Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Ice cream till I'm blue in the face
Er...yes, I appear to have completely skipped last week's blog. Sorry to disappoint you avid blog-checkers out there! Actually I've been consumed in a tidal wave of admin this past week, so it wouldn't have been hugely exciting anyway (Day 2: spent the day logging receipts for our tax return. Woohoo!). So what else has been going on?
I did go to a press conference with some Latin American bishops the other weekend, which was pretty cool (my first press conference!). It was for an article I was writing for the Spectator about social injustice in El Salvador. It would have been even cooler if they'd actually printed the article!!! I've yet to find out what happened, but it was pretty annoying considering this is the only way I'm making any money at the moment.
People keep asking me if I'm working yet (or when I meet new people, it's that perennial question "So what do you do?"). My clever answer is 'Yes - but not for money' (apart from the Spec stuff). Because the truth is, I feel like I've been working pretty hard these last couple of weeks. If you want to break it down into job titles, I'm:
A freelance journalist
An editor
My husband's secretary
A data inputter
A cleaner
A cook
An actress
A communications officer
An immigration officer
Just to explain the last three: I'm now a communications person at my church, which mostly involves sending out lots of emails; I've been sorting things out like my social insurance and NHS (well, the Canadian equivalent - Medicare) numbers, all part of settling in as an immigrant; and I've had 3 auditions in the last 2 weeks, hence the actress part.
By the way, I got a part in Guys and Dolls! Yay!!! It's like, third female chorus from the left or something, but it is my first play in Canada and it'll be a good way to meet people anyway. Plus I auditioned for the church drama team, but I won't know the result for a couple of weeks.
So life is pretty busy at the moment. But that didn't stop us from exploring a bit of Canada last weekend. We went to a place overlooking Lake Ontario, surrounding by deep blue lakes and lush woodland. Joe and I, along with all Joe's high school friends, their wives and multiple children, stayed in tiny cottages along the edge of a beautiful private lake.
Because all our cottages were next to each other, and we spent the evenings gathered around the campfire roasting marshmallows and playing the guitar, it kind of reminded me of guide camp (except we sang U2 instead of 'campfire's burning'). Plus we spent more time playing with the kids than talking to the adults. It was great!
When we weren’t eating blue ice cream in scoops the size of a baby’s head, I was chasing the kids around pretending to be a chimp, or Joe was climbing a tree because the kids dared him, or we were getting tipsy on free samples at the local winery (ok, so that was an adult thing).
Sunday was the best part. We went for a walk with Joe’s high school friend and his wife, and their two little boys aged 4 and 6. I love kids at that age (they remind me of Calvin from ‘Calvin & Hobbes’ – it’s a cartoon. If you haven’t read it, your life is missing something). We spent the whole afternoon chasing dragonflies, avoiding poison ivy (like stinging nettles but way worse), finding turtles and looking at snakes. Yes, really! Canadian wildlife is so cool. The turtles weren’t just terrapins – they were about a foot long! And the snakes weren’t just grass snakes – they were two or three feet long! Massive!!
Anyway, I’d been fishing with Nicholas (the 4 year old) earlier in the day, and he kept catching seaweed. Every time I took it off the hook for him, he’d say ‘Eat it!’ (he was the same kid who dared Joe to climb the tree). For some reason, eating seaweed to win the eternal admiration of a 4 year old is strangely tempting.
As it turned out, I won all my kudos later in the afternoon when we were snake-watching. I love the feel of snakes, so after being assured they weren’t poisonous, I picked one up. And it bit me!! How cool is that?!?! Not only did it bite me, I hung on to it long enough to get a photo. I still have the bite mark on my hand, but it’s healing annoyingly fast. Plus it looks like I’ve just stapled myself.
After all the excitement with the snake, we had to start heading home. I stuck my head into the car to say goodbye to the kids, and just as I was leaving, the six year old said:
“Bye, Suzie. That was pretty cool with the snake.”
And my day was made. Who needs seaweed?
I did go to a press conference with some Latin American bishops the other weekend, which was pretty cool (my first press conference!). It was for an article I was writing for the Spectator about social injustice in El Salvador. It would have been even cooler if they'd actually printed the article!!! I've yet to find out what happened, but it was pretty annoying considering this is the only way I'm making any money at the moment.
People keep asking me if I'm working yet (or when I meet new people, it's that perennial question "So what do you do?"). My clever answer is 'Yes - but not for money' (apart from the Spec stuff). Because the truth is, I feel like I've been working pretty hard these last couple of weeks. If you want to break it down into job titles, I'm:
A freelance journalist
An editor
My husband's secretary
A data inputter
A cleaner
A cook
An actress
A communications officer
An immigration officer
Just to explain the last three: I'm now a communications person at my church, which mostly involves sending out lots of emails; I've been sorting things out like my social insurance and NHS (well, the Canadian equivalent - Medicare) numbers, all part of settling in as an immigrant; and I've had 3 auditions in the last 2 weeks, hence the actress part.
By the way, I got a part in Guys and Dolls! Yay!!! It's like, third female chorus from the left or something, but it is my first play in Canada and it'll be a good way to meet people anyway. Plus I auditioned for the church drama team, but I won't know the result for a couple of weeks.
So life is pretty busy at the moment. But that didn't stop us from exploring a bit of Canada last weekend. We went to a place overlooking Lake Ontario, surrounding by deep blue lakes and lush woodland. Joe and I, along with all Joe's high school friends, their wives and multiple children, stayed in tiny cottages along the edge of a beautiful private lake.
Because all our cottages were next to each other, and we spent the evenings gathered around the campfire roasting marshmallows and playing the guitar, it kind of reminded me of guide camp (except we sang U2 instead of 'campfire's burning'). Plus we spent more time playing with the kids than talking to the adults. It was great!
When we weren’t eating blue ice cream in scoops the size of a baby’s head, I was chasing the kids around pretending to be a chimp, or Joe was climbing a tree because the kids dared him, or we were getting tipsy on free samples at the local winery (ok, so that was an adult thing).
Sunday was the best part. We went for a walk with Joe’s high school friend and his wife, and their two little boys aged 4 and 6. I love kids at that age (they remind me of Calvin from ‘Calvin & Hobbes’ – it’s a cartoon. If you haven’t read it, your life is missing something). We spent the whole afternoon chasing dragonflies, avoiding poison ivy (like stinging nettles but way worse), finding turtles and looking at snakes. Yes, really! Canadian wildlife is so cool. The turtles weren’t just terrapins – they were about a foot long! And the snakes weren’t just grass snakes – they were two or three feet long! Massive!!
Anyway, I’d been fishing with Nicholas (the 4 year old) earlier in the day, and he kept catching seaweed. Every time I took it off the hook for him, he’d say ‘Eat it!’ (he was the same kid who dared Joe to climb the tree). For some reason, eating seaweed to win the eternal admiration of a 4 year old is strangely tempting.
As it turned out, I won all my kudos later in the afternoon when we were snake-watching. I love the feel of snakes, so after being assured they weren’t poisonous, I picked one up. And it bit me!! How cool is that?!?! Not only did it bite me, I hung on to it long enough to get a photo. I still have the bite mark on my hand, but it’s healing annoyingly fast. Plus it looks like I’ve just stapled myself.
After all the excitement with the snake, we had to start heading home. I stuck my head into the car to say goodbye to the kids, and just as I was leaving, the six year old said:
“Bye, Suzie. That was pretty cool with the snake.”
And my day was made. Who needs seaweed?
