Ok...I just had to come on here really quick to say that I walked to work in the SNOW today!!! So for all of you who are still experiencing +15, +20 and above weather, I HATE YOU! haha just kidding, but still...you guys are BLESSED! I got my very first paycheck with my new job today. Just another one of the coming of age things is the amount of tax they take off your stinkin' paycheck, it's crazy! Hopefully you get most of it back! Pay day is totally awesome. Can't wait for the next one because it will be a full two week paycheck.
Something else cool, or something, I am going to be starting shifts all by myself next week. Should be interesting for sure. We are training a new person tomorrow and on Monday apparently. It's too funny that I'll be "helping" train a NEW person...hahaha ironic.
Ok I really need to get to bed! It's almost midnight!!! I am going to check and see if I can see any northern lights tonight. It's probably too cloudy though because it's been snowing.
Tchau for now...
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Salsa! Salsa!
I'll just start with saying that things have been working out pretty good at my job. It's been really busy lately, but I've survived. Pretty soon I will be able to handle things at the front desk on my own, by next week at the latest. I will probably get a lot of crappy shifts to begin with, but such is life. I am just going to make sure that they don't put me on the 6am shift because, if you know me well enough, you know that I HATE mornings! I would seriously have to get up at 4am in order to get to work on time, totally not going to happen. One thing I like about my job is that it is in the mall so I get to interact with people all day, and since I like people, that's really cool for me. I've met some pretty cool people, no real friends yet, but that will come later I'm sure.
Ok, so now to my exciting news...
This past Friday night, Kelly and I went to a "Retro 70's, 80's, and 90's night" at a local club in town called the Prestige. It was kind of a fundraiser thing. Anyways I dressed up a little and that was really fun. We stayed there for quite awhile. Kelly heard about it through some co-workers. Anyways, while enjoying ourselves immensely (at least I was :)) Kelly and I met one of the people in charge of putting the whole thing on, Raza. As it turns out, he teaches Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, and Reggaeton dance. I talked to him a bit and both Kelly and I tried a little salsa dance with him. I've decided to take lessons! I am SO excited. I have always loved dance and have always wanted to take lessons. Kelly in fact is already taking his classes (the first "set"). The co-worker who met her at the retro dance is taking them and his partner decided not to so Kelly took her place. It's really exciting. Raza is hopefully going to help me find a partner to dance with. I am also on the hunt for a dance partner. The next set of classes don't begin until the beginning of November so I still have lots of time. I am also thinking about taking private dance lessons as well. They are much more hands on so you learn a lot faster in a shorter period of time. I might see if Raza can find me a level two partner and I can just take a few private lessons to get to the second level. That might work, but it might also be harder to find someone who is level 2 and in need of a partner. I just really want to start lessons now! I am too excited. If you want to see more about the classes check out Raza's blog: http://salsa-arctica.blogspot.com
I'll let you all know how it all works out.
Well I am off for now. It is past my "bedtime" and I have work tomorrow (of course) so I had better be getting out of here.
Tchau for now...
Ok, so now to my exciting news...
This past Friday night, Kelly and I went to a "Retro 70's, 80's, and 90's night" at a local club in town called the Prestige. It was kind of a fundraiser thing. Anyways I dressed up a little and that was really fun. We stayed there for quite awhile. Kelly heard about it through some co-workers. Anyways, while enjoying ourselves immensely (at least I was :)) Kelly and I met one of the people in charge of putting the whole thing on, Raza. As it turns out, he teaches Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, and Reggaeton dance. I talked to him a bit and both Kelly and I tried a little salsa dance with him. I've decided to take lessons! I am SO excited. I have always loved dance and have always wanted to take lessons. Kelly in fact is already taking his classes (the first "set"). The co-worker who met her at the retro dance is taking them and his partner decided not to so Kelly took her place. It's really exciting. Raza is hopefully going to help me find a partner to dance with. I am also on the hunt for a dance partner. The next set of classes don't begin until the beginning of November so I still have lots of time. I am also thinking about taking private dance lessons as well. They are much more hands on so you learn a lot faster in a shorter period of time. I might see if Raza can find me a level two partner and I can just take a few private lessons to get to the second level. That might work, but it might also be harder to find someone who is level 2 and in need of a partner. I just really want to start lessons now! I am too excited. If you want to see more about the classes check out Raza's blog: http://salsa-arctica.blogspot.com
I'll let you all know how it all works out.
Well I am off for now. It is past my "bedtime" and I have work tomorrow (of course) so I had better be getting out of here.
