LEAP INTO ENGLISH

I Have a New Blog!

2006-09-26T10:57:00.000-07:00

Hello World!

I have a new blog for my students:

www.englishforacademicpurposes.blogspot.com

Please check it out. I started it for my new Fall 2006 Academic Writing and Grammar class.

See you there!

Now is the time!

2006-08-02T20:04:00.000-07:00

One more week! Now is the time. We are really working hard in my class studying for the final exams. We came up with a giant study schedule to plan out our time before the final exams. I really love the 888 rule . . . that is, 8 hours of work, 8 hours of life and 8 hours of sleep. It really divides the day up nicely. Anyway, I have calculated that if my students started studying on Monday they have 44 available hours for study before the first final exam. You sure can do a lot with 44 hours. Some of my students are doing some great stuff. One of them is re-reading all of the readings and making summaries of each one. Another one of my students is making a language list of nice phrases she can use from the readings in her essays. I suggested that my students focus on just learning five words per chapter that we studied. That means that they only have to memorize 35 words before the final exams. I'm sure they can do it! I guess the hardest day is going to be on Monday when I suggested they write three practice essay exams in one day. Hard stuff . . . but it is almost all over. It'll be worth it when they pass and they can go to university in September :-)

Good luck everybody!

One more week!

2006-07-28T18:44:00.000-07:00

Well, there is only one more week of classes left, and then we are doing our final exams. When I think back to everything that we have been doing, I'm really surprised by how much we have covered. It's astounding!

I haven't really been doing much of anything lately. The only exciting thing that has happened recently is that my parent bought a new van. They now have a Dodge Caravan. It's really nice. My parents are planning on driving to Montreal for their 40th Wedding Anniversary, so they bought a new comfortable vehicle to make the drive. They figure it will take them five or six days to get to Montreal. My sister and I got them anniversary presents to match their trip. I bought my parents $400 worth of gas from Petro Canada. I gave them four $100 gas cards to use as they fill up across the country. My sister bought my parents $400 worth of hotel nights at Best Western Hotels. My sister's boyfriend even bought my parents a $40 gift card for Tim Horton's so that they can have coffee and doughnuts on the way.

The reason my parents are going to Montreal is because that is where they lived when they first immigrated to Canada (my parents are from England), and we still have lots of relatives there. In fact, my Granny lives there, and she is going to be 91 years old in December. I wish I could go with my parents to visit my Granny!

Anyway, my mum can to Calgary on Wednesday to show off the new van, and we went to Charlie Chan's Rice House in Kensington because it is close to my house. We had spring rolls, ginger beef, buddha's delight vegetables in spicy black bean sauce and chicken fried rice. It was so awesome! But we ordered too much food, which is a good thing, and I took it home with me and ate it the next day.

So that's my exciting life this week . . . stay tuned for more cool stuff!

2006-07-21T14:16:00.000-07:00

Here I am in the library. I am supposed to meeting a friend, but while I am waiting I thought I could blog for a while. Also, I just like showing off how fast I can type, and it looks like I am really busy :-)

Anyway, I can't believe that there are only two weeks left before the final exams. It seems like the semester has gone by so fast. Time . . . . oh, my friend just showed up :-)

One of my favourite poems

2006-07-20T19:23:00.000-07:00

Dreams

by Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

All Stampeded Out!

2006-07-16T15:40:00.000-07:00

Yee Haw! Stampede is over . . . or at least it is almost over. Holy cow, I have eaten a lot of food over the last 10 days what with all the free pancake breakfasts and the awesome food on the midway. I went to the Stampede grounds on Friday after work to indulge in Stampede food for the last time. I started out with a flat iron grill steak. It was awesome! The steak came with barbecue beans, potatoes and garlic bread. It was the prefect start to my Stampede evening. The next thing I ate was some corn on the cob. I couldn't pass it up . . . for two reasons mostly. First of all, I felt like I needed some vegetables after all the meat and potatoes, and secondly, I have always loved corn on the cob - especially the ones at the Stampede. They are dipped in butter. Yum. Then it was dessert time, so naturally I had to have some more mini doughnuts with sugar and cinnamon. To wash it all down, I had a saskatoon berry lemonade. However, I didn't just go to the Stampede to eat . . . I also wanted to heard some great Country music so I went to the Nashville North Tent to hear Shania Twin. She basically sings covers of Shania Twain songs, and she was really good. While I was listening to Shania, I had a couple of Kokanes with my friends. It was a great time, but soon it was time to eat again! After Shania Twin was finished singing, we left Nashville North and I had some barbecue beef on a bun. The great thing about this beef is that it is slowly smoked using pure apple wood. It was heavenly.

Wow, I just looked at what I wrote, and I realised that I really ate a lot of food. I forgot to mention, I also had a cherry snowcone, and a Husky Slurpee (it was only a dollar in Weedickville, best deal at the Stampede). Eeep, my students are going to think that I have an eating problem!!! However, my post-Stampede diet starts on Monday!

