For our first family bike ride since returning from Argentina, we decided to check out the HBSCA Farmer's Market and then head over to the Island Airport for the boys' first flight with mommy as PIC!

The farmer's market was considerably more exciting than last year's attempt, with approx 25 vendors peddling everything from fresh veggies to maple cream goat cheese to cut flowers to acai berry smoothies.  

We were very impressed, and quickly unloaded the last of our weekly budget on some home-baked peanut banana chocolate chip muffins ("Mommy, this is quite possibly the best muffin I ever ate in my life", quipped Alex!), a tomato, some fresh field greens, a few pretzels and a container of stinging nettle goat cheese, most of which we packed into our bike panniers, to eat later in the day (the baked goods we devoured on the spot).

After the Market, we continued along the bike path to City Centre, or rather, to the ferry terminal at the foot of Bathurst.  Tats stayed at the playground there with one boy while the other flew with me, and then we switched.

Simon went first, so he did the walkaround with me, too -- he even climbed up to check the fuel!

The airport was super busy today with the usual weekend commercial and general aviation traffic, so we each did a few circuits, and then set off again on our bikes, to ride to the "beach playground", where we stopped and had our little picnic lunch from the Farmer's Market stuff.  Yum!

Anybody want to go flying with me???  :)))  Let me know!

Today I developed a new empathy for occasional teachers, especially those who do day-to-day supply work.  Since I'm technically on leave this year; I've had a chance to do some daily occasional teaching in between my travels to Argentina and various workshops I am facilitating for teachers here in Canada.  

For the most part, I've enjoyed the supply work:  It gives me a chance to see what other great teachers are doing, and what's happening in other schools.  But today taught me a lesson I hope I'll remember when I return to teaching full time in the fall...

It was my first day teaching in a school where I did not know most or all of the office staff and teachers.  (Or, more importantly, they did not know me.)

I biked to the school and arrived a good half hour early like a good little supply teacher, so that I'd have time to take a brief tour of the school, review the supply plans and prepare for the students' arrival.

Alas, the office administrator was just arriving as I was, and was rather grumpy at having to deal with me, an unknown entity.  Further, as seems to be increasingly the norm in our board, the school was short on supply teachers.  To make matters worse, the VP hadn't arranged a "plan b" yet.  All of this amounted to me sitting around in the office waiting to be told what to do, and the end result was that 7 minutes before the bell rang and the students entered, I still did not have a room key, a schedule, or a sense of where anything in the school was.  And I still felt like I was being a nuisance by just being there. 

Interestingly, two other occasional teachers I spoke with that morning indicated that this sort of disorganized, unwelcoming behaviour on the part of the office staff was not unusual, and -- further -- that the VP had recently been overheard saying to someone, "oh, they're just supply teachers"!

Moments before the bell rang, the young VP finally handed me a sheet of paper with no duties, but a whole bunch of names and room numbers, and I found myself running around from one end of the school to the other each period, trying to locate the various teachers whose classes I was covering.  

Ironically, more than half of them hadn't even been made aware in advance that they were being released today. This additional miscommunication resulted in me teaching some rather interesting classes, including an intermediate health lesson on STDs!!!  Thankfully, I've taught such topics many a time in the past, and was not afraid to take on the "question box" head on, and we tackled several anonymous questions together, including everything from "how do you know when your period is coming?" to "what happens if I don't get my period by the time I'm 16?" to  "Do you need a man to get pregnant?" 

The kids were -- for the most part -- awesome, and also I had brought one of my favourite picture books with me, which I read aloud with two of the classes had a chance to work with. 

At lunch I attended my first GSA meeting.  I'd heard of such organizations, but had never attended one in person.  Two teachers and a diverse group of students ate their lunches together, chatted about upcoming World Pride in Toronto, and planned their year-end meeting/social gathering at school.

Despite the apparent lack of organizational systems in the office, I must say that overall, it was a pretty good day. (Even the VP scored some redemptive points by letting me park my bike in the Principal's office, and coming out at the end of the day to thank me for being there today.)  Being incognito for once was kind of a neat experience.

I do empathize with school administration who are dealing with a shortage of OTs and last minute staffing scrambles .  On the other hand, if today was any indication of how most schools "welcome" the average supply teacher, I can see why many OTs just don't bother picking up jobs!!!  Having been an acting VP in the past, I know how critical it is to have organizational structures in place that enable graceful flow in such situations.  And now, as an "acting" supply teacher, I know first hand how it feels when such flow is not happening!

I'm looking forward to a few more days of supply teaching before the end of June, and am debating if I should stick with schools I know, or whether taking the risk in new places is a good way to research my upcoming Summer Academy sessions for OTs! :)))  In any case, I hope I will remember to take a few moments to welcome and support lost-looking OTs in my future schools when I am back to work full time in the fall.

