It's snowing!

This morning I woke up and there was snow on the ground outside! Crazy! It then continued to snow this afternoon and I'm sure when it comes December I probably won't be as excited about the snow as I am now. I have now been in Hay River a few days and I am beginning to settle in. The people here are really lovely and the staff at the school have been wonderful in lending me warm winter coats, boots and extra bedding! The girls I live with are great! Elizabeth is Canadian and is here for a year volunteering at the High School and Annabelle, who is from Quebec in Canada, is also here for a year and she is working at the French school here. Annabelle is an amazing cook and is always whipping up incredible meals. She is also trying to teach us French (although I am really bad at it) as she wants to improve her English.

I am still finding my way around my new role at the schools here. I am answering to Miss Nelson which is kind of weird and would much prefer to be called Laine, but rules are rules. I am slowly getting to know the students and trying to remember names, all of the students are lovey and I am looking forward to getting to know them better. In the mornings I spend two hours with the kindergarten (Prep) class spending time with individual students helping with reading and writing. This has been quite the experience as I'm not so use to such little ones, they are very cute.. and helping me develop patience! After that I am supervising the Year 7 lunch room and then am out in the yard which has been great to get to know kids. After lunch I have been spending time with individual students where extra help is needed or doing whatever needs to be done around the school. I'm looking forward to getting involved in more as I get to know my way around!

Hay River

This afternoon I arrived in Hay River. After a very squishy and bumpy ride in a small plane I was picked up at the airport by the school principal and given a quick tour of the town and the middle school. Even though it is warm and sunny today there was a lot of references to ice, snow and the river floods due to 'break-ups' and other foriegn winter terms. I'm sure it will be a different experience as it gets colder. First impressions of Hay River are very good as everyone is so friendly and my new housemates are awesome. I am living with two girls, both from Canada, one is a volunteer with Frontiers at the High School and the other is a teacher at the French School here. They have both been here a week so we are all finding our feet together an I am excited by how much they both love it here after only a week. We are living in a cute little house across from the school. It may need a few 'Laine' touches but I'm sure it will feel like home in no time.

I can't wait to write more and add some photos as I see and explore some more!

McLeod's Daughters

If you know me well you'll know that ever since the very first episode aired I have had a deep longing to be a McLeod's Daughter. I have followed the series, carefully ensuring that nothing else clashed with the Wednesday night 7:30pm time slot in the early days and then later revisiting the drama and adventure by hiring out the complete series on DVD with my housemates, critiquing the characters decisions in love and farming and dreaming about a life on Drover's Run! Claire and Tess clearly had it all!

With McLeod's being such an amazing show I was not surprised to learn that repeats air several times a week here in Canada and I can not only get my fix of the Aussie accent but once again dream of being a McLeod's daughter. The strength of the female spirit, the community of the bush, riding off across the land on horseback, and the extremely high likelihood of running into your attractive male neighbors while a checking a fence. McLeod's daughter's (while biologically or some far off cousin of a cousin) fight for their land and heritage, sticks together and persevere... often through droughts, hostage attempts, bankruptcy, unwanted land development, car crashes, rolled tractors, bombs, broken windmills, stolen livestock, numerous mobsters and endless romances.

While I may never be a true McLeod's daughter I have realised however how much I long for the country life, the community of a small town and the open spaces of being on the land. I have now been in Canada for three months and it scares me how much I LOVE being not in the city. I look forward to hitting up Hay River and I try not to think about the possibility that I may never live in Melbourne again, who knows eh?

The joy of life...

If I find in myself....

Hay River here I come!

After doing some travelling and seeing the beautiful Canadian country I was feeling ready to settle somewhere for a few months. I looked into many different opportunities for work or volunteering but nothing really seemed to sit right, until I came across a education project in the Northwest Territories. It was something that grabbed me straight away but thought I was probably too late as schools started any day and the project asked for a 10 month commitment whereas I was only planing on being in Canada until December. I fired off an email anyway not thinking anything would come of it. It turned out however that a school in Hay River who already had one volunteer was requesting another and that they would be happy to have me for the three months I could commit too. From there everything happened very fast and after a lovely phone interview everything was set.

I'll be flying out to Hay River within the week to help out in the schools there. My role will pretty much be doing whatever needs to be done including classroom help, hanging out with students, student welfare to coaching sporting teams. Volunteers who come to the community also often get involved in running other youth programs and events for the community like plays, music nights, sports night etc. I am really excited about what I'll be able to get involved in.

