Christmas Already?!!

I can't begin to describe how off my "internal clock" feels. The school year is ending and it has certainly been a long one. It's been well over a year since my last "full holiday" from teaching - man do I ever feel like I need a break! The days are getting longer, and warmer! And yet Christmas is around the corner.

I'm already getting Christmas cards from my students! Already!! It's mid-November and I'm opening up Christmas cards written as thank you notes from my senior students complete with Santa and snow on the front. What a bizarre disconnect that I find really difficult to describe!

Today I walked into the staff room and was blown away to see a Christmas tree up in full decoration. There's no stopping it now! The Christmas season has officially begun! I wonder if/when I'll stop waiting for the snow to fall!

Quiz Night

Last night I attended Quiz Night at Paddy's. What an interesting experience. I'm not sure if it felt like a new experience to me simply because I don't get out enough, or if this really is an odd kiwi thing that we don't have at home.

I would compare the activity last night to the Trivia Nights we sometimes went to at Joe Tomatoe's growing up in Owen Sound. At these events we would watch the trivia questions come up on tv screens scattered around the room and use some silly old-school computer box to input our answers to the multiple choice questions. We would never really know who our competitors were unless we actually walked around the booths to see who else had a computer box at their table.

Quiz Night last night differed in that it actually had a personal feel to it. The quiz was run by an actual person on stage with a microphone as they interactively showed us some multi-media on a few large screen tvs. There was a quiet hush across the entire bar as each question was being read out. After writing our answers down on an answer sheet, they were collected at the end of each round, tabulated by hand, and then input into an excel sheet that the results were tallied in.

What a fun night. I must say that my trivia knowledge didn't surprise me. I think I answered one question accurately - I was the only one at our table to know that Bill Clinton's autobiography was called My Life. Apart from that, I certainly learned a whole lot of new facts about NZ. I'd be damned if I could remember them now though!

YOU MIGHT BE A TEACHER IF...

Wow! Day 1 of seniors being gone, and I already feel like I can breathe easier! As a result, I've already succumbed to classic procrastination techniques like clearing out my inbox and reading all of the forwards that I haven't had the time to appreciate during the last several weeks... Here's one that makes me laugh!

You might be a teacher if...

** You want to slap the next person who says 'It must be nice to have all those holidays!'

** You can tell it's a full moon or very windy, without looking outside.

** When out in public, you feel the urge to talk to strange children and correct their behaviour.

** You can 'hold on' until after lunchtime yard duty.

** You can go to the loo, take a phone call, have a conference with a colleague, tend to first aid and have a cup of coffee in 20 minutes.

** You check for spelling and punctuation errors in every piece of writing you see.

** You look 50 before you are 30.

** You can't pick a name for your unborn child as every name reminds you of a student.

** When you can't get your friends to listen to you, you use your "teacher voice".

** You rate the educational value of cartoons.

** You count your life in periods of ten weeks (depending on term length).

** You can sing all of the words to God of Nations (even the Maori verse!)*

** You can't go anywhere without thinking 'what a great place for an excursion!'

** You cringe at the way bank tellers grip their pens.

** You don't know the date, but you know it's day 5, week 4, term 4.

** You believe the staffroom should have a Valium salt lick.

** You believe 'shallow gene pool' should have it's own box on the new reports.

** You believe that unspeakable evil will befall if someone says 'gee, the kids sure are mellow today.'

** Meeting a child's parents instantly answers the question: 'why is this child like this?'

** You believe in the aerial spraying of Prozac.

** You get a warm inner glow when just one child says 'thank you for helping me.'

End of Year Surprises!

Today was a very good day. A weird one at that, but a very good day!!

Started off with my 201's first period. They had asked if they could have a party on the last day and feeling like I should be nice, I agreed. They even had a white-board, flow-chart discussion on Friday about who was going to bring what food to eat!

The "party" turned out great. And much to my surprise and bewilderment, I actually came out of it with quite a few gifts and cards to my name! One student gave me a goodie bag with a stuffed-animal kiwi, a NZ flag, and a keychain with a NZ icon on it called "Buzzy Bee". Another student gave me a really nice paua shell necklace.




And another couple of students went all out and made me a power-point presentation that highlighted what they learned from me in math class - complete with all my silly math jokes and memorization techniques that are admitedly... a bit odd (to say the least)... but still fun for me to use! Click hereto view this file.

I seriously did not know how to react to all of this! I am by no means very good at accepting gifts especially when such a large number of nice gestures catch me by surprise! All I could do was say thank you about a hundred times and wish them luck on their exams.

The next class I had about half of my 202's show up, but we also had a "small party" with cookies and conversation. It was really fun chilling with them on our last day together and talking about how far we had come together as a class. Ah... what sweet memories looking back on the first few days when that class was what I believed to be a "complete terror" - my biggest nightmare in teaching to-date! I concluded by going around the room and saying something positive about everyone that was in attendance today. Warm fuzzies all around!

