Wow...
I can't believe my last post has been almost 2 weeks ago! It's amazing to see how fast time flies...one minute you're spending a month in Ghana and then the next minute you are in the middle of nowhere in Quebec!!
Let me tell you...this wasn't an easy adjustment. First of all...coming home for 2 days before leaving again was so refreshing. From the minute I landed in Montreal to the second I got back on the plane to leave on Monday morning....I didn't stop for a second!
Walking out of those gates that afternoon at the airport....I was expecting a bunch of people waiting for me to greet me....no one! My mom was stuck in traffic trying to get to the airport because of the construction going on there. She finally got there...it was really nice to see her....but no winter coat. LOL Off to a good start! We then walked over to the canadian arrivals and we got to greet my grandfather who flew in from Saskatchewan for the holidays....he arrived like 20 minutes after me!
After the airport...we rushed over to Miss Evie's school because I had to be there by 1:15pm to speak to her class. This was one of the most awesome things I have ever done...I shared my experience and photos to like 75 grade 5 students who filled up her classroom. They were all very attentive and asked me so many questions. After the talk....they all made me special cards saying thank you and all telling me how lucky I was to be with Miss Evie. One of them even asked me "When are you going to propose to Miss Evie" She trains them well....I tell ya! We later met up with my family and we went for a nice dinner to catch up...but thanks to the blogs....everyone was up to speed with my travels! Later that night, we went through my 1000 pictures :)
SATURDAY...nothing like a nice pre-christmas party at the Vourtzoumis family residence. I think we had close to 90 people over my place. Honestly....this was such a great night! Lots of eating...dancing...catching up. We even had our very own DJ Johnny Markessinis set up his booth and played music for us all night with a nice green/red strobe light! This was a nice way to spend the little time I had back with family, friends and my dogs :) MOM + DAD....you guys are best parents ever...our parties are always top of the line and love you guys so much. Thank you for giving me xmas one week earlier.....it was so worth it!!!
ADJUSTING BACK...honestly...as happy as I was to be back home...I was filled with frustration and couldn't get Ghana off my mind. I really missed the hospital...I had gotten used to the routine and to the people. I remember driving to my house on saturday and I was on the highway passing by the mall and costco....parking lot was full!!! Traffic on the highway exits! I was frustrated with this....knowing that where I was just 24 hours ago...people we're trying to make do with what they have and working hard to be able to have food to eat. Here we are....filling up the malls, buying gifts for the holidays and just spending money! It was just hard to swallow and for the first time ever have I ever been so conscious about this. GHANA changes you...working at the hospital there for a month...CHANGES YOU! I would keep comparing things back to what I experienced...how caught up we get with such unimportant things here....while simple things in Ghana can just make the difference for most...but not available! Anyways...this reaction of mine has made me think and I won't forget this LESSON.
SUNDAY....slept in and went for breakfast with Evie and family to my dads restaurant. Yummm nothing like good la belle province! It was amazing to see how much my stomach shrinked over this past month! I LOST close 15 POUNDS!!! Honestly....it's amazing to see how I lost 15lbs...for a month straight I ate at 12pm and 6:30pm and only one serving of food...never really filling myself and without realizing it....lost weight!!! Later my friend David and Emily came to visit me and I got to see his 2 month old kid....he's growing and is the cutest thing!! So proud of him :)
Spent the little time left I had with Evie and packed my bags for Mistissini. I didn't have enough time to spend with Evie these 2 days....so busy with family and friends and party....but honestly she is so amazing! She had cooked so much for the party....spanakopites, famous brie cheese dip, salad, and just always keeping busy in the kitchen doing things!! No one can ever beat her...she is honestly the most thoughtful girl ever...thanks babes!!!
MONDAY...grabbed my 44lb hockey bag full of clothes and my hockey skates and Evie dropped me off at the airport at 6:15am...kiss and hug and off I was! We are pro's at this now...airport goodbyes ;) There I met up with my partner Evan Martow, a good friend and classmate of mine who I will be spending one month with in Mistissini!!! Off we went to our small propeller airplane! So funny...we were warned at the booth that AirCreebec is not responsible for us not being able to land at our destination due to weather and if so will try to land anywhere it can and leave us there with no accomodations. Thankfully we got there safely after 1.5 hours!!!
