two years later...

Now that school (well, teaching) has ended for the year, and I have a little more time to ponder

life, I find myself longing to put my thoughts into words. Now I can't promise that any of these words will be readable, or for that matter, interesting, but I figured it would be a bit of an adventure to update this blog with stories younger than 2 years old.

In the last two years I have learned much and loved much. I've fallen morein love with my fabulous husband and have finally begun to realize how ridiculously crazy itmustbe to live with someone so scatter-brained, yet particular as me. We've added a kitten, but no babies to our family (apparently Mia is a baby replacement tactic... though I've become wise to that game) and we've gained one of the cutest nephews you could ever have. I've added six or seven new classes to my teaching repetoire (french 8, 9, 10; science 8, 9, 10; psychology 11, 12; keyboarding 8; biology 11) and am beginning to consider myself a jack of all trades (certainly not a master, as I am far from that). In my attempt to become a "master", I'm now one year into my master's degree in Educational Policy, Methodology and Leadership at the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR. I've been able to take classes on weekends throughout the school year (the profs fly or drive up), but I currently find myself living just off-campus in Eugene, while completing 12 credits of courses in the month of July. It's a little crazy leaving everything behind toenter "university mode" once again, but next June (or possibly even April if my thesis writing skills prove savvy) it'll all be said and done, and i'll officially be a "master" (or so they say). I've started "practicing" what this might look like (as you can see... though truly it's only the local paper that I'm reading). It's hard not to be distracted by the beautiful buildings on campus and the gorgeous scenery (that's my education building - the Lokey building). School only just resumed today, and after 6 full hours of classes and a few hours of homework and reading, it's already become a little ridiculous, though certainly bearable. I laugh at the quality required of my assignments and the depth of my reading compared to the quality of the night table I fashioned beside my bed (two tupperware containers stacked on top of each other covered with an apple green plastic shower curtain from target and a picture of my husband next to two garden gnomes... yup, it's a beaut!). But I'll make due, right? Plus, college/university was never a time for being fancy, and I'm not exactly a fancy kinda girl. Hopefully, in spite of my ridiculousness, I'll learn a few incredible things that I can take back to Tsawwassen with me. It's a strange combination of courses I'm taking - Comparative Education, Educational Leadership and Technology in Education (yes, all education courses, but they are very diverse in their nature), but so far they've proven to be interesting (verging on intriguing) and I can't wait to see how they develop. One of my favourite moments of the day was when my Comparative Ed prof, Spike, told us to be "intellectual knights of the jedi order". I'm sure if I was up on my Star Wars trivia that would have made sense, but all I could do was write it down and make a note to ask Finch. So Finch, what the heck does that mean and how does is relate to comparative education??