Last period of the day was what is called the "Leavers Assembly". This is an assembly dedicated to all senior students as they leave to go study for their exams. At this assembly they honour several students for academics and school involvement. They also take the time to honour any staff that are leaving the school. As a result, we have to sit on the stage in front of everyone during the entire assembly.

They also do a little speech about each one of us and a student (selected by us in advance) gets to come up and give you a bouquet of flowers and a hug. What a nice farewell touch!

At the end of the assembly the Year 13 students finish by singing a song that they got together to write and practice meticulously. It was so exciting to watch these girls get totally into it! I can't even imagine what it would have felt like to be one of those girls living the moment for all it was worth - their last day of highschool! What a beautifully sappy and sentimental moment!


At the very end of the assembly, the students follow the teacher recessional outside. We all end up at a wall where everyone gathers around and leaves their "mark" and signs their name beside it. The leaving teachers get to do it too! What another fantastic touch!






So the seniors are done and tomorrow we will be left with just the juniors. I'm looking forward to a much needed break. My workload instantly feels so much lighter! Can't wait!!

Eat, Pray, Love

I FINALLY finished the book I have been reading called "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert.

I am somewhat embarassed to admit that I started this book way back in July when I was in Australia and it has taken me until now to finish. However, I will be the first to admit that I'm a "non-reader"... not that I don't enjoy it, but that it doesn't really fit into my life except for when I'm uber relaxed or on holidays.

This book was so good, that I'm wondering if the length of time it took me to finish it was somewhat intentional - like I didn't want it to end or something. It was kind of nice to have this totally awesome book to look forward to each night if I was looking for 5-10 mins of reading before bed. I was guaranteed to like any section - regardless of what chapter I was reading. It felt kind of like crawling into bed with my childhood blankie! Very comforting!

I'm not exactly sure why I liked this book so much - it's hard to put into words. To summarize, it's a narrative story about a woman who went from the lowest point in her life to the highest point in her life, through a journey she embarked upon that lasted a total of 1 year.

Following an ugly divorce and finding herself curled up sobbing on her bathroom floor, she called out to God for help. And, as He does, God responded. In the end, she ended up setting out to examine three different aspects of her life: pleasure in Italy, devotion in India, and general life balance in Bali.

I think what I liked most about this book was the fact that I can totally relate to this woman and her struggles (enough to bring me to tears at several points along the way!). The world is one crazy, complex thing that we belong to, and sometimes it's important that we take time to figure out how we fit into the big picture, and what brings us to a point of fulfilled, blissful, contentment. This woman has inspired me in so many ways!

One example: My spiritual journey is an ongoing project complete with challenges and triumphs. This author reassures me that I'm not the only one experiencing these struggles. Here are a few of my favourite quotes:

Since this is the first time I have introduced that loaded word - GOD - into my book, and since this is a word which will appear many times again throughout these pages, it seems only fair that I pause here for a moment to explain exactly what I mean when I say that word, just so people can decide right away how offended they need to get. Saving for later the argument about whether God exists at all (no - here's a better idea: let's skip that argument completely), let me first explain why I use the word GOD, when I could just as easily use the words Jehovah, Allah, Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu or Zeus. Alternatively, I could call God "That," which is how the ancient Sanskrit scriptures say it, and which I think comes close to the all-inclusive and unspeakable entity I have sometimes experienced. But that "That" feels impersonal to me - a thing, not a being- and I myself cannot pray to a That. I need a proper name, in order to fully sense a personal attendance. For this same reason, when I pray, I do not address my prayers to The Universe, the Great Void, The Force, The Supreme Self, The Whole, The Creator, The Light, The Higher Power, or even the most poetic manifestation of God's name, taken, I believe, from the Gnostic gospels: "The Shadow of the Turning".


In the end, what I have come to believe about God is simple. It's like this - I used to have this really great dog. She came from the pound. She was a mixture of about ten different breeds, but seemed to have inherited the finest features of them all. She was brown. When people asked me "What kind of dog is that?" I would always give the same answer: "She's a brown dog." Similarly, when the question is raised, "What kind of God to you believe in?" my answer is easy: "I believe in a magnificent God."


Devotion is diligence without assurance. Faith is a way of saying "Yes, I pre-accept the terms of the universe and I embrace in advance what I am presently incapable of understanding". There's a reason we refer to "leaps of faith" - because the decision to consent to any notion of divinity is a might jump from the rational over to the unknowable and I don't care how diligently scholars of every religion will try to sit you down with their stacks of books and prove to you through scripture that their faith is indeed rational; it isn't. If faith were rational, it would be - by definition - faith. Faith is belief in what you cannot see or prove or touch. Faith is walking face-first and full-speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity; it would just be... a prudent insurance policy.
I'm not interested in the insurance industry. I'm tried of being a skeptic, I'm irritated by spiritual prudence and I feel bored and parched by empirical debate. I don't want to hear it anymore. I couldn't care less about evidence and proof of assurances. I just want God. I want God inside me. I want God to play in my bloodstream the way sunlight amuses itself on water.

This book has left me wanting to search for more. I'm inspired to seek out a yoga sanctuary and learn how to meditate! I wonder if any exist in NZ? Maybe that's one way I can spend my last few weeks here!!...

