It's been a week and a half since The Big Interview, and I feel removed enough from it now to be able to talk/post about it without crushing waves of anxiety rolling over me. I was pretty good about not getting too nervous leading up to the interview - I tried not to think about it too much on Friday and felt pretty calm and in control on Saturday during the interview itself, but now that all had been said and done, is when the real nerves have kicked in. I hate that I have absolutely no control over the application any more, all I can do is wait wait wait until May 15th, when I will hopefully get an email with AMAZING news, or even just 'not bad' news. Or no email at all, meaning bad news. But there is nothing that I could say or do between now and then that will speed up the process, or showcase me and make me seem like a wonderful, obvious choice.
Mark's parents kicked in with a couple things to help me through this time: a bottle of wine (helped the night of the interview!) and "Bloodletting and Other Miraculous Cures", a book that I have wanted to read for at least a year. I just finished it yesterday, and it was truly the perfect book for me to read at this point in my life. I'm unable to think about much other than medicine at the moment (unless I'm distracting myself with music or Mario), and the novel captured both my obsession with getting in as well as the feeling of having done (for this point in time) everything that I can and realizing that some things are out of my control, and life is just like that. Having read the book, I feel like I can move on a bit from thinking and worrying about my results, and just be happy while I wait. Hopefully, I'll get good news - if not, I'll hope for another year like this last one - it's been awesome.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
A Short Message from Annie
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Love and kisses,
Annie
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Love and kisses,
Annie
Monday, March 17, 2008
Looking forward to a break.
Last week, I had started to write a post about how I was looking forward to taking a break from 60 hour workweeks. Then, as it frequently happens these days, I got busy and never finished the post. I'm still looking forward to taking a break, but now I have no idea when that might happen. I've managed to find a new job within the same organization that I've been working for, and this time it will be an actual honest-to-goodness contract, meaning that I won't have 30% of my paycheque lost to a temp agency. That's good news! But... it does mean that I'll be phased into the new job starting this week, this crazy, crazy week. On top of it all, I caught some sort of something and feel pretty miserable at the moment. I'm hoping that it won't get worse, because I absolutely can't take time off this week.
Work is going to start to get a lot better though, and not only because of content. Mark and I took advantage of the beautiful weather (and my day off!) on Saturday to wander around the neighborhood. We wandered right over to Kensington Market, where we stopped in at Bike Pirates and found us some pretty new wheels. Mine is a gorgeous Ross 3-speed (from the 60s? I think so!), and even though I'd decided to get all mechanical this year, I bought it even though it is in great operating condition. I'm looking forward to learning how to repair/tune it up myself, and I also might put some sort of clear coat ont he frame to protect it from further rusting. Once the weather gets better, and my March Metropass runs out, I'm going to start biking to/from work, hopefully giving myself a healthy dose of activity and 'fresh' air a couple times a day. Also, I can join bike posses now.
We also walked across Queen West during our wanders, and since I've finally saved enough money, we booked our wedding band workshop!! I'm so excited - this should be a lot of fun, and we're hopefully going to end up with beautiful, original rings. I can't wait for our workshop day - it should be a lot of fun and will be something that we'll remember for a long time. Fun story: When we were shopping for an engagement ring and mentioned to a jeweller that we'd be making our own wedding bands at a jewllery workshop, he guffawed at us and said, in the snootiest voice imaginable, that at his shop, we could "actually get something that looks good." We didn't buy from him. (I'm not sure if I updated my ring thoughts here since my post about being 100% against the ring - well, I guess I am a hypocrite. I got a ring anyways, and it is lovely and not a typical engagement ring, and we did not spend the equivalent of a down payment for a house)
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Random Thoughts for a Thursday
Wow! There is less than one month to go until The Big Interview. I am trying to brainstorm, come up with talking points that showcase how Awesome I Am and how I Will Be An Excellent Choice. I am feeling fairly confident - let's hope that I can hold onto that feeling! My current day job has a ton of downtime, and while that can make it boring and monotonous at times, I've been trying to use it to research areas of professional interest and to make myself a smarter cookie (I just did a google image search to see if I could find a photo of cookies spelling out a math equation or something along those lines, and there WEREN'T ANY! This seems like an untapped market - if The Big Interview doesn't work out, maybe this can be my business).
I skipped Deerhoof/No Age last night. I'm pretty sad about it, because I love both of those bands... but I have been so tired this week that the last thing I could imagine was staying out till two am on a worknight. I justified it to myself by deciding that instead of going out and dancing all night, I'd go to the gym or do my new yoga dvd (yes, you can laugh at me for this one). Well, I didn't do either. I stayed home and flipped between Futurama and Iron Chef: America, and went to bed at 10. I think I made the right decision, despite Mark's tsk-tsk'ing this morning. My body and mind are happy and loving me today for resting both of them last night. I got so much sleep!
One final, very important note: Thank you so much to all of the people who congratulated me on my last post, and who helped out with the thing that led to the thing in the post (haha, I am being SO VAGUE!). You guys are awesome and make me feel good about myself and my friends and my life, and I wish that more kudos had been given to everyone who helped me get to Ghana, because there is no way I could have done it on my own.
I can't WAIT until I get a new computer so that I can start posting photos and music again. This blog has been so boring lately.
