tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49461548651401709642024-03-20T23:25:10.619-07:00Jo's reports and musingsJoanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-56870620692065261472015-09-20T18:54:00.000-07:002015-09-20T18:54:55.563-07:00Falling in love with Turkey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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(Here’s another one that’s been sitting in my “Draft” box
for months).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We absolutely loved
traveling in Turkey, we would go back in a second.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obviously we didn’t really see much of the country,
we only spent one day on the western coast and a couple of days in Istanbul but
we’d love to go back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(If you’re
going, let us know, we’d likely find a way to go with you!)</div>
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Our first stop was at a little town called Kusadasi (I’m
uncertain of the pronunciation).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s kind of like one of those little coastal towns that pretty much
exists for tourists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s
resorts all over and tons of little shops around – although, this being Turkey,
the stuff in it is a bit more interesting than say, the equivalent in
Florida.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was the only time on
our cruise that we chose to go on a tour – mostly Kyle and I are not good with
tours, we get interested in strange things and we are <u>those </u>people that
the tour guide is always telling to “move along” or “wait for the rest of the
group”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This time we had a lot of
things we wanted to see in a short time and we didn’t think we’d have time with
out a bus to bring us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Our first stop was a place called “Mary’s House” – it
ostensibly is where John the Beloved brought Mary, mother of Jesus, to live
after the Resurrection of Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
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It reminded me of a lot of places in the Holy Land: the
tradition is almost more important than what actually happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were some interesting ruins
however (apparently a cistern):<br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">Our next stop was the ruins at Ephesus.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">Coolest ruins ever!</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">(And I’ve seen a lot of ruins.)</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">We could have stayed there for hours, it’s massive and hasn’t been fully excavated.</span></div>
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Me in front of the Temple of Aesclepius (which was basically a hospital). </span><br />
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<span style="text-align: left;"> One of the main roads, likely walked on by Paul.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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An ancient condo development with very cool mosaic
porch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Local public
toilet.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"> The
Library of Celsius – this one’s for you David Ross.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">The Large Theatre – there are many theatres but
this is the largest, I wonder if it is the place talked about in Acts 19.</span></div>
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Before we had our fill of Ephesus the tour bus was leaving
so we dragged ourselves away and went to a few more sites including a lunch at
a simulated Roman villa (yummy food, kitchy entertainment) as well as:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">A church dating from around
60 A.D. where John the Beloved was OSTENSIBLY buried.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">A stop off at a turkish rug shop where we learned
about harvesting silk from the cocoons of the silkworms.</span></div>
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A beautiful silk rug that we wanted to buy but
couldn’t really afford the $25 000 USD price tag (picture doesn’t do it
justice).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We ended up with a very
small wool rug that we love, perhaps someday we will go back for the silk one.</div>
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Kyle, pensive as we left the port of Kusadasi.</div>
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The next couple of days we toured Istanbul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A very cool city that I would like to
visit again, we really only hit the highlights given our time constraints. I dragged Kyle to the Topkapi Palace our very first day – the
main palace of the Sultan and the headquarters of the Ottoman Empire for
centuries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a massive complex
with building after building with room after room of lovely architecture and
mosaics.<br />
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that evening () view of the Asia side from the bridge crossing the “Golden
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Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-19496435832453827972015-06-28T10:32:00.001-07:002015-06-28T10:32:05.443-07:00Ancient Greece<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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So, here's another of those posts that has been sitting on my computer for awhile. WAAAYYY back in January Kyle and I embarked on our biggest adventure yet. We really wanted to do several sites in the Mediterranean and I was going crazy with trying to figure out the timetables when I came across a brilliant idea: a cruise! Perfect, no worrying about booking hotels every night, finding places to sleep etc. Plus cruising in the latter half of January turns out to be a super cheap option. It was Kyle's first cruise (odd, given his obsession with water and water sports) so he was a bit nervous. I love cruises for the above mentioned reasons (i.e. ease of transportation/accommodations/food). </div>
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Our first stop was:</div>
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That's Olympia, Greece (for those of you whose Greek is a little rusty)</div>
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We actually took this picture to send to our little niece Olympia. </div>
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She's 3 and apparently wasn't too impressed with the photo. (Not surprising really since it doesn't look like her name spelled in English)</div>
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Olympia is where the original olympic games were held - here's Kyle in one of the gymnasiums (looks like it was much nicer than most gymnasiums I've ever been in). The olympic games also were a form of worship so in order to ensure one stop-shopping there was also a MASSIVE temple to Zeus on the site - it contained a huge statue of Zeus - one of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the world.</div>
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Kyle demonstrating the width of one of the original columns of this massive temple</div>
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The stadium where the races took places</div>
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Lovely archeological dig sites</div>
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After trotting through lots of ruins - it's very nice to have an orange, fresh off the tree. (Random orange trees in city park)</div>
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We did enjoy Olympia and also continued to enjoy the cruise...(yummy food). The next day took us to the lovely city of Athens, Greece. (Ok, it truth, Athens is not really a lovely city - no offense intended to my Greek friends - they are lovely, it's just that Athens, well, isn't. I haven't seen so many stray animals since my mission in Madagascar and there seemed to be a lot of trash just floating around. So sad) Fortunately for us, Athens boasts a lot of something that Kyle and I apparently love: RUINS!!! And other really old stuff, Hurray!!!</div>
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Me in front of some lovely ruins and reconstruction - can you find the dog in the background?</div>
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Kyle showing off the first (of his many) discoveries of nifty mosaic floors on an ancient market place floor. This really is cool, can you imagine modern tile floors lasting 2500 years? Hah. Not a chance.</div>
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Sitting on <a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/acts/17.22?lang=eng#21" target="_blank">Mars Hill </a>(Acropolis Hill behind me) - click for Biblical reference</div>
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Below the Temple to Athena Nike, part of the entrance way up to the Acropolis</div>
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Ok, so this doesn't look quite as cool in the picture as in real life, this is actually the roof of the huge entrance way, being reconstructed with both the old marble stones and new laser custom cut marble. My camera is apparently not good enough to show the spot where there is some original paint. (Keep in mind that people believe all this was painted bright fancy colours)</div>
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For me, this is actually the cool part, all these little pieces laid out like a puzzle, trying to fit everything back together again.</div>
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And of course, the Parthenon itself. We are thinking of planning a trip back in 20 years to see how the reconstruction is going.</div>
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Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-34757574710933515112015-05-17T13:02:00.000-07:002015-05-17T13:02:34.195-07:00Ringing in the New Year - Dutch style!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
(Here's another that's been sitting on my computer forever)<br />
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Now, I've never been one for partying on New Year's Eve, I think it's kind of a highly over-rated holiday. I'd rather just eat some yummy food and get a good night's sleep. This is not what happens in the Netherlands however. This holiday is a big deal!! We went to a movie early on New Year's Eve and then came home to go to bed because we had to get up the next morning for a fun activity (more info below). However, the going to bed early thing was a little tricky because of this (note: the video is actually terrible, mostly this is just audio):<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dx6hAKpr8AVuU2XmCtsferZMhoYMbcxyE5KUP4udVkoLnSfMfcTDRrD2FFFFaB7vvmD6fTTzFOmZAeg_ROW' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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No, we are not living in Syria, this is the Netherlands, this is what it sounded like from 3 pm New Year's Eve until 3 in the morning New Year's Day. (At least that's what Kyle says, I'd fallen asleep by that time). This resulted in an aftermath that looked like this:<br />
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Crazy!</div>
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Of course things got even more crazy. Another great Dutch tradition: the annual New Year's Day North Sea Swim! Imagine 10 000 people running into the North Sea on New Year's Day. Such fun! Actually, I'm a total wimp. We met up with some friends of ours; since both of them wanted to run I had regretfully bowed out (ha ha) and volunteered to be the photographer and toddler-holder. Here is the "Before" photo (everybody got matching neon orange toques from a sponsor of the event):</div>
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As it turns out, it's difficult to hold a (fairly freaked-out) toddler and video tape at the same time, so this video is pretty bad, but you get the idea of the general chaos.</div>
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Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-7798179024873449502015-05-17T12:33:00.001-07:002015-05-17T12:33:36.292-07:00Christmas in the Netherlands (an outsider's perspective)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
(I haven't been a very good blogger, this has been sitting on my laptop for months...)<br />
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A great thing about going to live in a different country/culture is learning about the holidays. Some of the traditions seem better than your own, some seem odd, all are interesting. The Christmas season in the Netherlands really starts - at least from my point of view - in mid-November with Sinterklaas. "Sinterklaas" is the name of an day and a person. The story, as an outsider understands is as follows: Basically he arrives in the Netherlands on a boat (ostensibly from Spain) in mid-November to great fanfare and excitement. He is accompanied by his faithful servant "Zwarte Piet" (Black Pete) - no elves.<br />
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(Here he is arriving in the harbour of The Hague, somehow we managed to pick the right spot and be really close. Traditionally there's only one Zwarte Piet but for some reason everyone dresses up as a Zwarte Piet - the boat alone had an entire marching band dressed up like Zwarte Piet)</div>
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(Here he is disembarking and getting ready to get on his white horse. The "Spanish Ambassador" dressed in formal robes is accompanying him)</div>
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He then rides around the country on his white horse (no reindeer here) for the next 2-3 weeks checking up on how good all the children have been/are. The children leave their shoes out every night just in case Sinterklaas happens to pass by, because if they've been good, they will receive candy or treats in them (if bad, they may receive pieces of coal or other unpleasant things). December 5th is Sinterklaas Day. That day Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet will leave presents and treats for the good children and then mysteriously slip away for another year.<br />
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I kind of like this tradition - many people will exchange gifts with family members (part of the tradition is you have to write an accompanying poem to go along with the gift). Then at Christmas itself there is much less focus on the gifts. Previously the focus would have been on the religious celebration but now the focus is more on family time. December 25th is for large meals and family time. Second Christmas (Dec 26th - not joking, that's what its called) is for more family activities and many people even take a Third Christmas (Dec 27th - still not joking) for more fun and games.<br />
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My parents came for Christmas, which was a lot of fun. This meant that they brought their cameras, which tragically translated into me reverting to my lazy habits of hardly taking any pictures... We toured around all over the place and in reviewing my photo file, I'm pretty sure I took about 10 pictures, Kyle maybe 10 more. Pathetic really.<br />
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Highlights included:<br />
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-<span style="text-align: center;">A trip to the Lindt chocolate outlet store</span><br />
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(here's some of the loot)</div>
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- Trip to Maastricht (Netherlands) Christmas Market</div>
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(Kyle discovers the best part of Christmas Market (according to him - BBQ meat)</div>
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- Trip to Brussels (Belgium) Christmas Market</div>
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- Christmas Baking with Mom (haven't gotten to do that for a long time!!)</div>
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- Trips to the Hague outdoor market and around the Hague</div>
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- Trips to Rotterdam (the place where we finally found a Christmas Turkey)</div>
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- Trip to Amsterdam</div>
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(Mom and Kyle in front of Rijksmuseum after we'd worn poor Mom and Dad right out)</div>
