The Best of What's Around

Hey guys. What's up? You may be wondering "Rachel, where are your blog posts about Europe". Or you may not be wondering that. You may have totally forgotten that I went there or that I promised to write about it. And now I have reminded you. Damn.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) for you, this is not a blog post about Europe. This is a post about my "mini blog". Yes, I have succumbed to the dark side...Twitter.

Half of my readers already know what Twitter is and are already subscribed to me. The other half probably don't want anything to do with this new-ish nerdy internet tool. What it is ? It is mini updates about what is going on in my life at any given moment - in 140 characters or less.

"Why do I really want to know what you are doing at any given moment in the day", you ask. Well, I do some pretty awesome stuff. And my life is thrilling. Or not. But I find that it helps me be connected to those who are far away from me.

You can update from your computer or cell phone. That means that any craziness I come across on the streets of Montreal, you can read about in real time and not three months later when I finally get around to blogging about it.

So are you interested? I bet you are! Go to www.twitter.com for more information and if you are interested in "following" me, search for Rachel Vanneste. We can be twitter friends!

I, however, cannot condone the use of the term "tweet". Yes, that is what it is called when you send an update. I refuse to tweet. Period.

"If I follow along, does it mean I belong?" - Blue man group with Dave Matthews

Labels: 2008, rachel, technology

Prior to my trip to Barcelona this spring, I had previously visited this city in March 2000. It was strange and fun to come back to the city. There were a number of times where I would suddenly come upon a street and a memory from when I was 19 years old would come rushing back.

So having visited the city before, I didn't feel the need to be a hard core tourist. I felt that I could enjoy the conference, go visit some of my favourite sites and, most importantly, gorge on sangria and tapas. Glorious.

So the main reason that I went to Spain was to go to the European Meeting of Psychosocial Aspects of Genetics, which was apart of the European Society of Human Genetics Conference. It was a pretty decent conference and it was really interesting to see how the genetics services in other countries compare to those Canada/US. The main reason that I went to this conference was to present my poster for my Masters project.

Yes, I totally matched it on purpose. I planned my outfit weeks in advance. I am a planner.

There was also a congress party that was organized by the conference. It was fun - the food was great and the drinks were free-poured. It isn't easy getting up for 8:30 am talks after a night of half-cup malibus the night before.

"Hey" you say. "Who is that blond girl?" Well, that is Meghan and she is a GC out of Halifax. We arranged to be roommates via email before having met each other. Luckily, we got along quite well (which is thankful considering our twin beds were pushed together every night that we returned to our hotel room). We got along fabulously and had similar senses of humor, as illustrated in the pic below.

Yes, we are doing the shopping cart and yes, we are looking at our cans. Honestly, I do not believe that the photo was choreographed. I would like to think that she is (almost) as dorky as I am!

This photo doesn't quite capture the awesomeness that is a hundreds of geneticists (researchers, MDs), grad students, genetic counsellors and other famous people dancing to the best Spanish Cover band singing songs from the 80s. I have never quite seen people rock out like they did there. It was too awesome to describe. So I won't.


So that was the conference. Three cheers for learning! I will follow-up with another post detailing the fantastic-ness of Barcelona in general.

"Hani Hani, come and dance for me, underneath the moonlight. Hani Hani come and dance for me"- DMB

Labels: conference, rachel, trip

It has been a long time since I didn't understand the language of the city/country I was visiting. I almost forgot what it was like to not understand anything that is going on around you (and it made me empathize with Jeff a bit :P ).

I went to Barcelona, Spain for five days. It was my second visit to the city and I quite liked it - the city is nice, the food is good and the people are very helpful (and understanding). Thank goodness for that. Within ten minutes of entering the country, I ran into trouble with the language.

I am on the train from Marseille to Barcelona. I, being the planner that I am, bought my train ticket in Canada before I left to ensure that I had a way to the conference. I got the ticket on sale, which was awesome. Go me, the bargain shopper.

When we cross the France-Spain border, someone comes around and checks our tickets. I whip mine out, expecting no problem; however, instead I hear:

"blah blah blah (in Spanish)".

"Perdón" I reply - having no idea what the man is saying to me.

"Ticket. You need euro-rail pass for ticket".

It is at this point that I start to panic. I do not have a euro-rail pass - this is the ticket that Travel Cuts sold me. They told me they had a sale on. I try to explain to the train man that I don't have a pass, this was all that was sold to me, please don't kick me off the train. At this point, some nice man starts acting as a translator and the end result is me paying 22 euros. Oh well, paying money was better than getting kicked off the train.

So, that was my first few minutes in Spain. My first morning in Spain, I also ran into trouble with the language. You see, in Europe, they don't have what I consider normal coffee. And I, being lactose intolerance, am not going to have a "café con leche". So I walk to a coffee shop at 9:30 am and look at the menu trying to find the closest thing to a regular coffee. I see café Colombian and café Brasilian. To me, these seemed like brewed coffees so I went for it. I order a café Brasil.

I watch the woman make me a coffee and then I start to panic. Oh. My. God. Did she just put liquor in the coffee? It is 9:30 am! What did I just order? Can I run away? She comes to me with the coffee and tries to charge me 4 euro for it and I knew the café Brasil was only 1,50 euros. I say "no. café Brasil". Apparently this second attempt at saying Brasil was better than the first because she understands me and makes me the coffee. Unfortunately, it is not a normal coffee but is the strongest cup of espresso I have ever had. I went with it.

So good times with the language, and Spanish being a language that I can somewhat get by in because it is so closely related to French. I am sure you can only imagine how well I did when I was in Japan a few years ago.

" But sometimes this thick confusion grows until I cannot bear it at all" - DMB

Labels: rachel, travel

I have officially worked for six whole days and so far so good. It is strange to think that I am now officially in my "work until I can retire" phase of life. Let the 35 year count-down begin!

I will be honest - on that first day, the French kind of broke my brain. I had just gotten home from SK and was all of a sudden immersed in the French health care system. But it has gotten easier in the last week, so I imagine it can only get easier still.

I am working in a very busy prenatal clinic. As a student, the most patients I saw in any given week was 8. However, in this clinic, I will be seeing around 18 per week. It is a huge increase in the case load, but I am looking forward to the challenge. I work with really great people who understand that I am a fresh graduate and are allowing me to pick up the load slowly, however, the other two counsellors go on holidays in mid-June and I have to be able to take the reigns.

And so far, Jeff and I are coping well with the distance. I think it helps that I was home for three weeks before I started work. He'll be here for two weeks in June, as well. Awesome.

So that is my brief update from my first week. I worked so hard in the last week that I feel I need a 1.5 week vacation. I am headed to Barcelona, Spain for a conference - should be great and I get to present a poster. I will tell you how that trip goes when I get back.

I also want to thank everyone who have dropped me a line with a kins message in the past few weeks - I have fabulous friends and you have been such great support. I truly appreciate it.


" Sing and dance i play for you tonight, the thrill of it all. Dark clouds may hang on me sometimes but i work it out." - DMB

Labels: Montreal, rachel

So, back when I was a student (whoot), I spent a month in Ottawa. I was doing a rotation at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO). I had a good time during the rotation but I had an even better time with the wonderful friends who allowed me to stay with them.
Tracy and Chris were great hosts and allowed me to stay with them for a month. Their house is awesome and their company is even better.

I tried a bunch of things for the first time while I was there: Pho, Rayman Raving Rabbids and snowshoeing! I quite enjoyed snowshoeing and it was actually more of a work out than I expected. It was a nice day so we took a picnic lunch with us. We had originally planned to hike to a cabin, but 10 km was more than we expected and we just sat in the snow and enjoyed our wine, brie, baguette and grapes.

During the month of February in Ottawa, the Winterlude festival is on. There are plenty of fun winter activities to partake in during Winterlude. Ice sculptures to look at and snow mazes to go through - what isn't there to do at a winter festival?




