Saturday 31 March 2012
At first I thought this was the year the house was built, but nope, it's just the address.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
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
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
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
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
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
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
Wednesday, March 07, 2012
Tuesday, March 06, 2012
Frozen, um, Fun
Tuesday 6 March 2012
Here is my big math project for the semester.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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 :(
Here's the theater and the sign for the show I'm crewing for. It's the last week :(
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