I went to the parade! Did you?

2006-07-09T09:23:00.000-07:00

I hope all my students enjoyed their day off on Friday. So far, the Stampede has been great. I have already been to two free Stameped breakfasts, and I'm sure I 'm going to go to a lot more before all this is over. On Thursday before school I went to the free Stampede breakfast at the CBC. There were so many people there, and there was even a buffalo! It was a lot of fun. I would have have liked to have stayed longer, but I had to give my students an essay test that morning :-) The best part was the pancakes. I love flapjacks!

On Friday, I went to the Stampede Parade. I looked for my students, but I couldn't see anyone. I was at the corner of 9th Street and 6th Avenue SW. I was hoping I might see someone, but that's okay. The parade was great. I wish I could play the bagpipes. Whenever I hear bagpipes, something deep inside of me is always touched. It must be some long forgotten Scottish ancestor inside of me. After the parade, I hung around downtown, and I couldn't believe I was in Calgary. Suddenly there were so many people around. It was like I was in a real big city :-)

Anyway, yesterday, I went to the local free Stampede Breakfast at the Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Centre. I got to meet my local MLA Dr. Swan. It was pretty cool because he is a liberal and not a conservative. I still didn't vote for him, but at least it didn't offend my principles too much accepting pancakes from a liberal (I'd choke before I took free pancakes from 'the other party').

Anyway, that's my Stampede so far!

2006-07-05T19:43:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from my trip to Vancouver! Can you believe that I drove all the way to Vancouver just for the weekend? Going to Vancouver was okay, but coming back was a bit tough. The trip back home took over 14 hours. In total, there and back, I drove over 2000 kms. Crazy eh? But it was totally worth it. Probably the best parts of my trip were the food. I ate soooo much sushi while I was there. Then I went crazy for bagels, rugelach (a kind of Jewish pastry), and smoked salmon. Yum. I got all that great stuff at the Granville Island Market. I also spent a lot of time on the beach. It was so hot, I couldn't believe I was in Vancouver. It was like I was in some sort of beach resort. I wish Calgary had a beach. I also was a bit overwhelmed by being in a "real" city. Sometimes I forget just how "small town" Calgary is. Especially my neighbourhood of Kensington. I was staying in the West End of Vancouver, and it is like 10 Kensingtons all put together. However, despite having a great trip, it's nice to be home . . . there were ESL students everywhere in Vancouver, and it made me homesick :-)

2006-06-27T17:13:00.000-07:00

Hello World!

I sure have been having a great couple of days so far this week. I have been substitute teaching for one of the other teachers in the LEAP program, and it has been great getting to know all of the students who are studying in level four in our English program. I hope they have been enjoying my classes! Anyway, it's over now, and it's back to normal for me . . .

It has been so hot in Calgary! It always amazes me when it gets to be above 30 degrees in Alberta. I never really associate Canada with hot weather. I have been dying at night because it is so hot. Luckily I have two fans that I blow onto my bed from different directions. I sort of lie in the crossfire of my fans and imagine myself sleeping inside of a fridge. It kind of helps. It is just that the fans are so noisy that I need to use ear plugs to block them out. It's too bad that Calgary can't be an even 20 degrees all year round. That would be awesome!

One thing I like about the summer is Calgary is the long evenings. I wonder if any of my students did anything special for the summer solstice. The sun didn't set until almost 10 pm. I celebrated by going to Banff and hiking up Tunnel Mountain. It was amazing to be out hiking at 9 pm with the sun still high in the sky.

Anyway, I am going to lie down in front of my fan now . . .

Stay cool!

Happy Father's Day!

2006-06-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

I'm soooooooooo exhausted today. It was Father's Day yesterday, and my mum and dad came over to my house to celebrate. It was great having my parents over, but the problem was that my house was incredibly messy, so I had to spend all day Sunday cleaning it. By the time I was finished cleaning the house, I was really tired. Then on top of being tired from cleaning the house, my parents arrived an hour early. I hadn't even begun cooking dinner. My parents were supposed to come over to my house at 6 pm, but they actually came over at 5 pm. Anyway, I made a big dinner for everyone. I cooked a lamb roast on the barbecue. It was delicious. I love lamb, even if I do feel bad sometimes for eating a baby sheep. I also made lots of vegetables. We had peas, carrots, zucchini, red peppers, green peppers, yellow peppers, mushrooms, and potatoes. Yum. There were lots of vegetables left over after dinner, so maybe I over did it a bit. I guess the best part was the lamb, because that was all eaten. We ate the lamb in the traditional English style with mint sauce. It was really good!

