9 days and 12 hours!

9 days and 12 hours until I am united with my better half. It has been so hard to be separated from Carl for this semester... but, I can't imagine a better program to have been able to participate in. The experience has been invaluable AND Carl and I have been able to build into our communication skills in a way that we never would have been able to before.

It had definitely been a while since I've posted a blog. The academic side of things are going to be insanely busy until I come home. But its not so bad because I am really enjoying the course material! 2 weekends ago my Mom and my sister, Leah, came out and visited me here. I got to stay with them at their hotel and hang out around Ottawa. It was VERY fun and refreshing to be around family again. Below is a picture of Leah in front of the Amnesty International building. I attended a meeting with World Vision there about 3 weeks ago and Leah is very interested in international human rights advocacy so we looked at their beautiful head office near University of Ottawa.


Last night, Dr. Buckingham and Dr. Buckingham ( Double Dr's - crazy, eh?) had our entire group over for dinner at their house for American Thanksgiving. There was SOOOOOO much food and even carbonated water (which is a new favourite of mine). It 22 of us so it was a huge job for them to put on and we really appreciated it. Here's a picture of Rhoda (left), Jenny (middle), and me at their house before dinner.

Ottawa has gotten VERY cold in the last week - we have 20 cm of snow and every day that I walk to work I am slipping and sliding on the street. I clearly do not have the gear for snow... but I'm holding out with what I have right now because I'll be home SO soon. And, to you reading this blog - I'm so excited to see you this December!

Sunny Fall Sundays...

Carl and I had a morning phone date today! So, after church I grabbed an americano and sat on this wonderful bench (pictured below) talking to my love for a whole hour. We rarely enjoy such quality phone time Because of the time difference. Usually, when I call him to say goodnight @ 11:00pm I am exhausted from my day, but, his evening is just starting - so there is some disconnect in situation. But, it is SO nice to talk to him in the morning because I have tons of energy to explain what is going on out here in Ottawa, to hear what's happening in Abbotsford and to discuss pressing issues (for example, this morning we talked about the relationship of reason, tradition, and scripture on religion because we are both reading "The Gospel in a Pluralist Society" by Lesslie Newbigin). The weather here has been so sunny and crisp; after a month and a half of heat and humidity Ottawa is finally showing us the beauty of fall.

This is a picture of one of my roommates, Jenny, and I out at the same park later that day. We brought novels that we have to read for an upcoming class and read for hours. Sundays are perfect for lounging around at parks with people you love (and I love Jenny)!

Prost!

I hadn't hosted a dinner club for a while, and what with the wedding coming up soon I figured October might be my last chance for a while... so, with Andy and Shannon's help, we had an Oktoberfest. It was complete with wienerschnitzel, homemade soft pretzels, bratwurst and saurkraut, and of course, it wouldn't be Oktoberfest without apple juice (you can see the apple juice in the mugs on the table. As musical entertainment we had a special vinyl record that Anika bought me with German folk drinking songs. Much fun was had by all. Of course, Sherri and I, along with everyone else missed the presence of our fiancees.

This is Montreal

It's true that I probably could have been in any city with Tami last weekend and been happy, but Montreal was a lot of fun. It has the most "old world" charm of any North American city I've been in, and even though everyone is bilingual, most of the signs are in French so if you want you can even pretend you are in Paris.



We deliberately had very few planned things to do in Montreal so that we could just explore the city without having to rush around. I couldn't help myself though when I saw that Ron Sexsmith would be playing in Montreal the Saturday night that we would be there, so we did have that one thing that we knew about before hand (it was a great concert; the opening band Woodpigeon was a nice surprise as well).


Other than that, we did some shopping along St. Catherines street, drank a lot of coffee, mailed out our invitations, checked out the buildings and museums in Old Montreal, and did a lot of walking. I slept in past 9 most days, mostly because I was tired from walking I think.

We stayed with Paula, a friend of Christine (my professor from SFU) who was very hospitable and fun to be with. She gave us excellent breakfasts everyday and introduced us to some university student's who had known Christine since they were quite young (that night she made us a fabulous Italian meal with bruschette [my favorite!]). All in all, I have to agree with Tami that it was one of the best weekends I've had in recent years. Below is a picture of us with Paula outside her house.

Where East Meets West!