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- Trip to Germany including stops at the Cologne Cathedral (seriously no photos) and Cologne Christmas Market ( by this point you may have noted the Leitmotif of this posting ...eating high fat food...)</div>
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(See if you can find Kyle waiting in line for some high fat food (meat on a stick))</div>
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Mom eating a potato pancake (delicious!)</div>
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Actually, after Christmas things got less about food and we were able to take a short trip to Belgium. We spent a lot of time in the Flanders Fields area, especially Ypres. This was a really moving experience. It was cold and miserable and probably a very appropriate time to visit the WW I trenches. I kept thinking about sitting in these horrible places for 4 years getting shot at. How horrible. Although difficult, I would highly recommend visiting some of these sites.</div>
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Kyle in a (relatively) dry bunker</div>
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We also dragged my parents to one of our favourite places, Ghent and also stopped at Bruges. It was whirlwind though, so they will have to come back!</div>
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Ghent, on a snowy night</div>
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The last day before they left we went to this cool place called Madurodam. It's basically this little park showing all sorts of famous buildings in the Netherlands in miniature. It gives you an idea of the diversity and coolness of the entire Netherlands in one teeny park. Such fun! And of course they play up the stereotypes:</div>
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Thanks for coming to visit Mom and Dad and sharing our Dutch Christmas (and Second Christmas and Third Christmas)</div>
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Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-34787402622687933382014-11-14T11:56:00.000-08:002014-11-14T11:56:10.309-08:00La Dolce Vita (or the first Italian Adventure)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We finally made it on our trip to Italy, finally! I think that I have wanted to go to Italy for as long as I can remember so it was very exciting to finally go there. <div>
Getting there was quite fun as well...</div>
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We took the night train to Munich. What fun!</div>
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Kyle demonstrating the bunks on the train</div>
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Joanne in the dining car the next day traveling from Munich to Verona, Italy through Austria</div>
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Our first stop was in Verona - not somewhere I knew much about, aside from the fact that Shakespeare set his play "Romeo & Juliet"there. We thought it was fascinating and would go back.</div>
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Kyle in the Roman Stadium of Verona</div>
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Above the River Adige looking towards the hills</div>
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Castelvecchio (City museum with art and antiquities) originally built in 12th century basically for the local nobleman to hide out from the rest of the city (especially during tax collection time).</div>
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The old synagogue - taken from our bedroom window.</div>
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The next day we took a little train to a little city called Modena. We took the slow train because it was about 1/4 price and way more interesting passing through little towns along the way. We stopped for lunch in a tiny little trattoria run by an old couple (he runs the front, she does the cooking in the back). Kyle thinks it was the some of the best food he had ever eaten. It was delicious! Part of the fun was that no one spoke english. It made it very interesting, we didn't really know what we were ordering but no problem, it was all fabulous. Our after lunch activity was a cool trip to the Ferrari Museum. I now know more about Ferraris than I ever thought I would...</div>
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Kyle really enjoying himself</div>
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There were a bunch of Maseratis there as well (I can't really tell the difference myself...)</div>
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We then went to Modena Cathedral and climbed the bell tower.</div>
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The next day we were on the road (train) again and made our way into Florence! </div>
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We went for a quick lunch and then I dragged Kyle immediately to the Piazza del Duomo. We still don't believe in taking photos inside churches as per the signs everywhere despite what everyone else does. Consequently, we only have photos of the outside. But what an outside!!!<br />
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The south doors of the baptistery (by Pisano) - we weren't able to see the originals of Ghiberti's "Gates of Paradise" since the museum wasn't open but we did see the copies on the door. We loved the baptistry the best of all the churches we went to - it is built over the oldest church in Florence.</div>
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Next we went up the bell tower (we started to think that maybe we shouldn't go up so many bell towers...the stairs are pretty numerous)</div>
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A lovely view from the top of the bell tower.</div>
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Kyle in front of the Cathedral (Duomo) We were amazed by the intricacy of the sculpture and decoration - so much detail that you almost can't take it in.</div>
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Finally we went into the Duomo itself. It's overwhelmingly massive, we explored it all; down into the underground excavations all the way up to cupola at the top of the dome. (more stairs...)<br />
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At the top of the Duomo overlooking the south part of Florence</div>
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Our last stop of the day was the Galleria dell'Accademia, apparently you normally have to stand in line forever to get in but we seemed to do OK. We really enjoyed it. There's was several unfinished works from Michaelangelo and one very famous finished one.</div>
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Michaelangelo's David - a piece of art that actually lives up to all the hype</div>
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The next day we were really feeling a bit done in from our marathon of the day before. We were rather slow moving but finally managed to make our way to the Uffizi Gallery. The problem, as Kyle pointed out, is the "Art overload". At some point it gets to be super overwhelming. In retrospect I think I missed some pieces that I wanted to see but it's just too much. We decided however, that Boticelli's "The Birth of Venus" is overrated and many of the other Renaissance artists are underrated (See for example: http://www.virtualuffizi.com/adoration-of-the-child.html).</div>
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Kyle resting at the Uffizi</div>
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As we stumbled out of the Ufizzi, we decided we really needed to eat. There was a lovely-looking sidewalk cafe right there so we sat down to grab something. Bad idea. Terrible food, terrible service, hideous prices. It turns out, out of the 1864 eating establishments listed on TripAdvisor in Italy, we managed to pick the 1861st ranked one. Nice. (To give you an idea - McDonalds ranks higher). This seems to be a trend with Kyle and me. Whenever we wander into a random restaurant, it's either the greatest food ever or it's a complete disaster, there is no middle ground for us. Ah well. For the rest of the day we walked around Florence seeing lovely scenery and eating gelato to make up for our terrible lunch.</div>
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Back on the road again, our next stop was a somewhat non-traditional one for an Italian vacation. Kyle had looked into diving (of course) and found out that the diving wasn't really great as far north as we were going to be. He also found out that the deepest pool in the world is right outside Venice, strangely enough in a spa town. He dove down to 40 metres and had a lovely time - especially since it's all hot-spring fed water! Lovely. I was an observer only.</div>
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Later that night we made our way to Venice. I must admit, I've always been a bit ambivalent about Venice - it seemed super-hyped and I always wondered about the smell...Well, I really liked it - although I think October is actually a good time to go, no smell, OK weather and apparently fewer people. Although it did seem like hoards of people to me, I'd hate to be there during the summer or vacation time. Some highlights:</div>
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Gondolas and cool architecture</div>
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Really quite lovely</div>
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Piazza San Marco (with another bell tower - Kyle went up but I'd had enough of bell towers by that point, or, more correctly my knee had already had enough of stairs) and numerous tourists</div>
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Basilica San Marco from inside the Doge's Palace</div>
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Bridge of Sighs</div>
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Inside the bridge of sighs </div>
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(So, somehow I had the idea that the Bridge of Sighs had something to do with some romantic Venetian story. Not so much. It's the bridge between the old courtrooms and the old prison where prisoners would sigh to see the freedom that they couldn't have).</div>
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We will have to go back someday I think. Too much to see and not enough time to see it. We flew home on RyanAir (which turns out to be a good idea since then it forces you to avoid buying any souvenirs given the strict luggage policies). We arrived home quite tired but excited for our next trip. </div>
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Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-72297769799112954302014-10-19T14:11:00.003-07:002014-10-19T14:11:47.519-07:00The Ghent Adventure<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Ooops, I always have the greatest of intentions to post blogs but was a bit lazy the last couple of weeks. Or, at least, occupied by other things. We did have a great adventure the other weekend that I thought I should share. We decided to nip over to Belgium. I say nip deliberately because a lot of people make it into a day trip. We could have done that but decided we wanted to spend a bit more time and have a more relaxing visit. The train goes directly to Antwerp from The Hague. It's apparently one of the most beautiful stations - I can attest that it's a lovely site on it's own.<br />
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Time goes by so quickly on the trains. I haven't figured out why it seems so much faster than driving even when you go on the more regional trains that stop more often. For Kyle it's because he takes the opportunity to nap.<br />
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Our destination was Ghent, Belgium mostly because I'd wanted to see the Ghent Altarpiece ever since taking an Art history class during my undergrad days. But Ghent itself is extremely cool and I think I'd like to go back. As soon as we stowed our bags off we went to find the tourist info booth. We did eventually make it there but got waylaid by some fabulous scenery.</div>
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St Micheal's Bridge is apparently the most famous in Ghent, justifiably so, as you can spend hours just looking at the architecture and watching the boats go by on the canals.<br />
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We almost made it to the tourist info when we stumbled across a REAL castle. </div>
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Yes, a moat and a dungeon and everything!!! I was super excited (and so was Kyle even though he made fun of me: "A REAL castle, as opposed to an imaginary one Jo?"). So, we decided to tour the castle immediately. </div>
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Through the entrance way</div>
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Full of funny little stairwells like this</div>
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Kyle walking around the castle walls</div>
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Me sitting in a window seat </div>
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On the top of the castle</div>
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So this castle was originally started in about 900 AD and then kept getting added on over the next 600 or so years. It was for a long while the town courts and then became a textile factory. Then, interestingly enough became student housing up until around the 1930s when people got interested in restoring it. Kyle and I took a million pictures here (except apparently not of the dungeon) which is kind of nutty I know, especially for us but how often do you get to tour a REAL castle? After that we had to have a food break. Fortunately for Kyle, one of Ghent's specialities is All-you-can-eat Ribs.</div>
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We did eventually make it to the tourist info place (in case you were wondering). The next day we spent wandering around the medieval parts of Ghent. To be honest, we were mostly in old churches. We felt it was rude to take pictures (unlike MANY other tourists) when there are clearly signs in all three languages (English, French and Flemish/Dutch) asking you not to take pictures. So that's my excuse for not having many pictures. We also went on a little canal boat ride and, hmmm, well the pictures are highly unflattering (worse than usual even for Kyle and myself who are notoriously un-photogenic). Our favourite site of all, however, was the site of the ruins of a 6th century abbey. It was originally founded by the first missionary who came to preach to the heathen in what is now Belgium. It was very peaceful and quiet and since Kyle and I never seem to tire of old buildings, it was a lovely place to explore.</div>
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Incidentally I did get to see the Ghent Altarpiece. (A bit of a rant: No photos allowed of course but really, I don't understand why people take pictures of famous artwork anyway. It's not like their pathetic camera is going to give you a better shot than what's available from professional photographers on the internet anyway. Even if they have a very expensive camera, it's likely still not going to be as good. For instance - we were also in the Maurithuis museum this week (Dutch Royal Art Collection) where people kept taking pictures of Vermeer's "The Girl with a Pearl Earring". Why?! I can see if they took a picture with someone in it to prove they'd been there but they never seem to - just the painting itself. It's so odd to me. OK, rant done) If you want to see really cool digital images of the Ghent Altarpiece <a href="http://closertovaneyck.kikirpa.be/#home/sub=altarpiece">Click here</a>. This is very neat but still not as good as the real thing. The colours are glorious and the detail is breathtaking.<br />
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Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-40085944339205121392014-09-28T13:22:00.003-07:002014-09-28T13:22:30.653-07:00Maybe I fit in here...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Just a short little note. Sometimes I feel kind of all alone and I miss Canada where I know what to expect and how to get things done. Other days I love it here and feel like they really do things well. I feel like my neat freak tendencies fit in here though. Note this picture, at first it just seems like a quaint little street in the city centre of The Hague. But look closer, yep, you saw right, that is a huge VACUUM CLEANER sucking up trash from the streets. <br />
