New Home

We are settling into our new apartment now. I am still busy trying to find the perfect spot for my various candles, pictures and other useless artifacts. But it is slowly starting to feel like our own place, which is a nice feeling to have since we have been living without any of our belongings while in England. I am living in the sheer bliss of having my own washer, dryer AND dish washer! Our apartment faces a pond and lots of trees, that are turning all the brilliant colors of fall. I'll post some pics when I get our place all organized.

Last Thursday was a bad day in sports for us. We went to an Islanders hockey game, which they lost (but in overtime, so they got a point) and the Mets lost and missed their chance for the World Series. Too bad. We are still hard-core Oilers fans but due to locality, we are now forced to cheer for another team. At least we get to watch hockey, we were deprived of that while in England.

Speaking of deprivation, our tv died after we had just had our cable hooked up. Now, the tv is from 1984 and the screen is smaller that our computer's. So, we don't mind buying a new tv but we will have to wait for Jason's next paycheck. So, that means having to live for over a week without a tv!! I don't really mind, most of the shows I enjoy I can't get over the internet and it does mean that I do MUCH more reading.

Lights out.

There I was, watching a movie on my computer, when bam! Lights out. Power failure. So, I sat there, in the dark, wondering when the lights would go back on. After a few moments I: a) noted that my peripheral vision was better in the dark than when I looked straight and b) I was a little freaked out that there were no lights coming back on. Now I am not exactly afraid of the dark but when you live on a government laboratory, in the middle of a forest, all sorts of strange things start going through your mind. Some sort of terrorist plan to shut all the lights off so they could break in and steal important documents, that sort of thing. But mostly I was concerned that some one might take this opportunity to break in (and steal what? Our computer- the only thing of value in the house). So, finally, I got enough courage to feel my way to our bedroom, where Jason was asleep. After I laid down, I realized that I hadn't brushed my teeth, but since the lights hadn't come on yet, I was feeling too chicken to get out of bed again. It's funny how you can still be slightly afraid of the dark even as an adult. It's not just the dark, but the knowledge that there is no light to be found anywhere (except if I could have found our flashlight).

It made me think of a passage I read in Madeleine L'Engle's book, 'A Circle of Quiet'.

"I'm afraid of the dark- not afraid to go up the stairs in the physical darkness of the night, but afraid of the shadows of another kind of dark, the darkness of nothingness, of hate, of evil. So we rush around trying to light candles. Some are real: books are candles for me; so is music; so is friendship. Others blow up in our faces, like too much alcohol and too many sleeping pills or pep pills. Or hard drugs. Or sex where there isn't any love."

We only have 3 more sleeps and we move into our new apartment, I can't wait. I was just thinking of the luxury it will be of having my own washer and dryer in our new place after I trudge down to the laudromat today.

Happy Columbus Day (or Thanksgiving Day)

It's Columbus day here, but to those in the North, Happy Thanksgiving. I think this is the first Thanksgiving that I haven't really celebrated. In England, we managed to hook up with other Canadians or force our UK friends to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. But this year, we are putting our turkey cravings on hold until the end of November, when we will celebrate with our American friends.

Today, I went to the beach. It was one of those things that make me think, "Wow, I can't believe I'm going to the beach in October". And it's not just that I was going to the beach, but I was going to the beach, wearing capris and a t-shirt, with sunglasses and a book in hand. In October. I remember feeling the same way when I went camping at the beginning of February on Vancouver Island. I guess the girl from the Prairies has a hard time forgetting that winter doesn't always have to start of November and end sometime in April.

So as we slowly make our way into fall, Jason and I enjoyed the nice weather in New York on Saturday. There was an Open House of New York event, featuring numerous buildings throughout the five boroughs of New York. We went to two buildings, one built in 1855 next to Central Park and the other was built in 1911 by a grand-daughter of one of the Vanderbilts. It was a great way to see some of the unique buildings in New York.

Here is one of the houses we toured.



Tonight, we are meeting a friend from the UK who is here for a week. Back in July, when we were packing up to move from England to Canada (and realizing quickly that we weren't not going to be able to bring much back with 2o kgs baggage limit each), Jonathan volunteered to bring a bag of our belongings with him on this trip. We took him up on the offer and we now excitedly wait for our winter clothes to arrive.

