Today I have mosquito bites on my neck but it was worth it for a trip out to Pine Lake. PL is about a 45 minute drive on a dirt road (by the way I'm loving the song called Dirt Road Anthem by Jason Aldean... I'm such a redneck {haha pun intended.. because of my mosquito bites on my neck haha}). Anyways, PL is a gorgeous lake because it looks like a tropical lake.. it has beautiful blue water as seen in the picture below:

Gorgeous eh?

I went with the boys upstairs. They are all super nice. I've been hanging out with the youngest guy who is 28 and working as a pilot up here. His name is John. Also on the trip we saw LOTS of BEAUTIFUL BISON aka Buffalo's! We saw momma, poppa, and baby buffalo. Here are a couple pictures. We got really close but John wouldn't let me get out of the car because I told him I was attacked by a deer:

They're big beasts!

I don't have much exciting news. I am moving back into staff housing on Thursday night for a month or so. I'm excited to finally get my stuff at the beginning of July. I'm also going to register for a class through Athabasca to get the ball rolling. I'm going to start out with a 6 credit course in Anatomy and Physiology. I have already taken anatomy but it was when there was a lot of stuff going on in my life so even though my mark isn't too bad I'd like to improve it as it is one of the required courses to apply to the program I want to get into.

Ciao for now!

Angry (and happy) Beavers in Smith

Well in the past two weeks there have been angry and happy beavers in the town of Fort Smith. Both my mother and Michael Seaward contacted to let me know that Smith was in the news... let me rephrase... it made national news, all because of an angry beaver. Here is a link to the video of the angry beaver roaming through town:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2011/05/20/fort-smith-beaver-video.html

It went right past my work. A week before this there was a giant happy beaver brought to Smith by the government I believe. Here is a pic of that beaver:

In other non-beaver related news, I have been attacked by ants. Ants have been eating me alive in my sleep and each morning I wake up covered in bites. Here are some bites that are on my arm:

Stupid angry ants! Hopefully that will stop soon. I'm going to douse this place with gasoline hehe! Kill all those suckers!

Other than that stuff everything is going well! I've been hanging out with the boys upstairs. They took me to their softball practice and I was the back catcher hahaha! Except I couldn't throw the ball far enough to make it to the pitcher so I rolled it on the ground. It got the job done! The guys upstairs are so nice. One of them is a pilot from Vancouver and we are becoming fast friends. My other friend upstairs (Chako's twin's owner) moved to Athabasca yesterday. We've also been watching the hockey games.. GO CANUCKS! WOOT WOOT! Soo exciting.. and I am so excited that Mike didn't throw out my Canucks t-shirt that I got at my first NHL game (thanks Mike, I knew it'd be safe with you, even if we didn't talk for 20 years!). I've been wearing it with pride! Unfortunately I am still in last place in the hockey pool from my work in Prince George :( sad news.

I went to my first aquafit class last night that is taught by my co-worker. A girl and I went in the sauna before it started and we started chatting. Within the first two minutes I found out that she is almost my neighbour and that my roommate (that is out east right now) accidently texted her earlier that day, thinking that it was me, asking if there were any new hot guys in town. Random! I love that strange things like that happen daily in Smith.

The guys had some friends over who just so happened went to the University of Waterloo at the same time as me. The girl was friends with my don/resident advisor in first year. We also have a few mutual friends and we were both in the same (small) faculty. They graduated a couple years ahead of me though so I don't believe we ever met.

Ok that's it for now but I know I have other stories that I can't think of at this moment. I'll probably write another post tonight or tomorrow when I think of them. I hope everyone is just as excited about the Canucks as me and everyone best be wearing something with the canucks on it (24/7.. if you shower you are letting the province and country down).

XOXOXOXO

Feeling a little sick today, like I'm going to pass out. I generally have to finally pass out before the feeling of "I'm going to pass out" goes away. Boo urns. I went to the library today and got meeself some bookywookies. I read, "Shit my dad says" today.. it was a fabulous read. The library was actually pretty sweet. I was impressed with their selection of books and DVD's. The lady who works at the library is married to the guy who manages the staff housing, (deep breath), who I found out after chatting with his wife that he was born and raised in Pine Point (my old stomping ground) and moved here after Pine Point ceased to exist. His mom was a teacher at the elementary school which I'm guessing my brother Jordon went to? Ah just another day in Fort Smith.. or as everyone here calls it, Smith. Why use more words than you have to?

