Only 1 Vote, eh? May 2, 2011

Okay, so there's an election on Monday (has anyone in the US heard about this??), and since I'm Canadian and am so very informed on the issues, I should vote. Well, that informed part isn't actually true (especially with how much the US learns about Canada), so I decided to change that with the help of the internet. I started at www.elections.ca to find out who the parties and candidates are. After scouring each of the four main parties' websites: Liberals, Conservatives, Green Party, and NDP (New Democratic Party), I have learned that they all plan on spending a lot of money and yet somehow fixing the deficit. Huh, this is starting to sound similar to US politics. I then searched for a comparison of the parties side by side on popular issues, and after a few sites, I ended up on Wikipedia. This is not unexpected as most research online now ends in a wiki. Similarly common, I ended up researching completely different topics than I intended. I took wiki's Canadian government 101 and decided to share the results with you, though I've restricted today's activities to the federal level and kept it to snippets:

• The crown still rules, though only as a figurehead. The queen appoints the Governor General (GG - my acronym, purely out of laziness) to act on her behalf, based on the recommendation of the Prime Minister (PM) about every 5 years though it's based on 'her majesty's pleasure' (ha).
  
• Legislative: Parliament is made up of the Crown (GG), Senate (105 appointed seats), and House of Commons (308 elected seats). The Senate is appointed by the GG based on the PM's recommendation and holds the position until they resign or are 75 years old. The House of Commons has 308 elected Members of Parliament (MP). Legislation starts in the House and once approved, the Senate and Crown review and rarely reject it, though with more committees and complicated processes.
  
• Judicial: Supreme Court with 9 justices appointed by GG.
  
• Executive: The GG also appoints the PM. This person is the leader of the party that holds the majority in the House of Commons.
  

There are a few things that I find interesting with this system.

1. An election occurs only when parliament is dissolved by the GG, or if 5 years go by. It is not regular and rarely makes it the full 5 years without a vote of no confidence and new election. What a waste of campaigning money!
   
2. The PM holds a lot of power by appointing the Senators only when a seat opens up, instead of at regular intervals.
   
3. You only get 1 vote. (well duh you say...but think of the implications of the PM being selected based on the party that holds the most seats in the House). It means that when you vote for your local MP, you are also voting for the Prime Minister, not separately, so you have to decide whether you want to vote for the local candidate, the overall party, or the party leader. Kind of makes me less inclined to vote.
   

Now truth be told, I haven't researched this much about any American politics or elections, so maybe I'm growing up. Ick! Today I am more Canadian than I was yesterday, but I really haven't come to much of a conclusion. If only there were uniforms so I could vote based on jersey color like how I choose my March Madness brackets. Guh! Saturday Night Live, how do I choose??

My First Island Wake – 4/18/2011

There is something small town about the whole island of PEI. One of the nicer traditions is being friendly to your neighbors. Here, everyone knows everyone. It's nearly impossible to be out in public without seeing someone you know and stopping to talk about how their daughter's recital was, or the results of the procedure for their brother. People know the minutest details of each other's lives, a comfortable feeling, but you're definitely aware that there are no secrets. I have even experienced this phenomenon a few times, seeing people (outside my family), at the grocery store or out in public. Coming from such large cities as San Antonio and Phoenix, this truly is a phenomenon. I'm shocked every time it happens!

What goes along with this quaint custom is supporting each other after a loved one's life is extinguished. I expect to attend the funeral and possibly wake of a friend or close family member, but here on PEI (and most likely Atlantic Canada), you attend the wake for the family of your family and friends. I remember that the first two questions you asked my grandmother over the phone were: 'how's the weather' and 'how many wakes have you been to'? Once those two questions were answered you could talk about new business, but not before. My grandmother was always impressed when someone's wake had people lined up out the door of the funeral home. It was explained to me that this is almost a status symbol and especially comforting for the family. An additional marker is how many priests attend the wake and funeral. Now all of this was just information I had collected from my grandmother, until this week.

Here on PEI, cancer is extremely prolific. It is believed that this is due to all of the pesticides used over the years on the potato farms as it's a large concentration for a small area, though there are nearly no studies on the matter.

