Kelly Date July 7, 2009

Hello from Wolfville, Nova Scotia......

Well this has been a great day for me overall. I had a chance to meet with most of the faculty and staff from the department over coffee this morning and spent some time with John going over the requirements for the grad program. I have a better idea now of what I'll be doing. So far I have to take four courses this fall as follows:

1) research methodologies

2) placed practicum

3) leisure studies

4) one of my choosing

In addition I have to sign up for thesis studies but that is an ongoing thing until I'm finished my grad studies. So I'll be quite busy this fall but confident that I can work through this. I guess I'll need to decide on my thesis/research project by January and prepare a research proposal for approval by committee and then get to it. After I've collected the information and/or done the work I need to do (between early spring and summer), I write up my research and submit it to the committee again at which point I will have to defend my findings. Yes, all this is confusing to follow at first, but I'm starting to get it now that I've been through it a few times.

So that was my morning, but better yet I was able to find accommodation for this coming September with Doreen who is an absolute dear. She wants to go canoeing lol. This might be a bit of a challenge but I'll work on it. She needs some help with cooking a few meals each week, rides to doctor's appointments and to get groceries once a week. Other than that we can just hang out. She's learning how to use the computer and has lots of questions. I figure I can show her how to do a few things until she gets the hang of it. But I'm really happy with the arrangements and I think we'll get along just fine. The apartment is huge and my room is very spacious with hardwood floors and huge old windows with small panes of glass. I really like the place and I'm so please to have found it. It's also only about a block and a half from my little office so I won't have to pay for parking as it is an easy walk rain or snow.

I managed to take the photos of the Cornwallis River/Valley earlier this evening. Mr. Finnigan and I sat on the edge of the road waiting for the sun to go down and were rewarded for our patience. I also took a few of the 'ochre mud' on the river banks. The tide was going out so the river was flowing back to the Bay of Fundy leaving behind these huge banks of mud. The patterns etched into the 'back tide' are quite beautiful. Tomorrow I'll get a few more things sorted around such as vehicle insurance, but hopefully make it up to the Black Lake to get some pictures. Of course this depends greatly on my ability to find the Black Lake so you'll have to wait and see if I have any success.

Contest Update: I've had to send a couple of emails to find out the names of towns people live in so I can accurately determine the number of miles. So I can't announce the winner just yet. I'll keep you posted though.

Kelly signing off from Wolfville, Nova Scotia.