While I was in Ottawa, I also got to do the quintessential Canadian winter activity: I skated on the Ottawa Canal. I hadn't skated in years but I didn't do too badly. I only fell roughly six times.

Seriously, like I really wanted to see that sign.

I also dog sat their dog while they were away for the weekend. Lola is a cute dog with a lot of personality. She demands to be loved. She will whine for hours if you don't love her. She is needy, but makes up for it by loving you.

I had a good time in Ottawa, but I was also excited for it to come to an end, as Jeff was coming back out East after eight weeks apart. At the time, eight weeks felt like sooo long, but now with us being separated full time, I am sure in hindsight, this will have felt like a piece of cake.

" I love you oh so well, like a kid loves candy and fresh snow" - DMB

Labels: 2008, GC girls, ottawa, rachel, tracy and chris

So, a few months ago (October) Jeff and I and our friends Tracy and Chris went to New York for Thanksgiving. We had a fabulous time, aside from a few errors in judgment. You may have also read Jeff's version of the trip which is his more condensed version of the trip.

Luckily for us, New York is only a six hour drive from Montreal. Awesome. We drive out Friday morning and we get to our apartment in...Harlem. Yes, we stayed in Harlem. Apparently in the last few years it has be rejuvenated and is not the same place that movies and tv of the 80s and 90s have told us to fear.
Our first day saw us walking around and taking in some of the sights and shopping at Macy's. I am not someone who typically loves a big city but everything they say about New York is true. It has this amazing energy and you can't help but fall in love with it.

Jeff took this awesome panoramic photo. I think he did an awesome job with it.

We sorted out how to use their subway system. Montreal has 4 lines - New York has 26. So it was a bit more complex than I am used to. And there were rats. Actual rats in the subway. Disgusting.

That night, we had 11 pm reservations at a nice Italian place. 11 pm reservations. I basically had to eat supper to tide me over until supper. The food was good and Jeff ate black spaghetti.

Day two had us going to Central Park. We only got to stay there for a couple of hours and I wish we had more time to spend there - it was gorgeous. If I lived in New York, I think I would be at the park quite frequently.
After the park, we headed to Time Square and enjoyed ate a vendor hot dog. It was not as good as I expected. Considering the amount of times I've seen people order them on TV, I expected them to be awesome. They were menh.

After the hot dogs, we went to "Rent" the musical. It was quite good - I really enjoyed it. I am not too sure how many of you know much about the story, I didn't when I went, but it involves themes such as poverty, AIDS and homosexuality. There was this older couple who sat in front of us and I think it would be an understatement to say that they did NOT enjoy the show. I think that made me love it more.

That evening, we had hoped to clubbing but I am cheap and there was really no way I was going to pay 300$ for bottle service (minimum 2 bottles) with only four of us. Instead we went to a nice little lounge-y place and drank martinis for a few hours.

The next day, we did a two hour harbour cruise around the island of Manhattan. It was alright but ate up a huge part of our day. It was nice to see the statue of liberty and some of the other sights without having to actually go to them.

We also did some "shopping" on 5th Ave. Tracy and I pretended that we could afford Tiffany's jewelry and Jeff was in his element in the Apple Store. We also hit up one of the world's largest toy stores - FAO Schwartz.

I caught the golden snitch!Jeff being sorted into Slytherin.
On our last day there, Jeff and I went to the Empire State Building. It was foggy, which was awesome for us because that meant no line ups. When we got up there, you could actually see around 2 miles around, which, for us was totally worth not having to wait in line.
After the view, we went to the Met - the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was a huge museum and required more time than we could give it. Well, at least I did. Jeff's goal was to get through the whole thing in an hour and a half and although he may not have sat and contemplated any of the displays, he saw everything.
My favourite statue in the museum:
We also went to the Natural History Museum. I enjoyed this one more than the others and would have liked to spend more time here. Unfortunately we didn't have much time to spend as Jeff and I had a night bus to catch (Tracy and Chris were going on a tour of the wineries of the region...not fair).


So, overall, we had a great time. Tracy and Chris were great travel companions and New York is an amazing city. I hope to get back there once more before I leave Montreal next May.

And with this post, I believe that I have no more posts from 2007 left to do! It's about time I entered the year 2008.


" Could I have been a parking lot attendant? Could I have been a millionaire up there on fifth Avenue? Oh could I have been lost late at night somewhere in Central Park? Could I have been a mistake? Well could I have been anyone other than me?" - DMB

Labels: 2007, jeff, NYC, rachel, roadtrip, tracy and chris

Can you believe it?! I am finally done my Masters degree. It has only been 20 months since I started the degree, but I feel I have come a long way since Feb 1999 when I first heard about genetic counselling. Nine years later, here I am.

So as far as I can tell, my formal education is complete. So what now? Work...job...career. I had hoped that something might be available in Saskatchewan when I was done, but unfortunately there is not. So, plan B. I was offered, and have accepted, a one-year position here in Montreal. It is a prenatal position (meaning I would be offering my genetic counselling services to pregnant women/couples) working in the (mostly) French children's hospital. I am looking forward to doing what I love, but won't lie and say I am not nervous about the French. I am not really concerned with my ability to counsel patients in French, I am more concerned with the day to day functionings of an office in French. I am hoping that after a couple of months I will feel more comfortable.

The downside of accepting a job in Montreal is that Jeff had to return to Saskatoon and we will be living apart for a year. Yes, it sucks but if the next year goes as fast as the last, it is doable.

I haven't received an official start date for the job, so I decided that I should come home to Saskatoon for a visit. That's right - look for me from April 29th to May 9th in SK! Also, now that I have a bit more free time on my hands, I plan to update this thing a bit more - I have a few adventures left to write about (and a European adventure coming up at the end of the month ...)

So, cheers to the McGill program who accepted me, to the teachers/supervisors who taught me to do this fabulous job and to my classmates who were beside me, supporting me, the whole time.

" These years have passed us by so fast, it seems like we never got the chance to realize how good life really was, and let the moment last. And it feels like it was only yesterday, when we walked into this place and said I can't wait till I get out of here. And now as we walk down this aisle with four years all rolled up in a scroll, you can't help but think 'Hey, Where did the time go'" - DMB

Labels: 2008, GC girls, Montreal, rachel

For those of you who don't know, I play squash in the Montreal interclub squash league for McGill. I am not very good, but they needed another woman to fill a position in their D-league. I figured that there would be very few expectations for me to win so I decided to join. I haven't done too poorly this year; my record is currently 3-1.

I had a game this Wednesday and it was a bit different. The scene is this: Monteal's nicest raquet club. It was gorgeous - I have never been a club like this. The change rooms were insane; there were little vanities so that you could reapply your makeup and do your hair, nice plush chairs in which to relax, mouth wash, hairspray and other amenities available. This is not your average university gym. There are a couple of bars and lounges and it was in the cutest building ever. The only problem I had with it was it's dress code: all players must wear all white.

Seriously. In order to play one evening of squash, I had to go out and buy an all white outfit. What regular-sweating person wears white gym clothes. So my quest for finding white gym clothes began. Do you know how hard it is to find white shorts in January? Impossible. I searched 6 stores until I found a white skort. Ya, that is right. I had to wear a skort. A white, somewhat frilly skort. It was quite cute, but I am not really the type of person who plays sports in a dress. It feels too girly for me. Because I am cheap, I leave the tags on the skort. Don't judge me! I am a poor grad student and can't justify spending 30$ on a skort I will wear once, even if I wore it and sweat in it for an hour. Ya, I am disgusting, whatever.

