Kelly Date November 29, 2009

Hello from Wolfville, Nova Scotia. This week was a bit slower for me as I've started finishing up a few of my projects. It's nice to have some of the work done with, but the down side is that I'm getting a bit bored. I like staying busy and suddenly find myself with a bit too much time on my hands. However, I still have a couple weeks of school left and have to get through that before I have to time to brainstorm any new adventures.

I did get some great news though as I was awarded the SSHRK scholarship that I applied for about a month back. It's worth $17,500.00 so it will go a long way to covering my school expenses next year and help with the cost of my research project. I figure it took me about 20 hours to put the application together so it works out to about $875.00 an hour. I'd stay that's a pretty decent return for time invested lol. I was thrilled to get the award actually and it is a huge relief financially as well. My thanks again to all those who helped out in any way. I appreciated the support and encouragement.

The only funny thing to happen this week was a story on the local radio station. Some of the cultural differences here in Nova Scotia can be quite entertaining. A news story on Thursday had me in stitches. A lady had centre stage telling about a run in she and her husband had with the police. So you have to picture a heavy Cape Breton accent her, long winded details, and a slow paced sharing of events. I'll do my best to convey the tone etc.

Apparently she and her husband had gone down to the grocery store to pick upa few things ya know, we did't need much. My husband went to the smoke shop. Well I tell ya, I come out an da polece were alroun our truck - pears da polece hear'd about a boy gone missen and taught my husband had gone and done it. "Well, holy dinah....you should a hear'd em all. They took my husband an me to the polece stations...and asked us lots of questions bout where'd we'd been an all...even made him empty his pockets lord sakes. Now everyone round here is gonna tink we did it...and we did't. Holy dinah, they pologized though for all the troubles."

Ha, I could barely contain myself I was laughing so hard. She relayed these details in a most serious manner and all I could do was giggle. Funniest thing I'd heard in a while. God, you simply have to love the accents around here. Absolutely priceless. It was so Cape Breton in every way. In all fairness, I realize that I too have an accent but somehow I don't think it is nearly as charming heh!

I've continued to work at my jogging and seem to be getting a little better at it. I seem to jog more than I walk now and Mr. Finnigan is loving it. He gets to be out a bit longer than we would normally during school days and he gets a good run out of it as well.

Until next week then. You have an absolutely fabulous week!

Kelly Date November 22, 2009

Greetings! I have accomplished much this week. I have two of my courses almost completed and working on finishing up the third here shortly. On top of that I even managed to attend a couple of presentations this week on Aboriginal studies. They were both quite interesting. The first addressed issues of violence against Aboriginal women and the second was on the killing of sled dogs in Nunavut by the RCMP back in the 50's and 60's. I won't go into the details but I learned a lot from the speakers and it sure broadens your outlook on things.

What else did I do this week.....oh yeah, I won a photo contest! One of my photos was selected for the school art magazine which was exciting. I've included it here in the blog today at the top. It was a photo I took while in Cape Breton - I stopped to take in the view at one of the many lookout points and noticed the graffiti on the guard rail as well as the little Inukshuk. I thought it was cool and apparently so did the judges lol. I was a bit surprised by their choice actually as I had submitted several other very nice photos but this was the one they liked. Oh well, I was still please to have even one selected.

Next up was the Olympic Torch Parade through Wolfville. I had never been to one, but was able to sneak away from a meeting early to get a few pictures. The one I've included here is of the designated runner headed down main street and after that there was a huge celebration in the commons area. I also got a great picture of an elderly man who came out to see the festivities. He was quite happy to have me snap his picture. I was amazed at how many people show up for the event. The crowd in front of the pavilion was quite large actually with music and entertainment and everyone seemed to be having a great time.

Oh, one not so great bit of news.....I have to move tomorrow....again. Yuk! I'm am tired of moving and even though it is only one flight of stairs down it seems like work lol. I've been shuffling things off and on for the past few days to make things go a bit quicker tomorrow which should help somewhat. I don't even have to move the heavy stuff and I'm still complaining lol. Did I mention I hate moving......

I have nothing further of any consequence whatsoever to report but will wish you a great week and sunny weather. Until next week then......

