The land of Ottawa

Well, I'm here! I arrived in Ottawa last week and have been going, going, going like crazy ever since. The house (or should I say mansion) is amazing and my housemates are just lovely! We have already had our fair share of adventures including visiting 24 Sussex (the Prime Minister's house) by bike, playing Bocce Ball on the lawn of Parliament, and just hanging out downtown in the capital city. I am slowly adjusting to the "city life" and have learned a few things: 1) how to cross the street without being hit even with the orange hand flashing at me, 2) how to use the bus system (that was a rather long process of trial and error), 3) walking around town/getting lost in heals is not a great idea, 4) the bus system does not give change, and 5) my life has simply not been complete without the honking of horns in the middle of the night. I'm sure there are many more lessons to come and I will keep you posted on my new findings. Overall I have enjoyed myself and am a fan of everything thus far!

I started my internship yesterday and it looks like its going to be an exciting and interesting semester. For the sake of confidentiality I will avoid saying specifics about where I work but will do my best to let you in on all the fun things that go down! On my first day in the office I mainly did background research on the organization in order to better understand what I was getting into. My supervisor is great and I think we will have a great semester working together - I am so looking forward to it!

Here are some photos from the first week in Ottawa! Enjoy!

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Tour of Parliament - view from the Peace Tower

The Loop goes out to dinner!

Bike ride on the Ottawa River

Bike Ride to 24 Sussex

Life after grad does exist...

Jestina and I celebrating after our grad ceremony.

Celebrating with Dr. Dawn - one of the many great professors at TWU.

Jestina and I... WE DID IT!!

Parentals!!

All the girls after Baccalaureate service... prior to all the tears.

Strategic Management team with our professor and the pops!

Mom, dad, and myself at the School of Business Commissioning Ceremony.

Well, it has been a little over 2 months since I graduated from Trinity... The main question that I seem to get now is "well, what now?".... Well, since I'm pretty sure no one will believe my quest to become a unicorn trainer or flaminco dancer anymore I best get to the truth. As many of you know, I am heading to Ottawa in the fall to attend the Laurentian Leadership Centre through TWU. One of the main componants of this program is an internship in which students have the opportunity to work in a more political geared environment. I recently received my placement at the Canada Agricaulture Review Tribunal. Although I do not yet know what exactly I will be doing there, I am excited about the opportunity and am anxious to see where it will lead. As for my plans after the LLC.... well, that remains to be seen! I will keep y'all posted on where my path leads as I keep on walking. For now I am sticking it out at home working for the marketing company where I am surprisingly enjoying myself. I have been learning A LOT and have been pushed out of my comfort zone quite often which keeps my little life in the not-so-interesting-Porterville, kinda interesting... so, for now I am content but am also uber excited to see what adventures Ottawa will bring!

Hope the summer is treating you well!!

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A graduate of the undergraduate sort...

Well, the time is almost here - 7 days to be exact! I, along with many others I'm sure, are wondering just how this time has come so stinking fast. My friends and I have been reminiscing recently of the good 'ol days of the previous 4 years here at Trinity and we have had some gooood laughs. Its weird how time has gone so fast, and yet cool to see how much we have changed in such a short time. I am grateful for the amazing times we have had together and am so incredibly glad that we have grown to be such good friends. I'm pretty sure this blog would be much more difficult to write if I didn't know when I was going to see most of them again. Luckily I will see most of them again when I'm back east come this fall - more on that later. Anyhoo, grad is this coming Saturday (May 1) and I'm pretty sure the fact that I have to pack up my entire Canadian life combined with whole weekend of events is going to be a whirlwind... should be a hoot!

As for plans after grad... I am headed back to the town of "P" to work for HomeGrown for the summer. The fall is looking to bring many new adventures as I head to Ottawa to participate in a more politically geared program through TWU. I'm excited for the experience that is awaiting me and am secretly glad that I don't have to head out to "the real world" just yet... shhhhh, don't tell the pa-rentals!!
Well, I should probably get back to studying for exams... if anyone was wondering, blogging is a great way of procrastinating! :) Oh, the univeristy life - I will miss thee!!

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PS. The photo is from TWU's grad banquet... probably one of the best times... ever!

Good times in Hawaii... I think...