My dad also gave me two presents yesterday. It was funny because I was supposed to give him a present, and instead he gave me some presents. I got a metal thing for holding wood for my fireplace, and I got an old map of London that my grandfather had brought over to Canada when he emmigrated from England. It's a really cool map, and my dad got it framed and everthing. If I remember, I'll take a picture and post it on my blog. Anyway, I really want to sleep now . . . but I have to go and mark essays. If I don't give my students their essays back tomorrow in class there might be a revolution!

2006-06-16T14:41:00.000-07:00

Look at the funny cartoon that Sally sent me!

Sometimes I feel exactly like this . . . please leave me some comments :-)

What should I do about my garbage?

2006-06-14T13:06:00.000-07:00

It happened again! My garbage was strewn all over the back alley behind my house. Somebody keeps opening my black garbage bags and throwing my stuff all over the place. It is really starting to get annoying because there is nothing more gross than picking up decaying banana peels and used paper towels. It's not just be either. This is happening to my neighbours too. The problem is that I think I know who it is, and I really feel bad for them. You see, I live in Kensington, and we get a lot of homeless people walking up and down our back alleys picking through the garbage. Most of them are looking for bottles and cans so they can take them to the bottle depot and get the deposit money for them. The reason I get frustrated with homeless people ripping apart my garbage is that I NEVER put bottles or cans in the garbage. I always put all my bottles and cans into clear blue plastic bags so that everyone can see what is inside of them. I then put my bottles and cans into the alley so that they can be picked up by whoever wants them. Usually my bottles and cans are gone within an hour or two. I guess there is such heavy competition for these bottles and cans that people are driven to ripping open people's garbage to see what they can find.

Anyway, I guess my point is that it is terrible that there are so many homeless people in Calgary when we are supposed to be going through an economic boom. Currently the Alberta government has a surplus of billions of dollars every year, but we don't seem to be able to solve the problem of homelessness. In fact, the problem is getting worse and worse. I just read that the average price of a home in Calgary is over $350,000. How many people can afford that? Also, because so many people are moving to Calgary every month (last I heard there are 20,000 new Calgarians every month!) there are getting to be less and less apartments available for rent. Rents are starting to get very expensive. Thus, even people with jobs can barely afford to rent an apartment. Something has to be done. My garbage is just one symptom of a big problem that is facing our city.

My Students are going to be Stars!

2006-06-07T06:38:00.000-07:00

It was so cool yesterday, a television crew came to my class and did some filming for Access Television. Okay, i guess it is really local television, but it is still kind of cool. Initially, I thought they were going to be taping me teaching the class, so the night before I bought a new shirt and I got my haircut. However, I guess I didn't need to go to all that trouble, because I wasn't filmed at all. Instead they interview some of the students, and also taped them while they worked on a worksheet. Phew, I'm glad I had some worksheets in my binder. Anyway, I still can't wait until I can see all of my students on TV. I guess the show will be coming out this summer on channel 13. I guess I'll have to find another opportunity to become a big TV star . . .

2006-05-29T09:50:00.000-07:00

It was such a rainy weekend this past weekend. I didn't really want to do anything because of the rain, so I did the perfect rainy weekend activity. I went to the movies. I saw X-MEN III. It was awesome. The perfect movie for summer. Also, I have a hint for everyone. You have to stay in the the cinema after the movie is over and watch ALL the credits because there is one more secret scene at the very very end of the movie. It's kind of SHOCKING! Tell everyone you know to wait for all of the credits!

I Saw a Moose!

2006-05-25T10:21:00.000-07:00

Hi Guys!

How many of you have ever seen a moose? I saw one on the long weekend. It was so cool, and it was so close to me. I was on my way to Radium Hotsprings with my friend, and we stopped at the Paint Pots to go for a hike first. The Paint Pots are about half way down highway 93 on your way to Radium Hot Springs. They are natural mineral pools that are created by the high iron content in the mineral water. Anyway, while we were looking at the paint pots, suddenly a moose came into the clearing where the pools are located! I couldn't believe how close we were to the moose. I think it was a really young moose, and it wasn't really scared of us. I had forgotten how funny looking moose are. This moose had a huge nose. It was great. After the moose left the paint pots, we left too and kept going to the hotsprings. The hotsprings were great. The water was about 38 degrees and it felt really good after hiking in the mountains. However, I think it was the moose that made the whole trip worthwhile!

Picture of Fiore's

2006-05-25T10:20:00.000-07:00

2006-05-18T10:35:00.000-07:00

Hello World!

I found a really cheap place to eat Italian food on 17th Avenue. On Sunday, Mondays and Tuesdays all their pastas are only $6.99. It's a great deal! And it was pretty good too. I ate manicotti stuffed with spinach and cheese in a tomato sauce, and they were pretty delicious. Anyway, if anyone is ever looking for a cheap place to go on a date, this is the place to go. It is called Fiore Cantina Italiana and it is on the corner of 17th Avenue and 6th Street SW.

However, I promise that this semester I am not going to blog about food all the time. Last semester, I think I wrote about food in just about each of my blogs. Everyone must think that I am obsessed with eating. Anyway, I am going to go and eat lunch now . . . . . . .