Here's a picture of Jason at the Metropolitan museum.

It's the little things...

You know, it's just the little things that make me happy. Like the sun shining. Like sleeping in. Like cuddling up to the person you love. Like text-messaging with friends far away. That kind of thing.

I think I've cracked the case of the missing letters. I have been waiting for this organization (no name will be mentioned) to complete my credential verifications. They have mailed out TWO letters requesting transcripts from the University of Alberta.
Do you think they ever arrived? Do you think they would fax the request to the U of A? Do you think they would tell me the address that they have been mailing these letters to? NO. So, thanks to the help of a nice lady at the Alberta nursing licensing body, I was able to figure out that this organization has probably been mailing the letters to the U of A HOSPITAL. Easily done. But, when I call them, again, do you think they would tell me that- no. They suggested that I write them a letter, giving them the address that they should be using if I think they are using the wrong address. And I am paying them to do this kind of work! Great. I probably wouldn't mind so much if I wasn't already in New York, ready and able to work! So, I am hoping and praying that things will start to move ahead.

Not that I'm bored. I'm not. I can easily find things for myself to do. Especially since the weather is still really nice and New York is so close by! I think, maybe, my night-time TV watching has increased slightly... but I'm not addicted!! I need to go now, Grey's Anatomy is on.

New York on a Tuesday

Hmm... I had a great day today. I met up with an old (not age-wise, just length of time-wise) nursing friend. He didn't know that I was in NY until I emailed him after I received an email from him saying how he was loving celebrating his birthday in NY. So long story, but we ended up making plans, texting each other at 9:00pm, Monday night. Having the flexible schedule that comes with not working, I jumped on a train and headed into Manhattan today. We ended up in Brooklyn, visiting over perogies and clubhouse sandwiches. It was great to catch up and have a laugh. It was so fun to meet up in such an exciting city, so far removed from the places and circumstances that we knew each other from.

After our lunch, my friend caught his plane and I went to wander NY by myself. The day was sunny and warm and I didn't really have a specific plan, which ended up being the best thing. I did manage to get in some shopping, but I also just wandered through some of the streets, just looking at the buildings and the people. I felt like it was a great way to experience NY. I really wish that we could live right in the city but I guess I will just have to make many more trips like this one.

Another great thing- we have found an apartment to rent!! We don't get it until October 21st, which is fine because they are putting in new everything. And we have a great view of the woods and a pond.

Waiting for my floor to dry.

I am currently stranded in my living room as I wait for my kitchen floor to dry. We got a new Apple computer this week (yaah!) We are loving it. It has this program called photo booth, where it takes crazy pictures of you. Here are a few samples.






Jason and I were practically crying after we first tried it out.

We have been attending a Congregational church here. We have been enjoying the pastor's sermons a lot. He was a microbiologist for 30 years, then had a career change to being a pastor. So, we particularly like his approach to his sermons. The only problem with the church is the lack of people our age. When I say lack, I mean that there is absolutely no one even remotely close to our age. I think there is probably a 10 years gap (either way) between us and the rest of the people. So, while we enjoy it, we may check out another church as well, maybe just so I could meet a few people my age.

Last weekend, we went to Southampton for the day. It's the town where the rich people of New York have their summer homes. These houses are pretty amazing, especially considering that no one lives in them for half the year. The ones we looked at faced the Atlantic, were right on the beach and were massive! We walked along the beach there, had lunch in town and did a bit of window shopping. It was a nice way to spend a Saturday.

Sunday, we went mountain biking. I was a bit nervous because I haven't mountain biked for 3 years. But the trail we found was pretty manageable and I felt quite comfortable (it's just like riding a bike...). Nice to know that there a some great trails so close by.

This weekend, we are going to look at some places to rent. I would like to move out of these temporary accommodations and find something more permanent. Perhaps the smell of urine on our green carpet is motivating me as well...

This picture is of a cool insect sitting on the side of our apartment.

Finally, New York!!

We finally got into Manhattan this weekend. We decided Saturday morning that we would go into NY after seeing a nice, sunny morning outside. So, we took the train in and explored a tiny, little bit of the city.