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Actually, they really only do this in the centre parts of the city, where the tourists go. But I think it's cool none the less. (And I also might point out that if people didn't smoke so much, or at least throw their cigarette butts so much, there wouldn't be nearly as much to vacuum.)</div>
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Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-72644740855024556812014-09-21T12:21:00.000-07:002014-09-21T12:21:09.360-07:00Downs and (Mostly) Ups of Adjusting to a big move<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Anyone who has moved long distances knows that there are ups and downs while trying to adjust to the new place. Overall things are great but there are always bumps in the road. My bumps in the road this week were: <br />
1) Some guy running me off the road on my bike - and then blaming me when his (actually his friend's) car had a small scratch - no worries, I wasn't hurt and the police were serious underwhelmed by his complaints about the scratch.<br />
2) Ongoing delays in the temporary resident permit application (sigh)<br />
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I think these bumps in the road were more than mitigated by the good stuff though:<br />
1) Bike ride trip to the beach (and Kyle finding a Lindt chocolate store - note the strawberry cream Lindt ball, not available in North America as far as I'm aware)<br />
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2) Walks to random places past beautiful scenery</div>
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3) Trip to Leiden (a university town 25 km away) - it has been a university town since 1575, seeing windmills/canals, old millstones and our very first castle on this trip...(more of a fort on a hill really, but built in approximately 1200 AD)<br />
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4) Trying delicious Dutch treats - Cocos balls and Pannekoeken!!</div>
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Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-593221875789323592014-09-15T04:44:00.001-07:002014-09-15T04:44:31.028-07:00The Beginning of the Adventures in the Netherlands - a new little home!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We arrived in Schipol Airport in The Netherlands at 8:15 in the morning, which, is actually not a bad thing in that you have the whole day to sort out what's going on. On the flip side though, you're exhausted because it's just after midnight according to you're circadian rhythms. I'm not sure if there's really a better option. Whenever I fly east the first few days are always a little rough.<br />
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We dragged our multiple pieces of luggage onto the train (after some difficulty in buying tickets) and went directly south to The Hague (or Den Haag as they call it here). Den Haag is a lovely city, it doesn't have as many canals as the many other cities in the Netherlands but it has lovely architecture and beautiful parks. It is very international because of the many international tribunals and NGOs. Here's a picture of Kyle in front of the International Peace palace (where the international court is):<br />
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We are very excited to be here though. We stashed our luggage and went right over to the university to get Kyle going. It was chaotic at first but things are working out and he's absolutely LOVING his courses here. He's taking a bunch of international relations and international law courses. I made him stop so I could take a picture of him in front of his new school: (He's the guy in the grey coat)<br />
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We spent the first week in a hotel, not loving that, then moved to a temporary apartment (Airbnb - love it, likely going to use it more as we travel throughout Europe) for a week until we found our own place. The first week was pretty depressing because of the way the system works here. You're supposed to register with some kind of realtor/rental company (with an exorbitant fee), then you look at apartments with them until you find one you like and then you pay equivalent to one month's rent "finder's fee" to the realtor (which is lame since you're doing at least half of the work, looking up places on line that you're interested in) in addition to the deposit and first month's rent to the landlord. In addition a lot of places with a different realtor want you to register with them (paying ANOTHER fee) in order to just see a place that they have listed with their company. SUPER LAME!!! and a way to totally rip off people, which seems kind of odd since the rest of the businesses (like the banks, restaurants, stores etc are not at all like that).</div>
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Being the thrifty people we are (I prefer "thrifty" to "cheapskates"), we did not buy into all of this. We had the friend of our friends helping us, he is a realtor and graciously was not charging any fees (and in fact commented that he thought some of those fees were outright illegal) but he lives way up north in another city so couldn't really be as involved. So, we went an alternate route and started looking up other options: we ended up finding a great place on Marktplaats (the Netherlands equivalent of Kijiji/Craigslist) but did look at a couple places on some expat websites.</div>
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I should comment that another of the depressing things here is that a lot of the rentals are basically a bare shell. No flooring - just concrete, nothing on the windows, no light fixtures, almost no appliances, and the walls are in whatever state the previous tenants decided to leave them. (Here is a picture of one room in one I went to see before we started looking for ourselves): </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPMY0U0gF7OL0nHpSSlAYvbiayNopwrMmxCQOPWD8av4RnkLtby8wmH5PY7a-QnJfJTG51w1HOEOano0jUhaNypPBq4CGCMZRS5hlFpt3zTFk7k_naKZay5WzP7I-FuX7Bb4oYsczxmfQ/s1600/IMG_0557.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPMY0U0gF7OL0nHpSSlAYvbiayNopwrMmxCQOPWD8av4RnkLtby8wmH5PY7a-QnJfJTG51w1HOEOano0jUhaNypPBq4CGCMZRS5hlFpt3zTFk7k_naKZay5WzP7I-FuX7Bb4oYsczxmfQ/s1600/IMG_0557.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></div>
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All in all we have done very well, here is a mini tour of our new home:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDwmDAVm5NLoptCTHBQRbJn_OCGUYZ0w-v9SDWZVXt4hDjBmDRXvb_5VxHlIc2c-SNoAsWZVGLw176PJYB2QqUz4uaPQINTSW2wSjcW6TZnKNOaYUSsa5j7FC052WkmLUd8f2d_rjvd_Q/s1600/IMG_0754.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDwmDAVm5NLoptCTHBQRbJn_OCGUYZ0w-v9SDWZVXt4hDjBmDRXvb_5VxHlIc2c-SNoAsWZVGLw176PJYB2QqUz4uaPQINTSW2wSjcW6TZnKNOaYUSsa5j7FC052WkmLUd8f2d_rjvd_Q/s1600/IMG_0754.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here is the little passageway from the street, you can see the little courtyard at the end.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIJEjKn9aKMbmTwcgfaa-EgP6ZU56TR7dqLsEAHIy9Iht9J0oM6Exo2mt28O0AUwMQo55KP0pkiMOhrK-cJ-FjPFrTlHvCukKiL26Try_KCwxQYlpGJ_25aJCVgs5MaBw0A-86UlQ6paE/s1600/IMG_0755.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIJEjKn9aKMbmTwcgfaa-EgP6ZU56TR7dqLsEAHIy9Iht9J0oM6Exo2mt28O0AUwMQo55KP0pkiMOhrK-cJ-FjPFrTlHvCukKiL26Try_KCwxQYlpGJ_25aJCVgs5MaBw0A-86UlQ6paE/s1600/IMG_0755.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's the front of our little cottage</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4gHQ35lcbC8l_Y2oehXRoBjaUWlvyrtY6NMXwd-Us5xA_1S-mg41DaoxWJXTM4UdgcooKclsmuyUFHlCkGlU9u-5Gq6k6vVhUwAYBP3r84l5NShw8VifuzID98n1x3yorjX-RWh-kp2A/s1600/IMG_0761.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4gHQ35lcbC8l_Y2oehXRoBjaUWlvyrtY6NMXwd-Us5xA_1S-mg41DaoxWJXTM4UdgcooKclsmuyUFHlCkGlU9u-5Gq6k6vVhUwAYBP3r84l5NShw8VifuzID98n1x3yorjX-RWh-kp2A/s1600/IMG_0761.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking in from the front entrance</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY591iFzuxQVbytAugoSxPCSgNFDQWvBh2ehHoiA8M68wnoI2VIml2HGk8apDfzwybMR3c0tMSFXcQYfY31F6qguCWipCB4CYoF3t6JeBzKSajXHMIzzSaeEQlQniSLCJi3BhE407zFn0/s1600/IMG_0759.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY591iFzuxQVbytAugoSxPCSgNFDQWvBh2ehHoiA8M68wnoI2VIml2HGk8apDfzwybMR3c0tMSFXcQYfY31F6qguCWipCB4CYoF3t6JeBzKSajXHMIzzSaeEQlQniSLCJi3BhE407zFn0/s1600/IMG_0759.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The little bathroom off the main room</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimekdEV3Qz1gmgtCYhu_8x-1yd2K2R0GMVMiBsW9yisP7TnRHknLYmDI_6baQrY9leC-qdU9zmYE6bXbMNBs8PDY0Y-kuIHWRsRS3CZGpFWGPPf4_-FPLguFNS7gdLmjGS2z8HQaibQ54/s1600/IMG_0760.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimekdEV3Qz1gmgtCYhu_8x-1yd2K2R0GMVMiBsW9yisP7TnRHknLYmDI_6baQrY9leC-qdU9zmYE6bXbMNBs8PDY0Y-kuIHWRsRS3CZGpFWGPPf4_-FPLguFNS7gdLmjGS2z8HQaibQ54/s1600/IMG_0760.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With laundry in the same room</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvvMSI9oUWTc7X9cuO7Zfd-RrAgcJCTlwhbJzbbql97_8BdVjDcCNDjn8Dqs4f5q8V3jdCNsQMGWBriRREx5QpdegqHvYL_Q15YzlupdHEdc8Z7dzLKgfQbjMtAd-eQZPtvtvaK5jAfPQ/s1600/IMG_0762.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvvMSI9oUWTc7X9cuO7Zfd-RrAgcJCTlwhbJzbbql97_8BdVjDcCNDjn8Dqs4f5q8V3jdCNsQMGWBriRREx5QpdegqHvYL_Q15YzlupdHEdc8Z7dzLKgfQbjMtAd-eQZPtvtvaK5jAfPQ/s1600/IMG_0762.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The kitchen area</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1k4dgemvmL9PcGXbdFhoWvwuhlkZw4NQCcseLigoEF7HV2iwAPhE_eT8smQlL4O8knq0vMBP_5Dh1_V4kv5KpXxG6JJZC88LEpl3G4h35qm-WZMg6X11ni2n5rWCUZS4y_OQYoh3CoYI/s1600/IMG_0763.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1k4dgemvmL9PcGXbdFhoWvwuhlkZw4NQCcseLigoEF7HV2iwAPhE_eT8smQlL4O8knq0vMBP_5Dh1_V4kv5KpXxG6JJZC88LEpl3G4h35qm-WZMg6X11ni2n5rWCUZS4y_OQYoh3CoYI/s1600/IMG_0763.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The steep stairs upstairs (for all of those who are coming to see us, be mindful that most stairs in the Netherlands are VERY steep!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_X1T05ObkMdMN1vVGGVQXBRG3xeUFEVvnpGc7GY2LEMCxaFVdLOZfh0COJbuYxW4YRTV7cCx0DLgrU10_L4-xmK-4DTsrQnYXzZ0N6GC52l3GMnyAxu3X3rRtUqYT8V7WKTtd6QVy9-E/s1600/IMG_0767.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_X1T05ObkMdMN1vVGGVQXBRG3xeUFEVvnpGc7GY2LEMCxaFVdLOZfh0COJbuYxW4YRTV7cCx0DLgrU10_L4-xmK-4DTsrQnYXzZ0N6GC52l3GMnyAxu3X3rRtUqYT8V7WKTtd6QVy9-E/s1600/IMG_0767.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bathroom at the top of the stairs</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixaKUXxsFs276616YB2O19moPOfJFk2lC98jLY63am3exDckgzSSj3A0DxCI_xgZKOHXnGXJiEmydErRTIzgLKYtuM0hQvaGhe4Q4e6OE4okYQNf1yV2Oe8L0vAfK6AIiEjUCETQ9bncM/s1600/IMG_0764.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixaKUXxsFs276616YB2O19moPOfJFk2lC98jLY63am3exDckgzSSj3A0DxCI_xgZKOHXnGXJiEmydErRTIzgLKYtuM0hQvaGhe4Q4e6OE4okYQNf1yV2Oe8L0vAfK6AIiEjUCETQ9bncM/s1600/IMG_0764.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Little study/bedroom to the right of the bathroom</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOZmSaWMiGsDMixEnsA804HRjCPWzx1u1mDQ2j1-XAh_eR_tTdZd07Mi3D5UUn_Ui1h95i2Yza7wh0eV1dG6N0TXL3biaBe6vhoeCyL65GUltKoh_s2VIENxiwior4q8xbel8KY_V4oZY/s1600/IMG_0765.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOZmSaWMiGsDMixEnsA804HRjCPWzx1u1mDQ2j1-XAh_eR_tTdZd07Mi3D5UUn_Ui1h95i2Yza7wh0eV1dG6N0TXL3biaBe6vhoeCyL65GUltKoh_s2VIENxiwior4q8xbel8KY_V4oZY/s1600/IMG_0765.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our bedroom to the right of the bathroom<br /><div style="text-align: left;">
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We are very happy in our new little house and are excited for people to start coming to visit us! More next week!</div>
Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-46115630128933983142014-09-15T02:33:00.000-07:002014-09-15T02:33:13.830-07:00The Lead up to the adventures<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Ok, so this is just a short commentary on moving across the North American continent hauling a U-Haul that was a teensy bit too heavy for the vehicle hauling it. (Or maybe a bit more than teensy...) Once again, thank goodness for Kyle and his knowledge about large mechanical things! Who knew there was such a thing as a "transmission cooler" that prevented your transmission from overheating and killing the car while hauling heavy loads? (I think we all know the answer to that question - obviously not me!)<br />
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We left Saint John on Thursday, August 14th in the afternoon - only 36 hours later than we'd hoped to leave and arrived in Scandia, Alberta sometime between midnight and 2 am early on Tuesday, August 20th. (It's all a bit blurry to me). We did not take 1 single picture. Mostly because we spent the entire time chugging along the US interstates at a top speed of 62 miles/hour (100 km/hour) - and often considerably less than that. My bad eye gets quite tired driving (and we've since discovered that my depth perception is terrible), so Kyle did most of the driving. Thanks love!<br />
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Here's a brief summary of the trip:<br />
New Brunswick - farewell! We'll miss New Brunswickers but not the rain!<br />
Maine - If I never have to drive the "Airline Road" between Calais and Bangor again, it will be too soon. Little scary winding roads through the woods will forever remind me of you. Particularly scary hauling a large trailer.<br />
New Hampshire - "Live Free or Die" (the state motto). Except not, since we only nip through the corner of the state and still have to pay $2.50 toll. No sales tax however so make sure to fill up!<br />
Massachusetts - Happy memories of year in Boston. But very unhappy when get to some construction in the middle of the night and have to go 5 miles/hour for 3 miles because of heavy traffic. (Kyle, who was taking a short nap break, wakes up to Joanne muttering imprecations under her breath).<br />
Connecticut - Don't remember much as I slept through most of it. Stopped at a lovely hotel right before New York border. Thanks to night clerk who gave us great rate and free breakfast!<br />
New York - Sadly since we were so far behind we didn't stop to see brother and family in Brooklyn but went right on through. Somehow manage to not pay any toll at all.<br />
Pennsylvania - Lots and lots and lots of hills with wind gusts. Nerve wracking for people driving with large trailers (at this point decision made to base road decisions on flattest route - Google maps now has topographical information, very useful)<br />
Ohio - Lovely interstate but WOW, you pay for it ($30.75 in tolls!!!) Kyle messes with the minds of little blond Ohio farm girls: The girl at the toll booth is impressed that we've made it so far in so little time and makes a comment about speeding and the Speed limit being 70 mph (which obviously we haven't been doing). Kyle responds that we're from Canada so we operate in Km/h. She is shocked and looks at the speedometer in awe.<br />
Indiana - Sorry to say, crossed in the dark so saw absolutely nothing except tool booths ($12.80)<br />
Illinois - Pulled into Brother and Sister-in-law's house just west of Chicago at around 12:45 and snuck into bed. We felt bad that we'd timed it poorly as other relative there at the same time. Had a fun breakfast and morning then on our way again. Again, what's with the toll booths! ($18.70)<br />
Iowa - Rainy and miserable, nothing to see. Felt bad for the Mormon Pioneers and started to understand why it took months to cross Iowa on foot.<br />
Nebraska - decided to stop in Omaha for an early night to be ready for church in morning. Super friendly ward - Kyle is jealous of their Young Men Group as apparently they had enough for 12 to pass the sacrament and 2 to bless. Headed out on the road again, this time due North.<br />
South Dakota - Did not like the crosswinds so elected to turn West again. Wow, there's really nothing in South Dakota but grass, wind and lots of homemade billboard signs. Arrive in Rapid City and decide to spend the night before heading into Black Hills. We are sort of jealous that we can't go see Mt Rushmore but feel like it might kill the car. Next morning head North again trying to skirt any hills/mountains.<br />
Wyoming - only in the very Northeastern tip for about 15 miles - dry grass all around.<br />
Montana - Winding our way through Montana on roads I'd never been on in order to avoid mountains. Only one tense moment on the Cheyenne Reservation where we went 40 km/h (25 mph) up a very long steep hill and I prayed the whole way up. Finally made it to the boarder around midnight and had no issues.<br />
Alberta - Yay, decided to just make for Kyle's parents so finally arrived and fell into bed!!<br />
