Christmas time!

Sarah and I have finished all our shopping and wrapping about a week ago, and now we're basking in the easy to do last minute stuff like cooking, hiking, and napping. Well, actually, Sarah is watching some insipid interview with our fearless and intrepid prime minister. But the fact remains, we're maxin' and relaxin' around here.
If you didn't receive a Christmas card from us, this is the picture we sent:
If somehow we missed you, well, it was a tragic oversight...








Have a terrific Christmas (or holiday of choice) and all the best in the new year.

Rémi & Sarah

Environmental Destruction!

BC is a terrific place. It prides itself on its stunning scenery and its pristine and inviolate wilderness. But look in virtually any direction and you see government sponsored destruction (it isn't illegal if you have a permit).
Take for instance the loggers: They chop down old growth forests, taking with it important habitat for a number of endangered species. As if that weren't enough, they illegally chop trees down right to the edge of salmon bearing streams and rivers, causing erosion and further habitat destruction.

Figure 1. Clearcuts and burning woodpiles.






Then you might think the damage is done and over with. But no, the logs are then placed in waterways, where bark falls to the bottom and obliterates anything that may have once been alive. They travel like this all along the coast where they're delivered to pulp and paper mills, which are another story altogether.

Figure 2. Log booming on the mighty Fraser River. Salmon swim through here every year.





Figure 3. Sunken boats rotting in the water.






Anyhow, that's my rant. Come visit us in "the most beautiful place on earth", we'll show you some cool stuff. Not all of it will be ugly.

Rémi

Christmas tree!

So this year we couldn't go and cut down our own Christmas tree, but we still got a real one. Remi bought it yesterday at Ikea (it actually came with a gift certificate!) and we decorated last night.

Here are a few pictures. Had a little trouble with our old tree stand. We were unable to MickeyMouse it (the tree trunk was too big), so we had to buy a new stand. From then on though, it was smooth sailing :)

Hikes!

It's been a while since my last post, but I've been busy, and Sarah hogs the computer because of "school". But I'm here, at last. Things are going great out here. We've had one sunny day in the last month & 300+mm of rain (that's a lot... 3x average), the computer is dying, I had to replace the battery in the car, and now the brakes are on the fritz. 'Tis the season.
Despite it all, we're still having fun. We went to Cypress Falls yesterday for a little hike, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. The weather held and we had a good time, despite the fact that Sarah always complains about having to walk uphill (she chose the wrong province I think, perhaps southern Saskatchewan would be more appropriate). We only ran into one other person and it makes me happy that I don't have to run into everyone and their brother when I want a quiet hike.

Sarah just got home, so I'll break the news to her about the ABS... Yay me.

Remi

We aren't in Vancouver anymore...

I noticed in my last post that I was complaining about not having rubber boots... Well, things have changed! I'm thankful for my full-size snowmobile boots! Vancouver has had record snow fall over the last two days. The island too, actually. It's insane! There's at least 6-7 inches of accumulation out there right now. The roads are slushy and many aren't plowed and I guess therein lies why UBC often closes for snow days... The buses don't run when the roads are icy. Imagine if it was like that in Guelph!! We'd never be at school! (I guess the funniest thing about that was that Guelph never closed, even if the buses WERE cancelled.)

So anyway, I've been taking pictures. The first few are of the mountains Saturday morning. This was before the "snow" hit the fan (haha).

These next few are from this morning. CRAZY! And it continued to snow ALL DAY.














Maggie obviously thought it was the greatest thing that's ever happened in her ENTIRE life ;)

Anyhoo, so that's what's new with us! Hopefully tomorrow will be a snow-day for me. Remi has the day off, as he's now working Tuesday to Saturday for his work week. The last day of school for me is Friday!! VERY exciting. I've made it through term I! Only 3 1/2 years to go ;) Oh, and exams, I guess.

Well, bye bye for now!

Sarah

Testing, testing...

I haven't been able to see our blog for a couple days, so this is just a test to see if updating it fixes it.

But while I'm here... IT'S POURING OUT HERE!! I've never seen anything like it. Flooding, evacuations, mudslides!!!! It's insane. And insanely wet. I need to buy rubber boots!!

