A Long Short Weekend

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I know the title of this post may not make a lot of sense but it has been a busy two weeks since my last update! Since my last post I have been trained in the Young Warrior's Program (http://www.youngwarriors.com/), gone to Sherbrooke and back and been on many nature walks.

To begin, last week I was in training as a Young Warriors Sensei. This program was developed by David Jurasek and is a program targeted at risk youth who struggle with learning difficulties and/or behavioral issues. The program teaches students a combination of emotional regulation and Aikido, a martial art. The program will be introduced to a small group of students at the Elementary School in October and I hope that I will be chosen as one of the sensei's for the class. Since the entire week was training, my students had a substitute teacher each day. This was difficult for me because I was able to see my students at the beginning of the day and at the end, but I did not get to continue my bond with them. It was difficult to come back this week to a full week of teaching after being essentially gone for a week! The students had to get used to my routines again and the way my classroom runs, but by the end of the week it felt like I had never left.

As soon as we were done training on Friday, a colleague of mine and I got in her car and drove the 9 hours to Sherbrooke for the weekend. It was quite nostalgic to be back in Lennoxville for the weekend and not be a student there anymore. It's even more weird that I'm not back this weekend for Homecoming! I squeezed as many moments into the short weekend as I could. I even made an impromptu visit to Vermont on Saturday.

I visited friends, did some shopping and drank the Lion's famous Amber Beer. Very quickly the weekend turned into Sunday morning and another long drive back North. The drive back was beautiful, even though the weather got increasingly colder. It was 28C (82F) in Lennoxville when we left and 13C (55F) by the time we got home to Mistissini. Since I had been used to the cool and dry weather up north, my body was very confused when all of a sudden it was humid and warm outside. I will admit that I was very happy to return to cooler weather, I am not a fan of sweating through my clothes!

This week came a sudden change of the color of the leaves, unfortunately there aren't any maple trees so we don't get the beautiful oranges and reds but we do have some vibrant yellow. A few friends and I took our dogs to a trail just outside of town and walked for a few hours Friday afternoon. It was beautiful and the dogs loved playing with the sticks and leaves.

I am very grateful for the opportunities I have to be closer to nature and appreciate the natural beauty of this place. The amount of stars that are visible at night is spectacular. The Milky Way is so clear and I can see more stars than anywhere I have been in North America. It helps that there is not a lot of light pollution since our small community is the only source of light for 70 miles. 

Thanks for catching up with me and have a wonderful fall weekend!

~Vicki



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