On a side-note: where does Facebook get it's advertising ideas from? Just last night - before I started typing this post, there was an ad for this very book on my Facebook page. Is that just odd coincidence, or were they able to pick up that text from somewhere on my computer or in a message I sent from my Facebook account?... Do any of my tech-geek friends out there actually work for Facebook?

Mystery Nausia = Weight Loss

So I'm still trying to track down the source of my nausia that I wrote about last week. I originally thought it was due to nerves leading up to the big race. However, race day has come and gone and my appetite has yet to reappear. I still feel like I have to force food down each meal. Breakfast and lunch are the worst, but dinner isn't that much better. This morning I stopped at Couplands on the way to work to pick up a sandwich for lunch and a bacon and egg pie for breakfast. I LOVE bacon & egg pies (yet another yummy kiwi food that I have come to adore!) and deliberately picked it out this morning due to its high fat and calorie content. This morning, however, I had to choke it down. In fact, I barely finished half of it!

This lack of appetite is causing some weight loss. Although I never actually got on a scale this winter, I'm fairly certain my weight peaked somewhere around 53kg. I owe Cadbury for the majority of this increase! I did, however, weigh myself a couple of weeks ago and I was at 50kg (110 pounds). Since then, I have lost nearly 2 kilos (4 pounds).

I realize I have been upping the physical activity recently, but I'm not convinced it's the cause. I'm still wondering if it's anxiety about my decision to go home or if it's the stress from the craziness of work. I think I'm gonna put a deliberate push on relaxation this week and see if I'm able to curb this annoyance. If anyone has any anti-nausia remedies, I'd love to hear from you!

Best Run EVER!

Today I had one of the best, and longest runs, of my life! It was a completely random and unplanned event that I got invited to on Friday morning. Since Merril and Tall Nic are training for the Moa Hunt bike race, they organized to do a training ride on the Wakamarina track. Since it's a 20ish km track and a good 30-40 minute drive from one access point to the other, they got Merrill's friend, Willi, in on the logistics plan. Willi owns property in the Wakamarina valley and enjoys running on this track. As a result, she is known to very often help out friends that want to bike the track. She runs the opposite direction and picks up their car from the access point parking lot and brings it back to her place in the valley where her friends meet up with her when they are done. Since Merrill knows that Willi and I have been running together previously, she suggested I join her for today's run.

So I did! I was not too nervous about the 20km distance since I'm starting to feel more fit and figured I would be good for a good 2.5 hour run. However, when I showed up I was hit with some surprising news when Willi asked me if I was bringing some food along on the run since we might be out for over 4 hours! I did my best to hide the shock of this news and made sure I brought along all of the sweets I had brought with me!

We started off running the first few km at a really slow and comfortable pace with Willi's husband, Dave. After that, Dave took off for a fast run on his own. We eventually met up at a DOC hut where we had a look at the guestbook and had a rest before moving along.

We said goodbye to Dave and made a small sidetrip to check out one of the oldest DOC huts still standing in the South Island. A great piece of history, indeed!
From there, the track turned to a very long and steep uphill. Luckily Willi was not too keen on runing that bit, so we brought the pace down to a fast walk. An hour later we FINALLY reached the top, and it turned into a pretty steep downhill section. Along this stretch we encountered several spots with fallen trees that had to be climbed over and involved re-navigating our way back onto the track. Eventually we hit some nicer track and the running became much easier from that point on.

Somewhere around the 2 hour mark, we ran into Merril and Nic. They seemeed to be doing well, but were unaware of what lay ahead of them. For some reason Willi didn't share many details of the terrain we had just covered so I took her lead and kept quiet. Apparently we should have been a bit more upfront with them as it might have changed their course of plan. What normally should have taken 3 hours to complete took them another 5.5 hours.

Lucky for us, we had some smooth undulating running ahead of us and I felt great the whole way. I didn't realize just how much elevation we had gained until we passed by a clearing with a sign that indicated we were at 1070m above sea level.

From this point it was a really long and smooth downhill. I took advantage of gravity and started to fly. It wasn't until the very last stretch when we hit a few more uphills when my legs started to feel it. The sun had just started to come out too and it definitely took it's toll. I kept pushing though and felt fantastic when we arrived in the parking lot!


Luckily we had remembered to get the keys from Merrill when we passed by her so we hopped into her car and headed back home. A quick stop-off at the Havelock 4-square for some groceries (naturally running into one of my Year 9 students working the till) and another stop-off at the Canvastown school so that Willi could vote, then we headed back to Willi's place.

I got the full tour of their house and heard all about how they had built it with their own hands. Made entirely from mud bricks and the timber from two giant macracarpa trees that used to be in their front yard.

It really was a beautiful spot!

After taking bets on how long we expected Nic and Merrill to arrive, I decided that I didn't feel like waiting around (yes, my bet was quite pessimistic) so I took off home. Turns out it was a good choice bet as Willi and Dave ended up picking them up at the end of the track over an hour later.

I feel so great right now! I swear I'm still on an endorphin high. I love it!

