SOME EXTRA PHOTOS

Below is the St Mike's school emblem, a pretty impressive piece and resonates with those Australians who know what a mustang is.

On the far right is one Grade 8 student holding a crate of "hush ups", basically tennis balls which have been modified to fit the legs of the chairs so that the noise is reduced.

THE BIG MOVE

Goodbye to the old portapack



Well Spring has sprung. The snow has almost disappeared and the weather has been beautiful. I rode my bicycle to school for the first time on Tuesday and unless the weather is really bad I will ride everyday- 10 minutes at the most. Hello to the new Grade 8 classroom.

Last Friday 4th April the teachers from St Mike's made the move into their new rooms. It had been delayed for a week and when it finally happened they were very pleased and excited as they had been waiting for a long time. I have also just finished my midterm reports and after having helped Wayne with his, mine were a breeze. I am quite proud of myself as I actually copied and pasted for the first time. I felt guilty about using the same comments but then realised that the way reports are done you really do have to use the same comments for each of the 4 levels. I don't like the reporting system as it is totally impersonal. Anyway the job is done and I feel extremely relieved.

ELMIRA

Elmira- the world's largest maple syrup festival



Wayne and I have been buying camping equipment for our big trip out west. We have just about everything we need and we thought that what we save on accommodation and eating out will be quite considerable and allow us to see and do so much more. We also bought 2 bicycles from Wal Mart for $100 each and they are surprisingly sturdy and comfortable.

Last Saturday 5th April, was a beautiful Spring day so we drove up to Elmira, a village about 40 min north of Woodstock. This village was hosting "the world's largest maple syrup festival." Now how true that is I'm not exactly sure for I suspect Canada might be one of the only countries that has such a festival.Nonetheless, the festival consisted of wall-to-wall people with lots of food stalls. All roads into the village were jammed with traffic, in fact on one road they were backed up to the village of St Jacob's, about 7 kms away. Modern world in stark contrast to the world of the Menonites

Wayne and I parked the car at St Jacob's and rode our bicycles in to Elmira. We enjoyed the beautiful sunshine, beat everyone in cars and got to stop and chat with the local Menonites who lined the road selling their maple syrup.

THE EASTER BREAK

The Easter break was very welcome even though it only came 4 days after we had been back at school. Wayne and I drove up to Toronto where we visited several outdoor outlets. Bass Pro, a hunting and fishing store, was enormous and even though we didn't buy a great deal it was great just to visit.

Easter Sunday we drove to Sweaburg, a small village just outside Woodstock, to have a pancake breakfast. Jakeman's, a maple syrup farm has been operating for several generations and of course the maple syrup is delicious and so much tastier than what we are used to at home. We were also lucky enough to see members of the Forty First British Regiment, well actually a group of locals who dress in similar uniforms and use weaponry of the 18th century and reenact some of the battles of the French British war. They had been camping out in replica 18th century tents, wearing the uniforms and cooking camp oven meals since the Friday night.

They gave a display with their muskets and when the other visitors left we spent an additional 2 hours speaking to them. They are passionate about what they do and also very knowledgeable amateur historians and their History lesson on the British/French wars and the Southern Ontario Region was fascinating to say the least.