Happy Halloween.

I've been getting increasingly peeved at those border crossing guys for making me import my pinche Nena.  Not that it won't be nice to have a car, but those border guys should give you all the information you need to import your car so there are no surprises and so you can make an informed decision BEFORE you start paying fees and stuff.  If I had known what all would be involved I would have just sold her for scrap and been done with it all. But they made it sound like it would be relatively easy and not tooooo expensive... They should have given me some kind of check-off sheet, a to-do list if you will, of what one needs to do and approximate costs.  But they don't.  So for anyone else reading this who might be importing a vehicle from the US into Alberta, here's your check list.

PRE-BORDER CROSSING

• 72hrs before arriving at the border, export your vehicle from the US.

BORDER CROSSING

• Pay steep tax on vehicle. If you don't have your bill of sale, they will look up the value of your car in their reference book and it will likely be more than the actual worth. 

POST-BORDER CROSSING

• Go online to RIV website to get a printable RIV form. ($200)
• Bring the RIV form and car to Canadian Tire for a ten minute RIV inspection ($0.00)
• Bring all the forms to a registry office and receive another form for an out of province inspection. ($10.00)
• Take THAT form (and maybe all the others) to an inspection approved/licensed mechanic for a thorough inspection. ($75-200, depending where you go)
• Purchase Albertan auto insurance (about twice as expensive as in US) 
• Take ALL the above forms and proof of insurance back to the registry office to register your vehicle (around $80.00) 

Now you are done, as far as I know... But then there may be plenty more surprised looming around the corner.  

We have to do a community project for one of my classes. My group decided to do ours on stress management for the high school we are doing our practicum in.  Ironically every time we go there my stress level shoots right up.
The program here is not what I expected at all.  I am sure the quality is excellent, but I am find it less than enjoyable this semester and I fear next semester will be similar.  I feel like an intern biding my time until I can do what I am actually interested in...

But this area is lovely!  The sun is out most days, which is fantastic. There are a few nice rivers in town.  I got to see the sunrise every morning for a couple weeks. Now the sun shows up while I'm in class... Autumn is one of my favorite seasons and it still looks like autumn here, though it begins to feel like winter.

My computer is dying, so this ends here.  Hope all's well. Take care, friends.

Lately my desk has been a mosaic of sticky notes of lists, reminders, phone numbers, and random information in my wild attempt to get everything done in preparation for school.  Getting into and prepared for Dordt was not nearly this complex, but then my area of study there did not involve clinicals... Anyhow, after today I feel a bit more prepared and hopefully after this week I will actually feel I have a handle on everything within my small realm of control.  

I am excited to be going back to school, excited to live in Calgary, excited to meet new people, and yet beginning to feel also the loss of what and who I'm leaving behind.  Before I came here, I had no great feelings for this province.  But after being here a year, I think maybe this place is growing on me, just a bit. Or at least St. Catharines is.  To begin with, the name looks pretty on paper (better than Sioux Center...), but I've grown comfortable with places to hang out and people I've met (though I seem to have an increased knack for creating awkward situations).  What I mean to say is, I am going to miss it here.  

I will miss the musicless pub that still owes me a mug. I'll miss fires, wine, portable speakers and nude dips in the lake. I'll miss swimming in the irrigation pond at break.  I'll miss filling the men's work boots with empty tape rolls.  I'll miss walks on the pier in port.  But mostly I am going to miss Dee TREMENDOUSLY, Mandie a LOT, and a few others quite a bit as well!  And that's always the part of leaving that I don't like, though I don't always convey it well. 

I know, sappy, but sometimes you gotta be. 

I moved.  I now have 3 times the space for the same amount of money. For three months. :)  I also live with my landlords, who are two girls a bit younger than I, which is a bit of an odd dynamic. But a better dynamic than living with girls who smoke up the apartment with greasy cooking or pot smoking, who have fleas, who eat all my food, or who bring a different guy to the apartment every week... 

I am still waiting to hear from two universities. Hopefully I will hear good things from them, or even at least from one of them... 

Time to start officially changing my address.  Hope everyone is doing well. 

The unusually eventful day in St. Catharines.

Only two dry days in the last fourteen = soggy ground.
Soggy loose ground + 65 kph sustained winds + up to 96 kph gusts = lots of felled trees and electrical poles, which = power outage throughout pretty much the entire city.
Also this = no work for most of Bakkers' employees...

My bike ride to work was a little bit difficult this morning, but not more than usual with just 22kph wind. But by 8.30am my crew was sent home.  I tried to bike out of the parking lot, but just couldn't manage to keep my bike upright long enough to get going, so I walked Patrick to Dee's house and even that was a difficult task. There were moments when I had to stop moving just to keep on my feet.  Had I tried to bike home chances are I would have either gotten blown over into traffic and hit by a car, or gotten squashed by a fallen tree, or even gotten electrocuted by a fallen power line.
What did I do instead?  Went to Perkins with Dee and a couple others from work where we could only get old coffee and baked goods because their power was out so their kitchen was closed.  Then we played some games in the loft and then drove around town to check out the damage and take pictures (though after the first picture the camera battery died, oops).  I ate my packed lunch at Dee's and then stayed there for supper too because I only have an electrical stove here and the only food I have that does not require cooking is cereal, whereas they have a generator... (What would I do without them?)
I spent a good share of the day fretting over the groceries I just purchased on Tuesday (most of my concern was for the ice cream, of course, of which I only had a couple spoonfuls).  I finally went home around 9, only to find that my fretting was for naught.  Not only was the house still fully intact, but also it was one of the few in the city that had power.  There is evidence to suggest that perhaps about six and a half hours ago the power did go out, but fortunately not long enough to melt my ice cream and just long enough to defrost my mini-fridge, which was on my to-do list. Nice.

Remember when flip phones where cool?

Pat and Reggie

I need to laugh and when the sun is out, I've got something I can laugh about

Reginald. That's my moped's name, thanks to Jeff. I rode him all of two weeks, if that even, before my lack of plates got me pulled over. "This is going to be an expensive day for you," was what I was told by the cop after he found out I also was without insurance and a moped license. Surprisingly enough I managed to just sit on the curb and enjoy the sunshine without shedding any tears. Equally surprising to me was that the day turned out not to be so expensive at all, for instead of a fine, the policeman just gave me a severe warning. He made certain I knew the warning was in the computer and if I got pulled over again, there would be no mercy. I walked my moped nearly 3km home that day, and thus began of my intense daily exercise of biking to and from work every day. Most of the time I don't mind it too much, but on days like today when the 30 km/h wind is against me both ways, my optimism gives way to weariness.
Yet even on this windy day, God sent a little ray of sunshine in the form of a little old man with an electric scooter. Quietly and ever so slowly, the old man overcame me on the sharpest incline of the way home, and as he approached, he looked over, smiled and then raced me up the rest of the way. My weary legs were no match for his 250W or so, but my weary soul, which wanted to indulge in self-pity, was no match for his brilliant smile and playful spirit. I hope to see him again.

The nursery is potting stuff these days. Roses, shrubs, trees... Prior to potting, the crew I am on processes these plants, which requires much handling. For some reason, the fact that I'm carrying around trees, flipping them from side to side or upside down or whatever and moving them around just seems weird to me. Trees have always been something stationary, something rooted, something immovable, except when they die and fall over or are chopped down. But at the nursery, I can just pick up a tree and toss it around. So strange to me, but of course it all makes great sense and these trees are small, but it just feels odd.

It's good to be back. :)