Day 1 in Newfoundland

Hi everyone,

So instead of trying to update everyone by e-mail, I decided to start a blog to document my work year in Newfoundland, and all can read it at their leisure and comment if they desire.

This blog entry is a modified version of an e-mail.

Day1:
Newfoundland, here I am. It was an eventful day. First off, our car broke down on the way to the airport, so we had to call a cab to pick us up from the side of the highway. Thankfully, my mom made us leave early enough that I arrived at the airport in good time despite the incident. Once on the plane, we were about to take off, when there was an announced medical emergency, and we had to turn around to drop off the ill passenger. That delayed us an hour and a half. Thankfully, the teacher I am working and living with, as most Nuffies, is as relaxed as ever, and was not bothered at all by the delay. It was another hour and a half drive before we finally arrived into Springdale. 

Our yard.

I have a great living situation. The place I am staying at over looks the coast on the south side, with a view of a chain of mountains in the distant background. I have yet to learn the names of those mountains. My room is quite large, furnished with romantic white dresser and drawers, and covered in flowery wall paper.  My room is also pre-furnished with a lot of angels figurines. I guess they can look over me. We also have a self-sufficient black cat named Black Beauty, which I am still unsure if I might be semi-allergic to.

View from our porch.

I haven't had the energy to unpack, nor check up on my bike. I live in town and am fortunate to be only a 5-10 minute walk to most amenities, no different than what I am use to in back home and in Toronto and Montreal. The only amenity I have missed so far are the local coffee shops. So far I only know of one coffee shop, and that is Tim Hortons which is near the edge of town. (The Tim Hortons is one of the town's main attraction and dare I say pride.) There are two grocery stores (which open from 9am-9pm!), two thrift store, one clothes department store, one Sears, one Subway, one chicken fast food chain named Mary Browns, which is apparently really popular in Newfoundland, I think two pizza place, one cinema, and two banks (Bank of Montreal and Bank of Nova Scotia), neither of which is my bank. After having lived in Ontario, Quebec and now Newfoundland, if I were to reconsider opening an account with another bank, the Bank of Montreal wins for having a good spread of service across Canada.

Bo Jo's next to the Salvation Army thrift store on Main St.

Across the street from Bo Jo's; two different looking worlds.

I am such an ignorant city girl, because I realize, I probably should have taken in consideration friends' advice on rural Canada and bought some all terrain bike tires while I was still in a big city. The main roads are paved, however when a car comes, the towns' people recommend that bikes squeeze over on to the gravel shoulder until the car has passed. Also most side roads to various residential areas are only paved in gravel. The nearest bike shop is two hours away in Corner Brook, and it turns out, it is advisable to call the shop in advance to verify that the sought out item is in fact in-stock, or that it needs to be pre-ordered by the shop before you arrive. Another reality of rural Newfoundland is that apparently there is a Walmart one hour away in Grand Falls, but that one would be lucky to find what one desired in-stock since the instant that stock arrives, the stock is said to be consumed at great speed by everyone else who have equally patiently been waiting for it.

Neat Newfoundland fact: It was already supper time when I arrived. They eat supper around 5pm. Breakfast is in the morning, dinner is at noon, and lunch is a snack right before bed! If I get invited for a meal, I need to make sure I have the meal time straight!