So I needed to find a white top to go with my frilly white skort. Thankfully, my friend Stephanie had a white shirt for me. Now, I totally am very thankful for her lending me the shirt, however, I don't think this was a shirt my mother would call white. It was more of an off-white (and there may have been a small purple berry stain on it). It was not the same colour white as my skort. So my white skort, my off-white shirt...what else can I wear? I know! A black sports bra and navy socks. I looked like the most out of place player there.

So I feel like an impostor in my outfit, but it's all about the attitude. I pretend like I belong there. I think I failed. I figure I am going to get my ass kicked. Who pays crazy membership fees to play squash if they aren't going to be super awesome? My opponent arrives and she is really nice but she is totally a hot mom. Maybe late 30s and completely decked out in the cutest white lulu lemon outfit ever. I don't think my body has or will ever look as good as her's...I think I hate her totally respect her dedication to maintaining her MILF-like body.

The first game she beats me 9-2. I hate losing and I feel that this game is going to be over quickly. But wait...I come back to win the next two games 9-1 and 9-4. Go me! I only have to win one more game and victory is all mine. But it has only been two weeks since Christmas and my Christmas goodies and liquor are still clogging my system - I am not in peak physical condition. I lose the fourth game 9-0. I couldn't move anymore. Now we are tied 2-2 and I am not a good loser. I am determined to win this game and send mommy packing. The game starts - she is up 2-0 before I get the serve back. I tie the game up 2-2 but in the tying point I jump to hit a ball and twist my ankle. Smooth. So now I am a sweaty, out of shape, skort and off-white shirt wearing gimp. Awesome. I walk it off (cause I am tough) and go on to win the game. Victory is mine!

So another win for me! Three more games to go this season. Hopefully the store Winners will take my sweating skort back...

"Hike up your skort a little more, and show your world to me" - DMB

Labels: 2008, Montreal, rachel

With two days left of 2007, I may actually finish this post. Go me! Actually, I am going to be honest; I won't completely finish as I am going to do a separate New York post. There is too much goodness in New York to not give it its own post.

After Toronto, Jeff and I finished the drive back to Montreal. We settled back in the apartment. This was much less stressful than it was last year because all we had do to was move in; we didn't have to stress out and find furniture and sort out our lives.

A few weeks after we got back, Jeff's parents came for a visit. It was nice to see them and we got to show them around Montreal.







For Thanksgiving long weekend, Jeff and I went to New York with our friends Tracy and Chris. I am going to make a full post about this so here is a teaser; Jeff mugging me in Central Park:



We went to Tracy and Chris's place in Ottawa for Halloween. It was a good time; they are a lot of fun to hang out with. We also went to their place in March. They are good people to visit. We also went to a burger restaurant that has dozens and dozens of different types of burgers. They were tasty and I had a burger with Macaroni and Cheese on it. You know I loved it :)

Jeff is a hippie!



I am a hussy!



Tracy and Chris are discotastic!



After Halloween, we had a two weeks off from visitors and places to go. I had a conference in Vancouver, so flew to BC for five days. The conference was fantastic and I got to visit with Lise, Erik and Cole again. We even go to go to the CFL Western Finals - Lions against Roughriders. As you all know, SK won :P
















































At the end of November, my parents came for a visit and I went to Quebec City with them. It was nice to be able to show them around Quebec and Montreal.






























After my parents left, I finished up the last two weeks of my semester. It was a chaotic, busy two weeks but I managed to finish my semester without a major break down. I am 3/4 of the way through! I am still really enjoying it and can't wait to do it for a living.

Jeff and I, as most of you know, came back to Saskatoon for Christmas. It is a fabulous three week holiday that I really needed.

2007 was a good time and a great year. I hope that your 2007 was awesome and that your 2008 is better.

"Don't beat your head, dry your eyes,let the love in here. There are bad times, but that's ok, just look for love in it. Don't burn the day, away." - DMB

Labels: 2007, jeff, rachel, tracy and chris

I think I am going to stop this post here. Turns out we did a lot of things in the last year. By the end of 2007, I will finish part 3!

"But now I am the proudest monkey you've ever seen. Monkey see, monkey do." - DMB

Labels: 2007, jeff, Montreal, rachel

Look at me update my blog! Go Rachel! Yes, it has been awhile but I had a chaotic semester. Let me give you some of the highlights of my year. Some of the things on this list may actually get their own blog post, but I figure this is the best that I can do right now.

January 2007 started with me going back to Montreal after Christmas. 2nd semester began again and I immersed myself in my schooling. I did find some time to do some fun things: Carnaval d'hiver, snow tubing, and go to Cabane a sucre.













In April, Michelle came to Montreal for a visit. We had a fabulous time and we spent Easter weekend in Boston. It is pretty awesome that we live in a city where the closest fun big cities aren't Calgary and Edmonton, but are Boston and New York.





Around the same time that Michelle was in Montreal, some of Jeff's friends were in town for a visit. Sean, Andrews and Sean/Stubbs all made their appearance in Montreal.





At the end of April, we drove back to Saskatchewan. I am stealing this quote from my friend Shannon's blog. She stole it from the author Yan Martel. This is how I felt when we drove back to the prairies after a year out East:

“If you’ve never been, the south of Saskatchewan is so flat the horizon is perceptibly round. Above you, during the day, lords an immense dome of sky so empty it feels like a fullness, with clouds the size of mountains, the sun but a small disk, and a depth of colour that is often chalk blue, oh so chalk blue. At night this reassuring curtain of blue is pulled away and you realize where you really are: at infinity’s doorstep. A plain is what a mountain aims to be: the closest you can come to being in outer space while yet having your feet on this planet.

The language of the plain is the wind. It carries sweetness and fragrance, the wealth of the earth. It is a soothsayer, herald of storm and change of season. And the wind speaks. When you walk in a plain, gusts of words blow through your head, words that have travelled over the surface of the planet. “
- Yann Martel, Self

It was so nice to come home. I do love the prairies.

After I got home, I took a plane to Victoria, where I spent a month working in the Victoria General Hospital. This is a beautiful city and I had a great time there working and spending time with family. Lise and Erik came up from Vancouver and spent the May long weekend with me. We went to Saltspring Island, which was also quite cute.









After my month in Victoria, I went to Vancouver to visit with Lise, Erik and Cole for a week. I also got to visit with some friends that I met in Australia back in 2001. It is always awesome to see old friends.








That was the first half of my 2007. There were many events that warranted their own blog post (me going to visit my friends in Vancouver) but, as I proved with my honeymoon post, I am not awesome at staying up to date. The remainder of 2007 will follow soon...

"Celebrate we will, because life is short but sweet for certain. We're climbing two by two, to be sure these days continue" - DMB

Labels: 2007, BC, jeff, lise and erik, Montreal, rachel

It's been a year in the making but I am finally finishing up my honeymoon post! To all you nay-sayers who indicated that I wouldn't be finished before the one year anniversary of our trip, moo hahaha!

So where did I leave off? We said goodbye to Sean and left Halifax. Again, thanks to Parks Canada, we had free entry into Kejimkujik National Park. It took me forever to learn how to say that properly. Any ways, we went on a nice six kilometer hike through the Hemlocks and Hardwoods. This trail had 300 year old trees, which were quite big (well, at least when compared to Saskatchewan trees). Here is a few glorious tree pictures.


Jeff is a tree hugger.



Guess why Jeff liked the following picture. Could it be the boob shaped knot near the top? No, he is much too mature for that.



I took this picture because Jeff can't tell that it is more than one colour. Haha, I mock his disability :P


And as a recurring theme of our honeymoon, here is another waterfall! You'd think that because we like them so much, we would have gone to Niagra Falls, the honeymoon capital of the world, but no.


We camped over night in the park. And by camp, I mean we slept in the back of the RAV4 and watched TV shows on the laptop. If only all camping were like that. Screw setting up a tent!

The following day we left the park and went to the Kejimkujik Seaside Adjunct. It is a couple hours drive from the actual park and protects part of Nova Scotia's cost. There is not much to do here except one hike. It was a good hike and I enjoyed the adjunct.