I missed my grandmother's wake and funeral (as I took all the time off of work that I could to spend with her in the last few weeks of her life), and I was only 3 months old when my grandfather passed. This week, I attended my first Island wake for a relative's relative. Had I been in the States, I doubt I would have considered attending the funeral, let alone the wake, but here on the Island, it's nearly expected.

In addition to the higher frequency of attendance at wakes, a typical PEI wake has all of the rules and order you expect of a local custom. Commonly, there are two different times for the wake to accomodate many people's schedules: a two hour block in the afternoon and a second one that night. It's printed in the newspaper to let you know the details and funeral arrangements. Once you get to the funeral home, the immediate family including spouse, children, siblings, siblings' spouses, parents, and sometimes even nieces and nephews stand in a receiving line around the open casket for the entire wake as people file through expressing their condolences. The position of the family in the line is specifically arranged based on age of siblings, or some other order. The common phrase to deliver to the grieving is 'sorry for your troubles', and you may repeat this to the family 20 times. It's a nice tradition to see a whole community supporting those who are in pain, but I wonder how comforting it is to have to stand there for such great lengths of times and try to remember how you know each person coming through the line, as you talk to every person.

When I arrived, I smiled to see how long the line was, thinking my grandmother would be impressed with the turnout. My cousin and I arrived 20 minutes early and the line was already 60 people deep, out the door and down the sidewalk. In the 20 minutes it took to get to the door, the line had doubled in length. I was glad to give hugs to my grieving family, and happy to give them a chuckle that this was my first wake. They seemed to laugh in either a 'oh you have no idea what you're in for' way or a 'what planet are you from that you don't attend wakes'. After shaking hands with the family and saying a prayer in front of the open casket (which is the norm), I couldn't help but think about something I read in a book that explains that there is no better evidence that people have souls than to look at a body that no longer has one. The part of us that is pure and holy is clearly no longer there and is now in a place of perfect happiness.

On the walk back to the car, in true PEI fashion, I saw people that I knew and we exchanged how we knew the deceased. Something that made me smile was that there was also a team of 10 year old boys in a soccer uniforms that were patiently waiting together to support their coach, who is the son of the deceased. Such a nice custom and wonderful respect to teach children. The main feeling I had though was awkwardness, as I knew so few of the grieving, but those that I did know seemed to appreciate seeing a familiar face and being supported in their time of grief.

While I am still struck by how commonplace it is to attend the wake for someone you barely knew, I appreciate the custom as just one aspect of a compassionate, loving community, and I am comforted that there's a place in the world that people truly care about each other. Thank you God for being so good to let me live here and please be with the family as they are grieving!

East Coast Music Awards in PEI! – 4/15/2011

Well I feel quite lucky to be on the island while the music awards are here. I went out last weekend with a friend from Kenya (as in she went to Kenya as part of Mikinduri Children of Hope mission trip with me, not that she's Kenyan). We went to a great pub called the Olde Dublin Pub that's in downtown Charlottetown. A group called the 'Boys in the Kitchen' happened to be playing live as free entertainment. Also the drinks were less than $5! Holy cow that's cheap compared to the bars in the States, and is especially surprising considering alcohol costs so much more in the stores here. Anyway, they had great little 'ditties' as my uncle calls them, most of which I had never heard, to the dismay of my friend. As the night wore on my feet started tapping and in a very unlike me move, I was clapping. Don't get me wrong, I like dancing in clubs or a good Texas two-step, but it's rare to get me moving while sitting at a table. Anyway she insisted we go enjoy the ECMAs (East Coast Music Awards) the following weekend so I could really experience this new type of music better. I find it a mix of the Country and Irish music, and the best songs have a good fiddle involved. You'll also hear a number of Johnny Cash songs, which is always an added bonus.

A week later I arrived back at the Dubliner (as it's fondly referred to) and met three more Kenyan friends to enjoy the music. I headed upstairs as the bar is located over a nice restaurant and was stopped at the first landing. There was a very large, intimidating man carding people. I laughed when he asked for my ID as the legal drinking age here is 19. I'm nearly 50% older than that! He then asked for an additional ID since I showed him my Texas license, which apparently isn't local enough for PEI, so he was satisfied with my health card that has only a name and my birthdate on it. Whatever! He then collected a $5 cover which I was a bit surprised since there wasn't one last week, but c'est la vie, what's $5 for some great music?

