Halftime

Today, I took a trip that has become quite familiar to me.

I got on the streetcar. I took it east to the nearest subway station and rode the metro going north until I ended up at a familiar stop.

This is the way that I get to my teacher's college. But seeing as I have been doing my practicum over the past two weeks, today was the first day that I've made that trip in...well...two weeks.

Two weeks isn't exactly an eternity, but I couldn't help but feel a bit of a tug when I got off the subway and entered the school. It's strange how much of a connection I have developed with not the school itself, but its contents. Since September, I have learned a lot about teaching from at least three of my professors (won't really talk about that fourth one), and while my most crucial learnings have come from my practicum itself, I have enjoyed the toolkit my courses and colleagues have given me this year. I have also developed some fantastic connections and friendships with these aforementioned colleagues, and after being away from them for two weeks, I can legitimately state that I miss each one of them.

In fact, they're the reason why I made the trek to school today. I went out for coffee with a couple of my buddies from my program, and together we shared our practicum experiences over hot drinks and baked goods. It was nice. It also made me realize that I am eagerly anticipating that moment two weeks from now when we get to re-assemble as a cohort and share our collective wisdom gained from our four weeks in a school setting. Of course, the very fact that I'll get to simply see the faces of certain people in my program once again in two weeks also makes me quite happy indeed.

And now...I plan to spend the rest of my Saturday evening watching TV and planning a lesson to introduce Buddhism to grade 11s.