I hope everything is well with all our readers ;)

Sarah

Mt. Seymour (butts)

I had originally planned to head towards Whislter this weekend so that we could see the mountains and potentially some snow. Unfortunately, I forgot that this is BC, and it pretty much never gets nice here for the period of 5 or 6 years between November and April. So figuring we could go for a hike anyways, we put on our stoutest rain gear (it was pouring) and took off for Mt. Seymour (elevation ~ 1000m) just outside of Vancouver. Then, partly up the hill, the rain turned to snow. We were in the clouds, so visibility was about 100m at the best of times, but we decided to push on anyways. By the time we got to the parking lot at the top, the whole area was completely covered in snow. We figure two feet at least. Not bad for Vancouver. We were afraid of getting lost, so we didn't get to go for much of a walk, but we hiked up part of a ski hill and let Maggie run around in the snow.





After having been up there for about 5 minutes, I decided that snowshoes would make a terrific Christmas present (hint hint). There are probably also some places up there where I can go play with my cross-country skis. I can't wait for a nice day (if/when).

Rémi

Our house

A lot of people have been asking where we live and in what kind of squalor and what it looks like, so I decided to take a few pictures today because it was actually nice outside! I thought for SURE it was going to rain and be miserable all week. You never know just what the weather is going to do in this crazy province! But I digress... Here's a look at our house and our neighbourhood.

First of all, the big monstrosity in which we live. Our apartment makes up only about half of the basement area of this baby!! CRAZY. Most of the house in our neighbourhood are giant and have no yards. Our landlords actually just PAVED their backyard. We're not sure why...














Here's the living room/kitchen area. Note our mascot sitting beside the fishtank. It gets quite dark in here when it's overcast and in the evenings.















This is our bathroom. It's quite a bit bigger than Nanamio and has a bathtub!!! VERY exciting.




















I didn't include pictures of our bedroom because it's very small and it was hard to get a good angle. To give you an idea of size, we can barely fit the queen sized bed and two bedside tables in there, and we've had to put the dresser in the closet. Below is my office. It's perfect for me with my desk and the futon. I can also shut Remi out, which is nice when I need to concentrate. Makes me really miss working full-time when I have to watch him sit around and do nothing all weekend ;)














The steps down into our place. Note the toys. Also note the drain and how there's water draining into in... All the water off the landlord's roof drains down into our entryway before going down the drain. Not cool. We might speak to them about repositioning their spout.















This is the view from just out front. GORGEOUS. Despite the city in the way ;) Next to that is a picture of my favourite house in the neighbourhood. I LOVE the big plants in front (I call them banana trees although I'm not sure how accurate that is). Below that is a picture of the most flamboyant house in the neighbourhood. Very red... Fairly "stately"... And lastly, that's the field (Falaise) where we take Maggie to play off-leash. She couldn't play off-leash today because there were dogs (notably a Jack Russell named Jackie ;) ) and we're always afraid she might get grouchy, so we just walked around.

So that's that. Our little neighbourhood. I really quite like it here, despite my hour commute on the bus every day. We're definately going to stay here until the end of this school year, but we might move closer to UBC next summer.

Bye bye for now!

If you don't comment...

Hi, everyone :) Just a quick hello from Remi and I here in beautiful BC... IF YOU DON'T COMMENT, WE WON'T KNOW THAT YOU WERE HERE!! We'd like everyone to comment. Remember, it's easy using the "anonymous" thingy under "post a comment".

Anyway, not much is new here. Remi's started his new job!! He'll need to post about that and what he's been up to, but I'm quite happy to have him home myself. He made two, yes, TWO, stews on the weekend and they were both quite yummy. It's nice having my little cook back ;) Other than that, nothing's new. We've decided to bring Maggie home with us this month when we're back in Ontario for the wedding. Should be fun ;) We have to go and buy a new crate for her, maybe this weekend, so she's flight-friendly. Speaking of which, I should reserve a spot for her on my flight! We're both (Remi and I) quite excited about getting home to see the family AND about the wedding!!

Well, I'm off to bed. Remember, post a comment and make us smile :) We get lonely out here!

Love Sarah

A little update...

Hi, all. I haven't written anything substantial on here in a while and I guess a few of you might be wondering how my first three weeks of pharmacy school have gone. In one word GREAT. To elaborate, I love it. I really do. We're looking at practical cases, learning about treatment regimens (although very basically), learning how to identify DRPs (drug-related problems - pharmacy lingo!) and stuff. I'm also meeting some amazing people. My class is so diverse! I've met people from all over BC, a guy from Halifax, Asian people, Indian people, Caucasian people... We've all been through different levels of schooling and different life experiences. Lots of people are my age and a bit older, but some are as young as 19, I think, with just one year of university experience!! It's amazing.

