In the 1700s, the British won the war over the colony of Canada and more and more
people of British decent, including Irish and Scottish people, settled in Canada. So, our
people starting speaking more languages to understand each other, right?
In modern Canada, every person has the right to be educated in French or English.
Catherine took English as a second language from yr 5 to 12. Leon took French as a
second language from yr 5 to 9. Some children take both French and English instruction
all through school. It’s called French Immersion.
Of course, Canada has people from all over the world living and studying here. It is not
unusual for people to speak 3 or more languages. In this area, there is a lot of Punjabi,
Chinese and Japanese spoken as well
It’s not just about language though. People bring along their favourite food recipes
when they move here. We can eat sushi, Chinese noodles, Mexican fajitas, Polish
sausage, Ukrainian perogies, to name a few. The national food is meant to be Poutine,
pronounced Poo-teen! (Lol). It’s basically chips, gravy and cheese curds. It’s a popular
snack that came from the Quebec region. Now it’s spread all over the country and even
all over the world!
August 31, 2020
Hi Cody! Catherine here. I thought I’d answer some of your questions. I wish I could show Mrs. Granger around our province so she could see some bears for herself, but as you expect, we are a little limited in our travels these days. However, I have seen bears in the wild. Leon and I have travelled a lot in past years with our camper. Each time we travelled in British Columbia, I searched for bears as they are quite common here. But we live close to the city, so the bears don’t tend to come this way. They like to hang out in the forests and eat berries and fish when they can. Spotting a bear usually has to be done at a certain time of the year, unless you are camping in the wild. One year, we went for a trip at the very north tip of British Columbia, right on the border of Alaska, USA. We were told we could see lots of bears there. They weren’t lying! One our way to our campground in Stewart, BC, we saw a few black bears, mother and cubs, crossing the road. You have to drive carefully not to hit them. The next day, we drove about 5 km to Hyder, Alaska and stopped at Salmon Creek. This is where we got onto a wooden walkway and got to watch the big grizzly bears come to feed in the salmon stream. They are huge and hungry but won’t bother anyone as long as we stay on the boardwalk and just watch. They just grab at the salmon, have a few bites and then throw the half eaten fish away. You’d think the birds (like eagles) would come feed on the carcasses, but I think not one creature wants to tangle with grizzly bears. They are known to be ferocious!
Canada has lots of native animals. The most well-know are probably the beaver (our
national symbol), the moose (like a cow body on horse legs with huge antlers) and of
course the Canada goose.
There are beavers living in a lodge just across the street from our house. They have
dammed the wetlands, causing them to grown larger. We can’t see the beaver lodge
from our house, but we know they have come close enough to chop down some of the
trees the landscapers planted when this housing project was built. Beavers can’t help
themselves. Their teeth continue to grow their whole life. They need to keep chewing or
their teeth will grow too long and prevent them from eating. But one group of animals
is very happy about the beavers creating a large wetland – that’s the Canada geese. They
are all over the place in that watery area. They honk loudly, sometimes in the middle of
the night. Come autumn (in about 4 weeks), they will start their journey south to their
winter habitat. But not all geese fly south. Some just got lazy and decided to stay north
all winter as food is still plentiful. They love eating leftover grain in the farmer’s fields!
Perhaps the most majestic of the wild birds in this area are the Bald Eagles. The Americans like to claim them as their national symbol, but we likely have as many or even more eagles in this area than they do. We like to think they eat salmon, but they are actually quite used to eating garbage. You often find them flying over the compost dump in the winter months, looking for their next meal. Did you know that they are mostly brown until they mature and develop their white head and tail feathers? We often see the parent eagle take out one of the teenage eaglets on some flight training over the fields in this area.