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The rest of the week was taken up with putting stuff in storage, running around visiting people and doing other errands. We were able to attend Kyle's brother's wedding in Duchess, Alberta on the weekend which was lovely. I really enjoyed getting to know many of the relatives he has talked about but hadn't yet been able to sort out. I still can't figure out all his cousins but I think I have most of the aunts and uncles all straight! We were also able to visit our Grandparents: his Grandma Link and my Grandpa and Grandma Salmon. We are blessed to have them still living and able to see us.<br />
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Whew! Lots of writing and no pictures - I promise there will be pictures in the next one!<br />
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Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-82651495731330368632014-09-14T11:22:00.000-07:002014-09-14T11:22:02.579-07:00The Teaser Prequel Adventure<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I am turning over a new leaf (again) with my blogging and going to try and use it to keep track of all our adventures in Europe. Actually, if you want a more accurate reason, I just have more time now and something more exciting to report on than: "this week I went to work and Kyle went to school and our spare time was spent doing church stuff." So, here is the first of the adventures, or what I like to call "the teaser prequel adventure".</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We were frantically trying to get everything ready to move. (I CANNOT figure out how I managed to accumulate so much stuff in only 3 1/2 years). We'd gotten as far as we thought we could and decided that it was a shame to not go see Newfoundland since we were so close (relatively speaking). We looked into flights, which weren't bad, but there were no available cars for rent - none at all. In the end we decided to go the traditional route and make for the ferry.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Throwing stuff into the car and heading out towards Nova Scotia took no time at all but it occurred to us that we should make sure we could make the ferry. Turns out that night's sailing was full as well as the next morning so we made a little detour into Halifax for the night and were able to go to the temple and Peggy's Cove. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We drove the rest of the way to Sydney, (Nova Scotia, just to clarify) -7 hours or so - and caught the Saturday night sailing. Unfortunately, as we were last minute there weren't any little cabins left, so we were left in the regular room. Kyle managed to get some sleep on the floor while I tried to sleep in my seat. It didn't work so well...I think I managed about 2 hours of the 10.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Thank goodness for Kyle, as soon as we got off the ferry he drove straight for Corner Brook arriving about 15 minutes before church started. I dozed for most of the 3 hours. We had a lovely time at the branch and even got to be photographers for a little branch photo after church</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">After church we headed north and made it all the way to a little campground in the very northern peninsula. We saw Labrador faintly in the mist across the straight. I suspect that might be the closest I ever get to Labrador. </span></div>
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The next morning, I was told by the park ranger that I could go onto "Th' Five Hunred Stips" (as I thought I heard him say) - here is approximately the rest of the conversation:</div>
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Me: "Umm, pardon...what is a "stip"?</div>
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Ranger (looking at me like I've just said something colossally stupid): "500 stips, like, a stip."</div>
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Me (Noticing that Kyle is killing himself laughing by this point): "Oh, a stip....OOOOO, you mean a STEP, 500 STEPS!!"</div>
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Ranger: "Ah course"</div>
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Me: "Sorry... it's just you have a bit of an accent, and I'm not used to... Sorry"</div>
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Ranger: "You're the one with the accent Miss."</div>
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(N.B. All the spelling errors are intentional - it's me trying to spell out what a newfie accent sounds like)</div>
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Anyway, after that lovely interlude, we went to L'Anse aux Meadowes, which is the site of the earliest European settlement on the North American continent (circa 11th century) - here's the UNESCO link if you've never heard of it: <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/4">http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/4</a></div>
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The thing I couldn't understand - why in the world didn't the Vikings just sail another 3 or 4 days south or something where it's way warmer and there are way more trees? (Since apparently that's one of the main things they came to harvest). I mean, we were there in August, which is the nicest time of year, and, as you see, it's pretty bleak. I guess maybe they felt it was better than Greenland, where they were stopping before...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kyle resting on the grass covered ruin of one of the long houses</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Outside a reconstructed peat long house</td></tr>
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Both of us demonstrating Viking gender-specific activities:</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kyle inside the smelting hut</td></tr>
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After this we took a quick trip into a little town at the very tip of the peninsula called St Anthony (home of the infamous "500 Stips" - which we were too lazy to climb incidentally) and checked out the last of the season's icebergs, climbed some rocks and enjoyed Canadian scenery. (Which really consists, in most of Canada as rocks, trees, water, more rocks, more trees and occasionally some scrubby grass/bushes, more water and more trees and rocks):<br />
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That afternoon we drove all the way back south to Gros Morne National Park. I am totally embarrassed to note that we did not take one single picture. It's touted as one of most photogenic national parks and it was indeed lovely but I must admit that it didn't really seem that much different than parts of interior BC. We camped right along this beautiful beach and noted that the water wasn't nearly as cold as in the Bay of Fundy (near Saint John) oddly enough. <br />
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We drove back to Corner Brook that night and called up one of the families that we'd met the previous Sunday - they ended up taking us out to one of there favourite picnic sites on the coasts. Fabulous. We had a delicious mussel boil (well - some of us ate mussels, other of us (Kyle and the kids) ate hot dogs). The scenery was breathtaking.<br />
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Our last stop on the way home was at a little diner where Kyle got "A Mess". This is a Newfoundland treat that one of the sisters he home taught had told him about. It's basically poutine on steroids. French fries with the gravy and cheese curds as per normal poutine but then add in a whole bunch of greasy fried ground beef and stuffing (like turkey stuffing). You'll notice me rubber-necking, it's like a train accident, you can't look away...</div>
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After that we headed to the ferry terminal, slept in the car until 3 am (when the ferry started to load) and then went into our little cabin, had a shower and went to sleep. I would HIGHLY recommend the cabin option when taking the ferry overnight!! We drove home that day back into the moving mess having had a lovely time. It was a short trip with a ton of driving but it was great!</div>
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Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-13615722520550983532012-10-12T15:34:00.000-07:002012-10-12T15:34:34.315-07:00The Turducken!!!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Bet you all thought that I was going to FINALLY post about the wedding with wedding pictures... I do promise that is coming but in the meantime, here are some crazy photos from our first Thanksgiving (Canadian) as a new family. We decided our motto was: Go big or go home. Consequently, we decided that a Turducken would qualify...(For those of you who are not familiar with the concept of the Turducken, it is a Turkey stuffed with a Duck which is in turn stuffed with a chicken - but as you'll see, we didn't stop there...)<br />
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The beginning phase: de-boning the chicken (and the duck)</div>
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With our good friends Lisa and Hubert, approaching the end of the deboning phase (turkey)</div>
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Putting it all together: Turkey, then stuffing (mom's recipe) then the duck</div>
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Then the essential bacon weave!!!</div>
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A Special view of the Bacon weave (Kyle's masterpiece contribution)</div>
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Close to the end, you can see the chicken and then the spicy sausage stuffing (final layers) </div>
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Lisa, very intently sewing up the Turducken</div>
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Finally, trussed and ready to go in the oven!!</div>
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And there it is, all ready for eating!!</div>
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Beautiful!</div>
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The aftermath...</div>
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Thanks to my good friend Shan who gave me the idea in the first place!! (And, quite rightly, called it the "most epically ridiculous recipe you will ever make"!)<br />
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Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-75593974360551729432010-08-08T13:51:00.000-07:002010-08-08T13:51:17.180-07:00Ny toa mzungu<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
(English translation from Kinyarwanda: My name is foreigner)<br />
<div>As I come to the end of my stay in Rwanda I've been reflecting on being a foreigner or mzungu. It's very interesting being judged on your appearance so profoundly. I'm not even what I would term a real "expat" - I walk a lot of places (and people think I'm crazy for doing so), I cook my own food, wash my own underwear and even ride the public transit. I do get rides to places more than most Rwandans and there's a lady (Vestine) who comes into the apartment twice a week to clean floors and such so I guess I'm living an elevated lifestyle to some degree. Anyway, it is interesting, like I said to be judged on appearance. I often forget how it feels when I'm not in Africa. It's a good reminder for me to not make judgements on externalities.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div>I really have loved living in Rwanda, there's a real positive energy here that I admire and although it can still be very chaotic, it's a lot of fun. I'm going to miss it. Here are some highlights from the last 3 weeks (I had some internet issues my last couple of weeks so I'm now posting this from Boston)</div><div><br />
</div><div>- A trip up to the north west edge of Rwanda to a town called Gisenyi. This meant a 4 hour bus ride one-way so a bit of a trek just for an overnight trip but still fun. We slept in a hostel, ate brochette (Rwandan-style kebabs - yum) and enjoyed Lake Kivu (a huge lake between Rwanda and the DRC)</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw5nYyUjoHkhHFGaaA9QET2Qb31CbXlCMZgI4bSqrF7CBhmyhJ1tJrvkbLGI7w0z7mdxTpAx2eyHa0FEB1xC0r27gp3_jLEehCBfB2c7MZnQXhbDQlKI7zijGXjvEEAGRW0dCAo57NKzY/s1600/IMG_3124.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw5nYyUjoHkhHFGaaA9QET2Qb31CbXlCMZgI4bSqrF7CBhmyhJ1tJrvkbLGI7w0z7mdxTpAx2eyHa0FEB1xC0r27gp3_jLEehCBfB2c7MZnQXhbDQlKI7zijGXjvEEAGRW0dCAo57NKzY/s320/IMG_3124.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Biljana and I on the bus</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVpWRdhGTsw9zECu_X_CvjQALrjwRh2w2PW22K7q4-SUVT-Gf-LqMSSk_aIdRmY0LEwTyvVlr3TGV-p7u23QeHpD5S66_Snbv12PCPCYeHOS51MRJRiK6ntS3eWXYJJOdnKBgEd6CcXu0/s1600/IMG_3130.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5503134859214678338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVpWRdhGTsw9zECu_X_CvjQALrjwRh2w2PW22K7q4-SUVT-Gf-LqMSSk_aIdRmY0LEwTyvVlr3TGV-p7u23QeHpD5S66_Snbv12PCPCYeHOS51MRJRiK6ntS3eWXYJJOdnKBgEd6CcXu0/s400/IMG_3130.jpg" style="display: block; height: 300px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The crew - waiting for Broschettes</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiTNu5u8NAj2VHOWZ2KAat8C6ydC-wr4ygvIX1wPP5HELWN9ZUf9XKpZQMjayzylF3RqxPTSlhWPub0TYa5YIP87AhxQhcrMImjzM6Ub9Rldt9LHsXMlRrxm7UBxyhlrNwVmSIcDm8Gy0/s1600/IMG_3133.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5503134867887940546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiTNu5u8NAj2VHOWZ2KAat8C6ydC-wr4ygvIX1wPP5HELWN9ZUf9XKpZQMjayzylF3RqxPTSlhWPub0TYa5YIP87AhxQhcrMImjzM6Ub9Rldt9LHsXMlRrxm7UBxyhlrNwVmSIcDm8Gy0/s400/IMG_3133.jpg" style="display: block; height: 400px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beautiful Lake Kivu</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="240" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5503134877306564770" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj9GVjpG7OagJQFQPozItlrtKH0vDc0bQIvc7EduF5JTk5Ippizc5K8L5PMVkF1-zhu5-CmkdYlEOhiztrZGHT8q8r67YXbZQfIlgeWOHNj2QhwVAkXgUmXOxb33PjAR2l9PTGSJySD-k/s320/IMG_3135.jpg" style="display: block; height: 300px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lake Kivu</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj9GVjpG7OagJQFQPozItlrtKH0vDc0bQIvc7EduF5JTk5Ippizc5K8L5PMVkF1-zhu5-CmkdYlEOhiztrZGHT8q8r67YXbZQfIlgeWOHNj2QhwVAkXgUmXOxb33PjAR2l9PTGSJySD-k/s1600/IMG_3135.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj9GVjpG7OagJQFQPozItlrtKH0vDc0bQIvc7EduF5JTk5Ippizc5K8L5PMVkF1-zhu5-CmkdYlEOhiztrZGHT8q8r67YXbZQfIlgeWOHNj2QhwVAkXgUmXOxb33PjAR2l9PTGSJySD-k/s1600/IMG_3135.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><div style="text-align: auto;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgp5s8lmV7hwTCPIq0akXb8oID53fyhw5jXk0blXvQuUeH0iyG4agWDX1-rFWtXIsDaqdDUGwCzdasnWZ9Is-Vgex8nankL61AXBHEraXsAIDgOL9sPtgZFvQCfrYpZ_fsezq_zWYJixQ/s1600/IMG_3136.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5503134887456292706" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgp5s8lmV7hwTCPIq0akXb8oID53fyhw5jXk0blXvQuUeH0iyG4agWDX1-rFWtXIsDaqdDUGwCzdasnWZ9Is-Vgex8nankL61AXBHEraXsAIDgOL9sPtgZFvQCfrYpZ_fsezq_zWYJixQ/s400/IMG_3136.jpg" style="display: block; height: 300px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I like to call this one: The ID doc risking schisto (it's a silly personal joke...)</td></tr>
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<div><div style="text-align: left;">- data-entry for our project - Hurray!! We didn't think the Ministry was going to let us get on it so quickly! It was great to almost finish all the data entry - even though 10 hours a day is exhausting.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihmM7xWr4tpu7o1IjY7116vifsDt3txKnjqldg03qo7WF4_9MALtpM2Yur1k4BEovJC3oIsV0pBkgYyF10g5m2YQqE2nEO_M00AaUGycsztvSYS6SM1HtamySb_JhIls5e1Jcvmhu6dUY/s1600/IMG_3154.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihmM7xWr4tpu7o1IjY7116vifsDt3txKnjqldg03qo7WF4_9MALtpM2Yur1k4BEovJC3oIsV0pBkgYyF10g5m2YQqE2nEO_M00AaUGycsztvSYS6SM1HtamySb_JhIls5e1Jcvmhu6dUY/s400/IMG_3154.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">-FESPAD - A Multi-country African Dance Festival/Competition that took place at the national stadium. We ended up being there 2.5 hours early - we were told it started at 3pm, arrived just before 4pm (adjusting for "African time" or so we thought) and got to sit there until the actual start time of 6:30pm. It was great though, neat dancing from numerous countries around Africa (including Madagascar - reminding me of the time when I and some other sister missionaries won a talent show in Madagascar for our attempt at traditional dancing - Prize: 1 live chicken - donated to a needy family in the congregation after all the ladies in the congregation were horrified when we admitted we had no idea how to kill and pluck a chicken - apparently my mother failed in her duty to teach me such skills) Anyway, here is a video of the champions (the Kenyan drummers) - I apologize for the sad video skills, this is a new thing for me and obviously I need more practice.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxoPStykBRDP_mr-7HFcJPpPRwFc-WquvICu13m5t4ZsdiJbIZXlZ00MNjta-Bnm7A40DnXMZtTKFpldBklTw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div></div><div><div style="text-align: left;">- Saying goodbye to all my friends at church (although this was hard, perhaps not a highlight) - I did love attending church in Rwanda, such great people</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwzIowsqcjhIm7Wr0dSXnSBKKNCiiuBQM3lmmKg65NtsRgn_onKr7qsM8FC4iSIVc0Mi3UxrqTvob1-ePMJ6MTcvinGOavjQ8lrV95xaQwf4IoMekcpz69P2ekBorioDxX6S0XeeSInus/s1600/IMG_3151.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwzIowsqcjhIm7Wr0dSXnSBKKNCiiuBQM3lmmKg65NtsRgn_onKr7qsM8FC4iSIVc0Mi3UxrqTvob1-ePMJ6MTcvinGOavjQ8lrV95xaQwf4IoMekcpz69P2ekBorioDxX6S0XeeSInus/s400/IMG_3151.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The brand new church building in Kigali, Rwanda and branch members milling about after church<br />