I received some amazing compliments this week at work from coworkers so that was really nice. It is funny when you start a new job and don't have any preconceived ideas about any particular resident how things change. For instance, one staff member said that she hasn't one specific resident go outside or really do much in the past year but he has been a joy to work with and has been participating like crazy! Another staff member said that she loves how interactive I am with the residents... I gotta make sure my head doesn't get too big that it pops from all the hot air haha! Just kidding :P! I just have to make sure I keep it up if I want to work around here after this position ends for me. One resident did yell at me yesterday though... so I guess I am down to one point.

Hopefully I'll have more stories and pictures for the end of the long weekend! It's pretty quiet up here right now!

Speak soon! (as Joanna would say)

Mosquitos... big big big mosquitos!

Well today I am here to share some more photos. Including one of my arm with a mosquito bite. My mom and I always thought that I'm mildly allergic to mosquito bites and I think my bite speaks for itself. Most people are itchy for a couple hours.. I'm itchy for a week.. most people get a little dot.. I get a swollen welt the size of a toonie from one bite. I have about 8 of these suckers on my body including two on my scalp.

There's a guy that lives upstairs named Alex, from Ontario. He was a reporter for the newspaper in town but he is soon leaving. He is the guy who owns Teeko. Anyways, we went down to see the sunset and take pictures (he has an amazing camera since he took pics for the newspaper), take Teeko for a walk and for me to see the pelicans up close. YEP! There are pelicans here :).

When we were down by the river Teeko jumped in the water to chase the pelicans and it was really scary because the current is super strong. He couldn't get out of the water for awhile. There were some seagulls hanging out with the pelicans and it was cute, there was one that was like the supervisor. I included a pictures of that. That same seagull went and found a SNAKE and ate it in front of us! GROSS! Too many snakes up here, I knew I should have moved further north (there are not many snakes north of Smith).

Not much else is new. There is a lot of smoke up here because of the fires in Alberta. I hope that clears up soon. I went to the pool to sit in the hot tub and it turned out to be free because it was family swim night.. bonus!

Oh I went to order a cake for Lindsay's baby shower we are having at work (the girl I'm covering for) and on the way back to work I was eating a croissant and a raven followed me the whole way back. Would hop a bit, then fly 3 feet, then hop a bit, haha it was cute! I gave him a piece!

Ok picturesss!

PS. I know there haven't been tons of comments but I can see the number of page views and I'm really lucky to have people so interested in my adventure! Thanks guys!

Chako or Teeko?

Chako or Teeko? You be the judge!

Salt Plains

My friend Jocelyn and I (she is a nursing student who is only here for another month or so) when 4x4ing to the Salt Plains outside of town. Cavy the cavalier made it but he had to work for it (Cavy brakes don't really work anymore.. wish they would have told me that when I had an inspection BEFORE I left PG). I took some lovely pictures but unfortunately I don't have a video of me SCREAMING when a snake popped up to say hi to me. Jocelyn thought it was funny. Apparently she isn't afraid of snakes like me. After that she was wondering why I was so eager to go to the snake pits next weekend (the snakes go to this one place to mate). I'm second guessing the trip myself.

Here are some pics from the Salt Plains. The ground was really neat.. all cracked, clay-like, and SALTY! By the way.. the pics I posted a couple days ago can be made big if you click on them!

Random Thoughts

I'm going to try and upload some pictures :)! The sunset ones were from 10:30 tonight and the other ones are from my drive up here. I moved tonight and I am now staying at the OT's place house sitting while she is away. Some random things I was thinking about tonight: No one uses their signal lights up here. As most of you know, that is a pet peeve of mine... I'll have to work on my road rage haha. Number two: it seems like everyone has grandma dogs up here. It's so weird that up north there are SO many little dogs. My thinking on this is that they are easier in the winter because you don't have to walk them as much when it's super cold out. Another sad thing about dogs up here is a lot of them are tied up in their yards for a lot of the day. I just want to rescue them, but I won't! My roommate has a cat named Sammy Davis Junior and I'm satisfied with just Sammy for now. Upstairs there is a guy who has a dog who looks super similar to Chako.. similar personality too! I'll take a picture soon to show Jo and Andrew. How's that baby baking these days, Jo? Update soon please! Ok enough about dogs. Here are some pictures (if the uploading works).

Pictures:

Sunsets, stuffed animals on the side of the road in between Hay River and Fort Smith, me at this waterfall near Hay River, and road signs.