So, if any of you were wondering, I am safe and sound in Hawaii after one crazy tsunami day! We woke up to a hotel announcement of the tsunami warning telling us of the situation and advising guests to either stay in the hotel (3rd floor or above) or head for higher ground. Being that we had a group of 24 in two different hotels we decided to head to higher ground together. We were on the road by 8am and headed to Costco to get gas (and I have never seen such a ginormous line for gas at Costco) but beyond that we didn't know where to go. Side note: Our camp that has been our long-term home on the island is on the north shore so we couldn't head back there either... Anyhoo, we ended up staying at Costco (as that was one of the highest points on the island) and made camp there in the parking lot for 6 hours until the tsunami warning was cancelled around 2pm. We ironically ended up going to Waimea Bay on the North Shore right after that to chill on the beach after the stressful morning!! I have to admit that I was just a tad freaked out by the whole thing haveing never have experienced a tsunami before and all... I am glad it turned out well and no one (at least in Hawaii) was injured... thanks for all your thoughts and prayers throughout the day! It was much appreciated by everyone!
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Pre-departure #1 and life...

As many of you know I have been given the great opportunity to travel with 26 TWU students, staff, and alumni to Hawaii to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity over spring break. We are now only 19 short days away from leaving and I could not be more excited! We have been having weekly group meetings since we retuned from Christmas break and at last weeks meeting it finally felt like we were a team. Overall, the preparation for the trip is going well and I am excited for the things to come!

On to another topic - life. Ahhhhhh, life is good! I will be graduating from TWU in April (with a degree in business and a minor in political science) and I seriously canNOT believe it! As far as plans after grad... I am still waiting to hear back on some jobs and on a possible political internship for the fall so we shall see! I am super excited about these possibilities and can't wait to see what God has in store for me.

Anyhoo, I think I have used my blogging procrastination tool long enough and should actually start on the lovely work that is due tomorrow!

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Where has the time gone...

Who would have thunk it... its already been two years since I embarked on the journey of a lifetime with Semester at Sea. I feel so blessed to have had this amazing experience and my life has changed for the better since SAS and I could not be happier for it. Semester at Sea, Spring 2008 - there will never be another voyage like ours!! :)

Surprises are my favourite...

It all started about 3 weeks ago when my Angels obsessed cousin called me with a plan... a plan to go to game 5 of the ALCS! That's right, Angels vs. Yankees wonderful-ness!!! Ahhh yes... the only catch, you ask?! Its a SURPRISE! :) While many would think this would be an easy feat being that I live 1,500 miles away, it really wasn't! There were numerous times that I had to, ahem, shall I say, stretch the truth to the parentals. My mom even saw my flight purchase on my credit card statement and thought it was merely my flight to come home for Christmas! Pfft... everyone knows I don't think THAT far ahead! Buuut, its OK mom, I'm glad you were oblivious to the obvious! :) Anyhoo, on to the surprise... Operation Halo began at 7am on October 22. I arrived in Fresno 2 short and sleepy hours later and was greeted by Alex (Angels obsessed cousin) who was wearing more red than there was on Parliament Hill for Canada Day!! Needless to say I had no trouble finding him. As we were waiting to collect my bag I mentioned in passing that my mom (who still knows nothing) was in Fresno for the day. Alex of course immediately called her and tells her he is in the area and needs to kill an hour so he would bring her some coffee. She of course, did not pass up the opportunity to down a free coffee so we were on our way! We pulled up to the office where she was waiting and summoned her to come outside. As the window rolled down, I held out the coffee to her and you could see the confusion/surprise/WHAT!?!? on her face and I believe her first words to me were 'You stinker!!' Now, I have never done this before but I hope that's normal! :) We had the chance to chat for a bit and then Alex and I (along with Lisa - the Yankee fan) were on our way to to complete the next surprise for my dad... but not without making sure my mother was sworn to secrecy for the next 2 hours before my dad saw me! (Sidenote - Although I did find out after the fact that she was THIS close to spoiling it... buuuut, she held back and blamed it on a senior moment instead!! HA!) The plan was for Alex, Lisa, my dad, and a 'friend' (aka me) to meet in Bakersfield and head down to Anaheim together. About 2 minutes before we pulled into Hodel's (the meeting point) I decided to call my dad and ask him about the game since 'I'm SO bummed that I can't go to the game with them'... He ironically answers the phone 'Hey Canada girl' (as I think, "Oh, if you only knew")... we continue our conversation as he was giving me a play-by-play of Alex and Lisa's arrival in the parking lot. He eventually opens the door to their car only to see me!! His reaction - Priceless! I don't recall any words being spoken but a step back and a cocked head (which, if you know my pops, any reaction whatsoever from him is quite the feat) said it all!! We spent the next little bit explaining how it all went down which in turn explained my mother's earlier phone call/senior moment to him! HA! It was great! The game was amazing too! We had awesome seats where me and John Lackey (and possibly Johnny Damon) became BFF! The game turned out to be quite intense and was glad I was able to experience it in person! A big thanks to Alex and Lisa for a successful/surpriseful trip home! I had a blast!

The rest of the weekend was full of sleep and the annual HGOF harvest dinner! It was a grand time with some amazing food thrown in!! All in all, a great weekend at home!

These are a few pics from the weekend! Enjoy!

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