Monday, September 28, 2009
Julia's inpsiration
Blogging hasn't been a priority for me recently. I know there are a few family members who check it now and then (although they don't leave comments, so I don't know who really does end up here!). Anyways, I was inspired to return by recent blog exposure. First, have you seen the movie Julie and Julia? Besides women with fantastic names, the movie is a great expression of working towards a goal and achieving what looks to be impossible. Not a machismo fight the bad guy way, but by taking steps to change one's own life to do something you want to do. I found this connected to something I've been feeling. I'm doing my practicum for teaching right now. I love the teaching aspect, but I realize there is so much that I want to do and be a part of. Secretly, (or not so secretly) I know that there is a small chance that I will actually get on the TOC list, or get a teaching position in the next year. So, I'm thinking, what can I do if I don't get on?
I have a few ideas. First and most obvious, I want to expand my photography experiences, and do more portrait work. I'm starting next weekend taking pictures of Rebekah's band.
Secondly, I would love to learn to cook. My friends here are impressed by my baking, but that's not skill but the fact that I share it that impresses them I think. I'd love to take some cooking classes and actually know how to think about food. We were at the Salt Spring Market yesterday, and there was all this wonderful fresh ingredients around, and I wanted to be able to walk though and be inspired to make something. There were some amazing looking mushrooms, squashes, tomatoes, etc.
I was just reading about 'supper clubs' or 'underground restaurants'. I'm trying to find something like it in Victoria, but there isn't, or they are really underground and don't appear with a simple Google search. One blog I found of a Underground Restaurant was the English Can Cook at marmitelover.blogspot.com/ I guess this goes into my dream for a Bed and Breakfast, bringing people together around good food.
So, in this coming year, I guess I'm working on my New Year's resolutions early... I'm going to start promoting my photography, and start cooking. Maybe not working through Julia Child's cookbook, but I'm going to find something that will help me learn.
I have a few ideas. First and most obvious, I want to expand my photography experiences, and do more portrait work. I'm starting next weekend taking pictures of Rebekah's band.
Secondly, I would love to learn to cook. My friends here are impressed by my baking, but that's not skill but the fact that I share it that impresses them I think. I'd love to take some cooking classes and actually know how to think about food. We were at the Salt Spring Market yesterday, and there was all this wonderful fresh ingredients around, and I wanted to be able to walk though and be inspired to make something. There were some amazing looking mushrooms, squashes, tomatoes, etc.
I was just reading about 'supper clubs' or 'underground restaurants'. I'm trying to find something like it in Victoria, but there isn't, or they are really underground and don't appear with a simple Google search. One blog I found of a Underground Restaurant was the English Can Cook at marmitelover.blogspot.com/ I guess this goes into my dream for a Bed and Breakfast, bringing people together around good food.
So, in this coming year, I guess I'm working on my New Year's resolutions early... I'm going to start promoting my photography, and start cooking. Maybe not working through Julia Child's cookbook, but I'm going to find something that will help me learn.
Monday, August 03, 2009
Queen Charlottes or as we shall continue to refer to it, Haidi Gwaii
Well Devin, you are our inspiration for our blogging updates, which we will do when internet is available.
Our first impressions of Haida Gwaii:
1. Coming off the ferry, the land isn’t very mountainous- it’s fairly flat when driving, and there are trees like driving on any of the islands.
2. We stop to see a ‘balancing rock’ on a beach. Suddenly we’re somewhere unique. This is suddenly somewhere very different. The beach is made of rock that looks like it was poured, encompassing other rocks in it’s path. There is one large rock balanced precariously on a small ridge. The experience would be surreal, had it not been for the man trying to sell his wife’s carvings who continued to talk despite lack of interest.
3. The water, the eagles, the deer, the trees, everything is crisp and highlighted by the evening sun. We found a pub that extended its kitchen hours just past 8pm (it’s Sunday) so we could have dinner. We sat by the window, overlooking a long dock that led the eye towards the setting sun over the distant mountains.
