Whoa the Canadian Dollar reached parity with the american greenback -looks like my salary just got lower and my rent even higher. Oh well, at least my credit cards won't be hit with such drastic exchange rate on it!

Couldn't Ask for More

The first two weeks of school went pretty smoothly. I've survived. The kids have been on a whole pretty good to me. I've starting to get use to the teacher schedule though I have to say that I'm still not used to getting up so early.

New York City Public Schools have quite a bit of holidays. Because Rosh Hashanah we had a 3 day week and a four day weekend this week! Yay! I think next week is going to seem very very long.

I still haven't found the balance between working, marking and prepping but hopefully that'll come with experience.

Last weekend I enjoyed walking through SoHo window shopping and also having dinner in Little Italy. Let me say adding alcohol to a meal makes it more pricey!

These two days I've been sorting out paper work and also lazying around relaxing and decompressing.

I'll get back to lesson planning and marking soon enough. Btw: Anyone else responsible for doing a bulletin board and decorating their classroom on the high school level? For all my female teacher buddies...FLATS are the way too go -painful feet experience from being on my feet walking around in heels (no matter how small).

Overall, first day of teaching was a success. No time to blog -too tired from not getting sleep the night before out of nervousness.
:) I'm happy.

Subtle difference between two nations.

When I moved down here to America, I didn't really think there would that that much of a cultural difference. Superficially, Canadians and Americans are not that different in their North American mindset and attitudes (feel free to argue this Canadian readers). Though there are differences that I come upon.

Crazy array of drinks like: Diet Coke plus which isn't approved for sale in Canada because it contains vitamins and minerals that is not found in soda in the first place. EVERYONE here drinks the ascetically pleasing Vitaminwater by Glaceau which is really a sugar filled drink masquerading as a health product. I also notice the lack of diet drinks stocked anywhere in this city and the fact that Splenda based products cost three times as much here than in Canada.

Subtle word usage difference e.g. soda versus pop, pocketbook versus purse, and college versus university. Pocketbook???!!!!! what a strange non-feminine name given to a handbag.

I still haven't grasped the concept of Fahrenheit and will never know what temperature it is from the radio or television.

Back to food -New York City has banned the use of trans-fat. I had McDonald's French fries the other day and sadly they are bland and tasteless without the zest that only unnatural trans-fatty goodness can provide.

And yes, for my American friends -universal Health care is truly a wonderful concept. I don't personally like hockey but it is popular in my country and no I stick 'eh' into every sentence. Canada does have an army and no, Mexican food is not widely available. Do you have any other questions?

Happy Labour (with a "U") day!!!!