2006-05-16T08:54:00.000-07:00

Here are my LEAP 4a students from last semester. Let's see if they are still blogging. Don't be shy to make comments if they still are!

Ruby
Tristan
Edward
Paul from Korea
Rachel
Beny
Benjamin
Jim
Sean
Elva
Christine
Emily
Samer
Paul from China
Luda
Lina
Basma

Welcome to a new semester!

2006-05-16T06:24:00.000-07:00

So here we are at the beginning of a new semester. I can't believe that it is already my third semester at the University of Calgary. Fall, Winter, and now Spring. I think this is going to be a great semester. For one thing, the weather is perfect. I think it is going to be 29 degrees today. I love Spring. This year, I am determined to have a good garden. I have been going to garden centres every weekend, and so far I have planted two plum trees, four saskatoon bushes, a red currant, a black current, a white currant, a gooseberry bush, two different kinds of cherries, an arctic kiwi (the coolest one!), a whole bunch of raspberries, backberries, goldenberries, and 22 strawberry plants. I have also started a lot of vegetables too. I'm really excited about the fruit trees. I keep picturing myself eating plums right off the tree! However, even though I have been doing so much gardening lately, the best tree I have is my apple tree. It is huge! It is almost 100 years old. I love it so much, especially now because it is in blossom and the smell of apple blossoms in my garden is amazing. I can't wait to eat apples this fall!

2006-04-23T14:51:00.001-07:00

Hello World!

Here I am, exactly half way through my two week break from school. Eeep, I can't believe that I only have one more week off. So far, I have been busy fixing up my house, painting fences and decks. I have really done a lot of work, and it's starting to look good. I did manage to get away for about four days to Nelson BC. The skiing was amazing. The snow was even better than here in Alberta. However, coming back I headed north through the Roger's Pass, and that was a bit scarey . . . lots of blowing snow and big trucks. Eeep. Anyway, now I am here just waiting to go back to uni . . . . . I'll write more later about my holiday. I promise!

2006-04-23T14:51:00.000-07:00

I Love Montreal Smoked Meat!

2006-03-29T07:42:00.000-08:00

I love Montreal Smoked Meat! Did you know I used to be a vegetarian? That's right. I was a very strict lacto-ovo vegetarian for four years. I hated meat. In my mind I couldn't justify killing animals for meat when there were so many other options for human beings. I mean, I thought that meat was totally unnecessary for life, so we were in no way justified in the needless killing of animals. However, there are always the childhood memories . . . . .

You see, I lived in Montreal in the summer of 1993 (at the height of my vegetarianism), and my friend Leslie came to visit me. He is originally from Singapore, but I met him when I was a student at the University of Calgary. Anyway, I was showing Leslie all of the sights, and taking him to eat all of the famous food from Montreal. We had bagels and creamcheese, we had blintzes and knishes . . . it was wonderful . . . but then I took him to Schwartz's for a smoked meat. (http://www.schwartzsdeli.com/index2.html) I had too, I mean, it is one of the iconic smoked meat places in Montreal. I had no choice. So, I ordered him a smoked meat, and I got myself a plate of fries. I ate a fry. He took a big bite of his meaty, juicy sandwich, the fat dripping over his hands. He let out a small moan of pleasure. It was the best sandwhich he had ever eaten in his life. I couldn't stand it. Childhood memories started to flood through me. I could picture my Granny pleading with me to just have one smoked sandwich when I became a vegetarian. An entire culture began to press down on me. I grabbed half of Leslie's sandwich . . . I bit into it. The first meat that had passed my lips in 4 years . . . I started to cry. It was so good.

And that, my friends, I how I stopped being a vegetarian.

The whole point of this little blog entry is to tell you about the Montreal Smoked Meat place on 11th Street and 14th Avenue SW (kind of) near 17th Ave SW in Calgary. It is so good. They fly the meat in directly from Montreal. Please go there . . . a 6 oz sandwich is $8. It'll be the best $8 you ever spent, and you can think about how I stopped being a vegetarian (an made my Granny very happy too).

2006-03-22T12:46:00.000-08:00

Hello World! I put these pictures in here to show you some of the cool things that I have been doing lately. I had such a great weekend last weekend because I finally got to relax and have some fun (I'm definately not relaxing and having fun now, but that is another story!)

Anyway, last weekend my friends Nicole and Stefan came over for summer. We had such a great time. We ate Japanese food cooked by my friend Taka (actually, I made the sushi, and he make the tempura). We also ate on my grandmother's dishes. Do you seen the green and white plates? Those were the first plates that my grandmother bought when she immigrated to Canada. Cool eh?