Jeff's obsession with taking pictures of birds. You know he is going to turn into an old man who spends his time bird-watching.

Sick!

Yay Sea lions!


Yay love!

He is a climbing machine. I think he almost hurt himself...true story.

It's been so long that I don't even recall where we slept that night. The following day we took the ferry from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia across to Maine and drove back to Montreal through the States. We didn't take any pictures. We had driven over 4000 km in the last three weeks. We were tired. Thank God I am done the honeymoon. Now I can blog about more recent events, such as the past summer!

"What do you remember, before the sea was rough and the sky was grey. Oh but not today, not today, cuz it's a good good time tonight" - DMB

Labels: 2006, honeymoon, jeff, rachel

So, as many of you know, I spent four weeks in Victoria doing an external rotation for my Masters degree. I spent four weeks at the Victoria General Hospital and the time went by pretty fast. I lived with family while I was there and got to visit a whole bunch of extended relatives. I also got to visit with Lise and Erik who came up from Vancouver. Here is a summary (in pictures) of my time in Victoria.

Family:


I got to stay with my cousin-once-removed and her family. It was good times. They took care of me, fed me and toured me around a lot. I also have a some great-aunts and uncles that I rarely get to see. It was nice spending time with everyone.

Friends:

Erik and Lise came up and spent the Victoria day long weekend with me (Victoria day in Victoria!). We toured around downtown Victoria and the inner harbour. We also went to the Craigdocch castle. Good times being tourists.

We also went to Salt Spring Island. It is a Gulf Island and their claim to fame is having all these studios that sell food and goods that are made on the island. We had a good time touring around the island and I spent some money that I didn't have. I bought some fabulous blackberry port which tasted like blackberry pie...with a kick. Fantastic!

I did get to see quite a bit of Victoria and the surrounding area. It is a beautiful city and I wouldn't mind living there if I could afford the ridiculous cost of living. Here are just a few more pictures of the fabulous city.

This is a slug. Seriously. I had no idea that slugs could get that big. My mind was blown.

Victoria was great. Soon I will right about Vancouver. And when I say soon, I mean in six months :P

""Whatcha got, whatcha got in your hand" the father said to son. "I got the whole world here daddy, ’tween my fingers and my thumb. Will you take care of it please, it's the only one.
It'd take me a lifetime old man, to undo whatcha done "" - DMB

Labels: 2007, BC, lise and erik, rachel, roadtrip

I can hear the four of you who regularly read my blog say "Seriously? Seriously? Are you actually going to continue talking about your honeymoon? Its been over nine months since you went and if you haven't gotten through it now, give up". I reply to you "NO!" It may take me a year, but I will finish writing about the honeymoon. It has been long enough since you may have read Jeff's condensed version of the trip, so I feel that it may feel new to you.

So, day five, six and seven were spent in Halifax. We drove from Cape Breton National Park, through the city of Sydney and help move Sean to Halifax where he got a new job. We went to the Keg that night. I don't remember much except for that they didn't have Keg sauce. What?! Grocery stores carry Keg sauce and yet, the Keg doesn't have Keg sauce. Broken.

On day 6, we played tourist. We went to the Halifax Citadel. Blah blah blah, history, blah blah blah, war, blah blah blah. The citadel did stuff and now it is a Canadian National Historic Site.




You may want to mock these guys for having to wear these outfits, but I am guessing they are getting paid quite a bit of money to look the way they do. Yay government jobs!





After the Citadel, we walked around and did more tourist stuff. We went and looked at some of the graves of the Titanic victims - morbid, I know. However, at the graveyard, they used the grave stones and made a pattern of the Titanic's hull.





Afterwards we went to the Halifax Public Gardens. If I remember correctly, it is the oldest public gardens in Canada. I could be wrong



This night, as well as the following night, we stayed at the Prince George Hotel. I wanted at least part of our honeymoon to be romantic so this was the romantic thing that we did. We had the "Romance Package" and it was pretty awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed our stay there and wish that we could afford to stay in nice places all the time.

On day 7, we went to Peggy's Cove. It is outside of Halifax and is a cute place to visit. It is one of the most photographed places in Canada (or when you see pictures of Canada, this is often among them). Here are some of the photos that we took. Good times.















Can you believe it! Three more days of the honeymoon finished. I may be through it all before August.
"Oh, Great Light of Love" - DMB

Labels: 2006, honeymoon, jeff, rachel, sean

If you read both mine and Jeff's blog, this may be a re-hash of his entry. I put more pictures so you can at least have pretty things to look at if you have already read the story.

Back when I was in Montreal, Michelle came out and visited us for a week. She was going to be there for nine days. I figured that Montreal is great and all, but that is a lot of time in one place. I told her to bring her passport and I would see what I could organize. She arrived late Thursday night and by 7:05 Saturday morning, we were on our way to Boston. As most of you are aware, I am a hard-core planner. When I traveled to Australia, I tried to be spontaneous. After three weeks I think I had an anxiety attack, went into a travel agency and planned the next three months of my trip. After that, I could relax. So I didn't have a lot of time to plan this Boston trip and I was OK with that. The only thing we really had planned in advance was the Blue Man Group, which we bought tickets for before we left.

So Saturday morning, we leave and we drive for six hours. The day before, Jeff wanted to buy a GPS so that we could find our way around Boston as well as find our way home from Montreal to Saskatoon. I am thankful that we had it because the freeways in Boston are kinda crazy, especially when I was trained on Circle Drive. After finding our hotel we took the metro to the Science Center.




The Science Center was alright. We had an hour and a half to cruise around so we didn't spend much time absorbing anything. Here is us learning:





I am a moose!


Jeff really wanted to see a Star Wars Planetarium show. It sucked. That is all that really needs to be said.

After the Science Center, we decided to go on a DUCK tour, which is a land/water tour of the city. I am glad that we did that because I wouldn't have learned that much about the city otherwise. Besides, the tour guide was cute.







We than went for supper at the Rock Bottom Grill. This was followed by the Blue Man Group. Their show was great. I thouroughly enjoyed it and was laughing for much of it. I was scared that Jeff wasn't liking it but it turned out that he loved it. You know how hard he is to please...therefore Blue Man Group is awesome! If you are in a city where they have a permanent show, I would go to it.

The next day, we decided to do the Freedom Trail around Boston. It's a 4 km walk through downtown Boston, takes you to most of the major sites of Boston and ends at Bunker Hill Monument. Here are some of the highlights.


Michelle is my stead (and I would be Paul Revere):









We then went to Harvard. We got lost. We didn't really belong at Harvard. Here we are pretending we know where we are going.






We needed to waste some time in the evening because we were picking Michelle's friend at the airport at midnight. So we went to another show called Shear Madness. It was a show where the ending is always different as is the longest running non-musical show in the world. It made me laugh a bunch and it was a good filler of time. We then went to Cheers to eat supper. It's gross that while in the States, you have to tell them to cook your burgers well-done. It should just be automatic.


We then went to pick up Chelle's friend Erica from the airport and we stayed at her house. The next day we met Erica for lunch and went home.

Overall, it was a fun trip. We had a good time and saw a nice city. For the rest of the time that Michelle was there, we didn't do anything too exciting. We shopped, visited, toured, ate, had good times. Yay for Michelle's visit.

"Tables turned again and you my friend, you and I face each other all time and time again. I know it's sometimes hard, but knowing just that we will get along until we're old and gray and huddled up and doubled up we'll sit and laugh of times were hard"-DMB

Labels: 2007, chelle, jeff, rachel, roadtrip

Can you believe it? I am (mostly) done the first year of my Masters. I say mostly because I have a four week rotation in Victoria, BC to do, as well as I have to write a project proposal that is due at the end of May. But since Jeff and I are back in Saskatoon after a two day 3000 km drive through Canada and the US, I feel that I am pretty much done first year.