My friends arrived and we listened to a couple of great local bands. The Boys in the Kitchen played as did a younger group called 'Marian Oh' that threw more of a punk beat into the already eclectic mix. Charlottetown was alive that weekend with people from all over (aka away) who came to enjoy the festival. There were performances all day long from Wed evening to Sunday afternoon, and bars were now open until 3am! The Dubliner was filled with people from 19 to 70, and there was no one age group, sex, or socioeconomic group that dominated. It was truly a mix. People of all ages got up in droves to dance to the livelier tunes. The dancing was neat as if you are used to being in a club and seeing the 'booty dancing', this type would be considered much more innocent. It was group dancing where there was no one way people were moving, but I heard it referred to as the 'PEI shuffle'. I think Kevin James in 'Hitch' could have easily kept up with us. A few people were overachievers and had a great step-dancing going where their feet were flying and it was something between the highland fling, tap, and polka. It was quite an exciting night and even more fun to get up once the fiddle came out to try my foot (as it were) at dancing too. What a blast! We had so much fun at the Dubliner we never ventured out to the other 10 locations that were hosting music at the exact same time. I can see why everyone was excited to have the party come to town. Interesting though, like the good respectful people that are here, there were no reported car accidents, drunk driving, or destructive activity.

I left that evening well after 2 in the morning with the plan to start an airband with my three friends. We had all our roles down. I was either on keyboards or triangle. What a fun evening! Homework assignment: to listen to good east coast music, find some 'Stompin Tom' and get ready to tap your feet.

Up West, April 14 – 15, 2011

On PEI, they have a number of quaint local sayings. If you weren’t born on PEI, you’re ‘from away’. A kitchen party from the days of Anne of Green Gables is called a ceilidh (pronounced K-Lee) where there would have been dancing, music, and of course a fiddle. And even though American Idol is one of the biggest shows here (much larger than Canadian Idol), God help you if you’re from the US of A. Hmm, I seem to be getting off topic. Another fun colloquialism is how the west and east are described. You go ‘up west’ and ‘down east’. If you look at a tourist map of PEI, North is not directly up, so it looks like a ‘U’, so it seems you’d be going ‘up’ for both east and west, but now that I have looked at PEI on google, it’s apparent that the west is ‘up’.

My route - Red is getting there, Blue is coming back

North Cape

I took a trip up west for work. I’m teaching Excel to businesses through the community college and the latest one happens to be in Tignish, a 3 hour drive from my house. They’re even springing for a hotel and meals! It’s like I have a real job again, at least for two days.  So I took my time on the drive up and enjoyed the scenic route. PEI is long and slender so there’s the direct route to places, and the coastal route. In the summer the coastal route in gorgeous. In the winter is really nice and even better, there are no tourists (other than me). I saw lighthouses, boats, tons of lobster nets waiting for the season to begin, and those new fancy windmills. There were adorable houses and I passed through a few French Acadian districts where all of the signs were in French. Oh and churches. I saw a lot of big gorgeous churches. One of the great things about travelling on PEI with a map (other than getting to where you’re trying to), is that the distances look much further on the map. You just fly through the towns!

Church in Mount Carmel

I went through Mount Carmel where there is a gorgeous church right on the water, very similar to a church I went to in Ireland, apparently by the same builder and nearly the same latitude, only 5 degrees south. I went by Cap Egmont which has a picturesque view of the water and an interesting tourist trap called the ‘Bottle House Museum’ where there are entire buildings constructed of fully intact bottles held together with concrete. I saw a million gorgeous beach scenes and made it all the way to the North Cape, where there is a great mix of nature, and new and old technology. There were aerodynamic windmills, an antiquated working lighthouse, and gorgeous red cliffs where the Gulf of St Lawrence met the bay with crashing waves. Apparently this spot is a hangout for seals, as I can’t even imagine how cold the water is, but nope I still didn’t see any.  The sun set without any fanfare, and day became night without the bright colors you hope for to end a scenic day.

lobster nets

I then went to dinner in Tignish at a spot called ‘Shirley’s’ where they are also a certified Sears catalog dealer and have a dollar store in the basement. Nice! The kitchen was closed so I loaded up on the healthiest meal I could: cheesies, candy bars, and ADL chocolate milk (the most amazing dairy farm here whose cheese and milk have no comparison). Oh yea it was a good night! Especially since the Canadian chocolate is a much higher quality than Hershey’s, and there’s a much larger variety of chocolate bars. This is one of the best things about Canada. I found my adorable cottage at the Driftwood Cottages, right on the water, and enjoyed a few tv shows on the giant tv before retiring to the jaccuzzi bathtub that was so large a bathing suit would have been appropriate. The cottage was so quaint with a nice fire and two bedrooms I didn’t even need! What a night!