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</tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"> -Eating Rwandan food! (I couldn't go without a comment on the food of course). No East African meal is really complete without at least 3 starches and preferably more - here we only have two: Matoke (non-sweet banana - I totally love this stuff) and potato. For a real feast we ought to have had sweet potato and/or cassava root plus rice and maybe pasta as well. Here there's chicken and peas with some sauce but normally there would also be beef or goat and beans as well. Usually there's also sauce with spinach or isombe (ground up cassava leaves). </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3LvH-Y_U-KqZ8k2EJ6DEg2ED4kHf5mYFJHy41acin4j282si4PSEspqOrvXzgqEX4JS9mnEfJB5IbpI0DDfKcJcygybDV2zHL_0k9o3m5gKlwccXJt50li5IaatmIGrtiYO9EG0vOVUE/s1600/IMG_3139.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3LvH-Y_U-KqZ8k2EJ6DEg2ED4kHf5mYFJHy41acin4j282si4PSEspqOrvXzgqEX4JS9mnEfJB5IbpI0DDfKcJcygybDV2zHL_0k9o3m5gKlwccXJt50li5IaatmIGrtiYO9EG0vOVUE/s400/IMG_3139.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">And finally, the finishing touch: Fanta. (Most prefer orange, I do not - I prefer "citron").</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVjd1LhJFaP1TcM5HNuibWktLtR3s6FarZGLQQaBeGnKvz_38EBgt9XGQ9rNQZH3zI_443KAKw6BELfquz0P5fhDPw9usXcJWLO_6ri325V-5JG6kz-rE_osl10nMQe8CHjsnTCp8BzQ4/s1600/IMG_3129.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVjd1LhJFaP1TcM5HNuibWktLtR3s6FarZGLQQaBeGnKvz_38EBgt9XGQ9rNQZH3zI_443KAKw6BELfquz0P5fhDPw9usXcJWLO_6ri325V-5JG6kz-rE_osl10nMQe8CHjsnTCp8BzQ4/s320/IMG_3129.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div></div></div>Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-11450426290823072732010-08-08T12:14:00.000-07:002010-08-08T12:37:47.616-07:00Close Encounters of the Cockroach Kind<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>A lowlight (as opposed to a highlight) of living in the tropics - an episode I like to call a close encounter of the cockroach kind: A few days ago, there I was, minding my own business, when I spotted a HUGE cockroach in my bathroom. I must confess, I really don't like them. I've managed to get over my aversion to any vertebrate or spiders or bees/wasps etc. but I still have issues with cockroaches. It's visceral. (It may stem from an experience in Madagascar involving a cupboard in one of our apartments that at first glance had a back wall that moved...enough said)<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>This cockroach was, no joke, 5 cm long. (U.S. translation = 2 inches) Now, I realize that I am, in fact, 178 cm long, which is considerably larger than this cockroach but remember, 5 cm is long for a roach. This guy/gal had a gimpy leg as well, making him/her pretty slow. Regardless of his/her handicap, I still made a loud sound and Biljana, the other girl living in the apartment, came running. She helped me shove it into a paper sack. We took it outside and our night guard came running to see what the commotion was. He started laughing a fit to kill himself when he found out what the problem was and after getting himself under control he disposed of the bag.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">(A bad picture of the cockroach peeking at me from around a bucket)</div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq5fT22fMEjiQK7qxWgxX2iIqbJt1nU8e9tOwmhZN1okYoX3t0iXAy5ZH3NeVzSkWxOlkCoNEhz2CG-hl7GihEwPqRqqbUeFHqLnDjhcAkbXzBtkWrxZTsiIayzYDtzbE3d36QO_WGdBM/s400/IMG_3141.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5503124942003820690" /><div><br /></div><div>We thought the excitement over although I did comment (prophetically as it turned out) that cockroaches rarely travel alone. Sure enough, an hour later I was getting into the shower and I went to adjust the shower-head when I noticed ANOTHER 5 cm long cockroach sitting right on the shower-head, wiggling its nasty long antennae at me. I made another loud noise (a loud screaming-type noise if the truth be known) and Biljana came running again. We tried our paper bag exterminator trick again but sadly, THIS cockroach did not have a gimpy leg. She/He/It jumped OUT of the bag and ran somewhere. We screamed really loudly (again) I'm sorry to say.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Unfortunately we never saw where she/he/it went so, consequently, I couldn't shower there and had to bathe in the other bathroom. (Highly pathetic I know, but it just felt icky) </div>Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-15742692799602382382010-07-18T08:22:00.000-07:002010-07-18T09:19:37.080-07:00Interim mini-project<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>It's been a quiet week here in Rwanda. All the data from our study is now at the Ministry of Health awaiting data entry. We're trying to hurry that process along - after all, that's what I'm here for (well, sort of) but these things can be a little political. So instead we found another mini-project for me to do this week. I went out into the field to look at what has been happening in some of the nutrition programs. These programs try to screen for children under 5 who are moderately or severely malnourished so that they can get extra help at the health centre (including extra food supplements for the children and nutritional counselling for the mothers).<img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtkIg9fgTYa0yK4WS_biHPCJKtWYwfgGB_3ETE6w57KwmaxSwOEDATaOBsP_kLLryILyn3fzIiN8iGiWHw2hgVPgOtJvv6MKfzEHqPZAYpd13yE9XqDPp5q9SrAwNvUqwTE-BZcE50oSg/s400/IMG_3118.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495278478444151906" /><div>(The one on the left isn't a mother, she'd just a neighbor girl who's helping out)</div><div><br /></div><div>Other highlights:</div><div>- sleeping in the guesthouse at Ngoma and discovering that the rooster lived right behind my room. (Why, Why, Why is 3 am an appropriate time to start crowing?!)</div><div>- Being told by the entire medical staff (ten of them) of Kibungo hospital (all Chinese expats speaking difficult english, all male, all shorter than I) that I was beautiful and should stay and have drinks with them in the guesthouse restaurant - I gracefully declined (but it made up for the "healthy" comment from last week)</div><div>- visiting the Rwanda Genocide Memorial Centre. This was enlightening but emotionally draining as you might imagine.</div><div><br /></div><div>More next week (and hopefully more pictures, I've tried to load more twice but all it does is suck up my precious megabytes and not post anything!!)</div>Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-48904100110920627392010-07-11T06:12:00.000-07:002010-07-11T07:14:59.455-07:00Interviewing is difficult if you don't speak the language...<div>For those of you who wonder what I've been doing... The program we're evaluating here is one that has community health workers (CHWs) treating children for a few specific diagnoses. There are approximately 60 000 CHWs of them here in Rwanda, one male and one female elected from each village (ostensibly). The diagnoses for the most part are diarrhea, pneumonia and fever, which is usually interpreted as malaria and treated as such rightly or wrongly. The CHWs also are involved in vaccinations and anemia screening (with de-worming medications as needed...your infectious diseases interesting fact of the day: the leading cause of anemia worldwide is hookworm infection - yep, may I point out once again, everything really is infectious diseases - love it!!). For those of you in the Global public health/pediatric fields - it's actually Rwanda's WHO IMCI program. So, the evaluation is to see how the process is working - not so much if it's really impacting the child mortality rate. It consists of interviews with randomly selected CHWs, revision of all their case files, and interviews with all the supervisors in over half of the health districts in Rwanda. (About 1200 interviews in total over the course of one week)</div><div><br /></div><div>It was somewhat chaotic.</div><div><br /></div><div>The teams got rearranged at the last minute so suddenly my boss and I were having to supervise a team of people we didn't know in an area that my boss didn't know. Plus there was problems with cash flow (as there often is) in order to arrange transportation and sundry other issues. Such is the fun of on the ground research like this. It's all about going with the flow basically and changing plans about 10 times a day. We pretty much accomplished our goal though. It was tricky as my boss and I could do only a handful of the interviews so we had to make the rest of the team work harder. </div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">Interviews</div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhSMvGYAFYaoAZXTi_Xb83vNHkuKUU7MPr8LvRwMRzxFb-O6SQcnkvw3VliDH2liGPOfGghx9lrMpTqNNR-xuRpNWmX-e3M0O6-VEI5cpxrWrsMzwPKfmvQwwEpImjC0jla9x4HZFy8Do/s400/IMG_3096.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5492642713980425298" /><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">Community Health Centre in rural Rwanda</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDSSKiNnaIBHy4HVgrXCdtEHpF1lroraoNi5DJot4H7ts8p-3NAXqLtQUnndkHqL8SwFgiLu24zxKwclqLxyXBzD9Ms_Df36OayptSlv13JvRINxC5KI6Rn-FT6v8GrCxuELVsHRRx49E/s1600/IMG_3098.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDSSKiNnaIBHy4HVgrXCdtEHpF1lroraoNi5DJot4H7ts8p-3NAXqLtQUnndkHqL8SwFgiLu24zxKwclqLxyXBzD9Ms_Df36OayptSlv13JvRINxC5KI6Rn-FT6v8GrCxuELVsHRRx49E/s400/IMG_3098.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5492642721409846178" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>The beautiful courtyard of the district hospital in Kibagabaga (which is pronounced exactly as written and is likewise my new favourite word. It sounds like it should belong in Bedrock)></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMXlpoS7adZtNZoUrNVSPkyR2aGI5dKgpmGT5e3B-Xjhnqh2CJ2NROz71paF8UUBHriqVqWg657pLJnNGwUoRiBRb6UbwQzrnTIAjONnN9Y24q2-bx3Q5PXBoe5aJYTkE7qjBSy_XmvTs/s1600/IMG_3105.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMXlpoS7adZtNZoUrNVSPkyR2aGI5dKgpmGT5e3B-Xjhnqh2CJ2NROz71paF8UUBHriqVqWg657pLJnNGwUoRiBRb6UbwQzrnTIAjONnN9Y24q2-bx3Q5PXBoe5aJYTkE7qjBSy_XmvTs/s400/IMG_3105.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5492642738605033682" /></a><br /><div>On our way to/from remote community health centres to do the interviews. I got the front seat because I was "the healthiest" (Rwandan description). A.K.A "the biggest". (This is apparently a huge compliment and I'm trying to take it as such - however, I have been somewhat brainwashed by negative aspects of western culture and had to do some mini-self-cognitive therapy with respect to body image.)<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDHWtUnbSvR1rSkD2helNQSF3DIZ1Vt0nqyIlq1aNAa5-3k9bZ3FVwhUzpoy7sgw6X6blWUf1mRmkUY2uMkk6DVP1NR_PL1oeJEPQTdgczIBbaCMgVbFuw3pysFjicYbIbm-MnX-nwE2Q/s1600/IMG_3101.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDHWtUnbSvR1rSkD2helNQSF3DIZ1Vt0nqyIlq1aNAa5-3k9bZ3FVwhUzpoy7sgw6X6blWUf1mRmkUY2uMkk6DVP1NR_PL1oeJEPQTdgczIBbaCMgVbFuw3pysFjicYbIbm-MnX-nwE2Q/s400/IMG_3101.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5492642730125069426" /></a><br /></div><div>Fun week!! More later.</div><div><br /></div><div>For all my nieces who want princess beds...come to Africa and you can sleep in a fancy bed just like this one:</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM81DIBd7dG7OgZgGx505pPyPB7iCTE6OW06tclWuoIjmns3qzVwfKbxUEdly-aW2sYQ9-HqZOsV9zLY-EQ31KnSrcoh7L5GWHLInfW07AkSdMS7UvZaShk6HpjG0Ft_kx6PTq8YITCqE/s1600/IMG_3094.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM81DIBd7dG7OgZgGx505pPyPB7iCTE6OW06tclWuoIjmns3qzVwfKbxUEdly-aW2sYQ9-HqZOsV9zLY-EQ31KnSrcoh7L5GWHLInfW07AkSdMS7UvZaShk6HpjG0Ft_kx6PTq8YITCqE/s400/IMG_3094.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5492642706586753234" /></a><div></div></div>Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-5579044601868639972010-07-04T07:33:00.000-07:002010-07-04T07:43:27.088-07:00Busy...<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">My first week in Rwanda has really flown by.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">After arriving late last Saturday night I spent Sunday settling in because Monday morning we (meaning my boss and I) left bright and early to drive up north to Musanze (previously know as Ruhengeri – name changed because of some political reason that no one seems to know or want to tell me:</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">“It’s political”).</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">This is coincidentally the same place that I visited in Rwanda the last time I was here as it’s the staging point for all the trips to see the gorillas (see previous post: "Uganda 5: Gorillas in the Mist").</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">This time I didn’t see the gorillas, or actually much of anything – in fact I didn’t leave the hotel grounds the whole 3 days I was there.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">We were too busy.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">The Ifema Hotel is a very nice hotel if you ever happen to be in Musanze…</span></p><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRpMOIhd_NuEpbULd4P8lXh0ZgJrXRZH5Kn4FEIdFv8EX5hsOPVgvbQhxPPjWrw2lMe_8pi4fJyL0atjY_kr9Kl8rCzRPf8Uwu3-jnpcDnNeps1ed0W5UHmODS6MlopGyD8RVKbPVU9Yw/s1600/IMG_3090.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRpMOIhd_NuEpbULd4P8lXh0ZgJrXRZH5Kn4FEIdFv8EX5hsOPVgvbQhxPPjWrw2lMe_8pi4fJyL0atjY_kr9Kl8rCzRPf8Uwu3-jnpcDnNeps1ed0W5UHmODS6MlopGyD8RVKbPVU9Yw/s400/IMG_3090.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5490060995534996834" /></a> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">The reason for this visit was a training program for all the people that are administering the survey on which our evaluation is based.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">We had to talk about sampling and such as well as reviewing all the documents that they’d be using.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">It was tricky because of the language issue.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">The survey will be done in Kinyarwanda, the local language, so had to be translated.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Kinyarwanda, like all the Bantu languages is apparently extremely complicated grammatically, and so there were numerous discussions about the language.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Unfortunately mostly in Kinyarwanda so neither I, nor my boss, could follow them.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">We persevered however and organized logistics and actually did the random sampling.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Busy, but fun - if you’re into that kind of thing, which surprisingly I am.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">I did see some wildlife - in the garden beside the hotel…</span></p><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKtLOVMrzri4i8NCB2PBsQyEWLQv02srwv7hK5Px8SOOQppiXAVIme0tuEIUb1E-juTX64SY1kavccv27X6jUjBK2LksApz3ZiG3zFJ39T-PHOiIKYgU1Huu3Xn-zPid-bYy-2Mb-BzIM/s1600/IMG_3084.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKtLOVMrzri4i8NCB2PBsQyEWLQv02srwv7hK5Px8SOOQppiXAVIme0tuEIUb1E-juTX64SY1kavccv27X6jUjBK2LksApz3ZiG3zFJ39T-PHOiIKYgU1Huu3Xn-zPid-bYy-2Mb-BzIM/s400/IMG_3084.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5490061015121985410" /></a> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">The rest of the week was spent back in Kigali at the office working on more organizational stuff.