Kelly Date November 15, 2009

Hello! This has been a fabulous week. I've managed to get so much done and out of the way - permanently. The semester is close to over and it feels great! It's been a lot of work and I have put so much time into it, but its paid off and I can actually start putting some of the work behind me. Next semester of course is a whole new deal, but at least I'll get a bit of a break over Christmas.

However, I've not been able to get much done except homework. I did manage to start taking Mr. Finnigan for some long walks though. I take along some good music and go

all over the place chugging along to some good old songs. Fin loves it of course and it takes about an hour to get all the way down past the Blomidon Inn and back again. He is busy sniffing everything along the way and peeing on every available post, pillar, and beam lol.

The only other interesting thing to report was that the weather was weird today. I spent most of yesterday and today doing homework, but when I went to go for our walk today it was warm outside - but not just warm it was also wet out. Not raining or terribly overcast or even foggy but the air itself was wet. It was the strangest thing - I'd never experienced a

nything like it. It must be an east coast thing. Wet, but not wet lol.

I'll be back next week with hopefully a better update, but for now that's all folks. I uploaded a couple of older pictures. They from the presentation I did in October on Aboriginal ecotourism. They were my favourites; Namibia, Africa, Alert Bay, BC, and Kaikura, New Zealand. I thought they were beautiful pictures. Enjoy.

Kelly Date November 8, 2009

Hello again, this week's blog, out of necessity, is going to be a rather short entry as I'm so very tired today. I managed to get much done this past week, but I really pushed it today. I spent approximately 12 hours studying, working to get a particular project done on theoretical frameworks. It might sound boring, but it isn't lol and for the most part I very much enjoyed the challenge of just trying just how to figure it all out.

However, I am so completely done in I can't seem to think of the least little clever thing to say. It's funny, but it one of the projects I've been procrastinating on, but once I overcame my worry that I wouldn't be able to do it, things worked out quite well. At least I hope so. In the end, I guess my prof will tell me if I made sufficient effort or not.

I did take Mr. Finnigan for a good long walk and took a few pictures of the ducks to include on the blog. The mushrooms are from a field near where I live and it's one of our favorite places to walk. I love the shapes, colours and texture, which makes a good picture. I'm not sure about the faming on this

one, but I'm took pooped to hunt for a better one lol.

I hope you have a great week and I am sure to have a lot more to say next week!

Kelly Date November 1, 2009

'Skitter Bugs on Ice'

Hi, I totally forgot to finish my blog yesterday. I had started a draft earlier in the week and then totally forgot to finish. I got a little carried away doing homework yesterday and I think it was around 10:00 when I was chatting with Randy that he asked if I'd gotten it done. Oops. Oh well, now is as good a time as any and considering the fact that I haven't really done anything earth shatteringly interesting this week, probably just as well.

The one thing I did do this week was to 'start thinking backwards'. Yes, that's right - a process whereby one attempts to look at everything in their life from a different or 'backwards' perspective. Here's an example, "No matter where you go, there you are." Often said to stop one from venturing out and trying something new. You hear this and say to yourself, what is the point of doing or trying something if nothing is going to change. That may be but you'll never know unless you try so I decided to 'turn it around' and it suites me much better....

"No matter where I am, there I go." Love it. Makes me smile every time!

So see if you can come up with one that suites you better and I'll post it on the blog. Give it a whirl and start thinking backwards! You have a great week. Kelly

Kelly Date October 25, 2009

Hello! This week has been a little less crazy than last week, but this is good as I was able to get a couple of projects started and some others inched along just a bit further. It’s almost the end of October and I’m managing to keep up with my assignments reasonably well.

Pretty much five more weeks and I’ll be finished the semester. I have yet to start writing my research proposal, but I’ll be starting on that this week. I have to think about what and where I want to study and start pulling together some of the logistics so we can contact the communities where I might work.

My favorite picks so far would be Nunavut, Greenland, Iceland, or quite possibly the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia. I did some research on each of these places today and all of them are incredible.

John wants to limit me to only two places where I’ll do case studies on Aboriginal ecotourism and community development. Two - only two lol. It’s hard to pick given the incredible choice available. I guess in the end it will also come down to there being an opportunity to go into one of these communities. I can’t exactly just show up and starting asking questions. It will take a considerable amount of time to just make contact and be asked into the community etc. Regardless, it is exciting to just consider the possibilities.

