of my life, in words and in images.
I write regularly in this blog! I also take more pictures and have done a little bit of drawing. I'd like to do more creative and philosophical work.

I will not turn down invitations just because I'm worried I won't know anyone.
I still do this.

I will allow myself to occasionally fail, so long as I get back up again.
I think so.

I will go to see live theatre whenever I can.
Aaaack, I live in London now... I have no bloody excuse! The only thing I've seen since I moved here is Billy Elliot.

I will be a better friend.
I'm in a weird place right now, on the friendship front. I'm trying desperately to stay in touch with my friends in Ottawa but it's not that easy. And I'm still in the preliminary stages of building new friendships here.

I think that's really good progress, overall. Now, as the year draws to a close, I reckon it's time to set some new promises.

20 PROMISES TO MYSELF FOR 2010 (and the rest of 2009)

1. I will obtain a gym membership and make good use of it.

2. I will finish my website.

3. I will get an action plan rolling for the next stages in my education and professional development.

4. I will be a good friend, girlfriend, and relative.

5. I will go see more live theatre, damnit!

6. I will write at least one substantial fictional piece in the next year.

7. I will post at least one reflective or philosophical blog entry per month.

8. I will challenge my mind with at least 30 minutes of puzzles or problems each week.

9. I will begin promoting myself as a swing and blues teacher to dance scenes around Europe.

10. I will choreograph a solo dance piece. All by myself.

11. I will somehow find a partner and choreograph a couples piece. Maybe even a team routine!

12. I will compete as often as possible.

13. I will continue my voice training.

14. I will work up the guts to sing on stage in front of strangers.

15. I will take one special interest course in something I've never done before.

16. I will become functional in Spanish (preferably before Christmas break ;)).

17. I will clean my living space at least once per week.

18. I will eat fruit, vegetables, and protein every day, despite my lack of a kitchen.

19. I will find a way to stop living paycheque to paycheque.

20. And finally, I will remember update my progress quarterly in this blog.

Holidays

Travel was one of my primary motivators for moving to London, and working in a school means I get lots of time off to do just that. Since I missed going away during the last break, I'm eagerly plotting out the rest of the year...

Not a vacation, but it is a holiday: today is Thanksgiving for my American family and friends. Hope you all have a happy one! I'll be celebrating it on Saturday. I'm so lucky to get two Thanksgivings this year, despite living in a country that doesn't even celebrate one.

Next up, of course, is Christmas. My guy and I are going to try to go away somewhere. I'm hoping for Spain. Mmmm... Spain. Mmmm... warm sun.

The next school break is in February and I don't know yet what I'm doing. Anyone want to plan something?

After that, there's a two week break in April. I've decided I'm going to Prague for the Prague Spring Swing Festival. I've only registered for the dances, not the classes, so I'll be free to explore during the day and then will likely stay a few extra days. I think I'll take the train home so I can hit up a few more cities on the way back (Berlin, Amsterdam, Bruges, and Brussels?). Let me know if you're interested in coming along. I'd love company!

The May/June break, I'm off to Hawaii for my dad's wedding. I'm super excited about it, but not about the 5000 hour journey there and back.

Then finally, the school year ends at the end of July... at which point I plan on trekking back to Canada to teach at Long Bay Camp (Yay! So happy to be going back!), visit friends in Ottawa, and hopefully also get out to Edmonton to see my dad and sort through my belongings. Then fly back to London (possibly via Copenhagen?) and head up to Edinburgh for the Fringe and other assorted festivals. I can't wait. Everyone keeps telling me Edinburgh is incredible.

Whew, what a year! It'll certainly be a memorable one. Now all I need to do is figure out how I'm going to pay for it all. Details, details, right?

The Outsider

Being an expat is a crazy experience. Until now, I've taken it for granted that I belonged to the culture in which I lived. Here, I am an outsider.

You probably wouldn't know it to look at me; I've taken great care to adopt the local norms and customs, and everything about my appearance (most days) screams, "Londoner." But you'd know it the moment I opened my mouth. And more importantly, I'd know it.

