Boating In The Traditional Territory

We went out for the annual boat trip for new teachers. It was exhausting for me, even though I did absolutely nothing. I just sat on deck and chatted with all those aboard. We saw some really cool things. We saw lots of wild life such as seals, jumping fish, hump-backed whales along, eagles, bears, and wolves.



We set out 6 crab traps and caught 7 keepers. A bunch of us bet to see how many of the crab we would get to keep. My bet was the closest at 9. Sometimes it pays to be the pessimist... not that I usually am.

We left the dock at around 8 am and got back just after 5. We didn’t actually dock anywhere but we saw lots of islands. We saw many sacred places with rock paintings. They were neat to see. We were also shown the spot where a Big House use to be. That was really neat.

We were served food for the trip. As lunch rolled around, I was getting pretty hungry. We were served sandwiches for lunch. Our choices were egg salad or salmon . I do not like either. So I decided to go with my “You’re gonna eat and like seafood while you’re here” so I chose the salmon. It was alright. It was fresh salmon so it was palatable but I did feel like I was choking it down.

At the end of the trip, before dinner, we prayed to The Creator to look after us. That was neat! At the end of dinner we enjoyed a lovely cake to welcome the new teachers. It was pretty good. It had Dreamwhip frosting and blackberry filling.

Out of the new teachers, I think I am definitely the cutest. I’m not the thinnest though, but I’m not too concerned about that. I overheard some of the community members commenting that “the young new teachers” are too skinny and that we need more meat on us. I then thought about the typical body-type of people in the community. True, there are some overweight people, but the young people who are considered beautiful have a healthy looking body-type. I think I fit into that category.

I still can’t believe how beautiful this part of the world is. I’ve been around this type of scenery my whole life and it’s actually what I’m use to, but I know I am fortunate to live in such a beautiful spot. I can’t wait to get a digital camera to take pictures from my own perspective to put up here, but all the scenery picture up so far are of this area.

Some other little random thought I had on the boat trip:

I am not part of the teacher’s union. A plus of this are that I don’t have to pay union fees. A minus is that I am not protected by the union, so if I have problems with the school board or other staff, I have to rely on my own resources (either other staff or the school board, depending).

How city shocked am I going to be when I decide to leave this place? I’ve never been a huge fan of the big city, but I do enjoy the simple amenities like the mall, supermarket, and Costco. How much will my hometown change when I’m gone?

How much will all my friends change when I’m gone? Having a correspondence relationship with someone is different from a face-to-face one. With correspondence, you get the best parts of someone because they share what they want to. I’ll miss all those bitchy days I had with my friends when we were all hags and knew it but were able to exist around each other. Or those days, when you were all fine and even though the day was nothing special, it was one of those really good days that you were glad to have the friends you have. Does this make sense?