LITERACY
Today was a strangely surprising day. I woke up around my usual time, after hitting the snooze button at least 5 times... on both alarms. I even had time to shovel some breakfast into me before heading out the door towards the bus.
It was rainy in the morning so I decided that I was just going to walk to the subway and travel the one stop to the bus just to avoid the spitting rain - which in all honesty wasn't that bad. Normally I would walk in the rain and enjoy it, but there's nothing worse than getting to work all wet, especially when the office is already much like a sauna.
There is an alleyway behind my house that I take as a shortcut. On my block I couldn't actually tell you what is on the main street anymore since for the one stretch I only see things from behind. I weave in an out of parked cars and know how I am doing for time when I see a woman in a motorized wheelchair zoom by and stop off at the upholstery shop. I'm confident that it is her husband that runs the place and she checks in every morning.
Today, however, I didn't run into that woman; instead I ran into someone I haven't seen in about six or seven years. His name is Adam and I met him in 2004 when I took part in the laborer-teacher program offered through Frontier College. We both worked on a fruit farm outside of Leamington, Ontario. He was a seasoned pro as he had done the program before, worked with the same men and quite frankly was a much better ESL teacher than I was.
That summer there were a lot of people in Leamington and there were five of us working on this one farm. Myself, Adam, Emily, Maryanne and Paul. While on the farm Adam and Emily hooked up - and from what Adam tells me they are still together and living together quite happily. They just recently moved about two blocks from where I live, which explained why I was just running into him now.
It was my first Literacy-related blast from the past for the day. It was quite out of the ordinary and I figured that would fill the quota for a while.
Later in the day I received a message on Facebook from a girl, Erin, who also studied at Queen's. We were both also a part of the literacy groups funded by Frontier College - Queen's Students for Literacy. She got in touch out of the blue to see how I was. We had run into one another when I was living in the east end of the city on the Danforth. She is still living out in that direction with her husband. She had mentioned how she had recently been in touch with another QSL tutor, and I told her that I had been in touch with the program's director about a year ago.
This day was certainly heading in a specific direction.
Last night I downloaded a sample of Tina Fey's 'Bossypants'. I found it to be pretty funny, which didn't surprise me since I love most of the work she does in Film and on TV. I was annoyed to find that ebooks still cost a fortune even though there are no materials to deal with. I'm sure someone in the publishing industry could explain it to me in a way that I would respect that their jobs depend on those prices, but as a consumer faced with a download, I certainly don't want to be dishing out $14 for a book that I'll never actually hold in my hands.
Facebook friends to the rescue! A girl I had met at Queen's got in touch to solve my Bossypants dilemma. Suffice it to say that I am about halfway through the book and I'm loving it.
Did I mention that I got home from work to find another QSL associate had accepted a request on LinkedIn? Today was all about reconnecting with past friends and colleagues. All literacy-related. It was strange, but in the nicest way possible.
Right now I am writing this post while it pours outside. I am looking forward to falling asleep to the sound of the rain. So relaxing. And I love the smell.
It was rainy in the morning so I decided that I was just going to walk to the subway and travel the one stop to the bus just to avoid the spitting rain - which in all honesty wasn't that bad. Normally I would walk in the rain and enjoy it, but there's nothing worse than getting to work all wet, especially when the office is already much like a sauna.
There is an alleyway behind my house that I take as a shortcut. On my block I couldn't actually tell you what is on the main street anymore since for the one stretch I only see things from behind. I weave in an out of parked cars and know how I am doing for time when I see a woman in a motorized wheelchair zoom by and stop off at the upholstery shop. I'm confident that it is her husband that runs the place and she checks in every morning.
Today, however, I didn't run into that woman; instead I ran into someone I haven't seen in about six or seven years. His name is Adam and I met him in 2004 when I took part in the laborer-teacher program offered through Frontier College. We both worked on a fruit farm outside of Leamington, Ontario. He was a seasoned pro as he had done the program before, worked with the same men and quite frankly was a much better ESL teacher than I was.
That summer there were a lot of people in Leamington and there were five of us working on this one farm. Myself, Adam, Emily, Maryanne and Paul. While on the farm Adam and Emily hooked up - and from what Adam tells me they are still together and living together quite happily. They just recently moved about two blocks from where I live, which explained why I was just running into him now.
It was my first Literacy-related blast from the past for the day. It was quite out of the ordinary and I figured that would fill the quota for a while.
Later in the day I received a message on Facebook from a girl, Erin, who also studied at Queen's. We were both also a part of the literacy groups funded by Frontier College - Queen's Students for Literacy. She got in touch out of the blue to see how I was. We had run into one another when I was living in the east end of the city on the Danforth. She is still living out in that direction with her husband. She had mentioned how she had recently been in touch with another QSL tutor, and I told her that I had been in touch with the program's director about a year ago.
This day was certainly heading in a specific direction.
Last night I downloaded a sample of Tina Fey's 'Bossypants'. I found it to be pretty funny, which didn't surprise me since I love most of the work she does in Film and on TV. I was annoyed to find that ebooks still cost a fortune even though there are no materials to deal with. I'm sure someone in the publishing industry could explain it to me in a way that I would respect that their jobs depend on those prices, but as a consumer faced with a download, I certainly don't want to be dishing out $14 for a book that I'll never actually hold in my hands.
Facebook friends to the rescue! A girl I had met at Queen's got in touch to solve my Bossypants dilemma. Suffice it to say that I am about halfway through the book and I'm loving it.
Did I mention that I got home from work to find another QSL associate had accepted a request on LinkedIn? Today was all about reconnecting with past friends and colleagues. All literacy-related. It was strange, but in the nicest way possible.
Right now I am writing this post while it pours outside. I am looking forward to falling asleep to the sound of the rain. So relaxing. And I love the smell.
posted by Todd at
9/30/2011 02:39:00 AM
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