What did you do for 4 months?? Aug 2010 - Dec 2010

So I spent an idyllic fall in PEI, watching the leaves change and even experienced one snow day! Why was I in PEI in the first place? Well, the main motivation for quitting my high paying, fancy rocket science job (as my friends referred to what I did), was that I longed for family and closeness. My Dad was in the Air Force and we moved quite a bit. We got to live in fantastic countries and lived places long enough to have a large body of friends, but we rarely lived near family. While I love that I have been to 30 countries, most before I was two years old, I always envied friends that had lived in the same place their whole lives, with everyone they love within a few miles. I decided to see what that ‘apple pie’ life would be like. My father’s family is distributed all over the US. My mother’s family is from this fantastic small provice (state) in Canada called Prince Edward Island. We had been visiting this island every year, mostly during summers, and by my rough calculations, that means I had already lived there six months of my life. My mom has four brothers and sisters, three of whom live on the island. Most of my 16 cousins live there with their families, so clearly this is where I needed to be to be enveloped by family.

(Pic taken from my uncle's backyard)

I got just what I had hoped for and was so happy. Every day I got to visit a cousin and see how their family operated. Everyone opened their schedules and homes to me, and I felt so immediately welcomed! I scrapbooked, went to movies, saw hockey games, ate many meals, and became a big fan of bicycling, all alongside one family member or another. Side note: I was trying to think of the Latin root for bicycing, because I love adding ‘phile’ to the end of words, like ‘bibliophile’, but unfortunately all I can come up with is ‘ped’ for pedaling, and I don’t think that particular ‘phile’ quite expresses my joy with biking and has quite a different connotation concerning children.

(Taken while on 3 day bike ride across PEI for Mikinduri Children of Hope Fundraiser)

I spent much time reading, practicing yoga, relaxing at family cottage, and getting time just to exist. I also worked a bit and did odd jobs, but this was never the focus or highlight of my day. For details on some of my odd jobs, check out this blog (http://frekles83.xanga.com/) I started substitute teaching in the schools, and I envisioned myself helping the Math and Physics classes. This is not how it worked out. I was primarily in the middle school and while the kids were all sweet and mostly well-behaved, I kept getting subjects like English and worse: Canadian history. One teacher’s instruction was to ‘use your knowledge to have a discussion with the kids about the home children’. Huh? Not only am I bad at history (I have the memory of a pea for facts and dates), but I have no idea what she was referring to. Luckily there were three pages in the textbook that they were expected to read, which I hurriedly flipped to and tried to absorb before the kids started filing in. It turns out it was quite interesting and tragic. From 1870 to 1940, they needed people to work the farms in eastern Canada and there was an overabundance of orphaned or abandoned children in London, so they shipped the kids as young as 6 to Canada to work (literally...on a ship). Some of the children were treated well and adopted, but many had appalling conditions, never attended school, lived in the barn, were beaten, starved, and some even worked to death. Totally tragic and made even worse that I thought I had never heard of it. Well I later learned they actually mention it in the beginning of Anne of Green Gables but that went over my head in the movie. It wasn’t until I read (listened to) the book that I caught the reference. The discussion with the kids was interesting but they weren’t quite as empathetic as I think the teaching was hoping they would be, and you just can’t inject that in children.

Another random occurrence while sub’ing occurred in Kindergarten. The school system has two tracks: English and French immersion. There is an option in the public school where the children can be taught nearly everything in French, starting in Kindergarten. I do know some French but not enough to be ‘immersing’ students, so I tend to avoid those classes entirely. I guess they were desperate enough one day that I found myself in French immersion surrounded by five year olds correcting my accent of colors. I was impressed I remember any of this as there isn’t a big need for French in Arizona, but they weren’t too impressed. I spent most of the day helping the kids paste, inspecting drawings, breaking up fights over blocks, and random things I never considered while studying Advanced Engineering Mathematics. The pinnacle of the day however was at the beginning during the ‘Oh Canada’, which is apparently played on the loudspeaker when Americans recite the pledge of allegiance. (Sidenote: This makes me wonder why we don’t do the star spangled banner. Wouldn’t it be more patriotic than the pledge?) Anyway, I don’t know the words past the first two and have been petrified at some point I was going to have to sing it. Luckily for the students, as I have a less than melodic singing style, I was informed only the kindergarteners sing. I felt safe when I heard this as I was unlikely to teach Kindergarten but printed out the lyrics and put them in my wallet just in case. To compound matters, I saw the patriotic lyrics in French on one of those laminated posters in the center of the board. (The first two words are the same in both languages). The music started, I had 13 pairs of little eyes staring at me, and I was at a loss for whether or not to put my hand on my heart, to sing in English, French, or at all, and so many other potential actions rushing through my head. I ended up hobbling along in French with some very quiet 5 year old background singers. They didn’t giggle or point so it must have been the right choice. I have no idea whether or not my hand was over my heart though.

Another job I had was to teach Microsoft Word to an office that had been using Word Perfect. This was right up my alley as I had been showing other engineers Microsoft tricks at my job, and walking my mother through tutorials over the phone, so I actually felt prepared for this. It went fine and I think the two ladies walked away with exactly what they had hoped for, though in the evaluation (5 stars!) one noted it was a bit overwhelming at first. I just note the incident here because it was so random and through the local college, so I can officially say I worked with the college.  

Anyway the fall was fantastic and while I was looking forward to seeing my sister and parents again, I wasn’t fond of leaving the island and my extended family. I did get to see one nice snowfall though!