I skipped Deerhoof/No Age last night. I'm pretty sad about it, because I love both of those bands... but I have been so tired this week that the last thing I could imagine was staying out till two am on a worknight. I justified it to myself by deciding that instead of going out and dancing all night, I'd go to the gym or do my new yoga dvd (yes, you can laugh at me for this one). Well, I didn't do either. I stayed home and flipped between Futurama and Iron Chef: America, and went to bed at 10. I think I made the right decision, despite Mark's tsk-tsk'ing this morning. My body and mind are happy and loving me today for resting both of them last night. I got so much sleep!
One final, very important note: Thank you so much to all of the people who congratulated me on my last post, and who helped out with the thing that led to the thing in the post (haha, I am being SO VAGUE!). You guys are awesome and make me feel good about myself and my friends and my life, and I wish that more kudos had been given to everyone who helped me get to Ghana, because there is no way I could have done it on my own.
I can't WAIT until I get a new computer so that I can start posting photos and music again. This blog has been so boring lately.
Monday, March 03, 2008
Not sick, but definitely tired.
Daaamn, I need some r&r. The sleepiness is worth it though, because I have made many dollarz, enabling me to pay many billz. Also, I have hung out with, in only one week: Paula, Rafa, Sharon, Talon, John, Jenny, Ryan, Maggie, and BOTH sets of parents! And I worked 60 hours (dollarz!).
In other yay!-worthy news, Mark and I may have found our reception site. YAY!
Some people think I should link to this.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
The last few weeks have been absolutely amazing - I was going to wait until I uploaded some photos before I posted here, but since the last of our computers seems to have internally combusted (no, not really, but it might as well have), I guess you'll just have to imagine the images. I'll give prompts when you're supposed to imagine!
Starting with the boring: I've fixed my boots problem by only wearing office shoes, and leaving the boots behind. Yes, this has caused an increase in "# days shoes get snowy," but has also resulted in a %100 reduction in "# days Jen looks like an idiot clumping around in winter boots indoors."
(Image# 1: Black pointy toe shoes ON MY FEET UNDER MY DESK. Note the startling lack of similarity to clunky salt-stained winter boots!)
Moving on to the awesome!
An amazing meat-filled week (I'm officially designating March as 'Meatless March' to make up for it) was had with our favourite Austrians ever. We braved frigid temperatures, snow storms, and beautiful sunny days to have some of the best winter fun Toronto has to offer. I finally went to Phil's BBQ, and have some of the best bbq that I've ever had. It was a hit with Chris and Vera too, who pronounced it the best bbq ever.
Skating at Nathan Phillips Square was great, except for my size-too-small skates (how did that happen??). Correction - it was great AFTER I had them sharpened - my two laps before I had them sharpened led to 3 separate moments of Jen spawled on ice. I decided I'd had enough after about 20 minutes, and went back to my office to grab some things that we'd left there while C, V, and Mark finished up on the ice. On my way back, both arms loaded down with books and skates, I took atumble into a slush puddle.
IMAGE: Me, face down in slush, business types diverging around me while I brush off the dirty wet ice and try not to cry because I am very very embarrassed and my pinky finger is sprained. Poor me.
Our last night in Toronto with Chris and Vera was greta - they cooked us an amazing pasta (the sauce had nearly an entire bottle of red wine!) and I made us some chocolate volcano cakes before we headed out to my new favourite bar ever, the Crooked Star, for some of their awesome Caesars (they have FIVE different kinds! All blazingly spicy!) and a round of Oh Hell.
Thursday morning was very sad - V&C had cleared out before we woke up, and their absence was definitely felt. Toronto decided to cheer me up though - from the subway to work I was surrounded by little pink hearts spraypainted in the snow! (IMAGE: little pink hearts! In snow!). Our Valentine's day was nice - as usual we didn't really 'celebrate'- just cooked ourselves a nice dinner complete with wine and Cinema Paradiso.
On Friday, I left for Montreal with my two favourite Toronto M's (Mark and Maggie) to see my favourite Montreal M! Over the course of our three day weekend, we drank many (, many, many) bottles of red wine, saw some art (damn lack of student card!), cooked a lot of yummy food, went out for a lot more yummy food, and had front row seats for a hilarious taping of CBC's "The Debaters." We met up with Vera and Chris again for Poutine and smoked meat, finally saying goodbye and immediately starting to wish we were planning another trip to Austria. We also made the most of our one toboggan on top of Montreal:
(IMAGE: One bright yellow inflatable toboggan, a maggie lying on top of it, with a Megan and a Jen sitting on the Maggie. Five seconds later: A bright yellow inflatable toboggan, a Maggie lying on top of it, with a a Jen sitting on the Maggie, and a Megan sprawled 10m back. Ten seconds later: One bright yellow inflatable toboggan, with a Maggie sprawled beside it, a Jen sprawled 5m back, and a snowy Megan walking toward. You must put big smiles on all involved, and laughing onlookers in your image.)
GOOD TIMES!
I am currently in the midst of a Paula visit, so there will be more updates soon!
Starting with the boring: I've fixed my boots problem by only wearing office shoes, and leaving the boots behind. Yes, this has caused an increase in "# days shoes get snowy," but has also resulted in a %100 reduction in "# days Jen looks like an idiot clumping around in winter boots indoors."