Our drive was (mostly) uneventful. Again, I say mostly because we only ran into one road bump. I am never letting my husband speak to customs agents again. Jeff, whom we all know and love, is a bit of a smart-ass. I love this quality in him (yay sarcasm) but he doesn't even realize he is doing it...his smart-assness is so innate to his nature. We pull up to US customs. The guy is friendly, we're doing good. He asks us about alcohol, cigarettes, drugs...no, no, no. He asks us about beef. Believe it or not, we have beef. Jeff says "we have sandwich meat". Customs dude replies "Beef?" ...Jeff says in his sarcastic, I think you are dumber than me, voice "It would be beef". Customs dude than goes crazy...he is no longer friendly...yells at Jeff not to be a smart ass and indicates that a simple yes or no would have sufficed. We have to pull over to the side and he radios the other agents that we have beef and that the driver is a smart ass. Great...thanks Jeff. It only takes about five minutes, but I am never letting him drive into the states again.

Aside from that event on day one, it was smooth sailing. We arrived around 11:30pm on Sunday night. I honestly don't understand why people don't love driving through the prairies. Sure it is flat...but c'mon! I can see what is coming, I don't have to do much in the way of turning the wheel, and I can watch the Northern Lights dance at my arrival to SK. I missed driving the prairies :).

Since I arrived home, I joined Facebook. Big mistake. I didn't need a new Internet addiction, but lucky for me, I got one.

"Drive in, drive out, I'm leaving. Drive in, drive out, I'll come back again" - DMB

Labels: 2007, Montreal, rachel, roadtrip

It is traditional in Feb-April in Quebec to go to a Cabane à Sucre, aka a sugar shack, or sugar house. It is when the maple trees are harvested of their fantastic sap and maple syrup is made. There are many, many different sugar shacks around the province. The one I went to when I was 15 was more traditional; there was Quebecois music and dancing (yay to wooden spoons!). This one was a bit more modern and they had a dance party for the kids which had a remixed version of the hokie-pokie. Great.

We went to the cabane à sucre with people from the Genetics department in the McGill Hospital system. It was nice to see my supervisors and the doctors in a more casual atmosphere. The first thing that we got as we arrived were these awesome maple syrup doughnuts. It was hard not to keep going back for more.



We all sit in a huge hall at these big long tables and eat traditional (mostly edible) food.
The food was alright, but you don't really go for the breakfast. You go for the syrup. They spread the maple syrup on snow. As the syrup hardens, you take a Popsicle stick and roll it up so that you have syrup on a stick. Tasty.



We went for a carriage ride around the érablière and saw buckets full of maple sap.

Overall, it was a fun field trip. Something that really only needs to be done once a year. Here is a pic of six of the eight GC girls.


"Sweet sugar lips, Push from the hips, Woman looks just like love" - DMB

Labels: 2007, GC girls, jeff, Montreal, rachel

Since Jeff and I moved to Montreal, we have gone to visit our friends Tracy and Chris twice. We always have a great time on these trips because Tracy and Chris are adults who know how to treat a guest. They do things such as feed us real food and wine and treat us to a fabulous time. We have tried to emulate them, but we are not nearly as successful.

We went to Ottawa for the first time for my birthday (c'mon...you should know that it is Sept 16th). We were still new to Montreal and I wanted to ring in my 26th year with people I knew. We drove there on Friday and they made an awesome supper for us. The following day, I got my first look at Ottawa. We walked around the outside of parliament and downtown. We also did some shopping - yay for spending money. Here we are enjoying downtown Ottawa...






For dinner we went to a restaurant called the Empire Grill. The meal and the drinks were incredible. After dinner, though, we went to a martini bar called (I believe) Helsinki's. They had the best martinis ever, and they were all pervertedly named - it won me over. The following day, we (and by we, I don't mean Jeff) were pretty much to hungover to do anything productive, so we went back home to Montreal.

Six months later, Jeff and I return to Ottawa. You may have read about it on Jeff's blog. This time there was less sunshine but even more hospitality. Chris and Tracy had gotten a hot tub. So fabulous. Friday night saw us eat the most fabulous meal and then we went to the hot tub for three hours drinking pitchers of martinis. This was the greatest way to de-stress from my crazy semester at school.

The following day, we went and toured the inside of parliament. My dad raves about the library there and so I decided we should go see.







This is the library:



I am a unicorn!


Here is me being Terry Fox. Now, I do love Terry Fox. I am not disrespecting him in any way by being his statue. But, as I posed with Terry, a man in a wheel chair rolled by...I felt awkward. I felt I needed to explain that I did indeed love Terry.

That night, we went for supper at Luxe Bistro, which was fantastic. Then, the whole reason for the trip, we went to the musical Hairspray ! I had seen the movie when I was younger and I was very excited to see the musical. It was really funny. It was Jeff's first musical and he didn't hate it! Yay! It is being re-made in movie form again and should be out this summer. After the musical, we went for some dessert and went back to the hot tub.

Our trips to Ottawa are always fantastic. Next year, I am doing a rotation at the Children's Hospital in Ottawa and will get a whole month of Tracy and Chris. Lucky me (not so much lucky them).


"Every dog has it's day, every day has it's way of being forgotten - "Mom it's my birthday" would you say (what could you say)" - DMB

Labels: 2007, jeff, rachel, roadtrip, tracy and chris

I am really not the type to love winter sports: skiing, skating, snowshoeing, etc. Not being very good at them probably has a lot to do with it, but the whole "being cold" thing - my body doesn't love that. There is one winter "sport" that is a good fit for me...winter tubing! You mean, all I have to do is sit in this tube and scream? That's it? Sounds pretty awesome to me. Now someone like Jeff will tell you that tubing is not a real sport, but I will disagree. They way that my abs and legs hurt the next day, I had to be doing something athletic.

We went to Glissades des Pays d’en Haut, which is located about 30 minutes outside of Montreal. We went with Steph and Danna and their boyfriends, Chris and Mike. There were 38 runs, 8 of which were for rafting/tornadoes but of those 38, I was unable to locate 6 of them. There was one chair lift, a conveyor belt and ~70 stairs that had to be climbed. There were bunny hills, intermediate hills and expert hills. We spent most of our time on the expert runs. Here are a few pics of the good times.

Some of the bunny runs


Look how happy I am :)


This is us preparing to raft down the hill at high speeds. We got yelled at and just had to sit in it and be good. That ride sucked.

This is Steph going down the hill. She also looks pretty happy :)

Jeff was bored (for most of the day) so he started covering me in tubes.


This is what is known as the clump. It was the most fun way to go down the hill.


By this time, I am wet and cold.

We left after 6 hours of tubing and good times. The only bad part of the day is that we didn't bring our own food and the food there was expensive and maybe some of the grossest stuff ever made. It was not good at all.

Overall, we had a good time (well, we as in not Jeff). Next year, maybe I will try a real winter sport...I know, I am CRAZY!

I hear scream and shout out loud of innocence, and days when all we did would never end. Bring that beat back to me again (come on take me back, can't catch me can't catch me) - DMB

Labels: 2007, GC girls, jeff, Montreal, rachel

Normally, I am a clever girl. But sometimes I do something so dumb that I wonder how I make it through each day without being seriously maimed. It's not that I am doing something stupid, I am just not thinking before doing some stuff.

This morning I was going to make myself some coffee. This is a simple three step procedure. Water, Coffee, Power. Easy. I pour the water into the water slot - step on complete. Pour coffee grinds into the water slot...wait...failure. I screwed up step two. Damn, coffee goes in the filter. Great. I don't really think it is good for the coffee maker for coffee to be made in the boiling water spot. so I take the coffee make apart and try to clean all the coffee grinds from the water slot. I rinse it out with 12 cups of water ~4 times before I am satisfied that it is clean. In the process of doing that, I spill water all over the kitchen counter and floor.

