Stumbled Upon!

Sitting at Liv's house and multi-tasking very poorly as I attempt to finish an assignment for tomorrow, watch TV and stumbleupon amazing things like this:

The First Day of the Rest of My Life...

Recently, my father informed me of a diagnosis he had received: he was the lucky winner of a genetic strand of Celiac's disease. Since then, I have booked a blood tox screen and been researching gluten-free diets. I have spoken to waitresses, friends and family, other people with allergies to gluten. Most say the same thing, there a lot of alternatives out there but none of them taste as good as the real thing. I am excited to begin trying out flour combinations and searching out bakeries that cater to the gluten-free. Regardless of the results of my blood test, I will from now on be adopting a gluten-free lifestyle! Mostly out of solidarity, but also out of curiosity, I am setting myself a challenge: 3 months without gluten, documented through a journal of some medium or other, in order to evaluate the changes I'm sure my body will register. While I realize this will be a major culinary paradigm shift, I am excited and a little in awe of people who do it everyday!

Goals

“You must have long-term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-term failures.”

—Charles C. Noble

“If you’re bored with life—you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things—you don’t have enough goals.”

—Lou Holtz

"EAT"

Shout out to Emma's Eatery for posting this video. How much fun are they having? I love the idea of travelling the world for this kind of purpose and bringing joy and new experiences to light in a global context. Anyone who wants to fund this kind of journey for me can post right here...Will EAT, LEARN, MOVE and write about it, ANYWHERE!

EAT from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

Follow-up from previous post. This series of videos is amazing. As I mentioned before, my first practicum for my B.Ed starts tomorrow and in keeping with the (very broad) theme of learning, I came across this...

"3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage...all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food ...into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films... = a trip of a lifetime."

LEARN from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

The third video in the series: MOVE.

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

Farmer's Market Inspiration

Yesterday, an old friend of mine and I met at the Kingston Farmer's Market to do a little grocery shopping. The array of produce and colours on offer at the stands in the square were amazing. Now, a veteran farmer's marketer may not be as easily impressed as I, but who knew you could get/buy/eat PURPLE carrots? After getting confirmation from Ashley (who is a pro) that this was the best course of action, we wandered around scoping out cost and quality before settling in to buy. A great tip Ashley gave me was to ask if portions could be split for us singletons who can't possibly keep up with them before they spoil. Another thing to keep in mind when shopping at farmer's markets is to bring something (a bag or backpack) that you can fill with purchased goodies and carry comfortably. While most stands will provide you with plastic bags, it's easier and more environmentally friendly to bring your own (especially if you have more errands to run afterward)!

After a great but cold day out and about, I got home and washed an put away my myriad of fresh ingredients. I was inspired to get started on my lunches for my first week of practicum. I made two salads that will keep well and fill me up during the day: (1) A cherry tomato, green bean, and potato salad with feta and chick peas in a dijon dressing, (2) a wholewheat couscous salad with everything but the kitchen sink (peppers, cucumber, olives, black beans, tuna) in an apple cider vinaigrette. While prepping in the kitchen, one of my housemates asked if I could really taste the difference in store bought vs. farmer's market produce. I told him that I didn't think my palette was discerning enough to notice but it certainly made me feel better about what I was putting into my body and how I was contributing to the environment and the local economy.

As I grow my list of criteria for a future home base, i've recently added "access to a farmer's market". Not only because of the two reasons I mention above, but because they provide an excellent opportunity to forge connections within a community and are a great social event. Ashley and I spent a wonderful day together and managed to accomplish both our grocery shopping for the week and a hang-out without spending too much money.

(Pictures to come. I was silly and didn't bring my camera. Won't make that mistake again!)

Trendy Vocab

Why the word "Awesome" is being targeted for it's recent overuse is beyond me. A twitter newbie, i've encountered more references to the same Intelligent Life magazine article than I thought possible . As if it's the first word whose constant repetition and misuse ticks people off. (http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/ideas/robert-lane-greene/just-awesome)

Here's a question for Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point -how does a word suddenly come into vogue, only to be discarded some time in the future for another? Are language trends subject to the same caprices as those of fashion. Or maybe it's a matter of simple exposure...like suddenly realizing you've adopted your friend's laugh because you hear it so often. If you are as taken with words as I am, you can think back to the words that your mouth somehow got snagged on and couldn't move past: "like" is the big one but there's also "dude", "brutal", "whatever", "sweet", etc.

These words are a bit like security blankets, their use is at the same time a comfort and a guilty pleasure. A way to succinctly and vaguely indicate your non-opinion of something. Generations of teenagers, often the ones to experiment with language the most freely, have applied non-traditional meanings to otherwise conventional words. It's part of the rebellion, taking possession of language and manipulating it to exclude others. It can also be a way of asserting your individuality or your conformity to a certain group. The informal language you chose to use is as identity defining as your clothing, hair cut, or likes/dislikes.

