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Campers don’t know what to do with their kids.

// August 25th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Blog

There’s a few things that I wanted to post about, because it seems like people are having … issues with their children. It’s not that the kids are badly behaved, it’s that the parents don’t seem to know what to do with them.

I mean, look at example number one here.

The other day (actually, it was about a week ago) we had a brother come in with his two sisters. There was one girl who was the eldest, then the brother and then a little one who could walk but was being pushed around in a stroller by the older sister (who was about six).

Before I even get into what happened, look at what’s wrong with this picture.

A six year old should not be in charge of her younger brother and sister. There was no parent to be found and the trio was ‘shopping’. 

So, they bring alllll this stuff up to the counter. I mean, at least forty dollars worth of merchandise. Which is fine. I don’t have a problem with kids shopping or buying things, but then the girl opens her purse to reveal she has a total of about fifty-seven cents. I don’t expect children (especially young ones) to really have a great grasp on how much things are worth, but they had absolutely no concept of money whatsoever. She kept asking me how much more she would need and how much she had. 

While I don’t mind doing that, there should be a parent there to help their child out. They should not have been in the store on their own and god knows where they came from! I have no idea what their site number was, but they could have very well been camping at the other end of the park. The campground is a safe place, but you never know what could happen. I’m not saying people should watch their children like hawks and give them no freedom, but really now, have some common sense.

On another note, walking your child like they are a dog is really not acceptable. I kind of understand the leash things, where they have a string on their wrist and you have one on yours, so you don’t lose your kid, but a full out harness is really not cool. Especially when you take the leash part and honestly walk them like they’re your pet. The kid had no room to step more than a foot away from her mom, which is really not cool for a little kid. 

Then the son simply asks if they could get a chocolate bar. He wasn’t whining or complaining, and the mom snaps at him. She starts screaming at the kid saying how he just ate so he can’t get anything now. O_O Okay, so maybe he was super annoying this morning at the campsite or something, but screaming at them in a store makes you look like the insane one.

Although I have to admit, on the plus side this year we haven’t had half as many lost or abandoned children as we normally do. Not that anyone ‘abandons’ their child in the sense that they totally leave them here, but last year (for example) we had a toddler out wandering around the pool on her own. 

The parents? They were back at the campsite. Like what the hell!? What if that poor little girl fell in the pool? Yeah, there was a lifeguard, but that’s not the point. You can’t leave your toddler unsupervised at the swimming pool! (Or anywhere else for that matter).

We get a lot of good parents at the campground but we get a lot of bad parents as well. Maybe not ‘bad parents’ but a large display of bad parenting skills.

Another day at the OCOM

// August 14th, 2008 // No Comments » // Blog

Monday was supposed to be my first day back at the conservatory after our two week break. I didn’t go, because I was sick (which I don’t normally do, but I was pretty bad).

Luckily, no one showed up anyways. So even if I had gone, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. I think one of my students came (because he has to come anyways, he takes guitar after piano and his sister and mum take violin) but I got kind of confused when I asked Bev about it today. So I’m not sure if he came and they said that he just wasn’t having a piano lesson that day, or if they missed the piano lesson.

It doesn’t matter.

Tonight, I was supposed to have seven.

I had four and then one that’s not normally my student.

So honestly, for the first week back that’s a pretty good turn out. And the kids who came are the ones who practice, who like piano and who have the natural ability to do it. I think most of my students like piano well enough, and I think all of them have a general ability to do it, but the four I had today are the ones that really get it fast. So it was an easy night.

A few of my kids are getting into the grade four books, which makes me excited, haha. I’m really tired of grade three, because a lot of my kids were doing it last year and I feel like it’s the one grade I hear all the time. Even in missed lessons a lot of them are grade three.

Now they’re all grade four. Which is fine, because I like the grade four songs.

Not that I didn’t like the grade three songs, but it’s nice to have something a bit new.

That’s all I really have to say about that right now. I should be asleep. It’s almost 5am.

I still have to finish my laundry.

Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

// August 8th, 2008 // 4 Comments » // Blog

Today has felt like one of the longest days ever.

