Just above is a picture of the Douglas Fir Trail in Edworthy Park in Calgary. Can you tell that the picture was taken in summer? Vicky and I are trying to organize a hike on this trail in November. I'm worried that it'll be snowing or something. However, don't worry, if the weather is really terrible, Vicky and I have a secret back up plan.

I wish I had something really exciting to tell the world about my life right now. Actually, all I have been doing this weekend is cleaning my house. So far, I have done four loads of laundry. Not very exciting, eh? I also bought a new vacuum cleaner this weekend. It is a hoover. It's the picture above the Douglas Fur Trail. It was on sale at London Drugs for $99, so I am pretty pleased. Even better, now I can finally vacuum my carpet. I have to be honest, my house was getting a little bit gross, but now it is much better. So anyway, the highlight of my weekend so far is that I bought a vacuum. Oh, also we all got to sleep in an extra hour today!! I love daylight savings time!

I can't believe it is Sunday night again already. Time is really flying by this semester. I had so many great plans for the weekend, but there never seems to be enough time to do everything. One cool thing that I did this weekend was I went for a hike here in the city. I went to a place called Edworthy Park, and I went on a hike along the Douglas Fir Trail. It was only a short hike, about an hour, but there were some good views of the city, and I felt really energized by being in the woods. I think it might be a good idea for all of LEAP II to go on this hike. It would really fit in with our new ecology theme, but I'm worried that by the time we go on the hike, there will already be 10 fee of snow on the ground. Oh well, I guess we play it by ear. Anyway, I saw a lot of Douglas Fir trees - my last name is Douglas, so I got a kick out of that . . . later!

I'm so broke at the moment. Boo hoo. I just got my car fixed, and it cost over three hundred dollars. The oil was leaking out of my engin all the time, and finally I couldn't stand it anymore, so I took my car into a garage to get it fixed. I turned out that I had some major problems with my car. Oh well, at least now it is working. To celebrate, I actually washed my car (finally). It was starting to look really bad. I also vacuumed out the inside, so now it is spic and span inside and out.

So that's all I have done this weekend. Nothing really exciting to report so far. I have a ton of marking to do (as my students know). I want to give them back all their tests and papers tomorrow that that we can start the new theme unit fresh. I'm really amazed at the progress in writing some of my students have had so far this semester. I hope that we can keep up the good work.

One exciting thing that I did this weekend was that I went to a really great Japanese restaurant - Sobaten. It was sooooooooooooooooooo good! www.sobaten.com. I had the kitsune udon with some sushi. Holy cow it was good, but I was a little bit surprised because the soup for udon was different than what I remembered in Japan. Sobaten does their soup Tokyo style, and I used to live in Osaka. Anyway, it was still good! I recommend that everyone try it! They make their own soba right in the restaurant!

My Trip to Didsbury for Thanksgiving

Llamas and Turkeys

I wanted to post all my thanksgiving day pictures up here, but I keep forgetting to download all my pics onto my laptop. I went home last weekend for Thanksgiving, and it was really great. My parents live about 80 kms north of Calgary on a little 10 acre farm just outside of a small town named Didsbury. I am sure that none of my readers have ever heard of it! Anyway, like I said, it was really nice visiting my family. The biggest surprise for me was all of the cats that are on my parents farm. They have over 10 cats at the moment. I guess they need all the cats to eat the mice. The cats don't actually live in the house, we keep them outside the garage / barn where they can catch and eat all the mice they can find. Besides cats, my parents also have three dogs, three llamas, and four miniature horses (pictures to follow). I had a lot of fun visiting all the animals. The minature horses are the best because they are so friendly.

After vising all the animals, I went to go and visit my grandmother in the hospital. She is almost 90 years old, and she is very frail, so she has to stay in the hospital all the time. She was really glad to see me. I was happy that she could remember who I was because sometimes she forgets.

After my Thanksgiving Day visit with my grandmother in the hospital, I went home and I ate a HUGE amount of turkey. I think I am still full, even though it is now Wednesday. Dinner was so great. We had stuffing, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey, carrots, cranberry sauce and bumble berry pie for dessert. It was so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stay tuned for pictures to follow!

heeellllo students!

Hi everyone,

Some people came up to Mrs. Bejko's office to see one of the posters, and that was really great - but I forgot to show you that there was writing on the back of the flower, the heart and the butterfly! The student had written some of the key points she had learned on the back. Argh. I couldn't believe I forgot to show you that. Anyway, I hope that all my students have a great long weekend. Eat lots of turkey! I am going to my parents' farm this weekend, so I'll try and take lots of pictures and put them on my blog.

Later!

The Calgary Zoo!!!

Animals!




























































Hello World! I had such a great day today. I went to the Calgary Zoo with my class. It was really great, but I felt a bit sorry for all of the animals. We have been talking about zoos a lot in class lately . . . why they are good, why they are bad. I guess my own opinion is that they are good and bad. I found a really cool website with some information about why zoos are good, or why zoos are bad:

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks3bitesize/
english/writing/article_test1.shtml

Anyway, like I said, I guess I have a mixed opinion. The important thing though is that all my students really spoke a lot of English today. Some students even got 100% on the activity that we had to do. I was really proud of them. I hope you like my pictures from zoo!

I know I already blogged today, but I just had to blog again. I finally got my haircut. It is a little bit shocking because it is so short, but it was about time I got it cut. It's been two months. I went to Ultracuts in Market Mall. It was no-tax Tuesday, so I didn't have to pay any GST. My haircut was jut $13.95.

The best part about tonight though was that I went to Peters' Drive In! I had a double cheese burger and french fries. I wonder if my students have been to this famous Calgary landmark yet. They have to go! They are the best burgers in Calgary!

It's Tuesday today!! I can't believe how fast the time is flying by. Already we are almost finished talking about endangered animals in class. I can't wait to go to the zoo on Thursday. I think it is going to be a really nice way to bring together all the ideas we have been talking about for the last couple of weeks.

The best part about going to the zoo is . . . . . . . . the hotdogs! I don't think I am going to bring my lunch to the zoo on Thursday. I'm going to buy a couple of hotdogs. Actually, I really like hotdogs, even though I am sure they are not healthy. The best hotdogs in the whole city (or at least the cheapest) are at IKEA. IKEA is actually a big furniture store (www.ikea.ca), but they have 50 cent hotdogs!!! Usually I buy a couple of hotdogs everytime I go to IKEA. Lately, I have gone to IKEA quite a lot because I just moved back to Calgary from Japan, and I had to buy all new furniture. Recently, I bought two shelves and a table, all for under $100. They are just plain pine wood, but they aren't so bad. And, naturally, I got to eat a couple of hotdogs. You can also get cheap hotdogs in the video arcade beside the Subway in Mac Hall. Has anyone ever tried these hot dogs? Are they any good?

I just thought of something! I couldn't remember if I explained in class that you should click on the plus sign (make new post) when you want to blog. Don't click on the make a new blog button. Everything will start to get confusing if you do.

It's Saturday morning, but I still got up at 6:30 am. I guess my body is used to getting up early all the time. I went to a great restaurant last night - the old spaghetti factory. It's so good. I had the tortellini, but the best part about this restaurant is the all you can eat bread. I was so full afterwards!

Luckily, my house is about a 30 minute walk from this restaurant, so I was able to burn off some of the calories I consumed!

Oh yeah, on the way home, I bought a new binder :-)