Tchau for now...
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Working Adventures...
I know I havn't written on here in awhile. Mom has been bugging me about it, so here you go.
I had a couple of crazy days at work, but besides that it's been awesome! Earlier this week I went in to get my criminal record check done and surprisingly it's already done! I go in to get it tomorrow afternoon. So that's really good because I can finish up my subbing application this weekend. It's almost done, but I have a few pretty important things to fill in.
Now I have to get to what happened today. It was an awesome day! The day was going at just the right speed...not too fast, not too slow. I was really enjoying my job. Anyways, it was almost the end of my shift and two guys come up to the desk to check in. I was just doing my job, checking them in, when I heard them speaking in what I thought must be French, because we get a lot of French people staying in our hotel. So, I was just checking them in when I happened to here one of them say, "quatro." I was thinking, "I thought that four was quatre?" Finally it hit me! Quatro is PORTUGUESE for four! I waited for them to finish talking and then asked them where they were here from. They told me that they were here from Calgary. Next I asked them where they were originally from and they said, BRAZIL! I was like, "Fala Portuguese?!" and they of course said, "SIM!" (which is Portuguese for yes..hehe). We had a short conversation in Portuguese and then we talked about some other stuff.
We got to talking about how I knew Portuguese, so I told them that I had lived in Angola for a year with my family and that's where I learnt "Portuguese de Portugal". Then I told them that my family (minus me) had moved to Namibia. They asked me which organization my family was with and I told them that when my parents were in Namibia they were with Christ's Hope International. Then, to my surprise and delight, one of the men told me that they were both believers as well!
The two of them are with Samaritan's Purse. One of them gave me their card and I gave them my family's and my blog address. It was just SO cool. I told them that they had just totally made my day!
After work I went to the restaurant to have something to eat. When I was done I headed home. I was almost home when who should I run into but the two Brazilian men! I asked them what they were up to and they told me that they had tried to find Great Slave Lake. They had gone the wrong direction and had ended up at a smaller lake. We had a short chat and I'll see them briefly tomorrow morning before they check out. They told me that I should get in touch with some people from their Brazillian church so that I can keep practicing my Portuguese. I just might do that.
Signing off for now. No one has told me what they want me to write about yet, so I'm just winging it. Let me know what you guys all want to hear about!
I had a couple of crazy days at work, but besides that it's been awesome! Earlier this week I went in to get my criminal record check done and surprisingly it's already done! I go in to get it tomorrow afternoon. So that's really good because I can finish up my subbing application this weekend. It's almost done, but I have a few pretty important things to fill in.
Now I have to get to what happened today. It was an awesome day! The day was going at just the right speed...not too fast, not too slow. I was really enjoying my job. Anyways, it was almost the end of my shift and two guys come up to the desk to check in. I was just doing my job, checking them in, when I heard them speaking in what I thought must be French, because we get a lot of French people staying in our hotel. So, I was just checking them in when I happened to here one of them say, "quatro." I was thinking, "I thought that four was quatre?" Finally it hit me! Quatro is PORTUGUESE for four! I waited for them to finish talking and then asked them where they were here from. They told me that they were here from Calgary. Next I asked them where they were originally from and they said, BRAZIL! I was like, "Fala Portuguese?!" and they of course said, "SIM!" (which is Portuguese for yes..hehe). We had a short conversation in Portuguese and then we talked about some other stuff.
We got to talking about how I knew Portuguese, so I told them that I had lived in Angola for a year with my family and that's where I learnt "Portuguese de Portugal". Then I told them that my family (minus me) had moved to Namibia. They asked me which organization my family was with and I told them that when my parents were in Namibia they were with Christ's Hope International. Then, to my surprise and delight, one of the men told me that they were both believers as well!
The two of them are with Samaritan's Purse. One of them gave me their card and I gave them my family's and my blog address. It was just SO cool. I told them that they had just totally made my day!
After work I went to the restaurant to have something to eat. When I was done I headed home. I was almost home when who should I run into but the two Brazilian men! I asked them what they were up to and they told me that they had tried to find Great Slave Lake. They had gone the wrong direction and had ended up at a smaller lake. We had a short chat and I'll see them briefly tomorrow morning before they check out. They told me that I should get in touch with some people from their Brazillian church so that I can keep practicing my Portuguese. I just might do that.
Signing off for now. No one has told me what they want me to write about yet, so I'm just winging it. Let me know what you guys all want to hear about!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
The Sunday adventure...