I just wanted coffee. I should have walked to Tim's. What should have been an easy thing turned into a huge affair which caused me to get water all over the kitchen.

This occurred before noon. God knows what else I will manage to do before bed tonight.

I did, in the end, manage to make coffee. Go me.

Spoon in spoon, stirring my coffee, I thought of you and turned to the gate. On my way came up with the answers, I scratched my head
and the answers were gone - DMB

Labels: 2007, rachel

It has been six months since we went on our honeymoon and I am only on day four. Great. It is almost getting to the point where I don't recall exactly what we did. But, since I started this, I am bound and determined to finish it.

On day four, we left my Aunt Shelley's cabin and continued our tour of Nova Scotia. In the last few years I have become more and more interested in my Scottish heritage and am really looking forward to visiting Scotland in a few years. We stopped in a small town called Pictou. This is where the first Scottish settlers landed in "New Scotland" and this is a replica of the boat they came on.



We kept driving along the coast of Nova Scotia. We saw a sign for waterfalls and since Jeff and I do love a good waterfall, we followed it. Worse lie ever. There were no waterfalls...it was just the name of the road; a road with no waterfalls. And because we are stubborn, we drove longer and further than any reasonable person would because we were determined to not let the road beat us. Twenty minutes into the drive, this is what stopped us:





It was really deep. Stupid road to nowhere. At least we weren't the only tourists to make this mistake. It was gold when we saw a giant RV going down this road as well. I have no idea where they were going to find a place to turn around.

Finally, we got to the good stuff. We arrived at the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. This is a beautiful park. The Cabot trail is a gorgeous drive. Here are some highlights of that drive.









As stated before, Jeff and I love waterfalls. Along the drive in this National Park, there were quite a few to see. They were usually around 2 km hikes return to see them. We had a lot to see before it got dark, so Jeff and I would power walk these trails to get there, see the falls, and get back to the RAV so that we could make it to our campsite before dark.



Damn, we're cute. Besides waterfalls, we also love Lord of the Rings. Do you remember that scene where Gollum is playing in the creek, trying to catch a fish and he is singing? This is my imitation of Gollum:



Along the drive, we hit a second waterfall :Beulach Ban Falls.





We also stopped at this rock point with a nice view of the ocean.



I made Jeff climb down and go to that rock out there.



This might be on of my fave pics from the honeymoon. Yay for Jeff ,Yay for the Ocean and Yay for our camera's zoom power!!!



We finally arrived at our campsite. We still had some daylight hours left, so we went to one last waterfall: Mary Anne's falls.





Day four had a lot of things going on. Sorry the post is so long. This was one of our busiest days on the trip. One of these days I will get to day 5...

When I'm walking by the water, splish splash me and you takin' a bath. When I'm walking by the water, come up through my toes, to my ankles, to my head, to my soul, and I'm blown away... -DMB

Labels: 2006, honeymoon, jeff, rachel

Ya, Ya, I know. Haven't updated in awhile.

As I am sure some of you have read on Jeff's blog, we went to the winter carnival in Quebec City a few weeks ago. It was a great time; I love the Carnaval! It was not my first time there but it was Jeff's (and he didn't completely hate it). We went with the other three girls in my program; Steph from Calgary, Danna from Kingston/Belleville and Karine from Quebec City. We stayed at Karine's parent's house - Yay for free!

Here are the four of us: Karine, Steph, Danna and myself.

It has been seven years since I went to Carnaval. Cole, Chelle and I went on our way to Europe. Good times. I thought of the two of you as I was eating my sausage rolled in a pancake. Jeff calls them "morning hot dogs"

We walked around Vieux Québec a bit and watched some soap-box races. We saw Chateau Frontenac and other fun sites.

During Carnaval, there are ice and snow sculpture contests. Here are a few pics from that.

Here I am attacking Danna...


We all walked around a bit more. I had a cold so I was a big whiner. Here is me drinking "caribou" a traditional drink for the carnaval, which contains brandy, vodka, sherry and port.


We went to Karine's friend Ariane's place for warm wine and nachos. So tasty. Afterwards, we went to a parade but we didn't stay too long as it was freezing out. We went for dinner in a pub in Vieux Quebec.

I love Quebec City; it's so pretty. I think we are going to have to go back when it is nice out.

" I love you oh so well, like a kid loves candy and fresh snow. I love you oh so well, enough to fill up heaven, overflow and fill hell." -DMB

Labels: 2007, GC girls, jeff, rachel

Ya, that's right. I am going to actually continue on with our honeymoon adventure. By the time I am done school this year, I promise to be caught up in all the good things that I did in the last year.

On day three, Jeff and I went to PEI. Good times in PEI. The only things I knew about it prior to going were potatoes and Anne of Green Gables. When I left, the only thing I knew about PEI were potatoes and Anne of Green Gables.

This is Jeff and I and the confederation bridge. That wind was crazy and we had to drive 13 km in it across a body of water. I hate bridges.
We went to Prince Edward Island National Park. Yay for working for Parks and getting free access to all things National Park -y. The red rocks were very nice. It is a really pretty park and I would have liked to have had more time to do more hiking and stuff.

We spent a good amount of time at Anne of Green Gables place. The Japanese love the place. It was all right, and I am glad that we got in free otherwise I don't think it would have been worth it.
Afterwards, we went to Charlottetown, the home of the Confederation. This is their claim to fame; where the idea of Canada was first discussed amongst the leaders of the time. They love confederation in Charlottetown.
We went to Fort Amherst, which really wasn't a fort, but just a field where a fort once stood. Jeff hated it. I thought it was awesome because he hated it so much.

Afterwards we went for supper in a small town and I had the best fries ever. Overall, PEI is pretty nice. Living there would suck though, it costs a 40$ toll to go back across to the mainland. Good times.

Here is what the bridge looked like on our way back. I hate bridges.


Yay for PEI! Maybe you will get to hear about day four sometime before Christmas.



Could I have been...A parking lot attendant? Could I have been...A millionaire in Bel Air? Could I have been...Lost somewhere at Red Rocks? - DMB

Labels: 2006, honeymoon, jeff, rachel

I am a woman. Ya, that is right. And I have proof!

In my program, we had to do a three week rotation in the cytogenetics lab at the Montreal Children's Hosptial. Cytogenetics describes the field that analyzes chromosomes and looks to see if people have normal "karyotypes" or 46 normal chromosomes. As part of our rotation, they took are blood and offered to analyze our chromosomes.

A free chromosome analysis to prove that I am normal?!!! How could I pass up a chance like this. And, as many of you know me, I constantly worry about things beyond my control and I have started to become concerned with the fact that, maybe when I want to have kids, I will have a chromosomal abnormality that will make this more difficult. Yes, this is actually something that consummed my thoughts from time to time.

So, I was karyotyped and everything (for the most part) was fine. I do say for the most part because there was one cell that we analyzed that appeared to be missing a chromosome, but this is not really possible, considering I am alive (it was more of a computer glitch than a real missing chromosome).

Here are my chromosomes.


Aren't they cute? That is me on that paper. That is half of my father and half of my mother on there. CRAZY!

So, if you can't tell from this post, I really like my program. It is totally up my ally. I am really liking all the classes that I am taking and I next week I actually get to start sitting in on sessions with patients. I am excited, and nervous, but I am sure that it will be fine.

Mother, father please explain to me,how this rare world has come to be - DMB

Labels: 2006, rachel

I started this blog to tell my friends about all the crazy good times that I was going to have in Montreal. It appears, though, that I often have just crazy times.

Today I was hit by a car.

