A student and I had this conversation the other day and it has been rolling around in my head since. The conversation started with a comment of his that someone he knew had plans to move to a new country every year for the next few years. This year had been his first of the series, Vancouver being in Canada, and this fellow felt that since Vancouver was so easy to acclimate to for him (Coming from China) it would be easy for the rest of the world.

From my experience and my observations of traveling around like I do Traveling to live anywhere, Whether is be a new city or new country, follows 3 normal stages. each of the stages lasts about a year, for most people, but like anything people related it changes for person to person. Keep in mind that these stages generally only apply if you had a choice in the matter of moving, if you didn’t that stage 1 is skipped

Stage 1 is the Tourist, WOW factor stage. While in this stage everything about your new place is cool. You love going around and seeing the new things, or if your an indoorsy person, you just feel like this place is nice and so cool compared to your hometown / where you just left. The new town / country offers so much more than you had hoped. There is a lot to do and experience. You focus on the positives, and the benefits of living in this new location. Just like a tourist you find the place fascinating.

Stage 2 is the “Man this sucks” stage. The tourist, wow factor has worn off, you miss where you came from. You start to fantasize how much better the last place was. You get moody, and worried about things, because you can’t find what you like or need in the new area. Thing just haven’t stacked up to what you had dreamed, you feel homesick or isolated. At this stage you focus a lot on the negatives, the problems you are facing, and the positives tend to fade from you mind.

Stage 3 is the “Get over it” stage. you no longer believe the previous place was better, maybe you remembered why you left it in the first place, maybe something happened to help you feel more welcomed in the new place. Maybe you met good friends, or found the things you were missing. for whatever reason the new location starts to feel like home. This final stage is acceptance, this is the place you when you no longer want to move away from this place, or will find it difficult to. This is when you accept the place for what it truly is, problems and all.

Now this globe trotting friend of my student has a good idea of seeing the world, but 2 factors come into play I fear. First:  Vancouver is the most Asian city outside Asia and so acclimating here is not difficult for him.  Second: He’ll never pass the wow factor and truly understand the places he’s moving to.

Having just moved back from China myself, less than a year ago I feel I am on stage 3. My wife however is starting stage 2, and the kids are still in stage 1.

Maybe it’s just this area of BC, but Vancouver is more alien to me than any place I have been. Maybe I have just been gone too long. but How did we go from this sign:

(Remember these, short, made sense, didn’t want the driver to be distracted and crash…. ahh good times.)

to This sign: (please don’t beat on the driver)

Have we really gotten that more violent since I left Canada?

I always took the second sign as a precautionary measure. All the bus drivers have been pretty cool, who would want to hurt these guys and gals that take us places we can’t go otherwise? But last night changed that for me…

I was taking the last direct bus home last night when half way through the trip someone came on, and stood at the front of the bus. The bus driver politely asked him to sit down. But the man’s Pass-card didn’t work on the new system. So he yelled at the driver. The bus driver gave him the ok to sit down anyways. the man refused. The bus driver stopped the bus at the next stop and asked the man to sit down, as it is dangerous to be standing at the front door of a moving bus. When the man continued to yell, the bus driver opened the door and asked him to leave.

The man threw his fist up in a boxing stance and refused.so we sat thee 1/2 way home as the man threatened to hit the driver and the driver calmly called transit police to come get the man. A passenger tried to reason with the man, but he didn’t want anything but to fight the driver, and wouldn’t “sitting like a chicken-$#!t”

I shake my head in shame.

I used to be very proud of my country, but living in this part of Canada makes me ashamed. The violence, the attitude, the lack of respect for each other.

3 times in the last month we have been awoken by a fire alarm close to midnight. Now the Rumor was that someone had been stuck in the elevator each time and that was their cry for help. Well we’ve had the repair man by several times, no victims of elevator-human relations….

Turns out there is a couple upstairs that whenever they get into a fight, it’s not enough for the husband / boyfriend to storm out and cool off, no he’s got to pull the fire alarm. Management has asked them to leave.

Need coffee comment back

Don’t clear your eyes. You read it correctly. P.E. (Physical Education) has a written component. at least it does in one school in Surrey. I’m really hoping this is just a one school screw up. Because really. P.E. Written. Does that make sense to anyone?

I honestly thought my student was pulling my leg last month when she told me she had failed Grade 9 P.E. because she had missed the written test. I just couldn’t wrap my head around the idiocy of it. As an educator and as a parent this seems like one of the most ridiculous things. It wasn’t until yesterday, a bright beautiful day that another student came to my class with P.E. Homework. I jokingly said “Ok, jump 30 times and  we’ll call it square.” Apparently his P.E. teacher had decided “Hey we have a gorgeous sunny day outside, clear warm weather, Let’s spend P.E. Class indoors at a desk going over avalanche safety tips. Then we’ll send the kids home with a safety flyer and a questionnaire that doesn’t relate to anything on that flyer.

P.E.’s purpose in the school curriculum is to provide students with the chance to move around, get some exercise. Help with circulation, get the blood flowing, wake up students who fall asleep during academic courses. etc. I know my students complain about too much dodge ball, but given a properly set up curriculum you can have a lot of fun with P.E.When I was teaching it in Beijing I tried to have a full curriculum of Dancing, Ultimate Frisbee, team building activities, relays, kickball (Soccer-baseball) and yes dodge ball. On top we as a school provided tennis, roller-skating, badminton, basketball and more.

So I pose the question to those who have stayed. Were you aware of the P.E. Written Component? When was it started? and if you can explain it: Why? Thoughts, ideas and comments are welcome at Facebook, Google+, or right here at WordPress. Thank you for helping unravel the mysteries of The West.

Chad Baldwin.