It’s not that work was bad, or overly slow… in fact, it got really busy in spurts. But I just feel BLAH. Drained mostly, a little light-headed but I think that’s from lack of food today. Melinda’s having a party tonight and invited me! I want to go, but at the same time I feel all ~_~_~_~_~ and don’t really feel like being at a party. You know? One of those I want to hole up by myself for a while type of nights. :/ I feel bad, because I’ve never actually been to a kegger before, haha. And Melinda’s never hosted one before. But I’m just not up for it tonight. Which kind of makes me feel lame. My hair also feels really gross. I doubt it looks that gross, but I feel like it’s gross. Random, but true.

However, on another level I feel more grown up, haha. Recently, I made what I think is a pretty big decision regarding what I’m going to do in the future. Or at least it’s a stepping stone.

Originally I was going to go back to Japan in September. I did a bit of searching on the job front and found some that I was interested in, but nothing that really stood out. Then I realized I had to do all that extra work to get my certification saying I really did complete the requirements to be a certified ESL teacher, renew my passport and find a place that sponsors your visa.

I just started the certification process by asking for my transcript from University. I still have to go renew my passport (shouldn’t be a big deal) and I don’t want to go over to Japan with just a little amount of money.

So I decided to stay here for the autumn and head off to Japan in January. That gives me enough time to get everything done, find a decent job that I’m actually interested in doing and make some money in the meantime. I was just thinking about what I would do, when my boss told me that if I was around I could work in the office (he owns a software company) when the campground closes.

That would be pretty much awesome. I can work and earn money, and I also could keep my job at the conservatory. The one other thing that kind of held me back was leaving my students. I know I can’t stay with them forever and that I have to move on, but I really like these kids and I feel so guilty leaving them. Katey told me that all her piano teachers leave her, and she didn’t want me to leave. (By all, she means her former one, haha… but Katey is dramatic). But the point is, I really adore these kids so I’m happy to stay on for another few months and then also be able to say a proper goodbye. Instead of OKAY SUMMER’S OVER. NEW TEACHER. You know?

I think I’d like to take these extra few months to really work on my Japanese as well. I know I use it everyday for Shattered-Tranquility.net, but I’d like to become much, much better than I currently am. So maybe if I actively study, it will improve… at least a little bit.

So yes, that is what I have decided and am going to. I really want to go back to Japan and I’m looking forward to it, but I also have loose ends to tie up here and I wouldn’t feel comfortable going over only having a thousand or so dollars — just in case.

Planting, Beach Attempt II and Wii

// August 6th, 2008 // No Comments » // Blog

Kat and I have discovered that by disguising the word ‘beach’ with the word ‘mall’ we often get better weather results. Or at least, we feel like it works, haha.

Yesterday I had my second day off for the week, so I can I decided we’d give the real beach a try! Not that the one before wasn’t real, but it was pretty rocky and not very sandy. We wanted a nice sandy beach where we could actually swim in the water. (Because let’s face it, we went in briefly before but swimming in Lake Ontario is just gross).

However, before we headed out to the beach mall we planted some plants. Which yes, sounds really random because I’m not exactly the gardener type, but Kat’s a volunteer for the Friends of the One Mile Creek and they were planting plants along the creek to help it out. I tagged along and it was a lot of fun, even though some of the poor plants looked like they were on their death bed before they got into the ground. We didn’t stay the whole time, but from when we started to when we left, you could see a difference. The only downside was that I got bitten by a misquito. Not bad, for once, but one must have been stuck inside my shirt and bit me like four times in a row. TOTALLY NOT COOL.

One of the perks to planting is we got to wear super cute rubber boots, haha. I borrowed Kat’s mum’s boots and they were all pink and green and cute. I’m so easily impressed, haha.

Anyways, after planting we went back to Kat’s house and then decided to make our trek to the beach. The one thing that kind of sucks is that the beach isn’t exactly next door and it usually takes 30 ~ 45 minutes to get there. But, we made it just as a lot of people were leaving, so that was awesome. Crowded beaches are not fun.

