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#TDBookWeek Day Three

5/2/2015

2 Comments

 
PictureToutons - a traditional Newfoundland breakfast food.
Traditional Newfoundland and Labrador breakfast of Toutons achieved. Turns out they are basically bread dough, deep fried (or pan fried depending on your preference) and sprinkled with sugar. You eat them with molasses. Some people eat them with butter and syrup. They have the texture of an apple fritter - but without the apple and spices obviously. They are really good and I don't usually like molasses. I would highly recommend them - but maybe not for everyday eating. People here love them a lot. The dough is sold everywhere. Toutons are a big deal. 
Of course after a breakfast of fried bread I needed to do some serious walking. I wanted to find the library, the mall, and maybe the sushi place (even though it doesn't open until 5:00 pm). The sidewalks around here are a little hard to come by. Not the fault of Labrador City. They did make some. They've just had an incredibly harsh winter and there are huge icy mountains every twenty feet or so. Luckily, although the drivers go pretty fast, they do slow down when they pass you on the road. Still, it was more than a little sloppy out there. It rained last night and snowed part of the morning, but by 11:00 it was grey but not too cold. 

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Rain outside the window last night.
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The Carol Inn, where I am staying.
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Jordan's Family Restaurant, makers of excellent touton.
So out I trekked. It took me a few minutes to get my bearings, but after that I was off. I found the Labrador City youth centre, the fire hall, and the library right off the bat. 
I tried to use my "Smart" phone to navigate my way to the Labrador Mall of shopping and ended up overshooting it. But I saw some cool things along the way. There really is no downside to getting lost for a bit.
Finally I made it to the mall. There was a long line of cars going through the drive through to Tim Hortons. Inside the mall was packed - which is why I didn't take pictures. I saw some of the kids I taught yesterday. It's really the hub of the community. They have a Walmart, Canadian Tire, Sports Check, a couple of restaurants, clothing shops, jewelry stores, and a Co-op. I grabbed a sandwich, banana, and sparkling juice from the Co-op for lunch. I didn't feel like sitting down just yet. I also managed to cut my finger on the plastic sandwich container and proceeded to bleed everywhere because I left my band-aids back at the Inn. At least it wasn't a mortal wound.
Then I was off again to see what else I could find.
Funny story, I passed a playground zone which had a speed reader to let the cars know how fast they were going. If they were going over 40 km/h the sign went red. When I walked by it read my speed too. 5 km/h. I don't think I'll be getting a ticket. I was well within the law. I thanked the sign for letting me know my current speed. I wonder what Sonic clocks in at?

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I bought a sticker and a collectible spoon at Jubbers corner store. They sell everything from Touton dough, French milk, snacks, groceries, tourist stuff, fireworks, toiletries, clothing (tourist type), slushies, ice cream, and black bear licences. I'm assuming that's to shoot the black bear and not to keep one for a pet. Though it would be totally awesome if it were actually a pet licence. Can you imagine all the people in Labrador City walking around with their black bears on leashes? How rad would that be? Of course they would be walking down Viking Street.

After all that I went to see if I could make it to Sushi Lab on foot. It's a sushi restaurant opened by a guy from Toronto. It's supposed to be good. Unfortunately, after the MacDonalds, the sidewalk ends and I would have to walk on the side of a highway, over a bridge to get to the part of town it is in. That plan seemed a bit sketchy so I headed back to my room instead. 
Now, my muddy and soggy pants are washed and hanging to dry and I've reverted to pajamas for the time being. I may yet take a cab over to Sushi Lab or, I might just grab something a little closer and curl up with some anime or do some writing. I'm kind of worn out. I was walking for three hours while exploring this amazing place. It was really fun. I'm kind of sad I'm leaving tomorrow. Though I'm sure Churchill will be just as awesome!
On a total side note - Calgary Reads is hosting Reading Town and my RIO kids' writing club is a part of it, under the umbrella of the Alexandra Writers' Centre Society, of course. You can read the first story of the seven which will be tweeted out each day of the week long celebration. Just click the link here: 
 https://twitter.com/CalgaryReads/status/594569641378328576
2 Comments

#TDBookWeek Day Two

5/1/2015

1 Comment

 
PictureSadly I didn't have permission to take pictures of the kids at the high school. This my table though. We were taking bets on how quickly the books would fall over.
My first day of presentations and what a response! The kids in Labrador are just as wacky as the kids in Alberta. They are super friendly and full of amazing ideas.

