I also forgot to mention.. my address is this:
16 Second Street
Falher, Alberta
T0H 1M0
and, my new phone number is this:
780-837-8895
..should you want to mail and/or call me. yep.
Last weekend before we left Nova Scotia, we went on an excursion down the shouth shore of the province. Not surprisingly, I took pictures!
Friday night we stayed in Bridgewater at Mike’s parents house, and went glow bowling in Lunenburg:
Lyndon did much better than me at this..
It snowed all weekend, but that didn’t really slow us down. The next morning we went to Risser Beach..
It was pretty incredible, even in the snow.
Kayla made a snow/sand angel..
She also modeled the latest style of seaweed..
Our group is actually kind of obsessed with doing trust falls off of anything high. Here Josh falls off a post..
After that, we went to Ovens Natural Park. The weather was still miserable, and it was again kind of dangerous because not only was everything wet and slippery, a lot of the railing/walls had been taken out by Noel. However, we were fine.
The black gap in the picture is the path down into one of the caves..
We were there during high tide, when I was walking away I heard the water crashing in the cave.. it sounded like thunder.
After that we visited Mahone Bay, Lunenburg in the daylight (and a bunch of neat shops within), and the Lahave Bakery, which was cute but had nothing vegan. Above the Bakery is a neat skate shop/venue for shows..
I liked the staircase. It had a path of fish to the bathroom..
Aaand that’s it for now.. maybe one more NS blacklog-of-pictures post before I move on to the present. I don’t have internet on my laptop anymore so I don’t know what that will do to my posting abilities.. probably nothing good, though.
Hey.. I am now in Falher, Alberta. It’s.. cold. and snowy. And small, but not as small as I thought it would be. We haven’t met our new PL yet.. she is literally brand new to the program and still in training right now.
So first I am going to make a couple of Nova Scotia posts because I still have a backlog of photos from there. Haha.
We went on a crazy wilderness hike a couple weeks ago.. I wore hip waders, and we all had to wear orange vests because it was hunting season and noone wanted to be hunted. Mike, in particular, decided that he wanted to protect more than his chest and made a neon orange vest bikini:
I don’t know why they took a picture when we weren’t looking, and not when we were posing.. oh well.
Next step: Crossing the stream. I had the luxury of walking through it, others did not. Kayla took a creative approach..
From there we went to check out the beaver’s dam.. he wasn’t around.
Mike fell in.
This is Kayla, being a beaver.
A gigantic tree brought down by the hurricane..
After this, the path we took, which was not in fact a “path” at all but rather crashing through the bush.. well.. it got fairly crazy and I stopped taking lots of pictures. When it’s between hanging on to the cliff you’re trying to descend or posing for the camera.. I’m going to pick the cliff. But here’s a few in between all the crazy parts..
Fallen logs leading to the waterfall – the logs were how we got up.
Some icicles hanging over the water… and again:
Hanh and I dancing in the water, hip wader style..
Climbing up a steep hill:
Cliff with a cave underneath, that we climbed (though not straight up the face).. imagine doing this in hip waders, though. Not easy.
Mossstache (lame I know.. but still funny):
From there we went through a bog.. I got stuck in the mud for a while, but extracted myself eventually. After 3 long hours, we made it back to the house and I fed the chickens, hehe.
Yep. That’s all for now.
Mmm stuff from last weekend.. our excursion to Cape Breton.
We spent the first night in Chéticamp, after making a stop at the Inverness katimavik house (which is the tiniest house imaginable, at least if you`re planning on cramming 12 people in). In contrast, the Chéticamp house is gigantic.. and we had plenty of room on the couches & floor. They are right on the beach, so Hanh and I took a walk first thing in the morning..
Imagine having that as your backyard!
Hanh eating dry cereal for breakfast (we forgot the milk..)
First thing in the morning, we set off for the Cabot Trail. It was absolutely beautiful, but the trail itself is pretty crazy. For several portions you have a rock face on one side of you.. and a steep cliff down to the ocean on the other side. Mostly it looked like this:
I got car sick, however, because at other times it look like somebody took the path of a swerving vehicle and.. made it into a narrow road..
We made a LOT of stops along the way, and did a bit of exploring of our own..
This is where we stopped to eat lunch.. there`s another big waterfall off to the left but you can`t really see it here.