So while this picture doesn’t show that it was actually sunny, it really was!

We stayed out there for about an hour and a half and then packed up and went. It was about 5:30 when we headed back and both of us were starving. So when we got back to Kat’s, we ate and messaged Melinda to see if she wanted to do anything which lead to us deciding to come back to my house and play Wii.

So we did. Some Rayman’s Raving Rabbids and then we all worked on one fo the CSI cases together. It’s a really cool game (CSI: Hard Evidence) but sometimes it takes forever to actually finish the case. But we prevailed and finished it, haha.

It was a good day off and I was happy I got to hang out with both Kat and Melinda. My next day off is Friday and then next week I start back at the conservatory. I missed my kids, but at the same time I don’t really feel like going back yet, haha.

I’ve also put in an application to get my transcript from my school so that I can send that to the TESOL board and get my certificate to say that I’m actually a certified ESL teacher. It’s really annoying because I majored in linguistics in the TESOL steam (but we do TEFL things too) and I have to go do all this extra crap to actually get the certificate. :/ I mean, I graduated in that so I’m qualified. I wish my school would set it up so they could easily cooperate with the TESOL board in Ontario and we could get the certificates upon completion. Doesn’t that make more sense?

I got pnwed by a six year old.

// August 5th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Blog

Today there were a few kids in the store pretty much all evening long. They were mostly playing in the arcade, but would emerge every now and then to buy candy or to get some of their money changed.

One of the boys had apparently run home and his dad gave him twelve dollars.

He returned ecstatic.

He wanted to know what he could buy, and after buying some gum, he said to me “I don’t know what else I want… maybe nerds. Noo, I don’t like nerds.”

Being a fan of the crunchy, sugary candy I replied, “I like nerds!”

To which the boy replied, “If you like nerds, then you are a nerd“.

The results from the festival

// July 28th, 2008 // No Comments » // Blog

The other day I talked about the festival that was taking place this weekend.

I wrote this in a meme, but not in my blog. On Saturday, I was supposed to be there at 8:40am because the competition starts at 9:00am. I woke up at 7:40am when my alarm went off but I forgot that I always have my clock fast. So I thought, YES! I have enough time to sleep for a little while longer.

And that’s what I did.

Until 8:30am.

When I realized it was 8:30am I freaked out, got dressed as fast as I possibly could and sped off to the hotel where the festival was taking place. Luckily it only took about five or so minutes to get there and I got in at 8:50am.

That’s pretty damn good even if I do say so myself.

I spent the morning helping out the judge and hanging out with Fiona and Rebecca (they were there to help too). I stepped out to see Chayan’s voice solos. Turned out the voice room was ridiculously far behind schedule so I had to sit through a bunch of other kid’s solos.

And some of them were bad. I mean, really. Really. Bad.

I feel bad saying that, because they’re kids and they’ve got a lot of guts to stand up there in front of a whole room of people and sing on their own. But man… a few of them were bad. I felt like I was at karaoke.

Anyways, I got to record one of Chayan’s solos. I ripped the audio from it so I could post it here! I didn’t want to post the video because I don’t think that’s appropriate. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but he’s like an 11 year old kid. So I think it would be really weird and wrong to post it on my blog, haha.

So this is Chayan singing Dragons, which he got second place for!

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After his voice solos it was time for lunch. For some reason I always look forward to lunch at the festivals. Bev (my piano teacher) always makes it and she makes sandwhiches, eggs, crackers and cheese and vegetables with dip. While we were eating I bit the inside of my lip. HARD. REALLY HARD. It still hurts. :/

Next it was more helping out in the room and then running off to see Chayan’s piano solos. He had one at 1:30pm and he was playing first. So I’m waiting there in the room for him and I don’t see him anywhere. They have all the players lined up and were ready to go and I see him in the doorway. I tell him to get his book out and grab his piano bag, haha. I was so nervous. ~_~

He played his first song (Castle on a Cloud) really well. The hardest part for him was pedaling, because he only has a keyboard at home. Therefore, he has no pedal and it’s not touch sensitive so it’s hard for him to do dynamics sometimes too. He didn’t place for that one, but he did get an 88 which is still a really good mark!

