Small-town blues

I realize I've been somewhat inactive again, in terms of blogging, so here I am with another update. Although, nothing new and exciting has been going on, to be honest. After finishing up the field work last November, I went back home to Calgary for a much needed vacation! But before leaving Nova Scotia, I had gotten an offer for a contract with Parks Canada -- well, 2 actually. First was to help out with the editing of the Recovery Strategy for the Eastern Ribbonsnake, and after that, doing the image analysis for the hatchling turtle habitat photos that we took over the fall. So after my vacation, during which I did nothing except hang out and visit friends, I left again in January with 2 check-in luggages and my laptop (after having packed up all my stuff and shipped them back to my parents' house when I left Halifax in the summer).

En route, I decided to stopover for a couple of days in Toronto, just to satisfy my craving for travel and adventure. I met up with Laura, who I hadn't seen since the summer, and we spent a couple of days walking around downtown Toronto without a real purpose except exploring. Well, I was exploring...Laura was playing tour guide! We stayed at Laura's friend's (Andreea) place, and celebrated Laura's b-day as well with some of her friends in Toronto.

with Laura and Andreea in Toronto

When I finally arrived in Halifax, I stayed at my friend Heather's place, and Pete joined us the next day to hang out a bit in the city. The plan was to maybe go out to the bar, but of course we ended up having dinner and playing Trivial Pursuit with Norm and Sue at their place! Pete and I left for Wolfville the following day, where he dropped me off at my new place, which turned out to be right at the edge of town, a 20min walk to "downtown Wolfville".

And so began my life here in Wolfville. I started working on the recovery strategy and finishing up the data entry from the fall almost right away, although there were a couple of delays with actually getting the contract officially in place, and therefore with the payment as well. So, I had to basically had to live off my savings for 3 months before finally getting the first payment at the end of March. Thank goodness I had savings, or I would have been screwed! Besides the delay in the first contract, another "issue" was with funding for the 2nd contract, which I was supposed to work on for a couple of months following the recovery strategy. They wanted to change the terms of the second contract to include all of the hatchling data analysis as well as the preparation of a manuscript, so that it would in effect be a larger contract, with more work and more money. But the problem with a larger contract is that they had to wait for the new fiscal year, and so the contract wouldn't start until well into May or even June -- leaving me with no income for 2 whole months! I was just getting used to this idea and was trying to make plans when at the last minute (of course...everything these days seems to happen at the last minute), the research team comes through for me and decides to pay me for the month of April through Acadia. I suspect the money ultimately came from Parks, but I don't know it for sure. In any case, now I'm working through to the end of April, still helping out with the recovery strategy although more focused on continuing with the hatchling data analysis.

My days while here in Wolfville are pretty uneventful...I work from home, since I don't get office/desk space at Acadia and no internet access from there either. So, to get out of the house, I've been trying to go for walks during the day, especially when it's nice out. There have been a couple of social events with some of the folks from the research team, who I worked with in the field in previous years, but overall the social scene has been pretty quiet since most of the people I know here are currently grad students and therefore have no life to speak of. I've gone out to see movies on a number of occasions at the small theatre in town, where the movies are put on by the local film society. Lars and the Real Girl is one of the best I've seen and highly recommended! :) I've also made a couple of trips to the local used bookstore and purchased a few books that I'm currently making my way through. Other than that, not much is really happening, so there isn't much to tell.

Main Street, Wolfville

part of the Millennium Trail, off of Front Street by the water

view of Wolfville

As for the future...well, no one really knows what the future brings anyway, but I have been looking casually at job postings and have applied to a couple. I applied for a conservation fellowship at the Calgary Zoo, but ended up turning down the chance for an interview, after I spoke to Tasha about it, who happened to be doing the hiring. I guess the job was geared towards undergrads, and she thought it might not be challenging or interesting enough for me. I also applied for a temporary job with Parks Canada, doing fieldwork with Species at Risk at Kejimkujik National Park. I went for an interview for the job last week, but won't find out for a couple of weeks what the results are. Besides, that, there's the option for the 2nd contract, although I haven't heard anything new about it lately. Both aren't likely to start until mid-May, so I am planning on taking a couple of weeks off in early May to satisfy (once again) my craving for travelling. That's all I can foresee for now...stay tuned for new developments, at least as far as my job/career goes! I'll try and once again be more diligent with the blogging! =P