Checking in (Forum Repeat)
I am there. And there is here.
It’s a beautiful sunny day here in Wem, which makes three in a row — teaching is hard work (definitely among the hardest things I’ve done) but the weekend made up for it. Went for an awesome two-hour hike across the inlet of James Bay and into the woods yesterday, eventually climbing to the top of the highest hill in the area and taking some stellar photos. It was a great way to spend an afternoon, except that even walking the snowmobile trails you still get your legs plunging hip-deep into snow from time to time. You’d figure a snow trail that could support a 300-pound-man on a 1200-pound machine could hold up 180 lbs of me, but I figure it has something to do with speed and weight distribution.
The worst part of these sudden snow-sinks is when you’re about 1 km across a 2 km stretch of lake, where literally nobody can hear you scream, and suddenly you feel the snow give way beneath you and you drop about two feet. Just soft snow, you say to yourself as you climb out, the ice is safe for snowmobiles until late April at least, but every time it happens you get this minor heart attack. Because here the water is deep and cold. DEEP. And COLD.
And one of the exercises for last week’s class was to record a PSA on snow safety, which basically consisted of somebody saying STAY OFF THE GODDAMN ICE, so it seemed like a suitably ironic fate for me. Albeit three weeks early.
But here I am, hale and hearty, and exactly four days away from concluding the course, which puts a spring in my step and a song in my heart. Not that I don’t like the students or the environment — I’m toying with the idea of doing a teaching contract up here some day, if I ever get my Ed certificate — but I’m a consistency buff. I like stability. So I’m looking forward to getting back to the same ol’ house with the same ol’ cats and friends and hobbies and music and such. I’m watching a lot of network TV and feeling my brain erode, so I’m counterbalancing by reading Don Quixote, which so far (400 pages in) ROCKS.
Anyway. Internet access is fain rare, and I’m chugging along at a princely 33 Kbps, note the small “b”, so I just wanted to say hi. Hi! Wemindji is AWESOME and everyone should live here, at least for a little bit.
See you all soon,
Matt