Oh yeah... this run has also helped to bring my confidence back up. I think I was feeling a bit shattered from such a bad run the weekend before. But Willi was most impressed with our time! She was telling me that if I tell anyone that I've run the Wakamarina track in 3 hrs 37 mins, I should add in that I did it backwards (the wrong way!). Apparently this should impress since it's a majority up-hill climb from that direction!

I'm definitely starting to realize that I'm more cut out for long-distance stuff. Maybe one day I'll become an ultra-marathoner! One day...

VERY Odd Day

Today started off relatively normal with my alarm going off at 5:20am since I had planned to go to the gym. I surprised myself when I got up after hitting snooze only once (Thursday had a different result when I opted to turn my alarm off and go back to sleep for an hour rather than go to the spin class that I had registered for). I did some weights at the gym but was feeling lousy so I left and headed into work to get an early start on the day.

I taught period 1, but was feeling noticeably agitated. My students were not behaving as I wanted and I was not in the mood to deal with them properly. I survived the class ok though, and was relieved to have my non-contact Period 2. During this time I tackled my report cards (yes... there is yet ANOTHER round of report cards going out for our senior students for EOY). I spent a good portion of the hour signing my form reports and stuffing them into envelopes.

Since I had to make some corrections to a few reports, I went over to the staff room to print them (as a matter of security we can only print reports to the staff room printer). I had to borrow a pen from Nisrene (reports MUST be signed in blue ink) and while I was sitting there beside her, I realized how labourous it felt for me to put the pen to the paper. I let out a deep sigh and realized that I felt some tears coming to my eyes. "Oh dear", I thought... "this can't be good!" I tried to fight it by making a joke about how difficult it felt to do something as simple as signing my name, but my attempt was futile. Next thing I knew, Nisrene was having to console me and tell me it was gonna be ok. It was official. I knew I was stressed. You see, this is what I do when I'm stressed. I cry.

(random side note: I have deja-vous... I feel like I may have written a post very similar to this one a few months back)

Realizing that it's never good trying to teach after you just had a meltdown on your prep-period, I thought about going home. The problem was, I was also thinking about my senior students and their upcoming exams, and my year 10's trying to learn trigonometry from a reliever. Alas, I was able to think sensibly enough to realize that I was in no state to teach and I had to go home.

After preparing some quick relief plans, I came home and plopped myself down in the recliner chair with my book in-hand and relaxed the afternoon away. Even managed to catch up with Laura on Skype since she noticed I was online and gave me a ring.

Later that afternoon it started to rain. I could tell because I could hear the raindrops loud and clear as they bounced off our metal roof. I decided I wanted to capture this noise on video and when I got up to get my camera, I realized that these raindrops had turned to hail. Yes! It was hailing in Blenheim on November 7th! Before I knew it, the sky had turned black and even produced some thunder and lightning! This was all so exciting for me. Why? I have no idea! Especially considering how nervous thunderstorms make me. But it really was a fantastic show!

Warm Fuzzies

In addition to taking hours to plan and prepare review worksheets for my juniors, I have also taken some time to draw up a study schedule for them. This schedule mostly consists of pages to be completed from their homework books (yes, my students are expected to purchase a separate workbook at the start of the year to be used for homework - lucky for me, I didn't assign any homework from this book during the year, so I have a fantastic resource to refer to when assigning exam review!).

Now, since I know myself well enough I know that I will not have time to check that they are actually doing this review work that I assign. As a result, I decided to get the parents involved! (this is partly selfish on my part - I figure if I've spent hours preparing and planning this review, they better-well have their parents making them do it!) I drafted an email that outlines the study schedule and informs parent's of the assigned work. I gently hinted that their assistance in ensuring that this work is completed each night will greatly affect the success their daugther sees on the final exam.

I actually got some great responses that left me with some warm fuzzies. I will share them here:

Heather Hi,

Thank you so much for your e-mail and the review assistance that you have detailed. Now I have something of substance to give (insert daughter's name) to do that will help towards the end of the year exams. I do appreciate your thoughtfulness in helping her and now the rest is up to her.

Many thanks,
Shirley (Mum and proud of it of (insert daughter's name))

Cool!!

Hi Heather

Thank you soo soo much for the study timetable, we and (insert daughter's name) really appreciate the guidance for study. We have got a Yr 10 Mathematics Study Guide that we have also been working through with her. Anything further you think needs special focus, please contact us so we can help her to achieve the maximum result in Maths.

Thanks again
Regards

I love it when parents help out!

Hi Heather

Your email is greatly appreciated as it will help (insert daughter's name) help herself!

If there are any other things she could work on to end this year's maths study on a successful note please let us know.

I also want to thank you for helping (insert daughter's name) discover this year that maths can be understood and possibly even 'enjoyed'.

I truly hope she has you as her maths teacher again next year - I have no idea how it works next year but can see now that if (insert daughter's name) has the right teacher with this topic it is acheivable for her.

Kind regards,
Jillian (mum)

Wooweee! I have to admit that almost brought a tear to my eye!!!

