Or for those of you without the fantastic command of 1980s O'level French that I still retain (...ahem) 'The more that things change, the more they stay the same'.
Why that for a title, you might be wondering? Well, I am happily ensconsed in the offices of the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative on my first day here. It is Monday here (...but feeling distinctly like Tuesday already.....) and after the usual battle to get signed on to the wireless network as a visitor, I have just been signed up to 'CWSEI Basecamp', (built from www.basecamphq.com) a mailing list / discussion group about all things SEI.
It's a treasure trove of info, discussions and resources. Despite it being the middle of July, there's no less than 4 events this week (one of them being my talk tomorrow). Goodness knows how busy it must get during semester time. I am off to do some homework for the reading group meeting this coming Friday :-)
Based on the few conversations I have had thus far, it does seem like things over here, in the education sphere are much the same as we face over in the UK. A recent poster prepared by the folk here has the following under its 'Results so far" section; "Significant minority of faculty resistant to change (expected)". Sounds all too familiar, doesn't it? Also I have learned today that a current challenge being tackled here is to try and address the Hons level courses, much of the previous innovation having started off in early years teaching. Familiar, again then....
Onto other matters (or as they say in the news bulletins over here: 'sports and weather'). We are now settled in the flat, have done a bit of exploring and met some of the natives. One of them is of the feline variety ("Elvis") and bears a stunning similarity to his namesake in the late 70s (ie incredibly fat). I shall post a photo later to prove it.....
For now though, the attached photo is the view from the flat. We have acquired bikes now so are fully mobile; this is the view looking north towards the downtown area, complete with picture-postcard mountains.
Having told Susanne that the grid system on to which Vancouver's roads are laid out mean that it is "impossible to get lost", my natural navigation skills have already shone through, and resulted in us getting a little bit lost already. Twice already, in fact; slight matter of confusing north and south. Plus ca change, once again.....
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