Update #11 - School

Dear friends,
Well we survived our first week of school and in the process learned many a thing. When you make a mistake while writing, you must ask for the eraser NOT the rubber and if you need to visit the little room down the hall (toilet) you ask to go to the washrooms. School is also very different as it is all in one building. As you can see from the photos it has a series of halls with rooms attached. Apart from the playground every room is within that buildiing - toilets, I mean washrooms, the library, office and even the gym. The kids eat their lunch in the gym and if it's too cold to go outside (that would be colder than - 20'c!!!) they play in the gym. Oh, and if they want to come home for lunch they can. You have indoor and outdoor shoes which you are constantly changing in and out of and coats are a must. Otherwise, school is pretty much the same. The kids are settling in and even starting to make friends, although I think it will still take awhile to fully adjust. We love the weekends and Saturday (today) is always an adventure somewhere. Today we rugged up and did the Fenland Trail which is in Banff. A fen is like a wetland area and we were suppose to see elk but Danny was in a very happy mood and kept bursting into song! He wasn't too preturbed as we had seen deer on our way to Banff (photo 3 - they're the tiny dots by the lake!) and aren't elk just like deer anyway mum?


The weather is cooling down a bit more each day and the snow is no longer a light icing on the Rockies, but more of a coating. I was sooo cold on the walk today and we haven't even reached zero degrees yet! Oh boy, oh boy!
I'll leave you with some funny quotes of the week. Otherwise, hope you are all well and thank you for your emails.
Love from your adventuring friends,
Howard, Shona, Laura, Nathan and Daniel Eban.

Quotable Quotes for the week

Nathan: We learned all about the Terry Fox Run today but I don't know what his name was. It's about a man who had cancer and ran across Canada but then he died!

Laura: It's very different in Canada mum - my friend eats Toadfood (tofu). Why would anyone like food made from toads?

Nathan: Oh look! What's that?
Mum: A cow.
Nathan: Is it a wild cow?
Mum: No, just a regular cow.
Nathan: (disappointed) Oh.