Now... this is added motivation for me to get my butt in gear and get my "math website" up and running. A means of facilitating communication with parents is KEY!

Further to the Election News

It is very apparent how biased the NZ coverage has been in favour of Obama. Much to my delight!

Tonight, at the end of the news, they played a long segment from the music video "Yes, we can!". I must say... I was moved!

History Making!

One day someone will ask "where were you the day that Barack Obama was elected the first black President of the United States?".

My response will be: "In New Zealand... watching it on the TV One headline news... sighing a deep sigh of relief along with a large portion of the rest of the world! (relief because the Republicans were defeated, of course!)"

Phew!!! All I can say is "PHEW!!" Way to go Obama!

So Grouchy

I'm so grouchy right now. I am very acutely aware when I am grouchy like this because it so rarely happens. I am so antsy that I don't know what to do with myself so I have opted to crawl into bed.

Why am I grouchy? I think because I am resentful of work. I am so over it! Soooo done! Soooo tired. I am ready to give up. I have worked so hard all year, but the year is still not over yet. It feels like it is one thing after another. Every single day, every single week. No breaks. No rest. I'm tired!

I am 100% certain that if I was working at a different school, in a different math department, I would NOT be doing this much work.

I have accepted the fact that I have had to - and still have to - plan ALL of my lessons myself - from scratch. There is no "binder" to pull from. No one shares (well, except for one person that does her best to share her resources with me). Nothing is prepared to help people who are teaching a course for the first time.

Way back at the beginning of the year, when I was feeling swamped, I asked my department head for help. I needed some guidance and assistance. To this, I was pretty much handed the curriculum document (which I already had a copy of) and told to suck it up. The other day I emailed the department asking if anyone had an assessment on Percentages that they'd be willing to share. No one responded. Does that mean that they don't assess (surely they've taught this unit at least a few times)? Or does that mean that they don't want to share? I don't get it!

We are now nearing the end of the year and starting to prepare for exams. Since the junior curriculum is so absolutely jam-packed, there is essentially ZERO time for review. I have curriculum concepts that I MUST cover before the exam and less than 2 weeks to do so. Since I am acutely aware of the fact that my students will suffer big-time if they do not have any review, I am scrambling to fit it in.

I have spent a good many hours now, creating review material. I have developed a binder that has worksheets (with answers!) covering pretty much all of the curriculum concepts for both my Year 9 and Year 10 classes. I have copied it into class sets and have decided to distribute these sheets at the start of each period for my students to work on during Silent Reading time (yes, that's the only time I have to fit in review). I have also emailed the department letting them know about these new resources and that they are more than welcome to use them.

I just don't get it. It seems so logical. If a school wants to see its students achieve high academic results, why wouldn't you do everything you could to support your teachers? It just makes sense!

Although I have no plans to step into any sort of management role anytime soon, I am fairly certain that one day I will end up in the role of Head of Department. I hope that I would be the best I could possibly be, based on learning from my experiences as a struggling teacher early in my career.

The Big Day!

Wow! I'm still on a bit of a high, and it's now a full day after the race.

Yesterday was totally awesome! It all started when my alarm went off at 5:15am after a somewhat unsettled sleep. For some reason I dreamt about misbehaving students that I could not control (why I had this nightmare, I do not know, considering how good I've been feeling about my teaching lately). Not surprisingly, I had trouble eating breakfast and forced down a half-bowl of porridge while chatting with Aaron (Short Nic's partner) who was also up early since he was doing the race too. I didn't have time to force more food down my throat as I had to get on the road to Picton.

I showed up at registration to drop off my bike that I had equipped with sweets and a motivational message for myself.

I met up with Aaron and we roamed around waiting for the race briefing to begin and met up with other competitors that we knew. Fortunately, I had convinced Claire to help me out with the transfer of my kayak from Peter's house to Waikawa Bay (yes, Peter was letting me use his neighbours kayak so I didn't have to rent one).

I should mention that the weather was total crap at this point - cold, damp, and windy. In fact, the forecast all week had been calling for gale-force winds. We were all wondering whether or not this would be true!

The race briefing was led by Peter and was short and sweet. It was pretty neat watching Peter stand up there in front of the crowd, doing his thing and kick-off this grand event.

From there, we immediately loaded onto the Beachcomber Cruise Boat and set off across the rocky waters to Mistletoe Bay where the race started. I tried to nibble on the energy bar that we received in our race pack since I was worried about how little breakfast I had eaten. Although I only finished half of it, I was pleased that I had managed to finish my 500 ml Nalgene bottle of water that I filled up that morning.

Unfortunately, my race did not start off great. I felt like total crap during my run. I started off nice and easy like I had planned - not pushing too hard up the hill that the race course started on. But as time passed, I didn't feel any better. I could not push any harder, even as the hill began to flatten out. I did my best to continue hydrating and taking in some fuel, but nothing seemed to work. I felt myself slowing down and couldn't do anything about it. Knowing that I had a bike-ride and kayak ahead of me prevented me from feeling like I could push any harder. All I could do was look out at the spectacular views when I could see them and just keep thinking about how lucky I was to be doing this race -- quite possibly one of the most scenic races I will ever do!