4. The motel we’re staying in claims to have Internet, and we connected to the network, but no internet juice is flowing. This blog post will have to uploaded another day. I am adjusting my general expectations of how few people can make a town, and what it means to be ‘rustic’. Kitimat suddenly seems big.
Well, internet worked after all!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
A week in
So I've been in town for a week now, and in that time I've seen many patients, 3 knee surgeries, 1 hip surgery, 1 lower-leg surgery, ... a bunch of other surgeries ... many XRays, a lot of people with abdominal discomfort, a C-Section, many very-soon-to-be mothers, a few broken bones courtesy of violence, and a lot of diabetes and heart disease. Perhaps of more import, I have found many fishing locations, and have managed absolutely no luck at any of them so far. My only consolation is that most other people were also similarly unlucky (I only saw one other person land a fish). Oh well, all I can really do is hold my head up and persevere.
As I expected, the faint appeal of family practise has grown considerably since I have seen what it can look like in a rural area. Not only do you see patients in the office, but you also see them in emergency, on the ward, and in surgery. You see people you know, as well as others you've never met before. You talk about things, order tests, do some tests yourself, interpret some of the results, help out or do the necessary procedures, and see the patients afterwards. You work with a very diverse team that is well traveled, and get to do this all in a very scenic environment. Did I mention that there's fishing here too? Everyone keeps saying it's good - I'll have to keep checking until I catch something big to believe them ;)
This doesn't mean that I've discovered a definate passion to go into family medicine - but of note, it has firmly placed it onto my list of options. I am still keenly interested in the idea of emergency medicine and surgery, and am sure many other areas will appeal to me over the next year. While dermatology, pathology and urology residencies may breathe a sigh of relief that I won't likely be soon haunting their hallways, there hasn't really been much other 'narrowing down' that has happened. While some items get exclamation marks beside them, very few have been fully removed from the list.
Perhaps because it's one of the more frequent type of procedures in the OR here, orthopedic surgery is catching my interest. The surgeon has graciously let me into the OR whenever I have time or see cases I'm interested in. Perhaps it's the tools. There are some pretty cool tools you get to use, and I feel this ... thrill? ... when I hear the [edited] start up and commit the course of action. From there on, it's all mechanical, and most of the patients are feeling much better quite quickly. Is it cherry-picking? I don't really know, but I know I like the idea.
Anyway, my day here is done, and now is the time to bide my time until heading to my preceptors cabin on the lake to have a BBQ. Life is tough here, but, hey, I'm willing to suffer for it.
As I expected, the faint appeal of family practise has grown considerably since I have seen what it can look like in a rural area. Not only do you see patients in the office, but you also see them in emergency, on the ward, and in surgery. You see people you know, as well as others you've never met before. You talk about things, order tests, do some tests yourself, interpret some of the results, help out or do the necessary procedures, and see the patients afterwards. You work with a very diverse team that is well traveled, and get to do this all in a very scenic environment. Did I mention that there's fishing here too? Everyone keeps saying it's good - I'll have to keep checking until I catch something big to believe them ;)
This doesn't mean that I've discovered a definate passion to go into family medicine - but of note, it has firmly placed it onto my list of options. I am still keenly interested in the idea of emergency medicine and surgery, and am sure many other areas will appeal to me over the next year. While dermatology, pathology and urology residencies may breathe a sigh of relief that I won't likely be soon haunting their hallways, there hasn't really been much other 'narrowing down' that has happened. While some items get exclamation marks beside them, very few have been fully removed from the list.
Perhaps because it's one of the more frequent type of procedures in the OR here, orthopedic surgery is catching my interest. The surgeon has graciously let me into the OR whenever I have time or see cases I'm interested in. Perhaps it's the tools. There are some pretty cool tools you get to use, and I feel this ... thrill? ... when I hear the [edited] start up and commit the course of action. From there on, it's all mechanical, and most of the patients are feeling much better quite quickly. Is it cherry-picking? I don't really know, but I know I like the idea.
