Summer School Begins

Well, July 30 marked the end of my summer holidays. Once again, I have taken a fun contract working with the new students who will be in the International program for the fall. The first two days are filled with a lot of administrative details, such as purchasing school uniforms. To keep the students busy, we did a scavenger hunt throughout the campus, went grocery shopping for picnic lunch supplies, and spent some time in the high school gym.

This year's group of students isn't as self-motivated as last year's group, so it's been a challenge to keep them busy in the "down" time. We've got students from Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong right now, and will have a couple coming in from Mexico for September.



On Wednesday, took some time to make our picnic lunch, then drove the students to Derby Reach Park, along the Fraser River. Besides eating, the students enjoyed croquet, bocce ball, frisbee and badminton.

After lunch, we drove over to Fort Langley and the students explored the fort. We watched the blacksmith make a candle stick holder, which was a very hot activity on an equally hot day. As well, there was a chance to learn some Chinook language, and the kids had fun finding words on the list that looked like English words they new. A few tried panning for gold, but no one found anything.



On Thursday, we left Pacific Academy at 6:45 am to drive to North Vancouver to catch the train to Whistler. Like last year, the weather was perfect. The trip begins with breakfast, then the observation cars are open. The views are amazing as the train winds up the coast along Howe Sound, then through the Cheakamus Canyon. The students spent time chatting, and moving around from car to car taking photographs.

In the picture below, the student next to the window is Sherlock. He is living with Paul and I until August 10, when his home-stay family will be back from vacation. He has been a joy to have in our home! He is helpful, and loves to chat while I'm making supper. Sherlock will be in my Grade 10 class this fall, and has come out of the British school system in Hong Kong. Unlike the other Asian students, he has a better sense of multi-culturalism by virtue of his homeland.




When we arrived in Whistler, we were shuttled by bus into the village. After eating lunch, we took the students up the tram to the top of Whistler Mountain. For some of the students, this was the first time they had seen snow. The trail we hiked a year ago was closed due to snow and construction for the 2010 Olympics, but the students were more than satisfied to have a big snowball fight with my colleague, Rick.

We returned by tram to the village, and had some time to explore and shop before taking a luxury bus back to our school vans in North Vancouver.




En route, our driver stopped at Shannon Falls, near Squamish. We got off the bus and hiked up the trail to the falls.

It was almost 8:00 pm by the time we returned to Pacific Academy, and the students - and teachers - were tired. It was a wonderful day, though!





After a long day, we had only planned a 4 hour session for Friday. The original plan had been a field trip to the bank, but the bank cancelled at the last minute. We wracked our brains for an alternative plan on short notice - and in the process found out that we couldn't use the school vans after 11:00 am. This narrowed our options.



We decided to go to Planet Java, a coffee shop within public transit range of Pacific Academy. Rick shuttled us over by school bus. We spent a couple of hours playing pool and drinking coffee (well, I drank coffee....). The kids had a great time, and we introduced them to an activity that they can do with their friends in their free time. I had purchased transit tickets, and we took the public bus back to the school - a good introduction to local public transit for most of the kids.

We've had a long weekend after the first week, which has given me time to prune my Yucca plants, repot several of my indoor plants, and generally regroup after company and my first week back at work. I look forward to the adventures in the weeks ahead!