The other cool thing that I did this weekend is I went to the movies. Did you know that right now, if you buy specially marked boxes of Oatmeal Crisp, you can get a free movie ticket? Isn't that great, because the cereal costs about four dollars, but a movie ticket costs 10 dollars. That means that I was a total winner! Hmmm, however, now I have about 10 boxes of cereal that I have to eat :-)

2006-03-12T15:53:00.000-08:00

I was totally shocked today! I went to Bowness Park to go skating on the lagoon, and the city had dug the whole thing up! I guess skating is finished for the winter. I was so dissapointed because I had been looking forward to going skating all weekend. Oh well. I have put my skates away now at the bottom of my closet for next winter. Hopefully spring will come soon! The worst part is that I ate a double cheese burger and a strawberry vanilla shake from Peters' Drive In because I thought I would burn the calories off skating. Now I definately have to walk to school tomorrow.

Other than my skating fiasco there's not much to talk about right now. It's been a typical weekend . . . cleaning my house, doing the laundry . . . I need to think of some better ways to have fun :-)

2006-03-10T13:26:00.000-08:00

I'm so proud of myself. I'm still walking to school every day. I have tried all kinds of different ways to get here, but it still takes me about 50 minutes to walk from my house to the Education building, but that's okay because the walk does me good. However, I still haven't lost any weight . . . . okay, I know, it's only been four days, but I was hoping for at least a pound or two. Naturally it didn't help today that someone put chocolate cake in the teacher's room. Now I guess I didn't have to eat a piece, but it looked so good just sitting there calling out to me . . .

Anyway, even if I don't lose any weight, I'm sure I'm going to be healthier because of all of this walking.

Holy cow, I just realised there are only 20 more teaching days until the final exams . . . ulp!

2006-03-07T10:10:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it! I stepped on the bathroom scale this morning and I weighed a whopping 205 pounds. I was so disturbed, that I have decided to revolutionize my life. I am no longer driving to work. That's right. I actually left my car at home today, and I walked to work. It took me 50 minutes to walk from the door of my house to the door of the Education building. And you know what? I felt really good when I arrived at school. And I have been feeling good all day. I actually feel more awake than usual. Anyway, this is my decision. I am never going to drive to work again. I am always going to walk. I am sure that if I do this every day I'll get into better shape, and I may even lose a few pounds. Now, if I could only stop eating Tim Horton's donuts!

2006-02-27T12:47:00.000-08:00

Holy cow, I've been sick lately. And it seems like all of my students have been getting sick too. It must be the flu season. Everyone is walking around sneezing and coughing, with headaches and stuffy noses. boo hoo. I just want to get better. I think I have had a cold and/or flu for about three weeks now. Enough already!

However, I did manage to have some fun this weekend. It was my Mum's 64th birthday this weekend, and to celebrate we went to the Palliser Hotel for Sunday Brunch. It was soooooo awesome. The Palliser Hotel is great, and the brunch is out of this world. There were so many choices. My favourite thing had to be the "eggs pacifica". They were a kind of eggs benedict, but with salmon instead of ham. I put up a picture of some eggs benedict for people who have never seen them before. Just take out the ham and add smoked salmon. I also had a omlette that was made in front of my eyes, a belgian waffle (also made in front of my eyes), a huge pile of different kinds of fish (including trout!), and about a dozen different pieces of cake. I was a little bit full after brunch :-) I guess that is the trouble when to you to a buffet style brunch. However, it was just amazing. I think my Mum had a really good time too. I was a bit worry about my Dad though because he has diabetes and he ate a lot of cakes, and then he forgot his diabetes pills. However, I guess it was a special occasion one time only type of thing so it's okay.

Anyway, if you are ever looking for a super fancy place to take some one for the best brunch of their entire lives (it was so fancy, that there was even a guy playing a grand piano while we ate brunch), I totally recommend the Palliser Hotel on Sundays (but be warned, it's exxxxppppeeeennnnsssssiiiiivvvveee!!!)

Skating Rocks!

2006-02-18T10:48:00.000-08:00

Wooo Hoooo! It's the first day of a long weekend and already I'm having tons of fun. I just got back from Bowness Park where I went skating this morning. It was so great. I love skating outdoors on natural ice. The air was cool and crisp as I whizzed over the ice. I felt so alive. The best part was that it wasn't very crowded this morning either. There were only a few people on the ice. I wonder if my students have ever gone to Bowness Park. I really think they should check it out. It's probably my favourite park in Calgary. The pond is huge, and their is something quitesentially Canadian in skating outdoors on a pond.

Anyway, I gotta go and enjoy the rest of my long weekend!

2006-02-17T07:53:00.000-08:00

Hooray, hooray, hooray, hooray
Hooray today is my birthday
Hooray, hooray, hooray, hooray
Hooray today is my birthday

It's not the pickle's or the pear's
It's not the beaver's or the bear's
It's not next week or yesterday
Hooray today is my birthday
Hooray, hooray, hooray, hooray
Hooray today is my birthday!

2006-02-15T09:08:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of some cheese.

Day off for Scott!