Anyway, my day here is done, and now is the time to bide my time until heading to my preceptors cabin on the lake to have a BBQ. Life is tough here, but, hey, I'm willing to suffer for it.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Carrying on in Kitimat
So, has it been long enough that posting on a blog is now retro? No? Well, that’s probably the answer anyone at the forefront of ‘retro’ hears to that question. Now that I’ve established my place in history, I can move on. It’s rather odd to feel like you’re going back in time, and to some extent that’s what I’ve just done.
In many ways, Kitimat feels like it’s stuck at various periods in the past. Probably most prominent to me right now is my lack of an ever-available internet connection. I can’t access internet at the apartment I’m staying at (& it isn’t worth setting up for just a month), and I go to the library to check important emails. Anyway, at the least, it makes for less distraction.
The trip up to Kitimat began with a late breakfast at the Blue Fox with Julia, and then I went for a leisurely 6-ish hour drive up to Port Hardy. I was seriously impressed by the quick disappearance of civilization after Campbell River, and then the sudden appearance of an international community of backpackers, hitchhikers and other assorted travellers in Port Hardy. What were they all here for? Well, evidently most were planning on catching the ferry the next day, and so after a night of earplug-muffled snoring, I woke with the rest of the Hostel and headed off to the ferry for the stipulated arrival time of 05:30 – AM, in case you didn’t catch it.
Here, I proceeded to wait in a line of cars that proceeded in the most unusual way. Instead of the cars moving up to the booth, the line stayed still while the BC Ferries staff walked up the line getting the passenger information, after which the cars then moved forward in the line. This was all very confusing to a coffee-deprived brain after a snore-filled night.
With a start like this, the first sight I had upon reaching the passenger deck of the Northern Exposure Ferry was that of a table set out with complimentary coffee and tea. Yes, I was in the right place, and the ferry gods, Poseidon, or maybe even some incredibly generous soul had known exactly what I needed. Things kept on getting better – what had begun as a cloud & fog encrusted boat soon became a mini-cruise ship sailing sparkling waters, with steep costal mountains keeping watch as the porpoises attempted to race us. Silly porpoises, they hadn’t even had their coffee this morning, and thus were no match for us. Also of note, they didn’t have the helicopter pad on their top, as our 
boat did. Also entering this race was a team of 5 seagulls manning a log. They didn't move too fast, though.The journey was filled with many humpback and killer whale sightings, fishboat drag races, dramatic mountains with spectacular waterfalls, and really comfy chairs.
We stopped at Bella Coola for an hour or so, was seriously impressed at how small it looked from the boat, and then moved on to more whale sightings, again closely guarded by the untrusting mountains pouring their waterfalls into the ocean, determined to keep us from running aground as we passed through incredibly narrow passageways that surely also served to clean the barnacles off of the bottom of the boat.
Sunset, and many pictures through glinty glass later, we arrived in Prince Rupert around 11:30 – or 23:30 for those nautical and/or military types out there.
The Tourism staff on the boat had called ahead for me and booked a hotel in Prince Rupert, so all I had to do was find it, grab that parking stall under the burned-out light, and carry my over-sized suitcase (I am packing for more than a month, remember), camera and laptop up the 20 or so stairs to the lobby, wait for the confused couple in front of me to decipher the short form cleverly disguised in their mother tongue before I could then register, and then carry the same oversized suitcase, laptop and camera up some more stairs to my room. Finally, I could call my lovely wife and tell her all about the trip. When she answers her phone, she sounds sleepy – oh, yes, it must be after midnight – but what proceeds is racy. Well, racy in that it was like a race – between the tortoise and the hare. I, hopped up on excitement and coffee, and she sleepy and wanting to pop her head back under the covers. No contest, it was over quickly, I declared myself the victor, and decided to call again during more humane hours.