A few people enjoying the view..
What I really loved was all those really round rocks. You could hear them rolling in and out with the waves.. it was a really unique sound.
This was the biggest waterfall I`ve ever seen, further up the trail.. for scale, Marc-André is on the right hand side in the middle of the picture.. and it goes so high that you could hardly see the couple people that climbed to the top when we were there (they are impossible to spot in this picture)
We took a tiny ferry back.. I`ve never been on a ferry before.
From here we went to Sydney, to check out the tar ponds.. which happened to be closed to the public. You can look at them through a fence, and that`s about it.. the untreated ones are not safe to be near and the treated ones were not open yet. We ate dinner, went to Marion Bridge for the night, and met yet another Katimavik group. They all work at the Two Rivers Wildlife Park so we decided to check it out the next morning.
While sheep are not exactly wildlife (technically they were part of the petting zoo), I love them. and scratching their wooly heads made me giggle nonstop. These were my buddies, begging for more headrubs:
A less cuddly lynx:
Ok, sorry for my complete absence. Life has been really really really busy. This past weekend we went on a trip to cape breton.. and kayla and I were house managers so we spent literally all of our time cleaning or making food. The long weekend before that was our one weekend off, and I spent it in Halifax. Before that.. still billeting. Which was kind of like time off for me too, actually.
Here are some pics from a hike at cape split, which did not go exactly according to plan.
This was me at the beginning.. we were still optimistic at this point..
There were supposed to be two trails – one inland and one along the edge of the cliffs. We only saw one and started following it.. there was a lot of mud and a lot of fallen trees, mostly thanks to the hurricane from the weekend before.
After walking for about half an hour, the trail disappeared completely. We kept wandering through the woods, trying to find the path, but it never happened.. the hurricane totally destroyed it. We ran into several other people in the same situation as us, including people who had done this trail before, and said this was not at all what it was like (we had started to wonder if it was just us!)
We kept going until it we had to turn around to get back before dark. Made it to a point where we could see what we assumed to be our destination:
.. but we would not have been able to make it there and then back through the woods while still daylight. Oh well.
Possibly the sketchiest looking bridge I have ever crossed:
The ground was a lot wetter than we expected (some of the trail had actually turned into a stream) and as a final attempt to keep my feet dry, I put bags in my shoes. But since I have big holes in the sides of the shoes, this is what happened:
The portion sticking out the side was a lot bigger and muddier by the time it was over. Quite comical.
Anyway, even though the hike was not what we had in mind at all, it was still nice to walk around in fresh air for 4 hours. Even if 20 minutes of that was through a patch of thorns. Ok, maybe not that part.. still, there were some nice views. I wouldn`t recommend it to anyone else at this point, however..
I started billeting on friday.. it’s been really nice so far. I’m with a teacher from the elementary school. Her & her husband (who will be away for the week) live just outside of Truro. So far I’ve just been relaxing a bit.. it’s nice to not have every minute planned out. I’m feeling fairly spoiled. I have my own bedroom, my own bathroom, a dishwasher.. and a housekeeper so I don’t even have to do any major cleaning. incredible.
A picture of my room:
Their dog, bam bam, is in love with me. He sits outside my bedroom door and whines in the morning. He also thinks this bed is his, so maybe that has something to do with it..
And this would be him licking my face.
Charming, I know.
Tomorrow I will have been here for 50 days. Hard to believe.. time is really flying by.
Oh, and I have a million and one pictures. well.. a thousand anyway.
Évelyne looking out over the tidal bore..
We went on a hike in the area. It was nice and windy (40-60 km/hour gusts).
Kallie is sitting on what looks like a big rock, but is actually dirt. compressed into a big mound like that. It was pretty neat but a lot of it was disintegrating in the wind…
Hanh trying to balance on a log, which was hard when you’re being blown over.
Lyndon climbing an electrical tower, whether or not he should be..
Josh doing the same on the other side..
Hermaphrodite cow crossing, unless all cows out here have both horns and udders..
And now.. from halifax. We ate at point pleasant park just after the sun had set. I took this at the edge of the dockyards which are right beside the park..
I find them really fascinating for some reason. They’re HUGE. To give an idea, if you look at the lift in the middle of the picture, it’s moving a boxcar. The boxcar is the tiny rectangle, hanging close-ish to the ground, between the vertical posts. That’s an awful description, I know. I need a zoom lens. Anyway, it’s big, and I like watching them move.