I finally finished the run 1hr and 32 mins later -- a solid 7 mins slower than my training run the previous weekend. Disappointing to say the least. However, I cleared my head, transitioned into my bike gear, forced down some more gel, gulped some more water, and set off down the road.

I was actually shocked to see how few bikes were left in the transition area. Realizing exactly what this meant, I did not feel a huge sence of urgency ahead of me. I took my time getting into a good rythm and made sure I had some more water. As I encountered the first major hill I realized that I had been holding my foot in a weird position on the pedal and tried to flatten it out. This resulted in a tweak that felt like the start of a really bad foot cramp. Fearing this horrible pain I quickly jumped off my bike and put all my weight on my foot. I did my best to straighten it out and gulp down some more water before hopping back on my bike. Phew... I had managed to avoid that one!

I continued along the way, remembering all of the tips that Peter had given me on our training rides. Although one guy passed me (he was clearly held up by a slow teammate on the running section) I managed to reel in and pass a few people. As time progressed I started to feel better and better. I was quite proud of my hill climbing ability compared to where I had started a few months back.

Since it had been raining off and on, the road was wet which made me slightly more cautious on the downhills, but I still managed to enjoy them! I'm pretty sure that I had a huge grin pastered across my face while I squeeled with delight on the inside!

By this point I had been hit with some pretty fierce headwinds. While climbing up another hill I was starting to reel in another biker. But just before I caught up, we were hit by a huge gust of wind. I saw the cyclist ahead struggle and have to put her foot down. At the same time I was actually blown off my bike! Had I not managed to unclip my foot from the pedal, I am pretty sure I would have tumbled down the cliff on my left, with my bike attached to my feet. Phew! Managed to save myself that time! But, this did come at the expense of another leg cramp that had to be dealt with before proceeding.

One final downhill gave me one last rush of pleasure and glee! As I approached the roundabout into Picton, I was struck by another gust of wind -- this time sending me from the complete left side of the road directly over to the complete right side of the road in the span of about 0.5 seconds! Had there been a car approaching, there most certainly would have been a head-on collision. After pulling myself together and picking up the momentum that I had lost, I continued.

As I made my way through Picton and towards Waikawa Bay I passed by several cyclists going the opposite direction. This reassured my prediction that the kayak course had been modified to stay within Waikawa Bay and that we would have to cycle the rest of the way back to Picton. However, when I arrived at the kayak transition, I got off my bike and was given some instructions from a marshall that greeted me. I ran towards a chute where my number was taken, and told to turn around, get back on my bike, and ride back into Picton. To which I responded with "WHAT?! No kayak!!??" I was bummed!

Bummed, but on a high! There was such a buzz of people around me and I'd finally caught up with more competitors. I did not feel tired at all! I pushed myself really hard, trying to reel in a few more bikers. When I got to the Picton foreshore I had no idea what to do. Realizing the the cyclist that was just ahead of me was running down the grass to the finish line, I followed her lead. A final sprint to the end and I crossed the line ahead of her.

I felt so good! I was so proud of myself. I had finished -- even though it was not the race that I was expecting, it was still a tonne of fun. I ran into Gemma who helped me to find my transition bags, and also met up with Claire and Short Nic. I'm pretty sure I sounded delirious! Telling them some of my race stories at the rate of 1000 words per minute. I was ontop of the world! Convinced that I MUST do more races like this!







The rest of the afternoon was spent gathering up gear, moving kayaks, and sharing race stories while hanging out in a cafe called "The Barn" while waiting for the Prize Giving Ceremony. Turns out I missed out on lots of excitement at the kayak transition area - where Nic and Gemma had spent most of their time. Apparently Waikawa Bay turned into total chaos due to the weather and poor communication. Claire started off doing the "full" course in Waikawa Bay since her teammates were so super speedy fast and she was one of the first ones in the water! By the time Aaron hit the course, the conditions had worsened and he was headed out on a "shortened" course. He claims he spent approximately 8 mins kayaking and 10 mins swimming and waiting for assistance from a rescue boat. Shortly thereafter, they decided to close off the kayak section all-together - hence why I missed out.

The prize giving was also a bit chaotic since the results were garbled due to the rain and weather making some of the results illegible. After watching the girls in my category go up on stage for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place I realized they had made a mistake. I knew the person that got 3rd and I was 100% certain that I finished ahead of her. Since I was totally bummed that I was going to miss my "moment of fame" I went and talked to someone about it. The next thing I knew, Peter was announcing my name and correcting the mistake. While I was walking up to the stage he took some time to tell the crowd how excited he was for me and also share stories about who I was, where I came from, and how wonderful a maths teacher I was, along with a whole bunch of other things that I don't even remember.

While receiving my prize, all I could think about was how much I wanted to say something about Peter. So while walking down the stairs, I turned around and walked back up and asked if I could say a few words. This is where Claire and Nic decided that I was officially crazy, but I couldn't resist. I stepped up to the microphone and took a minute or two to tell the crowd how inspiring Peter Yarrel was, and how generous and kind he has been to me. I think I finished by saying that Peter will always have a soft-spot in my heart. When I turned around, I couldn't help but notice that he had a few tears in his eyes... Awesome!