This is Jason, outside of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We spent the afternoon looking at the Greek and Roman art, Egyptian Art and a small bit of European Paintings. It's an amazing and huge museum that we are planning on returning to.

This is a sphinx from Hatshepsut's temple. We went to her temple at Deir-el-bahri in Egypt.

In Central Park (there's a wedding in the background).

Cental Park (see the high rise apartments in the background- expensive!!).

Times Square


Jason and I got to check out the Apple store. It's all underground. This picture is of the glass box that serves as the entrance. It's pretty cool.

Little Lewis

Here's is a picture of my new nephew- Lewis Matthew. He was born on August 31. Here he is with his big sister, Jaina. We can't wait to meet him.

Do you want Lyme with that?

Happy Birthday to my great sister, Ariane! (and belated wishes to my Dad).

I have recently discovered that there is a tick problem in this area. I met an eleven year old girl who has had Lyme's Disease twice!! As you would imagine, Jason and I have become a little paranoid about these little critters. Searching our skin constantly for a little, tiny, brown/red tick- it could drive you mad. I guess we should be pleased that you get a bulls-eye rash if you become infected- that shouldn't be too hard to miss (unless it's in your hair). I'm going to stop thinking about it now.

I'm enjoying sleeping in while I'm not working. And also, I'm enjoying my long, lazy mornings after I've slept in. My daily runs. Time for devotions and prayer. Just not feeling rushed. I have time (most days) to do everything that I've planned. It's nice to have a simple life for awhile.

I'm reading a great book right now. It's called "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson. It's about a Congregationalist minister writing to his son to read after he is dead. I've really been enjoying it and it was one of those just-grabbed-it-off-the-shelf. It won the Pulitzer prize in 2005. I think I'll have some good quotes to pull from it and maybe share...

Sunny Saturday

Here is our new car. We just bought it on Thursday and we thought we HAD to take it out on the weekend and explore the island!!

So on Saturday, we packed a picnic and drove out to the North Fork. The North Fork is famous for it's vineyards. We stopped at a family-run winery to sample some wine and eat our lunch.

It was a great way to spend the afternoon! (There's our picnic basket which we got as a wedding present but haven't used it until now- finally!)

This is Jason's beard that he grew as we drove across America.

U-Hauling it!

Here are some pictures of our journey across the States. One might call it an epic journey, but that might depend on what country you came from...
So, driving 5 days straight took us through some cool sites (sights). This first one is Montana. Made it through the border crossing with no big problems although we had to give up our Chunky Soup (it had beef in it- and mad cow!)

This picture is taken somewhere in Montana. Our first petrol bill, $85.00!!

Our travelling/moving van. Montana- still!! Just outside Billings.

You know these faces. We had a super dramatic tour guide, named Sommar. We had to think of each president's vision for the country as we moved from station to station. Fun.

This place was cool. The badlands of South Dakota. We camped on night there and I would love to go back. Only rains on average 1 inch in August. It rained the night we stayed there, about 2 inches in ONE hour!

Driving in Iowa. Who knew it was so beautiful?

As you can see, the rain followed us from the badlands of South Dakota to the lush green of Iowa. That puddle was not there when we went to bed the night before. It rained all night long!! The campground was empty by morning.

After Iowa, we met up with Stephen and Amber in Indiana. They were kind enough to open their warm home to some rain-soaked travellers. We had a great (but quick) visit with them and then left the next day for Penssylvania. We camped one (uneventful) night there (NO RAIN!) and then we got into New York the next day. Guess who drove the U-Haul through The Big Apple- that's right, me! I did pretty good, just got honked at once but I think that was good luck, it was like I was one of them!

From Long Island With Love

We have arrived! We have been on Long Island for 5 days and we have been busy trying to settle in to our new home. We arrived on Long Island a day earlier than planned. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem but we were moving into government laboratory accomodation. That may sound a bit strange. Basically, we are living in an apartment that is on the site of Brookhaven National Laboratory, where Jason works. The site is huge, over half of it is covered in forest, with deer and wild turkey running around in it. So, in order to get into the site (and to get to our apartment), we have to go through security. Because we arrived a day early, security wouldn't let us into Brookhaven, which meant, another night of camping!
We looked at our map and picked a nearby beach with camping sites. Turned out that we made a great decision. The beach was fantastic. White sands, stretching for miles. I was really excited that there was going to be a beach like this 15 minutes away from my apartment. Here's some pictures of 'our' beach.

