Oh Canada

The Edwards came up for Canada Day in Ottawa.  This was my first time experiencing the holiday in Ottawa, let alone, Canada.  It's pretty spectacular and it was fun to have guests.  We watched the fireworks display at Parliament from the roof of my house. 

P.S. My mom got me a sweet new lens for my camera for birthdayness... the fun begins.

Alaskan Alliterations

Summer 2008: phase II.

It goes like this:

Ottawa-Toronto-Winnipeg-Jasper-Abbotsford-Mount Vernon-Fort Saint John-Watson Lake-Hyder-Terrace-Mount Vernon-Seattle-Missoula-Laramie-Denver-Ottawa.

Travel from Toronto by train.

Drive deliriously during delayed daylight...

Arrive at Alaska.

Witness Wyoming wedding.

Randomly reunite with relatives.

[photo credits: Jono, Bonnie, Martha].

ECL 8640

Summer has officially begun.  Equinox, schmequinox.

First destination: NYC, complete with a delightful New Paltz/Marge & Jean stop on the way.

Also included, stays in Stony Brook; revisitations of times past and Times Square:

Dear New York,

Thanks for the fun times.

Love,

Romalie & Kiki 

[The Metropolitan Museum of Art]

[Southwest view from the Empire State Building]

[Fire Island Beach (minus the nudists)]

[NYC companions]

There was also the relatively short stop in Willow Grove for hugs from nieces and the ridiculously long afternoon/evening spent unexpectedly on a very congested Pennsylvania highway.

Summer, 2008, to be continued...

Semester in Review or Vignettes of Romalie as Seen By Students

My house is [almost] empty now.  The semester ended last weekend and three days later summer also arrived--  Just like that.  It's flip-flop/shorts weather, straight from the mandatory toque/mitten days just a couple weeks ago.  I've never before experienced a spring this sudden.

Just a few pictures of me taken by the students this past semester... a bit of what my life is sometimes like or, maybe more aptly, how the students sometimes see me.

The class of Spring 2008... and me looking suspiciously Nazi-like whilst organizing the shot.

Painting my house/Reading the morning news/Calculating a tip/Dinner with a food group

In Montreal in February...

Reading the map/Me and my dutiful followers/Trying to redeem my poor reputation of vertical leapage

Exit: March 2008

I turned off my alarm clock in my sleep on Wednesday for the first time in ten years-- the caterers finally woke me up with the doorbell after four rings.

I had a laugh attack at the dentist's yesterday-- she was just cleaning my teeth, so I didn't even have the drugs as an excuse.

I'm ridiculously excited for Spring to arrive in Ottawa; the only season I haven't experienced yet this month is fall.  I find something profound, but difficult to articulate, in the postural changes of people walking on the street directly correlative to changes in the weather.

Only two weeks left in this semester at the LLC.

There's nothing like a blank 'blog entry page awaiting to rid my mind of coherent thoughts.

[photo: Main exit at the Diefenbunker: Canada's Cold War bunker].