Now that my life is no longer busy and I am now pursuing a new adventure again, I shall be sharing my experiences once again. I hope you will stay posted for updates. I try to aim once a week.
August 27, 2012
Teacher’s Blog: Mr. T’s new
beginnings in Alberta
What another adventure I have
gotten myself into; teaching in Northern Alberta on a Native reserve. I will be known as Mr. T, the new grade 7
teacher at JBS Little Red River School in Fox Lake, Alberta. This is my first Canadian teaching gig picked
up right after graduation.
What is it like? That is the questions we are all still asking ourselves as we step
into the unknown environment with feelings of excitement and nervousness.
Allow me to begin by saying
its going amazing. A 4 hour Flying out of Toronto to Calgary at 8AM was smooth
sailing. Arriving at the airport to find
Brianne and Rachaele chatting at Chili’s was a sign of joy and a feeling of certainty
that I was prepared to venture into the unknown with friends. From there, we flew on a mini jet (like 50
seats) to Grand Prairie and run into a suspicious ex-addict or of some sort who
reminded me of Johnny Depp from Loathing in Las Vegas. We trusted he would taxi
us to our bus stop. If not, I had a
defensive kill-the-taxi driver plan running through my mind as me and the girls
made eye contact and telepathically sending each other the “this guys is
shaddy” stare. Anyways, I tipped him at
the end for not killing us and dropping us off.
Our Northern Express limo bus
going to High Level turned out to be a ghetto mini bus with a small boxed
trailer to put our luggage. We had others accompany us on the ride. We befriended Joaline (forgot her name), a Dj/Dancer/Alliance
Sales Rep friendly traveler who all gave us fussy pencils as a present. There was a scary old dude in the back who
cared less. A little girl traveling on
her own, a sarcastic driver and Brenda.
Brenda had overheard of our destination and inquired about our destinations
purpose. Turns out, she was well connect
to our school as a safety inspection supervisor who likes to dance, drink and
just gave birth. She was very helpful,
and so we will meet her again once a month.
After spending a night at High Level, we met up with the Director and
other teachers for another reserve. Wow,
we were making friends left and right!
The landscape is as expected,
all prairie and farms. I thought there
would be no civilization or freezing cold weather. Turns out it was like 25 degrees C above the
57’th parallel. It’s not completely
isolated or winter desert up here as I’d imagine. If there was a big city up
here, you wouldn’t know the difference in altitude. Anyways, you need a 4 x 4 once you reach High
Level and beyond, it’s all gravel terrain.
Access to Fox Lake is one way in and one way out on backgrounds with no
sign. The further north you drive, the
more the landscape changed.
We arrived at the barge, it
was an amazing view of the clear blue sky and over look of Peace River (view
Facebook picture). Arriving to the other
side, we met up with Moe and Alicia and caught up on our travels because they
drove like 5,000 KM from Toronto to Fox Lake!!! We saw horses and dogs running
wild. It is like trailer/camp community.
We arrived and settled into a
dirty housing, which we I am still spending time to clean and customize to my
comfort level. I linked a youtube video
on Facebook, so please do view that. I
will upload a 2nd video of what the place looks like after. I will be getting a roommate in a week, but I
don’t care. To wrap up the adventure,
because its 1 AM for the meeting tomorrow, Rachaele and I just saw the borealis
lights! It comes and goes, it was green
but wow, I can get use to the breathtaking skies here. Keep in touch and I will keep you posted with
pictures and exciting happenings here in Northern Alberta.
Mr. T
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