Well the unpacking has yet to start. I had a couple buddies come visit from Calgary this weekend so needless to say I've done nothing so far. My room is full, I can hardly walk and the fact that 75% of the time I find what I go in there looking for is pretty much amazing. To be honest with you, I am sleeping in the guest room right now because I just can't bring myself to deal with the mess in my own room... Not a good scenario!
But, tomorrow my sister is probably gonna come over and help me go through a bunch of things. Organize, throw out, donate, all of that fun stuff. Almost looking forward to it... Looking forward to knowing where everything is, thats for sure!
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Moving Day! (Well, sorta)
So moving week is more like it. The trouble with living close to campus is that I'd bring a couple items here and a couple items there so all of a sudden I have a ton of stuff in the apartment and it is gonna take forever to clean! Well, on the flip side, it also means I can take a few boxes home this day, and a few more this day. So I have slowly been moving out and all of a sudden today it was go time. My room in the apartment is empty but for my CD player, clock, and computer. Leaving the computer because then I have to come back tomorrow to clean and I wont cop out on it. My room at home? DISASTER ZONE! Not only do I have all the stuff that I randomly, and in an unorganized fashion, threw into boxes and bags and suitcases, but I also have all the junk that is still in my room that I kept telling myself I was going to go through sometime this year(didn't happen!)... Gonna be a long week.
I have to get home and start unpacking. At the least I need to empty my last car load and set up somewhere to sleep, but somehow I can't pull myself out of this apartment just yet.
On that note I am going to sign off and sit for a little while, in my empty and almost echoy room. Take some time out to remember the past 8 months and dream about what is to come for me in this summer, this year, this lifetime. What better time to reflect when you leave the campus of a school you wont be returning to...
I have to get home and start unpacking. At the least I need to empty my last car load and set up somewhere to sleep, but somehow I can't pull myself out of this apartment just yet.
On that note I am going to sign off and sit for a little while, in my empty and almost echoy room. Take some time out to remember the past 8 months and dream about what is to come for me in this summer, this year, this lifetime. What better time to reflect when you leave the campus of a school you wont be returning to...
Friday, April 20, 2007
Haiti
Being home is great. I love having people around again(most of the time) and to return to having a social life was pretty sweet. Working only 40 hours a week now seems abnormally short, which is good because that sure makes work pass quicker. I took most of the last two weeks to adjust to being on regular, non graveyard hours, but am now pretty sure that I have returned, in whole, to life as an Edmontonian.
So my trip is booked! This summer I am going to spend 6 (SIX) weeks in Haiti! I will be volunteering at an orphanage where my job is to spend an hour a day with 8 babies. I will be living at the orphanage, eating there, working there, everything. I am super excited and quite nervous, but am looking forward to this trip with everything I have.
I fly out of Edmonton on July 29 and land in Fort Lauderdale Flordia for a 3 day adventure with mom. She just happens to have a work conference in Flordia at that time and so we get to meet up and have some time, just the two of us, under the hot Flordia sun. Then it is off to Haiti. I will depart Haiti for Fort Lauderdale on September 11(I had to do it), then its off to Toronto where I have a 6 hour overnight lay over before getting home at around 10 am on September 12(Dads bday!).
I have no idea really what I am getting into but here is a little taste of what I do know. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the poorest in the world. Something like 75% of the country does not have access to the main urban centers. It is also one of the more dangerous ones as it has had abotu 80years of civil unrest. When I land in Port Au Prince(The capital, I am not staying here), I will be picked up by Orphanage volunteers accompanied by an ARMED GUARD! It is going to be ridiculously hot there and I will have to learn to eat food that I am uncertain about. Spicy food, vegetables, refriend beans, if they cook it, I will have little choice but to eat it, and for those of you who know me, this is no small task!
But I am excited. I still feel strongly that this is something that I have to do. Whenever I start to think about bailing out, I get this pull inside reminding me that sometimes we just have to do what we have to do. We have to get up, leave our comfort zone, and enter a world that is completely forgein to us. A world without cell phones, without daily internet access, without the luxuary of money to spare. Thats what I am about to do(in 101 days!) and I am scared out of my wits!
So my trip is booked! This summer I am going to spend 6 (SIX) weeks in Haiti! I will be volunteering at an orphanage where my job is to spend an hour a day with 8 babies. I will be living at the orphanage, eating there, working there, everything. I am super excited and quite nervous, but am looking forward to this trip with everything I have.