We landed in Chibougamau...where we were greeted by Gabriel our taxi driver to bring us to Mistissini which was a 1 hour drive away....he was also driving a pharmacist who was going to be spending 1 week out there and make 3X her salary.....good deal. There was soooo much snow out there....much better than montreal :) Before heading out to mistissini which is a small village...we stopped at Maxi and did groceries! So much fun :) We also stopped off at the SAQ and got some wine and champagne for Xmas and New Years because Mistissini is a dry town where they don't sell any alcohol!!
Finally arrived to Mistissini around 12pm...we went to the clinic to meet the doctors and get our keys to our transit (apartments) which are right across the clinic but everyone was off on lunch and clinic was closed. So we had some lunch went back to the clinic at 1pm to meet everyone! Raffi and Rosy are the doctors in charge of us...they are really nice. They showed us around the clinic and got us familiarized with everything and then went to our lovely apartment across the street to put away our groceries and settle in. We have a nice 2 room apartment, nice kitchen, bathroom, laundry room and small TV room....very comfortable place!
I think I will stop there for tonight...I know I have lots of catching up to do but I got to get some sleep now....wake up at 8am and gotta be at clinic at 9am....much better hours from Ghana and surgery...its almost unreal...love sleeping :)
So tomorrow I will bring you up to speed with whats been going on around here and talk about the cree population that live out here.
Have a good night everyone....we are expecting to hit close to -35 tonight....very windy and lots of snow. Gotta keep warm....Evan doesn't want to cuddle with me...he will give in once it hits -40!
gnight!!!
P.S. I think I may have put off blogging because it reminded me too much of Ghana and I miss it a lot! But I am back ;)
P.P.S. Evs....3 words...I LOVE TOI! xox
I can't believe my last post has been almost 2 weeks ago! It's amazing to see how fast time flies...one minute you're spending a month in Ghana and then the next minute you are in the middle of nowhere in Quebec!!
Let me tell you...this wasn't an easy adjustment. First of all...coming home for 2 days before leaving again was so refreshing. From the minute I landed in Montreal to the second I got back on the plane to leave on Monday morning....I didn't stop for a second!
Walking out of those gates that afternoon at the airport....I was expecting a bunch of people waiting for me to greet me....no one! My mom was stuck in traffic trying to get to the airport because of the construction going on there. She finally got there...it was really nice to see her....but no winter coat. LOL Off to a good start! We then walked over to the canadian arrivals and we got to greet my grandfather who flew in from Saskatchewan for the holidays....he arrived like 20 minutes after me!
After the airport...we rushed over to Miss Evie's school because I had to be there by 1:15pm to speak to her class. This was one of the most awesome things I have ever done...I shared my experience and photos to like 75 grade 5 students who filled up her classroom. They were all very attentive and asked me so many questions. After the talk....they all made me special cards saying thank you and all telling me how lucky I was to be with Miss Evie. One of them even asked me "When are you going to propose to Miss Evie" She trains them well....I tell ya! We later met up with my family and we went for a nice dinner to catch up...but thanks to the blogs....everyone was up to speed with my travels! Later that night, we went through my 1000 pictures :)
SATURDAY...nothing like a nice pre-christmas party at the Vourtzoumis family residence. I think we had close to 90 people over my place. Honestly....this was such a great night! Lots of eating...dancing...catching up. We even had our very own DJ Johnny Markessinis set up his booth and played music for us all night with a nice green/red strobe light! This was a nice way to spend the little time I had back with family, friends and my dogs :) MOM + DAD....you guys are best parents ever...our parties are always top of the line and love you guys so much. Thank you for giving me xmas one week earlier.....it was so worth it!!!