Oh another thing. I didn't get paid today like I was suppose to. It has been sorted out but now they are writing me a cheque that I have to cash and there is no CIBC within hours of me. I don't know what to do!

Nighty night night!
Xoxox

La Dee Dah!

Greetings from Fort Smith!

Not too much is new. Life is good. I still really like it here. I am reminded of why I'm not a huge fan of working in long term care though. I am so sore every day from pushing wheelchairs and all that fun stuff. Oh well, what can you do!

The rehab assistant that works in town had a BBQ last night which was a lot of fun. She has a bunch of horses and six dogs to play with and we roasted marshmallows which were amazing. She might be moving soon which I'm sad about. She is trying to convince me to teach aquafit at the pool when she moves and I don't think I can be convinced. It wouldn't be too bad but if there was a day I was in a lot of pain the last thing I would want to do is teach aquafit. I'm going to go to her aquafit class and see how amazing she is at teaching it though :).

My internet is super slow so I didn't want to wait for the blog to load to see if I already covered this but the OT's exboyfriend who's parents were friends with my parents in Pine Point went to my brother Darcy's baby shower, not mine. Still kind of crazy though!

It is official I have figured out my housing situation. Tomorrow I am going to housesit for the OT (Crystal) until she comes back at the end of the month. Then I will move back into staff housing for a month, then permanently move into her place with her at the end of June/beginning of July. The rent cannot be beat... $400 a month. It is also probably the 2nd or 3rd closest house to my work. Such a relief!

There was a paddling film festival (films on kayaking and canoeing) this weekend that the nursing student and I went to. I had high hopes of maybe taking up kayaking but I went for a walk down to the river to look at the Rapids of the Drowned (yes thats what the rapids are called) and I decided to think further on this idea. Maybe I'll go on a nice calm lake instead.

The girl I'm covering for had her baby today :). Mom and baby are doing well. And that is all the news I have for tonight.

Sweet Dreams! xoxox

One more thing!

I forgot to update on the housing situation. I'm happy I went out last night because I got quite a few offers for places to stay. Unfortunately I don't think I'm going to be able to get a place on my own. I might have to have a huge garage sale. There are lots of new people that just came to town too from what I've heard so I better snatch up a place as soon as I can. The OT has a room opening up soon and I think that might be where I'll stay. Maybe I can find something on my own soon. I have a little bit of time (like a week and a half to figure some stuff out) so fingers crossed that things work out.

Life is Good!

I went out last night! I haven't drank in quite some time it was interesting. The occupational therapist that works in town invited me out after we had a meeting at work yesterday. She's been up here for four years and came up by herself when she was 25 or 26. Really awesome girl. Her best friend is moving away this weekend so she is going to adopt me into that role haha. Sound familiar Jo??

She gave me tons of advice about living here and introduced me to all her friends at this party (lots of people). It was a party of pilots and their girlfriends. One of the pilots is moving back south so it was a going away party. Here is some of the advice I got (from her and other people):

1. Stay really neutral in this town. Everybody is connected in one way or another and chances are if you are talking shit about someone its that person's cousin, wife, best friend, or brothers bestfriend's cousin's girlfriend's best friend. Moral of the story find a couple people you can trust.
2. If you are young and have an education and some girl's boyfriend looks at you, the girl will go after you, not the boyfriend. Kind of scary... and apparently it happens quite often.
3. A lot of girls seem to find their husbands here lol. Fingers crossed! There are a LOT of pilots in town and they are all young. But most of them have GF's. I have heard that pilots aren't the greatest to date either haha.

There's lots of advice I got that I can't post on here just in case people see it. You have to be a bit careful around here regarding a few different areas. I'll try to be on my best behaviour but it's only people close to me reading this blog so far and we all know how I am so I give myself a month and a half before I accidently start something :S.

In other news, last night I met A LOT of people with really weird connections to me. One girl from Trail that went to Central and Morrish (elementary schools) with me. But she is a couple years younger and moved around a lot so I don't remember her.

There is a pilot (we were at his house) and he did is flight training in Castlegar and dated a good friend of mine when we were in grade 11 and 12. The girl and I didn't hang out much in those years but we figure that the guy Troy and I met at some point. We know tons of the same people.

Another guy did his undergrad in Waterloo at the same time as me but graduated a year before me. Didn't know him there but he did go to the physio clinic for an injury so I'm guessing we probably met at that time.