By the end of the day I was knackered! Fortunately Claire offered to drive me home. I was supposed to join Peter and many others for dinner in Picton but didn't think I could because I felt too wiped. Somehow I was able to find my second wind and decided to go for it! It was a lovely evening at Dylan's mom's boutique restaurant called "Escape to Picton". I sat at the "young adult" table with Peter's son and his partner, and two other top racers. Conversation, interestingly enough, was centred around long-distance bike tours. I did my best to convince them to try a cross-Canada bike trip!

At the end of the evening I gave Peter a small gift that I had spent a considerable amount of time thinking about: two picture frames with some very "Canadian" shots from one of my canoe trips in Algonquin Park, and two sets of straps for tying kayaks to a roof rack (something I heard Peter mention he needed just about every time he I watched him load the kayaks onto his car). Peter was touched, I was pleased.



Here are some other pictures from the race that were taken by Short Nic while she and Gemma were waiting in the kayak transition area...

Pre-Race Jitters (& Expenses!)

The countdown is on! My big race is on Saturday. I think I'm nervous. Why? I seem to get butterflies in my stomach each time I think about the race. I have also noticed that my appetite has been very low this week. This worries me a bit because I know the importance of proper nutrition leading up to a big race!

I'm also wondering, however, if these nerves might also have something to do with the anxiety I'm experiencing about my decision to go home. I'm still questioning whether or not it's the right decision, and I'm particularly questionaing the sanity of giving up a full-time, permanent job here, with no job to go home to. Who knows... I guess I'll be able to know the answer to that one on Sunday morning...

I went out yesterday to pick up a few more items for the race. I stopped off at Bike HQ to buy some gels. Turns out, they don't have much selection - it never even crossed my mind that I might actually have to settle for another brand of gel other than the "Gu" that I'm used to. I ended up settling for a tube of Peak Fuel and a pack of Sharkies -- at the outrageous cost of $9.80!!!

Cockroach Phobia

I think I'm scarred for life when it comes to anything dealing with cockroaches. This is all thanks, of course, to living here in my somewhat dodgey flat and stumbling upon a few too many cockroaches this winter!

Short Nic has been recently snacking away on a package of dates. Every time she offers me one and I look inside the package, I can't help but get this feeling of fear (and nausea!) that the package is jam-packed full of cockroaches since they are remarkably similar in appearance.

Check it out for yourself!

Pet Sheep

I got this email from a co-worker today.

Morning all
I would like to borrow a pet lamb or goat to eat my back lawn. It is good quality ryegrass and white clover.
It is well fenced and has a water supply for the animal.
If you can help, please let me know
Rach

It made me laugh. Not only because the person was looking for a pet that could save her the hassle of mowing her lawn, but more-so because this type of request is not that abnormal in NZ. A lot of my students have pet sheep. And people really do rely on their farm animals to keep their lawns mowed. In fact, I just recently learned that vinyard owners will allow their sheep to graze their vinyards during the winter season (ie. when there are no grapes growing) to save on the cost of petrol. Fancy that?!

Radians vs. Degrees

I realize my blog is sort of turning into more of a "diary from the perspective of a teacher" than it is about my actual experiences in NZ. If my "teaching stories" bore you (my readers) I sincerely apologize. However, since my job is all consuming at this point in my life, it comprises most of what I have to talk about.

So overall, I'm still feeling incredibly pleased with the progress that I've made this year. I've made a huge leap in terms of my ability to manage my classroom and my students, which directly translates to my ability to actually teach. For instance, my year 10's are getting so well behaved in class (God only knows how hard I've been working with them to reach this point!) that I'm getting some pretty amazing results in terms of their comprehension. My year 9's are figuring things out too! I've hit the point with them now where I can basically cover TWICE the material in one lesson than I used to be able to cover. Certainly makes my life soooo much easier!

However, I am not immune to frustrating and embarassing set-backs. For instance, today I discovered that I failed to teach an extremely important concept to my year 12's properly. I discovered this through a student that pointed out what she thought was an incorrect answer on a review sheet. Naturally, this was 2 mins before they were about to write a test, so I had to wait until later to investigate. Turns out, I made the same mistake she did when I tried solving the problem. I tried to solve an application question involving Trig Equations using degrees rather than radians. However, I didn't KNOW that you had to solve it in radians. I therefore did not tell them that important detail.

It's moments like these that make me fear going back into the classroom the next day and having to face the potential criticisms. But I will do it. I will be ok. I will apologize about this oversite, and clarify any confusion about this concept, and remind them that they will not make that mistake when it comes time to writing the final exam.

Switching Races

I forgot to mention that my all-girls adventure race plans have fallen apart. The main reason: the race has been cancelled. Bummer! I was really looking forward to this race! Apparently there were just not enough entries to make it worthwhile!

