Out in the rice fields

Julia's inpsiration

2009-09-28T04:37:00.003+09:00

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.

Queen Charlottes or as we shall continue to refer to it, Haidi Gwaii

2009-08-03T14:13:00.002+09:00

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!

A week in

2009-07-14T07:42:00.003+09:00

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.

Carrying on in Kitimat

2009-07-09T07:21:00.014+09:00

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.

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Note- wow, formatting is tough. Think of the design as 'rugged'.

Top Ten Reasons To Be Us

2008-09-22T14:45:00.004+09:00

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:

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.

A little patience you into school, and gets rid of gets cat pee!

2008-04-19T03:54:00.005+09:00

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?

The long winded catch-up

2008-03-20T03:42:00.009+09:00

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!

I'm way too young to be this old

2008-01-18T18:15:00.000+09:00

There are many joys in starting something new. Today I took a walk to Oak Bay while our building manager cleaned our carpets (again) in the attempt to rid our den of cat stink (cross your fingers!). This is why I love Victoria-today I went into a china store that only sold tea cups and tea accessory dishes-tea pots, china plates, platters, those cool three story platters. As I was walking, I heard old ladies speaking with English accents, and there are so many little stores with quaint things. I just love having to pass antique stores to get to my tea store. Sigh. Heaven, I'm in Heaven-old people heaven... oh crap.

Also, I like starting new friendships. I'm starting a "while you were studying" club-a social support group for widow(ers) of the Island Medical Program. I have to get a good picture for it for our Facebook group yet but there are a few people excited about having someone to do something with when our significant others are studying. There is a JET-ish feel to the Island Medical program- a lot of us are new to the area, we have something in common, and looking for something to do. However, we don't have the disposable income that made living in Japan so much fun. Oooh.. and we're on an island, the same size as Shikoku.

Also, Phone numbers. Ben has his new island number, so email him if you don't have it yet and want it, but my phone is MIA, so it'll be a bit till I get another one.

New Years, Moving, Cat Stink and Bugs

2008-01-10T01:09:00.001+09:00

my Christmas post ended up being longer, so I thought I'd break them up. New Years was a blast. We went to Mt. Washington with 5 of our friends and stayed in Ben's uncle's condo. We had 5 nights-long enough to go snow boarding twice and do nothing on the 1st. It was my second time ever snowboarding, and after shedding some tears going down my first run in frustration, Steve gave me some pointers, and I got better thereafter. I actually had fun and I'm looking forward to when we can go again. At best, I've tolerated going out for winter sports, I've just never been good enough to really enjoy it, nor had the right clothing. This year, thanks to the Helly Hansen Warehouse sale, I was ready!

Ben had a blast with the guys on the back of the mountain, where we beginner girls feared to tread.

After packing up from the mountian on the 2nd, we drove down to Victoria to meet Ben's dad, Chris (Ben's younger brother) and Ashely-who had given up a day of snowboarding to help us.. Thank You!!

Rebekah, Tony and their boys came half way and helped us finish unloading the truck. Rebekah was awesome in unpacking our kitchen stuff. We oreded pizza but it was super late as they had a hard time understanding that 778 can be a area code for a phone (we hadn't changed our numbers yet) So, after Ben "discussing" the issue with the manager, we eventually got our pizza and a credit for next time. Ben whisked Dad, Chris and Ashely to the ferry, where they only caught it because another woman had a car issue, and the ferry was delayed! Seeing as the Janzens were staying the night, it sure would have been a squish if Dad, Chris and Ashely also had to!!

Our place is great, except for a horrible cat pee stink that emanates from the den. We actually found kitty litter and a piece of cat food along the edge of the floor. For now we've shut the den up, and we're waiting for the manager to come and clean the carpets, as well as do some painting in the kitchen and bathroom, which should have been done before we moved in. So we haven't been able to fully unpack

It was great to have the Janzens here though and help us make our new place home. On Thursday we swam in the morning, then went to Bug Zoo in the afternoon. I was really impressed with the guide who had lots to tell us about the bugs, and we got to hold them. Little 4 year old Malachi wanted to hold everything, even the tarantula that you had to be 19 to hold.

Monday Ben started school, I drove him and another med-student who lives down the hall to school, then went to the Oak Bay Marina to watch the sun come up. I love that anywhere we turn, there is ocean. Last night after dinner with some friends they drove us around a bit, and we went to the beach-the wind was blowing so hard we could lean against it.

We feel comfortable here already. I feel like I've been able to let out a breath I've been holding for a long time. It's great to be somewhere where we can invest in-where it worth really unpacking.

Christmas fun

2008-01-10T00:37:00.000+09:00

It's been a busy few weeks, but here's the recap:

Christmas started for us on the 22nd with my Dad's family. It was great to see all the usual family, plus some extras-engagements and a baby. We gather in same place we have for as long as I can remember, and the huge building is now this small room that I wonder how we all fit (there are about 50 of us when we're all together).

The day started and ended with Turkey as after the Unrau gathering we went to our friends house for another dinner.

Sunday was suppose to be a Martens gathering, but Ben's cousin had a near-fatal medical emergency, so most of the aunts were preoccupied with taking care of him, and a lot of cousins were away, so we visited Grandma Martens in Abbosford, then had dinner with Ben's parents. Don't you love a holiday that's counted by dinners?
Christmas eve was at the Martens house. We had turkey for lunch/dinner and went to the CLA service. After we opened presents. The Big Gift was our family portrait that Don MacGregor (my boss) did on Spanish Banks this fall. We gave Mom a 40 inch canvas that looks beautiful in their tv nook next to the kitchen. Presents this year were easy for us as everyone got pictures of themselves. Chris's girlfriend Ashely opened her presents from her parents (from Colorado) and she shared her tradition of reading "The Polar Express" with us. I had never read it before, or seen the movie. We spent the rest of the evening eating and playing games.

We spent the night at Mom and Dad's to save us driving back to Vancouver than to Abbotsford again, so Christmas Day we had hugs in Langley, then off to Abbotsford for my family Christmas. Brunch is the main meal that we all look forward to. Fluffy apple pancakes, bacon rolls with cheese sauce, fruit salad, ham-it's my favourite meal of the year. Rebekah's three boys are now old enough that we call all play games, so after presents we all found something to entertain us, from chess to PS3 karaoke. Grandma didn't quite know what to make of our singing, but she smiled and nodded along. We were blessed to have our Cousins Tiffany and Monsef from Amsterdam come for desert. It was great to catch up with them. I love hearing about their lives, although I'm sure it's tiring for them to repeat everything to everyone they see in their short two weeks here.

Although we were preparing to move, both Ben and I were able to get into the spirit of Christmas way more this year than ever before. Ben had exams up to the 20th, but then we were free to enjoy our time. It helped that we didn't host any parties, so there was less stress for us, but last year we were settling in after returning of a year and a half of changes. This year the changes were happening after Christmas so we could just enjoy.

ps. there are lots of pictures but for some reason, our camera doesn't want to give them up, so check back

A Grinchy looking house at Christmas

2007-12-18T03:00:00.001+09:00

Well, Christmas is coming and instead of packing up boxes full of goodies for our families and baking yummy treats, we're packing up our house. Yup, December is going by quickly and since Christmas parties start on the 22nd, we're getting the jump on packing. Racheal, Ben's sister in law, is coming to help me (more of an emotional-keep on track help-but she's an awesome packer too!)

So, as much as I wish we were putting up a tree and laying out the garlands, it's pretty grinchy round these parts. We'll be packing up for real, into a moving truck, on the 28th, then heading off to Mt. Washington for some fun snowboarding fun over New Years. Then to our new apartment on the 2nd to unpack and start our new Island Life!

We've found a home

2007-11-19T05:50:00.000+09:00

Yup, we're actually going to be settled! We went to Victoria on Saturday, EARLY, and saw four different apartments. Our rage was limited as we wanted a place walking distance to the hospital. I felt a little like Goldilocks as we tried one apartment after the other.. This one is too far away; this one is too old; this manager is too sketchy; ahh, this one is just right.

By 2pm, we had found an apartment with one bedroom and a den, a balcony, close to the hospital, with a nice manager we feel like would do something if something went wrong, and the building even has a guest suite for when we have visitors. (When, meaning we're hoping some people to jump the pond and visit!!!)

We're a short walk from Oak Bay, where they have some fun shopping and a great Tea House (the White Heather Tea House). It's just a short bus ride to downtown/tourist centre. We're excited to explore Victoria and we even bought an Entertainment Guide, so when you come to visit, we can do things 2-for-1!

We're not dead yet

2007-11-15T13:46:00.000+09:00

OK, so my blog may be suffering, but we're not. I suppose no news can be considered good news, but good things have been happening too. Ben's been doing great at Med School. I'm quite the proud wife, and I even send him to school with brownies sometimes to share with his classmates. He's started going to a family practice once a week here in Vancouver (some people have to travel *GASP* all the way to Langley!) and he's really enjoying the hands on aspect (he gave flu shots) and the gleaning of experience from the doctor he's working with. I get to hear lots of stories of strange conditions they see. I also get my share of "check ups" at home, as Ben is discovering his (this is in layman's words) heart, eye and ear check up tools. Actually, Ben blinded me trying to figure out his ophthalmoscope (Ben just spelled it for me-the eye-checking tool)

I am also discovering my talents. They Photography Studio I'm working for is going to keep me on when we move to Victoria after Christmas. I'll be working from home and sending them the digital files of albums and whatever else I'll be doing for them. They're also excited to hook me up with other photographers in Victoria-maybe I can freelance working for a few photographers. I'm excited that I won't have to be looking for a new job right away.

This weekend we took a little get away and drove to Seattle-I've never really BEEN there before.. I've driven through it, and I saw a Mariner's game once. We went to Pike market and had an amazing seafood dinner, then on Monday we window shopped, then drove to Bellingham where we bought Ben some nice "Family Practice" clothes. (They don't wear white coats there)

Ok, so if you read this, please leave a comment, something like "yup, I was here" or something like you see in bathroom stalls " Sam wuz here" so I know that some one out there actually checked this Lazarus-like blog.

Ben's started School

2007-08-30T00:41:00.000+09:00

It's Wednesday, and Ben started "school" on Monday. It would be better if he wrote about it, but here's my view so far. It's kinda like camp, with wine. Well, they're doing orientation all week, so Monday was a lot of meeting and greeting and introductions, and then a BBQ. Tuesday they had a big scavenger hunt in small groups (Ben was with other similarly 'M' last named people) and in the evening there was a wine and cheese meet the faculty evening. I got to go, and there were a few other wives there I got to meet. I suggested we start a Dr. Wives Club.

I love having a "cool" job. This is the first time that when I say what I do, people are interested to hear more. I guess I've been seeing a lot of science-minded people recently too, so to work in a photography studio is really cool I guess.
K, off to my "cool" job!

Life in the big(ish) city

2007-08-11T02:09:00.001+09:00

Well our blog has been suffering, sorry if you've been trying to know what's new with us, and still getting the same stories.

