Kathy's Diary: Oct 14-19

This week started out with such hope and promise and ended comfortably and relaxed but the middle part was filled with despair. The two Korean teachers, Barney and Charlie, were spending the next seven teaching days with me at my school. I picked them up from their host's house after I grabbed some coffee cakes and fruit for their “welcome gathering” to be held later in the morning. Since they were to spend time with my students with each of the four classes we spent quite a bit of time doing student introductions and having class discussion time in order that Charlie and Barney could get to know the students as well as understanding their English language proficiency. We had a nice welcome for them at recess and they met with Diane, the principal, and gave her some calligraphy and a mask. The biggest thing I noticed is that culturally, these two gentlemen stood a lot on ceremony and were always extremely polite. Day one seemed to go off well and I dropped them back off at their host's house. Needless to say I was exhausted from being “on” the entire day and I had a half-hour snooze before Brownies. Brownies went well with our badge work starting that night. Haley is loving every minute of it. I worked for a couple of hours on the AADAC proposal to get it ready for the third round of feedback.

Wednesday morning I went to pick up Barney and Charlie and off we went to school. I was excited and ready to get to work with them helping in the classroom but by recess I was feeling the pressure by Barney to book visits with other teachers. So we had a little meeting and I asked them what they wanted out of the placement and they wanted to learn about ESL and see other classes. As the day progressed Barney was being very assertive about going to other classes. I was confused because my understanding was that they were to have a placement which focused on ESL methods as well as a few visits to other classrooms. When Barney announced that he would tell me tomorrow which teacher he would spend the last three days with I was a little taken aback. First of all, I was disappointed that they didn't want to be with me, and secondly, the school didn't sign up for the placements – I did. I couldn't very well ask another teacher if someone could be there for three whole days in their class. It was so hard to explain it and it was really upsetting. The other hard part was that others in my school told me not to worry about it and that if they were all the way across the ocean they would want to see as much as they could too! Although I appreciated that perspective, it wasn't the point. The organization that had booked the placement was expecting something else. But because of that perspective I stopped taking things as personally. I thought if they want the Calgary school “buffet” experience instead of the ESL “entrée” with a regular class as “appetizer” and “dessert” – well then I would help coordinate the buffet experience. Finally on Friday I called the coordinator of the placement and I was so relieved to hear that my original understanding was correct and that she was a little shocked and disappointed about what they had be doing. At the same time now that I understood the merits of the buffet experience and, since it was making them happy, I wanted to convince her to let them keep going this way for next week, since it had all been arranged by then! The weirdest thing was how stressed I was. It is so ironic that all of the communication happened with smiles and polite conversations. The main point is that I was excited about having them in my class and once I put my expectations aside and I was able to support their needs, I felt much better. The only thing is the expectations that I had were what the program had and they really want that type of experience for their exchange teachers.

Anyways Friday came and a beer sure went down nice. I just read that last bit over and it sounds like gibberish but it was the pains and agonies of last week. On Saturday, Kelly and I worked out; she is looking very good with 12 weeks to go. Sue came over for a planning meeting – we are going to organize a weekend workshop in Calgary with life-coaching, nutrition and fitness consultants to help people with their own “whole life makeovers”. The workshop won't be until February but we need to get it organized now so that I can give out the brochure at the Women in Wellness conference on November 2, where a lot of women will be gathered and where I happen to be giving a short presentation.

We took the kids to hockey and hung out for the practice. The boys are getting so good and so is Tim! They are really enjoying it. Haley likes her concentrated mommy time in the stands for an hour and just babbles about everything in the world (wonder where she gets that from!). Tim and the kids went swimming and I toodled off.

I went to Mary Ann Owens for a planning meeting, our first non-client/lifecoach meeting (although the reason we were meeting was about that whole experience). Ylva, the writer for the articles in Canadian Living, wants to do a book on it and so Mary Ann and I were looking at the draft of contents for the life coaching section. It was exciting.

Then I picked up Haley from the pool and we went to pick up her friend Allie for a sleepover party. She is a very sweet little girl and they had a great time together. They watched a movie and played. Everyone went to bed and Tim and I watched a movie then went to sleep. At 1:30 in the morning I woke up with rapid shallow breaths, in a cold sweat, with a violent stomach ache and a really weak feeling. Tim heard a thud in our bathroom and came to see me lying on the floor naked, shivering and all balled up. He got me dressed and helped out a little until it went away. After a half hour I was kinda shaky but okay. I went back to bed and crashed. By the time morning came I was still a little shaky so I phoned Leann and Diddy to cancel our run. I was so looking forward to it but didn't think I could handle it. I still felt funny so just kinda curled up while the girls played. They set up a little “carnival” for the boys to participate in, complete with Yugioh card prizes. I got up the gumption to make breakfast and Tim went to work dropping the boys off at their friend Stefane's house for a play date. Breakfast revived me so I showered and an hour later took the girls to Freaky Friday – it was so funny! We picked up the boys on the way home and soon Allie's mom came to get her and we chatted for a while. Haley's friends also have really nice moms and over the years I have enjoyed getting to know them as well! James and Lene were coming over for a casual dinner with their kids, Christina and Parker. The kids have a good time together and get pretty crazy. We don't get together often enough with our busy lives but it sure is nice when we do. James was Tim's best friend since grade 9 and they have a long history together! Everyone had a good time but then it was time to go with it being a school day the next day. I did bath and bed and read the kids a story. It is one of my favourite things, being cozied in under the covers and reading to my kids.

We received some bad news today that Tim's 98 year old grandma had a heart attack. She still lives on her own in her apartment in Ottawa, golfed in the summer and is just the most amazing person with all of her wits about her and then some! Of course she called the ambulance herself and is recovering in the hospital, she saying it was a minor thing and the doctor saying it was pretty major. I just hope that she pulls through and Tim is pretty worried about her. When the phone rang later in the evening it was Tim's brother Chris calling to say she had a second heart attack and that their dad was heading out to Ottawa from B.C. His sister Donna was already there, so thankfully Grandma wasn't alone. We have his grandma in our thoughts and hope that she is able to recover. As I drifted off to sleep I kept thinking about this amazing life she has led and hoping that she has a few more years to enjoy.