(Image# 1: Black pointy toe shoes ON MY FEET UNDER MY DESK. Note the startling lack of similarity to clunky salt-stained winter boots!)
Moving on to the awesome!
An amazing meat-filled week (I'm officially designating March as 'Meatless March' to make up for it) was had with our favourite Austrians ever. We braved frigid temperatures, snow storms, and beautiful sunny days to have some of the best winter fun Toronto has to offer. I finally went to Phil's BBQ, and have some of the best bbq that I've ever had. It was a hit with Chris and Vera too, who pronounced it the best bbq ever.
Skating at Nathan Phillips Square was great, except for my size-too-small skates (how did that happen??). Correction - it was great AFTER I had them sharpened - my two laps before I had them sharpened led to 3 separate moments of Jen spawled on ice. I decided I'd had enough after about 20 minutes, and went back to my office to grab some things that we'd left there while C, V, and Mark finished up on the ice. On my way back, both arms loaded down with books and skates, I took atumble into a slush puddle.
IMAGE: Me, face down in slush, business types diverging around me while I brush off the dirty wet ice and try not to cry because I am very very embarrassed and my pinky finger is sprained. Poor me.
Our last night in Toronto with Chris and Vera was greta - they cooked us an amazing pasta (the sauce had nearly an entire bottle of red wine!) and I made us some chocolate volcano cakes before we headed out to my new favourite bar ever, the Crooked Star, for some of their awesome Caesars (they have FIVE different kinds! All blazingly spicy!) and a round of Oh Hell.
Thursday morning was very sad - V&C had cleared out before we woke up, and their absence was definitely felt. Toronto decided to cheer me up though - from the subway to work I was surrounded by little pink hearts spraypainted in the snow! (IMAGE: little pink hearts! In snow!). Our Valentine's day was nice - as usual we didn't really 'celebrate'- just cooked ourselves a nice dinner complete with wine and Cinema Paradiso.
On Friday, I left for Montreal with my two favourite Toronto M's (Mark and Maggie) to see my favourite Montreal M! Over the course of our three day weekend, we drank many (, many, many) bottles of red wine, saw some art (damn lack of student card!), cooked a lot of yummy food, went out for a lot more yummy food, and had front row seats for a hilarious taping of CBC's "The Debaters." We met up with Vera and Chris again for Poutine and smoked meat, finally saying goodbye and immediately starting to wish we were planning another trip to Austria. We also made the most of our one toboggan on top of Montreal:
(IMAGE: One bright yellow inflatable toboggan, a maggie lying on top of it, with a Megan and a Jen sitting on the Maggie. Five seconds later: A bright yellow inflatable toboggan, a Maggie lying on top of it, with a a Jen sitting on the Maggie, and a Megan sprawled 10m back. Ten seconds later: One bright yellow inflatable toboggan, with a Maggie sprawled beside it, a Jen sprawled 5m back, and a snowy Megan walking toward. You must put big smiles on all involved, and laughing onlookers in your image.)
GOOD TIMES!
I am currently in the midst of a Paula visit, so there will be more updates soon!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Forgetfulness
I would like to fix whatever fault in brain is causing me to forget to bring shoes to work with me. Stomping around in my winter boots all day for the second day in a row SUCKS. Mark was helpful on the streetcar this morning, pointing out that I HAD remembered to bring my skates and could wear those instead.
PS - Looking forward to skating at Nathan Phillips Square this afternoon! If anyone is in the area, you should come! I'll be there with my amazing Austrians around 3:30-4ish, staying until we are in desperate need of hot chocolate.
PS - Looking forward to skating at Nathan Phillips Square this afternoon! If anyone is in the area, you should come! I'll be there with my amazing Austrians around 3:30-4ish, staying until we are in desperate need of hot chocolate.
Friday, February 01, 2008
BLOGS DON'T UPDATE THEMSELVES MISSY
(side note - I've forgotten to bring my camera along for about a month, so there are no lovely pics to illustrate the fun stuff that I did manage to do in January)
Title credited to my writing coach, the slavedriver Ms. Megan F. I just noticed that I had almost posted a 'new' thing back at the beginning of January, but it never got past the draft stage. I do have very legitimate reasons for NOT posting though - at the moment I am working two jobs and I just calculated that in January, I worked an average of nearly 60 hours per week. Wowsa. I'm liking it though, and not feeling burnt-out. I've decided that the non-burnout is due largely to the fact that my two jobs are polar opposites of each other. My theory is that the hours worked at the one cancel out hours worked at the other - so if I work 20 at one, and 40 at the other in a given week, it's like I've only worked 20 hours. Wow, 20 hours - I'm so lazy!
The last time I felt this way was back at the end of high school, and for brief periods during my undergrad. Instead of being worn out by all of the hours of my day taken up by duties, I was energized and happy. That's pretty much how I'm feeling now. I'm also pretty thrilled that I've finally paid off the last of my trip/application debt, and I can start saving again and splurging on the little things I've been avoiding for the past few months, like going for nice dinners with friends, buying cds and concert tickets, etc.