July started with us packing up our house, and by the 15th we were moved in to our apartment just outside of UBC. Well, Ben moved us in for the most part, and I started my job at MacGregor's Studios. The first week was preparing for the Professional Photography School they put on, called Image Explorations, in Shawnigan Lake on the Island. I got to go along, help with registration, and take a photoshop class. It was amazing to spend 4 days among professional photographers from around Canada and USA. We were short on models, so they suggested I call Ben! So Ben came Monday night, and we did an 'engagement' model shoot together on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday Ben got to model for himself. The pictures look so great, and everyone commented on what a great model he is. Now if this Med School thing doesn't work out, he'll have something to fall back on :)

So, moved in and (I'm) working happily away, we've really enjoyed living where we are. We are surrounded by beaches and walking/biking trails, there is everything we need pretty much just a short walk down the street, and the bus goes right outside our building and takes us downtown. I used to think that there wasn't really a point to living in Vancouver, I could just drive in (or skytrain) whenever there was something that I wanted to do, but I didn't so much. I really understand why people live here now. We are just loving it.

We've also had a flow of visitors. Teralynn, who taught with JET in Japan when we were there came to visit last week on her way back to Winnipeg. It was so great to see her, and to touch base with someone who we shared our experiences with, we had a great time joking about the idiosyncrasies that we picked up in Japan.

Most recently (happening right now) Ben is on an Ambulance ride. He left yesterday (Thursday) at 6pm, and still isn't home (10:30am Fri). From his text messages he's having a great time. He met this parametic who will be doing the CPR classes for the UBC students, and he asked Ben if he'd like to teach CPR with him. Ben's happy he gets to teach his fellow UBC students, and not have to take the class (He taught for a few years as he lifeguarded).

Well, this is long enough. Hope we still have some readers out there!

I didn't die!!

2007-06-25T14:28:00.000+09:00

This morning was my "Tri-it" Triathlon in South Langley. Ben volunteered for it, and so he had to be there at 6:30am. The adults race started at 9:30, so I stayed in the car until 8 and slept, and stayed out of the RAIN!! It poured!! It cleared up a bit for the littlest kids doing their triathlon (the youngest was 2 years old.. so very cute!) but when it came to the adults's race, it was just POURING! My wonderful parents, Ben's, and my sister and her husband all came out to cheer, and stood in the torrents of rain. While we were waiting for the swim to start, all of us shivering in our bathing suites on the outdoor pool deck, just waiting to get into the warm water, the lifeguards decided there wasn't enough clarity in the pool, as it was raining too hard to see the bottom of the pool. So, they cancelled the swim part, and we ended up doing a biathlon, biking and running.

While biking in the rain, I heard this mad rush, and although it had been raining hard, the skies suddenly wanted to outdo itself, and I think the sky fell! The last time I saw rain fall like that it was during a Typhoon in Japan. Yup, and I was biking along, mostly by myself, with my chain coming off at intervals.
So then there was the run, through some nice trails, except for the 4 inches of water covering the path. By that time, everyone was so wet, it really didn't matter.
I certanly didn't come near first, nor middle, but I didn't come in last. When running, I finally saw the most beautiful sight, my mom, yelling and cheering me on, then Ben's Dad, and then his mom, and then the finish line!! I really enjoyed it, and am looking forward to the next one.. hopefully when I can do the swimming part too! After a hot shower and tea, we all went out for lunch.. and then to IKEA. Once we got home I collapsed on the couch, and was immovable for a few hours.

Summer Time, and the pilgrims are getting restless

2007-06-12T14:59:00.000+09:00

Hi All!
Let me start with my favourite "The Office" quote:
Dwight: So, are you excited?
Ryan: Yeah, I'm excited.
Dwight: Really excited?!
Ryan: Yeah, I'm really excited.
Dwight: Extremely excited?!
Ryan give Dwight a look.
Dwight: Just very excited, that's cool.

Well, we are VERY excited. This last Saturday we spent the day looking at apartments/suites in Vancouver. Ben starts at UBC at the end of August, and we wanted to beat the back to school crowd.. So, we found a great one bedroom near the "Gates" of UBC. We have the place as of July 1st, although we might not move in right away, so for those of you who we will enlist to help us, we'll let you know when that'll be (please, please, come and help us!!).

In other news, we went to see my friend Jessie's play "Maggie's Getting Married" on Saturday, and laughed ourselves silly. Great acting, great writing (Canadian writer), and great location. If you live in Abbotsford area, you should deffinatley check out Straiton Hall on Upper Sumas Rd. They have great entertainment all the time.

Last weekend we went to visit my sister Rebekah and her family in their new home in Courtney, on Vancouver Island. The weather was gorgeous and we spent most of the time on the beach, where my white, winter skin was exposed to the sun for the first time this year, and I promptly got burnt, and am now peeling Mmmmm. We had a great time chatting and eating and playing games. We went to church on Sunday, then spent Sunday night with Ben's aunt and uncle who live down the road from them. We had a terrific time!

Lastly, as it is the thing that might kill me, I'm doing a triathalon on June 24th. If we don't post after that, you know it killed me. I've been training, but I've never done anything like this before. It's a little one, good for beginners, and I've been enjoying the variety of training with the swimming, biking and running. I'm actually really excited about it, and excited that I have the next day off from work, so I'll have a chance to recover. Ganbaremasu! (I'll do my best!)

psssst..... I'm in.........

2007-05-24T14:43:00.000+09:00

So, after much, much, much waiting, I've received word, and I'm going to be in the UBC island medical program starting at the end of August. Finally, I've crested to the top of this first mountain (but I have the feeling there's a bigger range coming up...). I also was accepted at Queens and UWO - Kingston & London, Ontario, but we feel that the Victoria program has the benefits of Kingston, London and Vancouver all rolled into one package. This past weekend, we headed up to the southern okanagan with some friends, giving us lots of time to talk it over both with each other on the drive, and with our friends. With the plus of being closer to family and friends, and having pretty much the best weather available, we finally decided to go for UBC's program in Victoria. The acceptance was specific to the island site, and the island program will make things a bit more complicated for us, as the first 4 months are in Vancouver and the rest is in Victoria. This means that we may well have 2 moves coming up to look forward to. That, in and of itself, was almost enough to make me want to move out to Ontario, but it is only a few months of pain to pay for 4 more years of island living. Nazukashi!

It's funny, the experience of preparing, applying & interviewing to get into med school involves a lot of talking with almost anyone you know, and after all this, finally getting in, I feel like I have almost nothing to say. (You're asked about why you want to do it, what you've done, what you want to study, where you want to study, and what you think about this strange rash that just appeared last week. That last one always brings a smile to my face - especially given how often it's come up.) Anyway, it is nice to have all the speculative talk about '*if* I get in' over with. Now all I need to do is hunker down and let gravity carry me down to the beginning of the next mountain.

If any of you happen to know a house that needs to be 'sat', or a suite that would be perfect to rent out for a short term (Aug or late Aug to Dec) in the UBC or surrounding area, don't hesitate to let us know (it'll be a challenge to find something for that short a period, I'm sure).

That's the end of this adventure for now. Tscheus!

Mothers Day

2007-05-14T12:30:00.000+09:00

We've had a lovely weekend. The fun started on Saturday with morning petticures at Petticoat Junction in Ft. Langley. Racheal and I got to spoil Mom M. and surprised her with a relaxing hour petticure, and so of course, we had to indulge also!

Then Sunday for lunch we took Mom U. out to a wedding reception place in Surrey that had a wonderful buffet, including an omlet bar, and chocolate fountain! So good. Afterword, we went back to Beth's house to find a fire engin in front of their house! A car across the street had been stolen, stripped, and set on fire! We got there just as the firemen were packing up their hoses. Beth and Devnin have a fire hydrant infront of their house, and Dad had parked in front of it (like, how often do you actually need a fire hydrant over lunch!) so they firement used the water in the truck's tank, and then filled it up again afterword, so we got to see that too. We chatted with the firement for a while, then went in to relax for a while. Watching the firetruck in front of Beth and Devin's houseBen and Dad looking in the now flooded car.

Mom talking with the Firemen

In other news, we're still waiting for news from Med schools, although they send out info on Tuesday, so we should know really soon! We've played every possibility over in our heads, every option on living, how we would move, but it doesn't do any good until we know where he's got in! It seems strange that we will eventually know.

Facebook can be distracting..

2007-04-29T07:05:00.000+09:00

It's true, I haven't been blogging because of Facebook.
So, Ben finished his course on Friday, with his last exam of undergrad ever! Yay! He was taking a cell biology course that only UBC required. He is very happy to be done, and I am very happy to have my husband back. Ben works usually between 4-10:30ish, and I have normal office hours, so we don't get a lot of waking moments together in the week, so I'm happy to have those study times back! He'll be taking Saturdays off for the summer so we can have some fun.

I've been battling dizziness since February- I have Labrynthitis-isn't that a cool word! Anyways, it's something wrong in the Labrynth in the ear, which makes me dizzy, but it's getting better (slowly) and next Thursday I'm going for physio, to learn some kind of exercise that will help. I'm really curious to see what that will be!

Last night we had dinner with the ladies of my dad's family. It was so fun! We don't really get to see eachother very often, and I'm starting to get to know my older cousins as we're now all adults. My cousin Janice and I split a caraf of wine, and Grandma tasted it.. didn't like it too much though.

We've finally got our camera back. I love Cannon cameras, but can't say much for their waranty.. twice we sent it in and twice it was returned unfixed.. so London Drugs just gave us a new one. Kudos to them. So we should have new pictures to show soon.

This are from two weekends ago, when Keegan and Lauren took us out skeet shooting. Keegan is a hunter, and has three rifles. I'm not the right one to say what kind of guns they were, but it was my first time shooting a real (not pelet) gun. Arn't you proud Elisabeth?
As you can see we were shooting against a bank, so there was not worries. Ben and I both have pretty good shots too! We both hit the clay pigon!

Good Friday

2007-04-07T02:23:00.000+09:00

How 'bout an update?
Well, thanks for asking.. Ben was in London (chips and fish??) Ontario (nope) last weekend for his last med school interview. He billeted with a house full of students, some med, some education, some 'other', and had a great time. He had a lady pay for is bus fare, because he didn't have the right change, because he tipped the taxi driver too much.. those Ontarians are setting up a good name for themselves (cough.. he wasn't in Toronto). He felt the best about this interview from all of them, so he's glad he went. He wasn't sure at first if he would go to a fourth, but hey, might as well not miss an opportunity!

He was greeted by snow on Monday coming home. Honestly, snow in April (prep for Ontario maybe?) I was in school on Monday and all anyone could say was how crazy the weather was. By the time school let out, it was sunny and all the snow was gone. Some of the students are starting to figure out that I'm not a teacher, or a student teacher, so.. who am I? The art teacher I'm working with was wondering if I could come in more often. Sure would love to!