By the way, the moose is not native to this area, so we don’t see any this far south. We were told they arrived in BC when the railroad was expanded to the west and they simply followed the tracks that had opened the dense forests. In the East of Canada, in Newfoundland, they like to call them swamp donkeys. That’s where you’ll find them, on the side of the road, in shallow waters. Moose like to come out onto the roads at dusk. They are a real hazard to drivers in remote areas. The problem is they are so tall and perfectly positioned to fly right into the windshield of a car. The car usually doesn’t survive hitting a moose
September 2, 2020 Langley, BC
Well considering the date, I guess you are glad that spring has arrived in Australia. Did you know that autumn will soon be here in Canada, however, that won’t happen until the equinox, which is September 21st? Funny how seasons change on the first day of a month in Australia but not till the actual equinox in North America. As autumn progresses, daylight will get shorter with the sun rising later in the morning and setting earlier and earlier until the winter equinox arrives on December 21st. You can imagine that winter in Canada is rather dark and cold. Cody, you asked what winter is like in Canada. Well that is different from one part of the country to another. Where we live presently, we might get temperatures of -2 Celsius on the colder days. But temperatures can drop down to -40 Celsius or lower, if you are in a high region or live in the North. The North Pole is in Canada, after all! Daylight might be from 8:00am to 4:30pm on the shortest winter days in this area (which is in the south of Canada). It’s usually dreary here, maybe rainy, with little sun to brighten our days. For that reason, some people who live in British Columbia find it depressing in the winter. The cure for that is to either get some sun by travelling to a beach destination like Mexico or Hawaii, or to embrace winter sports! In parts of Canada, it’s much dryer and colder, so they get more sun but they have to manage the very very cold temperatures. Here in Langley, we don’t get much snow, and if we do, it usually melts from the rain, unlike in other places where the November snow will not melt till March. The biggest difference Australians notice when they live here is that they need all kinds of clothes to handle the big changes in weather. Winter coats, raincoats, spring jackets, rubber boots, winter boots, hats and gloves and thermal underwear, swimsuits and sun hats and sandals – all of these clothes will help you get through a Canadian year. It’s not surprising Canadians love their winter sports! Hockey, ice skating, curling, broomball, snowshoeing, snowmobiling and even riding bikes on winter trails are all popular sports.
Leon and I have both been skiing in the winter. Leon learned to ski when he lived in the
Canadian Rockies, in Alberta. I learned on much smaller slopes outside of Montreal, in Quebec.
I was lucky to have 2 separate weeks of snow school. Our group stayed at the ski resort where
each morning one of our teachers would come to teach their subject, like Math or French. Then
we would have all afternoon to learn how to ski with a ski instructor. I have skied on smaller
slopes in Quebec and in Northern USA, but Leon skied the big mountains! I haven’t been skiing
in at least 6 years.
Sometimes we would go on a short ski holiday, either in Quebec or Vermont, USA, when we
lived in the eastern part of Canada. Mostly, we would try to get to a beach destination for some
sun in the winter months. We’ve been to Mexico, Antigua and through most of the USA in our
campervan. Of course, we’ve travelled through much of Canada several times. That’s a very
long drive – over 4500 kms from West to East. And then you have to drive back! Canada is
beautiful and varied; seashore, mountains, prairies, thousands of lakes and then another ocean
coast at the other end. Of course, we have the North, which is one part of Canada I haven’t
travelled to yet.
Many of our holidays have taken us to beach locations but we’ve also travelled to Europe a few
times. It’s closer for us to fly there than it is to fly from Australia! Leon was born in Denmark,
so there are relatives to visit there. We’ve been to Denmark, France, Germany, Czech Republic,
Greece, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands together. Leon has explored more of Europe than
that. I’ve also been on trips to Italy, Spain, Portugal and even Morocco!
Basically, Leon and I love to travel and explore new places, so there are a great number of
countries we still would like to visit. And of course, we lived in Australia for one year and will
continue to return to see friends as often as we can.
Before I end this letter, Leon wanted me to tell you about avalanches. He was in the Royal
Canadian Artillery for many years. The Artillery has the task to control avalanches in certain
high passes in the Canadian Rockies. What they do is use their big guns (like canons) to shoot
at the snow, causing small avalanches but preventing more serious ones from coming down
over busy highways or train tracks, or worse, villages. We’ve seen the gun emplacements when
we travelled from here to Ontario, driving through the mountains. Neat eh?
Well Cody, I hope I answered all your questions. School is starting again next week in most parts of Canada. Students and teachers are a bit nervous about how that will go. Some students will be staying home and learning online with their parents to help teach them. Those who are going into the schools will have to wear masks, keep their distances and wash their hands often. I don’t know about you, but when I was young, I used to hope I could stay home and not have to go to school on some days. But this is not what I had in mind! Hang in there buddy! Flat Mrs. Granger (the one you drew) arrived in the mail this week. We celebrated by getting a few art supplies at the local office supply store. She said she’d help me learn how to draw. So far, this is what I’ve been drawing – can you figure out what it is? Leon said it looks like a lemon with wings. Lol
UPDATE - September 13
September 13, 2020
Langley, British Columbia
Hi Cody! I have so much to tell you. Catherine and Leon finally got to go on the road trip in their camper over to Vancouver Island. On Wednesday, we got on the ferry for a 90-minute sail over the Salish Sea to the town of Sidney.
Here we are on the ferry, just about to leave the mainland and Vancouver We took a walk by the waterfront and stopped for some good fish and chips! This is the yacht club in Sidney, BC
Then we drove a bit south for a nice walk along the waterfront in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, before staying with family just outside of town. It was a hot sunny day. We couldn’t have asked for better. This is what the beach looks like in Victoria, BC.
Mostly rocks and driftwood.
