Saturday, March 31, 2012

Address tile


Saturday 31 March 2012

At first I thought this was the year the house was built, but nope, it's just the address.

Friday, March 30, 2012

Ceilidh


Friday 30 March 2012

Ryan and I went to a Scottish ceilidh (pron: kay-lee) tonight. It's basically like a Scottish hoe-down, where they teach you the basic moves and then call out the dance as you dance it. Some dances are in pairs, some are in groups, and some are with everyone, like the one shown here.Tons of fun - we're definitely going back.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Magnolia bud


Thursday 29 March 2012

The magnolias, my personal spring favorites, are also getting ready for the show.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Early cherries


Wednesday 28 March 2012

The early cherry trees are starting to bloom - soon the whole city will be pink.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The true north . . .


Tuesday 27 March 2012

Monday, March 26, 2012

The herons return


Monday 26 March 2012

At the end of our street you can find the world's largest Great Blue Heronry. (Yes, that's a word.) They're just starting to build their nests (by the dozens) and mate. Let me tell you, that is not a good place to park under just now.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Krystos voskres


Sunday 25 March 2012

The orthodox Ukrainian church.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Pier 32


Saturday 24 March 2012

Ryan and I headed over to Granville island today to start preparing for this fall's photo scavenger hunt. Can you believe that sky?

Friday, March 23, 2012

Suckers


Friday 23 March 2012

Ryan and I finally went to the Vancouver aquarium today, something we've been long wanting to do. Since we both have student cards right now, and Ryan had the day off, and it was gorgeous and sunny, it was a perfect day. We had a great time, and definitely got our money's worth.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Rioters


Thursday 22 March 2012

At my school. It's a poster with photos of the people who participated in last year's hockey riot. It's really nice to see that they're still looking for these people who embarrassed our wonderful city.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Who will buy . . .


Wednesday 21 March 2012

Every now and then it's nice to be reminded of bright colors.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Long sky


Tuesday 20 March 2012

At the mall.

Monday, March 19, 2012

The last days of snow


Monday 19 March 2012

Some days the mountains are just so crisp and close, I feel like we could walk up there in a few hours.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Nice beard


Saturday 17 March 2012

We didn't stay out for very long, but Ryan and I did have a bit of St. Patrick's day beer with the gang.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Sunset chuckle


Friday 16 March 2012

That awesome statue, A-maze-ing Laughter, at sunset.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Simple tree


Thursday 15 March 2012

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Bullseye


Wednesday 14 March 2012

A strange sight, near my house.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Christine


Tuesday 13 March 2012

This is my name is Arabic, I guess. One of my fellow English teachers at Inland Refugee Society is originally from Saudi Arabia, and was doing everyone's name at break-time today. It's beautiful, isn't it? (And now I'm hoping that I haven't posted the photo upside down or something!)

Monday, March 12, 2012

En francais


Monday 12 March 2012

This was kinda neat - my camera came with a whole bunch of little French stickers. Now, some of them are clearly supposed to go over the English words on the camera, so if you are a French speaker you can have the outside of your camera in French. But there are way more stickers than there are words or even space on the camera. What on earth are you supposed to do with all those other stickers?

Sunday, March 11, 2012

The crows' dishes


Sunday 11 March 2012

I've been meaning to put up a photo of this for a while now. Here in the closed-off Second Beach swimming pool are the shells of all the mussels that the local crows have eaten over the winter. They grab them out of the sand, fly high up in the air, and drop them onto the concrete, cracking open the shells. Then they swoop down and enjoy some shellfish! Crows are incredible intelligent birds, and I rather like both that there are so many of them around here, and that they are an important symbol of Vancouver.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Midnight Jay


Saturday 10 March 2012

Went hiking up in Squamish today, where I met this very patient jay. It is a Stellar's jay, and is BC's provincial bird. I prefer our friend M's name for it though: the Midnight jay.

Friday, March 09, 2012

Hello . . .


Friday 9 March 2012

Ryan and I went down to Richmond with our friend S today, for some good old-fashioned being-the-only-white-people-in-the-restaurant time. We enjoyed a stroll around the Chinese mall and a lovely Taiwanese dinner, not to mention this wonderful army of Hello Kitties!

Thursday, March 08, 2012

No bikes


Thursday 8 March 2012

It's been rainy, and no one is riding their bike to school.

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Unicorn car


Wednesday 7 March 2012

This is such a fun use of a vanity plate.

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Frozen, um, Fun


Tuesday 6 March 2012

Here is my big math project for the semester.

Okay, a small rant is needed. I am currently taking a prerequisite course for my education program, Math for Elementary Teachers. When I signed up, I was imagining a class where we would learn how the brain conceptualizes and learns math skills, where the students would have to present ideas in different ways, and teach each other math lessons. Silly me.

Turns out, it's a class making sure that teachers know how to do third grade math. We learned long division, adding fractions, and place values - it's the most boring class I think I've ever taken. I had to take a placement test to get in, and the test was many many levels more difficult than the class.

And the kicker is, this is the only math class I am required to take, as a teacher. And for some of the students, this class is difficult. Suddenly, it is crystal clear why North American students always seem to be doing poorly in math, why we always lag behind other nations. If the teachers don't understand and are still scared of math, why would the students be any different?

Monday, March 05, 2012

English waves


Monday 5 March 2012

Okay, this picture isn't very interesting. This is about as wild as the waves get at English Bay, the beach by our house, which is not very high at all. But whenever the wind is up and the water turns white, everyone is out there taking photos like it's a strange phenomenon. Yes, the water is usually calm, but this isn't really that crazy. I used to swim in water much rougher all the time! So I thought I'd take a photo alongside everyone else just to show how mild of weather we all get used to here in Vancouver.

Sunday, March 04, 2012

Lost Lagoon stroll


Sunday 4 March 2012

We had S over for brunch today, and went for a stroll in Stanley Park afterwards.

Saturday, March 03, 2012

Closing night


Saturday 3 March 2012

Tonight was closing night, sadly. Here are all the possible murderers within the show, all lined up for audience voting. It was such a great and funny show, as well as having that fun element of audience participation. I saw a different ending almost every night, which was great. The Mystery of Edwin Drood is being revived on broadway, and if you ever have a chance to see it, I would highly recommend it.

Friday, March 02, 2012

Vancouver Eagle


Friday 2 March 2012

Ryan and I did some wandering around downtown today. Here's one of the statues that all the tourists stop to take photos of, right next to the new ice rink.

Thursday, March 01, 2012

Edwin Droooooood!


Thursday 1 March 2012

Here's the theater and the sign for the show I'm crewing for. It's the last week :(