Our day today will be bicycling around, maybe to Fort Langley. Yay!

This Old Thing?

2007-03-27T03:01:00.000+09:00

Ben and I in our yukatas.

Ange in her wicked 70's dress.

Laurie in a bridesmaid dress, Jessie in her wedding dress
Devin in his Star Trek tie
The Abbotsfordians guessing at charades
The Langlyites guessing at charades
Ashley in her grad gown, and Chris in his Halloween costume

Jessie and Lars-in Jessie's dress

This Old Thing?

2007-03-19T16:30:00.001+09:00

I had my birthday party Saturday (yesterday). My theme was "this old thing?" and people were invited to wear that thing that they would never wear again, or haven't worn in a long time. I was amazed at people's creativity. We had 2 wedding dresses, a bridesmaid dress, a couple grad gowns, Ben and I wore our Japanese yukatas, a tux, a jail shirt, a Star Trek tie, and two beautiful men in dresses (which they promised to never wear again)

(I'll have pictures as soon as Beth emails them to me.. this picture at the top was a cell phone pic..our camera is out getting fixed.. crappy cannon warranty that returns a un-fixed camera and makes me miss taking pictures at my birthday...grrr)

It was also a wine and cheese party, so people brought all sorts of wine and yummy cheeses. Ben and I got a bunch of beads and rings so that people could make their own wine charm/dangley thing. This was good, as I was continually losing my wine glass, and asking people if they had seen a wine glass with a J on it.

People wrote about their outfits, and later in the evening we created a fashion show. I read out what they had written: what they were wearing and when the last time they wore it. Everyone hammed it up real well, and it was sort of an introduction for everyone, as we had people from different aspects our lives all together. I was impressed our basement suit held 20 people!

And then what's a party without charades? Bekah, we played that game you taught us at Christmas, it was actually requested.

All in all, it was a great time. Thanks for those of you who came and helped me celebrate the road to thirty.

If I was a flower...

2007-03-19T06:36:00.000+09:00

I am a
Sunflower

What Flower
Are You?

"When your friends think smile, they think of you. There is not a day that goes by that you can't find something good about the world and your fellow human."

It makes me wonder, what kind of flowers are nasty people? I wonder if that's an option in this quizz? Let's find out what the anti-Julia flower would be...

I am a
Canna

What Flower
Are You?

"You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."

Kinda spiky.. figured that

Julia's Birthday

2007-03-15T23:23:00.000+09:00

Tuesday was my birthday. I turned 26. I thought that should affect me in some way, that I shouldn't like that, but I do. I've actually been 26 for half a year already.. in my mind. Whenever people ask me how old I was, I would think 26, and then remember that I was still 25. I guess 'cause so much has happened in the last year, I figured I must be older for it. Plus I feel like I've achieved a lot already, I've achieved my goals for the most part of what I wanted to do by this age. Our 5 year plan we set out 4 years ago has gone as planned, and I sent in my UBC application for my B. of Education yesterday. (On Tuesday I woke up to apple pancakes, and then in the evening, Ben came home, on his bicycle, with a huge bouquet of flowers! I'm such a lucky girl)

I'm really loving being at the high school on Mondays too. This past Monday I got to be in art classes in the morning. It was great to be able to walk around and talk with students, give them ideas for their projects, and get to know them a bit. The art teacher and I hit it off, and spent lunch drawing animal skulls for an example project for after spring break.
Ok, gotta go to work.

Dreams Come True

2007-03-01T12:57:00.001+09:00

Have you ever had a dream come true? Not a day dream, or a "when you wish upon a star" -type dream, but a real, while asleep dream?

My sister's husband has applied, and is very much considered for a Youth Pastoring position on Vancouver Island. While they were still in the "we don't know if this is going to happen" stage, I had a dream that they were accepted, and they were looking for a house. The same night, I dreamed about people dressed up as crayons-like for Halloween. The next day we were at Ben's parent's house for a family dinner, and Ben's brother's girlfriend was saying how when they were little kids, they dressed up in crayons for Halloween. (and as they got older, they became the next colour up in size).

Flash back to YEARS ago-- I watched one of those mystic ghosts and dreams type shows, and this woman had dreamed about her daughter getting stung by a bee, and then she did. She also dreamed about something else that was way more important... and the dream about the bee was for her to pay attention to the second dream that was to come true. For some reason that always stuck with me, and now I was wondering.. did the crayon dream tell me that the dream about my sister's family moving was true?

Anyways, to what most of you want to know... BEN'S INTERVIEWS
He can re-write this later if he wants (he's at work right now). He had his University of Alberta interview on Friday. I drove him to the Abbotsford airport super early on Friday. He got a shuttle from the airport on that side to the school, had his interview. He said it went really well. He didn't endorse euthanasia like some other bloke who interviewed before him. He felt comfortable with the conversation style interview. They had this little square table, three sides of interviewers knocking knees with Ben. They asked a lot about his Japanese and Angola experiences. His friend Bruce lives in Edmonton, so they hung out, and Ben got to crash there for night, and he came home in the morning.

Sunday was the UBC interview, and I got to go with him. I hung out in the Lobby waiting, watching all these interviewees walking in with their mom's or dad's, or both. Thought it was a little funny to go to an interview with your parent, but hey. The interview was pretty much the same, except a larger table. They asked more about Ben's work with Autistic kids. I think they should have jumped up, and offered him a spot in UBC right then and there, but, alas, they didn't, and we have to wait until the middle of May to know anything more.

Oh, I also started school on Monday. I pretty much sat at the back of the class, and watched. I also got to hand out, and photocopy papers. I'm at Brookswood high school every Monday now. I'm really excited for this opportunity to learn from Lynie, who I met at Ten Thousand Villages. She's an amazing teacher, and you can tell that the students really respect her. My favourite quote of the day

"You are all ignorant. Luckily that's curable"

In response to the grade 11's who were trying to figure out what the cold war was about. They figured it was between the Americans and British, and had something to do with the Boston Tea Party. I had a good laugh at the back of the room. Precious.

More interviews!

2007-02-13T10:27:00.000+09:00

Well, after pretty much concluding that I didn't meet U of Alberta's out-of-province cut-off, I received an invitation to an interview in the mail today! I also received an invite from Queens a little while ago, so I have plenty of opportunity to both get in to medical school as well as to collect a bit more of that special high-altitude radiation. Hmm, I guess I didn't get enough of airplanes in coming back from Angola - and, even though I wouldn't have guessed it while I had been 1/2 way over the Atlantic, I'm actually really looking forward to it!

It's amazing how a little piece of paper in the mail, or an email in the inbox, can really brighten up one's day!

The Good News and the Bad News

2007-01-21T05:08:00.000+09:00

Want the Good News first?

Ben has an interview at UBC in February!! We're super excited. We'd both love for him to get in to the medicine program at UBC. I've heard though that only 1 out of 3 interviewees get accepted, so, if you're in UBC Med, or if you WORK there, please comment and give Ben some advice for the interview. (If you're also an interviewee, apparently they love "alternative lifestyles" like goth or punk, and want you to really express your suppressed self during the interview. wink wink, nudge nudge)

The Bad News..

My Grandpa pass away on Monday, January 8. His last few days were at a hospice in Mission (which is such comfortable place, it was like a really, super nice hotel, and not hospitally at all) and he died in his sleep. He lived a solid, faith filled life. I've learned so much about him being around family these last two weeks. I wasn't as close to him as I'd have liked. I think because we spent our early childhood in Botswana, when we moved to Canada, we were used to not seeing them much, and didn't have that cuddly baby start with them. My other cousins were a lot closer with Grandpa and Grandma, and I'm jealous of their relationship. I know that Grandpa loves us, and when we miss a family event, always wonders where we are. Before we left for Japan, we went to IHOP with Grandma and Grandpa, and I asked them about their early times together, moving from Manitoba to BC. I think it was the first real adult conversation I had with them, just us and them. I think it was just before we left for Africa then we went for dinner with my parents, the grandparents, and Ben and I. Ben ordered a beer, and Grandma wanted one too, so we ordered one for her. She didn't really want it after that, so Grandpa drank it, and reveled in it a bit. It was so funny. My grandparents are very Mennonite in their ways, so to see them drink beer was just so, well, special is the word that comes to mind.

It's these kind of thoughts that allow us to celebrate his life, and not mourn his death. His funeral was really such a celebration of an amazing man-who loved his wife, his kids, and all the other people that came in their life-those who married in, and those who came around for a while and left. With 6 kids, 17 grandchildren and I don't know how many great grandchildren, It was a testimony to his legacy as 70 of us or so walked down the church aisle together, all of us a branch from his tree.

This got way longer than I expected.

new picture

2007-01-15T15:55:00.000+09:00

Hey, what do you think of the new header picture?
Too much? Not enough?
It' s from one of the Angkor Wat temples in Siem Riep, Cambodia.

January Fun

2007-01-15T13:07:00.000+09:00

We've come through the new year well. It's been two weeks and the following have changed/happened:

Ben has started supervising at the local community pool/centre. He's working Tuesday/Thursday evenings right now, and hopefully will get more shifts yet.
I've been working out regularly at said local community pool/centre and feel really good. Can't say I've lost any weight yet, but I'm liking the routine, although it means I get up at 5:40 every morning.
I've been driving my mom's car since she's stuck at home with a slipped disk in her back, and last Wednesday on my way to the pool after a night of snow, managed to slide into a fence while turning into the parking lot, denting the side and breaking the bumper.
We've found a local bar that does karaoke, and had fun there last night with Jessie and Lars, who always manage to get called up to sing before me, and are always amazing. I always feel bad for the other people to have to listen to me sing after Jessie and Lars kick ass. Ben sang the Eagles "Desperado" which he does VERY well.
We've had family over to see our new place. We've had people over a couple times a week, which means our place has been relatively clean on an ongoing basis. We're still trying to settle in the few last boxes. I feel like when we're finally going to be really in, it'll be time to move again.
No news yet from prospective schools, medical or otherwise. But Ben is working on his final (cross the fingers) undergrad course, which only UBC requires, so hopefully it will pay off and we'll get to stay in Beautiful British Columbia.
this picture is from when my sister and her family came for coffee, and the boys had a blast playing in the left over moving boxes:
And this was our "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree. We didn't want to bother getting a tree, but mom had a bunch of branches brought to her by a well-meaning friend. I took a bunch and we put them in a big vase. The ornaments didn't stay on the long needles, so light-less and ornament-less, besides some beads, we had a little greenery to celebrate with.

The Name's Bond, Ben Bond

2007-01-02T10:00:00.000+09:00

New Years was so much fun. Our friends planned a James Bond themed party, so all the guys dressed up as Bond, and all the girls were bond girls. I, of course, didn’t have such an outfit so on Saturday I went looking in Value Village and didn’t find anything, but across the street was a thrift dress store that had lots of beautiful dresses and jewelry. When I walked in the lady asked if she could help me find anything. I told her I needed a Bond Girl dress. She immediately went to one of the mannequins and started taking off the dress it was wearing. I was a gold, spaghetti strapped dress, so sexy, and it fit me perfectly! I also found a little black dress, a pair of shoes, and a matching gold purse, and WALA, a Bond girl outfit!