My mum came to see him, but she was a little late so she missed his solo. I showed her him singing his voice solo on my camera. She met Chayan and then her and I went to Timmies for tea, haha. I felt bad kind of ditching everyone who was working, but we honestly just sped through the drive-thru and I was back.

So I worked in the room we were taking care of until Chayan’s next solo, which was also in that room. I was so nervous, haha. I don’t know why, but I think having my own student there makes me more nervous than performing myself. I want him to do well and feel proud and it’s hard because I know what he’s capable of. Sometimes, that doesn’t always come through in one shot.

Anyways, he played his next song (Light and Blue) really well. I felt relieved afterwards and told him he did a good job as he sat down, haha. I have a video of that too (Fiona took it for me) so I ripped the sound again.

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He scored really well for that one, 94… but the person who got third got a 94.5. Can you believe that? He came fourth by POINT FIVE. I wanted to make sure he knew so that he knew how well he did and how close he was. And he did play it really well. The tempo was great (and that’s usually one of his weak spots) and he kept it for the whole song. The one thing the judge said was that his left hand was too loud for the second part. I guess that’s true, if you listen to it. But I wish she would have given him third. I think he really deserves it, but I also know how hard he works. Not that the other players didn’t deserve what they got. But you know, when it’s your own student, you obviously hope for the best.

Anyways, that was the festival! I’m so happy he went and I really hope it didn’t discourage him from going again.

Festival day

// July 26th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Blog

Tomorrow (or I guess technically today) is the music festival.

I have to be at the hotel at 8:40am and I’ll be there pretty much all day long. From there, I have to go to the campground.

Only one of my students ended up going, but this is the first time I’ll have any of my kids performing in it, so I’m really excited to see him play! He’s doing two piano solos and two voice solos. I hope he does well, because I think if he doesn’t it’ll be a blow to his confidence.

He’s really talented, but sometimes he’d rather do things his ‘own way’ instead of listening or reading the music. But hey, that’s not always a bad thing. Sometimes it’s good to have your own personal flare.

So basically, this is what happens at the festival. You have a group of kids who all play the same instrument (there’s competitions for piano, voice, guitar and drums) and who are all in the same grade and around the same age. Classes usually have at the most around ten to twelve students but some classes are a lot smaller. Each participant plays their solo, is marked by an adjudacator (all of them have a lot of experience) and then the top three scores win a trophy. Everyone gets a ribbon and a score sheet with comments.

Usually you go into two categories. So for piano, my student is doing pop (where he’s playing Castle on a Cloud) and traditional (where he’s playing Light & Blue, from the lesson book). I don’t know what he’s singing in the voice categories, but I’m going to try my hardest to go watch those.

The festival is run voluntarily by a few conservatories in the area. Many (not all) of the teachers work there for the weekend to make sure things run smoothly. The instruments (for the most part) are taken from our conservatory, so that’s even extra work. I didn’t help take the stuff over (because I was at work) and I can’t work there Sunday, but I’ll be there most of the day tomorrow helping out the judge.

It’s going to be a long day.

The festivals are always really fun, but I mean, you can only hear ‘Little Chug Boat’ or ‘Irish Wedding Dance’ so many times before you want to throw a brick at the piano.

I’m going to try to tape my student’s performance! So hopefully I can put the sound of him playing on here (not the video for obvious reasons).

So everyone reading, wish him luck! He’s awesome and it really doesn’t matter if he gets a prize or not. The point is he did it and went. He was apprehensive at going at first, but I hope it’ll be a really good experience for him. It’s always nice to have a place where you can show other people your skill, especially after working so hard for it.

But, on the plus side he’s definitely a little performer.

November 27th, 2007 – MR. SPLASHY PANTS

// July 11th, 2008 // No Comments » // Video Blog

Showcasing gifts from my students, my favourite page from issue 50 of Cure magazine, demands for you to vote for Mister Splashy Pants and three random things about me.