What have I been up to? Well, besides attending classes and labs, not a whole lot. I'm getting used to the hour commute (each way!) that I have to take daily. I've finally gotten over my bus-sickness and I'm actually starting to enjoy the bus. I even was able to read a little bit of my personal reading (right now I'm reading "Skinny Legs and All" by Tom Robbins for all who are interested - very entertaining, as is usually the case with him) without getting a headache. Thursday was actually an almost magical bus ride. I was listening to some solid 80s/90s tunes ("Rock Lobster", "Sunglasses at Night", "Let Your Backbone Slide", "Breakfast at Tiffany's"... the list goes on) and the people on the bus were very interesting (as usual) and it was an almost surreal moment. Then the sun came out and was shining on my face and I looked over Vancouver (I can see downtown framed by the mountains) and there must have been a sun-shower because there were two rainbow strips over the city. It was beautiful and I fell in love with BC all over again. Yes, that's all very strange and I'm strange, but you all love me, so there!

But then Thursday kind of fell apart... I got home and talked to Remi and then to my parents, then I changed my WestJet flight for October (all good things) and then ... I walked Maggie (cue evil music). We were merrily trotting along (myself still floating on my bus-ride happiness) and then... out of nowhere... PSSSHHHHHHHTTTT! Maggie is sprayed by a skunk!! (OK, so I'm leaving out the part where she chased and provoked the thing...) I was slow to react because I thought it was just a cat, but no... As we walked away *sniff*sniff* "Maggie... YOU STINK!!"

So we made a hasty retreat home and I quickly bathed her (which she hated and we fought and wrestled and she probably thought I didn't love her anymore). I noticed the smell was localized on her face, so proceeded to scrub her cheeks and chin with a washcloth covered first in dishsoap (I thought it would dissolve the skunky oils) then in a vinegar/baking soda concoction (I googled it) and then I gave her three or four treats, hugged her a lot (avoiding her stinky face, which was hardly stinky anymore) and we went to bed. LONG evening. HORRIBLE.

Then there was today... Another fabulously beautiful day. Great bus ride, but... (again, evil music) I left my pencil case on the floor in my first class!!!!!! (I have to make a hasty retreat from one class to the next or else risk sitting on the cold, hard floor, as there are not enough seats for all students - NOT cool) So, after class (during which I was sans highlighters - VERY not cool) I made a hasty RETURN to said classroom only to find (duh duh duh....) my pencil case has been removed!! (I'm not going to jump to the conclusion that it was stollen, but I am suspicious... It was a slammin' pencil case) After searching the classroom and the chemistry office, I left, dejected and headed to work. I'm hoping some kind soul gave my pencil case to my prof and it will be safely returned to me on Monday. It wouldn't be a big deal if it was just the case and a few pens - those things are replaceable. BUT, it contained therein my calculator!!! I've had it since the beginning of high school and I'm old and set in my ways and I don't want to learn how to use a new one *sniffles*

OK, I think this post has gotten a bit out of control. All in all, life is grand. For those of you who don't know, Remi got a job in Vancouver last week!! YAY! Unfortunately his current boss is being uncool (much like the cold-hearted individual who stole my pencil case!) and has asked him to stay until the end of the month. The good news is that this new job is actually a career starter and advancer. His boss has mentioned possibly helping Remi through a masters. VERY cool. But I'll let him elaborate (mostly because that's all I really know besides the fact that he'll be working with fish - surprise, surprise ;)

Anyway, I'm off. Hopefully you've enjoyed my tale of happiness and a little (very little) woe. For those of you who might be wondering, Maggie barely stinks at all now. I think it must have been a baby skunk or something. Lesson learned though!

Good night!

Love Sarah

PS. In case Megan and Julien are reading this, good luck with the rest of the wedding planning. I've been meaning to mail our RSVP for about a week now, so if I never actually get it into a mailbox: Yes, we will be attending and there are 2 in our party. We can't wait ;)

Good News!

Days: 2
Interviews: 2
Job Offers: 2
Casually ignored: 2 months of fruitless searching

I just got an offer from Integrated Resource Consultants, a small firm in Vancouver. It pays decently, by my humble standards and it involves the care of Daphnia and rainbow trout. Everyone wins. And it's permanent. And there's room for advancement.

Life is good here.

Remi

I'm offended!

HEY! I got some pretty good head shots of seals in the past! I'll see if I can dig one up...

Sure, it's a little blurry, but it's obviously a seal!

Give me some credit, hunny!

Anyway, not much is new here in Van. I'm beginning to doubt that anyone is reading our blog!! Come on guys, post comments! It only takes a second :)

Hope all is well with everyone!