Before you worry, I am okay. I am going to be sporting a wicked bruise on my hip in the next couple of days. I was crossing a street, on a green light (although the walking dude was not currently lit), when all of a sudden I hear slamming on the breaks and pain. I am shocked. A car has hit me. I am pretty lucky since only the mirror clipped me and I think the tire crazed my leg. 1 second later, both Jeff and I would have been full out hit. Awesome.

When I have adrenaline in my system, I am not logical. I think worse case scenario right away. I thought my spine was going to be hurt. All rationality disappears with that hormone going through my veins. I am going to give it tonight and if I am hurting more tomorrow, I will go to a clinic, but I think I am going to be fine. Yay for large birthing hips that can take a hit for me so I can keep on going.

The man felt really bad. We took his name and number in case we needed it and he wants me to call him back when I know that for sure I am ok. It was an accident and I have a feeling he will pay a lot more attention in the future.

My hip hurts. When the bruises come out, if they look cool, I will post them for you.

Oh my God, wait and see, what will soon become of me? Frozen heart, screaming wheels. Does that screaming come from me? - DMB

Labels: 2006, Montreal, rachel

So, many of you may have read Jeff's blog post. There is a restaurant here in Montreal called ONoir where you dine in the dark. You are served by people who are 50-90% visually impaired. You are suppose to feel what it is like to eat as a visually impaired person and you are suppose to concentrate more on your other senses.

I will explain the process a bit. You walk into the lobby where there are lockers. You put your stuff in there so that you don't lose it and you also have to put in anything that glows or emits light. You then look at the menu and decide what you want. There are ~ 3 options for appetizer, meal and dessert. You can either get just the meal for 30$ or all three for 37$. You can chose one of the options or "the surprise". You just have to tell them if you have any food allergies so that you don't get too big of a surprise. Once you order your meal, you line up one behind the other, much like the locomotion, and walk through two sets of curtains into the dining room. It is pitch black and you are guided to your table by your server. There is very little light, but there are two red exit signs so that you know where to go in case of an emergency.

The set up isn't ideal for a large group. We went in a group of six and we ended up setting in a straight line. I don't know if this is the case for all large groups because some ass opened up their cell phone and I saw some large round tables briefly. I ordered the surprise for the appetizer, chicken as the main course and a surprise for dessert (because you really can't go wrong with any form of sugar). The appetizer was a seafood dish - which I guess to be tuna but it turned out to be salmon. My chicken was amazing! It had cheese on it which I wasn't expecting and it was the best surprise in my mouth ever. The dessert was a fruit mousse. I thought it was raspberry but one of the girls I was with thought it was strawberry.

Here is what I learned at the restaurant.

1. I am not very good at determining what something tastes like. Salmon vs. Tuna??? Those don't taste the same to me when I can see them...or do they??? I don't know anymore.

2. Being blind is hard. I never knew the size of the bite I was putting into my mouth. I am thankful that no one else knew either. I chewed with my mouth open a lot (well, much more than usual). I could never tell what type of food was on the end of my fork so it was always a surprise of what was going into my mouth. Or nothing at all...50% of the time there would be nothing on the end of my fork. I would also run my fingers over my plate to make sure that I ate everything on my plate.

3. People are stupid. I knew this all ready, but what is the point of going to a restaurant to eat in the dark if you have to open your cell phone 3 times to look at stuff.

4. Static is fun. I could rub my cloth napkin on my jeans and then I could make it the napkin spark. Yay for a fun light show.

So that was my experience. It was fun to do once or twice, but I will not be a regular. It is hard to have a conversation except for with the people right beside you. All in all, a good time.

"I Remember the words of the misguided fool, Do unto others as you'd have them do. Not an eye for an eye is the golden rule, just leaves a room full of blind men" - DMB

Labels: 2006, GC girls, Montreal, rachel

Ah, thanksgiving. A chance to devour turkey (or, in our case, chicken) and have an extra day off from school/work. It is also a time to give thanks and today I want to give that thanks. The following is the back story.

I had a massage appointment today at 10:30. I have problems with my neck and shoulder muscles, so I am really looking forward to this appointment. I left my house an hour prior to the appointment. Now, getting to the Sports Medicine Clinic from my house can take me any where from half an hour to a full hour, it just depends on the connections that I make or miss. Today was starting off to be a good day. I got the metro as soon as I got there and my connection pulled up as soon as my previous train stopped. At my stop, I get out to transfer to the bus. I arrive two minutes before it is suppose to and I am quite proud of myself. Yay for being able to commute!

But then, we wait and we wait and soon there are thirty people at this bus stop waiting for a bus that will never arrive. I am getting nervous because I don't want to miss the appointment because they still charge you and my previous appointment was cancelled and I really needed a good back beating. In the mean time, I am sharing sarcastic remarks with the couple next to me. We bonded over sarcasm. They decide to catch a cab and their destination is the building beside the Sports Med building. They take me along for the ride.

Ah, sweet Brad and random girl at the bus stop. It is because of you that I am sitting here feeling looser (looser muscles :P) than I have felt in months. Thank you for taking me along and not even taking my money because you had once been students too.

I would also like to thank sarcasm, for whom without, I would not have bonded with strangers at a bus stop.

Three cheers for friendly strangers who share my sense of humour!!!

"Sometimes I walk there, yes, God knows, Sometimes, I take a bus there" - DMB

Labels: 2006, rachel

Finally. Jeff and I finally received our furniture from Leon's and Ikea so now I feel like I can have people over and show people our home.

I am going to be completely honest about the whole situation. When we first walked up to our apartment building, I was disappointed. We had seen pictures but it is amazing to me how pictures can not only add ten pounds to a persons frame, but how it can also increase the attractiveness of buildings. Strange. So we walk up the building and I think "menh". But we get to our second floor apartment and I am pleasently surprised. It is quite big for a two bedroom apt. The ceilings are high, the wood floors are nice and there appears to only be minor things wrong with it. I will go through our house room by room. Not all of them are complete, some pictures and stuff still need to be hung, but so far things are coming along.















Jeff was scared that the living room was going to be too short to use the projector, but in reality it is too long. The picture is the size of the entire back wall. We just received the couches yesterday, so it is nice to finally have a place to sit, instead of lying on the floor. Just so that you know, the couch is so far away from the wall because the projector computer is back there.
























Ah, the kitchen. It is really nice and big. We have room for a kitchen table, which is always nice, you know, for eating. The cupboards don't close. They are permanently open. Now some of you may laugh and ask why I, Rachel - the girl who can't close cupboard doors-cares about open cupboards. It is because if I am going to leave it open, I won't do it half-assed. It will be all the way open. Half open is just annoying. That fire escape door at the far end has seven locks to undo if I want to escape. It makes me feel better that people can't break in, but I am concerned that I won't be able to get out. I must also say that I am not the biggest fan of a gas ovens. I keep thinking that there is going to be a gas leak and I am going to die.


















Our bedroom. It is so nice to finally have a bed to sleep in. We actually managed to buy matching furniture, but we didn't do this on purpose. We bought the dresser used. We needed a bedside table but after three weeks of looking for a decent used one, we finally just went out and bought the matching one. We then went out to buy our bed at Leon's. They promised that we would have it delivered by September 15th. On September 15th I called Leon's and they said that they weren't going to have it until October 7th. They weren't going to compensate for the lies and the lack of warning of a later delivery date, so to punish them, we went to Ikea to buy the matching bed and cancel our Leon's order. SCREW YOU LEON'S ( I am still bitter). Eventually I will have a little vanity station in a corner so that I can get ready in the mornings.













If you have been reading Jeff's blog you may have read about the giant bubble of water that formed in our bathroom. Well, the following pictures are what happened after they tried to remedy the problem. I am grumpy and I want this fixed... The bathroom is small but ok. The door never stays closed and the drain goes so slow that by the time I am done a shower I am
standing mid-calf in my own filthy water.





