2006-02-14T10:42:00.000-08:00

Hello world!

I had the day off yesterday. I was so excited because I thought I was going to have a nice long weekend, but I got sick! Isn't that typical. It seems like I always get sick when I don't have to go to school, but suddenly when I have a day to do anything I want, I'm as sick as a dog. I think I have the thing that has been going around the university for the last few weeks . . . runny nose, fever, sinus headache, etc.

However, it didn't destroy my day off. The first thing I did on my day off was go downtown to get my new driver's license. My old one expires on Friday (MY BIRTHDAY!), so I had to get a new on Monday or I'd be in trouble. Naturally, first I went to the wrong building to go and get my new license, so I had to walk all the way across downtown. That meant that by the time I got to the registry office, I was all hot and looked pretty weird for my picture. My nose was running and my face was bright red, and my hair was all messed up from my toque. Anyway, the lady took my picture and then wouldn't let me see it. I bet I looked like a freak. Then, when we were doing all the information, she asked me if all the details were still the same . . . for example, do you still weigh 194 pounds. I said yes. Ulp. I guess what I meant was that I want to weigh 194 pounds, you see, I have gained a few pounds in the last five years. When I went home after getting my license I weighed myself and I was 204 pounds . . . holy cow! What happened to me? Anyway, I now need to lose 10 pounds pronto or my license will be wrong. No more donuts for me!

After that depressing morning, I really needed to do something fun, so I jumped in my car and I went to Banff. It was really great. I went to the hot springs and soaked away all my worries (and maybe a couple of ounces). Now there are only four more days until another long weekend . . . woo hoo!

My House is so Clean!

2006-02-06T16:02:00.000-08:00

This weekend I did nothing exciting at all except clean my house. It took me two days to clean everything, it was such a mess. The worst part was the huge piles of laundry I had been ignoring for so long, but finally they are clean. I even managed to finish all of my ironing. Usually I hate ironing, but I just bought season 3 of the show "24" and I watched three episodes while I ironed all my shirts and pants. I was so happy to finally be finished my ironing, but now I am addicted to this show "24". I want to watch it all the time, but I have so much marking to do that I can't watch too much TV or I'm going to fall way too far behind.

Anyway, my house is clean! Yahoo! Hmmm, it doesn't sound like I have too exciting of a life lately what with just cleaning my house and doing my laundry. I wonder how I could spice up my life . . . . give my students more homework? Naw :-)

2006-01-31T11:13:00.000-08:00

Guess what! The Alberta Teachers of English as a Second Language (ATESL) have published an article I wrote in their newsletter. It's kind of exiting for me to see one of my articles in print. If anyone really wants to know about blogs and one of the reasons I like to use them in class, they can check out my article here:

http://www.atesl.ca/docs/Newsletter%20December%2005.pdf

It is a huge pdf file, so it may take some time to download.

Anyway, blogging is great!

2006-01-31T07:12:00.000-08:00

Ouch! I have a sore back. I think I threw my back out yesterday when I was carrying around my big heavy binder to all of my classes. I guess I am incredibly out of shape. That's it. I am going to get back into shape. I have no choice. The first thing I am going to have to do is start to eat healthy food. Does anyone reading this like Arby's? I was in Chinook Mall last weekend, and I decided to have Arby's. I was really enjoying it until I realised there were no vegetables at all in my meal. Well, okay, I guess potatoes are a vegetable, and the buns were made of wheat, but you know what I mean. I was eating pure meat, potatoes and bread (plus lots of fat). Oh dear . . . that made me realise I have to start eating better. Can anyone help me? What do you recommend that I start eating? How do I stay away from fast food? Heeeeeeeeelp!

2006-01-26T16:21:00.000-08:00

Hi World! These are my students from last year. I felt bad because I erased them off the side of my blog, so I decided to stick there here for all eternity :-)

LEAP II a
Cecilia
Katerina
Steve
Gogo
Ormarys
Caleb
Cody
Peichen
Roy
Crystal
Evelyn
Wei
Susan
Ted
LEAP II b
Daniel
Jamie
Eugenie
Rebecca
Maria
Phil
Ella
Betsy
Alice
Amy
Heather
Susan
Ralph
Rumi

Business Studies

2006-01-23T16:25:00.000-08:00

It already week 2 of our business theme in LEAP IV. This week we are going to be talking about ethics in business, so I think it is going to be really interesting. Sometimes I'm worried that business people have no ethics at all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Anyway, it is Monday, and I am exhausted. I have to go home and vote tonight. I hope lots of people vote. I've been really worried lately because not so many people vote. It's like nobody really cares any more. However, I care, so that is why I'm going to vote. Now that the election is already here, I wish I had been more involved in helping the party that I like win the election. Does anyone know which party I like? Try and guess!

See you all tomorrow!

Vancouver was fun!