Train tracks and the other side of the dockyard from a far far distance.. on our way back from the park.
And I just liked the colour.
As for real news.. I start billeting on friday, for two weeks. I’m going to be with a younger couple, the woman is a teacher at the elementary school here. I haven’t met them, don’t even know their names, but I hear they’re really nice and I’m excited. And that’s all I know right now. Yep.
Been a busy, busy week.. and I’m still fighting a cold on top of it. Yesterday we helped out at the corn maze, trying to scare the crap out of people.. we were fairly successful, too. The day before that we were in Halifax for the opening katimavik’s new regional office.. and the Halifax Pop Explosion music festival was goin’ on, so I went to see Melissa McClelland, which was awesome. I’ve seen her live once before and her recorded material just doesn’t compare.
I have tons of pictures I mean to post (big surprise) but here are some from Mike’s birthday.. he left us alone for a night and we took the liberty of “re-decorating” his room.
That’s Josh’s head poking out the back there.. were it not for the balloons, this would be a picture of mike’s bed and desk.
We blew these all up without the use of a pump or anything, if you were wondering. Only lungs.
Once mike’s room was emptied, this is what our first floor looked like. By the end of the night, the guys had popped all of them.. gotta admit, I’m a bit disappointed by that. Oh well, it was fun.
We went to Peggy’s cove yesterday.. it was beautiful.
On the car ride there:
The leaves were really beautiful.. the tinted glass kind of screwed up any pictures I tried to take of them, though.
I just thought this was cute.. haha.
Lyndon on a rock as a big wave came in..
I loved watching the water run off the rocks as the wave returned to the ocean..
That is Josh on the rock..
Notice how they’re all wet? The waves were hitting us even this high above the water. (we almost lost phil at one point..)
There were also lots of seals around. They came a lot closer than this, but my camera batteries died halfway through the day, so this is as good as it gets..
Lots of pictures of the ocean. This was my first time there, after all..
(and the lighthouse.)
Me on the giant, smooth rocks..
our group trying to jump at the same time, haha.
The harbour:
Peggy’s cove has a population of only 40, and a law prohibiting new developments or more people moving there. This is pretty much the whole town.
mmmboats.
The only colour on this property, hehe.
Freedom ‘55, a now-decrepit boat and a pile of rusted anchors in the background.
Anyway that’s.. a lot of pictures, but I took about 200, soo.. this could have been a lot longer. heh.
It was an amazing day though. I am seriously in love with the ocean.. most of the day I just lay on a big rock and watched the water come and go. The sun came out (after my camera batteries were dead, of course) and it was the perfect temperature. My clothes tasted like salt from being sprayed all day.. (yes I licked my shirt.)
good times.
I have about a million pictures and feel like I should share them. so if this has no substance,sorry. haha.
All at Victoria Park.. me & an example of some neat tree roots (of which there are many):
Évelyne with her feet in the water at the base of the falls.
At the top of the hill, after climbing about a thousand steps, haha..
Kayla and autumn leaves:
gratuitous waterfall shots:
I slipped on a rock and fell in, too, up to my waist. my camera was barely salvaged in time .. it got a bit wet but is functioning nonetheless. this is a picture of me still in the water..
I was at the falls with two people from Canada World Youth, who can be (sort of) seen here..
and then.. about three quarters of the way up the right side of that photo is where I was sitting when I took this of myself, please excuse the dumb face, haha.. it is a long drop down.
Here is Lyndon sitting in the same place but a bit farther from the edge..
and..yep.. that’s all for now. I love this park. in case you couldn’t tell 
just some bits from thanksgiving..
The house managers for the week decided to have a big brunch in the morning, complete with a communal punch bowl.
Mike decided this was not good enough for him, and put straws together until he didn’t have to lean over from his seat.
All 3 katimavik houses in our cluster got together here in Truro, and we slept in a local church that graciously donated us use of their building for free. What does thanksgiving dinner for 37 people look like?
Mike and Josh put on a theatrical performance of Backstreet Boys songs..
..This happens much more often than I’d care to recall, actually, we just don’t usually have a stage handy.