This is also the only room that I let Jeff tin foil the windows. You can also see our caretaker's quick fix of the bubble that was growing out of our ceiling.


Here is the office. Not much to it. There is nothing personal about this room; no pictures, no trinkets, just a lot of cords. Menh.

This is our hallway. Our place actually has a lot of storage space. There are five closets total so it is quite handy.
All in all, I like our place. We could have done a lot worse and I am trying to live with little nuisances. I hope you all come visit despite them.

"And my Heaven is a nice house in the sky, got central heating,and I'm alright" - DMB

Labels: 2006, jeff, Montreal, rachel

So as many of you may have read on Jeff's blog, I received some exciting news this week. It is even more exciting than Jeff let on. It looks like the Saskatchewan health region and the Saskatoon Health District are going to give me a bursary. Yay!

The exact words of the email were as follows:



... your total bursary will likely be in the range of $6,500 per year for two years.



I am very excited. Even just being in the range of 6500$ a year makes me happy. All I have to do is sign a contract saying that, if there is a job available, I will work in Saskatchewan for three years. This was our plan any ways and I am very excited that this has worked out. I hope that after the government has paid my tuition that they will want to have me work, otherwise I got free money.

It would have been nice to be the one to tell you, but apparently Jeff is even more excited that I am not driving him further in debt. Yay Saskatchewan!

"Look at me in my fancy car and my bank account" - DMB

Labels: 2006, jeff, rachel

I am sure that most of you have all ready heard about the horrible event that occurred in Montréal today. At Dawson College, a CEGEP here in Montréal, there was a gunman who went in and started firing. It is currently unknown the exact number of people shot, but about 12 shot, 8 critical is the current number. Also, the killer was shot by police. For those of you who don't know, a CEGEP is a school you go to after high school and before university, so most of the students there are 17-22 years old. This all started to go down at around 12:45 today.

Here is a link to the story:

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/09/13/shots-dawson.html

It is really sad and the city has been in chaos since the shootings started.

I work in the Montréal's Children's Hospital. This is 0.8 km away from the school where the shootings took place.

So at 12:30, my friend Karine and I go across to the shopping mall and by the time we exit at 12:55, it is crazy outside. I didn't know what was going on and based on the police presence, just figured that there was a big accident. We go into the hospital and we find out about the shooting.
All of a sudden, over the loud speaker " Code Orange, level 2. All staff, patients and families must not leave the hospital until further notice". Apparently code orange means that there is an external disaster. At this time it was believed that there were three gun man and two were still on the loose and they could be anywhere. The hospital was very tense because it occurred just down the street and a lot of the staff have kids that go to the school . Cell phones were not working because there was just too many calls trying to get through.

Finally, around 4, they lifted the "Code Orange" and we could leave the hospital. You would think that the day couldn't get more ridiculous than that. I mean, it is my second week in school and I am all ready being locked down in a hospital. Oh, but wait....there is more.

The metro's are still shut down when I am leaving so after some time of trying to figure out what to do, Karine and I find a bus and get on it. Because the metro line that I would normally take is shut down so that the police can search the tunnels, the bus is packed. So I am standing, much like a sardine would stand in a can, when all of a sudden I hear an "air noise", much like an aerosol can. Then there is a smell....then there is the eye burning...and the throat hurting...and the coughing....and the panic.

My best guess is that someone released pepper spray on the very crowded, stressed-out bus. This was the scariest thing to happen to me all day. The shootings had put me on edge, and then an unknown substance is sprayed on the bus. People started screaming at the driver to stop the bus. I got out and decided that walking home would be the best thing I could do.

So, craziness in Montréal. Just another reason for Jeff not to like it :(

Rach

"Oh, people killing people, kings to conquer kings. Always in the seeker, taking the light away from me"- DMB

Labels: 2006, GC girls, Montreal, rachel

Day 2 - St John, NB to Tidnish, NS

We spent the morning touring around St John. We went to a market, and a National Historic Site.

I am a moose:

I even got Jeff to play:

Labels: 2006, honeymoon, jeff, rachel

I figure that I should start posting the adventures of the honeymoon. In brief, it was 4000 km of driving and a lot of good times. If you want to see an abbreviated (and biased) version, go read Jeff's blog.

I just also mention (to those of you who don't know) that has been a hobby of mine for well over ten years to take ridiculous photos of me with statues or anything that looks like it has been placed in my path for a golden picture opportunity. Now and again I could coerce Jeff into posing as well.

Day 1 - Montreal to St John, NB

This was a long driving day. We drove for about nine hours and really only made one stop during the day. We stopped at Grand-Falls, NB. We looked at their waterfalls and took a boat trip of the gorge.

Rachel biking at the gorge:

Pics of the gorge:

One of our favourite things to do was to put the camera on timer and rush into the photo. We have a clever camera so we can set it to take 10 pictures after the timer goes off so we have at least one good one together. All the photos you will see with the two of us are thanks to the timer.

We spent the night in St John, NB. Before bed, though, we had to have some fun at their "fort".

Over all, the first day was good. We saw a moose, which I refused to pull over and photograph because I didn't want to be responsible for starting a wildlife jam.

To be continued...

Rach

I drink you up, for every drop of you is sacred. Every drop I drink you up - DMB

Labels: 2006, honeymoon, jeff, rachel

So a lot of new things have happened to me this year. I have gotten married for the first time, I have graduated university for the first time and as mentioned previously, I have been on a farm for the first time. What else, you ask, have I done for the first time this year? I have tried two new sports this year: Curling and Belgian Bowling. Now I am sure that most of you have heard, if not played, curling…but Belgian Bowling? It is a sport that is commonly played in the town of Langenburg and the surrounding area. It is much like lawn bowling and curling in that you are throwing a heavy object across the playing area in order to have it land as close as possible to a pin. You knock the other team out of the way and you try to score more points than them. The throwing rock for Belgian Bowling is not flat but rather has a slant so that it goes around the pin and back towards it. Here are some examples of my excellent form in both sports. Note how my skills are much the same in both.

What you don’t see in these pictures is me falling…I did that quite often (more so in curling though). I had fun doing both, but they are both more difficult than they look. Good times.

"If you hold on to what you think is your thing, you may find your missing all the rest" - DMB

Labels: 2006, rachel

Ya, that's right. As most of you are aware, I am now a Mrs. If you weren't aware....well...hey, I am married! The wedding day went really well. I am a super planner so I had managed to plan for myself to have a good time at my own party. I managed to dance it up and visit a lot of people. There were a lot of people who came a long way who I wish I could have visited with more (sorry Marla and Charles).
So here are some of the highlights of the wedding. As a note, getting wedding pictures taken isn't the most fun of the day but boy did we try to make it thrilling!

Here is my bridal party unable to lift their legs without falling apart. We are so coordinated.

Here I am as a tiger holding tiger lilies. Grrrrrr.....

Not even married for an hour and all ready looking to take a lover.

If these aren't the faces of love, I don't know what is.

This is a special moment. This is when my husband thanked my parents for having sex. No, I am not joking. My dad's response? "It was my pleasure"...nice.

And this is me trying to be America's Next Top Model. Is it just me or is one of the beautiful ladies in front of me going to have to go back to the loft, pack their belongings and go home. I think I have just been eliminated (thank God though, modeling is SO hard!).

And here is a shout out to all the mosquito's that decided to join in the festivities.
Here's to the one that bit my back during pictures.

And here's to the one who decided to eat my face. If you look carefully, you can see that I have about a dozen in my veil. So nice.

So, in a nut shell, that was my wedding day. If you want to see more pictures, good and bad, go to http://wedding.bunnyhug.net . Thanks to all of you who came to support, love, drink and dance with us. We had a great time!

Rach

“Hey, my love, you came to me like wine comes to the mouth grown tired of water all the time You quench my heart. And love, you quench my mind.” DMB

Labels: 2006, jeff, rachel