Changes. I've never been good with change.

The end of my first year of nursing school is quickly approaching. I cannot wait.  This year has not been a particular favorite. The program has turned out to be different than most others and though I find these differences seem to be to our advantage, they were not clearly communicated to students prior to their entering the program, resulting in unmet expectations and even disappointment. This has further led to a LOOOOOT of complaining! Last week one of our 2 hr labs turned into a 2 hr bitch session about all the "concerns" people have.  Yuck.

Subject change.

So before yesterday, I was having a sort of internal meltdown since this is my last week of class and I still did not know what I was doing this summer.  I applied for several jobs.  I have not heard from two of them, was offered one position that seemed contingent upon a research grant, which I did not get, was told I was the second choice at another and they would call me if it turned out they needed more help, and was given a hopeful comment by another place, but communication with them seems to lag and nothing has been solidified yet...
But yesterday I finally went to the researchers (the ones who offered me the job but wanted the grant) to clear up where we stood now that we did not get the grant that was supposed to pay for me.  I was told, much to my delight, that they do still want me, they have about 25-35 hours a week for me, and they pay just what I was hoping for!  All that remains is to figure out what to do for the other 10-20 hours I'd like to work, which is where I am hoping the not-yet-solidified job will come in.  If not, however, I can just hang on to my Mondays at the orthodontists office - not perfect, but sufficient.

Now I can rest easy.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I was talking to Betsy today about how certain bands remind me of certain friends of mine.  So I decided to make a list of my friend-artist associations. Just for fun and in no particular order.

Dee  -  Ella Fitzgerald and Stars

Betsy  - Amy Grant 

Lynda  - Cat Stevens

Matt K. - Architecture in Helsinki 

Jeff  - Corb Lund

Scott  - Yo La Tengo and of course the "Don't Stop Believin'" song by Journey

Chris  -  Modest Mouse and Pixies

Ross  -  St. Vincent and Pavement

Lisa  -  MGMT

Skip  - Radiohead

Alvin  - Iron and Wine

Jeremy  - Wilco 

David P.  - Sigur Ros

Elbert  - Bon Iver

Nathan S.  - The Rolling Stones

Alan  - The Dodos and Neutral Milk Hotel

Reid  - Lou Reed (and not because of the name)

Laura - Cloud Cult

Neal  - Emily Haines

Justine V.  - Sarah Harmer

Sudeep  - Metallica 

Evan  - JT

Clayton  - Muse

There's probably more, but mostly these are the artists that remind me of the wonderful people in my life, often because those people were the ones who introduced me to these wonderful (mostly) artists.  I am just sorry I don't have one for everyone... But remembering one person often sparks me to remember all, so you are not forgotten! 

Cheers.

And the Pinche Nena is officially toast.



If only I had been told that before spending 1500 to try to import and winterize her.

But such is life. And when life gives you lemons, you ride the bus.

Tidbits.

I lent the Sandlot to my cousin so his son Z could watch it. After begging all afternoon to watch it, when Z was finally given the opportunity, I heard him say, "No, I want to watch Arrested Development."  I've never met a five year old with finer taste.

The last couple weeks I've been car-less, which has made me entirely grateful I am keeping my little Nena, especially with the cold and snow coming on.  I just don't feel like leaving my apartment to study in the library or to buy groceries when I have to stand outside to wait for a bus...  Anyway, Nena had to visit Uncle Al, who fixed, among many other things, her lazy eye.  For the first time in at least a year, if not our entire history together, I can see more than 8 feet in front of me when driving at night because her headlights actually point straight ahead now. :)  I don't know how I stayed alive this long driving around with such limited visibility, except that I must have a guardian angel!
I'm serious.

I've recently discovered a whole desk in the back of my classroom.  It's my new favorite spot, seeing as I've been crowded out of my first favorite spot in the very front row.  But back here, I have my own electrical outlet and I have an entire desk to spread my stuff out on, rather than just a small little square of a tablet not even big enough to fit a clip board on... I can do homework during class and no one knows.  I can go in and out of class unnoticed. :)  This time, however, I shall tell no classmates of my new find, lest I get crowded out of here as well.

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.