Perhaps i'm biased, a result of the age in which I grew up, but I have to admit I love the word

Outward Bound

I love travel blogging best. I find so often I doubt that what inspires me has the ability to ignite in others the same excitement and passion, and so I leave it unsaid...or more accurately...unblogged. But who doesn't love to travel? Who doesn't love and yearn everyday to be in the great outdoors? To sleep under the stars, hike a torturous and treacherous pass, paddle the murky depths of a yet unchartered waterway or to climb an unconquered crag? To finally reach a beach so distant and intangible, that even if it were a mirage, it would be no less hopeless to conceive of ever sinking one's toes into the sandy surf of it's shores?

I was Outward Bound this week with the Gr. 9's and you best believe we hiked the second half of the Fundy Footpath hard. Although it rained our second night, the 37 students we took on trip held steadfast to their smiles and resolve and kicked some serious incline ass. Kids never fail to remind me that resilience is not a learned skill...it is an ingrained and boundless and totally surprising quality in a person. I love teaching, experiential learning, and being outside. Pretty easy to please!

New beginnings & Old tricks

Today I found myself back in high school. The first day of my Education degree and I am confined to a building full of classrooms that imitate those in which I will soon find myself teaching. I have been conditioned to expect very little from the next 8 months, however on this introduction day, I find myself inspired and excited to learn. At times it concerns me that I so enjoy being the learner...

The next few months will be full of tasty morsels on computers & technology, english, history, and international collaboration through the framework of education and the practical application of these topics in the classroom. Among the inspiring glimpses in today's lessons a youtube video from Sir Ken Robinson on changing education paradigms, "Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins, and Summer Heights High's hidden curriculum.

To borrow a phrase from Jane Chin: "these are exciting times". To be fair, I think she meant it sarcastically.

"Teaching is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."

So far the only good quote to come from my "Inspirational Quotes" calendar.

Since September...

Byron on the Brain

The other day, a friend of mine posted a quote from this poem on his facebook page. I immediately thought of two things: 1. Nobody writes this way anymore, and 2. I wish I could. I wasn't a fan of Romantic literature in university but it has it's moments. The companionship Byron alludes to in the line i've inscribed in bold is one I've felt often. Whether it's wanderlust or just my existentialism showing -i love it!

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,

There is a rapture on the lonely shore,

There is society, where none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and music in its roar:

I love not man the less, but Nature more,

From these our interviews, in which I steal,

From all I may be, or have been before,

To mingle with the Universe, and feel

What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.

-Lord Byron

The Beauty of 6am

6 am. It's still dark out while I try to gather the wispy remnants of my dreams in the vain hope that I might be able to put them back together and rejoin their blissful depths. No such luck. My roommate knocks on the door: "We've got D today," she says, already sounding defeated. D is our trainer and his name has become synonymous with pain and suffering.

We've been living this same 6 am routine for months now. Alarm goes off. My clock is so ghetto that it doesn't have a snooze button, so I reset it and dive back into a semi-unconcious state for another 6 minutes. Get up, rummage through laundry for gym clothes. Brush teeth, grab yogurt and kiwi from fridge. Sift through the shambles of my room a second time for socks. Gym bag is packed and waiting. Hurry the roomie along before heading for the stairs. Boots on and through the backdoor to the frozen car. Cold bites at uncovered skin while we shovel off the car and scrape the windshield. Frigid air blasting from the dashboard, we drive off, eyes squinting at the pale shafts of light barely exposing the road.

We're late (inevitably). But so is D. The regulars, whose names I don't know, nod their heads in recognition as we walk by the rows of machines to the locker room. We are unfamiliar comrades, forging on in the growing light of dawn.

"We have modified our environment so radically that we must now modify ourselves to exist in this new environment." Norbert Wiener

Fini Hiatus!

After an incessantly long hiatus from this blog...and running...I am back on the proverbial wagon. A number of things have happened since my last post and i'll sum them up quickly:

1. Nannied for the summer, on the Sunshine Coast, BC, for two 3 year olds.

2. Accepted a full-time job as an Associate Faculty member at RNS, in Rothesay, NB and moved there in September.

3. Spent three weeks, over Christmas, in Europe with my sister and a few girlfriends.

Having been a little lost, I have now found myself in a new routine, in a new environment. I'm active and fitter than ever and really enjoying my new exercise regime. I am currently working with a trainer and a 4 phase program. We've just entered the 'Burn' phase which is exactly as it sounds -painful. Gearing myself up for the challenge will be harder than anticipated if I don't get more sleep. Spending the night on the bathroom floor with sick students is NOT helping!

In spite of my atrocious sleep habits, I am managing to hit the gym 6 days a week. More astonishingly, I am also loving it! Persevering is key and sometimes your work-out sucks or you're really not in the mood, in that case put the body on autopilot and use the time to sort through some mental challenges.