Well, we sure had an adventure this Sunday! Last Sunday while we were walking to the Calvary church we watched a well dressed fellow walk out of the apartment building across the street from where we live. I looked at Kelly and Dakotah and said something like, “he sure is dressed spiffy, he must be going to church.” We all joked about following him to whichever church he was going to. When he drove by he waved at us so I said, “Oh crap! He must have heard us talking about him!” It was really funny.
So, this Sunday, Kelly decided that we should actually follow this guy to whichever church he was going to!!! I was like, “oh man, but he’ll think that we are stalking him!” Regardless, we all agreed that we would try to wait for him at about the same time that we had headed to church the previous Sunday. Kelly checked out churches online and we decided that he had gone to either one of two churches, a non-denominational church called The Church of Christ or a Baptist church called Central Arctic Church. Kelly figured that since he was so well dressed he must have been headed to the Baptist church. We all got ready and sat out in the truck waiting to see when the “spiffy guy” left. We waited for awhile and then decided to just go on our own. On our way down the street we spotted what Dakotah and I recognized as being his truck. We waited a little while more, but when he didn’t show up we left again. We decided to head to the Baptist church. Kelly wanted to go there because the “spiffy guy” had been friendly to us.
We got to church in time for Sunday school. I looked around but didn’t spot the “spiffy guy.” I kind of gave up on him showing up. Part way through the beginning of morning service we were asked to stand up and greet each other. Who do you think was sitting right in front of us? The “spiffy guy” of course! I whispered to Kelly, “I’m pretty sure that’s the spiffy guy!” I hadn’t even noticed him when he came in.
After the service there was soup and buns. Dakotah of course went straight over to the “spiffy guy” and started talking to him and a guy she knew from school. Later when she came over to where I was I asked her if she’d asked the guy if he lived on our street. She said that she hadn’t so later on when she was talking with him and the guy from school I decided to ask him. He of course did! Ha-ha! Well, during one of the conversations Dakotah and I had with him, Dakotah decided to tell him all about our stalking him to church! It was really funny and really embarrassing all at the same time. He seemed to think that it was all pretty funny. His name is David and he lives about an hour from High River, Alberta, the place we nearly ran out of gas on our way up here. Yeah, that’s a story for another day…
I guess that alls well that ends well. Despite the embarrassing way we got there, I think that I will end up attending there. I even have a way of getting there. Kelly talked to the pastor’s wife and she said to call her anytime to get a ride to church. I really like the church. It’s mission minded and the preaching is good. The people that go there are also really friendly and it’s a good mix of ages. I don’t think that they have a college and careers group, but they do have a ladies group that meets on Tuesdays, at least they do this Tuesday. It was really cool because I met this girl from Zimbabwe! She has only been going to the church for two weeks now. I hope that she keeps going! Well this is it for now; Kelly wants to take me out driving, scary eh? Ha-ha! I hope that I drive good and follow the rules of the road!!!
So, this Sunday, Kelly decided that we should actually follow this guy to whichever church he was going to!!! I was like, “oh man, but he’ll think that we are stalking him!” Regardless, we all agreed that we would try to wait for him at about the same time that we had headed to church the previous Sunday. Kelly checked out churches online and we decided that he had gone to either one of two churches, a non-denominational church called The Church of Christ or a Baptist church called Central Arctic Church. Kelly figured that since he was so well dressed he must have been headed to the Baptist church. We all got ready and sat out in the truck waiting to see when the “spiffy guy” left. We waited for awhile and then decided to just go on our own. On our way down the street we spotted what Dakotah and I recognized as being his truck. We waited a little while more, but when he didn’t show up we left again. We decided to head to the Baptist church. Kelly wanted to go there because the “spiffy guy” had been friendly to us.
We got to church in time for Sunday school. I looked around but didn’t spot the “spiffy guy.” I kind of gave up on him showing up. Part way through the beginning of morning service we were asked to stand up and greet each other. Who do you think was sitting right in front of us? The “spiffy guy” of course! I whispered to Kelly, “I’m pretty sure that’s the spiffy guy!” I hadn’t even noticed him when he came in.