The project is one where my role in the school will be a volunteer role however the project covers the cost of my travel there, my food and accommodation and provides some small spending money. From what I understand it is a community of about 3600 people with a large native population and therefore life sometimes operates a little differently. I can already see that there is a very strong sense of community and I really look forward to getting to know people in the town.

I've been told that I'll be able to borrow some winter clothing as temperatures can get to -40 degrees. The other downside is that in the middle of winter there is very limited daylight but I've been told that the auroras (the northern lights) in the sky are breathtaking!

I'm really looking forward to experiencing life differently to anything before and I'm hoping I can build some great relationships with the youth. I'm also looking forward to trying new things like ice-skating on a frozen lake, ice fishing and riding a ski-doo!

Here are some beautiful photographs taken from the blog of David Overall who has been a volunteer in the Northwest Territories for the past year.

Camping at Nordegg

I love that Canada has a long weekend every month because it means there are always people organising to get away for the weekend. This September long weekend I was invited camping and so I jumped at the chance to see more of Canada. We headed to the Mountains near Nordegg, left our vehicle and hiked into an beautiful spot near the river and set up camp. Unfortunately it poured rain the whole hike in but after setting up camp and a roaring fire we soon dried off and it cleared up enough to head up the mountain and hike up to the top. It was quite a hike and I felt it in my legs the next day but as with all hikes such beautiful views from the top.

The weather was a little insane and I couldn't believe how quickly it would change. One minute it would be completely clouded over and within 30 the clouds would move and the sun would shine. At one point while we were sitting at the top it actually began to snow, crazy!

I have to admit I'm a little paranoid about bears. Going to pee in the bush doesn't really bother me however I didn't really like the feeling that a bear could be lurking around the next tree so I probably didn't drink as much liquids as I should have. Can't wait to go camping again back in Australia where you don't have to worry about tying all your food and toiletries up a tree! A great time and so glad I got so see more of beautiful Canada!

Ahhh Shuswap!!!

It worked out well that friends were heading to their cabin at Shuswap Lake so I jumped in with them as they were coming through Banff and spent a few days at the cabin again! This time the weather was a little warmer so was lucky enough to do a bit of skiing and swimming!

The lake at Shuswap is so beautiful and such a relaxing and fun place to hang out! Thanks Price Cousins!!

The Rocky Mountains

From Vancouver I took the overnight Greyhound to Banff. Surprisingly the 13 hour ride wasn't too bad and I managed to get a few hours sleep here and there. It was largely uneventful however I had a little chuckle to myself when a 14 or 15 year old boy got on at one of the stops and despite trying very hard to act tough he ended up falling asleep on my shoulder.

In Banff I had a day to explore before the Moose tour started. Even though Banff is incredibly touristy I really liked it. It was a beautiful town with some great little shops and it was not hard to spend the day with a coffee in hand just wandering around. Personally I recommend paying a visit to Canada's Best Ice Cream, where the flavors wowie-cowie and messy-bessie were definite winners.

The following morning I jumped on the Moose Tour and we set off to explore the Rocky Mountains. As a general statement the Rocky Mountains would have to rate right up there as one of my favorite places, SO incredibly stunning. Everything in the Rocky Mountains seems to be on a 'massive' scale. Enormous mountains, massive glaciers, huge lakes, rivers and waterfalls. Words really can't describe how amazing this part of the world is. I found myself constantly repeating the words 'wow, that's so beautiful'. I decided I had to learn some Dutch words for 'nice' and 'very beautiful' from Iris, a girl from the Nederlands, just so I could mix up my vocabulary a bit. Pa- I'll test them on you when I get back!

Our first stop on the tour was Lake Minnewanka where an incredible reflection of the mountains appeared on the surface of the lake. From there we headed to the famous Lake Louise. Honestly I would have to say that Lake Louise was probably one of my least favorite places. The lake was beautiful and the hotel was massive but overall very crowded and touristy. However, from Lake Lousie we did a 14km hike up to the Plain of 6 Glaciers which offered great views of the lake and glaciers (and some good exercise)!

