See Ya, Las Vegas

So it turns out that Vegas is exhausting. It brings a whole new meaning to the idea of constant stimulation. Time has very little meaning, which is good, because there are lots of lines!

But boy was it fun. We did some shopping (great outlet stores), saw some shows, and did a little gambling. We went to go see Penn and Teller - it was very good! The hotel it is at is quite a ways off the strip, and we had to walk there, which was probably good for us. We got the tickets at a discount ticket place, which worked well. We all won a little at the blackjack tables, much to our surprise. Last night we only had about ten bucks each to play with, but we managed to build that up some, have a good time, and walk away with money in our pockets. I did well at the slots too, to Jeff and Ryan's chagrin.

There are a thousand things to see, and ten thousand things to do. We spent a lot of time just figuring things out - I can see why people go back, since it takes a while just to get used to the place.

The weather was pretty nice - hot the first day, and warmish the rest of the time. We got some quality time in with the sun by the pool, which was great. It was really dry there, so totally different than Victoria. The soles of my feet were cracked, which was too bad, since we had to do a lot of walking!

The trip back was nearly as long as the trip there - about 14 hours from when we left the hotel to when we got home. We flew through Los Angeles this time. I think that next time I'll swallow the expense and fly from Vancouver to the island. This bus and ferry nonsense wastes a lot of time. Happily Kirsten picked us up at the ferry on the Island!

Flight is Booked

Return to Santa Barbara is 422.00, pretty good. I will have to pay for luggage but still a good price. It has been a very relaxing visit in Rocky. I have made the odd meal and done a few dishes, but mostly reading, knitting and watching TV has been the order of the day. I feel very rested and i might even make it to welcome in the New Year tonight. Yesterday I went over to the Mountaineer and Theresa & I went out for lunch. As I was waiting there for Theresa, I was offered a job there, must be because I am Theresa's sister and they like her so much. Anne and Tim went to Edmonton to the Czech vs US game. Today Grace and Sam are going to the Finland Czech game (courtesy of Tim). The weather here has been fantastic, lots of blue sky temps above freezing, just beautiful.

The Polish are coming!

There was some kind of big Polish sports event yesterday. There were yobs (or Polish version of yobs) on the El, hollering "POLSKA! POLSKA!"

We spent an enjoyable afternoon puttering around Ukrainian Village / Wicker Park. We each bought some footwear. I went to Quimby's Comics (a store I have long wanted to go to), and we drank $4 mojitos. Judith went back to hotel for a nap, and then I walked around more, window shopped, drank some microbrew, read comics. And then we went out to Morton's to eat steak. That felt very stereotypically Chicago. We people-watched to see how many "middle Americans" we could see there. Answer: many.

It was meant to be.

When Judith and I are in Chicago, this will be on at the Museum of Science and Industry.

NOLA over Easter

It's taken me a while to post on our trip. Which was super excellent.

We stayed in a nice hotel, the Saint Marie, just off Bourbon Street. Pool, little balcony for the afternoon apertif, and very close to everything. Or everything that we did. Which was only really wandering around, shopping, eating, drinking. As well as visiting the Voodoo Cultural Centre. Or at least the gift shop. (We would have gone inside the temple, but Priestess Myriam was doing a reading for someone over the phone in there.)

We did also go to the Saint Louis Cemetery no. 1, the oldest existing cemetery where voodoo queens and musicians (as well as old french families) are buried.

I had aspirations of going on a swamp tour, or going to the 9th ward, or the aquarium or contemporary art gallery, even, but I was pretty happy to just follow Kirsten and Sue and Kathy around. Kathy took about 600 photos while we were there. Seriously.

We did leave the French Quarter and go to the Garden District (good shopping on Magazine Street) to gawk at houses. It's amazing to think that so many of those were under water. Still much renovation to be seen in that area. Also, you take a streetcar!

We also hung out at the bars on Frenchman Street; John Boutte played Saturday night and did a lovely a cappella version of Leonard Cohen's "Halleleujah." Kirsten, Kathy, and Sue met some nice southerners who said next year they should come to their place for a BBQ.

I had also hoped to eat some good pulled pork but did not. Favourite meal was probably beans, rice, and a very greasy pork chop at Coop's Place.

Although Bourbon Street has some novelty factor to it, it's generally creepy. Even if you can purchase Huge Ass Beers.

And Easter Sunday we saw two parades: one of Southern ladies, and the second of gay Southern ladies. We cheered and got mardi gras beads (no clothing was removed). Last night I watched a documentary on the making of beads in China and how workers are treated. Sob. But I will confirm there is nothing better than sitting on the curb with a gin & tonic, watching Southern Belle drag queens drive by in horse-drawn carriages, tossing you trinkets.

I put the rest of our photos on facebook -- look there to see more!

