Well what has this week been missing so far? In my humble opinion its sport. I’m not sure Claire would agree but she is lovely enough to sign up for the races, the baseball and the soccer in Toronto. I was slightly disappointed I couldn’t find any sport these first five days in Ottawa, but today we got as close as we’re going to. An Ice Hockey exhibition at the Natural History Museum.
Although I don’t know an awful lot about the sport, I do have a basic knowledge from many years ago when a friend and myself went to an ice hockey introduction at a Laneway Learning class in Melbourne. From that it evolved, I went to watching the Melbourne teams playing at the Icehouse to a small but vocal crowd. I suppose though sport has always interested me. In fact its been part of me nearly my whole life, as long as I can remember, I have memories of sitting around in front of the TV on a Saturday evening waiting for the football scores. I went to watch the team in the village that I grew up and then the team in my university town. I’ve watched numerous sport games over the year on TV, and definitely align with the opinion that sport is a theatre for the masses. I mean it has all the drama, it can move you to tears, it can build you up and tear you down again, and it is at times pure passion.
The exhibition was good, if a bit short. We were probably through it in about 20 minutes, it was very visual but not that informative. I should imagine it scratched the surface of what was an interesting history. The whole museum was a little interesting in that way considering the size of it, we managed to get round it in around three hours. Admittedly we flicked quickly through sections but I wouldn’t say unnecessarily.
We finally also got a chance to go to MosaiCanada, which is a series of sculptures to reflect Canada and its society in a park not far from the National History Museum. When I say sculptures you may think these tiny little things showing a few ice hockey players and some birds. But the sculptures were all made of vegetation and were built on a giant scale. It was quite impressive and the gardens were full of people. The free admission probably helped this and It formed part of the 150th year anniversary of Canada.
We wandered back to the museum for a bite to eat. We’ve found at least in Ottawa, the museums and galleries have been good places to eat. The food is of a relatively high standard whilst the prices are incredibly cheap, at least to our comparisons back in Australia. The museum we finished off in an hour and then we split up again today so I could come back and study and Claire could continue on her shopping expeditions.
My first essay is due in a week and a half, and having not been at university for twenty years now, I am struggling a bit with the way they seemingly want me to write things. It is quite a formal style and I must admit I struggle, and to a certain extent rebel against this notion. I love the way I write, I love my conversational styles and I don’t want to lose it. Claire is trying her hardest to convince me that if I want good marks, I need to write in a certain way, but I find something quite exclusive about the whole idea, like to be part of this club you have to write and present in a certain way. The style and especially the referencing is as hard to get your head round as the information in the essay itself and I wonder how many people get put off by this and how many good potential teachers they lose.
Anyway I continue to struggle to get my head around it and part of me, can’t wait to actually be on my practicals in schools rather than sitting at a desk writing essays! Saying that I am only a week and a half into my course and I’m sure I’ll get used to it.
Tonight of course is our final night in Ottawa and we decided to head out for dinner at a local Japanese round the corner. The menu was very familiar and my usual order of edamame, gyoza and katsu don was placed. Just like being back at home in Australia. The food was just alright, nothing special really but it was a good meal to end our time here. We then wandered down to an ice cream shop with a giant queue outside. For those of you that know my tendency to exaggeration, there must have been 15 people in the queue. I had the worst nightmare for an Australian overseas, the girl behind the counter thought I was a Kiwi after she heard Claire’s accent. I hastily explained that I definitely wasn’t and proceeded to sing Advance Australia Fair in the shop (please see my tendency to exaggerate above).
We wandered home in the humidity of the night. We leave tomorrow for Kingston, but not before a 5.30am wake up call for my visual/video conference with my class for one of the subjects I’m studying. There really is no compulsion to get up and do it and in fact my tutor has confirmed I don’t need to and I can listen to the recording afterwards, but I figure if I want to make a success of a new career at the very least I should be motivated at the start. And I certainly am.
After our initial disappointment with the hotel room, I have to say I will miss it. It’s been my home for the last 5 days.
IJS 19/07/2017