Went flying today, with a friend -- my first flight with another pilot friend since my finally finishing my licence requirements last fall.  And what a gorgeous day to go flying...  Marias -- this blog post is for YOU, to convince you to come visit us soon!!!  ;-P

(If you hover over any of the photos, there is a caption.)

After my flight, I rode my bike home, and stopped to take a few more photos.  I love the Lakeshore, both from the ground as well as the sky! :D

I've not been sleeping much.

Apart from the endless unpacking, sorting and reorganizing of household items here in the apartment, there is the ongoing challenge of trying to remember where eight months' worth of stuff has been hidden, stored, sorted away... as someone was staying here while we traveled this past year, we elected to box up all of our clothes and personal items, leaving only furniture and basic kitchen supplies behind.

Where it all went is a mystery to me now, and it keeps me up at night, as I suddenly remember -- or think I remember -- where a certain object might be, and consider when and how we can get it back to 807.

Sure, we kept inventories... sort of.  But unfortunately, my at the time apparently scrupulous list that include such items as "Rick's - assorted clothes" and "Caley's - bike stuff" doesn't enlighten me as to which box my socks are in in the mountain in Rick's closet, or whether "bike stuff" includes a pump, or if I should better take one with me to Caley's garage, where our bikes have been living for the past several months, tires likely in need of air...

Wedged in between scheming about how to reunite ourselves with our scattered belongings are mental planning sessions to prepare several upcoming workshops I am facilitating for teachers, which I have not put together concrete agendas or handouts for yet.  This, too, keeps me up at night.

I took a break from it all yesterday, and went to my old school, to volunteer with a field trip.  I packed up a box of Alfajors to share in the staff room, and set off to the bus stop for the ride across two transit systems, to Mississauga.  (Boy, was I missing the comprehensive bus lines of Buenos Aires!)

It was so much fun to see everyone again; the students, the staff, parents... a selection of Grade 3-5 students were participating in a track meet, and I had been asked to come along as a volunteer.  Despite the threatening clouds, it turned out to be a really nice day, and I enjoyed reconnecting with everyone.

Of course, the first question people ask is "HOW WAS ARGENTINA?" often followed by "How is it, being back?"

Although I was anticipating such queries, and had thought about them at length, I had not come up with a succinct and catchy response.  I mean, how does one effectively summarize nearly a year spent on the other side of the equator?  How does one describe the feeling of being "home" again after such an adventure to those who've never left?

It seems like only yesterday we were standing, somewhat stunned and in denial, out front of our BsAs apartment with all our luggage, waiting for our remise to the Airport, or ziplining across the canopy in Salta, or staring in awe at the Falls in Iguazu, or laughing and joking with the Marias and other friends...

After several days of unpacking and fighting to figure out our wifi set up (a combination of router problems and my own stupidity resulted in 72 hours without internet access here at home!), I am drinking mate again now, and that helps considerably.

And slowly, I am getting used to paying for things with bills that aren't disintegrating in one's hands, and to not checking my pockets every thirty seconds to make sure my phone hasn't been pick pocketed (I am locking the doors now, though!)

After a few days of lurching at and then pulling back awkwardly from everyone I meet, I am remembering sooner and with greater consistency that we do not kiss friends and strangers here, and am reverting to my old habits of a smile and a friendly handshake, or the occasional hug where warranted.  That's been an unusually strange feeling; the kissing on one cheek habit was a hard one to acquire, and once programmed in, I'm finding it's a hard habit to shake.  I guess I'm innately more touchy-feely than I thought I was.

And I finally have my bike back!

I knew for sure that I was back in Toronto when -- on my way home yesterday -- I crossed the 427 bridge on the Queensway and had several people honk at me: A bike loaded down with two overstuffed panniers, a backpack, a box from the post office, and me would be irrelevant amongst the cartonaros, mopeds, and a million buses and cars on the streets of Buenos Aires; here in Toronto, such a thing stands out like a sore thumb, inviting incredulous stares from passing drivers, accompanied often by honking and the occasional outburst of profanity.

I was further reminded that I was back in Canada when -- too lazy to remove all my luggage and haul it into the grocery store with me at the end of my bike-errand run -- I left it all outside (bike was locked, mind you, but anyone could have walked away with the backpack, or unloaded the panniers and helped themselves to the contents) while I picked up a few grocery items, and, when I came out of the store, behold -- everything was still there! :D

As I wheeled my now-too-full-to-ride bike two blocks home, I glanced around and drank in the familiar sights and sounds: An abundance of grass, the Lake and waterfront trail, Mimico Square, a bird symphony...

I got upstairs to the apartment, stood on the balcony, stared out over the tree canopy that defines Toronto, and thought, I'm tired, I miss our BsAs friends and some routines there, and here I am currently feeling somewhat engulfed in a never ending "to-do" list...  But all in all, I'm happy to be home!