Near Borden, the sun was screaming to come through

The next day the training was quite effective and I went back to Shirley’s for lunch where every head is the place turned and looked at the outsider. Clearly, everyone knew everyone else in this town, and it was as charming and friendly, yet suspicious of outsiders as any other small town.  I had the local special, a scallop burger, as Tignish is primarily known as a fishing village. I got a bun with 5 huge deep fried scallops with the works. Oh my gosh it was heavenly and only $6! I followed this up with fries with gravy as I looked around and all of these hard core fisherman were feasting on a chicken wrap with Caesar salad. Hmm, I would have expected our plates to have been switched in any normal situation.

Victoria bythe Sea at sunset

I left that afternoon for the west cape and saw more idyllic beach scenes. Today the sun was shining and the clouds were giant puffy marshmallows scattered over the blue sky. I also drove by Borden, where my mom grew up, and grabbed some great pics of the Confederation Bridge, the longest bridge over frozen water in the world, that is the link to Nova Scotia. Before this bridge was built, ferries were the only transportation for cars. In fact, my Papa worked on the ferry for years! I drove through Victoria By the Sea, a cute tourist town, just as the sun was setting. I got the sunset I hoped for the previous day. There was bright orange erupting into red between the clouds and ground, and the effect was heighted as a reflection in the nearly still water.

Near Victoria by the sea at sunset with Canadian Geese

 This was a wonderful, but short, trip of the west side of PEI. I met friendly folk, enjoyed entirely private beach scenes, and ate nothing but junk! A completely successful business trip.

Correction (updated 4/18 at 8:35pm) - The confederation bridge connects New Brunswick and PEI, not Nova Scotia. I could just update this, but instead I'd like to include the text my mom sent me (she's now in Texas and loves everytime I learn something new about PEI, especially when it's her teaching me). The spelling is preserved as I sometimes confuse her texts thinking a drunken monkey has written me instead of my mom: 'Borden goes to new brunswick. Islanders will tease u. U engineer u fm away... This is ur mom fm away. Heehee...' Hey ma, I updated it. Thanks for reading my blogs and keeping me honest!

A day at the farm, April 11, 2011

To continue the theme of random experiences while on PEI, I went to a farm.

So Many Spuds!

Yup I did. I don’t think I have been to one before. I even missed that time you go when you’re in 4^th grade when they try to scare you into being a vegetarian. I’ve been to ranches in Texas and near very dry crops in Kenya, but not a real farm, so this was a big day! I went to a friend’s potato farm. The directions I received to get there were so quaint I couldn’t have made them up. ‘Go through Hunter River and when you get to a giant lighthouse, turn right. You’ll pass a shooting range and when you see a yellow house on your left you’re nearly there.’ I love PEI!! Oh and somehow I totally found it, even with my appalling sense of direction.  Granted, I passed it then flipped around and came back....twice.

During the grading process post cleaning

 I was shocked how much mechanization is involved with delivering potatoes. They had a giant storage unit, more commonly called a barn, with millions of potatoes. There were so many spuds, they looked like peanuts. Then a tractor takes a load of these potatoes into a wagon. From there they have an assembly of conveyor belts that successively remove the dirt, then using density drop the rocks out, clean the potatoes, separate them to two lines to be graded (QA check), then lift them into the truck. Neat! There was one person on the tractor, one moving the conveyer along the truck, and four people to perform the grading. A team of 6 can fill a truck of potatoes in only tem minutes. It’s amazing! I can only imagine how tedious this must have been before machines were widely available.

I left the farm much more aware, covered in PEI red dirt and hungering for some McCain fries after seeing the main ingredient. Oh and did I mention it was cold? like 0 degrees celcius cold. These farmers are a tough lot!