2006-01-17T11:46:00.000-08:00

I went to Vancouver last weekend! It was a lot of fun. I got to see my sister and hang out in one of my favourite cities. The only problem is that I had such a good time on the weekend that I need another weekend just to recover!

The picture you see is of the Sylvia Hotel. That is the hotel I stayed in because my sister has a little tiny apartment, and there was no room for me. The hotel is really great because it is right on the beach at English Bay. I got to walk along the water front a lot, and I also took a little ferry over to Granville Island so that I could wander around the market. In Granville Island I bought a lot of salmon products . . . I couldn't help myself! They all looked so good.

I also got to eat lots of really great sushi in Vancouver. I felt like I was in heaven!

The students have blogs!

2006-01-11T12:39:00.000-08:00

This is so great. Today in class 4a we all made blogs. Sometimes the computers weren't working very well, but for the most part it went okay. I'm so happy! I can't wait to read what everyone in my class has to say. I think it is going to be a lot of fun.

The big news is this: the text books are in the bookstore. I totally forgot to tell everyone in class today, so I hope that someone reads this and tells everyone because I'd really like to use the textbooks in class tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm glad we have all started blogging!

First Day of the Semester!

2006-01-09T08:22:00.000-08:00

Hello World!

It's the first day of the semester here at the University of Calgary! It's really exciting because there are lots of students in the hallway outside my office, checking there classes and generally getting ready for the start of the year. This year I am going to be teaching LEAP 4a intensive and LEAP 4d Canadian Connections. I am really looking forward to it. We have completey reorganized LEAP IV this year, and we are going to be studying four different themes. The first theme we are going to be looking at is business. However, before all of that we have to have "success week". This is where we are going to find out what we need to do to be successful here at the university. Anyway, I'm looking forward to meeting all of my new students this semester. I hope they are ready to work hard and have fun!

Last Day of the Semester

2005-12-09T08:28:00.000-08:00

Today is the last day of the semester. I can't believe that it is here already. I have been teaching at the University of Calgary for 13 weeks now, and it has been quite an experience. It was nice being back in Canada, but I don't know if my students noticed that half the time I was going through as much culture shock as they were. It was hard adjusting back to life in Canada after living two years in Japan. However, now I am back, and I am very happy to be here. Since I have gotten back I have achieved some great things, the best one being that I bought the house in Kensington. I guess that is really why I came back to Canada, I wanted the house . . . and I got it. I guess I should explain a little bit for people not familiar with the story of the house. My parents bought the house in 1995, and I had been living there on and off whenever I was in Calgary. I love the house. It was built in 1911, and it has been divided into three apartments. Anyway, while I was living in Japan, my parents were having some financial trouble, and they needed to sell the house to get some money. I thought "why don't I buy the house?" The only problem was that I had no money. So, I figured if I could come back to Canada and find a job that paid enough money, I could get a mortgage and buy the house, thus helping my parents out of their financial problems and enabling me to keep the house. Well, to make a long story short, I got the job here at the University of Calgary. The rest is history. I got the mortgage, and bought the house. Now it is mine. I guess that means that I am finally really an adult. I have a real job in Canada and I have a house . . . hmmm, took me a while to do it, but I guess I have grown up. The only problem is now that I am settled, I can feel my feet starting to get itchy again . . . .

2005-12-04T06:54:00.000-08:00

It's early Sunday morning, and here I am sitting at my computer, typing in my blog. Holy cow, it has been cold out lately. I had forgotten how cold it can get in Alberta. The last few days it has been below -20 degrees C. It's the kind of cold that makes your face feel like it has been frozen at the Dentists, and you are about to get a cavity filled in. Anyway, because of the snow, I haven't really been doing much lately. I think the most exciting this I have done so far this weekend is my laundry. I also went to T&T Supermarket to buy noodles and stuff. While I was there I bought a huge tray of sushi. Wow, was it ever good! I think the thing I miss most since I left Japan is the food.

In school, we are almost finished the semester. I can't believe that there is only one more week left!

2005-11-25T06:49:00.000-08:00

Hi World,

I made a presentation to a graduate course here at the U of C last night about blogs. It was really fun. My audience were students in the M.Ed. TESL program here at the University of Calgary, and asked a lot of great questions after my presentation. I think I learned something last night too. The best part of last night though was that I was able to show off my students' blogs. Everyone I meet always tells me how great my students' blogs are. Keep up the good work you guys! The whole world is admiring you!

Get rid of the annoying spam!

2005-11-20T10:21:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, a reader of Allen's blog just told us how to get rid of all the annoying spam that we have been getting in our comments. Here is how you can do it:

Sign in and go to "Settings"
Then click on "comments"
Then scroll down to "Show word verification for comments?" and click "YES"

That way we can stop all this spam in our comment boxes.

Let me know if this was useful!

Cheers,

Scott

Such a Beautiful Day!

