Cold Cold cold cold Cold FREEZING

Hello everybody how goes it where you are? Here all is awesome sauce, I survived my first hockey tournament and the cold month of January and thusly… the first half of my stay here. Five and a half more months to go 

Let’s start with a weather forecast. It is cold. -34 Celsius but with the wind chill it can be -50. There is a sun but it is not making a big difference if the wind is there. These are not temperatures for skiing. These are temperatures for staying indoors crocheting and eating cupcakes. Moving on.

Hockey tournament
The hockey tournament was in Fort Simspon, which is a 5.5 hour drive from here. I shared a ride with a woman from there. This was lucky because it meant that she knew the road and actually, one of the other cars got stuck in the snow on the way there and had the be towed out of a ditch (they were lucky to have cell reception. Most of the way from one village to another there is none!). I also got to stay in an actual house there which was great, except I slept on the couch the first night and could not sleep so I played my first four hockey games being exhausted! Except not really because hockey really is exciting so after a few coffees I was pumped and ready to go.
About the four matches, yes we had four games on one day and it was tough! The hay river hazards lost the very first game against fort Smith. But then we beat the moosehide mama’s on their home turf, twice, and then even the ladies from fort Nelson, BC. These ones were the toughest because they had big lady players and I totally knocked myself out trying to knock one of them out. But I was cheered on by my team so I kind of got carried away. Anyway, no penalties for me, folks, and unfortunately no goals for me either. I skate quite fast and can chase the puck like I’m a total threat but then once I have the puck I panic and I slam it away not even looking. Must work on that. Anyway my position was right wing for most of the tournament and I played about half the time, switching with another girl. I got a mild concussion from a very feisty young lady on our own team who pushes newbies aside because yolo I guess, and scorers want to score… but overall nobody got seriously injured and in the end we won the entire tournament, thanks to a couple of feisty young ladies like the one just described. The C-H-A-M-P-I-O-N-S!!! Again, not thanks to me, but I’m sure my team benefitted from my great charisma and sparkly aura.

What’s new
What is going on at the school right now is that the exams are over and a new semester has started. I’m in a couple of new classes, such as socials, which is kind of like history. The grade 8’s learn about the black death and peasants revolts and kings in England, and every now and then I get to elaborate and tell them that a lot of Dutch people died in those times too, lol. I’m in a new English class too, grade 10’s, and I will get to do improv writing with them every once in a while. I’m not sure what improv writing is yet but since I suggested it I better figure that out soon. Also, we’re trying to organise an evening of art and then my smallish but amazinish improv comedy group will get to perform (although that will not be until after our spring break). Student council is trying to organize a Spring fling dance and a valentine’s match thing which is very fun, and a new student paper needs to come out soon so I’m working on that.

What I have recently noticed about the school….
Before I end this blog I wanted to tell you about some more weirdly interesting differences between school here and school back in the Pays of Bas. A couple of blogs ago I did a wee comparison but there are many more small things that are just… different, that I have started to notice. For one, students never bring bags or even a pen and paper to school. They just come with a pencil and their phone to school, and the rest of everything is in their locker. The lockers, by the way, are big enough for students to put each other in them. Also everybody writes in pencil (in NL this is considered dangerous because students are known to change what they’ve written on tests and commit other types of fraud using pencil) and often we have to give students pencils because they come unprepared. I was angry at them for it, but now that I know how many of them have a shitty time at home, I try to give them supplies whenever they need them. Also, and many of these things might exist in other Canadian school but just not in this one… there are no snack machines with mars bars in them. There are water coolers in every room even though the water from the tap is perfectly drinkable. Kids walk over to that whenever they feel like it, so nobody brings their own bottle of water they just drink water in class from paper cups (the water cooler is especially popular when the teacher is explaining something or when we have to do silent reading). Sometimes the water cooler starts making funny noises and I am the only one who constantly jumps up because of that. Student use a hall pass when they go to the washroom, which I think is something we also need in NL! Some teacher’s hall passes are very fun, there’s a stuffed animal monkey, there’s a wooden spoon, there’s a dictionary, etc. There are announcements every morning. The teachers have their own classrooms. I’d totally love my own classroom when I go back to teach in NL, it is just not fair that teachers have to move around and teach English in the geography classroom!!! I suggest a rebellion.
Lastly, of course, O Canada. The national anthem. Sung every morning. I’ve said it before, but I still find it hard to take seriously. It’s a fun song, and there’s nothing wrong with having a national anthem or even a bit of Canada pride. But like, I come from a country where nobody knows the anthem past the first couplet, and we only have our soccer players sing it every now and then. So when the anthem comes on in the morning everybody has to get up and be quiet and lip synch along. And when you are in the hallway, on your way to class, and the anthem comes on you have to stand still and be nationalistic and you cannot go into the classroom first. So I’m just like.. If a tree falls in the forest… and there is no one there to witness it… does it make sound?
(I hope I’m not the only one, but I usually do sneak into a classroom when the anthem starts just because I don’t like to be lonesome in the hallway standing still as a statue slash idiot just because somebody once decided that exactly 8.29 in the morning is nationalism time, lol!!!) Anyway I know the anthem by heart now you guys so maybe one day I should study… the Wilhelm? Wilhelmus van Nassaue…? That old dutch song we once learned in school?? Which is the oldest anthem in the world, which I failed to know at the local pub quiz. And I’m only on my team (“the Beavers”) for the occasional Netherlands question. Oops. Oh. Isn’t it sad that we sing we are of German blood and honour the king of Spain, and oh, that because it is the oldest anthem in the world, among other reasons, we can never change the lyrics???
Oh it’s a funny thing. Oh national anthems. Oh Canada.