Carl came to visit me last weekend! It was probably one of the best weekends of my life ~ because, it was exactly like traveling Europe again but we were together (as opposed to not being "together", as was the case in Europe). The first night, Carl and I went to the National Arts Centre to see the symphony with a new friend in Ottawa (Nicole) and an old high-school friend from Abbotsford (Richard). They happen to be dating each other and Richard also happened to be visiting Ottawa the same weekend as Carl. The symphony that we went to see with them happened to be a professional puppet show! It was a little outside-the-box and I loved it. It also began with 2 Bach pieces featuring 2 harpsichords which I loved because it reminded me of the soundtrack to the Pride and Prejudice. The picture below is of us after the symphony.

The next morning at 7:30am we met with Bill Janzen, the Director of the MCC office in Ottawa, and we picked his brain regarding education, urban planning, and accounting in third world development. It was very useful to get his perspective. He said there is lots of opportunity for "young blood" in MCC'. The picture below is Carl and I on a train from Ottawa to Montreal after breakfast. We were very tired from a late night and early morning!

Carl is going to blog about our trip to Montreal! So, I will conclude by restating how wonderful it was to see Carl again - it seems to have re-energized me so that I can finish off this semester well. I have just under 2 months left.

National Arts Centre Gala 2007

We were blessed with complimentary tickets to "THE" Ottawa A-list event of the year. It is an annual event which raises money for children's music programs throughout Canada. It featured Orchestra accompanied Opera by Ben Heppner and Erin Wall. Jann Arden sung a couple songs which were also accompanied by an orchestra. It was a lovely evening! I had a cute old lady sitting beside me who was pointing out all the politicians and artists in the audience.

The picture at the very top is all the students who were able to make it out to the event; also including Romalie Murphey on the far left, she is our student life coordinator and to the right of her is Dr. Janet Epp-Buckingham, the director of the LLC program. The picture directly above is a group shot of my roomates! We had so much fun getting ready - I did my first french roll in Amy's hair (she's on the very far right).

On an academic note I've just completed the classroom component of a 2-week condensed course on ethics and public policy. Now I have to struggle to write a 15 page paper before Carl comes out this Thursday! Wish me luck ;) I will be spending a good deal of time from now until then at the University of Ottawa library.

I am feeling my first pangs of homesickness; I would love to be at home with Carl, being almost-married and hanging out with you guys (the Isaak family)! Thanks so much for your sweet comments I am so glad be a part of such a God-fearing family.

A week of orientation

As of today I have been in Ottawa for an entire week - and it's safe to say that I love it. Last night I told Carl last night that I would like to live here and he said he'll check back with me after winter hits (he's always thinking things through like that). This is a picture of the building that we live in and attend classes in. It is a national heritage site and was home to millionaire & Lumber Baron J.R. Booth.

Our week of orientation has included the following activities: tours of the Supreme Court of Canada, the parliament building (not including the house of commons due to an official interview - we will definitely make it back for question period sometime), and Rideau Hall; a viewing of a lights display show projected right onto the parliament building; a cooking night with Dr. Don Buckingham titled "how not to eat KD for 100 days" (Dr. Janet Buckingham's husband - Janet is the director of the LLC program); and a day of etiquette training day with a prominant image consultant (provided by the daughter of Norma Marion Alloway - a significant contributor to TWU).

This last week has been a whirlwind of fun and information - this week I have an interview with my supervisor at WorldVision and I will hopefully start in the next couple days. There are 8 people working in the Ottawa office in total and I and another student are placed there. He will be working in the area of children's rights and I will be working in the area of economic responsibility. Next Monday I start our first class, which is a condensed course lasting 2 weeks. All the work ahead of me seems daunting so I am looking forward to getting into a routine of working hard because this last week of orientation has been lacking this element.

(I am still working on figuring out how to find my pictures in Carl's computer... so my personal pictures will follow in future posts)

Where's Tami?

Can you find her? She's the pretty one :)

Leaving on a jet plane...

And for my very first post - Carl took me to the airport on Labour Day for 8:30am in the morning. It was a wonderful trip to the Vancouver airport and a very sad goodbye. After checking my luggage Carl bought me a wonderful caramel apple for breakfast... here's some shots:

I'll post more when I have some better photos - I'm still trying figure out all the new technology in my life (a new camera and Carl's MacBook).

A new author has arrived (departed?)

It is time to welcome the newest author to this blog (and co-headliner!) to the conspectus. She needs no introduction (although she is new to the blogging world) and will be reporting in from all the way across the country in Ottawa. There are tantalizing opportunities for news material in Ottawa, such as "Politicians Behaving Badly" or "Yet Another Picture of Parliament Hill and the Rideau Canal". Tamara (or Tami, Tam Tam, etcetera) will not disappoint (unless she's too busy, in which case we will understand).

*Cheers* *clapping* *whistles* "Welcome Tamara!!!" *cheers* *clapping* *tears of missing Tami*.