Sarah

Sarah isn't here, so I can finally play with the camera to my heart's content. The harbour is full of neat stuff, so I ended up taking a bunch of random pictures. This boat is one of my favourites, it's probably a hairsbreadth away from sinking, but it looks really nice.





This is our best picture of a wild seal to date. It was floating along on its back right until I hit the shutter, when it took off.







More boat pictures...

Back to school...

For better or for worse, I find myself back in classes this September. For those of you who might not already know, I was accepted into Pharmacy at UBC - four grueling years ahead of me! I've been to two days of classes and despite the fact that I feel like I'm going to be clobbered by Organic Chemistry, everything is looking pretty good. My profs all seem reasonable and I've met some nice first year "pharmers", as we call ourselves in pharmacy.

Right now I'm chilling before my "White Coat Ceremony", which is this evening. It's a glorified name for receiving your pharmacy student lab coat ;) I guess it's a big welcome to all the first years and we're so proud to have you here, blah blah blah. Sounds boring. Remi was supposed to join me, but has been lucky enough to have had his contract extended in Nanaimo, so he's on another landmass (good excuse, hunny!). Remi is continuing his summer practicum at Malaspina with the prawns. His boss obviously loves him and is apparently recommending him for all sorts of things around campus, which is great, but we really want him HERE, in Vancouver. So far the job search has been a little disappointing, but I'm sure he'll find something here soon.

Anyway, I should organize some stuff for tonight. Thanks to everyone who's been posting comments on our blog! We love to hear from all of you. Again, anyone can post a comment if they sign in under "Anonymous". Just remember to sign your post so we know who you are :)

Later gators :)

Mt. Albert Edward

Tim is here! To celebrate, he and I climbed Mt. Benson. That was fun, but nothing like what we had planned for the weekend. We returned to the Forbidden Plateau, but this time with a summit attempt in mind! The first day, we climbed to Kwai Lake. On Saturday, we left our packs behind and pushed to the top of Mt. Albert Edward. It was an adventure like none of us has ever experienced, but it was truly incredible. It's the 4th highest peak on the mountain, but from where we stood, it felt like the top of the world. Enjoy the pictures.
Camping on Kwai Lake, close to where we were last time.

It wouldn't have been any fun without a gruelling climb. Bear in mind that we had to go down this later, too.
I love the panoramic setting. Here you have an alpine meadown, with some forbidding peaks in the background. Bear in mind that Albert Edward is taller than those.
Tim and Sarah celebrating a small victory. We weren't anywhere near the summit, but it felt good.
Mountain ice is so cool... There's Albert Edward up behind me.

We're still smiling because we don't quite know what's ahead of us.

Here you want to refer to our last trip to the Forbidden Plateau (pictures in a previous post). See that cliff in the background? that's Cruickshank Canyon. Now I scoff at its insignificance!
Sarah in from of some alpine lakes, with tiny little Cruickshank Canyon in the back.
Tim needed a picture like this. As a trophy.

Albert Edward! Check out the icefields down the slope.

Don't be fooled, she was tired.

Mt. Albert Edward

Ice fields on the way to the top. We were running out of water at the time, so we drank from here. The water was delicious and so cold. Despite the ice, the air and sun were hot, and we all burned.
Last push to the summit. The ground was all rocks and gravel, which made walking all the more difficult. The summit behind us looks close, but it took us close to an hour to get there.

The summit! 2094m up. Fourth highest mountain on the Island. Absolutely exhausted, but it was totally worth it!

Sarah on the summit.

Panoramic from the top!

I wasn't allowed to take my tripod, so this picture is a little off centre, but I still like the shot. In most places, we were so high I got vertigo.

I was exhausted and found a little shaded nook that was perfectly cooled. It also had an incredible view of the valley below. Looking too closely at this picture, I get vertigo all over again!
If you zoom in, you'll see Tim and I on the top of that cliff. If I'd known I was that close to the edge, I wouldn't have gone anywhere near it. Cool though.
Maggie was pooched, nice to rest here.
This slope was between us and the bottom. So we all slid down it however possible. Sadly, we don't have a picture, but Sarah did it on her bum.




As we were going back down, we got another view of the summit of Mt. Albert Edward. Hard to believe, but we actually climbed that whole way up!

It took us a few hours to walk the rest of the way out, but we made it, sore and tired. Poor Maggie is still limping from the effort, but she had fun. Our legs are all still toast, but worth it.


Rémi