Teaching

Well, I may be temporarily crazy. I am teaching biology labs at Augustana (UofA) and kayaking at the UAPS (United Albertan Paddling Society) in addition to my job. But I love teaching!!! I hate marking!!! Not to worry though. I am very content most of the time, except that I do not see my friends as much as I would like to right now. Only 4.5 weeks of teaching left though and then spring will be upon us and I'll be ready to think about biking. =)

You may wonder why I am teaching and coaching at the same time. Well it has been 3 years since I taught at Augustana and the gap in my life resulting form not teaching was growing and I was discontent. But, I love to paddle, and I thought I would contribute back to the UAPS community so I took my level 1 certification for kayaking this winter and started applying for grants for new equipment and coach training to help cover costs and now I'm coaching too.

For those of you interested, the UA in UAPS used to stand for University of Alberta, but in the UofA spirit of profit they decided to cut us loose and form a Campus Rec club. Unfortunately they are lax in caring for their equipment and slow to attend to their financial responsibilities. But the UAPS is coming together, we're working with the new UAPC (UofA Paddling Club), and although I feel at times I am overly aggressive for example in meetings - meetings are for business, so I redirect the conversation frequently because I think people can socialize after the meeting; I mean for godsake imagine chattering on about your personal life and then complaining that the meeting is running too long, -sigh- and -shrug-, I am really excited to be part of the force driving the revival of the UAPS to a community oriented club.

WOW!! Building the UAPS is like a mountain, but I love to organize and find it is quite refreshing to be entangled in this collapsed web, realigning and linking the strands anew. I am really looking forward to this summer and becoming a better coach and working with a wonderful group of friends to make UAPS a success. We even have a new website under construction and a cool domain name http://www.paddleuaps.ca/ =)

And thus it came to be that I overloaded my schedule this new year. =) I love you all and hope to see you in the spring. Most of my free time is being spent in my shell right now, and I am quite happy there. My only fear right now is when will I have time to watch the 1995 Pride and Prejudice 6 hour BBC mini-series with Colin Firth???