British and Canadian culture aren't wildly different, of course. I could have easily picked a more extreme leap, say to Korea or Russia or Zimbabwe or something. But they're different in many small, subtle ways, and those subtle differences eventually add up. I'm beginning to realize that the people who surround me every day have all grown up in a very different reality than I have, and that their common experiences bond them together while segregating me. I can find and create my own common experiences with people here, but it requires concerted effort.

I came here claiming that I wanted to land a man with a hot British accent. Instead, I've landed myself a wonderful American man. It's amazing how much his accent soothes me, and how much it matters to me that we both grew up on the same continent. I never would have thought that would be relevant to me at all, but there's so much that we share that's different from everyone else around us. Things I never would have noticed or cared about if we'd met across the pond (although I would have noticed all his other amazing qualities).

I wouldn't say I'm homesick yet, but I would say I'm learning more and more to appreciate where I come from. I'm fortunate that I get to live here and experience this new place... I'm even more fortunate that I can hold onto little pieces of home.

It's like riding a bicycle

I taught my first UK dance workshop yesterday, and it felt wonderful!

I'd been fretting about it a little bit because I've been too caught up in other things to properly prepare for it... but of course, I had nothing to worry about. My years of experience weren't about to let me down. And neither was my awesome teaching partner who, despite being pretty new to this teaching stuff, is a total natural.

Three more classes to teach before the end of the year. I can't wait!

Just call me Sleepy

I was supposed to go dancing last night. I really wanted to, too. Instead, I fell asleep at 6 pm.

This has become a trend lately. I can barely count the number of times I've fallen asleep super early and slept for 11-15 hours at a stretch.

I'm starting to wonder what's wrong with me.

PS - My dad's photos and the story behind them are being featured on CTV.ca. It's a nice human interest story. As part of your Remembrance today, it'd be worth taking a look.

Professional Development

Classroom Canada PD Week came at a good time for me: just as I'm transitioning into a new role with increased responsibility.

There were two workshop sessions, both offered by the massively entertaining and knowledgeable Sophie Walker. Sophie started off as an English and Drama teacher in Melbourne, and through various twists and turns, wound up as an Advisory Support Teacher in London (specializing in young children with Autism). For those of you following along at home, Sophie's job is pretty darned close to what I want to do. And they're paying for her to get her Masters degree, which is also in my plan. So it occurs to me that I must talk to her and figure out a path for getting there. Luckily, she works with some of the children at my school, including one I support. I'll be seeing her again in a couple of weeks.

The workshops themselves were pretty basic overviews. One was a survival guide to teaching in the UK and the other was on Special Educational Needs (SEN). We got some pretty good resources out of them, including a bunch of sites for downloading teaching materials. Seeing as I'm not actually a teacher, I didn't think I'd have much use for those, but then I had my first day at the new school...

I have very much been given ownership over this child's development. She does spend a good chunk of the day integrated in with the class, but I pull her out several times a day to work on phonics, numeracy, handwriting, and motor skills... and it's up to me to decide which activities we do. Enter handy resource websites. Thank you, Sophie.

I have a feeling I'm going to start using this blog more and more for talking about the various strategies I'm trying. One of the first things I want to do is convert her physical exercise routine (she has a series of exercises she does every day to build strength and balance) into something more interesting and fun (à la creative yoga). As it stands, her workout dissolves very quickly into silliness. I think she might get more out of it if the silliness were built right in.

In addition to my one-to-one student, I also work with a few other children in the class who have special needs that aren't severe enough to warrant being "statemented" (which means the government allocates extra funds for providing them with one-to-one support). One of them, a boy with autism, joins us for our afternoon tutoring sessions. A couple of others sit with us in class so I can help them all complete their work. And in my "downtime," I do whatever the teacher asks (distributing books, photocopying, etc.).

