clin d'œil 6

I went to the AMC Forum today (yes, that's THE Forum where the Canadiens (hockey team) famously played) to see a unique film. It was a limited release film of the last performance of the long-running Broadway show RENT. I hadn't seen the show or the regular movie and I thought it was great. The voices were so powerful and the storyline was very moving (maybe I'm one of the last people to see this for the first time...) I was looking online at some of the lyrics and decided to share one song with you here in one of those scroll-y things (mainly because I wanted to see what one of those scroll-y things would look like in my blog...it is, however, a fantastic song).



Update: Oct. 4th...went out and bought the soundtrack after spending the last week humming the songs constantly. Yay.

"My class is so cool!"

I've been back with my students for a little over two weeks now. The "back-to-school" days with my students have been absolutely great. I have the same core group of students as last year, I have one new girl and three students left the class. Because I know them already so well, we've been able to get right back to work...and play.

My students and I often share humorous stories at lunch time. The other day, a fifth grader told this joke:

A conversation between husband and wife:
Wife: "When I die will you find another wife?"
Husband: "No, of course not my dear, you are my soul mate."
Wife: "But I want you to be happy. Promise me you'll move on and find another companion."
Husband: (reluctantly) "OK, I promise."
Wife: "Will your new wife sleep in our bed?"
Husband: "Um I suppose so..."
Wife: "You mean she'll use our bathroom and even my closet?"
Husband: "Yeah, probably."
Wife: "Will you even let her use my golf clubs?"
Husband: "No, she's a lefty."

Ha ha ha!

Another day, I don't remember how we got on the subject, we were talking about marshmallows and I decided to try to convince my students that the big round plastic-covered hay bales were giant marshmallows on a marshmallow farm. I had the idea when Bo and I were driving through Québec this summer and I saw many fields strewn with such hay bales. I wanted to take a picture but didn't have batteries for the camera or something. My students were incredulous but because they trust me so much they started doubting their own doubts and pointed out that marshmallows have no seeds. I told them that one needs only to plant some mini-marshmallows and they would grow.


Then one student asked how long they would take to grow and I told them that if they planted them now, unfortunately they wouldn't live to see their crop as it takes about 100 years for marshmallows to sprout. With a big grin on my face I just kept insisting and you could tell they didn't quite know what to think. They knew it was impossible, but they wanted to believe me. It was really funny and quite endearing at the same time.

I also read aloud to them from time to time the tales and misadventures of Le Petit Nicolas. He's the main character and narrator in a series of very funny French children's books. Nicolas says about his teacher "She's so nice and so pretty when we're not being rascals!" If he were talking about my class he'd say: "Elle est drôlement chouette ma classe!"

Summer 2008 wrap-up

A somewhat random photo essay...

Fall is almost here. I've been back to work for a few weeks now. I noticed it's been almost a month since I've shared anything new in Montréal-la-la. I had so many ideas for clins d'œil, or even full posts to tell you about my summer, but I don't like to things too out of date so I submit to you a large quantity of photos that show some of my adventures this summer:

Late June, a field trip with my students to the Musée Marguerite-Bourgeoys. Madame Bourgeoys was an early settler of and founded the first school on the island of Montréal.

Later in June, Bo spotted this heron right around the corner from the school where I used to work in Maplewood, Minnesota.

Also in Minnesota, here is the construction crew building the new 35W bridge (to replace the one that collapsed). You see downtown Minneapolis in the background. Bo took this picture, I think it's neat.

This one's dedicated to my pal KO. She and I used to talk about running away (from the East Coast) and going somewhere in the middle of nowhere which we decided at the time was Wisconsin. We wanted to buy cheese hats I remember. Years later I moved to Minnesota, just a hop, skip and a jump from the WI-MN state line and she married a guy from Wisconsin. Funny. This summer while passing through America's dairyland I picked up this bag of cheese curds at a roadside cheese stand and nibbled on them while thinking of her.

Just a fun, trying to be artsy shot of my car reflected in a milk truck while driving through, you guessed it, Wisconsin.

Fourth of July fireworks in Jay, NY. (I took a little video too, but like the last one, it's sideways, and some guy's car alarm kept going off from the sound of the fireworks so the audio's not great either. I'll get the hang of it eventually).

I took this picture while on my first bicycle ride with the new bike I bought in July. I ate my lunch at the Parc des Rapides which overlooks the Lachine rapids. It's only about a 15-20 minute ride from our apartment on bike trails along the St. Lawrence river the whole way. I went there several times this summer. There were TONS of blue herons everywhere. The rapids don't look quite so impressive in this photo, but they really are...they're rough and roaring and foamy. Next summer I want to take one of the raft rides they offer. Wheee!

Just outside of Quebec City in early August, Bo and I visited les chutes de la Chaudière. It was gorgeous! Massive amounts of water. Some of which is used to produce electricity.

The light at the end of this tunnel takes you to class at Laval University in Quebec City where all of the buildings are connected by tunnels because of the long harsh winters. This one is very bomb shelter looking but it also made me think of "Mork and Mindy" because of it's egg shape.

Farewell summer 2008. It's been nice knowin' ya!