Whoops

Mom just sent me an email saying that the cute black jacket I was sporting in the last picture was, in fact, a jacket Carole intended to take to Turkey! When Carole's luggage was overweight, she had to take some winter clothes out, and Mom had them laid out on her dressers. However the jacket was just hanging in my closet, so I really had no idea Carole wanted it. Whoops. I think I'll get a lot more use out of it here, though! And it makes up for that time she stole my favourite summer skirts to take to India and then lost her luggage. This morning I got a call back saying I could have the room in the apartment I liked. I went over to get the papers and was slightly disheartened by the extensive application forms (Mom and Dad, expect an email from me tomorrow!) Two other downsides were that the laundry machines were coin operated and that I wouldn't be able to move in until my application was approved (they even need to run credit checks on me and my guarantor). So, seeing as I can't turn in the forms until Tuesday, I decided to go see two more apartments tomorrow. At least then I will know for sure that I have the best deal. As for the mall, it is quite impressive. It's not much to look at on the outside, but the inside is extensive and beautiful. I have never, ever been in such a crowded mall, though (with the possible exception of the Eaton's Centre on the last big shopping day before Christmas). I thoroughly enjoyed myself, lost all track of time, and only bought the things on my "necessities list." Did you know that the sales tax in Alberta is only 5%? Isn't that crazy? Plus, I found a movie theatre showing Indiana Jones and the tickets only cost $3.50- all day, every day! Here is the only picture I took of the mall (that's a sea lion show in the middle).

Back to School

Yesterday was not my first day of class, but it was my first time walking through the University of Alberta campus for orientation. Orientation itself was not very informative, it really just confirmed my suspicion that grad students are left to figure everything out for themselves (survival of the fittest, I guess). Thankfully I am a pretty resourceful person, and I should be able to get my own ID card, figure out how to pay my fees and find all the buildings on my own. The campus is very nice. Big, but not as big as I expected. Alberta is cold, colder than I had mentally prepared for. Today, the high is 12 and the low is -1. That's right, minus one in August. Yikes. I've decided to celebrate my first free day in Edmonton by taking the bus to West Edmonton mall (biggest in North America!!!) I saw one apartment yesterday that I loved, but I'm waiting to hear back from them today. I can see two more apartments tomorrow, but for today I will just enjoy myself since it's all out of my hands. The only preparation I've made is to research the bus routes that get me to IKEA, because how could I decorate my bedroom without IKEA? Here is the only picture I have of me from yesterday. The lighting and angle aren't great because I was a bit embarrassed to be taking a self-timed portrait of myself. Though I had to show you my first-day-as-a-grad-student outfit... thanks to Carole for the top and coat! By the way, I think I have the easiest major possible. Maybe it's just because I love ESL or maybe it's a fact? Talking to all these other students taking French Literature and Biophysics and Directing made TESL seem like a breeze!

In Edmonton

Hi Friends and Family,
Yes I have arrived safely in Alberta. I found my way to the hostel in the rain, and have decided to spend the rest of the day here. I was going to force myself to go out and explore, but it's just too depressing when it's cold and wet... no way to introduce yourself to a city. Being in Edmonton is quite surreal, but I knew everything would be fine when the whole stretch of highway from the airport to the city was strung with big box stores (just like Thornhill :) And the first one was IKEA: my happy place. Did you all read about Zoom? I feel very upset that they're gone, and very concerned that I had been looking at buying a flight on their website yesterday!! Very dramatic. Anyway, more to come after orientation tomorrow!

Leaving (again)

My life seems to be a chain of packing, traveling, adapting, enjoying life and then packing again! I'm not complaining, though, because I have a lot of control of how long I stay and when I go. And I am certain that Edmonton is the best next step for me (although I may change my mind when I actually experience an Edmonton winter!) I fly out tomorrow, stay at a youth hostel, and start orientation on Friday. I have the weekend off to try to find an apartment and then classes start on Tuesday. I'll have wireless there so hopefully I can do a bit more posting than I have been this summer. Speaking of this summer, I'm still recuperating from camp. The stressful memories are already fading, and it was really an amazing job with incredible students. I spent a week at my grandmothers, which is the most relaxing place for me. I spent most of my time painting one of the bedrooms and repairing an old quilt (made over 100 years ago by my great-great grandmother!)
That's all for now... off to a new adventure!

The Left-handed Governor

A couple of days ago the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia graced our camp with her presence. She is the highest-ranking official in the province! She gave a great talk to the girls, and all the pomp and ceremony was kind of fun. There was a great deal of confusion beforehand about who she was and how to pronounce her title. One of the staff thought she was the Left-handed governor, and Carole and I kept calling it Lieutenant like it's spelled (we blame our American education!) It all worked out in the end and all of the students remembered to call her "Your Honour" during Q & A time. We even managed to get a twin picture with her!

Pictures from our day off

We're coming to the end of camp! I really can't believe that we will be saying goodbye to these girls a week from today. We try not to talk about it much, or everyone starts to get upset. This last week is full of fun activities, and it's wonderful to see the students having so much fun. Today Carole wrote a murder mystery in which all of the staff dressed as characters and hid around campus. The girls had to run around asking us questions. I was a very angry, USA-hating Olympic boxer. Why? Because I had my Thai boxing shorts and Carole found a boxing teddy bear at Frenchies! Fun times. Anyway, last week Carole and I had a day off together and drove into Wolfville. The first part of the day was great. Carole finally got the Acadia alumni snapshot...
And we had a delicious, expensive lunch at her favourite restaurant.

She had lobster risotto, I had a lobster BLT! She had a gift certificate, by the way.

We were dying to see a movie, but Carole underestimated the popularity of Mama Mia on a summer's night in New Minas. Never have two people been so disappointed by a sold out movie! But, as soon as we got in the car to drive back, we got a call saying one of the girls was in hospital and was refusing treatment and needed to be taken by ambulance to Halifax and so on. Our days off always seem to end in drama. The girl had a sickle cell anemia emergency (the main symptom was pain in her elbows) and everything eventually worked out. Yesterday two other girls left camp with a chaperone to meet the girl in Halifax and fly back to the UAE. Anyway, on our ride home we stopped stressing for a minute and jumped out of the car to enjoy the sunset.

These are our "trying-to-relax" faces.

I like this twin picture from another night when we went into Digby for scallops.

And I had to put this picture on. This is me in "Arabian makeup" wearing one of the girls shaylas. They put on a UAE day and there were presentations, food & henna.

The henna wasn't very good quality, but the designs one of my students did on my hands were gorgeous!

Pictures from Camp

Yes, we are still surviving camp. Barely. This weekend it was a girl with sickle-cell anemia who had to be taken by ambulance to Halifax. That kind of put a damper on my day off with Carole in Wolfville. She'll be fine, she'd had similar episodes before, but never told us. Anyway, I've had a pretty good day today, and I'm sad that camp ends in two weeks (that's gotta be a good sign). Here are some pictures from our day at Keji National Park. Watching the girls try to canoe was pretty funny. They got the hang of it eventually.

The girls loved the campfire! We sang campfire songs and made s'mores.

Carole looking relaxed.

More pictures to come!