Showing posts with label experience. Show all posts
Showing posts with label experience. Show all posts

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Make it better

Despite all of the hard work over the past 3 weeks to get the renovations going, it doesn't look like we're going to meet our target to open by the end of the month. We've only had a few volunteers here and there, and with all of the repairs needed on the building, progress is way too slow.

I haven't been doing much aside from work, and life has been fairly uneventful since Mom & Dad left just over a week ago.

The teachers did get to town last week, so hopefully I'll get to know a few of them and maybe make some friends.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about how I can bring the best of who I am to my new position. One professor told me before I left that since she's known me, she noticed that I was always able to take something and make it better. I hang on to that now as I feel the struggle with the slow progress and I have to force myself to think about how it will be better, even if the process is taking longer than we expected. It's important that I keep in mind that change is an extremely slow process, and that not all change is going to happen when or in the way I would like it to.

There are some changes that are happening quickly. It's starting to get darker earlier (around 9:30), and the sky even gets completely dark for a few hours during the night. The sun still starts rising around 5 am, but the day and night light is becoming much more like what we're used to in the south.

I'm anxious to get the programming done for at least the first month so that I feel at least somewhat ready for when we finally get to re-open. I'm also anxious for staff training. It is so far out of my range of experience to do week-long training on every aspect of working in an early learning setting. I definitely have a lot that I need to learn before I can train the new staff. The training is such a crucial part of implementing a new program and making change, so I'm definitely open to any tips or advice from those of you who have experience in this area!

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Arctic Experience


Tonight I had my very first truly arctic experience out on the ocean. A friend of my brother-in-law took us out to do a little bit of fishing. We went to 3 different spots. The first 2 we abandoned by other fishers and all fish. The 3rd spot was swarming with fishers, char and mosquitos! I can't express enough how awful it would have been had I not had my bug jacket with me.

Anyway, I'm not great with words, so here are some pictures from the evening.

As we were leaving the dock, some of the kids were swimming (it was only about 15 degrees outside)

Off we go...into the rain!

Yay, the first sign of fishies!

Even Chevy wanted to get a glimpse of the first catch of the night!

The sun starting to set.



This char photobombed my picture of the sunset.
This is what I wanted the real picture to look like..
I was really digging the silhouettes of the other fishers. These guys had their tent out to camp for the weekend.




If you look closely, you can see the robot-esque Inuksuk on the island.

I thought we were leaving the setting sun behind us.
See the mosquitos?


Can you really blame me for staying up late to see this?

I don't think so!

Oh yeah... I did catch my very first arctic char, which I will post about tomorrow after I've had the chance to cook it and taste it!