This will eventually lead to today, three days later, when I finally gave up the idea of finding a decent internet connection to use my skype on laptop to call, and finally called her (or she called me, however you choose to look at it). Anyway, important things out of the way, I’ll tell you a little bit about what it’s like here.
The drive from Prince Rupert to Kitimat was again breathtaking – and thus with such reminders I prevented myself from turning blue.
I passed many locations on the rivers that were loaded with people fishing, getting more and more excited myself for when I’d be able to join their ranks. I passed the spot I’d have to leave from if I were to kayak to Frizzell hotsprings, and noticed the white caps on the waves, and stopped to appreciate the wind – well, maybe a kayak isn’t the best choice of transportation – but if the first nations people could canoe just about 100km from Prince Rupert to the Haida Gawaii (the Charlottes) in dugout canoes long before contact with the west, then I surely should be able to make it the 1.5 km across the river/inlet.
I arrived in Kitimat, guided by my trusty ‘Min (gps) to a detour. Min then brings me back to the same road a good ways further on, only to be detoured again. It was only in the evening that I discovered that the road was closed for drag races, which apparently hadn’t happened in town for 10 years. While the rest of the town was watching the races, I found myself an apartment. The one furnished unit that was available was on the far side of the community, didn’t have much nearby, and cost almost double the unfurnished one I ended up getting. I had the car full of camping stuff, complete with pots, pans, air mattress etc.. As I hauled everything up the 4 flights of stairs to my unit, I thought of how this should be called urban camping – and then realized with a wry grin that this is far from urban. I decided to spend the next day (Sunday) trying to find the local climbing crag, and I managed to not only find it, but also grab its GPS co-ordinates, snap some pictures of the cliffs, and run away, chased by a small nation of mosquitoes. Crestfallen, I found myself to a local fishing tackle shop to console myself by buying some flies the size of small household pet – that and some 30 lb test line. It’s going to be good.
Monday I began working with the local doctor to whom I’ve been assigned, and I soon began to appreciate the extra room and slightly slower pace of the Kitimat medical practises. The consult rooms could easily accommodate the times when we both were in a room with two parents, their sick child and a stroller. Tuesday (today) I spend the day in the OR of the hospital (about 2 min stroll from the office, and about a 15 min walk from my apartment). An day in the OR is always a good day, and today was orthopaedic surgery. What’s better than using power tools seeing shiny new joints going in to replace broken/worn out ones? I’m really not sure. For Julia, Dad M, Chris and Mom U’s sake, I’ll avoid the details, but be assured that it was a good day. On the way back, I bought a box of prawns out of a deep-freezer loaded into the back of a pickup truck, and yes, they went very well with my sidekicks creamy pasta with real bacon package.
Anyway, I’m going to call it quits for today, and hopefully make it out to the library with this on a memory stick so I can post it.
----
Note- wow, formatting is tough. Think of the design as 'rugged'.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Top Ten Reasons To Be Us
Since we have to blog a bunch for school now, I came across my blog, and saw how sad and lonely it is. Poor ignored, starved blog. If my blog was one of those little electronic pets, it would have beeped it's last beep long ago.
The Top Ten reasons to be Ben and Julia right now:
The Top Ten reasons to be Ben and Julia right now:
- We are rocking the rock climbing! We've been climbing outside and inside. Our biceps are getting huge!
- Victoria doesn't drizzle for days and weeks on end. When it rains, the wind pushes the clouds away, and the sun come back out to play.
- We went back to church after 6 months of business, and the pastor remembered us by name. It's good to go where somebody knows your name. Cheers!
- We have a hot tub in our apartment basement, so our friends visit it, I mean us.
- We see and talk to our friends, so they don't have to depend on this blog to know we're still alive.
- We found a kick-ass sale on shoes, and so we're walking pretty.