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">We’re trying to computerize the data entry aspect somewhat so we’re going to trial a program on Pocket PC Creations, we’ll see how it goes.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">This next week is the actual survey week so we’ll do some trial data entry then as well.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">A lot of public health work is office stuff so not so exciting to blog about; in fact, here you can see my boring little office…</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2hW9q5lr1qZsoRLj0u5-booeQEX6V0K3EaT5zlZ0eY0T0nU_cJllMPlr537RUmvEy8gJsn7svX2IWORQdnFOktUw-U5rlfMczs0KYypjzmYmrQJ9gppXYCu32RF9rDsgPX05V6Nf5Jm0/s1600/IMG_3091.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2hW9q5lr1qZsoRLj0u5-booeQEX6V0K3EaT5zlZ0eY0T0nU_cJllMPlr537RUmvEy8gJsn7svX2IWORQdnFOktUw-U5rlfMczs0KYypjzmYmrQJ9gppXYCu32RF9rDsgPX05V6Nf5Jm0/s400/IMG_3091.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5490061003980528786" /></a> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Yep, not very exciting but the whole point of this evaluation is to make sure that the program really is making a difference in the lives of Rwandan children – and I think that’s the really exciting part.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Saturday was spent wandering about the main part of Kigali and trying to find places to shop besides the big expatriate shopping centre.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Due to the huge influx in development and aid money to Rwanda as well as the associated influx of large numbers of expat aid workers in the last several years, things are hugely expensive.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Food, both at expat-type restaurants and at the expat shopping centre is as expensive or more expensive than in Boston.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">My roommate (another girl who’s working for the same organization) and I are finding alternative options.</span></p> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Today, Sunday I went to church, which turns out to be about a 40-minute walk from my house. Well, in the interest of honesty, it was 40 minutes one way but on the way home I tried to take a shortcut, which turned into a very long and hot walk. It’s alright, probably the best way to learn the city is to get lost and then find your way home a few times. (It’s the only way I’ve ever learned my way around cities that don’t really have maps).</span></span><!--EndFragment-->Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-5074571360688049202010-06-29T00:50:00.000-07:002010-06-30T07:27:53.073-07:00Rwanda introduction...for mom especiallyGreetings from the land of a thousand hills! Many of you know that I'm here in Rwanda doing a public health internship for a few weeks. I'm here helping with a monitoring and evaluation project of a program that uses Community Health Workers (translation: lay health workers or those who have received only very limited health care training) for implementing a series of protocols to treat children (less than 5 years) for the most common childhood illness - and the ones that kill the vast majority of children worldwide. I'll leave it at that for now as I'll likely be talking a whole lot more about it later.<div>I flew into Kigali on Saturday evening and I just want to assure my mother (and father) that all is well. Really, I have this really nice apartment and things are fabulous. Here are some pictures to show you...</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">My bedroom with fabulous sleek fuschia bedspread</div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2PF4Dp-rsJQjuCv1AStxrSmjXpUpr6q6qc-9Mj6nW9AAM80AvQ0uoYYZbJ6hNEEVLAIMyyxRdvUz_6UYo2sEIFwBwgYNj8Dx_X0iDGjREskGdRBb6CIfiAF7fawD_HLSGpmPbSDfT760/s400/IMG_3080.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488164588442393298" /><br /><div><div style="text-align: center;">Bathroom - no hot water but it's always quite temperate so no problem</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUuhXKB0qTYxvTouEjXKKkcDe4uejyx5KlbTDPDhSrz6IsSI_ZkifKpMIoLMzwJz37ie6LnUhR2BtkoMKmnLh3R7cOugUUqcmJ5aeSTIPPy8DTR9waEuVXEPemGVkXX7HshFVPGene4co/s1600/IMG_3076.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUuhXKB0qTYxvTouEjXKKkcDe4uejyx5KlbTDPDhSrz6IsSI_ZkifKpMIoLMzwJz37ie6LnUhR2BtkoMKmnLh3R7cOugUUqcmJ5aeSTIPPy8DTR9waEuVXEPemGVkXX7HshFVPGene4co/s400/IMG_3076.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488567826717000130" /></a><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">Living area - I haven't actually tried the TV, although I'm fairly certain the only thing on right now is World Cup games and World Cup related broadcast</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHYJxbLrPJAMSmdtpjycLejwGK290VS8nh__xsfYLhvYbbDDP_TDIw-38e4v1yLlnmyJty2waL7NW0lwEe3vNMVBoVRy0exC3JO9_0vbXmdj6nSwCSJsBe6d8fuSUzfMXwmGCnyKkGbSs/s1600/IMG_3077.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHYJxbLrPJAMSmdtpjycLejwGK290VS8nh__xsfYLhvYbbDDP_TDIw-38e4v1yLlnmyJty2waL7NW0lwEe3vNMVBoVRy0exC3JO9_0vbXmdj6nSwCSJsBe6d8fuSUzfMXwmGCnyKkGbSs/s400/IMG_3077.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488570068440326498" /></a><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">Kitchen (the fridge is almost, but not quite as small as our fridge in Boston Cami)</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjkAFUpKkDlSAbNOtNymneydvoURa9jMYoWTYY2zW5ZHP9pqZ0zbCszezUl3MarIxcoSSB2bd5wnQDX9ZXVmCdo2vlifQDs9rMP6EwoSjxw5rm7FuNTpJtT7Z_NxU3tCh9388OBHFBKtQ/s1600/IMG_3078.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjkAFUpKkDlSAbNOtNymneydvoURa9jMYoWTYY2zW5ZHP9pqZ0zbCszezUl3MarIxcoSSB2bd5wnQDX9ZXVmCdo2vlifQDs9rMP6EwoSjxw5rm7FuNTpJtT7Z_NxU3tCh9388OBHFBKtQ/s400/IMG_3078.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488570089362156674" /></a><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">The Laundry room</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCg42ftdbcaBLh1vyHOnkEcnm01toLOM8uhBeLoEUi5nIq0iCmn7R-MfYl6G9ydnVgIVC-MZs367dshWsontvFLuomMomo55tzja63kZirjJadFHwxumzngpDpAd0CcceXMGlhfRRTxyw/s1600/IMG_3079.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCg42ftdbcaBLh1vyHOnkEcnm01toLOM8uhBeLoEUi5nIq0iCmn7R-MfYl6G9ydnVgIVC-MZs367dshWsontvFLuomMomo55tzja63kZirjJadFHwxumzngpDpAd0CcceXMGlhfRRTxyw/s400/IMG_3079.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488570075143561010" /></a><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">And this is my favourite part!! Looking out from my room this is what I see!!</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjHtISt8YhSKnVza94ivVSt7LBi8vzADIGbh66pCyDVLxfgJdxG_pFjJ7h-Wn_QGrOCZI4ojjxQgRJGw9n9EA77sEvu42WEamN7YzI4Rpc-5qScCtVv4T8VfiIAP5GU0VFO-FAJtbhT9A/s1600/IMG_3073.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjHtISt8YhSKnVza94ivVSt7LBi8vzADIGbh66pCyDVLxfgJdxG_pFjJ7h-Wn_QGrOCZI4ojjxQgRJGw9n9EA77sEvu42WEamN7YzI4Rpc-5qScCtVv4T8VfiIAP5GU0VFO-FAJtbhT9A/s400/IMG_3073.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488570091995629410" /></a><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">View from the balcony - looking out over the valley towards the main centre of the city (Rwanda is basically hills and hills)</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcvj0nPOE8wpCWG0HdutdSZelc05Xy1yoc2WIrx82eAjrD5BrVoJ2GdcFClOLAoQ2JATT2yPI85KmzjL_QiIss2gU5LisGGLno_NWU20TPLI1zkY-nYXxjDaWMM1s8tKXgtKyFPu4ozV8/s1600/IMG_3074.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcvj0nPOE8wpCWG0HdutdSZelc05Xy1yoc2WIrx82eAjrD5BrVoJ2GdcFClOLAoQ2JATT2yPI85KmzjL_QiIss2gU5LisGGLno_NWU20TPLI1zkY-nYXxjDaWMM1s8tKXgtKyFPu4ozV8/s400/IMG_3074.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488570100797932290" /></a><br /></div><div>I've been up north over the last three days helping out at the training meeting for the people who are actually doing the survey for the evaluation - more next time!!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div>Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-83723031908152638882010-04-25T13:46:00.001-07:002010-04-25T19:14:36.831-07:00Nothing for months - and now a turkey!!!Apologies to all of you who thought I was really going to blog something about my actual life. I have the best of intentions all of the time but by the time I get around to blogging things, it all seems so over and done with. I made a promise however, to a certain small friend of mine that I would prove to her via photographs that I do have real, live, wild turkey living in the ravine in the back of my house. This is for you Anya!!<div>P.S. He is really much bigger than you<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjPWNolQj8t0RQe9rbl3GrOa2o8Wx09wMkgXhk3LMAKz5RNCfIXaHpffO4GioYwrwwSf0w3wxgHaUy_MJkyZ1CjGZFtT9oMG_dz84g6sixuH2QIcqa1hcYLIw2qCaEs-ASyHpsvtJ5Wnw/s1600/IMG_3058.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil05BqzKNnjfw8Ae2oSBbJadn6RzcRIRU9AiuRFKhiAQuJpjMCrwtJSac3bsziTT2Jd1i8Z2FCjR0Z9mDMvjsqKXMliGmSspYR3Qko67cXTM4nRaYwNCry07E4KKcvVyTo-p9_PCC3rBI/s400/IMG_3061.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464263306813602562" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjPWNolQj8t0RQe9rbl3GrOa2o8Wx09wMkgXhk3LMAKz5RNCfIXaHpffO4GioYwrwwSf0w3wxgHaUy_MJkyZ1CjGZFtT9oMG_dz84g6sixuH2QIcqa1hcYLIw2qCaEs-ASyHpsvtJ5Wnw/s400/IMG_3058.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464263314979324178" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil05BqzKNnjfw8Ae2oSBbJadn6RzcRIRU9AiuRFKhiAQuJpjMCrwtJSac3bsziTT2Jd1i8Z2FCjR0Z9mDMvjsqKXMliGmSspYR3Qko67cXTM4nRaYwNCry07E4KKcvVyTo-p9_PCC3rBI/s1600/IMG_3061.JPG"></a><br /><div><br /></div></div>Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-36009224436016049252009-09-13T18:20:00.000-07:002009-09-13T19:07:14.970-07:00The Adventures of Rajah (and notes on an up-and-coming artist of my acquaintance)<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial, serif;">Meet Rajah, a well-loved friend (so well-loved that the outer layers of his nose have rubbed off):</span></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHfy1AifhkHzXeDf-Dr_wm72gbLayBtYhBxBrb4_UgKANlB552ubqmbsyEqDeZ7T_lwcA318UPwRnmoDL7oB9lSIY9f_N0Iqlt-v1X2RbJ_5j9YC9Ed3CQ-3IDlMtUafszGFv4wJ07Xuw/s1600-h/IMG_2352.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHfy1AifhkHzXeDf-Dr_wm72gbLayBtYhBxBrb4_UgKANlB552ubqmbsyEqDeZ7T_lwcA318UPwRnmoDL7oB9lSIY9f_N0Iqlt-v1X2RbJ_5j9YC9Ed3CQ-3IDlMtUafszGFv4wJ07Xuw/s400/IMG_2352.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381130369864742450" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div>He's an important part of everyday life for a certain young friend of my acquaintance. In fact, this certain young friend INSISTS that Rajah MUST be present for proper bed time protocol to be followed. Unfortunately Rajah is almost invariably missing when it's time for bed. He has an almost uncanny ability to be present minutes before bed (eg during bed time story reading) but then suddenly disappear when the actual moment of getting into bed arrives. It's quite a talent!! (Perhaps he takes after his namesake - a tiger from a Disney film). </div><div><br /></div><div>Usually a house- wide search for the missing "tiger" ensues involving my young friend, his siblings and any hapless adults who happen to be present. Rajah is usually eventually found but sometimes in the oddest places:</div><div style="text-align: center;">Sneaking in from a quick trip outside:</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1kSudwotpSxP0wxgbsFAh1d-NQ7lkL7r4Qs-cpdFJH7xijIpNySBPRI5naLowBRAeCAcm0v_y9XVcEDg58J8pSRnP4QM9dDvn4aULVlBKdQe7ohyphenhyphenmm2okmR7mOFCRkYGTF7HJVLe18Mk/s1600-h/IMG_2368.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1kSudwotpSxP0wxgbsFAh1d-NQ7lkL7r4Qs-cpdFJH7xijIpNySBPRI5naLowBRAeCAcm0v_y9XVcEDg58J8pSRnP4QM9dDvn4aULVlBKdQe7ohyphenhyphenmm2okmR7mOFCRkYGTF7HJVLe18Mk/s400/IMG_2368.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381130400887752994" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Tigers love warm laundry</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzuHp2lcy2SOV3EoG83qZOxaQO0fIYE50CQUHxTfj6EZUrePjdKMZtHk4GN_Puaf3gUtbmfz6FyXB1fGpRCdxNoc6B7iKBgRQ8W3s1dYn0Lzcu7imC77dFDjnI7GcB2rXS_feofE2wwYo/s1600-h/IMG_2363.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzuHp2lcy2SOV3EoG83qZOxaQO0fIYE50CQUHxTfj6EZUrePjdKMZtHk4GN_Puaf3gUtbmfz6FyXB1fGpRCdxNoc6B7iKBgRQ8W3s1dYn0Lzcu7imC77dFDjnI7GcB2rXS_feofE2wwYo/s400/IMG_2363.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381130392210650898" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Hiding out underneath the couch cushions (a frequent spot):</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0tk0qSNQLNWzRGOHzdCyX55heaL18S8Q6BwnnWs8VG-0EH-np9yVVF9CNFrC9QfFSqLMVjlXhKo1OrsWSXcqcuJAiAWY2e4qAqdiWMv4HIMUWUhkYEi1zjsVrp-xSKLVIme2sJtx8C_M/s1600-h/IMG_2353.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0tk0qSNQLNWzRGOHzdCyX55heaL18S8Q6BwnnWs8VG-0EH-np9yVVF9CNFrC9QfFSqLMVjlXhKo1OrsWSXcqcuJAiAWY2e4qAqdiWMv4HIMUWUhkYEi1zjsVrp-xSKLVIme2sJtx8C_M/s400/IMG_2353.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381130382644831474" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Hanging out with a bunch of other toys</span></span></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj80yth5HtVB4yvPgZXmybIhQh-SzMFKCN9c4Otv0rc_9OWZqMrTR4scw1yrXHC78WYtEv-ZhmjO9zlFJP4nNqgFeR_raEbDJrjw9Szhx6C420fXSsR_x26xFW9KO2bw9R35eMROqG-j4k/s1600-h/IMG_2333.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj80yth5HtVB4yvPgZXmybIhQh-SzMFKCN9c4Otv0rc_9OWZqMrTR4scw1yrXHC78WYtEv-ZhmjO9zlFJP4nNqgFeR_raEbDJrjw9Szhx6C420fXSsR_x26xFW9KO2bw9R35eMROqG-j4k/s400/IMG_2333.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381130366376517378" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Attempting a 60's revival</div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgDLzkVZIausyDSFVtvuxntMGQT0A4lEpTG-S9HnE4CLzPlHEc3hPjQXV-5Tq3sY-qeD5WGos5jut8KWUmr7REeeNucInrRXRQBnLyZecXr3kjv3yOflV8BIBXPzAVrqnjFzTGeU5TdJ8/s1600-h/IMG_2341.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgDLzkVZIausyDSFVtvuxntMGQT0A4lEpTG-S9HnE4CLzPlHEc3hPjQXV-5Tq3sY-qeD5WGos5jut8KWUmr7REeeNucInrRXRQBnLyZecXr3kjv3yOflV8BIBXPzAVrqnjFzTGeU5TdJ8/s400/IMG_2341.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381131575866854530" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Rajah has famous friends!!</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKOsgXLLmdmdQ0h8I0UGluY3vQr-JkMEA9952xGtHntv5NG7IpUqFzqHStqXVWwt2Dw7GM4R9q0cVXSLtBhJ1sYkvsf4cOez_GVEiGXBWPvxenIC8Hg45u8bkwb0J1YvLjEVPiT731WiA/s1600-h/IMG_2335.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKOsgXLLmdmdQ0h8I0UGluY3vQr-JkMEA9952xGtHntv5NG7IpUqFzqHStqXVWwt2Dw7GM4R9q0cVXSLtBhJ1sYkvsf4cOez_GVEiGXBWPvxenIC8Hg45u8bkwb0J1YvLjEVPiT731WiA/s400/IMG_2335.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381131569341575378" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">He's very tricky, sometimes he hides in the bed, where he's supposed to be all along!</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnsd90H4j6M3HsdauPXzQP_gy9qo0GNOakjovVsqevhABoxtgGxgAUw5dMDIhHRCxeHrGIyz2VtKuAyrgTYUQNRxELEg5BAjBqeGzawVHW7VEKwa60j7eXJCe8lA5uwK5OHbcg24hLrLI/s1600-h/IMG_2362.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnsd90H4j6M3HsdauPXzQP_gy9qo0GNOakjovVsqevhABoxtgGxgAUw5dMDIhHRCxeHrGIyz2VtKuAyrgTYUQNRxELEg5BAjBqeGzawVHW7VEKwa60j7eXJCe8lA5uwK5OHbcg24hLrLI/s400/IMG_2362.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381132858707221298" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Sometimes he's actually been tiger-napped</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQq3L_rLVwCtMYT2kdK_ZhttjBDmVp8JuThEpskIYBuleK5YIVHLJylpaFwAcPTIM08MevGALL6D0zdRDn5aKtVarwC5nIAzpI2pEt48oM_waWc_uOvvXnHykFU_cR7xCfy6Eo8gfKxnY/s1600-h/IMG_2351.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQq3L_rLVwCtMYT2kdK_ZhttjBDmVp8JuThEpskIYBuleK5YIVHLJylpaFwAcPTIM08MevGALL6D0zdRDn5aKtVarwC5nIAzpI2pEt48oM_waWc_uOvvXnHykFU_cR7xCfy6Eo8gfKxnY/s400/IMG_2351.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381132850524760098" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">And sometimes he just wants a bedtime snack</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIz51-Hm4a3UU-P3_Q47zgrQn_3pnd_IJW2Obx4ZidnS5cWjTRjDO35I70sM0IOmA968-SrrDgBOzFoY8HHyIPRoMZXJ0dOXn8LCiSPEKeuOeVxisVsJTmzM_IJrvHlfyTZaKnQWAcEgU/s1600-h/IMG_2350.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIz51-Hm4a3UU-P3_Q47zgrQn_3pnd_IJW2Obx4ZidnS5cWjTRjDO35I70sM0IOmA968-SrrDgBOzFoY8HHyIPRoMZXJ0dOXn8LCiSPEKeuOeVxisVsJTmzM_IJrvHlfyTZaKnQWAcEgU/s400/IMG_2350.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381131595215520066" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div>But after all is said and done, Rajah usually finds his way back where he's supposed to be and he and my young friend (FINALLY) get to bed as happy as ever.