The teacher expects a lot, not just from me but from her class. The result seems to be quite positive. The students pupils are remarkably well-behaved and are learning things well beyond what you would normally expect from children their age in Canada. I'm hoping I'll pick up a lot of great strategies by working there.

The only part that is a little strange for me is that it's a faith school (Church of England). Prayer is built into their daily school life. I'm not religious so it's a bit awkward in that I'm not sure whether I should be praying with them. It takes me back to my days in Catholic school, when I used to refuse to sing in mass, and would throw bibles on the floor when I was feeling particularly rebellious. Thankfully, I'm a little more mature now and can probably handle it with more dignity this time around ;)

Anyway, I still have one more week before I start there full-time. This week, I'm booked for three days at the school where that boy tried to hook me up with his father, and where I witnessed the maths class that was completely out of control. I liked that school. Never boring, and lots of break time. But it's starting to look like I won't ever be going back to the hospital school, and that breaks my heart just a little.

New things

I started my new full-time job today! I'm in for a couple days of shadowing this week, and then I start officially on the 16th. I love the school and the students, and am totally blown away by how well-behaved they are. The teacher in my class is an absolute goddess of behaviour management. I hope to learn much from her. I also have quite a bit of freedom in terms of what I do with my one-on-one. It's great because it'll really push me as an educator, but it means I'm going to have to do some prep work.

In other news... I recently started seeing someone. Now that I'm quite confident he's not going to be going anywhere any time soon, I might as well broadcast it to cyberspace so I can start writing about stuff involving him. He's absolutely brilliant and wonderful and treats me like gold. I am so very lucky.

I'd best cut it off there for now. It's professional development week for Classroom Canada staff so I'll be off to a workshop pretty soon. More on that later.

I miss my babies!

I can't sleep (thank you, illness), so now's as good a time as any to write in the blog!

I've been thinking a lot lately about my life back in Canada. Specifically, the best part of my life back in Canada: coaching the Rhythm Blasters (one of many awesome Swing Dynamite performance teams).

The Rhythm Blasters started out as a bit of a pet project, undertaken by me and my greatly-missed dance partner Olivier. Originally, it was a team specifically for newer dancers (most of whom had been dancing a few months when they joined)... but over time, the focus shifted to being a team for dancers who wanted to work in a relatively relaxed setting (compared to the ultra-intense TNTeam). It is no exaggeration for me to say that I was (and am) deeply, deeply fond of the Rhythm Blasters. They're my babies. I watched them grow, and I've shed many tears of pride in their name.

Here they are with their first routine at the 2008 Canadian Swing Championships (a few months after their incarnation):



And here they are again, a year later, with a much more difficult choreography (the run at CSC was cleaner, but is sadly not on YouTube):



It is good to know that in my absence, they are still going strong. A large number of new couples are currently going through the "bootcamp" process (an intermediary step before officially joining the team), including a whole bunch of awesome folks I was really hoping would join. Still, I can't help but feel a little (ok, a lot) sad that I can't be there with them. If there had been one thing that could have kept me planted in Ottawa, the Rhythm Blasters would have been it.

I hope I never forget how truly blessed I am to have worked with such a fun, positive, hard-working, and talented group of people. RBs, I miss you! I know you will continue to make me proud.

The Black Death

The Plague has found me again. It struck in the middle of the night. But I still felt certain, until 6:30 this morning, that I'd be going to work. So much for that. Also, so much for my very firm declaration that I would make it to capoeira tonight, come hell or high water.

Now I need to decide if I'll be going in tomorrow. I'm not sure I can make that kind of decision. Too much pressure. Too much uncertainty.

London in the rain

I *heart* my new French press. It's nigh impossible to find regular coffee in this town... it's all instant or espresso.

I also *heart* my new rice cooker and 2-in-1 electric wok & stove. More and more, I'm turning my tiny little dorm room into a self-sufficient entity. I turned my bed around and now I have room for a table (which I desperately need... anyone know where I can get a cheap little folding table?).

Finally, I *heart* the London rain. I don't know why. It just makes me feel really, really happy.