We've had a busy end of August. J began his Obstetrics rotation, I interviewed for jobs, and we had some tremendous visitors - both overnight and for another dinner party!
I'm happy to report that I've been offered a substitute teaching position at Praire Spirit School Division - it's the one that is for the little towns just outside Saskatoon. I've been busy filling out forms and submitting the paperwork, so hopefully I'll be able to receive call outs very soon. School has started here in Saskatchewan. We have a Catholic Elementary School right across the street from our house, so on September 2 I had fun watching the small people whose backpacks are approximately two-thirds of their body size, struggle up to the school and go inside, ready for learning. I know that the situation is not yet resolved in BC, so I sincerely hope that an agreement is negotiated soon. Teachers want to be teaching and students certainly need to be learning!
On regular shift days, J gone from quarter to seven in the morning until after six o'clock in the evening. During call shifts, he's at the hospital for a bit over 24 hours. He's adapted and gotten into the swing of things and is generally feeling very useful and like he's chosen the right specialty. He loves it! He's been getting to do deliveries (lots of deliveries!), assist with C-Sections, assess new patients who come in, and check on the post-partum mothers. Before he started the rotation we had to go to a certain big box store and buy him some Croc-like rubber shoes - the ones WITHOUT holes, mind you. He needs them for the inevitable dump of amniotic fluid. Hence the lack of holes and the easy clean material!
Our first visitor this August, was my dear friend M. We go way back to Grade 6 when I first arrived in the Comox Valley. She's living in Alberta now, so we rejoiced over the fact that we are now just a straight and easy (if long) drive away from each other. The weather cooperated beautifully while she was here, so I took her on a gorgeous bike ride up the river valley. We stopped off at the Farmer's Market on our way home and picked up some gorgeous veggies, local cheese, and a delicious rhubarb wine, made by Living Sky Winery right here in Saskatchewan. By the time that we got home, we were so hot that we had to go and run around in the Splash Park that is across the street from my house! There were a few young teenagers who really enjoyed throwing buckets of water at us, but we didn't care as it cooled us down!
M stayed until Friday last week and then it was time for her to return home. J and I did a quick house clean and turn around, then got ready for our dinner party with his resident colleagues on Saturday. This time we had an Indian menu - J made Tandoori chicken, rice, and naan, and I did the veggies. The other residents brought some fabulous appetizers, like bocconcini, tomatoes, and basil, and a crab dip, as well as a fantastic dessert of triple chocolate brownies. Everything was delicious, but we're all going to have to triple our work outs if we keep eating at this rate!
Then on Sunday, J's mum D and her friend appeared after doing the long drive from Victoria to Saskatoon. They did it in three days like we did and made very good time. They drove J's Subaru out here, so now we have two cars! (Just in time for cold weather - J has been biking to work throughout the summer, but when the weather turns he will drive.) The four of us took a trip out to The Berry Barn for perogies, farmer's sausage, and Saskatoon Berry pie on Labour Day and toured about our new city. On Tuesday, we went out to the Prairie Harvest Cafe to enjoy supper and even ordered Maple Bacon doughnuts for dessert. I was the only one who actually liked the Maple Bacon doughnuts, however! (They reminded me of French Toast with bacon and berry sauce.) D and I took a trip out to the Prairie Spirit School Board office for me to deliver my papers and get set up for their automated call out system. The office is in Warman, SK, which is a bedroom community of Saskatoon. It took us about 20 minutes to drive out to Warman, which is a faster commute than I was doing to get out to the Saanich School District from Fairfield, when we were living in Victoria. This being said, in the winter, it will probably take a bit longer than 20 minutes.
Yesterday I put D on the airplane to return home after going to London Drugs to print off a few wedding pictures for her. We really enjoyed her visit and are looking forward to our visit home at Christmas! Being so far away from home is the one bummer about being here... However, we are definitely making friends and keeping busy. I've finished our wedding scrapbook and am ignoring the weeds in the garden. We've got cucumbers like crazy, green peppers, and an eggplant that I'd originally thought was a zucchini! We're going to be busy tomorrow with J's car, as we now need to go through the Saskatchewan registration process with it. Luckily it only needed some minor repairs before it could be certified for Saskatchewan roads.
J and I have a BBQ to go to tomorrow evening. The staff (re: Attending Physicians) are throwing it for the residents and apparently over 70 people have RSVP'd already. Tonight I'm going to take it easy and kick back, re-reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it! It's the story of her family's year of local eating.
Talk to you all soon!
Love, S + J and J + S