After the service there was soup and buns. Dakotah of course went straight over to the “spiffy guy” and started talking to him and a guy she knew from school. Later when she came over to where I was I asked her if she’d asked the guy if he lived on our street. She said that she hadn’t so later on when she was talking with him and the guy from school I decided to ask him. He of course did! Ha-ha! Well, during one of the conversations Dakotah and I had with him, Dakotah decided to tell him all about our stalking him to church! It was really funny and really embarrassing all at the same time. He seemed to think that it was all pretty funny. His name is David and he lives about an hour from High River, Alberta, the place we nearly ran out of gas on our way up here. Yeah, that’s a story for another day…
I guess that alls well that ends well. Despite the embarrassing way we got there, I think that I will end up attending there. I even have a way of getting there. Kelly talked to the pastor’s wife and she said to call her anytime to get a ride to church. I really like the church. It’s mission minded and the preaching is good. The people that go there are also really friendly and it’s a good mix of ages. I don’t think that they have a college and careers group, but they do have a ladies group that meets on Tuesdays, at least they do this Tuesday. It was really cool because I met this girl from Zimbabwe! She has only been going to the church for two weeks now. I hope that she keeps going! Well this is it for now; Kelly wants to take me out driving, scary eh? Ha-ha! I hope that I drive good and follow the rules of the road!!!
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Adventures and such
I have tried to post something new for a couple of days now, but the blog hasn't been working...
I'll start with saying that work has been going quite well. I am making a good wage and it's not too stressful a job. For once in my life I am actually tired at night! It's pretty weird. I am usually such a night owl. I don't have to work this weekend, so that's kinda nice. Back to work Monday morning from 9am-5pm. I met a girl at work who is from Mauritius. She is a really nice gal and she's just a little younger than me. Her family moved here directly from Mauritius! It was really a shock for her, the winters. Plus the only thing she knew of Canada was Toronto. She thought that Yellowknife and the rest of Canada was like Toronto. Anyways I really like her and I hope that I get more chances to work with her.
So now for some Yellowknife adventure stories. To start with I should definitely talk about the "mall." So for those of you who havn't heard of the famous Yellowknife mall, it's the DUMP! We went out to the mall for a treasure hunt after a couple of days of being in Yellowknife. It was kinda on a whim. Anyways we got there and it was a dump all right, but we found some great treasures! There was everything there from bikes, to books, to nice shoes (in garbage bags, so they were clean!) and nice dishes! I found post-it notes, notebooks and some really great novels. I even found us a really great little mini Christmas tree, already decorated! HA! So that was a good adventure! It was really funny being there, me with my purse and in flip-flops, digging around at the dump, finding all kinds of little treasures amidst the junk and the hundreds of seagulls! Almost forgot! Dakotah and I had our picture taken by some guy who works for the paper! HAHA! We might end up in the paper! I'll letcha all know if that happens.
One of my Yellowknife misadventures was going to the Extra Foods and finding out that they don't have my favortite coffee here!!!! It's redunculous! They have the right brand and they even have the strong roast in DECAF, but...they don't have the REGULAR strong roast!!! It's SO silly!!! They have EVERYTHING but my favorite coffee in that brand!!! It's SO nutso! So I guess I will have to live with PC regular roast for 10 months.
Besides the right coffee, you can get most things here in Yellowknife. A few things you apparently can't find here though are nice dress shoes, more than a couple clothing stores and decent sized stores. For example, the Walmart here, it's like a quarter of the size of Kamloops' Walmart and about half the size of the Sussex Walmart. And gran thought that Sussex's Walmart was small...haha.
A few of the things I want to do or see while here in Yellowknife are:
I'll start with saying that work has been going quite well. I am making a good wage and it's not too stressful a job. For once in my life I am actually tired at night! It's pretty weird. I am usually such a night owl. I don't have to work this weekend, so that's kinda nice. Back to work Monday morning from 9am-5pm. I met a girl at work who is from Mauritius. She is a really nice gal and she's just a little younger than me. Her family moved here directly from Mauritius! It was really a shock for her, the winters. Plus the only thing she knew of Canada was Toronto. She thought that Yellowknife and the rest of Canada was like Toronto. Anyways I really like her and I hope that I get more chances to work with her.
So now for some Yellowknife adventure stories. To start with I should definitely talk about the "mall." So for those of you who havn't heard of the famous Yellowknife mall, it's the DUMP! We went out to the mall for a treasure hunt after a couple of days of being in Yellowknife. It was kinda on a whim. Anyways we got there and it was a dump all right, but we found some great treasures! There was everything there from bikes, to books, to nice shoes (in garbage bags, so they were clean!) and nice dishes! I found post-it notes, notebooks and some really great novels. I even found us a really great little mini Christmas tree, already decorated! HA! So that was a good adventure! It was really funny being there, me with my purse and in flip-flops, digging around at the dump, finding all kinds of little treasures amidst the junk and the hundreds of seagulls! Almost forgot! Dakotah and I had our picture taken by some guy who works for the paper! HAHA! We might end up in the paper! I'll letcha all know if that happens.