We did a Bond photo scavenger hunt that Steve made up (who is a major Bond fan). There was an item from each Bond movie that we needed to find, like 2 grave stones with the same name- from You Only Live Twice, a picture with everyone playing poker-from Casino Royal, and that type of thing. We had to get a picture of a police officer, so we went to the Police Station and asked the receptionist if there was an officer with a good sense of humour that would take their picture with us.. and a young guy came out. We figure he was the rookie and got seniority pulled on him to go out. It was great fun. We also went to Newlands Golf and Country Club to get an ice sculpture picture, and the two other girls in our car and I walked in like we owned the place, looked around, and eventually asked where the ice sculpture was, and took our picture and left. We were dressed up so fancy, we felt like we belonged with all the other people there for their New Years parties (we didn’t really BLEND though, as we were 20 years younger than most of them). The rest of the evening was spent drinking Bond martinis and talking and playing charades.

Christmas Day

2007-01-02T09:52:00.000+09:00

We spent Christmas Day at Ben’s parent’s house. It’s so great to have two families that we love and enjoy being around. I know we are really lucky that both of us get along with the other’s family so well, not every has that. We had brunch, then opened gifts and relaxed. Ben’s Grandpa came for dinner, and we had a traditional turkey with all the trimmings. Our gift from Ben’s parents was helping us buy our digital camera that we took with us to Africa, so we’ve been enjoying our gift for a while already, which has been so great.

Christmas

2007-01-02T09:10:00.000+09:00

We had a wonderful Christmas. It was so nice to be home, doing traditional things. Last year Christmas Day we were travelling from Thailand to Cambodia, spending 2 hours in a taxi driving through country on pot holed roads in the heat. This Christmas Eve we spent with my family (Julia's). Since my mom is out-of-commissionish us girls had to take over the meal prep, but we still managed to have quite the spread! We opened gifts and chatted. Even the family pets were there, Bekah's cat and Beth's dog. Everyone has different things that makes Christmas feel like Christmas to them. For me, it's the fluffy apple pancake we have for breaksfast, and opening stockings and eating the little Babybell cheeses they put in. I guess eventually my parents will stop doing stockings for the grown up kids, but we still enjoy it. They still do Easter Egg hunts for us too... The oldest of us are in their 30's, and we still all hunt!

Isn't life nifty?

2006-12-14T15:14:00.000+09:00

Darn it all to heck, I was almost finished writing this witty update, and I was going to copy it so I wouldn't lose it and somehow it took that as erase and waste Julia's time. Grr.

Ok, now for a wittiless update, as I furrow my brow at the computer.

We've been back for 11 days and have since both gotten jobs-I'm working at an-xray clinic in Abbotsford, which was arranged for me while I was away-God has always provided me with a job when ever I've needed one.. it's quite amazing actually!
Ben has also been hired for the Township of Langley lifeguarding, and hopefully supervising, which will start sometime, soonish we hope.

Ben's free time means he's been able to paint and move us into a basement suite in Walnut Grove, right next to his brother and sister-in-law! We love our new 2 bedroom place, and along with all our other pictres, hope to have some up soon.

Working in Abbotsford has worked out really well for me, as my mom has injurded her back-a herniated disk-and is pretty much couch-ridden. I've been able to come over for lunch, and right now I've over for the next two nights, as my dad is working out near Squamish and I'm able to "look after" mom-it also saves me a half an hour commute!

That's all for now. If you haven't left a comment in a while (and even if you have) why not let us know what's new with you! Or let us know that some one is still reading this now that we're back and leaving "normal" lives :)

I'm not going to copy, just take my chance and publish...

We're Back

2006-12-04T22:16:00.000+09:00

Just a note to say we're back. We had a lovely flight back, even getting bumped up to business class for our flight from Winhoek, Namibia to Johannesburg, South Africa. From house to home, it was about 48 hours, but 12 of those were in London where we got out to stretch our legs and eat fish and chips. Lovely.

I have my usual jet lag, as it is 5:15am and I am up. Seems the earlier I go to bed, the earlier I get up, and there is no actual "catching up" of sleep for me. Ben seems to have no trouble with this.

We've been looking for a place to stay, and have the opportunity to move in next door to Ben's brother and sister-in-law in Walnut Grove. The owners have just put in insulation into the ceiling downstairs (essential for a house with 4 little boys under the age of 5), so the ceiling still needs to be painted, along with a few other touch-ups here and there, but the space is great, and we hope it works out. Ben is willing to do the grunt work, and as he is not working just now, it'll keep him busy.

I start work tomorrow (Tuesday) working in the Medical Tower next to the hospital in Abbotsford in the x-ray clinic, full time! God has provided everything we need, and we are so grateful to all of you who have passed on his blessings to us.

Blessings in this busy season,
Julia

P.S. most of my not feeling good on the trip can be attributed the anti-malarial pills I was on-and not acutall 'bugs'. I went off them 2 weeks ago, and have felt way better. So, just a warning for you tropical adventurers, Mefloquin is the cheaper option, but it seems, especially for women, there are nasty side effects that make it not worth it. (although the vivid dreams side effect can be quite fun!)

Last post before we´re Canada-bound!

2006-11-26T04:04:00.000+09:00

Well, this is our last weekend before we leave. Maybe. Well, I
suppose it all really depends on whether the weekly TAAG flight
actually arrives and goes out this Thursday. (There are many amusing
acronyms for that airline, one being Think Again About Going).
Apparently we were rather lucky in having our plane on time in coming
here (on time = same day). It´s crazy to see how fast the time has
flown by. When I think back on all We´ve gotten to experience here, I
can´t help but feel so blessed. Not only have I gotten to see and
help out with countless different surgeries, sit in on medical
consults (including one in English!), experience (& help a bit in)
what it takes to get a hospital going, and learn about a lot of
different medical equipment by both inventorying it and trying to get
it working, but we´ve gotten to know how great people are here in
Lubango (who would have ever guessed that we´d come here!), learn some
Portuguese and Spanish, be presented with many (fun) challenges in
finding out how to make do & make things work with what we have and
meet lots of other missionaries that we´d love to meet up with again
in the future.

I think Julia was quite success full in getting Africa under my skin
(although not so much Botswanna - it was a bit too hot for me).
Already, we can´t wait for the opportunity to return when I´m finished
medical school (& residency) to see where things are at then, & help
out with whatever my specialty turns out to be (likely some kind of
surgery, I think), possibly letting one of the hard-working doctors
here take some much-needed time off. One thing I do know is we have a
LOT of Portuguese to learn before then.

Here´s something that will surprise a lot of you who know Julia - last
Wednesday she asked to and did come to the OR to watch a surgery! Not
only did she come and watch, but she stayed right through the more
gruesome bits, leaving to sit down only after we started wrapping
things up. I´m particularly impressed, as this was for a toe
amputation that had the patient jumping under the electro-cauter (he
was only under a partially-effective local anesthetic) and making
enough noise to make Robert (operating in the next room) curious as to
what was happening. After this, she STILL hung around a bit to see
some bits and pieces of other surgeries that were going on, before she
left to prepare for her English class. Way-to-go Julia! Maybe there
is some hope for her in our future dinner conversations! (for some
reason, though, she still doesn´t want to go into surgery herself).

Thanks a lot to all our generous supporters and intercessors who
helped make this part of our lives possible and successful, and we
look forward to seeing many of you soon!

Going to the market

2006-11-19T01:27:00.000+09:00

I do the grocery shopping, as Ben said, and have had to learn my
numbers, at least, so I know how much I'm paying.. let me elaborate.

What we call the "fish market" is two blocks away. To get there I have
to cross a busy road, of which there is no crosswalk/traffic lights,
and vehicles have the right of way, so I often wait until there is a
group of people waiting to cross before I dart between the blue
mini-bus taxis that dart around the other cars and pot holes that make
up the roads here. (if it's a really big pot hole, can you call it a
cauldron?)

The "fish" market itself is a store, that sells, well, fish, as well
as cheese and a variety of other things. I don't really know any more
than "how much is this" in Portuguese, so my shopping conversations
are limited to pointing and my one question. Outside of the store
spills streams of ladies, surrounded by brightly coloured plastic bins
of veggies, baskets of tomatoes, and stacks of oranges and apples.
Walking through brings on a gauntlet of "Amiga, Amiga" (friend,
friend), as women, clutching their babies and half naked toddlers show
off their produce.

I usually walk through and look, go into the store, buy my cheese, and
then purchase my veggies on the way out. (I haven't actually bought
fish there yet, but you can buy HUGE lobsters there, along with other
shell fish brought in from the coast, 3 hours away) The women have
gotten used to me, and I have learned more numbers, so our
question-answer sessions for prices is going smoother than it used to.
At first, I would ask how much it is, then they would tell me. Then I
would give them a blank, puzzled look, and try to guess, showing with
my hands what I thought they said. They would look at my hands with a
blank, puzzled look and tell me again. Finally, they would untie the
ever-present multi-coloured cloth wrap, and pull from within the knot
their money and show me which bills to give them.

Among the veggie women are boys selling eggs, in clear plastic bags,
as well as anything else you can imagine. People walk around carrying
shoes, suits, car mats, toilet paper, toys, and just about anything
else, to sell on the street. The nice thing is they're not really
pushy, so after saying "I don't want it, thank-you" (my other
Portuguese phrase) they usually leave you alone.

As I was in bed all week with the latest bug, I even was able to buy
fruit as women came to the door, with the generic plastic tub balanced
on their head, filled with cabbages, carrots, and our current
favourite, plums. (Mom(s), can you email me a pluma plauts (sp?)
recipe? thanks!)

That's what I do at least once a week. Thanks for reading! enjoy your
"veggie section" in your local supermarket on your next trip!
Julia

Portuguese and buying carrots

2006-11-14T05:06:00.000+09:00

Well, time has been zipping by, and itºs strange to think that we only have just over 2 weeks left here. While we did always go into this not really expecting to speak much in Portuguese, Julia and I have sort-of branched out into different areas. Because she has the mornings free, she often is the one to go shopping, and thus she is very good at buying carrots (yes, she does buy other things - weºve just had a lot of carrots lately!). I, on the other hand, have gotten very good at saying excuse me (as I squeeze past people to get through a crowd at a doorway) and Sorry (as Iºm causing someone a lot of pain - we donºt have much in the way of pain medication here - no narcotics yet, meaning just ibuprophin and Tylenol (not Tylenol 3!). We do apparently have a recent connection with a guy that has a narcotics liscence to import to some hospitals up in Luanda, and is interested in supplying CEML in Lubango, so we may soon have something better to offer.

Iºm not sure how much of our schedule Iºve communicated here already (sending these posts in via email makes looking back a bit more complicated), so Iºll outline it a bit here.

I usually leave at 6:45 for the hospital, getting back anywhere between 6 and 8 PM, depending on how things go. Mondays and Thursdays, there arenºt any general surgeries, so those days are usually more predictable. I also usually take a good chunk of those days as ´project´ days, where I try and help out with an area that needs it. Today I was in a container all day, so I think Iºll wait another week before I tackle that particular elephant again (I almost got a whole one inventoried . It was useful too, as some of the stuff I found will be used in some surgeries tomorrow.

Julia has her first English Class at 11 every day, then one at the hospital at 4:30. In between, she manages to keep herself busy with a myriad of things that Iºve only been vaguely aware of. When at the hospital, sheºs been a great help in getting a number of my ºprojectsº done that were a bit too big for the time I had.
Weekends have been quite erratic, with no ºregularº yet. Last weekend, we went to Namib (a costal town, not Namibia) with the local missionaries for a relaxing time getting battered around by huge waves. As you can probably imagine, I, at least, was loving it.

All of our Nihon no Tomodachi would love to hear that there are scads of snack bars here. In fact, we even have a picture of a place with the name "Snack Bar Central". I will leave it up to you to figure out what that means here.

Unfortunately, we had all been getting our hopes up for the new sattelite modem arriving and being successfully installed only to have them dashed. As it turns out, 2 people got to use the internet while it briefly was up, and weºre blaming the last one for using it all up. Coincidentally, there was a really close strike of lightning around the same time that Peggy used up the last of the internet, but that probably had nothing to do with it.

If there are any lightning experts out there, with some experience in protecting sensitive electronics, I know youºd be more than welcome here. This was the second modem that has been fried (the first was possibly not from lightning, but this second one makes it seem if that was what happened to the first). There are surge protectors on pretty much everything, and the local ºexpertsº have set up a lightning-rod network that was supposed to keep us safe. The funny thing is that nothing else was damaged in a hospital full of sensitive electronic equiptment (aside from this time, the switch that was hooked up to the satelite modem fried on the port the modem was connected to). Does anyone know if you can set up surge protection along a coaxial cable (the send and recieve to the sattelite itself are the only ones that arenºt surge protected. All the network cables between buildings are protected, and all modems and switches are on surge-protected UPSs.

Anyway, it looks as if Iºm out of time here, so more later.

Até logo!

I think it's a fit!

2006-10-28T04:33:00.000+09:00

well, I finally got to a computer. I'll update what Ben wrote last.
We've now had a whole week here, and we feel very welcomed by the
missionary community. We are, right now, eating popcorn (with our
choice of flavour) and about to watch a movie, for Friday night movie
night. We're really not suffering.

We've had three days of English lessons so far, and after today's
lesson I have that wonderful good class "high". I teach at the
hospital, in what is the lobby area in the OR building. There are 12
beginning students, mostly nurses and hospital admin, who are just a
blast. Today we learned the alphabet, and they actually sang the
alphabet song with me. It was great.

I also have a one on one lesson everyday with a advanced students,
named Benjamin. It's great to talk with a local who can explain local
things to me.

I also have the great, "I did laundry" feeling, as I figured out how
to use our very manual washing machine, and we know hove clean clothes
after wearing dirty ones for quite a few days.

The hopital staff has figured out how technical savvy Ben is, and
they're putting him to work, trying to figure out some of the
hospital's machines. (he manages to find an 'on' switch that others
couldn't seem to find)

I'm sure Ben has said it, but the weather here is fantastic, never too
hot, and a lightning show almost every day.

Lubango

2006-10-23T01:22:00.000+09:00

Well, we`ve gotten a chance to see a bit of the city here, and have
really enjoyed how nice everyone is here. What little portuguese we
thought we had learned now seems quite insignificant, and we´re
realizing what a battle we have ahead of us in learning enough to get
by without someone to translate for us.

I´ve seen the hospital, which just actually opened last week, and has
its OR opening this coming week~... pending successful instalation of
the backup autostart system for the generator. The power frequently
goes out (sometimes due to lightning strikes, but usually because it`s
been cut). This dry season was quite dry, and there isn`t enough
water in the hydroelectric system to provide more power. It`s pretty
much impossible to predict, though, as to when you`ll get your 4 or so
hours of power for the day. Fortunately, we do have a generator,
though, and have even managed to puzzle out a system in how to use it
occasionally, when we need to get our refridgerator below room
temperature for a while.

On friday, I sat in on a whole ream of consultations with patients,
and consistantly had my little anatomical and physiological knowledge
tested by an ever educational Dr. Foster. I´ve been finding myself
longing for the textbooks carefully hidden away in boxes back in
Canada - even though their weight would have been quite prohibitive.
Oh, well, I´ll see what medical books I can borrow from downstairs to
satisfy my curiosity\poor recall. Even though it`s only been the one
day in the hospital so far, I´m fairly certain that I definately want
to go into medicine (if there had been any doubt). I can´t wait until
the OR is functional, and I can hopefully see\help with some
surgeries.

Julia will be teaching English at either one of or both the hospital
and the seminary with Peggy, a friend of the Fosters, visiting from
Toronto. At this point, we don´t know exactly who at the hospital she
will be teaching (nurses, guards, maintenance...), so she may have to
brush up on a little medical vocab herself.

It`s been a good thing that she`s had the past 4 years to get
desensitized to gory\detailed discussions about injuries and
operations, because there are pretty much no holds barred over the
tables here, when doctors get together. I love it, and she seems to
be surviving remarkably well.

The guesthouse we have is quite spacious, by our Japanese standards,
though we will be likely sharing with another STA (from TWU,
apparently) in November. There`s still plenty of room for that, with
another bedroom still spare.

Below us live 2 American doctors (one who has finished his residency
already in surgery, and the other who still needs to finish hers.
It`s been great getting to know them, and their help has been
invaluable.

We´re a short 10 minute walk away from Dr. Foster´s house, and about 5
minutes from the church (in Portuguese, of course). We´ve also met
Dr. Collins (an opthomological surgeon), whom I believe we read about
in a book that a friend of Julia`s lent us in Botswanna, - God,
Medicine & Miracles, by Dr. Daniel Fountain. It was quite an
interesting read, written by a doctor who lived in the Congo for
years, and worked with Dr. Collins there too.

Oh, well. More later - I`m running out of time here!

-Ben

We've made it!

2006-10-20T05:26:00.000+09:00

After much time, in transit and waiting for transiting, we've finally
made it to Lubango, Angola. It'll be nice to get doing what we came
here for, and we're both eager to get at it tomorrow. It's quite
amazing seeing the huge difference between the countries that we've
seen - Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola are all quite different
in terms of people, development, sanitation, and weather. The weather
here is much cooler, which is quite nice. We'll do a more thorough
update when we can get some time in a internet cafe in town.

Later!

We're Off!

2006-10-17T16:55:00.000+09:00

So, we're off as of tomorrow morning 9 AM to play hopscotch all the
way to Angola. We're both eager to get on with things, now that we've
had some time to relax (& get used to the heat).
-Ben

On to the next Adventure

2006-10-16T17:45:00.000+09:00

We're back in Gabarone, and will leave on Wednesday for Angola, arriving on Thursday.
Victoria Falls was great. What I love about the falls is that you cannot capture it in a picture.. it's too big. You cannot recreate a virtual experience of it.. you can only stand at the edge, looking across the gorge and see the thundering water pounding down, only to hit with such force that it sprays back up in a wonderful, refreshing mist. We had a close encounter with a family of baboons, as one of the younger ones got too close to us and starting crying out, the big pappa baboon saw me as the potential danger and charged at me, making me back up as I bowled over another visitor. I was almost shaking, it came at such a shock. The pappa baboon seemed satisfied, and we had no other problems, but needless to say we walked back and took a different route to find the exit!

That was our only animal issue. Otherwise animals were pretty non agressive and docile. We faced "agressive selling" in the market in Victoria Falls. Ben and I tag-teamed, and were able to get what we wanted for fair prices. I won't say what we got.. cause Christmas is coming.. tee hee.

Not sure when we can update again, but it will be from Angola.
Cheers!
Julia

Having a great time..

2006-10-11T19:21:00.000+09:00

Hi everyone, well, we still can't show you pictures, but that doesn't mean we haven't taken some amazing shots. We're in Kasane, near the Chobe National Park. We left Gabarone on Oct. 3rd, and went to Maun where we had an overnight mokoro ride. We didn't realize that there would be a walking safari in the intinerary, so were were unprepared with our flip flops and brightly coloured shirts! We saw some zebra and gnu though. Otherwise uneventful we left Maun and went to Nata where we took a quad bike tour near the big pans. (they don't let the quads actually on the protected pans) but it was fun to do donuts on the flat areas! So now we're here, and yesterday we went on a morning game drive and saw a lepard, lots of bushbuck, baboons, a couple crocks, and a heard of elephants bathing in mud. In the afternoon we went on a game cruise and saw a bunch of hippos, cape bufallo, a mother crock laying on her eggs, and a ton of elephants. We were lucky enough to be sitting on the front of the boat, and so were about 3 meters away from elephants sometimes!

Tomorrow we head off to Vic Falls, and then it's back to Gabarone to get ready for Angola. It seems kinda funny to do all this playing before we get to work, but we've been able to get over our jet lag, get accustomed to the heat.. well, I am. Ben seems to have "northern blood" in that, he's having trouble in the heat.. at least there are pools where we are staying! (He also is very aware that the pools would not stand to Langley standards.. that's what you get for being a life guard for so long!)
All this spare time we have also makes us antsy to get to work. It's been 2.5 months since we've had a regualr work schedule, and we're looking forward to contributing to something again!

Thanks for your comments, and hope you Canadians had a great Thanksgiving!
Julia

We made it!

2006-09-29T23:06:00.000+09:00

So, it appears as if our attempt to post on the blog failed yesterday.
Don't worry, we did arrive safely, and were fine yesterday, even if
we didn't post (...moms.... :)

We finally arrived in Gabarone at 7:30 AM Tuesday, PST (somewhere
around 3:30PM local time). It's been incredibly hot, but bearable
(LOW HUMIDITY!!!!!). After an adventure with the local combie
transport system (apparently Route 6 is different from Block 6), we
even managed to get safely back to Tina (our gracious host)'s house.

Tscheus!

Yayyyyy!!!!

2006-09-28T18:23:00.000+09:00

We're here! We've dived into the adventure here, so we haven't gotten to a internet café before now. Our flight in London was delayed 2 hours because of a storm, so we arrived in Johannesburg 20 minutes before our next flight.. which means we missed it. So, we had to wait 5 hours for the next flight. Unfortunatly, we didn't have number to call Tina in Botswana who was waiting for us at the airport at 10 am. Our new flight only left at 2:15 (and there were delays on that one too) so when we finally got to the Gabarone airport, no one was waiting for us.. Tina had no idea when we would come. We had met a Motswana lady in line in Jo'berg, as she was in the same situation as us, and in the airport in Gabarone, she offered us a ride to Tina's place. So, we got in her car, and about to head out of the parking lot when we saw Tina! She was dropping off a friend who was flying out. She had prayed for good timing, and it couldn't have been better!

So Wednesday we went with Tina to a village and hour or so out of the city to see a friend of hers. Tina's church has agreed to provide the money for this woman to build herself a house, so we went to tell her the good news. We arrived at this woman's brother's house, and they were preparing for other brother's wedding next week, so the women were putting a new coat of mud on the round house, and all the family was around to see that the work was coming a long well.

We were there over lunchtime, so they included us in the meal, which was a great cultural experience.

Today we are looking around the main mall, and my time is about up on the computer.

We're off

2006-09-25T03:52:00.000+09:00

Here we go again.. leaving on a jet plane
our plane leaves Vancouver 6pm Sept. 24th. We will arrive in Botswana Sept. 26th 1am (Vancouver time. 10am local)

Pray for our safety as we go, and sanity for the 31 hours of transit!

Ganbaremasu
(We'll do our best!)

So it's been a while

2006-09-23T16:00:00.000+09:00

Well, I've heard from a bunch of people that I haven't been carrying my weight when it comes to blog posts. I suppose they may have something at that, but I know that I HAVE posted a whole lot more (well, 3 or 4 times more) than Rick (who, I think, leaves all the posting to Jen).

Anyway, it seems surreal that we leave in 2 days for Africa. In 2 days, I will then spend about another 2 days on airplanes and in airports - not sleeping. Yay. Anyway, we have pretty much everything together for the big jump, including, thanks to many generous friends and relatives, a lot of financial help with the costs.

A number of people had passed their concern on to me regarding the high rates of HIV in southern Africa, and their worry that by working in a medical field, I'd be in serious risk. I had always figured that, while the risk was there, I'd be consistently vigilant in never allowing for any infection to occur (and I still will). Then, on Wednesday, I got a call from SIM (the agency we're going through), that they're now suggesting that people going into Angola to work in the pre-med program bring along their own antiretroviral medication, in case there is some accident. This is new, and I don't think it's because of an actual accident, however, it was a bit of a wake-up call as to the tangible possibility of infection with HIV.

So, I ended up getting a prescription, and eventually found the ONE pharmacy in Vancouver (Shoppers Drug Mart on Davie St.) that can provide the medication, and ended up getting a quarter course (meaning that if I did get infected, I'd have a week to hunt down some more drugs) for about $250 (meaning that the full course would be up around $1000). There are 3 different drugs, and in reading the descriptions, they almost seem as likely to kill someone as the eventual AIDS would (well not quite, but it is quite bluntly dangerous). In just getting the prescription and reading through the documentation, I can only begin to imagine what someone who actually was needing to take the medication would be thinking of.

Now, for all you worried relatives out there, I don't plan on ever needing to take any of these pills. Instead, I'm planning on leaving them in Angola unopened. Also, no-one needs to worry about Julia - she'll be pretty safe, as I doubt she'll be at risk of contracting anything while teaching English. If anything those seminary students should be quaking in their boots at the thought of contracting her spelling! (I'm ducking right now, because even though Julia is in the other room right now, I don't want her to see me type this.... - I'm joking, of course - I don't think spelling can be contagious) :)

Anyway, that's all for now. I'll stop before I get myself in more trouble.

it's like.. totally!

2006-09-21T13:41:00.000+09:00

Hey.. shhh.. I'm not really here, I'm doing my University of Toronto applications, but I thought I'd come and say hi. don't tell Toronto or anything, but I don't like their application process.. I don't know how I will use all my vast knowledge and experiece to create a future of diversity, equality and social justice. Anyways, I hear that U of T used to have bad acne, and now she's all popular and what, but I don't like her.. but don't tell her cause I need her to like me.

New Things

2006-09-15T11:25:00.000+09:00

Well, (Bekah) things that are new...
Ben is almost finished applying for med schools (in Ontario, Edmonton, and Vancouver). I just finished proofreading his last essays, so by tonight it should all be done.. and the rest is up to God and the committees that decide who gets in and who becomes a pharmacist (JK). The applications for my teaching degree in Ontario open tomorrow, so I can get started applying too. The rest of mine (Alta, BC) arn't due until next spring, so I'll be able to write about Angola as experience by then.

Right, Angola, we leave in 10 days!! We've piddled away at getting things ready-but we have a lot to do yet, like writing a will! I've arranged all our accomodations while in Botswana-we're going to travel around a bit and I'll play tour guide for Ben. We were woken up one night by Ben's brother. He said there was someone from Pensilvania (sp?) on the phone for me. Turns out the lodge in Botswana has a router there, and they were calling to tell us to turn on the fax. I enquired on an online form, and they faxed all the info... hmmm.. seems strange (archaic?). The lady on the phone greeted me with a cheery good morning. Lucky for her it was 1:30am, so I "good morning-ed" her back. We've gone from the land of amzing customer service (Japan) to decent service (Canada) and then the slow beuracracy of Botswana. I love it. I can't wait to be met by a blast of hot air and scrubby trees. (really, that was not sarcastic.. sooooo excited)

My job has been interesting too. I'm learning a lot about the body and how it's put together. Seeing all the x-rays that come through is interesting, especially when a bone is broken and offset! or when there is pace makers in the chest, or a 2 year old's hand-the bones don't touch and the carpols arn't there yet.. looked so weird! I have 3 more shifts there.

fun in good weather times

2006-08-31T16:50:00.000+09:00

I realize now that blogging can be more difficult when thing seem more 'normal'. The last two weeks have been amazing. Two weeks ago my sister who lives about 4 hours east of us came down with her family. We stayed with them at my parents house, and had "Camp Unrau" for 6 days. We went blackberry picking at Ben's Grandpa's farm, visted mom at work and Grandma Z., went to Lonsdale key/Gastown/Stanely park, went to the water slides, and then celebrated Beth's (oldest sister) 30th birthday.

Beth's husband had planned an amazing Mexican themed surprise party for her, including an amazing table of mexican delights, ongoing margaritas, two pinatas, and live salsa dancing lessons! Of course to keep it a surprise, my mom, sister and I HAD to take her to get all our nails done, have a sushi picnic at white rock, and shopping, before blindfolding her to her 'next event'. I'm amazed that she had no idea where she was when we walked her into her own backyard. Either that, or she's a really good lier.. but I think she really was surprised. Kudos to Devin, as actually surprising someone for a party is really difficult to do.

Dad's birthday is the day after Beth's, so sunday we gathered at the 'rents house and ate left over mexican food and pie. we were gonna go to the beach but we were so tired from the week of 'camp'.

this last week I started my job. I feel so blessed to have a job for the short time that we are home. When I was in Japan I was praying for a job. I had just read captivating by John and Staci Eldridge (sp?) and they talked about how God wanted to 'romance' us and give us good gifts, just because he can.. not because we 'deserve' it. Anyways, I was praying to deserve it.. and then realized what I was doing.. I instead prayed for his gift of a job. Then, checked my email, and Ben's mom was online, saying her supervisor had asked her if I wanted to work at their X-ray clinic while I was home. Wow. she didn't ask, her supervisor asked her. Pretty cool, eh? So, I'm working in the darkroom, shoving filmes through the developer. all my knowledge of dark room developing is replaced by a maching, but that's ok. i can't imagine actually having to develope hundreds of films a day by hand! I also get to call patients from the waiting room to the change room and tell them to take off their clothes, then see them walk around all uncomfortable in the skimpy gowns we give them. yup, love it.

We've also loved going to the beach....eeeeeee... love the weather here!
my pictures arn't uploading for some reason.. so I hope to have some soon.

Good things come in threes

2006-08-15T03:48:00.000+09:00

We've made it three years together. I should say something like "my, time has flown" but honestly, it feels like three years. We've done a lot in that time. We've each finished a 'segment' of school, and gone to Japan for a year. I think this next year will be a lot of fun, no school (maybe Ben in January, but not much) and a trip to Botswana and Angola. Christmas at home, camping trips, visits across Canada for Med Schools interviews (cross the fingers and knock on wood). It should be good. Next year by this time we should know where we will spend the next 4-7 years. I'm excited.

For our anniversary Ben has been planning a trip for us since, like, March. He's been giving me a hint every 10th of the month, and I wasn't dissapointed. the hints:
- we might see something big
- it has something to do with water
- there is a long walk
- it is not east or south of Langley

Can you guess? I was guessing whales and boats and hot springs-cause I know Ben likes that sort of thing and gets excited about them. And, yup, I was right. He did a good job of not letting me know if I guess it or not.

We went to Tofino on Ben's dad's Honda Shadow (which has a very small back seat.. ouch!!). Then, we were going to take a whale watching tour, but we were too late, so we took a float plane to Hot Springs cove. That's all knew at that point, so when we arrived at the dock, I was surprised that there was no hotel or anything on the beach like I expected. Ben pointed to a boat off the shore and said, "that's where we're going"..the InnChanter. Except, the boat was a good 200m away from the dock. We asked the pilot how to get there, and he said to call, or swim if we had our water wings. We walked from the dock to the land, sure that we would find a phone or something, but nope. Finally, the couple who were rowing a boat from the Innchanter got to the dock, and we used their boat to row back to the Innchanter. The Innchanter holds about 10 guests, and serves an amazing dinner and breakfast. I highly recommend it.

The hot springs are a 25 minute walk through old growth forest on a boardwalk over land. The spring itself starts as a waterfall, then flowes into different pools before meeting the ocean. So great. We went at night, as there were fewer people, and soaked for hours (and got many a mosquito bite).

these crazy Canadians

2006-08-09T05:56:00.000+09:00

Well, we've been back for a week and have gone through jet lag and culture shock. We've had so much bbq in the last week, it's been great! It's been really good to be here, to see our family and some of our friends so far. As it was a long weekend though, all our good intentions of getting a bunch of stuff done in preparation for Angola was stilted as nothing official was open.

Ben's been working with his dad land surveying, and I've been trying to stay awake in the day. Jet lag and any kind of big change always hits me harder than Ben.

Our biggest reverse culture shock moment was going to a bar for karaoke with our friends. In Japan, karaoke is almost always in a booth, just with the friends you went to, and we had gotten to know the karaoke books pretty well, so that we knew what we could sing. Here, the books were way less organized, and didn't have the songs we were used to singing. Japan actually keeps up really well with their English collections of songs. In the end we each got in one song, but were left a little dissapointed cause we like to sing lots when we go. that, and the rude lady at walmart who was at the cash register. Japan has excellent customer service, and we were a little shocked at this one lady. Most stores in Japan are way over staffed, so it's strange here when going to buy fabric to wait and search for someone to help you.. ah, culture shock, there's nothing quite like taking a second look at your home culture.

Oh Canada!

2006-08-02T20:15:00.000+09:00

Well, we did it. The 9.5 hour flight didn't kill us, but made us tired. We didn't sleep at all on the plane, and then we had a full day of family and wonderful foood, like Tim Hortons, and then farmersausage and perogies for dinner It's good to have the trip over, and to see our family.. but it does feel strange to be here. I guess my mind doesn't want to accept the fact that our time in Japan is over. And it seems as if I will have a lot of time to think about it, as it is 4am, and I am wide awake after only 5 hours of sleep. Our alarm clock was still on Japan time and so when I woke up and saw that it was 7 o'clock, I thought, oh good, it's morning. Well, technically morning, but it still won't be light for a while. I don't think I'll be up for the Sympony of Fire tonight like I was hoping.

Anywhoo.. for those of you around, we're back, let's go camping!
If you want to reach us, we're at Ben's parent's house.

Going Home Eve

2006-07-31T09:22:00.000+09:00

(Ben's farewell from his Island school, he held streamers that flew out as the boat left the dock.)

Good bye Japan!

Its really our last day here! It's hard to believe this day has come, and that everything I put off for today has to get done. ug. The final dusting/wipe down/mopping the floor/getting our suitcase situation sorted out.

But Tomorrow....!!!!... I'm so excited to see our families.

This past weekend we tried to take in some of our favourite things. Saturday after cleaning and packing some more we wanted to beat the heat, so we played pool for a while in an airconditioned amusement place, then went for some (cold) sushi at our favourite sushi place, then went for cake at our favourite cafe.

Sunday we took off and drove to the Iya valley, (about a 3 hour ride). The drive is through the river valley that takes you into central Tokushima Prefecture, along the 'famous' oboke and koboke "treacherous ravines". We went to find this little museum, and we found it, but not what we expected. What we found was a tunnel through the hill, that led to parking, and caged animals on the other side-a wild boar, a few monkeys and a rabbit. then back through the tunnel half way, there were cave rooms dug out. One large room had a big golden buddah and a bunch of smaller buddah statues. The other side had this weird heaven and hell with their 'obi' or devil-like god, and manequines in hell.. very disterbing, and not really what we had expected. What made it stranger was because it was cool in the cave, everything was damp and falling apart. Chalk that one up for a strange and disterbing Japanese experience.

After that we went for one more onsen, and then took time to enjoy the masage chairs. Then back to Tokushima City for one more mexican experience at Dave's Sombraros Taco Hut. Then, as if to make the day perfect, there were fireworks close by at a festival, so we went to see them, and with a bang and bright lights we ended our last weekend in Japan.

not that exciting, but..

2006-07-27T10:18:00.000+09:00

It's Thursday. We leave next Tuesday. Holy freakaroni.
I'm actually 'supose' to be at school, but both my supervisor and I realize that would be a fruitless waste of time as I have nothing to do there. So, since monday I've been cleaning the house. It's amazing how a little, little, house can hold so much garbage! Most of it is still from the guy who lived here before! I've vowed not to make the next guy suffer our garbage or dirt, so all the windows, screen, cracks, everything is being scrubbed.

Ben at this time is actually 'working'. He's doing an English day camp for little elementary kids. I really wish I could watch it, it would be so cute! He's teaching things like colours, shapes, animals, run, jump, etc. He comes home soooo hot. (inside at 10:20am is 31 degrees right now) (I know that the West coast area is having some crazy heat going on, so maybe you're suffering more than we are-I'm hoping that's all over by next week.. I want comfortable cool-or at least a lake to cool off in!)

Tomorrow is the last farewell party, delayed because all the new teachers had to write an exam on the 21st. (and that raw liver I ate last weekend still haunts me!)
Ok, back to cleaning..

the long farewell

2006-07-22T15:27:00.000+09:00

We've been partying it up every day, so much so that I think we won't leave, but just tease them, so they keep throwing us goodbye parties. It's just too much fun.
Wednesday was my Eikaiwa goodbye party. They showered me with gifts, and we ate and sang karaoke.

Friday was Ben's Eikaiwa goodbye party. They are so much fun, we will really miss them. We started off having dinner at an izikaia (pub). We've both streched our limits on what we consider eatible while in Asia, and I thought we had pretty much covered everything that we might meet while in Japan. However, yesterday provided a new 'tasty' challenge. We had orded yakitori, which means grilled chiken (parts) on a stick. It usually come with chicken cartiledge, which we have tried, and can't quite enjoy. Yesterday's assortment also came with a stick of chicken heart. I had never seen a chicken heart, and have never eaten any kind of blood pumping aparatice. The heart was cut in half vertically, and speared, and tasted.. really good! It was like a tender piece of meat. Ha! conqured that one.

The second challenge came thinly sliced laid out on a white plate. The dark coloured meat was covered in some kind of oil and soy sauce. Most people don't like liver to start with.. how many of you have had it raw? If your first thought was "ug, that would be disgusting" well, your sense of taste by proxy is better than some people here. It was slimy! The taste was kinda non-descrite, but the slimy, won't be swallowed factor was enough to make me gag. I ended up swallowing the whole thing, just wanting the sliminess out of my mouth. the picture shown is just after I put it in my mouth, before I realized that no number of chews would get rid of the thing.

In the middle of the yummy chicken heart and the scary raw liver experiences, was the head of a fish sushi we had on wednesday. Just odd enough to make us laugh and take pictures of it.

The rest of the night was spent in blissfull karaoke. We had a blast, and will dearly miss all of our friends here!

My Very Own Yukata!

2006-07-18T22:10:00.000+09:00

The English teachers at Matsuko (my main school) threw me a saryonara party tonight, and for a gift, gave me a yukata-a summer kimono. I wanted one, but wasn't sure how to go about getting one. So, they gave me the yukata, the obi (belt) with bow, shoes, and purse! I am very excited, and I'm looking forward to wearing it at the last day of school, and to the Anan Festival next week.

Usually at summer festivals men and women dress up in their yukata. Ben got a yukata from one of his schools.. Men's yukata kinda look like pajamas (and infact, we were given a gift of pajamas, that look like yukata). Yesterday we saw a guy in yukata riding a bicycle with a girl on the bike, also in yukata, on their way to a festival. I wish I had the camera out cause it was just so cool to see. Especially as she was sitting to dainty side saddle on the back of the bike.

Leaving is so sad, but the parties are so much fun.

Left foot red, right hand blue

2006-07-18T11:49:00.000+09:00

We have exactly 2 weeks until we go home.. this fills me with that `duh duh duh` feeling when the hero sees the oncoming climax to the movie. Part of me is dreading the going home process, knowing that when we go home we will:
1. have no `home` (although we are sooo grateful to our parents who have opened their homes to us!)
2. have no job
3. will actually have to fill our days DOING things
4. really be done our time in Japan

However, the climax of the movie is always the most exciting, and filled with transition. It is not an ending, but brings the hero to a new time in life.. there is growth in character and hopefully a fun story to tell. So, going home will:
1. reunite us with our long missed family and friends
2. remind us that we are not super heros, but actually regular people who are not special just for speaking English, and very bad Japanese. (not sure what list this should actually go in)
3. give us time to apply for schools for next year. Ben is already in proccess for med school applications. I have to get my butt in gear for teachers programs.
4. make us(Julia) gain elephantine amounts of weight as we are reunited with our favourite missed foods, like cheddar cheese, bagels, and farmer sausage.
5. give us time to prepare for going to Botswana and Angola!

I`ve put up some links on the left so you can have some idea of what we (Ben) will be doing in Angola. I already feel like I have one foot in Japan, one foot in Canada, and a hand in southern Africa.. it`s like an international game of twister.

A return to those crazy cliffs!

2006-07-09T22:25:00.000+09:00

Remember this picture from last November? Our mothers feared for Ben's life, and my sister gave Ben warnings not to leave me as a widow. Well, we went there after our JET goodbye party today, and I got to see what an amazing/terrifying place Ben was in.
(To the moms.. Ben is already back safe, so it's to late to worry!)

mad mountain goat climb

2006-07-09T22:24:00.000+09:00

First, the hike up there..

the pass to the BIG cliffs

2006-07-09T22:23:00.000+09:00

Then the climb down to where they started their climb from, where the ocean would surge and send spray all over.

Perching at the top

2006-07-09T22:22:00.001+09:00

Us girls, Teralynn, Ellie, and I hung out at the top of the cliffs to watch Ben and Nate climb, and to enjoy the view!

The View!!

2006-07-09T22:22:00.000+09:00

Nate is at the top of the cliff, and Ben is at the botton (on the left of the picture)

Ben rapells down

2006-07-09T22:18:00.000+09:00

After climbing up, Ben belays himself down to collect all the quick draws (the things to hold them in case they fall) on his way down.

As there is a typhoon passing the west of Japan now, we were wondering if we would be able to go climbing at all. We ended up having heavy cloud, but not a drop of rain!! Saturday night was the JET goodbye party, where it poured most of the time. We had a(covered) bbq at a beautiful camping site near the ocean (and luckily a gym floor to sleep on to escape the wet outside). It was fun to everybody together again, but weird to think that for some, that would be the last time we would see them.. which means.. that we're actually ending our time here! It's starting to sink in.

A month ago, I couldn't wait to go home, and now I'm holding on to each moment, and trying to streatch them out. Yes, it's hot and humid, but it's so beautiful too. There are so many people and things I'm going to miss. It's an awesome experience to come and meet such amazing people from all over the world. My favourite parts have not only be learning about Japanese culture, but also learning about our fellow JETs' cultures. I think I will miss that the most!

Angola, here we come!

2006-07-03T08:45:00.000+09:00

As you can see from our numerous posts lately, there is a lot happening right now. With 4 weeks until we leave, it feels like we are on `fit it all in before we leave` mode.

But, life will continue after JET, and we recently recieved word that we will be going to Angola for sure starting in mid-October for 6 weeks. A few days a go we received a package with prepreation materals, as well as a video of SIM activities in Angola, including the clinic Ben will be workin in. It`s very exciting to see what we can expect, especially after hoping to do this for so long; we started planning for that before we even applied for the JET program!

Surfing!!

2006-07-02T15:37:00.000+09:00

We went surfing!! So much fun, so much sun.

This was Ben's third time surfing, an my first. We rented one surf board (that Ben is holding) and a boogie board (not shown). I am proudly holding our friend Teralynn's surfboard, so no, I'm not the expert I appear to be.

We both got sufficiantly burnt. Ben has a permanent white t-shirt on now, and I have the flag of Japan on my back, as well as some radioactive shoulders. We had a blast, but we will be paying for it for the next fews days. Here's hoping for a tan!

As an afterthought, I realize it was Canada Day! How did you celebrate Canada Day?

Our computer is down for the count

2006-06-30T15:30:00.000+09:00

After a number of months of stretching out the life of our laptop, it seems to have decided that the world really is too troubling to interact with. Fortunately, I just barely managed to save my final assignment for my course ont a memory key before it really began siezuring. Averatec seems to distribute decent screens, keyboards, touchpads and ... well, other stuff, but if our 3200hx is a normal case, they seem to prefer flaky DVD/CD drives, and like hard-drives with motivational difficulties and notable amnesia. I`m hoping we can get away with just getting a new hard drive for it (I hope the problem is that simple), and just live with the CD/DVD issues.

If you`ve been trying to email us, then our responses may be even more erratic than they were before, as we`ll have to access internet in free moments at work instead.

Oh, yeah, and tomorrow we`ll hopefully get up on some waves down on Ikumi beach. It`ll be fun, either way.

' The heat is on. . . . . The heat is o o o o o o onnnnn

2006-06-27T15:53:00.000+09:00

So, I started my 'who needs hot water' season today. After arriving last year, I don't think I used any hot water (notably for showers, but in fact we didn't have the heater on) until we were well into September.

Yesterday, I was talking to Aaron on MSN, when he mentioned that it was 32C back in Vancouver. I chuckled to myself, thinking how nice it was that I was enjoying the non-humid 25-ish degree weather here. Well, this morning, our alarm went off at 6:40 AM, and I looked at the clock, which also displays the temperature. It was 25 C at 6:40 in the freaking morning. Humidity was right up, and I saw the temperature shown as 33 C on some local bridges (pretty much every bridge has a big display to show the temperature - useful for the 2 days every 3 years or so that something might freeze in winter, but otherwise, it's nice to generally be aware of the temperature - for complaining and/or bragging, I'd imagine).

Anyway, today was my lucky day to go to a local kindergarten. The nice thing about Jr. High Schools is that the staff room is often air-conditioned. Well, kindergartens are not, and the kids don't like being still too much. It was fun, but man was I sweating and ... basting.

After that, I got to drive my portable oven (Well, at least until the AC helped bring things to a tolerable level) to a cell-phone shop, to try and figure out why my phone had suddenly gone into hermit mode - not wanting to communicate with anyone. I got a svelt white loaner with pink detailing, so now at least I can look cool when I pull it out to use the stopwatch in class.

Anyway, with a number more errands to do, I baked and cooled many times (the buildings were all AC-ed!) that now I think I must have a good temper. No-one has ever really said I was 'edgey' - but now at least I may be able to hold whatever edge I do have.
(note from Julia: Ben is making a joke. I had to ask him about it, but metal is heated and cooled to form it. Well tempered metal is strong and not brittle, able to hold an edge. Kudos to you if you got it before my note!)
--

In other good news, my final exam for my distance course is now booked, and the whole thing will soon be over!

Well, I feel all blogged out now.

'later

Hello Kitty

2006-06-25T15:12:00.000+09:00

This was the Hello Kitty dance show at Universal Studios.

I love events that are based on food!

2006-06-25T14:46:00.000+09:00

(Happy Birthday Mom and Bekah!)

It's been a busy weekend. Saturday we planned to go to the local beach to clean up garbage with Ben's Eikaiwa group. We thought it started at 11, but at 10:20 we got a call saying they were on the beach. Turns out it ended at 11, and we got there in time to catch the end of the closing ceremony, and have a juice box. Anyways, the point we were looking forward to was the after BBQ. So we feasted on not only our home made burgers, but the full Japanese BBQ experience as well-small beef cuts, chicken, prawns, cabbage, egg plant, mushrooms, onions, etc, all thrown on the grill.

After going home and getting in a nap, we got ready to go to Tokushima city for Ingrid's Birthday party. Ingrid is a kareoke bar owner in the city, and is a favourite of the foreign (and some Japanese) people here. She organizes a lot of parties for all of us, including a great Halloween party last October.She also is amazing at remembering everyone's names, and takes an active interest in us. She's pretty much the Queen of Tokushima, and we went to celebrate her. It also gave us a good excuse to dress up, which we don't often get!

This morning we went to a Bangladesh cooking class. The teacher was a student at the local Techinical College who is from Bangladesh, and we had an amazing chicken currey and a mutton rice dish. It was wonderful, although all the instructions and recipies were in Japanese, so I didn't get the recipe to make at home. Too bad.

Now we are having some nice down time, (lazy sunday). Because it is the rainy season, it's been pouring the last few days, and it's a curl up and take a nap sort of afternoon. Conviently, rainy season is only in June, and the beaches officially open July 1st. And then.. Typhoon season! Yay!

On another note, we've been having some issues with the header image. It shows up great at home, but not so much at our school's computers. Please leave me a comment and let me know if it shows up-always-sometimes-never for you. (if you never get it, it is a picture of hills and terraced rice fields).
(edit: the top picture should work now, but it seems we can only get 1 picture to work.. and now the bottom one doesn`t)
Cheers, and have a good weekend.

so that's how they make sashimi!

2006-06-19T19:36:00.000+09:00

Wow! we just went for sushi at our local sushiya. We had a wonderful meal and mentioned to eachother how fresh the fish tasted, which brought about the conversation of how one would cut a fish, say, camping, as to enjoy its full raw freshness. (it makes me feel a bit like gollum from lord of the rings... "don't cook it, you're wrecking it!!") (also, one should not eat freshwater fish raw, only seawater fish is ok) As we were paying, a guy comes out with a net to the large fish tank in the entrance. He picked out one of the smaller (10 inches) fish, and took it behind the counter. Anticipating a lesson in sashimi, we quickly shifted over to the window in the wall, firmly blocking the doorway for the cashier who was stuck on the wrong side of the counter because of us. The sushi chef firmly held down the flapping fish, and within 3 cuts had one side of the fish's flesh off. three more and the fish was nothing but head, bones, and tail. Weirldy though, the mouth was still opening and closing (trying to 'breathe') and the tail would flap now and then. I stood there watching, mouth hanging open at the swiftness of his deft strokes. And the kitchen staff stood there chuckling at me gawking at the process! I'm sure they enjoyed the show of my expressions as much as I enjoyed seeing how they cut up the fish!

In response to our last post, the video, Ben showed it to one of his Japanese co-workers, who confirmed our suspitions that the subtitles is in fact what the people are saying, and no, it was not funny to her. "Probably funny to a foreigner though" she said.

2006-06-18T23:41:00.000+09:00

After 10.5 months here, we've only now learned that the whole "traditional Japanese food" thing is a hoax. Unfortunatly we had to learn it by coming across a video on the internet. (did you REALLY think they ate RAW fish? come ON!)
click here: the bitter truth

Teaching English is serious business you guys..

2006-06-15T10:27:00.000+09:00

My mom wanted a picture of us up, so here it is. It`s from April, from the cherry tree party in Tokushima.

Just to make you feel at home, ...

2006-06-12T22:18:00.000+09:00

I figured I'd post something here just to make you feel at home. As I continued to think about it, though, I probably don't really know anything about what would make you feel at home - especially after I've spent this past year living out here in Japan, and the concept of 'home' has become much more abstract. So, I guess you'll have to be happy with a wish for a general sense of well-...er... feelingathome.

On a different note, you may be interested in reading some of our previous posts, from our old blog (which we got rather frustrated with), at: martensahoy.blog.com

enjoy!

the title

2006-06-12T13:04:00.000+09:00

The title, I have yet to clear it with Ben, but for me, it feels like we are all puzzle pieces, and that we might enjoy other places, but we really only fit one place (in the world). I love travelling and experiencing new things, but I am Canadian, and it`s the only place where I feel I make sense.
(the title has been edited, although this statement still stands true.)

2006-06-12T12:49:00.000+09:00

So, I`ve actually made a few blogspot blogs, usually when I was frustrated with blog.com. Now, again, it`s been really annoying, so here I am, making a new blog. The reason I waited was that I like blog.com`s picture album option, but I don`t like how they`re doing that anymore, so here we are in our new home! We have some work to do to feel at `home` here, but I will be working on it this week when I have time.

Ok, and Universal Studios was a lot of fun. It was strange as it was very much like the American ones, but with Hello Kitty, and all the rides spoke in Japanese. The spiderman ride was my favourite-we sat in a `news vehicle` and chased the bad guys (octopus man, electric man, hydro man, and two more-correct me `cause I don`t know their real names) around while they sprayed us with water and heat and jumped onto the hood of the car (3D). So great. My other highlight was the `build your own burger` resteraunt that had banana peppers and salsa for the burgers! that made it worth the 14 bucks for a burger, small drink and a few fries!

I had the Canadian cooking class on sunday. The fridge in the place wasn`t working, so our Nanaimo bars were pretty soggy. Funny, `nanamo` means `7 potatoes` in Japanese, so some of them thought we were making some kind of potato desert! I did a little geography lesson so they would know that Nanaimo is a city on Vancouver Island. The burritos were great, and there was lots of salsa, so they got to take some home and introduce their families to salsa for dinner! I would say it was a success

Lastly, we were woken up this morning by a earthquake at 5am. We`ve had one at night before, but it was over before we could get up, but this went on for long enough we finally got out of bed and got under the doorframe. (which, I`ve been informed may not be the best place to be.. comments on this?) It was in the news this morning. It sure woke us up fast, but at 5am, there was still another 1.5 hours before we needed to be up, and getting up when the alarm went off was a lot harder than when the house is swaying back and forth!!

(edited to add interesting/useless information)

The Japanese scale for earthquakes is different from the Richter scale and goes as follows. (We had a 3 where we were, the centre was a 5, just under the quake that recently hit Indonesia)

The JMA Scale runs from 0 to 7, with 7 being the strongest. Sometimes roman numerals are used, as in the Mercalli Intensity Scale; however this is not the usual practice in Japan. The real-time reports are calculated automatically from measurements of ground acceleration. The JMA reports the shindo based on the ground acceleration, which can be written in the SI metric units meters per second squared (m/s²).

7: In most buildings, wall tiles and windowpanes are damaged and fall. In some cases, reinforced concrete-block walls collapse. Peak ground acceleration greater than 4 m/s²6+: In many buildings, wall tiles and windowpanes are damaged and fall. Most unreinforced concrete-block walls collapse. 3.15–4.00 m/s²

6−: In some buildings, wall tiles and windowpanes are damaged and fall. 2.50–3.15 m/s²5+: In many cases, unreinforced concrete-block walls collapse and tombstones overturn. Many automobiles stop due to difficulty in driving. Occasionally, poorly installed vending machines fall. (only in Japan is this a determining factor of the earthquake intensity!) 1.40–2.50 m/s²

5−: Most people try to escape from danger, some finding it difficult to move. 0.80–1.40 m/s²

4: Many people are frightened. Some people try to escape from danger. Most sleeping people awake. 0.25–0.80 m/s²

3: Felt by most people in the building. Some people are frightened. 0.08–0.25 m/s²

2: Felt by many people in the building. Some sleeping people awake. 0.025–0.08 m/s²

1: Felt by only some people in the building. 0.008–0.025 m/s²

0: Imperceptible to people. Less than 0.008 m/s²