Mike (from the Halifax group) and his tri-holiday (??) pumpkin..
Jill going for a wheelchair ride, courtesy of Christophe..
The long-awaited thanksgiving dinner.. I made a vegan roast, because 1/4 of the people here were vegetarian or vegan. mmm it was so good.
We got into an accident at the park the next day.. noone was hurt, excluding Truro’s rear view mirror..
…..and the back of the Hali van. Note the lack of mirror. Hm.
Oh well. It’s thanksgiving.. I’m thankful noone is hurt!
This week has sped by.. I can’t believe it’s thursday already. wow.
Here are some pictures from my vegan workshop last week. They’re kind of terrible but.. oh well. I talked for a while, answered questions, provided some handouts.. nothing photo worthy. Then we made cupcakes (what else??) and Lyndon & Évelyne made cookies, now that they knew how to use egg replacers. yay!
Kallie, Hanh and Marc-André at work..
Mike making strawberry sauce, and a weird face:
Wow, another terrifying expression.. what the heck did I do here.
Cupcake batter and josh’s black eye.
Mike, Jill and Ashley assembling sweet cuppin’ cakes..
Is the cupcake big, or is Phil’s head small?
anyway.. they were good. that’s all I’ve got.
To sum it up..
Monday – first day of work (9-5). Put together a workshop for the next day in the evening.
Tuesday – no CMHA in the morning, so I went to the food bank for work. Didn’t actually get any work done, though. The woman in charge just talked all morning, sometimes about food bank operations, sometimes not. Did my vegan workshop in the evening with our group.
Wednesday – Work. Communications workshop in the evening.
Thursday – Work. Personality Dimensions workshop at CareerWorksNova in the evening. Wrote a proposal for 72 hours off over the November long weekend instead of 48 (it was approved, yay).
Friday – Work. Took the afternoon off, because I went back to the CMHA in the evening – they were having a social and there was an opening at their art gallery.
Today.. went to victoria park for the purpose of taking pictures early this morning. Had a house meeting, a 1:1 meeting with Mike, and cleaned the house.
I have tonight off and hope to catch up on some letters/pictures/posts. whew. The good news it, because we’ve done so many workshops, we’ve covered almost everything that has to be done before we can plan “excursions” (aka trips outside 85 kms of Truro/weekend-long trips)
Now.. more pictures. heh.
A while ago we went to the tidal bore here in Truro. It was.. well.. boring. I think we had more fun waiting around.
That big section of land in the middle disappears when the tide comes in. Slowly.
The clouds were nice though!
That’s Marc-André checking it out.
Phil and Marc-André made this at our breadmaking workshop. It’s Mike’s head..
We need that bungee cord to shut our oven door. Lovely, no?
A striking resemblance.
I also forgot to mention.. if anyone is inclined to send me snail mail, I would loove it. My address is:
52 queen st
Truro, NS
B2N 2N1
..likewise I can send postcards to anyone interested. If I’ve already promised you one, it’s coming.. the post office here is only open when I am at work and I just haven’t had a chance to get there yet. For anyone else, email me your address.
On a side note, this is what I did to my bed last night:
I like it Need some more decoration though. Which is why you should mail me pictures!!
Most of you probably know I’m working at the Canadian Mental Health Association. Even though the interview for this job made it seem fairly terrible and I no longer wanted it, it’s going well. The CMHA has something called the “Friendship Club”, which is something like a drop-in centre for members. Members can be any persons dealing with mental illness. The club is run entirely by members, with help from staff. This includes making dinner (put on 4 times a week), running the canteen, doing the clerical work (answering the phone/doing the newsletter/etc), doing “business” (recording receipts, counting money, etc), maintaining the club (cleaning/repairs), and doing anything else that needs to be done.
My job is to talk to people and encourage them to do some of these things. I can help anyone do any of these tasks, just not do them by myself. Some people are more capable than others. Many of them have trouble with what would seem like a really basic task to you & I. It’s not something a lot of people might realize..
I am finding it both rewarding and difficult, honestly. I spend a lot of the day just talking with members. Trying to hold up a conversation is not a natural strength of mine, certainly not if the other person isn’t talkative. I’m way out of my comfort zone, which was my goal. It’s going well, though. I’ve already formed bonds with some of the members. (they all seem to think I’m russian, though.. go figure.)