NY Birthday Bash!! March 18-19, 2011

As part of my third cross-country trip since July, this time from Arizona to PEI, I stayed in New York for 27 hours. Since I didn’t keep up with these posts during the trip, I figure I’ll include one of the trip highlights on a day when nothing particularly interesting happens in the present. That’s what we often do during slow times, isn’t it? Reminisce about the past, get out the photo album, go through old home movies?

Anyway over Spring Break, I drove up from Washington DC to NY with three friends: two high school friends (as in we were friends in high school…not that they’re in high school now) and one of girls’ sister. I have been to New York many times before, though rarely for longer than 2 days. These fast trips are always centered around a Broadway show, so I have done few touristy activities. Luckily, my friends had not visited the Big Apple before so they had done all of the prep and had big ideas.  

We arrived on Staton Island, parked, and took the free ferry across to Manhattan to do all of the activities on the southern tip. On the ride across, there was a fantastic view of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. We wandered around Wall Street, ate a NY street vendor hot dog while sitting on the steps of the original US capital and where the Declaration of Independence was signed, went by the 9/11 ground zero site, wandered into a few gorgeous old churches, and strolled through the park back to the ferry. We then drove onto Manhattan and tried to arrive at our hotel on 46^th without any new scratches on my car. This should be an easy task but the street was 6 lanes wide, without any discernable lane markers, and a million cars moving without the restraint of a speed limit. I’ve never felt so hillbilly and back country as I did driving around NY. I was hoping they couldn’t see Granny sitting in her rocking chair on the roof, but frankly I was skeptical.

We arrived at the Staybridge Suites, a hotel with the comfort of a chain but hip and individual style made it look like it belonged in NYC. Unfortunately, like most hotels in NY, there is a $150 non-refundable deposit for pets. I had looked into a doggie hotel for Sampson, my 10 lb Pomeranian who has been my travel companion, but he doesn’t have the distemper shot within the prescribed time. So since I was clearly not going to pay $150, I took my chances with him being caught, especially for one night. This means I had to sneak Sammy upstairs in a black duffel bag. He’s a good 14 year old dog and was happy to sleep the day away once I got him in the room, but the rides on the elevator were tense. On one trip down to let him relieve himself, my black zippered duffel started moving. I just smiled to the man in the elevator with me and pretended like I moved it. By the end of the second day, Sampson was not happy to be zippered up and it took some coaxing to get him in there one last time.  

Anyway I skipped over Friday night and Saturday’s activities, and there were many! We went to great Greek tapas joint on 10^th avenue and met up with two high school friends that live in New York. We had some interesting dishes, including a dandelion salad that had no yellow flowers, only spinach looking leaves. Then a friend and I went to see the Addams Family on Broadway with Bebe Neuwirth (Lilith on Cheers) and Richard Reeves (one of the bad guys on Robin Hood: Men in Tights). It was a quirky show that had many laughs and great special effects, but our awful cheap seats definitely took away from the magic of broadway. Dang this unemployment! We enjoyed the sights of Time Square at night on our way back to our hotel.

Saturday morning I ran off to my favorite bagel shop only a few blocks away and enjoyed ordering an everything bagel, toasted, with heaping mounds of scallion cream cheese. This was the right way to start my birthday! We then jumped on the subway and went over to see the UN building and split up from there. My friends went to the top of the empire state building and a few other sights I had seen. Meanwhile another friend and I went to the Chelsea Market. It’s this really hip market in the old Nabisco factory. (Sidenote: Nabisco stands for National Biscuit Company…duh that makes so much sense!) The market is made of brick and has many little stores that as expected of pretentious NY shops only sells one item. We went to a sample sale, perused the cupcake shop, which was right next to the brownie shop, sampled some olive oil in the oil shop, went through an Italian market, a sushi & seafood store, bookstore, and even a nut shop! We had a great lunch of fantastic soup and sushi, and finished it off with a chocolate cupcake with a big poof of pink frosting. This was the first birthday dessert which would eventually be followed by 3 cakes over the next week by loving family and friends.

