and she goes West

Well it finally happened. After almost 5 months of job-searching, I’ve landed a job. The catch? It’s out West. Waaay West! And North. Latitude 54 North. Like, almost-freaking-Alaska-North-West.

So I’m off on an adventure. If you don’t know much about Haida Gwaii, because I certainly didn’t before coming across the job description, have a read: Haida Gwaii. You can see a few major towns listed on the map above — I will be in Masset, the Northern most city on the island.

My job is two-fold: one, Stopping the Violence Counsellor, where I will be doing one-on-one and group counselling with women who have experienced violence; and two, Outreach Worker, doing educational work, workshops, crisis line, and accompaniments with women. AKA: DREAM JOB!

I plan on keeping up as much as I can with my blogging, as well as attempting some vlogging. Of course, being on such a picturesque West coast island, there will be many, many nature photos. You have been warned.

NEW JOB! NEW PROVINCE! ISLAND! EXCITEMENT!

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sand fleas, salty water and blistering sun

I recently escaped to Varadero, Cuba with my family. We had fun. I took a few pix.

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we’ll take some crab cakes to go

I just got back from a trip to beautiful British Columbia with my mum. We spent just under a week touring the lovely cities of Victoria and Vancouver. I think I kinda fell in love with Victoria. Just a little. Downtown Victoria had lovely shops, beautiful views of the Pacific ocean, sightings of the mountains near Seattle, kind people, and amazing hiking trails. And because of the fantastic people I know living there (or in the area), I would seriously consider moving out there, save for one problem: the amount of rain and lack of sun. I am not sure how I would manage going sometimes for over a month without seeing the sun. Even though I am not a big fan of snow, at least I still can count on seeing the sun a few days a week even in the winter months. So for now, Victoria will have to be a favourite vacation spot, and not my next home.

The trip itself was quite fantastic. Mum and I kept ourselves quite busy.

Itinerary
day one: flight, grabbed rental car, toured Butchart Gardens, made it to the hotel after getting quite lost, drove into downtown Victoria and went to dinner at Ferris’ Oyster Bar with Mysha, crashed for the night
day two: 8:30am hike to China Beach, lunch, hike around East Sooke Park, dinner at The Garlic Rose, and sleepover at Mysha’s apartment
day three: toured around downtown Victoria, did some shopping, and had dinner with Mysha at Nautical Nellie’s.
day four: took a bus and the ferry across to Vancouver, checked into hotel, found our way in the wind and rain to the tugboats to take us to Granville Island where we shopped, toured the local market (FRESH SEAFOOD GALORE), had dinner at The Sandbar (wonderful restaurant!), and took the last tugboat back just in time to discover an old episode of Buffy on TV!
day five: toured downtown Vancouver, in the Gas Town and China Town areas, where I bought myself some unique  jewellery, then met up with Donna and her mum for some tea & dessert, afterwhich they dropped us off at Stanley Park where we toured around for a bit, and had our final dinner abroad at Joe Fortes.
day six: home!

During the trip we met some interesting people. At our hotel, one of the staff, Brianne, made us feel so welcome. She always approached us upon our return to the hotel to hear about our day, and genuinely had a good laugh at our crazy trek down Willis Point Road  (yes, we went to the end of the road) and Ross Durrance Road. We met a First Nations man whose beautiful wood carvings we admired in a store in downtown Victoria. Mum loved one in particular and bought it, but the carving was actually done by the man’s cousin, who taught him everything he knew about carving. This man told us about the craft of carving, what types of wood he used, and the stories behind the animals in the carving. Alex, one of the hotel staff in Vancouver, impressed our socks off with the knowledge he had of the area. He was born in Toronto but moved to Vancouver and now lives in Gas Town. He recommended many shops to visit, and restaurants to eat at — all of which were just fantastic. And on top of that, he was able to cheer my mum up when she was in a royally-grumpy mood! Our tug-boat driver was a very talkative gentleman who told us all about the Olympics when they were in Vancouver – he showed us Athlete’s Village (which was the set of condos that the athletes stayed in), the remnants of the Ocean Construction Supplies cement factory (which is staying as a cultural reminder that Granville Island used to be an industrial-complex), and the new condos lining the waterside which are very pro-green. We also briefly chatted with two women, one of whom had travelled to literally 8 different countries in a matter of days on business, and had managed to stop in Vancouver for dinner with her cousin (one of her last remaining relatives). We wished her safe travels. All of the people we happened to meet during our travels were very kind and interesting. This idea helps to quell (BtVS reference, anyone?) the fears I have of travelling alone, as solo travel is definitely a goal of mine.

For pictures of my trip, check out my facebook album.

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