The next day, we drove north and then west to the Pacific coast and the surfing town of Tofino. We took a nice walk on Long Beach, well known to surfers from around the world for the best surfing in Canada. People surf here year-round as the climate is mild. It is also located in a rain forest. This is beautiful Long Beach.
It's a long stretch of sand that is not very common on the BC Pacific coast. This tidepool had many anemones in it. Can you see any of them?
The following morning, we set out for another walk on Long Beach, but the weather had grown quite cold and misty. We decided to head back to the East coast of the island where the sun was shining, about a 3-hour drive. We stopped at one beach and campground but it was full for the night, so we kept driving a bit north till we settled at campground managed by BC Parks. Catherine took me on a walk along the beach and through the trails. I've never seen a road sign like this in Australia! Elk crossing!
This is Miracle Beach. Can you see the smoke forming at the horizon? The smoke is hiding the mountains across the water on the mainland. It got very bad the next morning.
Forest floor along the trail. The moss grows on trees too.
Unfortunately, there have been massive fires south of us, in Oregon and Washington states in the USA. The smoke is so thick that it’s now covered the entire province of British Columbia. So, the trip was cut short so we could return to the comfort of their home and stay inside to avoid the smoke. I will be heading back to Australia this week. I am not sure how long it will take but I will have warm memories of Canada and a few goodies for you as souvenirs.
Dear Hamish
and Grade 1 & 2 students,
It’s Denise
and Flat Mrs. Cripps here, we are in Italy precisely in the north of Italy in
Bergamo, I’m really sorry if you hadn’t heard from us for a while but we had
been super busy but now I will update you all with all the activities that we
did!
The first thing I did with Mrs. Cripps was taking her out for dinner at sushi! Even if it’s not a typical Italian dish there are many good restaurants to eat it, do you like it?
The very
next morning Mrs. Cripps left with me for
an Italian trip that lasted for 10 days. We stopped in Florence, Naples, Pompei,
Positano, Amalfi, Ravello and Pisa, this trip was amazing, we saw many
amazing places and eat dozen of
delicious dishes, here are some pictures I took to show it to you:
Our tour in
Italy isn’t finish yet! As soon as I got home I packed again my luggage and
left with my family to go to one of the Italian’s Island : Sicily
I came here
every summer because my grandparents are Sicilian so I come to spend my summer
holiday, also here there are many
wonderful places and thousand of delicious food!
This year I
wasn’t really lucky because when I was swimming in the sea I got stung from a
jellyfish! It was really painful but fortunately it wasn’t a dangerous one! My
dad took a picture of it with the gopro, look!
In these days I’ve been busy with studying ( I’m studying Psychology at University in Bergamo) and I’m following a wild dog that lives in the streets near my grandparent’s house, she is really sweet but when she saw the collar she gets very scared! I wish she will come back home with us! Here a picture of her
Isn’t she cute? She should be white but she is a bit dirty
That’s all for now, I will tell you if Mrs. Cripps will help me to convince the dog to come home with us!
Kisses from Italy,
Ciao!
Denise & Flat Mrs Cripps
UPDATE ON SEPTEMBER 13TH FROM DENISE AND FLAT HAMISH:
Hello Students! It’s Denise and Flat Mrs. Cripps here,
I’m sad that this project it’s already finished, I had many more things that I wanted to show you but unfortunately the time has gone so fast!
I wanted to update you about the dog. We found out that the dog had a owner that feed and take care of her but even more we discover that she had some puppies!! So me and Mrs Cripps decided to adopt one!
May I introduce you all to Kira! She should be a Maremma shepherd but I think she is mixed with something else like a golden retriever, she is 3 months old and we LOVE her !!
We took her to the vet and she’s healthy. She is a baby so she ‘s always sleeping! I can’t wait she grow so I can have long walks with her.
From Flat Jessie and Barb in Toronto, Canada:
Hi Jessie,
I hope you are well. I am back at school now with Flat Jessie. She sits on my desk and looks out the window at the big clock tower at my school. My school only has boys.
Students in Ontario are all getting ready to go back to school next week (September 7th). Some students will travel on the TTC - that’s the Toronto Transit Commission. We have buses, streetcars and subways to get us around the city.
The leaves on our trees are beginning to change colour as the weather starts to get cooler. In the spring, when the weather gets warmer, our maple trees start to change. The tree sap starts to flow. At our outdoor school we collect the sap to make maple syrup. This is delicious and we put it on pancakes.
Our Canada geese are starting to migrate south for the winter. You can see them flying in a letter V across the sky. Sometimes we have geese taking a rest on our grass at school.
I hope you are well. Flat Jessie will be coming home to you soon in the mail. I hope you like the pictures.
Your Canadian Friend,
Barb Kawasoe
From Tania and Flat Hayden in Iceland:
Tania says,