The one major downside is that it's become very hard to plan my life to include as much time with friends as I'd like. I haven't seen Sharon in WEEKS, shameful since we are living in the same city and work two blocks apart. For that reason, I'm looking VERY forward to her superbowl party this weekend (it's certainly not for the football reason - I've honed my skill of attending s-bowl parties and watching fewer than 5 minutes of the actual game). There's also the hope that I'll get to see Paula and Maggie, and generally gave a kickass day.
Awesome things:
Sushi with friends.
Fancy dinners with friends.
Movies with friends.
Yoga (with friends).
Friends.
Sbux sandwiches, mostly.
Sucky things:
Pain in shoulder.
Working 26 out of 40 hours.
Sbux Antipasto Sandwiches (41! grams of fat, including 8! saturated! >2000 mg sodium! >750 calories! Eat it and you will die!)
Title credited to my writing coach, the slavedriver Ms. Megan F. I just noticed that I had almost posted a 'new' thing back at the beginning of January, but it never got past the draft stage. I do have very legitimate reasons for NOT posting though - at the moment I am working two jobs and I just calculated that in January, I worked an average of nearly 60 hours per week. Wowsa. I'm liking it though, and not feeling burnt-out. I've decided that the non-burnout is due largely to the fact that my two jobs are polar opposites of each other. My theory is that the hours worked at the one cancel out hours worked at the other - so if I work 20 at one, and 40 at the other in a given week, it's like I've only worked 20 hours. Wow, 20 hours - I'm so lazy!
The last time I felt this way was back at the end of high school, and for brief periods during my undergrad. Instead of being worn out by all of the hours of my day taken up by duties, I was energized and happy. That's pretty much how I'm feeling now. I'm also pretty thrilled that I've finally paid off the last of my trip/application debt, and I can start saving again and splurging on the little things I've been avoiding for the past few months, like going for nice dinners with friends, buying cds and concert tickets, etc.
The one major downside is that it's become very hard to plan my life to include as much time with friends as I'd like. I haven't seen Sharon in WEEKS, shameful since we are living in the same city and work two blocks apart. For that reason, I'm looking VERY forward to her superbowl party this weekend (it's certainly not for the football reason - I've honed my skill of attending s-bowl parties and watching fewer than 5 minutes of the actual game). There's also the hope that I'll get to see Paula and Maggie, and generally gave a kickass day.
Awesome things:
Sushi with friends.
Fancy dinners with friends.
Movies with friends.
Yoga (with friends).
Friends.
Sbux sandwiches, mostly.
Sucky things:
Pain in shoulder.
Working 26 out of 40 hours.
Sbux Antipasto Sandwiches (41! grams of fat, including 8! saturated! >2000 mg sodium! >750 calories! Eat it and you will die!)
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Fruitcake!!!
It's that time of year again! I am eating my second slice of my mom's famous fruitcake, and it is wonderful. Luckily, it is one of the few foods that Mark doesn't like & won't eat, so I get all of it to myself, hahaha.
I am working like crazy lately, missing out on all sorts of fun stuff but making the much needed $$$ for the holidays, and the much needed lattes for stressed out holiday shoppers. I promise that in January I will also get a job that uses the years of education I've put into my head.
We had some more awesome couchsurfers here last week - Emily and Hannah from Washington. They were loads of fun, more so for Mark who got to hang with them and create all sorts of inside jokes - me, I was working, boo.
Currently, I'm looking forward to next Friday, which is a very special lady's very special birthday, and also the day that I leave for skiing with Mark's family. See, it's ok for me to do that because very special lady is going out to the movies that night, and doesn't want me home. I still feel guilty. I have good plans and ideas though!!!
I am working like crazy lately, missing out on all sorts of fun stuff but making the much needed $$$ for the holidays, and the much needed lattes for stressed out holiday shoppers. I promise that in January I will also get a job that uses the years of education I've put into my head.
We had some more awesome couchsurfers here last week - Emily and Hannah from Washington. They were loads of fun, more so for Mark who got to hang with them and create all sorts of inside jokes - me, I was working, boo.
Currently, I'm looking forward to next Friday, which is a very special lady's very special birthday, and also the day that I leave for skiing with Mark's family. See, it's ok for me to do that because very special lady is going out to the movies that night, and doesn't want me home. I still feel guilty. I have good plans and ideas though!!!
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Caption me.
Courtesty of Megan's awesomely long update - my favourite photo of Mark and I! What were we looking at?!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Thursday Grab Bag
Last night Mark and I headed out to Whitby for a belated birthday dinner. I gathered up my mom, dad, and grandparents, and we had some pretty wicked sushi. Ok, Dad, Mark and I had sushi, while everyone else opted for food that is cooked. It was really nice, and made me appreciate what a great family I have. I feel so loved and valued, and genuinely enjoy everyone's company. WARM FUZZY FEELINGS ABOUND.
Mark and I came back into the city this morning - he's at school and I've been having a pretty great day in the apartment. I did laundry, read the newish New Yorker, had myself a white chocolate mocha (mmmmm), a surprise call from my favourite Londoner - a dude who is renowned for his bad phone habits but has been making a habit of proving us all wrong over the last few months. Also, I checked out the gym that is a mere 2 minutes from my apartment. I think I will join, fingers are crossed for membership assistance. I've also checked out a bunch of job postings. My heart is currently not in it, for fear of landing some sort of mediocre position that will ruin my chances of attending the annual family-in-law ski Christmas. I'm still hoping for non-mediocre positions though.
