I drove in the dark

Well, I have had another new experience - I drove home in the dark on Tuesday night after salsa dancing. There were a few more people there than last week and the group decided to stay for dinner. I was a bit leery about driving home in the dark since it was raining but Harold said he would escort me home - he drove in front of me. It helped. So, now I have done that too. And I have only been here two weeks. It seems like longer. I just really would like my stuff to arrive now and everything will be great - better than it is.

I am pretty comfortable with daytime driving now - I'm getting a good sense of where all the big potholes are. There is a huge new one at the top of the hill just before you turn into my laneway - one of my neighbours suggested we plant flowers in it and make it like a turning circle. Good idea. It may be awhile before it gets filled in. It happened the other day after a torrential rain - there were rushing rivers flowing down the mountain and the asphalt just washed away. It really has been raining a lot - and hard - and thunder!!!! Wow, it really thunders here when it storms.

Yesterday, (Wed.) Carol talked me into joining the spouse group for the day. She said that I need to have some fun before I officially start work and that I have been working too much. We were supposed to go to the beach but it was raining so we went and had a long lunch at Tomato. Tomato is right up the hill from the main gates of the university and is owned by a Canadian. She gave me a great welcome back (I met her when I was here in March) and a round of Tomato Sunrises on her. Yummmm..... The food there is great and we hung out there for quite awhile. This group originally started as spouse activities but a few local women have joined it too. Two of them live just up the hill from me - one is a Swedish artist and she invited us back up to her place for the afternoon. We drank wine and ate ice cream and she showed us her work. She has some gorgeous paintings. I think I may buy one. She is very talented. What a nice group of women. Very diverse and fun - we laughed a lot. It was a really enjoyable day and I look forward to more of them. We talked about having the roving parties in the neighbourhood where you do one course at one house then move on the next for the next course. They thought it was a great idea and since all of my street is Ross faculty and the others just live right up the hill. We'll have to see how it works out. We have enough people to do it several times before repeating. Should be fun.

I also chatted with Mary Grogan - the Canadian principal of the school here on campus. I told her I would consult to the school for kids with learning and behavioral (note the American spelling I am now using) challenges and since they are partnered with the Savanne Paille primary school (just up the hill from my house ) I will also consult there. That will be my community work - which Ross expects faculty to do. I am also expected to sit on a committee here so I will choose to join the Faculty Development committee. I think that makes the most sense for me - I can contribute to faculty development with regard to teaching strategies. As would be expected some of the MD's don't really know all that much about good teaching practice and use far too many powerpoint slides in a lecture. Ah, well, there's time for that.

Okay, better go now, I've got a student coming in this morning.

Later,