Starting a new adventure, and a new hobby

Wow, lots of exciting things are happening in the life of Miss. Kneesh! 

It turns out I missed the application deadline for the local school board that I want to work for. I could have remained in the area, supplying at daycares all year, but realistically, I would have become homeless with that sort of job prospects. Desperate measures had to be taken. 

I found a website where a lot of First Nations schools advertise for jobs. I applied for everything in the grade K-4 range, all across Canada, including the Territories. All told, I applied for 19 positions, and received interview offers from 17 of them. I only agreed to two interviews, both in Northern Ontario, one via telephone and one via Skype. 

Within the week I had a job offer from one of the schools, complete with a detailed 12 month contract. 

Guess what… 

I accepted! 

So, four and a half short weeks from today, I will be shipping out to a small, isolated First Nations community in the remote North of Ontario (we’ll call this place Remote Town) to be their brand new Kindergarten teacher!! 

Remote Town sounds interesting. It is a secluded community, geographically cut off from civilization, and only accessible by airplane (with the exception of very exciting-sounding ice roads in the winter). The community has a population of about 700, and the school serves grades K-8 with enrolment rates of about 100. There is one grocery store, one pub, one community center, etc. There’s a nurses station, but no doctor, and a police outpost, but no full-time service. 

As I said: interesting. 

There are a million things about this upcoming experience that terrify me. But those same terrifying things are also extremely exciting, and I’m looking forward to this adventure with cautious optimism. 

One way or another, it will be quite the story to tell. 

In preparation of my move to this natural environment, I finally put out the money to buy a real camera. And by that, I mean a D-SLR. May I introduce to you, Mr. Rebel: 

 

Does anyone else find it entirely unnatural to take a picture of a camera?

If I’m perfectly honest, I was looking for a Nikon, but this Canon was a steal. I bought it off a very well known classifieds website, so the price was very favourable. 

For the past few weeks I have been experimenting with my new camera. I’ve learned a lot about using manual settings for a variety of situations. I am now looking into getting a couple additional lenses. A macro / wide angle lens and a telephoto zoom lens in particular. 

Two weeks ago I attended a beach party that ended with a spectacular fireworks display. I was very excited at the prospect of photographing fireworks, so Mr. Rebel was also in attendance. These are my favourite photos from that day: 

Last week a local community had their annual fireworks festival, so, naturally, I wanted to practice some more photography. This time I brought along a tripod, which not only made the pictures come out more crisp, but also made it easier for me to actually enjoy the show without focusing on my camera the entire time. Here are my favourite photos from that day: 

I know I’ll have so many more opportunities to practice photography in the upcoming year. I anticipate lots of wildlife, nature, and landscape shots. We’ll have to wait to see how it goes!