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Michelle_小蜜

Michelle_小蜜

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  1. 網誌
  2. 2011 Vancouver
網誌區塊

Our Roomates- Eastern Europeans

2011年05月22日
公開
50

We have four roommates living in the same floor in this house, and we share the common area, such as living room, kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, dining room and so on. They are all very friendly. Today we finally got a chance to know each other more. I realized we are surrounded by Eastern Europeans. Jerry, our landlord, is a Czech. He has strong accent that only I can understand. I mean his English is very difficult for Hazel to understand. For me, I can only understand 60%- 70%. Others I have to guess. Stan, who is a friend of Jerry's son, is a half Czech, half Filipino. I thought he was originally from Vancouver, but he wasn't. However, he grew up in Vancouver. So everyone else here counts on him a lot. We consult everything with him. He's a very good person. And he's the one who told me Czech and Slovakia was called Czechoslovakia. Fero, is the handsome guy that I mentioned in the first diary. He's a Slovakia. He doesn't talk much. Today Stan invited him and us to a Dim Sum place to have lunch. It's Fero's first time having Dim Sum. He didn't seem to enjoy too much. Kasia and Artur are Polish couple. Kasia is very beautiful and we often talk to each other. She can make very good cinnamon apple juice. Smells so good! Artur's English isn't very well, so he hardly speak to us. Just having very basic conversations. Those are our interesting roommates. I've never met so many Eastern Europeans. Now I learn a lot about Eastern Europe. It IS some experience. Michelle Photos for Week 3 *

First Day of Explorers' Child Care

2011年05月16日
公開
65

Today is the first day of the family care for Ryan. We got there on time. The caregiver, Shafani, and her husband welcomed us. I stayed for an hour to make sure Ryan was ok, and also talked more about Ryan with the Shafani. Most importantly, I wanted to see how Shafani deals with kids. There, we met the other kids that she's taking care of- Daclan, Pippa and Reily. Well, truth is I think Shafanie seemed inexperienced, because she just opened this Child Care for several months. I guess she's getting used to it. However, she tries her best and she's really friendly, gentle and patient. The best part of this child care is that she takes kids outdoor twice a day, no matter what. Shafani's husband made black tea for three of us while the kids were having their morning snacks. The tea was really tasty! I didn't realize it was the famous ceylon tea until the next day. I felt lucky when I found out that. I picked Ryan up at noon. Because it's been raining for days, Shafani asked us to buy a rain jacket and a pair of rain boots for Ryan. They go out every day, even in rainy days, so those things are important. Therefore, we went straight ahead to Metrotown for shopping again. We got no luck on rain boots hunting. We spent hours and tried several stores, but they were all out of stock. Finally, we got an expensive rain jacket at a sports store (we were planning to get a cheaper one.) Everyone was too tired eventually. We gave up on rain boots. We went home and went to bed and hoped it would be a sunny day tomorrow! Michelle *This Child Care is not very close to what I want, but I guess we really don't have much choice at this time of year. Good, experienced teachers or caregivers seemed all unavailable. However, I am still very thankful for everything. At least, Ryan started to feel comfortable with speaking English. He opens his mind to the English speakers little by little. He's not so shy any more. This IS a good start. Photos for Week 2 *

"Feeling Good" Day

2011年05月13日
公開
46

It was a big sunny day. How wonderful! We all woke up with smiles. I had a feeling that this day would be a perfect day and we would have so much luck on finding the school. First we set out for the Montessori School, but it was closed. We stood in front of the school and waited and called the teacher, but got no response. So I decided to go straight ahead to the nearest library for the family time. We had luck because we met the handsome, cool and funny male librarian again. He was Ryan's favorite librarian last year. We didn't expect to see him this time, but we did. What a surprise! He must be very popular because the room was full. It WAS a great story time, and Ryan enjoyed it. While I was thinking about coming back every Friday morning for his story time, he suddenly told everyone that he'd got promoted and was going to transfer to the Central Branch. After the story time, we went to ask him if we had a chance to join his story time downtown. He said he won't be a children' librarian again. Oh! What a waste!!! There was another meeting and try-out with the other home care giver. Hazel went with us too. The house shocked me at the first sight. Then we had a talk with the care giver and we left Ryan there for two hours to see if he liked it. The care giver's two boys played with Ryan immediately. It let us feel more comfortable, so we decided to put it into consideration. There's a huge and beautiful playground near that home care, so we let Ryan play on it for an hour after we left the home care. He met a boy and started to play with each other. It was a "School Finding" day and we did get luck. Now we need to decide if it's right to leave Ryan there. It's REALLY a hard decision. >

Montessori/ Library/ Costco

2011年05月12日
公開
48

Ryan got up at 3 in the morning AGAIN! AGAIN! Of course I had to be awake. Plus I've had stomachaches and flatulences for three days. Sigh! :( My body told me I REALLY need rest! Anyway, yesterday I got two emails from two home schools, so I made an appointment to visit with one of them. It was a Montessori home school. The environment is fine and clean, but the teacher is kind of distanced. Well, I'm not sure if it's right, so I asked for a try-out tomorrow morning for one hour to see if Ryan likes it. Later I talked with the other family daycare provider that had replied my email. It is actually a LNR family daycare, which means "License-Not-Required". The care provider told me she was actually a stay-at-home mom with 2 young kids, and opened her house to the kids she took care of. I know it's not a SCHOOL, but she showed her enthusiasm with kids. I really enjoyed talking with her on the phone. I thought if Ryan could have another home in Vancouver, it'll be great too. After all we didn't expect he would learn a lot from this trip. We just hope he finds his courage and feels comfortable to communicate in English. Well, I'd like to meet this happy mom tomorrow. After visiting school, we went to the library for the story time. We also borrowed some more books. Ryan showed his interested in science books. On the way home, it started to rain. When I looked at the ground seriously, it wasn't rain at all. It was little tiny hail. Cute! Now I know hail could be anywhere in Canada in May. Several years ago, I saw big big hail in Calgary. It was May too! Ryan was excited to see it, and he jumped up and down saying, " I want to eat it! I want to eat it!" If we were at home, I would let him put a bowl outside to see if we could catch some hail for him to eat. (I've eaten snow ice cream a few years ago with Vincent's sister in Calgary. We put fruits on the bowl of snow and ate it all up. It was fun! ) We learned some 注音符號, phonics and read some English phonics readers in the afternoon before we set out to downtown. We planned to go to Costco for more food shopping. Ryan felt excited to meet Mom in her school, so he didn't mutter about being tired or anything. We've got some sirloin, bread, mushrooms, milk and stuff there. I know my life in Vancouver looks all about food. That's because we don't have cars here. We had to buy a little and carry it back home by foot, so we need to go grocery shopping every two or three days. And also because we cook three meals everyday. Plus I love the food here, especially for the beef, salmon, yogurt, berries, bagels, bread and so on. Anyway, it was a tiring day, but I'm looking forward to a lucky day tomorrow when we can find a REALLY great place for Ryan. Sweet dreams! Michelle Photos for Week 1 *