One of my Yellowknife misadventures was going to the Extra Foods and finding out that they don't have my favortite coffee here!!!! It's redunculous! They have the right brand and they even have the strong roast in DECAF, but...they don't have the REGULAR strong roast!!! It's SO silly!!! They have EVERYTHING but my favorite coffee in that brand!!! It's SO nutso! So I guess I will have to live with PC regular roast for 10 months.
Besides the right coffee, you can get most things here in Yellowknife. A few things you apparently can't find here though are nice dress shoes, more than a couple clothing stores and decent sized stores. For example, the Walmart here, it's like a quarter of the size of Kamloops' Walmart and about half the size of the Sussex Walmart. And gran thought that Sussex's Walmart was small...haha.
A few of the things I want to do or see while here in Yellowknife are:
- Dogsledding
- Seeing the northern lights
- Getting into a photography club
- Doing ballroom dancing classes
There are not many things to do here in Yellowknife, especially when you don't know anyone. Hopefully I can find some friends here soon so that I have stuff to do after work and on the weekends. I might try to get a few photography jobs on the side once I get my new camera and after I have been here for awhile. Who knows what might happen with that.
Hey if anyone wants to know anything specific about Yellowknife, leave a comment and let me know. That way I can tell whoever even reads this blog what they want to know about me and/or Yellowknife. Well, this is all I can think of right now...Wednesday, September 10, 2008
First day on the job...
I was hired for the waitressing job, when I went to my interview, but when I showed up for work today they asked me if I wanted another job. They asked me to work at the front desk of their hotel! I get payed $3 more than I would have gotten payed doing waitressing. After 3 months I will even get benefits. The day went quite well. Pretty long for me though since I am not used to the long hours. I worked from 9am until 4pm.
Tomorrow I work again from 9am until 4/5pm. It's going to be interesting. I think that I like my new job pretty well. Oh, so more good news. I found out the other day that I do not need a teaching certificate to do substitute teaching, so I am still going to apply for that eventually. I even told my new manager my plans to do that and that I would be working only part time then, and it's ok!
It's suppertime now and I'm starved! I am pretty tired too! I think that I will probably end up going to bed on time tonight. So that's it for now. I guess that I will have to chronicle some of my Yellowknife adventures later.
Tomorrow I work again from 9am until 4/5pm. It's going to be interesting. I think that I like my new job pretty well. Oh, so more good news. I found out the other day that I do not need a teaching certificate to do substitute teaching, so I am still going to apply for that eventually. I even told my new manager my plans to do that and that I would be working only part time then, and it's ok!
It's suppertime now and I'm starved! I am pretty tired too! I think that I will probably end up going to bed on time tonight. So that's it for now. I guess that I will have to chronicle some of my Yellowknife adventures later.
Monday, September 8, 2008
So it begins...
I must be brief tonight as I have a job interview in the morning. This afternoon I applied for two waitressing jobs and about ten minutes after I got home I got a phone call asking me to come in for an interview tomorrow morning. I thought that was pretty cool. I'll let you all know how the interview goes. Maybe I'll get hired on the spot? Who knows! There are apparently quite a lot of jobs here up north. I think that I could get almost any job that I could think of.
I didn't really start with my beginning, which would be, why I am up north. So, the reason I decided to move WAY up north, a lady from BC asked me to. She came up here to fill a temporary job position and needed me to come because she has a daughter who is not yet old enough to stay home alone when her mom goes on overnight business trips. So here I am, way up in northern Canada, for 10 whole months. While here I'll get a job, work, and at the end of 10 months leave. It should be interesting.
I am going to try my best to keep everyone posted on all my northern adventures. I'll hopefully fill you all in on a few of those adventures tomorrow. For now I'm hittin' the hay so that I have a good and awake interview tomorrow!
Tchau for now...
I didn't really start with my beginning, which would be, why I am up north. So, the reason I decided to move WAY up north, a lady from BC asked me to. She came up here to fill a temporary job position and needed me to come because she has a daughter who is not yet old enough to stay home alone when her mom goes on overnight business trips. So here I am, way up in northern Canada, for 10 whole months. While here I'll get a job, work, and at the end of 10 months leave. It should be interesting.
I am going to try my best to keep everyone posted on all my northern adventures. I'll hopefully fill you all in on a few of those adventures tomorrow. For now I'm hittin' the hay so that I have a good and awake interview tomorrow!
Tchau for now...
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