ADJUSTING BACK...honestly...as happy as I was to be back home...I was filled with frustration and couldn't get Ghana off my mind. I really missed the hospital...I had gotten used to the routine and to the people. I remember driving to my house on saturday and I was on the highway passing by the mall and costco....parking lot was full!!! Traffic on the highway exits! I was frustrated with this....knowing that where I was just 24 hours ago...people we're trying to make do with what they have and working hard to be able to have food to eat. Here we are....filling up the malls, buying gifts for the holidays and just spending money! It was just hard to swallow and for the first time ever have I ever been so conscious about this. GHANA changes you...working at the hospital there for a month...CHANGES YOU! I would keep comparing things back to what I experienced...how caught up we get with such unimportant things here....while simple things in Ghana can just make the difference for most...but not available! Anyways...this reaction of mine has made me think and I won't forget this LESSON.
SUNDAY....slept in and went for breakfast with Evie and family to my dads restaurant. Yummm nothing like good la belle province! It was amazing to see how much my stomach shrinked over this past month! I LOST close 15 POUNDS!!! Honestly....it's amazing to see how I lost 15lbs...for a month straight I ate at 12pm and 6:30pm and only one serving of food...never really filling myself and without realizing it....lost weight!!! Later my friend David and Emily came to visit me and I got to see his 2 month old kid....he's growing and is the cutest thing!! So proud of him :)
Spent the little time left I had with Evie and packed my bags for Mistissini. I didn't have enough time to spend with Evie these 2 days....so busy with family and friends and party....but honestly she is so amazing! She had cooked so much for the party....spanakopites, famous brie cheese dip, salad, and just always keeping busy in the kitchen doing things!! No one can ever beat her...she is honestly the most thoughtful girl ever...thanks babes!!!
MONDAY...grabbed my 44lb hockey bag full of clothes and my hockey skates and Evie dropped me off at the airport at 6:15am...kiss and hug and off I was! We are pro's at this now...airport goodbyes ;) There I met up with my partner Evan Martow, a good friend and classmate of mine who I will be spending one month with in Mistissini!!! Off we went to our small propeller airplane! So funny...we were warned at the booth that AirCreebec is not responsible for us not being able to land at our destination due to weather and if so will try to land anywhere it can and leave us there with no accomodations. Thankfully we got there safely after 1.5 hours!!!
We landed in Chibougamau...where we were greeted by Gabriel our taxi driver to bring us to Mistissini which was a 1 hour drive away....he was also driving a pharmacist who was going to be spending 1 week out there and make 3X her salary.....good deal. There was soooo much snow out there....much better than montreal :) Before heading out to mistissini which is a small village...we stopped at Maxi and did groceries! So much fun :) We also stopped off at the SAQ and got some wine and champagne for Xmas and New Years because Mistissini is a dry town where they don't sell any alcohol!!
Finally arrived to Mistissini around 12pm...we went to the clinic to meet the doctors and get our keys to our transit (apartments) which are right across the clinic but everyone was off on lunch and clinic was closed. So we had some lunch went back to the clinic at 1pm to meet everyone! Raffi and Rosy are the doctors in charge of us...they are really nice. They showed us around the clinic and got us familiarized with everything and then went to our lovely apartment across the street to put away our groceries and settle in. We have a nice 2 room apartment, nice kitchen, bathroom, laundry room and small TV room....very comfortable place!
I think I will stop there for tonight...I know I have lots of catching up to do but I got to get some sleep now....wake up at 8am and gotta be at clinic at 9am....much better hours from Ghana and surgery...its almost unreal...love sleeping :)
So tomorrow I will bring you up to speed with whats been going on around here and talk about the cree population that live out here.
Have a good night everyone....we are expecting to hit close to -35 tonight....very windy and lots of snow. Gotta keep warm....Evan doesn't want to cuddle with me...he will give in once it hits -40!
gnight!!!
P.S. I think I may have put off blogging because it reminded me too much of Ghana and I miss it a lot! But I am back ;)
P.P.S. Evs....3 words...I LOVE TOI! xox
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