About the only marginally exciting thing to happen this week, was to take some photos of a community event here in Wolfville. It was an event aimed at creating awareness of global warming and the impact of melting ice caps and how this will affect tidal levels here on the east coast. Okay, it wasn’t really that exciting lol. Besides we pretty much got rained out and not too many people were even able to show up as a result. I did get some nice photos though and I included one for you, too right. You can see the town clock which seems to be a major meeting place hereabouts.

I do plan on entering two photo contents here at the school. The one is for submission to a school online art magazine and the second is through the international education department. So I went through my best photos and came up with a selection of top pics. I can submit about seven pictures in total and have included a few of them for you to see. I have to admit to cheating a bit as I asked one of the local professionals to tell me which ones he felt were the best, which he kindly did for me. I’ll keep you posted as to the results.

......

Montana USA and Moraine Mountain, Banff

Other than that, I have absolutely nothing particularly grand to share. Oh, I guess the fact that ts was a wonderful week, the sun was shining at just the right moments, and I managed to fit in several nice walks with the Finmyster does count as quite grand in the scheme of things.

You have a faabu week dahlings......

PS: The system is acting up a bit so the layout for this week's blog may appear a bit off.

Kelly Date October 18, 2009

Hello Again!

As predicted this past week was crazy busy, but enjoyable nonetheless! I left Wolfville very early Tuesday morning to catch a 7:00 flight to Toronto. And, I do mean early! I had to be up by 3:00a.m. but was so excited about the trip I'm pretty sure I didn't get to sleep until 2:00a.m. Oh well, I did manage to get some sleep en route and felt up to a full day on arriving in Toronto.

Chelsey and Trevor were there to pick me up as

planned and we spent the day wandering around downtown Toronto enjoying the sights and sounds. I took my camera along so I was even able to get some good photographs. The funniest thing was a large group of people dancing for a Cadbury chocolate bar promotional gig they had going on right in the centre of the business district.

People had to dance on a large purple mat in order to win a 'purple goodie bag'! Of course Chelsey wanted one but there was no talking her into participating so I decided to take up the cause and danced my way across the mat in exchange for the prize. Too funny...Chelsey is now the proud owner of all things purple... t-shirt, chocolate, bag, etc. I took the pictures on either side as an example of some of the contestants, but I thought I out jigged them all lol. Well, maybe not but it certainly got some smiles from Chelsey and Trevor.

Next morning, we were up and on our way to Geulph for my conference,

actually arriving a bit early as the traffic was better than anticipated. I spent the rest of the morning hanging out with Rob who I knew from some work I did with him in central BC this past spring. It's always nice to know someone when you go to new places.

Late in the afternoon, I joined a tour group to take in several points of interest in and around Guelph including, the Wellington micro brewery, a potato research station, a small rural tourist town, and a local food market. They were all interesting stops and it was especially nice to get out and see a bit more of Ontario other than the urban centers. I was pleasantly surprised at how lovely the fall colors were and had a great time exploring. Oh yes, I ate some of the best cheese ever at the local food market. Tis a very good thing I don't live anywhere near the place or I'd be my own best/worst customer lol.

The rest of the week was spent taking part in the conference and of course my first attempt to present at this type of venue. It went well, or so I felt, but it was just as stressful as I had imagined it might be. But I had worked very hard to have the information flow and make sense and thought I accomplished that in spades.

One night I went out with a group of delegates and had a great time and the next I wandered around taking photographs of downtown Guelph. They have some amazing architecture there and beautiful old churches and bridges as you can see from the photographs.

I ended up in a nearby pub to get some food and a brew and ended up chatting with a local by the name of Burl Levine who is an amazing poet. He quoted some of his best work and actually honored me with a copy of his published book entitled 'Inklings About Relationships'. It was a real treat and great fun.

The next morning I was up early again and off to catch a ride into Toronto with some newfound friends from the Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia; Harold and Cindy. We managed to get lost but did make it on time in the end.

I am now back at home in Wolfville and I cannot tell you how excited Mr. Finnigan was to see me! Wow, he was over the top wiggly lol. What a wonderful pooch. It's good to be home - it was a great week and a wonderful experience, but as I say...."Home is a good place to be."

Chat next week.....