Orientation, new blog, you name it

Things are going well but very busily here in Toronto. They've kept us busy being pumped full of information since we started, and during our rare downtime I'm usually to tired to post. Today, however, after we finished a more or less useless session (about what blogging is, and how to do it) we finished a bit early, so I thought I'd drop in and let the rellies know what's what.

The orientation hasn't really been a lot of new information, but has been good to talk about. As I suspected, a lot of stuff about encountering new cultures (hint: let them speak for themselves!). We've done some great field trips: one day we went to a Jewish Temple in the morning and a mosque in the afternoon. The temple was a bit awkward - some people in the orientation are going to Palestine to work as what are called "ecumenical accompieners". This is a group from different churchs (the program is run by the World Council of Churches)who basically live with Palestinians and observe how the Israili soldiers treat them. They will tell you that they are there for both Israilis and Palestinians, but I question that - to hear them talk, they are not in favour of Israel at all. Anyway, we went to the Temple, and of course one of the loudmouth EAs told the fellow giving us the tour what they were doing - and the temple had a Israel flag up at the front! He got quite shirty about it- the Temple strongly supports Israel. It was interesting to see his reaction, but I felt bad about us coming into his space and telling him how much we disapproved of what he holds dear.

The next day we went to the Six Nations. This is a reserve near Scarbourough - it's the group that has been blocking roads in Caledonia. It was a great day - we went through a museum, heard their side of the land claims (the government gave them the land for helping the British during the American Revolution) and toured three churches. At one of the churches (Her Majesty's Royal Chapel to the Mohawk), we had a great presentation and history by a native woman who was every inch an Anglican. She was the very stereotype of a sweet old Anglican church lady. At the end of the day her and her friends (each more Anglican than the last)gave us a nice potluck supper. I got to sit next to Leona, the woman who gave us the talk at supper, and she is as interesting in person as she is in public! She told me all about the time her and her husband were invited on the British HMS Chieftan, and the parties they went to - apparently the noncommisioned officers party was better than the captain`s party!

On Sunday we went to church in the morning, and that was an adventure. Alice, who runs the orientation, had given us a list of Anglican churches to choose from - ones with multicultural congregations. Well, Robert, Kerri (the other two interns) and I chose one downtown, and headed there. It was supposed to start at 10, and we were a bit late, thanks to transit, and got there about 10:20. We snuck in to find that they were in the middle of a sermon, and the sermon was being given by this young guy in jeans and a sweater! This is very unusual for the Anglican church, but we were willing to go with it. Then after the sermon another guy stood up, said "ok, It's time for communion". Then he casually told the story of the last supper, and invited us to come up "as we felt led". This is NOT the way we do communion in the Anglican church, and the three of us had a collective heart attack. The service ended shortly thereafter, and we were talking to the preacher- who told us they were a nondenominational church ("The Free Church") who rent the building. The Anglican service didn't start till 11!

We stayed for that service, and it was much closer to what we were used to. There was an old woman from the West Indies sitting behind us who sang with lots of gusto very badly, which was nice for me- I felt that no matter how loud or bad I was, I could never compete with her!

I spent the afternoon wandering around Toronto, and that evening went to an ordination at one of the Anglican seminaries here. It was a woman being ordained to work in my diocese, but who is going to school here. It was a lovely service, and my bishop and his wife were there, and we met lots of other bishops (to the almost uncontainable exciemtent of us three interns). We met the former head of the Anglican Church of Canada, Michael Peers, as well as the National Indiginous Bishop, Mark MacDonald.

There has been lots more going on, but I'll stop for now. The last thing to mention is that I have a new blog - loneandlevel.blogspot.com. I'll try and change the link on the side. This is specifically for my trip (it was confirmed this week that I'm going to Sri Lanka).

Ripon College at Cuddesdon

Well, it was a long, long day of travel, but I have arrived at the theological college near Oxford where I am doing a summer school course (The Bible in the Modern World) for the next two weeks. I drove from Wells to Quesnel (one hour) then a ten hour bus ride through the night to Vancouver, a ten and a half hour flight to England, and a two hour train ride to Oxford, followed by fifteen minutes in a cab. All in all it went quite well - I slept on the bus, though not on the plane. The only problem was that my luggage didn't arrive. Obviously, this is quite annoying, and very inconvenient, although I'm saving my anger just in case they don't manage to get me my bag before I leave the country. They've promised to courier it to me, but we'll see. I stopped in Oxford before I came here, so I at least have the basics.

The school itself is very cool. Lots of dark wood and stone. I'm not sure how old the building is- I would guess 'fairly'. Everyone here seems nice- several other Canadians, a couple Americans, an Australian, people from Hong Kong, England Scotland and Northern Ireland. A mix of people studying for ordination, people who are already ordained, and people who are just interested. So far we've had tea, then drinks, and then dinner, and it's all been great. The actual course begins tomorrow morning, with Morning Prayer at 8. I hope I can wake up in time, as my alarm clock is in my other bag.

