Hey hey!
So, yesterday was the big day trip to Stockholm to visit the first IES school, built over twenty years ago. As I've previously mentionned, we were to be at school for 4:45 am. I did manage to sleep a few hours, and walk to school in the rainy, rainy dark. My pants stayed wet for a good five hours after that! Anyways, I did sleep a bit on the bus, and a short four hours later we were in Stockholm, well actually, South of Stockholm. When we left Borås it was so rainy. Thirty minutes out, it's beautiful. I JUST found out that Borås is, in fact, the rainiest city in all of Sweden. Joy!
One noteworthy event on the bus was that the new IES school in Gothenburg shared our bus. At the pit stop, I met another Canadian, and we spoke for a bit about how much we're enjoying our stay so far. He also just graduated Teacher's College, and is teaching Art.
When we finally get to IES #1, it's a beautiful school, full of artwork, banners, two amazing auditoriums, and a cafeteria that puts most University cafs to shame! (Especially Ottawa U's!) We are treated to a magnificent display of fruits, coffees and teas. I'll skip past the presentation stuff, which was actually really good, and weirdly did inspire confidence and pride in our school system, and really hammered home the ethos behind IES schools. In terms of how boring it COULD HAVE been, it really wasn't too bad . Our school all sat together as a nice little group. It was really nice to meet all the International teachers from around the world (the had a bunch of flags set up, the maple leaf, of course, was there) One of the presenters mentionned he was Canadian, and there were quite a few "woos" from the audience. Also, my "Candian accent" got picked out by another Canadian, who said she never realized we had a distinct accent until hearing me. I wasn't sure how to feel about that, but we did speak a lot about Sweden vs. Canada, and the reasons we came over (which were similar- no jobs!).
Also, after lunch I met up with my friend from Queen's, who arrived in Sweden a week or so after me. Like me, she's a High School English and History teacher, and they have her teaching Maths, a subject she has no desire to teach. I can't complain too much, I at least have a background in my subjects. She's only living an hour away from me, so hopefully we can meet up sooner rather than later, but we are both feeling a bit overwhelmed at this point.
The lunch was so so so delicious. A giant buffet, with three different salads, roasted potatoes, steak that could have tempted even this vegetarian (but didn't), stir frys, roasted veggies with paprika, and a stir fry with veggie meat! I went for seconds! In Sweden they eat their biggest meal at lunch. I can definitely get used to this.
We had a few more presentations, and headed back on the bus. One of my colleages helped teach me Swedish for a good three hours, and we stopped to have a picnic dinner. Also delicious. There's this thing in Sweden, I forget the term, but basically if it's nice out, Swedes treat themselves to ice cream. Who am I to deny Swedish culture's influence on my life? Of course I got ice cream, and it could be in the top ten ice creams of life. Anyone who visits me WILL eat this ice cream.
When we got back my friend gave me a t.v, and after lugging it up my stairs, I listened to an NPR podcast, and fell asleep.
Today the plan is to go buy some OJ, go for a run, do some work, and perhaps watch a movie, or see if one of my many (sarcasm) friends might want to go for a walk today or tomorrow. The kids start school FRIDAY and we have Meet the Teacher on Wednesday. This is happening!
Miss you Canada!