To the border and back!

I have been pretty bad with posting on my blog this month... We have been in Lethbridge and Edmonton, visiting friends and family. We have had a great time. I don't even know where to begin!
Today, we drove down to the USA/Canada border (only 1 hour away). We both got our Visas to be in the States. After we got our visas, we filled up with gas and then drove through Customs again and came back into Canada. Just a practice run for Friday. We are hoping that this prevents any complications when we arrive at the border with our moving van, piled high with our belongings.
I hope to post some of my pictures once we get set up with a computer in New York. We are planning on taking a week to drive out to NY and we are going to be stopping into Stephen and Amber's in Indiana. We are going to be camping along the way. So, I have a good excuse for not posting for a few days....

Greece In July

We are back in Cambridge for a day after coming home from Greece yesterday. So we are washing clothes, repacking, then leaving for Venice tomorrow. As you will see from the pictures, my parents are over here. Jason's parents come on Friday for his graduation ceremony. We are busy trying to fit in as much traveling as we can before we go back to Canada. I'm really looking forward to seeing Venice.

We only have a little over a week before we fly back to Canada and so far we haven't done any packing or organizing. We have lots of stuff to get rid of because we can only take 20kgs each on the plane. We may have to buy new wardrobes when we get back to Canada (I wouldn't mind...)

Here's some pictures of Greece.
This one is of the big storm that arrived the moment we checked into our hotel. It was awesome, the thunder echoed off the surround hills and mountains. There was an amazing downpour with lightening. And we thought Greece was going to be all sun...



This is a picture of Jason and I in front of a Venetian fortress in Nafplio's harbour.




This was the view from a restaurant we ate at one night.





Us in Athens at the Acropolis




My dad dressed up... Ha, just kidding. This is a guard in Athens.




Ancient theatre at Delphi




The family at Delphi



A day at the beach (the back on Jason and my mom's head)



The view from our hotel at night during the full moon.

Midsummers In Sweden

Well, life is really hard at the moment. We leave for Greece tomorrow. Two weeks of sun-worshipping and sight-seeing...
My parents are arriving in Cambridge this morning after traveling in the northern part of England and Scotland.

Last weekend, we took a quick trip to Sweden to see my good friend Carin and her husband Marcus. It had been a year exactly since we had seen them last. We arrived in the midst of Midsummer's celebrations. Celebrations include: dancing around the Maypole (the pole being some sort of fertility symbol from the days of paganism), BBQs, wreaths of flowers, and just generally being out in the sunshine (although, as always the case with holiday days, Midsummer's day normally sees some rain as well).

On Saturday, we spend the day in Stockholm. We watched the Sweden/Germany football match with some of Carin and Marcus' friends. Sweden lost, so there was about an hour of depressive moods in the room. After, we went to a park near the ocean and had a BBQ.






Sunday, we went to Carin's church, where she is a pastor. They had a visiting choir from the USA. A gospel choir from the South, so there was a lot of fun and clapping. The sermon was in English, which was a bonus. After church, we went to Uppsala, a university town where they also have huge burial mounds dating back to the 6th century. The church was built over pagan remains and was the site for the baptisms of Swedish kings.

We had a great time in Sweden, as usual. Hmmm, I definitely could live in Sweden. It's such a beautiful place.

Cranberry Juice Drink

Once again I've been mislead to believe that I was buying cranberry juice but actually it's cranberry juice drink, the clue is the word 'drink' which means the first two ingredients are water and then sugar! Ah, I need to read labels IN the store, not when I get home...