The View From My Window

This is my view from my room at the Hotel Kriti, near the old Venetian Harbor in Chania! I shared a cab from the conference today with a man from Kuwait; when I told him that it had recently snowed in Edmonton, he said, "Make sure you take the warmth from here to your home!"

We did our presentation today. I was very nervous this morning: did paper suck, was there a problem that I hadn't ironed my skirt, did my boss think I was crazy, etc. Then suddenly, paper was done. The end.

I got about 3 hours' sleep last night -- anxious about paper, nervous that people would think it was bad, a bit jetlagged, etc. So although sessions are going til 9pm tonight, I am back at hotel at 6:30. I am going to stare into space and maybe read a book. Or not.

Rest of week is just listening to other people present and eating the delicious Greek snacks at coffee break (filo and cheese with honey, spanikopita, etc.). Tomorrow they do an excursion but because I like to do my own thing, and because I am staying an extra week, will duck out of it. May spend tomorrow afternoon by the pool

Greetings from the Big Nickel

I am in Sudbury right now, in my hotel room. I was invited to speak at a northern libraries conference on our human resources study. I left Tuesday night and got here 10am on Wednesday...that was a stupid arrangement. I spent most of yesterday sleeping off my fatigue, and getting room service. And fell asleep at 9pm.

Which meant that my presentation was not put together until 7am this morning. For my presentation time of 8:30am. Luckily, I have worked on this project for 6 years so it's pretty intuitive (not to mention I have about 50 other presentations with slides I could use). And it was a tiny group but they were super engaged and talkative and I really liked them. So my procrastinating was unduly rewarded.

Flight home at 1:30pm! I won't even get to see the big nickel.

Hoarse, of course

All the emotional highs I experienced last week did me ill -- I have a killer head cold right now. Chills and fever on Sunday but now it's just hoarse voice & achy eyes and stuffed up. Weep.

I had a workshop yesterday that I couldn't cancel -- tried to, but they had out of towners coming for it, and although they suggested that my co-presenter could just use my notes, unfortunately I tend to speak using powerpoint as a "loose" guide. So I went in -- and it went fine. People treated me like a hero. I'm a team player, you know!

Booked flights for Hania on Crete. Yessss.

Guelph

Just wanted to say that I made it safe to Guelph! Mom and dad drove me to the airport, which was excellent, and also I got a chance to say goodbye. I got randomly selected for the ol' patdown while going through security and thought I might be late for the flight, but ended up being just on time. There was a squalling baby and the entertainment system didn't work for the first half-hour, but after that I entertained myself watching tv shows I didn't know existed. Shows how much attention I pay.

There didn't seem to be any luggage trolleys in the Toronto airport, so I ended up dragging my stuff across the floor all the way along the airport. However, once that ordeal was over the Red Car company picked me up and drove me all the way to the B&B! It isn't even a B&B, really - it's an older lady who tried to sell her house and couldn't, so she just started taking in students. Some live here permanently and some, like me, are just here while looking for something else. She is really nice and gave me homemade peppermint tea. I am totally exhausted, but did manage to find a wireless connection...

So here we go again, in another city where I don't know anyone! So far, so good, though...

Merry Late Xmas

So far, it looks like my flight home will be 2 hours delayed (I can use that time to clean my bathroom before I go)...I am hoping it won't be too much later than that. But am glad I am not one of the people who were trying to travel earlier from Vancouver and have been delayed for days!

Montreal in Fall

I'm staying at my friend Annie's post-major-work-event in Ottawa. My friend Luke is here (from undergrad) doing his PhD, and so we've all been walking, eating, drinking, and shopping in 18 degrees. There are lots of leaves still on the trees! Not very much red; more yellow.

I was in Ottawa for a library human resources summit -- it's something that I've worked on (with a committee, of course) for the last 18 months! We were trying to get together a bunch of the library decision-makers to come up with possible strategies to deal with the HR issues we have in front of us (access to library education, prof dev, leadership, etc.) -- and I think it went very very well. Lots and lots of work the last 3 weeks for me, and the 2 days were super intense, as we did some retooling of a few program pieces as we thought we needed to -- so I feel very good and very tired. I got applause for the work I did. Thanks, librarians, for being applauders.

So I've really been trying to catch up on my sleep and try to calm down while I'm here. We went to a comic book store I love and today, Luke & I are going to see an art show on rock music. Eating very well. Delicious microbrew!

30+

It is going to be hot this weekend. I have to work on Saturday but it means I'll take next Wednesday off. I go to Vancouver for the library conference. Staying in the SHERATON.

Happy birthday Theresa! You are also 30+.

My biggest news is that I have had 2 job interviews -- 1 for MacEwan and 1 for UA. Didn't get the MacEwan job, though they told me I did a super interview & that they thought I could walk in & do the job easily. Still waiting for UA. I should know within the month. I thought it went really well, but it's always about who you are competing against. I did realize that if I'm on EI, I can still make my mortgage payments. It is somewhat appealing...