I found a new internet radio player, Iceberg Radio, and the Canadian Indie station has been consistently awesome for the 30 minutes that I've been listening to it. They're currently playing the We're Marching On song that was in my head for 2 months this summer while I traveled. Speaking of traveling, I've not stayed true to my promise of posting pics. Here are some random ones:
Mark and I came back into the city this morning - he's at school and I've been having a pretty great day in the apartment. I did laundry, read the newish New Yorker, had myself a white chocolate mocha (mmmmm), a surprise call from my favourite Londoner - a dude who is renowned for his bad phone habits but has been making a habit of proving us all wrong over the last few months. Also, I checked out the gym that is a mere 2 minutes from my apartment. I think I will join, fingers are crossed for membership assistance. I've also checked out a bunch of job postings. My heart is currently not in it, for fear of landing some sort of mediocre position that will ruin my chances of attending the annual family-in-law ski Christmas. I'm still hoping for non-mediocre positions though.
I found a new internet radio player, Iceberg Radio, and the Canadian Indie station has been consistently awesome for the 30 minutes that I've been listening to it. They're currently playing the We're Marching On song that was in my head for 2 months this summer while I traveled. Speaking of traveling, I've not stayed true to my promise of posting pics. Here are some random ones:
Saturday, November 24, 2007
KITTY!
I am still sick, but ALMOST not sick anymore. I've spent a lot of the past week just lounging around the apartment, and this little gal has been an endless source of entertainment and company:
Friday, November 16, 2007
I caught Kurt's cold.
I know I've been neglecting this space lately. It's not that I've been busy or anything, I've just been not in a very bloggy sort of mood. Lots of good stuff has (have? has.) been happening lately, like... getting engaged. That's probably why I've not been blogging - it feels so weird to write that on the internet. Mark and I are really, really happy! We haven't put much thought into planning yet, except for a rough 'next-fall' idea for the date.
I've also been thinking about the whole 'engagement' process. My current ring is from a No Frills vending machine (the first one was from Dominion, but it broke and was quickly replaced). I really love the sentiment of these rings - its very sweet and surprisingly personal. I'm not sure that I want to replace it with a 'real' ring though - I've always pictured myself as just a wedding band girl, no big shiny thing on my finger (also surprising, normally I am transfixed by shiny things whenever I walk past them). I also don't want poor Mark to feel like he needs to spend a small fortune on so that I can feel like I'm fitting in with expectations. I would much rather have that money put aside for something that will benefit US - like a house account or something like that. I guess my mind is pretty made up and this is all myself coaxing myself into bucking tradition.
In other fantabulous news, Rafael is finally here from Cuba!! After a year and a half, Sharon's Canadian family is complete! IT was so great to see Rafa again - the last time I saw him was their wedding, and I had never dreamed that it would take this long for him to get here. He and Sharon seemed so happy together, very much like an old (well, half-old HAHA) married couple. I can't wait for double dates and being there as Rafa experiences so many new things :)
Birthday shoutouts go to Megan, who is not nearly as old as I am, but still supercool. Mark and Kurt and I spent a whirlwind 24 hours with her and Derek in Mtl last weekend - good times were had despite we three Torontonians wimping out at midnight and leaving the Montrealers out partying till 4am. I think we made up for it on Sunday on our wonderful croissant-fuelled walk through Parc LaFontaine with its multitude of cute dogs.
AMBUSH!!!!:
Kurt has to sit by himself because he is a smoker:
There is a puppy nearby!
Heading home, with energy!
I've also been thinking about the whole 'engagement' process. My current ring is from a No Frills vending machine (the first one was from Dominion, but it broke and was quickly replaced). I really love the sentiment of these rings - its very sweet and surprisingly personal. I'm not sure that I want to replace it with a 'real' ring though - I've always pictured myself as just a wedding band girl, no big shiny thing on my finger (also surprising, normally I am transfixed by shiny things whenever I walk past them). I also don't want poor Mark to feel like he needs to spend a small fortune on so that I can feel like I'm fitting in with expectations. I would much rather have that money put aside for something that will benefit US - like a house account or something like that. I guess my mind is pretty made up and this is all myself coaxing myself into bucking tradition.
In other fantabulous news, Rafael is finally here from Cuba!! After a year and a half, Sharon's Canadian family is complete! IT was so great to see Rafa again - the last time I saw him was their wedding, and I had never dreamed that it would take this long for him to get here. He and Sharon seemed so happy together, very much like an old (well, half-old HAHA) married couple. I can't wait for double dates and being there as Rafa experiences so many new things :)
Birthday shoutouts go to Megan, who is not nearly as old as I am, but still supercool. Mark and Kurt and I spent a whirlwind 24 hours with her and Derek in Mtl last weekend - good times were had despite we three Torontonians wimping out at midnight and leaving the Montrealers out partying till 4am. I think we made up for it on Sunday on our wonderful croissant-fuelled walk through Parc LaFontaine with its multitude of cute dogs.
AMBUSH!!!!:
Kurt has to sit by himself because he is a smoker:
There is a puppy nearby!
Heading home, with energy!