I worked a night shift last night which means this blog entry will be slightly crazy due to my sleep-deprived mind. All the summer balls are going on right now at the colleges. The rich colleges have these really, really nice balls (basically a big, fancy party). They have fireworks, all you-can-eat-and-drink, amusement park rides, and entertainers. It's really cool. Churchill College (the college Jason belongs to) has a ball but it's in February (our college isn't one of the richest). Because February isn't the nicest time of the year, the college gets a discount and the ball ticket prices are a bit cheaper. Some of the big colleges charge £100 per ticket ($200 Canadian for ONE ticket). Anyways, this week I generally see students stumbling home at 6:30am when I'm on my way to work. If you are really hard-core, you stay up all night at the ball and then you go punting (boating) down the Cam to Grantchester for breakfast... I haven't done that.

Happy Anniversary to Brendan and Renny!!!

Summer BBQ's

We had a BBQ today with our small group from church. A "farewell" bbq for us. It was nice to get together. These are the people that we have really gotten to know in our church. They have become our church family and we have really enjoyed the time we have spent with them. This is a picture of Jason and Patrick.

The sermon at church today was on Jeremiah 32. One of the key verses was 41, "I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul". Our pastor spoke about how God delights in doing good things for us and in our lives, how it gives Him pleaure. This is a quote from Spurgeon that our pastor read.

'While meditating on this theme, I said to myself, “Come, come, this will not do—with such a subject as this you ought to sing for joy.” I felt that my preparation for the pulpit ought to be one continuous song. The Lord blesses me with His whole heart and with His whole soul, what better news can I hear? This sweet assurance is a bath of milk. Of the man who believes it we may say, “Butter and honey shall he eat.” You breathe the perfume of Heaven when you can get at the meaning of this text. Oh, the joy that lies asleep in these words, as odors hide away in flowers! Come, heavenly wind and wake the slumbering joys—constrain the celestial perfumes to flow abroad, that we may exult in them.'

I think we will really miss our church. The people and especially the pastor. He is really passionate and I think he thinks the same way as Spurgeon. If he could, he would preach as one continuous song.

Day Off!!!

I have a day off today, which is great because I have lots to catch up on. It also means that I was able to stay up and watch hockey last night. The game didn't go very well (Oilers lost) but it is always nice to watch a sport that we haven't been able to watch over here this year. Football (or soccer) is huge at the moment because of the World Cup being on in Germany. It's kind of fun being here while it's on. England flags and banners everywhere!! I was working at the hospital when England played their first game (against Paraguay) and none of our patients used their call bell for a whole 2 hours... it was great.

Time is ticking away here. We are frantically trying to fit in dinners, drinks, BBQ, etc. with people that we will be leaving. On Sunday, we had a BBQ with all of our friends from our flat building. It was a great time and it made me think about the blessing it has been to live in such a tight knit community for the last 3 years. And a multicultural community as well. We have enjoyed getting to know people from Mexico, Chile, Sri Lanka, Denmark, England and different parts of the States.

Tonight, I'm dining out at an Italian restaurant with the girls from our house group from church. A farewell dinner. Everything we go to is a farewell-something... Anyways, it should be fun.

Early Morning Hockey

Currently Reading
Moby Dick
Herman Melville

After months and months of listening to hockey games over the internet, we were finally blessed with watching the images with the sound last night. One of the tv channels here is actually playing the Stanley Cup playoffs! We were so excited about getting a chance to watch the playoffs that the time of the games doesn't even put a damper on the enthusiasm. So, in the wee hours of 1:00am, Jason awoke to his alarm and ran out to the tv. I, on the other hand, was having some sort of dream that prevented me from climbing out of bed until halfway through the second period. It was a great, exciting game, right up until the end. At the moment, my heart is sunk as the Oilers goalie is injured and after seeing the replacement goalie play last night, our prospects of getting the Cup are looking grim. I haven't given up yet. And I will get up again at 1-ish to watch the next game!



While I was up, watching the game last night, I thought it would be fun to call people and pretend that we were all in Canada, watching the hockey game together. I only managed to talk with my brother, who's informed us that him and Renny have bought a house! Congrats to them. They will be moving out to Sherwood Park (the 'burbs) at the end of this month.