The day started with me down at the Carol Inn’s restaurant looking at the menu. There was something called Toutons, which turns out to be a type of fried dough – kind of like bannock but more fluffy which you eat with syrup or molasses. I haven’t tried it yet. I figured if I was going to be teaching all day, fried bread might not be the best thing to have in my gut right off the bat. But I have tomorrow off so I’m defiantly going to give some Labrador cuisine a go!

After breakfast I was picked up and taken to Menihek high school. I did three presentations for kids in grade eight, nine, and a drama class/writing class. The stories which came out were really funny. We used the wheel of genre to randomize our genre then made characters to fit them. There was a lot of audience participation. In one story we had a Japanese drug lord who, with the help (or perhaps hindrance) of time travel, got his hands on Godzilla which he used to destroy Labrador City. Luckily our super powered hero stepped in and using a giant pizza got Godzilla on her side and saved the day. Then she went on to rebuild Labrador City into a northern New York.

After a lightning fast lunch I was off to J.R. Smallwood middle school. I had two presentations there. The kids were younger but just as fun. We learned all about story structure and made up a couple of stories including the one about Sparkle Girl who used the power of waffles to gain control of her magic wand, which had been stolen by an evil guy from Jamaica. It all worked out in the end because our Jamaican fellow learned how to fry eggs joined up with Sparkle Girl to make a sparkle waffle restaurant together. Then there was the story of the nasty hotdog vendor, who made the hero shave puppies and not return library books on time. True evil! In the end the villain turned good and the hero and the villain went into the dog wig business. I’m glad everyone had happy endings.


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The one and only - SPARKLE GIRL!!!
PictureA super enthusiastic audience!
The thing that really impressed me with all the kids was how they looked after each other. Sure, there was friendly teasing but it was easy to see that they had each other’s backs. I really liked how the more outgoing kids made sure the shy kids had a turn too. Just amazing.

Of course because I mentioned that I might bring my Red Robin action figure with me, the kids asked to see it. Some even had a picture taken with it. They were really impressed with my knowledge of teen culture too. I kept getting these looks of amazement and the statement “You know that?” Thank you Reality Is Optional kids’ writing club kids! You have made me cool. 

I think the thing that makes me laugh the most is when I read the Pokémon theme song without telling them what I’m going to read. Within two lines, kids break out in grins and laughter, some even sing along. They never suspect I’ll come out with something like that as a teaching aid.  But for all the crazy stories, theme songs, and cultural references, when I finish the kids have a clear understanding of how a story is put together and how they can write a story of their own.  

My top three highlights of today:
1)      Being told I was now a girl’s favourite person in the whole world.
2)      Meeting a really awesome youth writer.
3)      Turning the cutest little girl you ever saw into a master villain and then watching her own that role. It was the funniest thing ever.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I was also interviewed by one of Labrador City’s reporters. He was a really nice guy. Sadly I forget every name ever told to me, so I can’t tell you who he was. But he was so friendly, just like everyone else here.

I’m looking forward to my wander around Labrador City tomorrow. I’m planning on trying Toutons, tracking down the sushi restaurant, and finding the mall of shopping. Time to be a tourist. I promise to take lots of pictures!

Thank you to The Canadian Children’s Book Centre, Newfoundland and Labrador public libraries, The Canada Council of the Arts, and the schools for making this possible. I’m having so much fun and from what I hear, the kids are too.


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Red Robin makes friends with a Star Wars fan.
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Red Robin was not informed that it was Jersey day. He would have put on a Gotham Bats jersey if he had known.
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    Kim Firmston

    Writer, Teacher, Mutant. What more could you want?

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