one month later...

ok, ok...apologies all around. a friend of mine recently "hinted" that i haven't been updating that often, so here i am. on the plus side, i now know at least one person reads this thing! ;)

anyway, where was i....? ok, so oct 1, i went to Kejimkujik National Park (where my field site will likely be) and did some hiking with Karen, Melissa, Chris and Dallas. it was a relatively short drive (2hrs), and we did a bunch of little trails throughout the day...it was pretty nice and relaxing...just a great day to get away from the city for a bit. oooh, and i saw a turtle! yay! it was basking across the river from where we were..good thing i brought my binoculars! i'm pretty sure it was a Blanding's, but i'm not experienced enough to be 100%.

next weekend, which was thanksgiving...some of my roommates/classmates and i drove up to Cape Breton for the long weekend. basically, it was Sana, Felix and I in one car, then Melissa, Aliza and Laura in another. some crazy/funny stuff happened on the way, including: Laura's sleeping bag and Aliza's thermorest fell out of Melissa's roof carry all, a misunderstanding of where the stopover was supposed to be, getting separated, clam digging and checking out the salmon fishing, and getting reunited (randomly!) at the visitor's info center in Cheticamp. finally, we did our shopping and made it to Sana's parent's cottage. it was rainy and miserable, so Sana's parents invited us to spend the night with them, rather than camping!! so, that was a huge blessing, since it was cold and rainy. after dinner, we decided to drive about 40 min to Mabou to check out some live music, only Sana got us lost and it took us 1.5 hrs to actually get there! but the atmosphere at the pub was good (the Red Shoe? owned by the Rankin Sisters!) and some of them got a bit drunk and took a bunch of silly pictures! headed home around 1am i think...i was driving Felix's car...some scary stuff...pitch dark, rain, and some crazy curvy roads! but we made it back safely and straight into our beds for the night.

the next morning was not rainy, but still kinda cold. we (minus Sana) left to keep driving the Cabot Trail into Cape Breton Highlands National Park. decided to do the hiking trail by Pleasant Bay (Fishing cove, i think the trail is called, only we did the short trail), stopping at lookoff points to take pictures. Felix and i got to the trailhead first, and then once we were out of the car, we saw a moose crossing the road and headed straight towards us! can't wait until i see the pics from that!. anyway, by this time it was relatively nice, and the hike was great...downhill and wet, but good. it lead us down to the coast, where we hung out for a couple of hours before heading back up. the hike up was harder...uphill! but i made it (last) and we had a makeshift lunch right by the cars (some soup and bagels with nutella...mmmm). the next stop was supposed to be some waterfall...except we seem to NOT have learned our lesson from the day before. i think what ended up happening was that we missed each other at the rendezvous point, so melissa's car headed out of the park while felix and i waited at the waterfall for a looong time, before giving up and trying to find a campsite. Melissa and co. ended up cooling their heels at a pub in Ingonish (the Thirsty Hiker) while Felix and I set up camp, had dinner, etc. before calling Sana (who was our "in case of emergency" contact) and finding out where the girls are. so we headed over to the pub and listened to some live music (fiddling, harmonica and some gi-tar)...Aliza learned how to play spoons (as a musical instrument) and Melissa was taught how to step dance. overall, a fun time, despite spending most of the day driving and waiting rather than hiking. the next day, we didn't get separated, but were all late to pick up Sana at the Red Barn. it was pouring rain the entire drive back to Halifax...Felix, Sana and I stopped at Antigonish for Chinese food on the way. Made it back around 5pm...just enough time to make some veggie spring rolls for a thanksgiving potluck later that evening!

the next saturday (oct 15), i was lucky enough to score free tickets to a Nature Trust dinner ($75 a plate!)...basically Parks Canada invited some SRES students to come along, and I was able to get one of the tickets. it was Laura Bennett, Clare and I from SRES at the Parks Canada table...it was pretty nice, somewhat fancy...i got a ride from Laura and we were both late, so we didn't get much chance to socialize with other people. but Harry Thurston was the guest speaker and he was awesome! the food was good, too, so it was a nice evening. the day after, i ended up going on a hike to Blue Mountain (which isn't so much a mountain as a hill!) with Lori, Teresa, Chris Morton and Chris Miller for one of my projects...we have to do an environmental assessment on a highway connector that's being built right next to the Blue (Hill). once again, the weather wasn't very nice, but still better than the day before when it was pouring....rainy weekends seem to be a recurring pattern....

after that, it's been mostly school work...i had to hand in a preliminary proposal last monday, so that was taking up most of my time. also, i've been going to a bunch of lectures around campus...Walden Bello, who is actually a sociology prof at the University of the Philippines (!), gave a talk on the state of democracy in the global south, Brad Walters from Mt. Allison gave a talk on mangrove reforestation in the Philippines, and Elizabeth May from the Sierra Club gave an excellent talk on climate change issues. there's one more talk tomorrow on global security and terrorism that i'll be going to...can't remember the name of the speaker, though...someone from the University of Bradford?

anyway, that brings us up to date so far...this week and the next is somewhat more relaxed, but afterwards i'll have something due every week up until last day of classes! i'm going to try and finish up one of the assignments this week...that way i won't be too overloaded in november. there's also a bunch of halloween parties going on this weekend, but i'm still anti-costumes, so i don't know yet if i want to go (mostly out of laziness...can't be bothered to figure out what to wear). on the plus side (of not going)...i can get more things done!

ok, that's all for now...sorry about the long delay, but will the long entry make up for it? oh, and i'll be in calgary for christmas...dec 7-jan 4...so those of you in town, give me a call then and we'll get together!