The weather has finally turned nice here. So, we took full advantage of it over the weekend and tried to spend as much time as we could outside. That ended up looking like this: us, friends, patio. We did manage to take a walk to look at the "freak festival" going on. It's actually called the "Strawberry Festival" (And no- it's not called strawberry because that's the color all the British people turn after being in the sun!!! Ha, ha. Jason told that joke and it still makes me laugh, 'cause it's true!). Any ways, it's like this drug fest/food fest/music fest/any excuse to get loaded in public fest. We walked around the grounds, gingerly walking over garbage, people, dogs, bongo drums and really bad jewelry stands. That was Saturday.

Sunday, due to my neglect on filling up my scooter, I managed to have yet another adventure with it. This time called: running out of petrol. Silly me. I was actually in search of a filling station as I ran out. So I had to push this stupid scooter of mine for 5 blocks, thinking that this was a crappy way to spend my Sunday afternoon.

I'm beginning to distance myself away from my belongings here. Everything I look at, I ask the item "Now, will you be coming or staying?" And I really don't mind leaving most of it behind. Now, don't think for one moment that I've managed to separate myself from the desires of earthly belongings here on earth. Nope- I'm just tired of all the junk we have here. I really can't wait to get back to having a car, some proper furniture and all my old wedding gifts that have been in hiding for 3 years (where did that bread maker go?!). But fickle as we usually are, all those "things" that I miss stored up in Canada, will be old soon enough and I will be looking for new, bright, shiny objects to make me happy. What a sad state are we!

Viva Voce!

Currently Listening To:
Jose Gonzalez
Veneer

Viva Voce- this is the new latin phrase that I have learned this week. Living in Cambridge, home of Darwin, Newton, Watson and Crick (just to name a few), you tend to pick up latin just by walking down the street! I picked up this phrase from Jason, who just completed his Viva Voce.
Viva: A. adv. By word of mouth; in speech; orally. (Freq. in parenthetic use.) a. As distinct from writing. Also in or with viva voce.

Basically, the phrase is used here for when a student defends his work, orally. For Jason, this was defending his PhD thesis in front of two people selected by his supervisor. Jason completed his viva this week and now has completed his PhD. He's not Dr. Olfert until his graduation day in July, but yeah for him! Three years of work completed!!! (Side note: While living in Cambridge, we have managed to see Stephen Hawkins (at a Korean bbq night-weird!) and I have had a Nobel Prize winner as a patient. Those are probably the smartest famous people we have come across during our time here. Just thought you'd like to know).

On to other celebrity spottings (I should write in People/US magazine!) Recent Christian celebrity spotting: Now there has been rumoured at Eden Baptist (our church here), that a certain Christian author was in the midst, visiting during his sabbatical. And sure enough, this last Sunday, we happened to sit behind John Piper, author of "Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist", among other books. One of our friends really likes Piper's writings and get his pod cast everyday! So, we said hello and introduced ourselves. He seemed really nice (of course). It was one of those conversations that end quite shortly after you say hello and how much you enjoy his writing and ask how long will you be in Cambridge. Maybe we will be blessed with a sermon from him. I'll let you know.

Other going-ons this week: The Thirty-Third Cambridge Beer Festival.
I think Jason went to the festival everyday. Mostly because he was celebrating his completion of his PhD but also 'cause it's a cool place to hang out. I managed to pop in for one pint on my day off. It's hosted by a group whose campaign is to support small breweries and so it's mostly local ales and beers.


This is a picture of my very annoying, waste of money, scooter. Which, in theory, was a great idea, but in reality has been nothing but a flop. I believe it was the day after I got my learner's licence and I was riding it back from church (in the rain none the less) that we had our first of many breakdowns. Since the beginning, it's been unreliable and very, very aggravating. But, currently, it's decided to work due to the nice-er weather. I say nice-er because in all truth, the weather's still crap in England. The only problem now is that you have to make sure that you don't get caught in a rain shower because then the motor cuts out (Jason could explain the reason why this is). Which, in England, is really hard to predict whether it's going to rain or not and it tends to rain alot. I have had too many incidents to write about, but the latest is when I had a bright idea to take the scooter to the grocery store while the sun was shining.... Cut to me coming out of the grocery store and it's hailing out!! So, I tried to ride the scooter home, which continued to stall (once when I was going into a traffic circle/roundabout). Not the best place to become stranded. Our next challenge with the scooter is to sell it... on a nice, sunny day!!