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJiAKNIqY1vz2kGTZbjI8WYEoRx96d1iDWkwDTfSjNoABb09IoD7rA3GFjNdYaUl5xacYUFFxVzgHo2PmqLAxEE1KNxSQ0RPRogGu097AgaBBlRfz9Khily6PpuorJoT7VRcZmgT5uYZg/s400/IMG_2332.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381131561863985106" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;">Notes on an Up-and-Coming Artist:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;">Actually, Enoch took most of the photos you see above. I told him what I wanted to do because we'd had so many Rajah sagas when I was living with them that I felt it deserved a blog entry. Enoch loved the idea and wanted to use my camera. We discovered that he actually has quite a talent for it. He took a bunch more but here are 5 of my favorites - fabulous for a 4-year old!!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;">I call this first one: "Still life in shades of blue"</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3AjJZfFmAatuJrlYNsoiQfLkvnNePjmpD-gEDPNs2BvTcXNqkmwp9a0sBtD1j1BHN5Qyjsj4kh2bcgTZWRJCb44GlZiKH6Kido5Hqa9yBNvoeSHiV6yZH2jh0QtmOxvEHYtBrWii06oc/s400/IMG_2460.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381131582444025346" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Next: "Sunday Feet":</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggctT_bbqTCylmIxhRUhQfFBwPfw6GJGRLk5EmaIH6WN_dRRHlb_Kb9p04A1iyOOi49tL-HVd-dLf7g_4udEfZfmxKaqyD3qw71ayPKGEJOUUAneZwbo3c2Yg2JzQDKoUl2qkVWh2MzeQ/s1600-h/IMG_2411.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggctT_bbqTCylmIxhRUhQfFBwPfw6GJGRLk5EmaIH6WN_dRRHlb_Kb9p04A1iyOOi49tL-HVd-dLf7g_4udEfZfmxKaqyD3qw71ayPKGEJOUUAneZwbo3c2Yg2JzQDKoUl2qkVWh2MzeQ/s400/IMG_2411.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381133654306126306" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><div>I actually stuck this one in because I rarely like photos of myself and I liked this one<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi5AsBPAoRzLLBIoGHvXGJzWe8xKwBoB61pPZIjiogYo-2J64pNZLqCEbc0Fb67xn5OtvHtuvaxhpzSIIDHocIS8PBmSpgDoCmOnViwf-jtoPHHFjPg6mDWhozanSicEa5HNyNhbZ9KZA/s1600-h/IMG_2417.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi5AsBPAoRzLLBIoGHvXGJzWe8xKwBoB61pPZIjiogYo-2J64pNZLqCEbc0Fb67xn5OtvHtuvaxhpzSIIDHocIS8PBmSpgDoCmOnViwf-jtoPHHFjPg6mDWhozanSicEa5HNyNhbZ9KZA/s400/IMG_2417.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381132883869039106" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a>Next: "Surprised sisters"</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzlS1oM6vuC72U14xqZHXImqDvkHruLGnM6NlBQDF3NG4ggo-Udj2Gh9MmeRDUDSyd8GdlDbZFfrGKCfkCkfezX3OWq_0mJIGDxV2-8bTS38h84OjDTpyO3zQIWz8trWlbv2v1J4JpoC8/s1600-h/IMG_2424.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzlS1oM6vuC72U14xqZHXImqDvkHruLGnM6NlBQDF3NG4ggo-Udj2Gh9MmeRDUDSyd8GdlDbZFfrGKCfkCkfezX3OWq_0mJIGDxV2-8bTS38h84OjDTpyO3zQIWz8trWlbv2v1J4JpoC8/s400/IMG_2424.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381132872108347378" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a>Finally: "Portrait of the artist as a young boy"<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiehqXzVdql1x9x1rRhqUdY9dm89VtJaqWAENqcQMg8qKZXm8htYbg__BfojOnOtadWUhUP5A2CZctGtXdHjuddFMubkayjRvgBUpn0uOJisan0peeXFOs4LXdKC7yT9q0akIBOHXkbnLo/s1600-h/IMG_2464.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiehqXzVdql1x9x1rRhqUdY9dm89VtJaqWAENqcQMg8qKZXm8htYbg__BfojOnOtadWUhUP5A2CZctGtXdHjuddFMubkayjRvgBUpn0uOJisan0peeXFOs4LXdKC7yT9q0akIBOHXkbnLo/s400/IMG_2464.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381132870955931362" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a>Kind of fun eh? <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnsd90H4j6M3HsdauPXzQP_gy9qo0GNOakjovVsqevhABoxtgGxgAUw5dMDIhHRCxeHrGIyz2VtKuAyrgTYUQNRxELEg5BAjBqeGzawVHW7VEKwa60j7eXJCe8lA5uwK5OHbcg24hLrLI/s1600-h/IMG_2362.JPG"></a><div> </div></div>Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-4886901439458494402009-09-13T16:50:00.001-07:002009-09-13T19:10:10.615-07:00Updates - my (apparently) semi-annual blog<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', serif; ">My cousin Sara was quite right to not hold her breath while waiting for the next edition....it's been a really long time since I've blogged. I always use the fact that I don't have any kids or pets to take cute pictures of as an excuse for not blogging regularly. That's part of it but mostly I just always find other stuff to do...but, for those of you who have been wondering (I'm sure very few!!). Here's a summary of the last few months:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">March : Work, interspersed with a fun cruise with Mom, Dad and Alita. Embarassingly enough, I hardly took any pictures. Dad always takes so many that I didn't feel the need. Please see their blog if you really want to see the pictures. (I personally didn't feel the need to add any more pixels involving me in a bathing suit to cyberspace)</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">April: More work, interspersed with packing up my house, getting rid of the vast majority of my furniture and stuff and moving the rest to Mom and Dad's house (My net-worth now consists of 12 boxes of books, 4 boxes of kitchen stuff, 8 boxes of other assorted stuff and 4 suitcases of clothes + 13.5 years of post-secondary education)</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">May: Living in Toronto, Ontario for a month doing a rotation at the Tropical Medicine Clinic. (Very fun (although my definition of that word might vary from other peoples') - all kinds of weird infectious rashes, malaria and LOTS of people complaining of diarrhea) I got to do a bunch of fun things - ran into and got to play with a bunch of old friends. It was great!!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Here's a picture of the Toronto Skyline from Leslie Spit (the name of the little peninsula we'd ridden bikes to)</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicyO9i1W8pY_AyJ5AqAfFFES-1Z99cZL3OTLNgzbWaCINXDQ9cNzRQJAFNFNIlJO58OGLkuA7hXqlYpRfGI-MqAnWnNCxTlB4R7H8DOktWxeWKkzqI0zvuGgi9S9KxZbBWO2NobZb6tiI/s400/Leslie+Spit+009.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381110968604581522" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">And, here's a picture from the CN Tower looking out over towards Leslie Spit</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLRsfZTeTvX8qZy_XKG5z86N9-vBiwem9nGHpvmiKdV2MggTDRIvLJJ941ATEIsyXE0AorCH626T4CCfagrgIhPDr93moUGOqu_MK99LhVRK3NlitiOSeqauBq73wjDb92FIxoU9pgJmg/s400/IMG_2301.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381110975738878818" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">This is me rappelling down the CN Tower....just kidding, of course this is the classic glass floor picture</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbZHguX2uSB44d1C4rBXhSOLE7TbGX970yw25EfKUrVqX1qMohh3upRg82HUQlTsGFnBLtzOcE1gr8iTNqnals0oTKGRStLEvqvc_LofsXjd-CrWaDkq_4qPzKds2Du5oBF7f9d890dfE/s400/IMG_2304.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381110985794786002" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">AND, this is why you shouldn't agree to let strangers take pictures of you at tourist venues</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjWwpk6n6oCC9f-lY6z7MjCNZ2Hwzgr1_GZNweZo_UU-xMYUbMVSQL_xwkne0zcBPLuLpxAKtRFdiFXjy2eg5Im6BD3EnopXvc0YANyDv2aaVFI44x05quYM47la2W88-RGrv1Cp1mBFY/s400/IMG_2306.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381110994226364338" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">June: Final month of work as a resident - HURRAY!!! Amazing! (I can't believe I'm actually done!!!!) Fun too because I got to live in Paul and Heather's basement. A photo of the kidlets and me playing with the "Photo-booth" feature on my beloved Macbook:</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0cChfvMDOallOlr1YGxX_fkLV0dTnEWHjiN37RMLIb8EGA-5wj3yOzRAKLZnCkao92CQcXtySSxqed0S5AfQ3fCpVjHBRhvce1RGb6wKMRGN721Yxdqox7XO3AJYlflOdodXr68DKnds/s400/Photo+58.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381113836452910834" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;">J<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">uly: For the middle two weeks of July I actually worked as a staff physician at the hospital I trained at (ironically I have NO pictures of the University of Alberta Hospital despite spending at least 65% of the last 7 years there - no joke, at least 65% - there might be some deeper meaning in that) I think I worked WAY harder than I ever did as a resident, averaging about 12 hours a day for 14 days in a row - you can ask Heather and Paul and the kids - they were hardly aware I was living there. Ah well, it's now going to finance the next 6 months of my life so all is well. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Prior to that I did get to the Lund Family Reunion. Tons of fun, and enough of a "baked beans, KFC and jell-o salad" fix to last me until the next one 2 years from now. (Aside: One of the recurring questions of my life: Why is is called jell-o SALAD??? There's absolutely no vegetables involved....) You can only see 2 containers of KFC in this photo - I promise, there was 10 on the table, I opened them myself.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2jjd8zINR7LobhqYmWlJ8asQFTj8_jfh4GUEjFiSgjJFQz6RQ5lNoVU1RDWncNfcumP2RvztKp-jMuPgGRlwn0eHUAsfuZ94jtBd-1rGMggZFQVK8mYZ1tOCWafaTJGo5gosc3Oa81Tw/s400/IMG_2326.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381118640389074578" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Some cute pictures of various festivities that weekend (note how I get around the "not having cute kids or pets of my own" barrier - yep, that's right, BORROWING them)</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYibwMYhzLxJDwA9HgeY4K0Q65NT88ZygvvrEMYknKC30xIDirdG9lHLXCMKU-8b8rIqbjRWLfwZB1bfbWfPRoF-2uO7h7GefIEorA4HQWdSsruPH_QFMzh3oe8K4T6Ar3dj2kWKVbSCE/s1600-h/IMG_2320.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYibwMYhzLxJDwA9HgeY4K0Q65NT88ZygvvrEMYknKC30xIDirdG9lHLXCMKU-8b8rIqbjRWLfwZB1bfbWfPRoF-2uO7h7GefIEorA4HQWdSsruPH_QFMzh3oe8K4T6Ar3dj2kWKVbSCE/s400/IMG_2320.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381118664765813538" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgflG5HKxJVV7i_xWw5s85BssquVeKUn6HVONqg21PFY_NJy6gHqdj0KW4TAsGOpmjbh8UsCtQEmlTLWtc0387LO6ZFCsJgkszoOefZA0BxLuau18PyvHaKXyOCw1B8DkllzGMhcpLs9kc/s1600-h/IMG_2323.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgflG5HKxJVV7i_xWw5s85BssquVeKUn6HVONqg21PFY_NJy6gHqdj0KW4TAsGOpmjbh8UsCtQEmlTLWtc0387LO6ZFCsJgkszoOefZA0BxLuau18PyvHaKXyOCw1B8DkllzGMhcpLs9kc/s400/IMG_2323.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381118653347680418" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcwEvA-xGp_UW3vBABJckB5y7u8rWjavojxknDevtzuzu7VQSw1Wxz5SGauNBMSHQQ808-G4oVISGzkqKOeocrfl7OPbVKOOMYy0aD9AXQx6vbnOsM0CDriaItrJc4a3o7RtvTK0knVvE/s1600-h/IMG_2329.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcwEvA-xGp_UW3vBABJckB5y7u8rWjavojxknDevtzuzu7VQSw1Wxz5SGauNBMSHQQ808-G4oVISGzkqKOeocrfl7OPbVKOOMYy0aD9AXQx6vbnOsM0CDriaItrJc4a3o7RtvTK0knVvE/s400/IMG_2329.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381118642883369314" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center; "><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2jjd8zINR7LobhqYmWlJ8asQFTj8_jfh4GUEjFiSgjJFQz6RQ5lNoVU1RDWncNfcumP2RvztKp-jMuPgGRlwn0eHUAsfuZ94jtBd-1rGMggZFQVK8mYZ1tOCWafaTJGo5gosc3Oa81Tw/s1600-h/IMG_2326.JPG"></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_e0vmg7AN4pMyAegvRe-bX1qlUgemFydQUNr7zEC1AvyGjMu2dNIMJuc46Lou1nhAjeqQJ5VhY8nUfi7hHg2-29lKCc3o6hS8PsMQuk91BsupmfXp7HlIFVOzhNvUw1lu0IEr6kVQ7Dk/s1600-h/IMG_2322.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_e0vmg7AN4pMyAegvRe-bX1qlUgemFydQUNr7zEC1AvyGjMu2dNIMJuc46Lou1nhAjeqQJ5VhY8nUfi7hHg2-29lKCc3o6hS8PsMQuk91BsupmfXp7HlIFVOzhNvUw1lu0IEr6kVQ7Dk/s400/IMG_2322.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381118633010721650" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Later in July I got to take a quick trip down to Seattle, Washington to attend my cousin Kjarsta's wedding reception. I hadn't seen my so-called Seattle cousins in way too long a time so it was such fun to see them and catch up. They looked stunning!! (And Grandpa and Grandma Salmon look pretty cute too!!)</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwiTqPZsrqFTSJxIq5R-QAGhcx1kuEPO48F8wWMLymzc2pRCxXsuKLyqNbAj1bVrKCQOk1yHZMgldv4XNFH8ikXg-TjgEhSLPA6fv3BHALLceyKzHeMC-1xkJPyQP9ERfrH_Zn29nZlKw/s400/IMG_2531.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381121565534052770" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqT19wvmA55Vq2ftg3QDe1pWfwmxtaH5xeR3Y-JimEPOZku4vBl6te_tHRZgMislfcMuc3vlgyNtvKis1ZMOlwckx2C7MMhnDoh2L4MuDak6W5Wx53GXuKgC37BR95dbC6BSVau_h4-fI/s400/IMG_2540.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381121572258402594" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9lFhaAg-t5moQtLYQLzIRietaaUW4h6JI5j_ULSbvsQh0IiX4qiacsCfZ_JhM4EVwEpI2xdn1TTJjcukehhWHPBfPj7Uzr15gQyTYOhSEGb1dvs4qpzvammL9xtbeybuMZvZCHnGEqRk/s1600-h/IMG_2543.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9lFhaAg-t5moQtLYQLzIRietaaUW4h6JI5j_ULSbvsQh0IiX4qiacsCfZ_JhM4EVwEpI2xdn1TTJjcukehhWHPBfPj7Uzr15gQyTYOhSEGb1dvs4qpzvammL9xtbeybuMZvZCHnGEqRk/s400/IMG_2543.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381121575711326674" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">August: (Whew, this is getting pretty long!!) Spent trying to get everything ready for the big move to the great US of A. Dad and Mom and Alita and I took a fun road trip to Chicago, stopping at such highlights as: </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Custer National Battlefield Park (or whatever it's called)</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKF6jwwk12joUL8lf7Dtt1hBszZ5spwVDGqJ3b5e0IqrxkpL0A6f6buk0XZ6m3MfP_giiOGPuyJPrQs9p-kqESPKZel2eq0iGwwYM7mAZTgqwg7E7II88OU2Bqxbvt_Jk8eqzvCOkfbbA/s400/IMG_2553.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381125271910298514" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">Mount Rushmore</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWZS1mz38x97WXcsmEhXdeJ5FtABgNJvBFgF61PM_cPDAIaV4tGBTXu-TOPviCulgt4GDbTVmxbjZIHEfFLeBOklNv3IGeWD5kAbi5RiNsEwSzixFitnxeIfzugSw_BpobYq-SvEPgwaI/s400/IMG_2570.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381125280157113298" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">Needles Highway</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkTojY_QQgPEycyADzEbfx31a3PuIpGs6BzvJTCGmxW3u8hPlGDodj_Po4ppIEsjYHkNTPQEDN_1u6vL8Fu1nnJIzCV_MzQ_HY2bjYHZ84QJKvIacrT1guIT2rG7ItJuP6AmtYJjTxf80/s400/IMG_2594.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381125287817628178" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">We stopped at Winter Quarter's and then got to Nauvoo, where we dropped Alita off for EFY and went to see Scott, Sue Ann, David and Lydia in Chicago. What fun!! We went back to Nauvoo and toured around there for a couple of days. I then said farewell to the folks and went back to Chicago so that I could take a flight to BOSTON, my new home. (Disclaimer: my camera battery has malfunctioned so there are really no more pictures after South Dakota but I promise to try and get it working so that my family can see where I live in Boston). YAY. </span></div>Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-40057645577084241162009-02-17T17:17:00.000-08:002009-02-17T21:09:16.465-08:005 signs that I'm working too much1. If I happen to remember my my dreams, they all seem to be about desperately trying to treat someone with an infectious disease.<div>2. No matter where I'm going, if I don't pay attention, I start automatically driving to the hospital.</div><div>3. When I call someone from home I introduce myself as: "Hi, Dr. Salmon from Infectious Diseases, I was page....oh, ooops sorry."</div><div>4. Somehow, all my conversations end up as discussions about scintillating topics such as tungiasis and loa loa.</div><div>5. I haven't blogged in 8 months.</div><div><br /></div><div>More soon!</div>Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-63840271609149437482008-06-08T15:10:00.000-07:002008-11-13T09:33:57.258-08:00Running in the rainWhee ooo. I've nearly caught up with everything that I'd put off while studying and it's a good feeling. I've had time to do a couple of fun things:<div><br /></div><div>Celebrating my roommate Dana's birthday (homemade ice cream cake - a new favourite!)<br /><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9PV2ZltGtalQFHCmg-A7hiCUPcwFVXqPKqjRxZBN7Aww5bvkjv_90fz2TL-v531ZryoHCrts1KNodXrs9TsDTgJfQFPqLrVWNcQo0GaE-oUUYfyZrAgQyaIEiuGZHdLorQTGm2B-Mm14/s400/IMG_2126.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5209640824060606594" /><br /><br />Bekki Wallace, my really good friend (since Grade 2!) got married and I got to go to her wedding reception - it was a western theme and a good time was had by all. Jeffrey and Alita came with me.