We then got back on the subway and rejoined our friends at Central Park. As they were headed to get pizza, I ran to my favorite H&M store on 5^th Avenue and bought a couple of great shirts that I really really needed (really). I went by St Patrick’s Cathedral, Rockefeller Center, NBC Studios, Bryant Park, the NYC library, and many more sights I flew by as I fastwalked back to the hotel. I felt confident based on my quick pace and sneer at slow-walkers that I could have been a local. (Not once did I get my camera out during this walk to reveal myself as a tourist.) I got back to the hotel and had a quick birthday celebration with my friends before sneaking Sammy down to the car one more time and dropping them off at the Rock so they could go to the Nintendo store before catching the train back to DC. I drove on to Buffalo, NY in a much less Clampet-style than when I drove onto NYC only 24 hours before.

Really my birthday had begun weeks earlier. I celebrated with my sister in Arizona at Target while bathing suit shopping, and then a week later with my parents and a beautiful rose bouquet with gift cards smattered throughout. My birthday celebration didn’t end in New York. I stopped in Scranton, PA for dinner, and couldn’t resist seeing the building ‘the Office’ was supposedly set in. I went to Five Guys for dinner and enjoyed a burger that was as tall as it was wide, in addition to really greasy fries. This is what you should do on birthdays! I was able to celebrate three more times in Canada: once in Lynden Ontario with friends from Kenya, once with my cousin and her kids in Toronto, and once the day after I arrived on PEI with a cousin and her family. What a treat! Plus I got to enjoy this last cake for a whole week of birthday breakfasts! I couldn’t have celebrated with more lovely people and feel quite fortunate to know them let alone to have them surprise me with cake and presents!

(PS I didn't turn 25 but that was a really great year. I turned 28).

A PEI day at the beach - Monday April 4, 2011

Today I went to the beach. Now if I had been in Mexico I would have worn a different outfit. But since I’m on PEI and it’s still winter, when I woke up this morning and decided to go to the beach, I went to my closet. I put on a tank top, long sleeve shirt, hoodie, knee high socks, bicycle shorts, and yoga pants, in addition to the attire I would normally be found in a beach environment.  Yes, I did wear a bikini underneath, because that’s what you wear to the beach, even if the sand is covered in snow. Oh and once I got to the beach, I added my knee length wool Jackie O powder pink trench coat, gloves, and powder pink snow cap. I was ready!

The motivation for this trip was that I have been on PEI for 10 days now, and haven’t exercised once, unless you count all the work my thumb has been doing during commercials on the remote control. I’m definitely not complaining. The fact that I have been able to lay in bed and watch tv for the first time in months is fantastic! I wasn’t sure if I still could lay perfectly still and not move for hours. Turns out I can. It also turns out that if you continue to eat while doing this non-activity, you can gain a few pounds in as short as a week. Haha. Also, the cold is a bit shocking, but really, 10 days should be an appropriate acclimation period. You can only claim having been to Kenya for so long. Oh and as if that wasn’t enough, there have been baby seals washing up on shore and the possibility of seeing one provides fantastic motivation for a lovely walk!

I drove up to the north shore and got out and had a lovely walk on the red sand. The water was crashing to my right and the frozen red cliffs covered in snow were to my left. It was such an odd mix of winter and summer scenes held together by a mixture of sand and red dirt, oh and extreme cold.  I left all technology back in the car: cell phones, ipod, laptop, etc, and had only my camera with me…just in case a baby seal were to appear. I could see my breath and was surprised that the sand moved underneath my feet the same way. Physically speaking, I knew sand wouldn’t freeze, but when you see snow nearby, you expect something different to happen.

Despite the cold weather, one of the things I love about PEI is that the sky is clear and blue. There are nice puffy clouds without being overcast. The air felt crisp. It was a nice serene walk, without the interruption of music, tv, or talking, and I found that my mind was ready for 90 minutes of this. After that, I needed more noise than the sounds of the waves crashing. Since no one was around, I started singing out loud. Unfortunately, I don’t know the lyrics to that many songs so I belted out the broadway tunes that I do know to the wind. The nearby seagulls got to hear selections from Wicked, Gypsy, and a bonus song by Ceelo Green. I rounded out my nice 10km walk after about 2 hours. It was beautiful, and I even got a glimpse of a seal. Sadly, it only used to be a seal and was now a pelt. This was sad and a bit of a surprise to see, but it was good motivation to get me out and enjoying the nice day. I’m glad to be back on PEI and happier still to be out and about. With a big start like this, who knows where this summer will go!