2005-11-20T10:02:00.000-08:00

It's such a beautiful day today, I can't believe it. It doesn't feel like winter at all. This morning, it was so nice out that I decided to go for a walk and have breakfast at "Nellies in Kensington". It's a really great breakfast restaurant close to my house. I had sausages, hashbrowns, brown toast and poached eggs. The perfect start to my day. Yeah, I really can't believe how nice it is. I wish I had gone skiing today. I went skiing last weekend, and it was really fun, but it was absolutely freezing at the top of the mountain. I went to Sunshine Village. It was the first weekend of the ski season, and I just had to get to the mountains as soon as possible. This weekend, I really wanted to go, but I had too much work to do. However, as soon as this semester is over I hope I can go skiing every weekend!

I can't believe it is almost the end of the semester. There are just three weeks left. It seems like this semester has been flying by. Right now, we are studying business in class. It's been fun so far!

2005-11-08T19:13:00.000-08:00

hoo whee, I'm tired. I'm still recovering from my presentations last weekend! It was nice going to the Devonian Gardens yesterday. It was a good change from staying inside the classroom all the time. I put up all the pictures that the students sent me. It was cool seeing them inside one of the largest indoor gardens in the world!

This is a tough week this week. We have three exams tomorrow. I'm sure all my students are studying hard right now. Good luck guys! You can do it!

2005-11-08T19:07:00.000-08:00

2005-11-08T19:04:00.000-08:00

2005-11-08T18:53:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday

2005-11-07T07:26:00.000-08:00

Here is a silly version of the Happy Birthday song:

Happy Birthday to you
You smell like a shoe
You look like a monkey
And you act like one too!

This song is dedicated to Yusuke and Mayuka, my students from Japan last year. It's their birthday's this coming weekend!

P.S. Just kidding about the song, you guys don't really smell like shoes!

My Presentations are Over!

2005-11-06T18:27:00.001-08:00

It's Sunday, and I have finished the two presentations I had to make for the Alberta Teachers of English as a Second Language Conference. It's so great to be done. I can sympathize a lot more with my students now, because I really remembered this weekend how hard it is to prepare a presentation. I had two presentation topics. My first presentation was on Friday, and it was all about using blogs to help students learn English. I did my second presentation with Vicky. It was about using theme units to teach English at the University level. Almost 50 people came to hear the presentation I did with Vicky. I was so glad that so many people came to see us!

Anyway, after all those presentations, I really just wanted to relax today, so I drove out to Banff with a friend. The first thing we did was go to the hotspring in Banff. It was just what I needed after all the stress and tension from doing the presentations. I soaked in the hot water for almost an hour. At first, it was almost painful because the water was really hot - 40 degrees, but then I got used to it, and it felt great. It was cool, soaking in the hot water with the steam rising up into the air. It was the perfect day for a hotspring. It was bright and sunny, but cold. The hotspring in Banff is outside, and my hair was getting icy as I was sitting in the water. It was awesome!

After the hotspring, I ate lunch at Earle's, and then bought a new jacket at Roots. It's a nice warm fall jacket - I'll wear it to school to show everyone this week.

Anyway, I feel a lot better after my day in Banff :-)

2005-11-01T07:45:00.000-08:00

I was just preparing for today's class, when I found this great webpage about grasslands in Alberta. I hope you like it:

http://www.raysweb.net/specialplaces/pages/grassland.html

2005-10-30T10:18:00.000-08:00

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!

2005-10-23T18:36:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-10-16T08:09:00.000-07:00

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

2005-10-13T05:48:00.000-07:00

Llamas and Turkeys

2005-10-12T14:22:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-10-07T15:58:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2005-10-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-10-04T19:21:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-10-04T13:48:00.000-07:00

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?

2005-10-01T05:44:00.000-07:00

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 :-)

2005-09-28T19:50:00.000-07:00

Hello world!

I'm so happy to be blogging again that I couldn't wait until I got home to type something in here. Actually, I don't have anything really exciting to type here. After school today I went to Safeway, and I bought a big tub of ice cream - white chocolate vanilla. Actually, to tell you the truth, I think I'm now feeling a little sick. I ate almost the whole thing. Hmmmmm, I guess the moral of this story is "don't be greedy and eat half a tub of ice cream". Maybe I should go for a walk . . . .

Hello Students

2005-09-27T15:04:00.000-07:00

Hello students,

This is my first entry into my new LEAP II blog! I am so happy to be teaching at the University of Calgary this semester. So far we have been learning a lot about endangered animals, and I hope we have been learning a lot of English too! Anyway, this is just my first time here, so stay posted for more blogs!

By the way, if you are ever bored, you can check out my blogs from my classes in Japan:

http://www.kansaigaidai.blogspot.com/
http://www.kansaigaidaienglishtwo.blogspot.com/
http://www.iesglobalissues.blogspot.com/
http://www.gaidaiglobalissues.blogspot.com/

Let's see what kinds of blogs we can make this semester!