The last week has been quite interesting and it goes without saying that many people, not just myself, will remember it for as long as we can remember. But before I talk about the world stage, I’ll start with my stage.
Study week has been active since it’s beginning, with me sitting at my laptop completing unit plans, which are due shortly. They look good to me except I wanted to test them in a real classroom setting, in order to detect and correct any mistakes before handing in the final copies. I seek perfection.
I’ve started getting involved with the City of Christchurch Cadet Unit, hoping to improve the Kiwi cadet experience with a Canadian twists. Unfortunately, the army corps isn’t big enough to support it’s own band so I’ll be focusing on General Military Training (GMT). Everything will be in full swing in the New Year because I just started the application process at the end of the year. The corps has an End of The Year Parade (called Annual Parade in Canada) on the 10th, and from what I observed during the parade practices, it’s going to be quite a show! On a side note, I’m surprised that New Zealanders (Kiwis) refer to November 11th as Armistice Day whereas it’s commonly known as Remembrance Day in North America.
On the 5th of November, Kiwis celebrated Guy Fawkes Night by launching plenty of fireworks into the night sky. Guy Fawkes was a Catholic ‘terrorist’ who unsuccessfully tried to blow up British Parliament in 1605 with barrels of gunpowder, known in history as the Gunpowder Plot. NZ TV humourously debated whether the Day was to celebrate the terrorist plot or give Kiwis an excuse to fire off explosives.
History is filled with such funny oddities. Adolf Hitler started the Olympic ‘Running Of The Torch’ back in 1936 and it still continues to this day despite his crimes against humanity. Canadians celebrate the 1867 creation of Canada, not its independence in 1931. NASA spent $20 million to create a pen capable of writing in space while the Russians used a pencil. And Scottish men wear kilts (male skirts) in a country where the thistles are waist high, and no one has invented pants.
On the world stage, I was ecstatic upon hearing Barack Obama, a Democrat senator from Illinois, winning the presidential election, thus becoming America’s first Black President on January 20th, 2009. I’ll be celebrating 2 things that day, the other being my older brother’s birthday. I knew it would happen during my lifetime but I didn’t think it would happen just 138 years after the end of American slavery. If Hillary Clinton had won, she would have become America’s first female President. America could have had both if Oprah Winfrey had chosen to join the race for the White House. The next 8 years (yes 8, not 4, he’ll be re-elected) will be a historical experience for Americans as he repairs the damages brought by the previous Republican president.
New Zealand is also in the midst of a federal election and the race is pretty tight with the National and Labour Parties being the main contenders for the Beehive. The Beehive is the slang term given to the New Zealand Parliament building in Wellington – its design resembling a beehive, except that no honey is produced and the Queen resides overseas.
At the end of this coming week, my parents will be coming to visit as part of the last leg of their Down Under & Middle Earth vacation tour. Several family activities are planned, so expect quite a bit of writing & pictures in my next entry.
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