Friday, October 26, 2007
FINE
Since somebody *cough*sharon*cough* has been hassling me about my lack of posts, here we go. In my defense, I've been too busy talking to people in real life to put stuff on the internet, and most of the stuff I want to talk about is not the stuff I want to be stumbled upon here.
Some things:
The Welcome Home Warming party that Mark planned was great. There was lots of fun, and great people, and vodka ahoy. Some of us were the worse for wear the next day, but some croissants in Trinity-Bellwoods made our stomachs happy anyways. All of our couches have been broken in by sleepover guests and I got to spend some good times with Paula who came all the way from Windsor for the night! It was great having her, Maggie, Sharon and John (all of my London 'girls') here for the night.
Now, I'm getting ready for a potluck. I'm thinking brownies and maybe something else...
I'm getting really excited for Sharon, who may have a husband in her house by this time next week. WOOOO!
Also: Atrish is coming to visit! YAY!!! I have to think of super fun things to do this weekend, hopefully involving Halloween parties and sushi. I made myself a hooded cape yesterday - I just have to decide whether to be red riding hood, zombie red riding hood (I know, it's stupid), or some yet to be determined superhero.
Speaking of making things, you may have noticed the quantity of housewifey things I've been up to. I'm unemployed, and starting to worry about it a bit. BUT I have an interview lined up for Monday, and hopefully some other prospects as well. Wish me luck!
Some things:
The Welcome Home Warming party that Mark planned was great. There was lots of fun, and great people, and vodka ahoy. Some of us were the worse for wear the next day, but some croissants in Trinity-Bellwoods made our stomachs happy anyways. All of our couches have been broken in by sleepover guests and I got to spend some good times with Paula who came all the way from Windsor for the night! It was great having her, Maggie, Sharon and John (all of my London 'girls') here for the night.
Now, I'm getting ready for a potluck. I'm thinking brownies and maybe something else...
I'm getting really excited for Sharon, who may have a husband in her house by this time next week. WOOOO!
Also: Atrish is coming to visit! YAY!!! I have to think of super fun things to do this weekend, hopefully involving Halloween parties and sushi. I made myself a hooded cape yesterday - I just have to decide whether to be red riding hood, zombie red riding hood (I know, it's stupid), or some yet to be determined superhero.
Speaking of making things, you may have noticed the quantity of housewifey things I've been up to. I'm unemployed, and starting to worry about it a bit. BUT I have an interview lined up for Monday, and hopefully some other prospects as well. Wish me luck!
Saturday, October 13, 2007
And she's back!
Wow. For the first time in almost four months, my feet are on Canadian soil. It really feels surreal - I can't believe that my travels, for the moment, are over. I've missed Canada, my friends, my family, for so long. It's good to be home, but I know I'm going to miss the freedom of my travels. But, now its time to find myself a job, pay off the bills, and settle into life in one place.
Tomorrow, I get to see Mark for the first time in more than two months. I'm unbelievably excited - it's impossible to sit around home but equally impossible to focus on a task for long enough to get it done. Mark has found us a new apartment and I get to move in tomorrow. Little Italy, here I come! Today, I'm procrastinating from packing, but hopefully I'll manage to at least bundle together a coherent collection of clothes - I can worry about the rest later.
I'll post a trip update later, for now here's a random image from my day: I went to Chapters to pick up a New Yorker (yay! the one Western luxury that I've missed!) and glancing out into the mall, I saw a grown man (grey hair and all) riding a mechanical giraffe, with a soother in his mouth. Way to go Oshawa, you just got weirder.
Tomorrow, I get to see Mark for the first time in more than two months. I'm unbelievably excited - it's impossible to sit around home but equally impossible to focus on a task for long enough to get it done. Mark has found us a new apartment and I get to move in tomorrow. Little Italy, here I come! Today, I'm procrastinating from packing, but hopefully I'll manage to at least bundle together a coherent collection of clothes - I can worry about the rest later.
I'll post a trip update later, for now here's a random image from my day: I went to Chapters to pick up a New Yorker (yay! the one Western luxury that I've missed!) and glancing out into the mall, I saw a grown man (grey hair and all) riding a mechanical giraffe, with a soother in his mouth. Way to go Oshawa, you just got weirder.
Friday, September 28, 2007
OMG I am DONE
A quick update before I head out to dinner: I have officially completed my program with Unite for Sight, and I have also just submitted applications for school next year. That is nuts. Also, I finished the applications 3 days early, unheard of for me! I am all kinds of happy right now.
I will post some thoughts on my experiences here in the near future - for now, I am going to be too busy enjoying my last 5 days in Ghana. I'm planning on traveling with some friends to a place called Beyin tomorrow - it is supposed to be a beautiful beach ton on the West part of Ghana's coast. From there, we're going to travel to Nzulezu, a village nearby built on stilts above the water. I'm excited!
I should be back in Accra by Tuesday night, and then I'll finish my preparations for leaving. And now, have a look at my Thursday:
-leave here at 01:00
-arrive airport b/t 01:30 and 02:00
-fly from Accra to Morocco at 05:15
-Arrive Morocco around 09:00
-Fly Morocco to Brussels around 14:00
-Arrive Brussels around 18:30
-Catch bus from Brussels to London (?) at 21:00
-Meet my cousin first thing Friday morning.
THAT IS NOT A FUN DAY.