My last one is a guy who's family lived in Pine Point at the same time as my family (we lived in Pine Point but I was born in Hay River because there was no hospital in PP). For those of you who don't know about Pine Point, it was a mining community that no longer exsists. They moved all the houses and made the town grass from what I understand. His dad worked for Cominco as well.. (at the time there was Cominco and the Power Corporation that were the main employers.. most people that I've talked to up here knew people who worked for the power corp.). I talked to my mom last night and apparently our neighbours had the same last night as him and his family. WEIRD!

This is why I knew I would love the north. The connections are amazing! I'm excited to see how many more connections I may find in my time up here!

Ok I'm hung over so it's time to watch Two Weeks Notice with Sandra Bullock that's on TV at the moment :)! Have a fabulous day everyone. I hope everyone's moms have a very happy mother's day tomorrow!

XOXO
Lots of love and a few tiny sprinkles of bear hugs! I'm so cheesy!

Lunch Break!

I'm on my lunch break at home. It's nice to be able to go home for lunch. I guess I could have done that in PG too. Anyways I met a friend. I'm so excited, except she is only here for 6 weeks. She moved here a couple days ago and is doing her nursing practicum where I work. She is from BC!!!! After high school (she is the same age as me) she went on an adventure to the NWT and has stayed ever since. She is doing the nursing program through Aurora College in Yellowknife. I feel like we have known each other for a long time since I don't know anyone else who is crazy like me. I know a lot of crazy people but not "move up to my homeland" crazy. I'm really sad that she is only here for six weeks but hopefully I'll find some other friends.

I've met most of the rehabilitation department and I love them all. They are such nice women. They are a bit older than me so I don't think they'll be the people I'll be hanging out with outside of work (they have families and what not) but the OT up here is apparently in her late 20's and she needs a roommate in June so that might work out well for me. Hopefully I'll meet her soon :)!

I know I mention this in every post but I cannot get over being woken up at 4:30 by the sun. Crazayyy! The prices here for groceries are actually pretty decent. Just a little bit higher than in PG. But the quality isn't very great of the veggies and there isn't much selection.

Anyways back to workie-poo!

Xox

10PM Lightness

Well it's 10:07 on May, 2011 in Fort Smith, NT. It is still pretty light out.. the sun just went down about half an hour ago. Still gets me every night! It comes back up really early in the morning and wakes me up and every time I think I'm late for work. Things are going well! I like it a lot so far. I just moved into staff housing tonight. I can stay here until the 18th and then I have to leave and find something else. I can come back at the beginning of June though. It will suck if I have to move around a lot more. It is cheap rent in the staff housing so it also would be nice to stay awhile. But at the same time everyone knows how excited I'll be to find my own place :)! I REALLY wanna sleep on my memory foam mattress. I'm making my pros and cons list through this post on what to do if I have a chance at both (a girl in FS could only dream)!

Bedtime! Night night sleep tight! Xoxox

Little Bit of Stress

I'm done my first day! I really love my boss and the job seems great. I'm just really stressed about housing. There has been a big mix up and the locum housing isn't available at the moment AND there is NOTHING available to rent in the town. So much for getting a place with laundry, dishwasher etc HAHA. The locum housing would be perfect because it's A) CHEAP B) Gives me time to find a place and C) There would be other people who are looking for a friend too! It sounds like I'll get into it eventually but I might have to find somewhere to stay for a week or two before I get in it. Short story is that they had it booked for me for two months but there was a mix up in communication and I didn't know that and now they are doing renos due to mold and there isn't a spot. Weird since I had it booked for a couple months but hopefully things will get sorted soon.

In other news.. the weather up here has been really sunny. The sun just starts to set at around 8:30-9ish which is kind of neat. Only going to get later from here. I've had some issues with the hotel. Just that there is no fridge to put some food in so I'm eating junk (which I realize is nothing new, but I do really like my fruits and veggies). Also there is this drain pipe that is aluminum and water is always dripping down (even though there has been no rain). All I hear is loud pitterpatter. My shower also makes a loud screetching sound after about 20 seconds of it being on. Frustrating but I'll get over it. I'll be so much less stressed once housing gets figured out. My furniture and belongings is going to be held in Hay River til things get sorted. I will need some of my stuff if I do end up staying in the locum housing I will have to make a trip down the dirt road to fish out some of my stuff. OH THE JOYS OF MOVING TO THE NWT!

Still loving it though :)! I'll post some pictures later. I've tried a few times but the internet is so slow for uploading pics that I give up each time. I'll try one at a time.

I hope life is treating everyone well!

XOXO