<br /><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAF9P1F3E3qMOFF2PpVJ7JqYF8_Fsm_HW8QV-458JXq534wScngkmM0JGGhRXeAXY3tw5bD6PpK3RUsLVpEZt3zvkSBLNomOXjJTuJNRcETK8-u0RtTkgH-UMj1OQ-Cfk4hxRQ-jletVI/s400/IMG_2131.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5209640817123165314" /><br /><br />Edmonton has been super rainy - my garden is growing well but we're having difficulty keeping up with the running. We got caught out in a thunder storm and got DRENCHED - but had a good time. At least you don't get sweaty when running in a downpour.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmw0_X3yhIDSwHgTibE3o3s3ySEZDkqvSGS9cFzF7qsv11hLQRkLSzmNGhUX3R5QoazVGy8VklCUnfCcstu88QJvoA0QMljlYtTT0EZZI9158UDtcMWXOeMdcnHuHrO5uzdHcoPBjru2Y/s1600-h/IMG_2135.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmw0_X3yhIDSwHgTibE3o3s3ySEZDkqvSGS9cFzF7qsv11hLQRkLSzmNGhUX3R5QoazVGy8VklCUnfCcstu88QJvoA0QMljlYtTT0EZZI9158UDtcMWXOeMdcnHuHrO5uzdHcoPBjru2Y/s400/IMG_2135.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5209667101672986034" /></a><br /></div><div>All in all, things are good. I'm chief resident for the ID program this next year so I'm trying to do a lot of stuff for that as well. What fun....ha ha. Looking forward to spending a week home at the end of the month.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-4952370527434707382008-05-20T21:39:00.001-07:002008-11-13T09:33:59.963-08:00Finally!!!Hmm, after feeling guilty for 6 months, I've finally decided to do a whirlwind review.<br /><br />December - a very cold month in Edmonton (aka "the Frozen North", "Outer Darkness", "why do I live here") and a very cold month to move but Dana, my new roommate, and I managed it and are now established in our new house. It's lots of fun and old and drafty but there are little apples on the wallpaper in the kitchen - cool. AND it has a washer and dryer and a dishwasher HURRAY - I'm moving up in the world.<br /><br />I also got to take a weekend trip to Montreal for a vaccine course. I had only about 3 hours off the whole time I was there and walked around for a little while - unfortunately it was -20 degrees celsius (-4 degree farenheit for you American luddites) and so I had to curtail my adventures somewhat and go back to study more about vaccines.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh88sDT-jxMNagCyydvFwlNJoxkVNfDJC1WGJhdK46v4N5vuYmbNzSjrKvzX19YSedEGFOPkmahoZhCwIMwXNUEvlnpR-XwiL2SQkXYDY4vOO53PplLSdGToYi2T4Nust9ihucr716FZ8k/s1600-h/IMG_1845.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh88sDT-jxMNagCyydvFwlNJoxkVNfDJC1WGJhdK46v4N5vuYmbNzSjrKvzX19YSedEGFOPkmahoZhCwIMwXNUEvlnpR-XwiL2SQkXYDY4vOO53PplLSdGToYi2T4Nust9ihucr716FZ8k/s400/IMG_1845.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202690131519164610" /></a><br />A cold view of Montreal<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh67ERXD8MsK932jZHuDJAWCrmG0hdgDNjBtrX1CdxWjwCn2G1IlIkx2VCVj1ZgSypDtpglNViHcWSftRimsEJNV7_ogZ6OBmUVMDjhT3WuBU5LQVw2n_iM13dbMIQofWHnPW4zeZHfHWA/s1600-h/IMG_1853.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh67ERXD8MsK932jZHuDJAWCrmG0hdgDNjBtrX1CdxWjwCn2G1IlIkx2VCVj1ZgSypDtpglNViHcWSftRimsEJNV7_ogZ6OBmUVMDjhT3WuBU5LQVw2n_iM13dbMIQofWHnPW4zeZHfHWA/s400/IMG_1853.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202690140109099218" /></a><br />Yep, didn't see much of Montreal this trip - this summer I'm going back<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWvsCDYlRORu7Sy6vbh8EaTow6UOHN5xag6YeKeHAaFF0tfRS29INxLKWjCoPffZAI90tiE9N_XyyG9l_sbYvp80dwXJnhsHpMReV7jCRmsKAowiNqQV5yz28aDii2DmwbGbVB_TiAZ6s/s1600-h/DSC_7209.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWvsCDYlRORu7Sy6vbh8EaTow6UOHN5xag6YeKeHAaFF0tfRS29INxLKWjCoPffZAI90tiE9N_XyyG9l_sbYvp80dwXJnhsHpMReV7jCRmsKAowiNqQV5yz28aDii2DmwbGbVB_TiAZ6s/s400/DSC_7209.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202690127224197298" /></a><br />Holiday party for work - these are the other Infectious Diseases Residents I work with<br /><br />I had arranged to work over Christmas as I wanted to be home over New Year's for the big Salmon She-bang so didn't really do much for Christmas (aside from see patients in the ICU - actually it wasn't that bad). I did spend Christmas Eve with one friend and then had Christmas Dinner with some other friends the next day.<br /><br />Most exciting was when I got to go home to Calgary to see everyone. I was the last of my siblings to arrive home for my 5 days of mandatory leave and I was super excited to see them and all their kids. It was great to be with all of them and the amounts of gifts exchanged were ludicrous really. So many birthdays and Christmas made for a gift marathon.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj76Rx2IpKM3F4rHXax_qN2_7MAcVaGcR-3mXVfCRQPBM7Wl47ztDIOfzqK1_dHnZa7kzFIRqVbn71rwWJyEL4okI5dBlBsd-aSeS4YKYUNmGPxNK98YzCHNhQMFT7h0Ooe5PNjrcpqj6k/s1600-h/IMG_1865.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj76Rx2IpKM3F4rHXax_qN2_7MAcVaGcR-3mXVfCRQPBM7Wl47ztDIOfzqK1_dHnZa7kzFIRqVbn71rwWJyEL4okI5dBlBsd-aSeS4YKYUNmGPxNK98YzCHNhQMFT7h0Ooe5PNjrcpqj6k/s400/IMG_1865.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202690144404066530" /></a><br />All the gift openings etc. gave great photo ops to the paparazzi<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzcjSSgaylC9mm7NX6AoQ9Mfm4fqLDsh-4DLd11kzZy0KkYPw_otzpqfMillHjgeI-WpRvAVFPR7boVycIW2y9HC-f7MYNf-w-LhNAk-iwYihMJCwhOJF8prZdHRa_tGr4hrkL21F40nE/s1600-h/IMG_1876.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzcjSSgaylC9mm7NX6AoQ9Mfm4fqLDsh-4DLd11kzZy0KkYPw_otzpqfMillHjgeI-WpRvAVFPR7boVycIW2y9HC-f7MYNf-w-LhNAk-iwYihMJCwhOJF8prZdHRa_tGr4hrkL21F40nE/s400/IMG_1876.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202690148699033842" /></a><br />A bunch of my absolute favorite people<br /><br />New Year's Eve wasn't my favorite holiday ever this year, I won't elaborate but let's just say that my theory of obsessive compulsive handwashing being adequate infection control around numerous barfy toddlers was shot to bits. I recovered in perfect time to go back to work. (Fortunately I only had to work 2 days because then I got to go on vacation HURRAY!!)<br /><br />January: My friend Nancy and I went on a Florida vacation - it's kind of non-original but hey, it was warm and we had a good time!! The first week was actually spent on a cruise and then the second week on a road trip - down to the Florida Keys and then up to the Fort Lauderdale area. Some highlights:<br /><br />"kissing" the Rays in Grand Caymen (apparently it's good luck!?!)<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB2RlywIU2sXztX25tGGu1sg5HNpk0gdKXzUn_eGop5Ou-4bxD0gq9T-alOlLgidSAvpLvC6-TeMCl00urVXZIgL52GYVG2DUqZdtfljSoPkMicgsuP1KoYKzSBB0HXrJ4jL7bVRPfDds/s1600-h/Jan.+8+08+090.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB2RlywIU2sXztX25tGGu1sg5HNpk0gdKXzUn_eGop5Ou-4bxD0gq9T-alOlLgidSAvpLvC6-TeMCl00urVXZIgL52GYVG2DUqZdtfljSoPkMicgsuP1KoYKzSBB0HXrJ4jL7bVRPfDds/s400/Jan.+8+08+090.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202699099410878722" /></a><br /><br /><br />Ahh, the cruise lifestyle - Joanne style<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-iO8_LRhyphenhyphenawBtNnEn59gxJGtjw-oAwZqbALYXuDv57ssLvbhWTXN40rJvaiEK-nrzcCp5NQ_liQe-fPqOG9WFcpg_5x4EKzYIIdQLG8BihrSktVqzAs78v7C3IpyDSxngy9MODWc1a24/s1600-h/IMG_0140.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-iO8_LRhyphenhyphenawBtNnEn59gxJGtjw-oAwZqbALYXuDv57ssLvbhWTXN40rJvaiEK-nrzcCp5NQ_liQe-fPqOG9WFcpg_5x4EKzYIIdQLG8BihrSktVqzAs78v7C3IpyDSxngy9MODWc1a24/s400/IMG_0140.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5203400036565424914" /></a><br /><br /><br />Honduras - (I fell in love with this monkey, despite knowing how many weird viruses I could catch from it)<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7nU7bhkpsNaW6ocyjK1vcjRl1CtUCUnpeLwJZsNtf3CtlkZp09DMBtcSASghwG0irNszsFpWq1iMvDQRrpqkwIKqkI15RUoeqlbBDePsrT-Zwg0Sf4R02zwFmtWWzVwBEs6aIef7k5-4/s1600-h/IMG_1974.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7nU7bhkpsNaW6ocyjK1vcjRl1CtUCUnpeLwJZsNtf3CtlkZp09DMBtcSASghwG0irNszsFpWq1iMvDQRrpqkwIKqkI15RUoeqlbBDePsrT-Zwg0Sf4R02zwFmtWWzVwBEs6aIef7k5-4/s400/IMG_1974.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202699108000813330" /></a><br /><br /><br />Nancy's new Honduran friend<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8KbBI0LnJr7PI9NAdPJfiLarq9L7MrKvdV3dC-ralGqi_OU9kU7K9ezQRWqvTqdtq9GjeMcJ1i7dLmlHelxJ15NqbNpn-zH_Hou7_5xRVkH4yOp7DCzI0mm74i6Kwm62dniJENXGvzy4/s1600-h/IMG_0164.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8KbBI0LnJr7PI9NAdPJfiLarq9L7MrKvdV3dC-ralGqi_OU9kU7K9ezQRWqvTqdtq9GjeMcJ1i7dLmlHelxJ15NqbNpn-zH_Hou7_5xRVkH4yOp7DCzI0mm74i6Kwm62dniJENXGvzy4/s400/IMG_0164.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5203400040860392226" /></a><br /><br />Mayan ruins of Tulum in the Yucatan<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjLVf-mgq7n25onSoSTVlPbiPKLVv4v9YDmpuH3cPwoMN_prKwaPs0Hi5l1fn1zAYyIap4eZ0_rygoH5pqh2rYPA6F8-8P9Z6krUFex9cYAyn-Fr1wna6t-O4dyy0KWXSyWDxDusTK-Lo/s1600-h/IMG_2025.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjLVf-mgq7n25onSoSTVlPbiPKLVv4v9YDmpuH3cPwoMN_prKwaPs0Hi5l1fn1zAYyIap4eZ0_rygoH5pqh2rYPA6F8-8P9Z6krUFex9cYAyn-Fr1wna6t-O4dyy0KWXSyWDxDusTK-Lo/s400/IMG_2025.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202699112295780642" /></a><br /><br /><br />The real reason the Mayans built in the Yucatan Peninsula<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCBDCDzQVOX_zB0QlMwnUHy01hXPXhAL5Zjd3MyYbclYWhmLBwMcd08nFjMNHRjUDVNdKSF-JhwDE-EIg5qH96XOFxD1fDw8GGITAolgTKYyIeT8V8YmFniCxrg1b2R_BoyppuAzG1X8E/s1600-h/IMG_2037.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCBDCDzQVOX_zB0QlMwnUHy01hXPXhAL5Zjd3MyYbclYWhmLBwMcd08nFjMNHRjUDVNdKSF-JhwDE-EIg5qH96XOFxD1fDw8GGITAolgTKYyIeT8V8YmFniCxrg1b2R_BoyppuAzG1X8E/s400/IMG_2037.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202699116590747954" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Waiting for the bus in Belize<br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0IQZFeGBOxWR8ZJq1wYD9vHcPqa_xcNv6-7T9g3R3EhXGx1snoYGZe5WFXyriNhQwbAa9DqtVB7tiUdd4b6lshn93i05I4rB9lecQPeGCqWoi9x21cBpFfLagyaXxsXTz4RfCdb-yzvM/s1600-h/IMG_0183.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0IQZFeGBOxWR8ZJq1wYD9vHcPqa_xcNv6-7T9g3R3EhXGx1snoYGZe5WFXyriNhQwbAa9DqtVB7tiUdd4b6lshn93i05I4rB9lecQPeGCqWoi9x21cBpFfLagyaXxsXTz4RfCdb-yzvM/s400/IMG_0183.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5203400045155359538" /></a><br /><br /><br />Part of the old road through the Florida Keys - has anyone seen that rather terrible Schwartzenegger movie "True Lies"? - filmed close to here (keep in mind though, that the new road, from which this picture is taken, doesn't have large gaps in it)<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK43sWtkKW8NSn95-Sw4EBP4dlx3DWUpOyIpYDyILhk58lb4CZ4Nj8PFG6LQt7B3a4dkK1oO28_jGOs5HgEeWtRKq4q1hegUYVGSbwuWaL936KgbZZou0eGFu5KAjytIgPQoCDYHItHU8/s1600-h/IMG_0299.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK43sWtkKW8NSn95-Sw4EBP4dlx3DWUpOyIpYDyILhk58lb4CZ4Nj8PFG6LQt7B3a4dkK1oO28_jGOs5HgEeWtRKq4q1hegUYVGSbwuWaL936KgbZZou0eGFu5KAjytIgPQoCDYHItHU8/s400/IMG_0299.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5203400058040261458" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbMFK9bhrjRnzmRQ-sx1c2jaK2Ur3g1nRB4_4Q26RUZnQhaP7RnFzIKdqpnMoZFXclwmIT7nEvCUUz4BvYknXH0cEFHRscK87RaqCdqscfXGqkmW5m1S1GEDqON5_gUOZHGyObVY4IKp0/s1600-h/IMG_0378.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbMFK9bhrjRnzmRQ-sx1c2jaK2Ur3g1nRB4_4Q26RUZnQhaP7RnFzIKdqpnMoZFXclwmIT7nEvCUUz4BvYknXH0cEFHRscK87RaqCdqscfXGqkmW5m1S1GEDqON5_gUOZHGyObVY4IKp0/s400/IMG_0378.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5203402639315606370" /></a><br /><br />YAY, back in Madagascar for a moment - ringtailed lemurs at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAkIsc8RGdjrPc9JmgFM4umhx2HuqD6FNBclgIgLAC1kEsKXl33svUZMM_EUEhV_ve_i50e__ToQ_Q6qsDLNr7P6Jj-DGQy0KhpDg66ZG1HVOyVO0GwEmbdOaHiVbFy3taTDBA2sHMHP0/s1600-h/IMG_2089.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAkIsc8RGdjrPc9JmgFM4umhx2HuqD6FNBclgIgLAC1kEsKXl33svUZMM_EUEhV_ve_i50e__ToQ_Q6qsDLNr7P6Jj-DGQy0KhpDg66ZG1HVOyVO0GwEmbdOaHiVbFy3taTDBA2sHMHP0/s400/IMG_2089.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202699129475649858" /></a><div>Whew, what a trip!!</div><div><br /></div><div>February:</div><div>The beginning of the studying. I did get to go to Vancouver for the annual Canadian Infectious Diseases Conference. It was lovely to get away from the cold for a little while and I presented a short paper on an odd parasite infection I'd seen in clinic. (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Mansonella ozzardi</span> for anyone interested)</div><div><br /></div><div>Here's a picture of Alanoud and me going for a walk in Stanley Park (Alanoud is the other Infectious Diseases fellow in my year - her native language is Arabic and she's currently trying to teach me...it's not really going that well to be honest). Alanoud is quite petite and I am very tall so we sort of look a bit like a circus act unfortunately.</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMlXM1a1SnDcq6udHWvEM-DGg84TH4MbljXPjWGZCG7a-2xwVBfm14pQtDoJIbrqS4I8xWg_tUZYPhzO_3iMGX26lP5i-5jSekZXdfNUhCy2PMVZrzekRAtXroivFruvFwG8jLdyqBPjU/s1600-h/IMG_2106.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMlXM1a1SnDcq6udHWvEM-DGg84TH4MbljXPjWGZCG7a-2xwVBfm14pQtDoJIbrqS4I8xWg_tUZYPhzO_3iMGX26lP5i-5jSekZXdfNUhCy2PMVZrzekRAtXroivFruvFwG8jLdyqBPjU/s400/IMG_2106.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5203415528512461682" /></a><br /></div><div>March: </div><div>Studying (written portion of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Exam)</div><div><br /></div><div>April: </div><div>Studying (oral portion of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Exam)</div><div><br /></div><div>I am not joking, that's quite honestly all I did, except for when I was working.</div><div><br /></div><div>May:</div><div>I took a little trip to Ottawa to take the oral portion of my exam on May 9th. When I came out of it I was almost positive that I'd failed it - I felt like I completely bailed on one of the stations but I think in the end I did OK (despite saying HYPERreflexic when I meant HYPOreflexic and forgetting the name of the drug treatment of SIADH and a million other little things). In any case, they passed me so I'm now, after 9 years, finally able to practice medicine in Canada without supervision. I'm going to take the U.S. Board exam in August as well so we'll see how that goes.<br /><br /><br />Flowers to celebrate passing the exam - from the people in my division of ID - at least someone buys me flowers!!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixjs6Rpd8y3ORMAq41BOU7lBF4vNSgwGFxY2lBxLgf5MZjUE6Od6bsjLnYbaQPieKivCmRESEJEz_kZeyp_jE3dbbDNPH96_5JBiPEOM8qtD4YIpbejCrAQhJ40RUDifR5NmZpl4bT2uU/s1600-h/IMG_2121.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixjs6Rpd8y3ORMAq41BOU7lBF4vNSgwGFxY2lBxLgf5MZjUE6Od6bsjLnYbaQPieKivCmRESEJEz_kZeyp_jE3dbbDNPH96_5JBiPEOM8qtD4YIpbejCrAQhJ40RUDifR5NmZpl4bT2uU/s400/IMG_2121.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5203418410435517314" /></a><br /></div><div><br />Since then I've been trying to catch up with everything I've let slide (eg this blog) and connecting with a few friends. I planted the garden this weekend for my funny little house and I'll probably update on the blog. I have no cute children or pets to post pictures of on my blog so it'll have to be my tomato plants I guess.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946154865140170964.post-51989800989336279692007-11-22T11:33:00.000-08:002008-11-13T09:34:00.286-08:00Moving is tiresomeMoving is indeed tiresome! I'm currently trying to move everything in my little apartment, which doesn't seem so little at the moment, to the upper level of a house. My apartment is currently a complete disaster. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVp8JC9pwe6L_p260Ihr0z_GAEr2JHisxiPjoIHpveGxH_8BlNymxwcwTbQKdDIzWtl9hzb9de7BSjDAjPwlxnyE85lwEhRE1z_6xoKBvSbRh3VUAn_1YtufbHHcweSH3yC7YpcjH5Hc8/s1600-h/IMG_1843.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVp8JC9pwe6L_p260Ihr0z_GAEr2JHisxiPjoIHpveGxH_8BlNymxwcwTbQKdDIzWtl9hzb9de7BSjDAjPwlxnyE85lwEhRE1z_6xoKBvSbRh3VUAn_1YtufbHHcweSH3yC7YpcjH5Hc8/s400/IMG_1843.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5136275796168441922" /></a><br /><br />I'm moving in with a friend and she agrees that the new place is way nicer than where I am now. I, personally, will be very happy to not be living behind a pub anymore (the starving student lifestyle is getting a little less than endearing after 12 years of post-secondary education). It's just going to be very tricky as I am supposed to be in Montreal at a conference the same day that I'm supposed to be moving, hmmmm. Will keep you posted.Joanne Salmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028133564984004147noreply@blogger.com3