What's coming up for us?

Well we are fully up to date with the new year events back home.  First off, Congratulations Rod & Coralee on your beautiful little girl.  We will be sure to give you a ring once you three get all settled back at home and have a fews days without the phone ringing off the hook.  

The deep freeze has definitely hit The Pas this winter.  Lots of people out sledding already, makes me miss home that much more.  

Kelly and I are heading out this weekend for another paint ball match.  There should be quite a good sized group as Santa brought a few new toys that some of our club members are dying to try out.  After the battle we are all heading over to my Principal's house for a BBQ.  He also paint balls with us.  

Next week will be a short week for us as there is no school on Thursday.  This is the day that mid-term exams start for all middle/high school.  Exams go into the following week.  Students will have one 1 hr exam each of the 5 days that week in Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts and Islam.  Fortunately this means a week off for Kelly and I...well we still have to be at school and administer the exams but they are done at 9am.  Students are very nervous for these exams as they are very focused on grades over here.  Many of my students have already started studying and booking tutors for next week.  So once we finish the week of exams on January 23rd we start our "winter break".  This is a 2 week vacation for the whole school and yes we still get a spring break, that comes in March.  

For the winter break Kelly and I and another couple from Ontario are heading to Cape Town, South Africa for the two weeks.  This has always been a dream for ours to go to Africa so now is our chance.  Kelly has friends there that we are going to stay with for 4 days so they can show us  all around the city.  Over the course of the holiday we have planned some "must do's".  To begin, we will go on a tour of the Two Oceans Winery.  It is a winery up on a high hill over-looking where the Atlantic and Pacific oceans meet.  That should be a very dizzy, foggy, stumbling time.  Also we will be going on an African safari to see 4 of the "BIG FIVE" african giants.  The most exciting event of the trip is our planned tour to go cage diving with Great White Sharks.  Just off the coast of South Africa, 2 hr drive from where we are staying, is an island with the largest density of great white sharks in the world.  We are heading out with the legendary Brian McFarlane and his crew to go see these predators of the deep.  He has a custom-built hi tech catamaran that can accommodate up to 40 people. Its about $200 for the 6 hr tour with all diving gear and meals/drinks included.  We are both extremely excited for this. Kelly is more petrified than excited but I am stoked.  If it interests any of you check out the website...www.sharkcagediving.net

Well that's the scoop on our plans over the next month.  If anyone has any questions, comments, quandaries feel free to e-mail us at vipondrr65@gmail.com, we would be happy to hear from you.

I will likely make another short entry after the up coming weekend.

R