I'm getting baked this morning.
After breakfast, I took my coffee out on the deck and decided to do my French homework outside. This week, I realized that my body is still adjusting to the kind of weather we have here in Canada as I struggled to fight off a fever.
The drastic changes of temperature and conditions daily, and by that I mean, DAILY, reminded me to slow down and give myself some time (and Buckley's) to get accustomed to what Canadians call "spring": cloudy and warm last Saturday, sunny but cool Sunday, rainy but warm Monday, cloudy and chilly Tuesday, sunny and humid Wednesday, really chilly and a little rainy Thursday, super hot Friday. Freakin' forecasts usually don't help. Bring a sweater, and if you're conscious of catching a cold because of the sudden drizzles or getting sunburned (because sunburns aren't fun), bring an umbrella too. I told my co-workers, "You have crazy weather here in Ottawa!" They all replied, "That's how it is!" At least in the Philippines, I said, it's steadily hot most of the time. We just need to learn to "weather the storm" literally, especially now that the typhoons have become more frequent and extreme.
Half of my seedlings did not make it, sadly. And unfortunately for the three blueberry shrubs my roommate gave me to (trans)plant in a pot, they're dead a day after I had happily placed them on our backyard. I'm still finding the courage to pull them out and replace them. I told him last week, upset that I was, "I killed the blueberries." To which he replied, "You didn't kill them. They just... died. It happens." He reminded me we still had more in front of my room. I just had to make sure I can harvest some before random strangers pick the berries all off when it's time. The grape vine is slowly returning too, and the mint in our sideyard is dense. I could get some mint to grow indoors for the winter for my tea. But now I'm looking at them as aid for insect bites (Dang, Canada! Your bugs are eating me alive!!!).
I look at roommie's little beds of seedlings, and they look all happy. It won't be long until we get the garden going. For now, he's helping his girlfriend put up raised (and fenced) garden beds at her place. Rabbits and squirrels freely roam around. It could get nasty, and I was like, "Rabbits? You have wild rabbits?" "Oh yeah," he said. "You'd probably see them in the backyard when it's harvest time." I was excited with the idea of seeing undomesticated rabbits eating our veggies before we could pick them. He found my reaction funny. His girlfriend and I agree, he knows more about planting and growing stuff than we both do. He shared he's been trying to teach her, but she goes ahead and does what she wants anyway and ends up with dead seedlings before the middle of spring. I laughed and made a mental note to wait for him to decide where to place the young sprouts we have in our backyard, especially after what happened to my blueberries. He came in this morning measuring the kitchen. I think he's now thinking of replacing some of the fixtures there. I'm left to wonder if he's made up his mind about selling the house.
Last Thursday, my ECE program supervisor visited me at my placement site. I told her about the short talk I had with my Program Coordinator in the daycare, and how everyone has been giving positive feedback about my performance. My PC said they could have me on their list of Supply Educators, because they'd like to have me continue with them. Over the past two weeks, they have actually decided to keep me as part of the ratio when necessary even though I was not a permanent staff, and I now find myself leading one room with 8 preschool kids (usually with the wildest ones). Parents are now asking me how their children did during the day too. It's probably because I've been integrated to the program already. I told my supervisor that the OCT has sent me an e-mail saying there would be an update later this month about my application for a teaching certificate, and I, truthfully, would want to be more informed where I would go after the program ends. Do I take more courses in Algonquin? Will my placement site really hire me as supply educator while I work on my license? Would that be enough to sustain my life here in Ottawa? Would my placement site have a permanent job for me later on? My supervisor said, "We are hoping you'd stay."
"I'm happy here," I told my sister-in-law the other night. So far.
"Yun yung sasabihin ko," she said. "If masaya ka, everything will work out."
On our way home from our job shadowing day yesterday, my Haitian friend Marie opened up more about her goals. "I want to work and save. Because I want to buy property of my own and one day own my daycare. My own daycare!"
I was too delighted to respond to her, and could only come up with two words. "Me too! Me too!"
I'm getting baked this morning...
On a deck in the backyard of a house bought by my roommate a couple of years ago. He's 32. He got this house for over $400k. He was supposed to build a life with his ex here until the relationship spiralled down, and he was left with a dead bird, her precious pet, in a freezer because she refused - or was unable - to face the monsters she needed to deal with in spite of his attempts to reach her and help. The dead bird is long gone now, and he's building a little sanctuary for plants he wants to nurture with his new partner.
I look at his seedlings on our deck now, and I realize, they aren't going stay where he first planted them. We need to transfer them somewhere where they would really grow and thrive, and be, hopefully, productive during the rest of the season and the next.
"I want to get my certificate," I told Marie. "Because if I get that, I can go anywhere." She was nodding her head. "If I get my teaching license here in Ontario too, I can have that assessed in any province I want to move to, and it would be easier to transfer using Canadian standards. At least, that is what I think." I already have the experience. I just needed the documents. And when I get the documents, I'd only need a safe site and enough financial resources to put up my own daycare. Will I ever do it? Heh. Who knows? But I'd love to try.
For now, I'm just enjoying the sun and the cool breeze in our backyard. Life is good, and I'm blessed. And I'm happy. And that's enough for me right now.
* In gratitude to my family (and friends!) who have always been supportive of me.