- We're both so busy that when we sit and talk, we have lots to talk about with each other.
- Julia found a new place to go for High Tea! in an Art Gallery!!
- Victoria has many food festivals. So far we've enjoyed a TEA, CHOCOLATE, and a BEER festival.
- We think that we're super cool.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
A little patience you into school, and gets rid of gets cat pee!
Good News, I've been accepted at UVic to do my last year of school (PDP) to be a teacher. I'll be starting in July. this means after quite a while of switching from one job to another, I'll finally have some kind of career plan. I'm looking forward to having some method to teaching, as opposed to winging it like I've done in the past. (I've also been reading "help for new teachers" sites, and the horror stories that go along with one's first year can be intimidating - but there are always the "it's gets better" messages too) If you're a teacher, and want to give me some advice, go ahead a leave a comment!
As for the cat smell, the building manager is in our place today sealing the concrete and we're getting new underlay. Finally after 4 months, we're hoping this is the end to the evil smell. Our friend and neighbour bought us some well titled wine "Cat's Pee on a Gooseberry Bush" - a Sauvigon Blanc, which we will open and celebrate when all the fuss is done!
We're already looking towards summer, as most of our med-friends will be leaving for adventures and work elsewhere after June. In our lonely state, we'd love to have visitors!! Cat pee smell free!
In the beginning of April my sister, mom and I tool off to Nanaimo for the weekend and went to the Southwind spa guest house. www.southwindretreat.com
I had a wonderful hot stone massage, and we sipped wine and chatted girl talk all weekend. Don't we look refreshed and rejuvenated?
As for the cat smell, the building manager is in our place today sealing the concrete and we're getting new underlay. Finally after 4 months, we're hoping this is the end to the evil smell. Our friend and neighbour bought us some well titled wine "Cat's Pee on a Gooseberry Bush" - a Sauvigon Blanc, which we will open and celebrate when all the fuss is done!
We're already looking towards summer, as most of our med-friends will be leaving for adventures and work elsewhere after June. In our lonely state, we'd love to have visitors!! Cat pee smell free!
In the beginning of April my sister, mom and I tool off to Nanaimo for the weekend and went to the Southwind spa guest house. www.southwindretreat.com
I had a wonderful hot stone massage, and we sipped wine and chatted girl talk all weekend. Don't we look refreshed and rejuvenated?
Thursday, March 20, 2008
The long winded catch-up
Our lives have been more exciting than this blog would lead you to believe :)
Besides the cat smell that still persists (the landlords say they will replace the carpet...sometime) life has been going great. Ben continues to study and do well at school - and really that's all I know about his school work. I actually end up getting more info from other med students about what they are studying - Ben and I tend to talk about non-school related things I guess, as he needs a break from it. I've connected with a few of the med school girls over activities- I've been taking a adult swimming class with two other girls, and we've been having a great time working on our front crawls. I even learned to dive. I've always been to scared to enter water head first, and because of how much more comfortable I am in water now, it was such a scary thing. Yay for conquering fears, even the small ones!
I celebrated my 27th Birthday on the 13th. Ben organized a lot of our friends to meet us at a pub near our house for dinner, then we went back to our place for desert. It was great to see how many people came out. I feel like I've been "myself" more here than anywhere, any time before. Maybe that has something to do with age (yes, I feel older) or that starting with a new group of people, I don't feel like I have any previous "me" to live up to. It's been great. Monday Ben and I went to the Empress for High Tea and it was wonderful.
March 8th brought us back to the mainland for the first time we moved here, as we celebrates two weddings, Ben's cousin, and my cousin, both on the Saturday. Luckily they were a couple of hours apaprt, and both in Abbotsford, so we got to squeeze in seeing a majority of our family all in one day. I love our family and friends in the Valley, but it made me realize how much I feel at home in Victoria. I'm surprised how quickly that happened.