But then, I get to see people who know me! And love me! And I get to hang out in England and Wales for a week with my mom. THAT IS FUN.
I will post some thoughts on my experiences here in the near future - for now, I am going to be too busy enjoying my last 5 days in Ghana. I'm planning on traveling with some friends to a place called Beyin tomorrow - it is supposed to be a beautiful beach ton on the West part of Ghana's coast. From there, we're going to travel to Nzulezu, a village nearby built on stilts above the water. I'm excited!
I should be back in Accra by Tuesday night, and then I'll finish my preparations for leaving. And now, have a look at my Thursday:
-leave here at 01:00
-arrive airport b/t 01:30 and 02:00
-fly from Accra to Morocco at 05:15
-Arrive Morocco around 09:00
-Fly Morocco to Brussels around 14:00
-Arrive Brussels around 18:30
-Catch bus from Brussels to London (?) at 21:00
-Meet my cousin first thing Friday morning.
THAT IS NOT A FUN DAY.
But then, I get to see people who know me! And love me! And I get to hang out in England and Wales for a week with my mom. THAT IS FUN.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Akwaaba (you are welcome)
Well, I've officially been here for four weeks! I'm having a fantastic time, and am so happy that I came here. This past week and a half has been our busiest yet, hence the delay in sending the email. Our work handing out flyers around Accra has paid off, because we're seeing about double the typical number of patients at our local screening centre. Outreaches have been especially busy, with the minimum number of patients still above 100, and the max at well over 150. We were very lucky this week to have two professionals with us. One is Dr. Lotfi Merabet, an optometrist/professor at Harvard Medical School - he's here to help out with outreaches as well as to teach our ophthalmic nurses whatever he can. Oddly enough, before going into optometry, he did a PhD in vision research in the same lab as Claudine (for those who don't know Claudine, she's a post-doc at York and a very brilliant/wonderful person)! One of the other new additions to the group is Roberta, a young doctor from Italy. Having more than one person doing the actual checkups is helping things run more smoothly. I saw the monthly report for August yesterday - over the month (I was part of the program for the second half of August), we saw almost 1500 people over the course of about 20 outreaches. 150 of those people were referred for surgery.
My most interesting day was probably last monday, when Maureen and I went with Margaret (a nurse from the Crystal Eye Clinic) to the Liberian refugee camp in Buduburam. Buduburam is home to approximately 46 000 refugees who fled from Liberia during the civil war. Most of them lost their homes and family, and likely will stay in Ghana for the rest of their lives rather than go home to try and start their lives from the beginning again. There is a full-time screening program there that is run by local volunteers, and once every two weeks Margaret spends a day at the camp to see the patients who need medicine or possibly referrals for surgery. The camp was extremely well-run and efficient. We saw well over 100 patients, with Margaret diagnosing, referring and prescribing at an average of 2.5 minutes per patient! Everybody was friendly, and it was a very positive experience.
Aside from work, we did manage to have some fun this week too. We visited the Wli waterfalls on Sunday, and it was probably the most beautiful place that I've ever seen. I waded through the water and got within about 5 metres of the falls. Apparently, you can stand right under them during the dry season, but since we've had a lot of rain, they were a bit too 'watery' to do that during our visit. Standing so close to the waterfall made me feel like I was at a spa - the wind and water coming off them felt like an intense body scrub, something I desperately needed after spending 4 weeks in the smoke and dust of Accra. On our drive back from the falls, we stopped at the monkey sanctuary and saw some monkeys. We brought bananas with us, and the monkeys peeled and ate them right out of our hands! That was a very good day.
My most interesting day was probably last monday, when Maureen and I went with Margaret (a nurse from the Crystal Eye Clinic) to the Liberian refugee camp in Buduburam. Buduburam is home to approximately 46 000 refugees who fled from Liberia during the civil war. Most of them lost their homes and family, and likely will stay in Ghana for the rest of their lives rather than go home to try and start their lives from the beginning again. There is a full-time screening program there that is run by local volunteers, and once every two weeks Margaret spends a day at the camp to see the patients who need medicine or possibly referrals for surgery. The camp was extremely well-run and efficient. We saw well over 100 patients, with Margaret diagnosing, referring and prescribing at an average of 2.5 minutes per patient! Everybody was friendly, and it was a very positive experience.
Aside from work, we did manage to have some fun this week too. We visited the Wli waterfalls on Sunday, and it was probably the most beautiful place that I've ever seen. I waded through the water and got within about 5 metres of the falls. Apparently, you can stand right under them during the dry season, but since we've had a lot of rain, they were a bit too 'watery' to do that during our visit. Standing so close to the waterfall made me feel like I was at a spa - the wind and water coming off them felt like an intense body scrub, something I desperately needed after spending 4 weeks in the smoke and dust of Accra. On our drive back from the falls, we stopped at the monkey sanctuary and saw some monkeys. We brought bananas with us, and the monkeys peeled and ate them right out of our hands! That was a very good day.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Accra Week Two!
I've had a very busy, and very good second week in Accra. I feel like I'm settling into my life here a little bit more - feeling more comfortable with my clinic and outreach duties, making new friends and getting more confident with exploring my surroundings. As with last week, my favourite part of the program is outreach. We did a few more local outreaches this week, seeing about 70 - 100 patients each time. I also completed my training, so I'm now able to dispense medicines and feel like I'm really helping our patients.