Lake Minnewanka

Lake Louise

Lake Louise. Plain of 6 Glaciers in the background

The Hike

The Plain of 6 Glaciers lookout

After the hike we took it easy and stopped off to check out Crowfoot Glacier (the lower toe now melted), then Bow Lake and Bow Glacier before arriving at our wilderness hostel, Rampart Creek. Such a awesome hostel, just a few shacks in the middle of the forest. While there was no running water the hostel had a great little woodfire sauna shed and after sweltering, a dip in the 4C river was very refreshing! Also that evening Iris from the Netherlands, asked me cut her hair. All we could find were blunt scissors. She was well aware of the risks (and my previous lack of hairdressing experience) however after quite a bit of laughing I am pleased to report that she loved it, so much so she wanted me to cut it shorter. I suggested she should probably wait for a professional.

Crowfoot Glacier

Rampart Creek Wilderness Hostel

The next day we headed off to Athabasca Glacier at Columbia Ice fields. It was a massive glacier and really interesting to see the markers pointing to how far it had receded in the last 100 years. Apparently it recedes 2-3 metres per year and has receded over 1.5km in the last 125 years. From there we checked out Tangled Falls then headed to Horseshoe Lake which was one of the big highlights of the tour. Not only was this lake incredibly beautiful and such an amazing colour, I think I loved this spot so much because I got to swim in it! It's hard to describe the feeling of swimming there, it's like you can't humanly get any closer to the beauty, you're in it! It was amazing!

Athabasca Glacier

Tangled Falls

Horseshoe Lake

Swimming in Horseshoe Lake

After our swim we spent some time exploring the town of Jasper which was a lovely little town. Jasper is smaller than Banff and definitely less touristy but just doesn't quite have that same mountain feel. We then headed to our wilderness hostel, Edith Cavell Hostel, at the base of Mt Edith Cavell. It was another beautiful hostel in the middle of the forest and was a perfect evening for a BBQ dinner and campfire.

Edith Cavell Wilderness Hostel

Off to the stunning Mt Edith Cavell where we hiked up the mountain, through the beautiful mountain meadows, to the lookout which offered amazing views of surrounding mountains and the stunning Angel Glacier and glacial lake at it's base. It was another big hike but whilst you feel like you're going to die as you go uphill the feeling and the views at the top are definitely worth it! The mountain was named after English nurse Edith Cavell who was executed buy firing squad after treating and helping allied soldiers leave occupied Belgium during World War I.

Angel Galcier - half way to the Mt Edit Cavell Meadows lookout

I definitely wasn't smiling on the inside - so steep!

The top! 

The lake at the base of Angel Glacier

The lake at the base of Angel Galcier

After our big hike we headed to Leech Lake to rest our weary bones and get ourselves a natural pedicure. By sticking our feet into the lake large schools of small trout would surround our feet and nibble off all the dead skin. It sounds totally gross but once you got over the initial ticklish feeling and the desire to let out girlish screams it was actually quite relaxing and I can honestly say my feet had never felt so smooth!

From Leech lake we headed to Maligne Canyon and took a walk along the canyon taking in the many amazing rock formations and waterfalls before arriving at the hostel in Jasper.

Maligne Canyon

The next morning we set off once again and checked out Athabasca Falls and then off to a shorter hike up to Parker Ridge. The views of the Saskatchewan Glacier from the ridge were really stunning and it was one of my favorite views. Just for some interesting facts (well interesting to me) the Saskatchewan Glacier is the source of the North Saskatchewan River which flows east through Canada and is the biggest river system in the country. Apparently it takes over two and a half years for the water from the glacier to get to the Atlantic Ocean.

Athabasca Falls

Parker Ridge Trail (felt like I was in a scene from the Sound of Music)

North Saskatchewan Glacier

After lunch at the weeping wall we finished up the tour with two of the most spectacular lakes, Moraine Lake and Peyto Lake. I could have sat overlooking both of these lakes for hours they were just so beautiful. To view Moraine Lake we climbed up a mountain of rocks and sat in the nature made 'rock sofa' where as at Peyto Lake we hiked up to a lookout. The colours of these lakes, like Lake Louise, were spectacular and I learned that the colour was due to the sediment called rock-flour that the water collected on its way over the rocks into the lake. Depending on the time of year the colour of the water may change due to the amount of rock-flour that is in the lake.

Peyto Lake

Moraine Lake

Back in Banff we all had dinner together and said our goodbyes.  It was such a great tour, fun people and a great combination of good hiking and spectacular sights! I also loved that I learnt so many new things. Not only have I learn't how to keep away bears (I listened pretty closely) but I know know about glaciers and ice-ages and elk and moose, and things that I never thought I'd be so interested in. LOVED IT!!

I know this is a long post... I won't be offended if you only look at the pictures!