Rebekah and Tony singing during Shannon and Bob's signing.
Arn't we just filled with Character. Our parents made sure we built lots of it!
Our little Unrau clan-minus the kids.
I celebrated this feeling of being at home by splurging for some new curtains. (the "rental" curtains looked like they've been smoked through and washed a million times). So, with all excitement I went to Ikea and bought some curtains that really tie the room together. The wonder of Ikea curtains is that you don't have to do any sewing, just iron the hem - seems easy, right? Well, Ikea assumes you have the math skills above a 8 year old, as my first panel I cut way to short! (it looks like capri-curtains). Panel 2 worked as Ben helped me think it through. Panel 3 is slightly too long, although I used the same measurements as Panel 2, and Panel 4 somehow got too short again. Sigh. I was so disappointed. So, when you don't look too close, the place looks great!
I'll end with some good news. I've started a job working at a Fine Art gallery on Bear Mountain, about a 20 minute drive up the #1 from Victoria. It's just opened, and the owner is expecting her first child in the next month, so I pretty much have had to take over.
www.galeriesorance.ca
I also have a interview on April 1st to get into UVic for my Teaching Certificate. I'm going to go to the interview, and then decide what I'm going to do.
Congrats if you've read this far!
Besides the cat smell that still persists (the landlords say they will replace the carpet...sometime) life has been going great. Ben continues to study and do well at school - and really that's all I know about his school work. I actually end up getting more info from other med students about what they are studying - Ben and I tend to talk about non-school related things I guess, as he needs a break from it. I've connected with a few of the med school girls over activities- I've been taking a adult swimming class with two other girls, and we've been having a great time working on our front crawls. I even learned to dive. I've always been to scared to enter water head first, and because of how much more comfortable I am in water now, it was such a scary thing. Yay for conquering fears, even the small ones!
I celebrated my 27th Birthday on the 13th. Ben organized a lot of our friends to meet us at a pub near our house for dinner, then we went back to our place for desert. It was great to see how many people came out. I feel like I've been "myself" more here than anywhere, any time before. Maybe that has something to do with age (yes, I feel older) or that starting with a new group of people, I don't feel like I have any previous "me" to live up to. It's been great. Monday Ben and I went to the Empress for High Tea and it was wonderful.
March 8th brought us back to the mainland for the first time we moved here, as we celebrates two weddings, Ben's cousin, and my cousin, both on the Saturday. Luckily they were a couple of hours apaprt, and both in Abbotsford, so we got to squeeze in seeing a majority of our family all in one day. I love our family and friends in the Valley, but it made me realize how much I feel at home in Victoria. I'm surprised how quickly that happened.
Rebekah and Tony singing during Shannon and Bob's signing.
Arn't we just filled with Character. Our parents made sure we built lots of it!
Our little Unrau clan-minus the kids.I celebrated this feeling of being at home by splurging for some new curtains. (the "rental" curtains looked like they've been smoked through and washed a million times). So, with all excitement I went to Ikea and bought some curtains that really tie the room together. The wonder of Ikea curtains is that you don't have to do any sewing, just iron the hem - seems easy, right? Well, Ikea assumes you have the math skills above a 8 year old, as my first panel I cut way to short! (it looks like capri-curtains). Panel 2 worked as Ben helped me think it through. Panel 3 is slightly too long, although I used the same measurements as Panel 2, and Panel 4 somehow got too short again. Sigh. I was so disappointed. So, when you don't look too close, the place looks great!
I'll end with some good news. I've started a job working at a Fine Art gallery on Bear Mountain, about a 20 minute drive up the #1 from Victoria. It's just opened, and the owner is expecting her first child in the next month, so I pretty much have had to take over.
www.galeriesorance.ca
I also have a interview on April 1st to get into UVic for my Teaching Certificate. I'm going to go to the interview, and then decide what I'm going to do.
Congrats if you've read this far!
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar