The Jokes on Us

The thrashing of wind against the side of the house, threatening to tear off the siding and smash through the windows was a pleasant wake up call at 3:00 AM last night. They had warned us of a potential weather bomb hitting yesterday, but we had simply laughed it off and disregarded the warning. Who wouldn't with a windless, foggy morning? It was warm and one could hardly see a hundred feet in front of them due to the thick fog, but 160 km/h wind gusts? No way. Perhaps God was attempting to prove a point, not to underestimate the strength of the weather...or maybe we were just reading the warnings wrong and should have expected it to hit later in the evening/night. Whatever the case...I was shuddering out of fear when I woke early in the morning. I was tempted to sleep in the bathtub as it wasn't as loud in the bathroom as it was in my room. I knew that wasn't possible though and trudged back to bed, taking my headphones and plugging them in. Music and sound cancelling head phones couldn't even do the trick as I lay there for hours on end praying that the wind would cease. As terrified as I was when I woke up, I found that fear slowly subsiding despite the continuous wind as I thought about how the disciples must have felt in the boat with Jesus when a great storm hit. I thanked God I wasn't in a boat and continued to pray for the peace I'd need to make it through the night, after dismissing the idea of crying knowing it wouldn't do anything to help the situation I was in and would only give me a rather unpleasant headache I wouldn't be able to sleep off. Despite windy nights and lack of sleep, things in St. John's have been relatively calm. Yes you might ask "How so?" with exams forcing students to live in the library and sip caffeinated beverages to the point of dehydration, but with only two exams to write it hasn't been so horrible. I have been preparing for my linguistics exam which is to commence this Saturday (tomorrow) and feel ready for it. My English exam is next Thursday and after receiving a 91% on my last essay I do not feel so agitated about it as other things. The Saturday after that exam I wake at a horrid hour once again and make my journey back home to Alberta. The Christmas season is upon us and I've been in the mood since August. Christmas songs, candles, baking and activities have been all about and I couldn't be more happy with where I am this year. God has blessed me with wonderful friends and family and has given me a wonderful place to live. I hope we can all sit back on Christmas and enjoy each other's company while celebrating the birth of Christ. I can only imagine how glorious a day it will be when he returns and we can all celebrate more than we ever have. My prayers go out to you all and I hope you have a Merry Christmas if I do not get to update this by the 25th. Angie's Quote of the Day: Angie and Mrs. Woodman are in the food court in the mall. Mrs. Woodman goes on a tangent... "Well...there's some hard looking skeets comin' in here." Angie's ipod reference: "Well...there's some hard looking alerts comin' in here." Definition of Skeet(s): "Someone who wears flatbib hats, heavy chains, probably a windbreaker that has faux fur with pants too big walking like a gangster who steals stuff and wears inappropriately and says "mudder", not "mom" or "mother". He probably loves Ches' fish and chips." God Bless.

A Foot Of Snow, Non-existent Sidewalks, And Foreigners From Toronto

Wednesday night seemed oddly silent as I lay in bed staring at the stars all around my room in their various constellations, any light from the streets blocked out by a set of blinds and heavy curtains. However sleep did not overcome as I listened as hard as I could for the sound of snow falling. Of course anyone would find this absurd and pointless, but my excitement overruled my sense of logic and there I was hardly able to sleep. The next morning I awoke to find a few texts on my phone saying "SNOW!" and other comments on the weather along with a phone call I'd missed from Daniel. Daniel and I'd discussed our doubts for the snow that had been forecast to come the previous evening over steaming beverages at Starbucks, but with the texts and phone call only about 0.01% of my doubts remained. Calling Daniel back with my mind still groggy from sleep he urged me to look out the window and dragging my zombified body over to the window I peeked out thinking to see only a thin layer of snow dusting the earth. However, such was not the case. A whole foot of snow had blanketed the entire backyard covering the two soccer balls, that had fatefully landed in our yard from the kids across our fence, completely. Snow still swirled about in the air and the grey pavement I could normally see from my window was nowhere to be found. Thank goodness I'd gone grocery shopping on Tuesday. Classes were cancelled, Daniel and I would have an entire snow day to play N64 and play in the snow until we went to the Muppets that evening. My hopes dwindled of having a snow day when I read the buses weren't running and I'd be stuck in my house alone to catch up on homework or chores. An update at the 11:00 brought my hopes up as classes would be cancelled all day and the buses would resume their routes at 1:00. Daniel had other plans however and trekked up the hill with no sidewalks to my house in heavy snow that left him soaking wet. Alas we would have a snow day. The day did consist of N64, shoveling snow/making a snowman and lastly going to The Muppets with Liz and Daniel. Friday came and the snow resumed its position on the side of the roads where plows had thoughtfully pushed it into mountains impassible to pedestrians. Now...I pause here to steal my sister's words..."[Newfoundland] is such an odd little place." I think she summed it up in that simple sentence. One would think they'd be right on the idea of clearing pathways for pedestrians who 1. have to trek through knee high snow in windy, winter conditions and 2. have to brave getting hit by cars on a regular basis. Such does not seem the case. It is now Sunday and pathways are still not cleared and I don't find it uncommon to see pedestrians walking along the side of busy, narrow streets. Thankfully Daniel wrote an email to the city council and maybe this issue will be corrected. Last night was probably one of the best nights I've spent here in NL so far. We decorated the house for Christmas. It started out as productive evening with Angie, Daniel, Liz and I around the kitchen table discussing all sorts of topics, from the plural of Octopus to nicknames of "foreigners". We determined Angie needs a quotes section on my blog and I will be doing my best from here on out to include whatever witty sayings she comes up with on my blog at the end. We then split up, Angie leaving for the library on a funny note, Daniel marking papers, Liz reading and studying and me baking cinnamon buns and cleaning the kitchen/fridge. By the time Angie returned from the library we were all itching to break out the Christmas music, egg nog, light Christmas-y smelling candles and begin decorating with the decorations hidden within our freezing basement. At 12:00 we finished, taking pictures and grinning sleepily at the sight of our transformed living room. Christmas is coming soon and I know I'm excited to head home for the holidays to spend time with family and friends while sipping on some egg nog and eating Christmas treats. The stores are beginning to get busy and it seems like there's a light at the end of the tunnel with classes wrapping up this week. I hope all is well wherever you are reading this and that you too have or will have the joy of spending time with family/friends while decorating your house/a room for the Christmas holidays. I apologize for the lack of humor in my blog as I am exhausted for some reason today. I did want to write a blog for you all though before exams start up and final assignments are being scribbled down. So, now, I present to you (what Angie would like to call): Classic Angie's Quotes -"Okay I got one: if the plural of goose is geese, would the plural of douche be deese? As in "man look at all those deese bags." -Angie: "He's a foreigner." Us: "Where's he from?" Angie: "I donno...Toronto." - "They look good! They don't look like wieners..." (discussing the cinnamon buns in the oven)

Daylight Savings Conclusion...Darkness Comes Faster

The explosion of fizzles that erupt in your mouth when you take a large swig of craved, healthy juice causes a plethora of protests to burst through your entire body. If you’re lucky your gag reflex will kick in and force the fermenting juice so hard against the inside of your lips it’ll spray out in the sink you’ve hopefully ran to. However such was not the case with me as I took that craved drink and forced it past my pharynx and down my esophagus. (That is…if that is the actual path it takes to make it to one’s stomach…)

All that escaped from my mouth was a groan that surely came from my stomach in protest. It was like I’d picked a beautiful daisy out of the ground and found it actually had cactus thorns all down the stem. It was like I was walking down on the boardwalk on a sunny day and a lightning strike shot through the air striking me before water poured down upon me. It…was…like…I hadn’t had a drink in years and had taken a drink of what was an illusion to be crystal clear water and found mud in my mouth.

Needless to say the juice ended up being poured down the drain quickly and the carton tossed aside so that it was out of mind. However the bubbles in my stomach still remind me of the horrid, unexpected fizziness ruining my drink.

I found myself once again coming out of Sobey’s in hopes I would catch the bus. I’ve determined 30 minutes is the exact time I need to whiz around the grocery store with my cart skidding around corners while I’m swiping things off the shelves as I zoom by into my cart. This is a slight problem when the bus that drops me off is slightly late, say 5 minutes. I then only have 25 minutes to race through the store getting what I need and forgetting the majority of it. So today this was the case and I came out walking across the wet parking lot and frowning at the slight rain that was ruining the perfectly good (weather-wise) day. The bus wasn’t at the stop and I figured I was safe as I’d left the store right at 4:14, having a minute to get to the bus stop. It’s rare the buses here are on time or ahead…however I’ve been proved wrong a few times now with that theory.

Just as I was attempting to trot across the parking lot just to be safe the bus appeared. Horror struck my heart, adrenaline flowing through my veins as I became desperate. I was still half way to the bus stop and my arms were loaded down with 20 lb shopping bags that wouldn’t allow my legs to move any faster than a slight hoppy jog. No! Stop! Coursed through my brains, my telepathic connection attempting to connect with the driver’s once again. I sighed a sigh of relief when it did stop at the stop but I was still too far away. I couldn’t wave my arms let alone lift the bags up a few inches off the ground.

The doors closed.

The bus accelerated.

My eyes were wide and about to burst into tears.

“No no no no no no no.” I repeated to myself like a mad person.

With a sigh of defeat I let my shoulder’s slump forward and headed instead for the sidewalk a few feet in front of the bus stop in hopes the driver would see me, to the stop itself. BUT ALAS! The bus stopped! The woman opened the door with a smile and my own face lit up, my shoulder’s straightening as I headed down the small hill onto the bus, thanking her profusely.

I must say that my adventures with the bus and groceries is one of the most exciting of my week. This past weekend my house was filled with wonderful people from church playing N64 and Risk; a night of fun and laughter. Daniel and I headed downtown today to enjoy the warm weather and found ourselves walking around after eating and talking about ships and the Occupy protests occurring and many other things. We were interviewed down by the harbour where the Occupy protestors had set up tents and I embarrassed myself on the news/newspaper or whatever that interview was going on as I have no idea what I think about this whole Occupy business let alone know anything about it.

St. John’s is treating us all well and is giving us a week of lovely weather (crosses fingers). Classes are busy as there’s only 4 or so weeks left of school and I find myself flipping pages of books in desperation to determine what my term paper for Russian Literature is going to be. Overall it’s going well though and I do hope all is well back where you are. I must be going to make chicken alfredo in hopes it’ll cure my stomach of the bubbles.
Farewell!

Weather Bomb!

When one awakes to the sound of wind whipping around the house as though a cyclone were threatening to tear off the siding and burst through the wood holding a house together, they find it quite...exciting. Yes I said exciting. Why do I say that, you might ask. Well...one has to take Newfoundland weather with a different view then you'd take most province's, region's or country's weather. That is because Newfoundland weather can't make up its bloody mind. Last week I was walking around in a light sweater and tank top, my window open at night to let in the light, consistent breeze that seems to plague this giant rock, and today the clouds threw down sleet! One thing I have learned here on Newfoundland is that if there is a "weather bomb" in the weather forecast...bunker down. This is what The Weather Network explained this weather phenomena that we experienced two days ago. Now I suggest you go to this link -> http://www.theweathernetwork.com/index.php?product=glossary&pagecontent=glossaryindex&pagecontent=weatherbomb and read up on what a Weather Bomb is exactly. If you figure out what they're saying, please inform me. All I know is that when I went out that morning to catch the bus in the heavily drizzling and intensely windy day I almost blew away. Out of the one hurricane, one post-tropical storm, and one weather bomb I've experienced so far, the weather bomb was definitely the most surprising. Unlike the other two it definitely lived up to its name. So what happened after the bomb hit? I'd say something similar to a post-weather bomb winter. Winds continued to pound the island on Thursday and Daniel and I found ourselves struggling to open doors and attempting to stay indoors as much as possible to avoid the rather wet day. A short while of this had me resorting to look at the weather on the trusty Weather Network site only to see a winter storm watch. It was like a big sign slapping me right on the forehead. "Welcome To Newfoundland!" ...so this was what the Newfoundlanders had been complaining about all this time. Wow. I can't believe I wrote that much on weather and still feel like I could go on for eons describing to you what it's like to live on a rock weather-wise. But onto other matters. Classes are fantastic and despite looming deadlines and tests that are creeping up slowly, I'm falling more in love with each of my classes every day. I can only hope that the next semester continues on this well. Health-wise I've been rather out of it lately. A horrible spell of stomach sickness has been cast upon me and I've been attempting to eliminate things in my diet to see if it helps any. I started with dairy products and think I'd rather deal with sickness than give up the joys of dairy. OH! I should mention...while having various tests done due to this sickness I, Yvette, was able to sit in a chair in the hospital, all by myself, and have blood drawn into various vials! Now if you don't know me well, you wouldn't know the process of drawing blood from any of my veins has led me to losing consciousness every time (except once when I was so excited to be let out of emerge that I didn't even notice they'd taken my blood). Don't start with the "it's only a needle". I get that part. I can take a hundred needles before I take blood. I don't know what it is, it just happens. Asides from that I am still waiting to hear about my test results in hopes I can have this resolved and hoping it's only a bug not some allergy as I would enjoy eating cheese again. Onto other news....if any of you hear from my parents or about them, please inform me of what is going on in their lives. It seems I told them that they were calling too often and then decided to get more social lives than I have and I can't get a hold of them ever. If only for one night I could sit and have a cup of tea while talking on the phone with them....alas I will have to wait till Christmas arrives. I do apologize for the awkwardness of this post and lack of exciting details. My life's been busy, but I do not feel you would be interested in small things like the assignments I've been writing, the books I've been reading and the linguistic properties I've been discussing. I do hope you are all well and wish that some day we will meet up and have tea and discuss your life rather than mine. I do miss you all and pray that things are going well in your lives. Tschuss

An Unoriginal Title

The dread that passes through one's mind when they walk out from some building to see the bus pulling away from their stop, is indescribable. It turns your stomach and twists it and thoughts of shouting frantically and waving your arms dramatically course through your mind. Such thoughts flooded my mind as I exited Sobey's this afternoon, but alas I found I could no wave my arms frantically as my hands were weighed down by heavy grocery bags. The thoughts of their contents flying in all directions outweighed those of attempting to halt the departing bus. So I resorted to catching the bus driver's gaze and telepathically communicate to him that the reason I was trekking across the Soby's parking lot to no particular car was because I did indeed need his assistance of transportation. Unfortunately my telepathic skills failed me and I thus had to wait thirty minutes at the deserted bus stop. A once wonderfully warm autumn day had turned into a breezy, cool day and left my hair tossled and my fingers quite cool. The thought of snow not coming till January only dampened my thoughts further as I am extatic for the first snow. I've been told the falls are long here however and I believe it as only about half of the deciduous trees have lost their leaves while the others are still changing colour. So what's been happening in my life here in St. John's? Quite a lot actually. Classes have ramped up and are in full swing with the semester already half way over. The assignments are finally coming and I find myself continually turning pages to finish 5 Russian novels for my Russian literature course with the final research paper looming in my mind with each chapter. Details on that exciting paper are sure to come...that is once I discover my topic that I'll write on and hope the prof enjoys enough to give me a satisfactory mark. Fortunately I do not have any midterms currently and am only expecting one to happen sometime between now and Christmas in my Russian language course. I have an odd doubt that it'll actually happen though. Memorizing my dictionary of 1500 words is coming along alright as long as I don't fall behind and find myself baffled and lost in a jumble of impossibly hard words to pronounce, let alone memorize the meaning of. It gets stressful at times. As the majority of you have heard...yes there is a boyfriend. His name is Daniel and he is doing his masters of/in philosophy. Who knew I'd get to know a pre-philosopher so well? Otherwise I find myself stressing out over the smallest things as people around me seem to be flooded with various exams and assignments to be done. Updates on that will also come as time progresses. I do hope all of you are living wonderful lives and will continue to do so until I am graced by your presence. Cheers.

My First "Hurricane"

So I'm sure you're all dying to know how the hurricane was that some of you might have heard about. Well I just want to clear a few things up that the media seemed to blow out of proportion on the weather network. First off....they had reason to blow it out of proportion after hurricane Igor tore through NL last year, killing 2 people (as I was told). So dreading waking up on Friday morning and trekking out to the bus during my first hurricane I prepared my rain coat and debated on wearing rubber boots and whether or not to take an umbrella. Now I must pause here and mention how late my bus seems to always be and that's around 15-20 mins. But being hopeful I decided my rain coat would suffice and I'd leave the others behind because A. who wants to wear rubber boots all day (not that I haven't...and I'll have you know I actually wore them on the plane here), but they get hot in non-humid places...I can't imagine what they'd be like here all day. And B. an umbrella wasn't going to stand up in hurricane force winds if it can't even stand normal winds in Alberta. So I slung my (thankfully) heavy backpack onto my back and headed out the door, expecting to be greeted by pelting rain and whipping winds. However to my joy I found this not the case and headed for the bus stop, hoping that with my luck so far, the bus would arrive on time. I was getting ahead of myself. It was raining and though it wasn't as windy as I imagined a hurricane would be the rain was falling at an angle and the wind chilled you to the bone once you became wet. 20 mins later and I climbed onto a humid hot bus that was stuffy and filled with other wet people. As the day proceeded it seemed to look worse outside and I found my jeans sticking to my legs and taking forever to dry because of the excessive humidity. By lunch I was in the cafeteria staring out the panoramic view of a....street and part of the campus, watching the rain and wind bend branches. I was frequently checking my university email to see if there were any cancellations, having no idea what was going on or what to expect. And then a woman called out something in her heavy Newfie accent of which I didn't catch a single word. So I sat confused and glancing around at the other confused students who I'm sure didn't understand a word either even if they were Newfoundlanders. Asking a girl next to me, however, revealed the truth. The campus was closing down in a half hour and everyone had to go home. Panic began to set in as I climbed from my chair and headed for the bus, climbing back onto it, this time more crammed then ever and headed for home. Once again I didn't find the winds, that horrible as I walked back home from the bus stop. Arriving at home I found no one else around and thus moved to my room and bunkered down, glancing out my window once and a while. The day proceeded however without much happening besides some rain and a bit of wind, but nothing as I'd imagined. I did however notice the eye of the storm when it became oddly calm and the sun poked through the clouds for a moment or two and I completely understand why people would get stuck in the eye of a storm. It was so tempting to go outside and just take a look at why it had become so calm so fast. And then it started up again. By nightfall the hurricane had passed and the clouds were clearing, but the wind was relentless. The next morning was more windy then I'd ever experienced it here yet. So there you have it....a detailed experience of my first "hurricane". It's a joke really now, people making witty comments about "surviving" last Friday. Classes are beginning to pick up and I'm just realizing how much reading I have to do this semester and won't have much of a life besides reading. I'm very excited if the books are all as intriguing as the novel, Eugene Onegin, of which I am almost finished. Church is wonderful and I enjoy going every week and think about it all through the week. Thankfully they're starting a bible study on Thursday nights that I am gladly going to attend and enjoy (hopefully ;) )). Well that's pretty much the summary of my life the past week. The roommates are lovely, the house is working out great and I'm really getting into my studies. Making friends is slowly coming along as well, most of them being at church and with my roommates. It'll come though. :) God Bless.

Spinning causes sickness even if you have a fixed point

So I've made it through a week of being here in St. John's on my own. My food supply has run low and my health is slowly returning to me after battling with a cold this past week. It was a nice "Welcome back to school gift" from the new germs of the province my body has never been exposed to. Fortunately I made it through and am pushing on through this week, excited about my studies. My Russian prof has climbed his way up the ladder to best prof this semester as I have fallen once again in love with the Russian language. Who thought they could love grammar?! Not me...but I certainly do when it comes to Russian. I believe that passion will only grow more with better health and focus. It also helped that he cancelled today's (Monday) classes so I was able to sleep in this morning and catch up on rest. My body seems to have finally adjusted to the time change and I am finding insomnia becoming my friend once again as well as homesickness. I've traveled enough to know that the first week, two weeks and even month are brutally hard on one's mental health in the fact one will yearn for what they are used to. "What am I doing on the most Easter point of Canada where I don't know a soul?" has been running through my head the past week and as much as I've been able to push it away and ignore it, it crept up on me once again. Confronting the issue and talking it out with a friend has helped me see that I'd be in the same situation no matter where I was at this point. Friends of the past have moved on as well to find other friends and I'm just starting late. I trust that God has put me in the right place after many prayers and I will find a place here. Classes don't seem to be too rough yet, but I imagine once we delve into our studies a bit further I will be slogged down with quite a bit of homework, the worst being the endless essays I seem to have. The thought of adding a fifth class to my schedule has ran through my mind many times this past week, but I've finally decided I'll take this first semester to just settle down and get used to things and find a routine. Still considered a full time student with four courses is enough for me. The weather is still something I'm not used to as it is constantly windy here and freezing one day then hot and humid the next. Clouds seem to pass by much too quickly and low for comfort, but never seem to bring that much rain. The sun's been shining and I thank God for that as I fear I'd be depressed without it at this point in my journey as I attempt to sort through the confusion and foreign world around me. But do not fear! I'm no where near giving up yet and I'm enjoying my time in St. John's so far. Peace.

Swirling clouds and plugged nasal cavities

The pounding of rain against the window screen came much too quickly for my clouded head last night as I sat on my bed writing. Technically I sat on the mattress and box spring (? That is what it's called...?) on the floor of the spare bedroom, but it was still half of "my" bed. My room, next to the spare, was being taped and prepped for painting by Angie and her dear mother. A tickle in the left side of my nose made me cringe with fear at the thought of getting sick and I passed it off as bad allergies that wouldn't go away despite how many Reactin I'd taken. So, afraid I wouldn't sleep the night before classes began, I popped 3 melatonin into my mouth and lay my head down in a hot bed. The humidity and heat of the previous days had worn me out as I fell asleep rather quickly once my head touched the pillow. My eyes had continually flickered to the sky expecting thunderstorms all week with this kind of weather, but being so close to the ocean one needs to remind themselves that such would not be the case. The growing humidity level however only triggered thoughts of rain in everyone and even an older lady sitting on the bus next to me shook her head and stated "looks like rains coming" with her heavy accent that caused me to lean closer so that I might hear clearer. And so the rain came...thankfully after my two days of pointless orientation. Hundreds of bodies packed into a "cool" gym that only grew hotter with the addition of more people. Loud music and voices blared out of speakers trying to get the audience "pumped" for school and filled with school spirit. I suddenly felt like I'd been thrown back into grade nine orientation or a pep rally in high school. Unorganized and the day too jam packed with activities, I soon found myself lost within the crowd and leaving through the nearest exit in an attempt to calm myself down from having a panic attack. Who needed to stay for campus tours anyway? My classes were within two buildings and I'd already visited both. I. Was. Set. Then the rain came. And the howling wind. I thought our house might blow down, but it seems the Newfoundlanders really know how to build a house to stand up against the weather. It didn't shift, it didn't creak, it hardly let out a crack and despite the rain pounding against the windows it wasn't noisy at all. Thoughts of whether I'd actually be able to stand at the bus stop without being blown over rattled me from my sleep and determinedly I told myself "Go back to sleep and take a taxi!". However...this did not calm my nerves and by 7.40 I was up and getting ready with a nervous feeling starting to boil in my stomach. An hour and twenty minutes later I was standing at the bus stop, not a drop of rain to be seen (despite swirling clouds whipping past at rather quick speeds), I waited patiently for my late bus. Now I've been told the bus system isn't very reliable in St. John's...but now I understand why. The traffic within this city is worse then what I counted in Calgary! I've never head so many horns blaring and so many tires screeching. It amazes me anyone can get anywhere in a vehicle. So I hopped onto the bus and had a rather terrifying bus ride as I'm already nervous in small cars and this thing was about three car lengths long. The school seemed like a different place with thousands of students wondering about the halls of the UC. I wove my way in and out of people and despite being confident about knowing where my classes were...ended up in the wrong building. But such mistakes were quickly corrected and I made my way to my firsts class, Intermediate Russian. Sitting down I did not expect a large class to begin with and simply smirked when one of the other five students mentioned how tiny the class was and wondered how they could even offer it. This was what I had hoped for, a small class so that we might all focus on what we need to and work hard on increasing our skills. Our professor...well he was interesting. His humor was as dry as dirt and his tone was rather monotonous. However I think I will enjoy the class as it is clear he knows his stuff and enjoys the topic. Opportunities already seem to be towering over us in this class. The next class, Russian Literature in Translation: Nineteenth Century, was a mystery to me. I knew I had the same professor as my Russian course and that I had a lot of books to buy. Once I came out of the class I'd discovered that we had /many/ books to read and wasn't sure how interesting it would be. But once I'd bought the first book and sat down on my two hour break, I opened Eugene Onegin written by Alexander Pushkin and can't seem to put it down since. I never thought I'd actually be interested in a novel written in poetry. So we shall see how it goes. Oh and did I mention? This professor doesn't like final exams...so I have two final exams in my other two courses. Bonus! Linguistics was...iffy. The material we will be covering is a mix of what I had completed last year, some of it I had enjoyed while others I had detested. However that goes without saying I disliked the class I was in and hope this class will be much more enjoyable. My professor was very clear in everything he said, kindly giving us the definition of every. word. he. said. It was a little slow, but it may move along once we get into it. Plus he's cancelled class on Friday, so he's near the top of favorite professors so far. Lastly English. I haven't written an essay in two years and was a bit worried about this class. But now that I've gone there, listened to the prof who was rather...cheerful, yet clearly laid down some rules, I think I'll manage. My goal for this one? Blow him out of the water with some good writing. We'll see how long that lasts however as my motivation may dwindle off at the end of the semester. Also...we have to write a weekly blog...unfortunately it has to be on topics he picks. So yes, that was my first day of school in a nut shell. My room has been painted and tomorrow I am going to sleep and drag myself around the house setting up my room and doing homework while attempting to get rid of this cold. Expect an update...in a week or so. Toodles.

St. John's, Newfoundland

Well...I made it. After a night of flying and a 3.5 hour time change I found myself walking through a small airport in a climate, not as humid as I'd expected. Climbing into a van with my parents and grandparents, I stared out the back window groggily as I hadn't had much sleep. A few hours later and I was waking up after a short nap in a mansion of a bed and breakfast that we later on thought haunted.
The week was filled with day trips and walking around not only the hills of St. John's, but some of the outports along the coast. Shells and sea-glass filled a grocery bag in the back of the van, each one being looked at slowly. Accents drifted around us in a murmur, all blending together so that none of it made sense. Bush whipped past the van windows as we traveled down winding highways and got lost in the city streets among tall brightly coloured houses.
It was all a bit of a shock for my system, moving into my house and getting oriented with the disorienting streets of St. John's. The university somewhat resembled the rest of the city, a jumble of buildings with confusing paths and roads with unfamiliar roads. Yet in a month all that is anew will be ordinary life. School books will fill my half empty room and the empty halls of the university buildings will be swarming with people.
Do I like St. John's?
So far. The humidity is lovely for the skin, the unusual sunny weather is pleasant and the rocky cliffs and neverending hills are a lovely change from flat Saskatchewan. The ocean gives off a smell of freedom and the people are the most wonderful I've met anywhere I've traveled.
I yearned to return to church all week after last Sunday and finally today arrived. The people are the most friendly I've ever met and as I was about to walk home I found myself confronted by quite a few asking if I wanted a ride or to go for dinner. Despite the fact I despise eating out and have been doing so all week, I went and had a wonderful time.
Orientation begins tomorrow and my nerves are all in a bundle as I've never attended an orientation. I figured it was the best thing though seeing as I can hardly make it to the university without getting turned around and starting off where I began. (Believe me this happened more then I could count this week.)An update may follow tomorrow or Tuesday evening.
To move away to a new province I have never visited and know no one is quite an adventure. It was a large step out of the nest and I'm going to grasp each moment I can to the fullest. My strength wavers at time but with God at my side I feel this will be a good change.