I fly out of Edmonton on July 29 and land in Fort Lauderdale Flordia for a 3 day adventure with mom. She just happens to have a work conference in Flordia at that time and so we get to meet up and have some time, just the two of us, under the hot Flordia sun. Then it is off to Haiti. I will depart Haiti for Fort Lauderdale on September 11(I had to do it), then its off to Toronto where I have a 6 hour overnight lay over before getting home at around 10 am on September 12(Dads bday!).
I have no idea really what I am getting into but here is a little taste of what I do know. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the poorest in the world. Something like 75% of the country does not have access to the main urban centers. It is also one of the more dangerous ones as it has had abotu 80years of civil unrest. When I land in Port Au Prince(The capital, I am not staying here), I will be picked up by Orphanage volunteers accompanied by an ARMED GUARD! It is going to be ridiculously hot there and I will have to learn to eat food that I am uncertain about. Spicy food, vegetables, refriend beans, if they cook it, I will have little choice but to eat it, and for those of you who know me, this is no small task!
But I am excited. I still feel strongly that this is something that I have to do. Whenever I start to think about bailing out, I get this pull inside reminding me that sometimes we just have to do what we have to do. We have to get up, leave our comfort zone, and enter a world that is completely forgein to us. A world without cell phones, without daily internet access, without the luxuary of money to spare. Thats what I am about to do(in 101 days!) and I am scared out of my wits!
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Calgary part 5(the conclusion)
So I am home. For good this time. Or I think it is for good. They have asked when I will go back but I told them to leave me alone until May. Gives me at least a little time in my own restaurant and time to move out of the apartment and get life in order. All of that fun stuff.
I spent the week on graveyard shifts. 6pm-6am was my scheduled shifts. But it was ok. It is easier than I thought it would be to work over night and then sleep during the day. It also helped that the line cook on graves was awesome and quite possibly one of the best huggers I've ever known. Fun thing about the week is that I wasn't a server, or a server trainer on these shifts but a manager. With no official training, I was managing the overnight staff. And I think I did a pretty good job of it, seeing as when I stopped by my store yesterday to visit, the managers there were talking about the good things they had heard. So that is pretty sweet.
It turned out to be an awesome week. Got to know a bunch of the staff, while at work, and on smoke breaks, and they are pretty awesoem. I have no shame in saying that I am going to miss that store. Alot. Way more than I thought I might. Not sure I'd want to do another open, I think I get too attached to the people. I had thought saying bye to the other trainers was hard, but hugging some of those staff members bye literally had me in tears, not that it will be a long time till I see them again, but because I realized that the people that I had been spending nearly every day with were all of a sudden be 300km away. Not fun. But it was worth it. Completely.
So overall it was a really good time. I have a few minor issues with my paycheck, but with the help fo my GM it is being looked into. I plan to go back to Calgary sometime in the next few weeks to visit, a non working trip, and I look forward to doing so.
Heres to being home again. For however long it might be!
I spent the week on graveyard shifts. 6pm-6am was my scheduled shifts. But it was ok. It is easier than I thought it would be to work over night and then sleep during the day. It also helped that the line cook on graves was awesome and quite possibly one of the best huggers I've ever known. Fun thing about the week is that I wasn't a server, or a server trainer on these shifts but a manager. With no official training, I was managing the overnight staff. And I think I did a pretty good job of it, seeing as when I stopped by my store yesterday to visit, the managers there were talking about the good things they had heard. So that is pretty sweet.
It turned out to be an awesome week. Got to know a bunch of the staff, while at work, and on smoke breaks, and they are pretty awesoem. I have no shame in saying that I am going to miss that store. Alot. Way more than I thought I might. Not sure I'd want to do another open, I think I get too attached to the people. I had thought saying bye to the other trainers was hard, but hugging some of those staff members bye literally had me in tears, not that it will be a long time till I see them again, but because I realized that the people that I had been spending nearly every day with were all of a sudden be 300km away. Not fun. But it was worth it. Completely.
So overall it was a really good time. I have a few minor issues with my paycheck, but with the help fo my GM it is being looked into. I plan to go back to Calgary sometime in the next few weeks to visit, a non working trip, and I look forward to doing so.
Heres to being home again. For however long it might be!
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