So. Although I'm very disappointed about this news, I have decided to enter a different race: The Moa Hunt race. It's actually a bike race that Tall Nic and Merrill are planning to do. But this year they have added in a 20km mountain running section/category to the day, so I'm gonna enter it and do it with my friend Emily from work.

Time to get training!!!

Satisfying Long Weekend

Although I had grand plans to do the Queen Charlotte Track this weekend with Claire, the weather forecast completely turned us away. Since the cost of getting a water taxi to the start of the track was $100 each, plus the additional cost of accomodations (which we had yet to acquire), we decided to save ourselves some cash and enjoy the weekend in other ways. Although the weather turned out far better than forecasted, we were not disappointed with how things worked out.

Saturday we drove out to Picton and met up with Peter who I had, once again, arranged to borrow kayaks from. In true Peter-fashion, he helped us get the kayaks to the water in Waikawa Bay and offered to pick us up on the other end in Picton. We wanted to do the full kayak course so that Claire could get a feel for it since she is now signed up to do the kayak section on race day. The day was gorgeous and we both took in the beauty that surrounded us. I can't believe I haven't taken my camera out with me yet to capture it. I will have to remember it one of these times!

When Peter met us in Picton, we did a bit of a brainstorm session with him while he went through how the finish line would work. Through this discussion we ended up picking a new finish line for the course. This new finish line is far more picturesque that last year's! I feel very proud that I was able to contribute my "consultant" advice on this course change!

Afterwards, Claire and I set off down the Queen Charlotte Drive to find a lookout to eat our lunch at. Right around this time, it started to rain (read: pour!), so we sat in her car and enjoyed the view from inside. We had originally planned to drive to Anakiwa, leave her car there, and bike back to Picton, but the rain ended up changing our plans. It was just so miserable and crap that we decided it just wasn't worth it - especially since it would be Claire's first time on her new bike and it's a pretty windy, hilly, and scary road - even in dry conditions!

So instead, we drove back to Picton, picked up my car, and made our way back to Blenheim where it was sunny and dry! Since we had just stuffed our faces in anticipation of a nice long bike ride, we felt the need to burn those caolories off. So we set off to the hills for a nice long 1.5 hour run. I was pooped that night and anticipated a nice and early bedtime but instead opted to accept an invitiation to go out with Emily (a co-worker). Turned into a long but fun night and I didn't make it to bed until 3am!

Sunday was a day spent in Nelson as I wrote about yesterday. Ignoring my car-ride woes, it was a fantastic day weather-wise, and I managed to find myself a way-cool shirt that says "I heart NZ" with the heart being in the shape of an Adidas logo. I really like this shirt!!!

Monday was another gorgeous day, that was once again spent in Picton. This time we met up with Peter who was taking his speed boat out to Mistletoe Bay in order to do some more course preparation.
A perfect opportunity for me to test out the running portion of the race! Claire, Dylan and I set off and were conveniently picked up by Peter on the other end in Anakiwa. I managed to do the 13km trail run in 1hr 25mins at a fairly leisurely pace. I hope to cut that a bit shorter on race day.

Luckily I had been able to convince Peter to bring my bike along on his boat so I set off from there to bike back into Picton. It was a great ride! The sun was shining and I felt great! I am beginning to LOVE the up and downhill sections of the course. I did the ride in 1 hour 20 mins back to Peter's house.

I am now realizing that I have some pretty super blisters from today's run. I felt them developing but didn't realize just how bad they were until just now. I blame them on a bad choice of socks for the day. I think I'm gonna have to go at these with a pin and get some of the fluid out. Fun fun!



I also reailzed this evening that I missed covering my entire back with sunscreen before going out today and as a result, I now have my first "burn marks" of the season in the shape of butterfly wings on my back... I have a feeling these are going to hurt tomorrow!

Motion Sickness

I have never - ever - considered myself one to be affected by motion sickness. For as long as I can remember, I have been able to do pretty much ANYTHING in the car: reading, eating, sleeping, facing backwards, sitting middle, sitting front, you name it!!

Well, that has definitely changed since I've come to New Zealand. It only took me a short while to realize that riding on windy roads, and up and over mountain passes, is not my forte. Compared to the long, flat, straight roads that I grew up with in Canada on more road trips than I can remember, the roads in NZ are more like roller coasters.

It's come to the point that I know myself well enough that I pretty much have to sit in the passenger seat if I'm not in the drivers seat. If I'm going to survive in the backseat without feeling the need to spew, I have to have a really compassionate driver that considers it's passengers while maneuovering the twists and turns.

I just got back from a trip to Nelson with Claire, Merrill, and her partner, Mark. I thought I'd tough it out and ride in the backseat. However, 3/4 of the way there, I couldn't last any longer and had to request Mark to pull over so I could switch into the front seat. If I hadn't, I'm pretty sure I would have been sick. On the way home, I didn't even risk it... I rode front seat.

I actually feel pretty pathetic. I can't believe I can't handle these car rides. I've even tried the wrist bands that utilize pressure points to reduce the effects of motion sickness, but to no avail. I guess that makes one thing for me to look forward to when I get home... my rock-solid stomach!