The most significant part of the last week was our overnight outreach. While Accra has a lot of need for eye care, regions outside of the greater Accra area are in even greater need. For this reason, a three night trip was planned to take us to New Edubiase, which is about 4 hours Northwest from Accra. We left Sunday afternoon and had a pretty relaxed night - got dinner and then went back to our hotel (The 'Holliday Inn' , haha) where we killed some giant spiders (they were really, really scary) and went to bed. Other than the spiders, the place was really nice! Our two outreaches went really well - on the first day, we met the local chief and then went to a village where we saw just over 100 patients, referring 19 of them for cataract surgery. The second (and final) day was really busy - we saw more than 200 patients over 9.5 hours, referring 30 of them for surgery. That was also my first day actually dispensing medications, and it went very smoothly. It was interesting thinking that the number of patients sent for surgery just from that one day of outreach would have used up all of the money we each raise for Unite for Sight - at the time it felt like a lot of money but I'm sure that the demand for surgery extends far beyond the money we bring in. We ended up staying in New Edubiase again that night rather than drive back in the dark to Accra (we were all too tired anyways). It's likely that we'll be going back there again next month, a trip that I'm looking forward to very much.
The rest of the week has been relatively low-key. On Thursday I went to a market to hand out some flyers advertising the Unite for Sight eye camp (and picked up some cool souvenirs to bring home). We had an outreach today that was pretty successful, and we'll be going on outreach again tomorrow. Aside from work, we've got some fun plans for the weekend - we're going to a beach tomorrow night, and hopefully we'll be doing a day trip to a canopy walk and a former slave castle on Sunday! While Accra isn't the sort of place to do 'sight-seeing,' its really interesting and after all of the sight-seeing in Europe, it feels like a really unique and lively place. Accra itself is huge, and the landscape surrounding it is very dry and barren, but as you drive outside of it for any distance the land changes and you see remnants of the rainforests that used to cover the area. I'm hoping that sometime in the next month we may get a Saturday off so that we can do a weekend trip to some other coastal places that are supposed to be really nice.
And on a completely unrelated note, I managed to get a care package from my parents! I've been pretty close to running out of a few necessities (contact lens solution etc) thanks to some bottles opening in my checked luggage. Mom and dad came to the rescue, and with my boxes of fancy granola bars, twizzlers, cookies (although apparently mom thinks that I need a diet, she gave me oreo 'thinsations,' with only 100 cal per pack and none of that great oreo taste!) I'm now the envy of the other volunteers. I also have some tea and a flashlight c/o my awesome neighbors Don and Colleen who arranged the shipping :) Thanks so much guys!
The most significant part of the last week was our overnight outreach. While Accra has a lot of need for eye care, regions outside of the greater Accra area are in even greater need. For this reason, a three night trip was planned to take us to New Edubiase, which is about 4 hours Northwest from Accra. We left Sunday afternoon and had a pretty relaxed night - got dinner and then went back to our hotel (The 'Holliday Inn' , haha) where we killed some giant spiders (they were really, really scary) and went to bed. Other than the spiders, the place was really nice! Our two outreaches went really well - on the first day, we met the local chief and then went to a village where we saw just over 100 patients, referring 19 of them for cataract surgery. The second (and final) day was really busy - we saw more than 200 patients over 9.5 hours, referring 30 of them for surgery. That was also my first day actually dispensing medications, and it went very smoothly. It was interesting thinking that the number of patients sent for surgery just from that one day of outreach would have used up all of the money we each raise for Unite for Sight - at the time it felt like a lot of money but I'm sure that the demand for surgery extends far beyond the money we bring in. We ended up staying in New Edubiase again that night rather than drive back in the dark to Accra (we were all too tired anyways). It's likely that we'll be going back there again next month, a trip that I'm looking forward to very much.
The rest of the week has been relatively low-key. On Thursday I went to a market to hand out some flyers advertising the Unite for Sight eye camp (and picked up some cool souvenirs to bring home). We had an outreach today that was pretty successful, and we'll be going on outreach again tomorrow. Aside from work, we've got some fun plans for the weekend - we're going to a beach tomorrow night, and hopefully we'll be doing a day trip to a canopy walk and a former slave castle on Sunday! While Accra isn't the sort of place to do 'sight-seeing,' its really interesting and after all of the sight-seeing in Europe, it feels like a really unique and lively place. Accra itself is huge, and the landscape surrounding it is very dry and barren, but as you drive outside of it for any distance the land changes and you see remnants of the rainforests that used to cover the area. I'm hoping that sometime in the next month we may get a Saturday off so that we can do a weekend trip to some other coastal places that are supposed to be really nice.
And on a completely unrelated note, I managed to get a care package from my parents! I've been pretty close to running out of a few necessities (contact lens solution etc) thanks to some bottles opening in my checked luggage. Mom and dad came to the rescue, and with my boxes of fancy granola bars, twizzlers, cookies (although apparently mom thinks that I need a diet, she gave me oreo 'thinsations,' with only 100 cal per pack and none of that great oreo taste!) I'm now the envy of the other volunteers. I also have some tea and a flashlight c/o my awesome neighbors Don and Colleen who arranged the shipping :) Thanks so much guys!
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