It's Fall!

So long since I last posted. So many exciting things coming up. So many changes drawing near.

1. I'm currently packing. It's not super fun. It's complicated. I have to pack for moving, but not pack everything because I'm still living here for a few days yet, and I have to take some of it to Alberta with me first. Fun.

2. I'm going to Alberta! This is one of those trips that has been on my "to-do" list for a number of years now.
     a) One of my older brothers moved out there 6 years ago, and I've been wanting to visit him for some time now, it just hasn't worked out. Now he's dating, and so I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with both him and his girlfriend! We haven't spent much time together over the last 6 years and so it'll be good to "reacquaint" ourselves with each other again, as ridiculous as that may sound (we're related, right?!). I'm also looking forward to getting to know this lovely lady in his life. I've met her once, for about a day, so I look forward to some "bonding" time!
     b) I have this friend. Sometimes in life you find these special kinds of people who stay in your life, no matter what. A life-long friend, no matter the distance, or time spent apart, or the little that you know each other. She's one of those. We were little-people friends back when I don't remember anything, before we moved to Ontario. We grew up as pen pals and we have seen each other approximately once every 4-5 years (give or take a couple). It's been a good 5 years since the last time, so I am definitely excited to see her again!

3. That ends October. The beginning of November I'll be moving to Windsor where I'm going to start teaching. Thankfully I don't start teaching until half-way through the month, so I have a bit of time to get settled, feel out the city a bit, meet teachers and students before teaching, and start putting together more concrete plans for the courses once I know more where they're at in the curriculum. I am looking forward to my apartment there and discovering a new city.

4. I start teaching mid-November. I'm both excited and nervous, like most people are when they start a new job. (I feel like I said something to this effect just over 2 years ago - excited and nervous to leave on a different 8-month adventure...)

So that's life these days. After a wonderfully relaxing (and yes, sometimes lazy) summer, the next couple months are going to a whirlwind of change and activity.

Also: it's fall! I love fall! This year I get to enjoy beautifully bright colours, crunchy leaves, chilly
temperatures - the whole bit! How great is that?!

Graduation ... and spiders?

Wow, 5 years culminate in 1 afternoon of speeches, laughter, tears, and goodbyes.
It's official: I've graduated! One year to the day that I flew back from Paris, I walked across the stage, accepted my hood from Richard and congratulations from President Krygsman, and graduated. It was that easy. Now I own two very expensive pieces of paper. Hooray. Leaving Redeemer, strangely enough, did not feel very strange. Maybe it's because I left a month ago and said my goodbyes then. This has been an incredible last year and I will miss my classmates (colleagues!) and the professors. However, I look forward to putting that full-time student status to the side and move on to other areas. 

On a completely different note, I have had 2 spiders crawling on my bed in the last 2 days. This is unacceptable! I won the battle yesterday, but today I am realizing again that the only thing worse than seeing a spider in your room is no longer seeing it. I saw it on my bed, and now I don't know where it has gone. Who knows where it will strike from next?! Not okay. 

Here I raise my Ebenezer.

 I finished school, that's the big news. It's been 5 years in the making, this section of it. This fall will be the first one in 19 years that I won't be going to school (that includes JK, which wasn't full-time school, but I was in school, so I'm counting it). At this point in time, I have been in school for approximately 83% of my life. And now that's done. It's weird, it's awesome, it's incomprehensible. "Hither by Thy help I've come." More on that next week.  

I was thinking the other day (dangerous, I know) - this time last year, I was still in Paris. I can't believe that was only a year ago, so much has happened this year that Paris, my life there, the people I met, and the places I visited all seem so far away. The longer I'm away, the more I miss it, the more I miss the people, and the traveling. About a month ago in church we were singing a song that I remembered we sang at 72 rue de Sèvres fairly often, and I realized that I couldn't remember the words in French. My heart sunk. I miss worshiping in French with the church family there. 

So now I'm back living at home. I am looking for a job. Fun times. I'm doing my best to enjoy the time I have right now, as I don't currently need to be running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I'm thankful for that. However, I was talking with someone the other day and they put words to a large part of my frustration: It's a lack of purpose and direction. Every other year that I've come home, I've looked for a summer job, and looked forward to school again in the fall. Right now I don't have school to look forward to, I don't have a job to look forward to (yet). It's frustrating. But like I said, I'm trying to enjoy my time living at home (not living in a basement), having a river basically in my front yard, and a beautiful backyard. 

How have I been enjoying this?

1. Reading books - I know I love books, but I don't read much during the school year, and for some reason I start putting my computer before books. Bad choice. So this week I've been reading novels, and absolutely loving it. Also, reading outside on a beautiful day is just plain awesome!

2. Photography - My parents shared some inheritance money they received after Oma died in January, and I bought myself a new camera. I have been slowly getting to know it, and we're beginning to be friends. I have a lot more to learn, but it's a start. Between the camera and some editing software, I have lots of learning to do. I thought I'd share some photos from this week.

Love lilacs so much!

Calm, foggy morning on the river.

These ships are a regular sighting here, but the fog & reflection made it extra-cool!

Loving the bleeding hearts!

So this is a new part of "this becoming" - I'm becoming increasingly interested in photography, and I look forward to continuing to explore this new hobby.