Redemption? Recovery? Recividism?

I've been thinking about why there is such a taboo around the notion of suicide, that it is the only act beyond all sense of redemption. A patient recently came to me, telling me he had tried several times this week to die unsuccessfully, and if I would not help him, no one could. Grabbing me by the shoulders and looking me in the eye, he stated that if he could not get help, he would walk out and jump off a building. And I believed him.
But I wonder why such things are looked upon as mental instability. People point out that Judas the traitor hung himself after he had performed the 'sin of sins' by betraying the Son of God, and that is why (simplistically, I think) suicide is wrong. However, Aristotle poisoned himself surrounded by his followers at the end of his life, and no one rejects his writings out of hand because of it.
I am not so sure why we single out Judas as the ultimate of traitors. It's written that "all of [the disciples] will betray [Jesus]", and all of them, indeed, did flee and betray Him. However, I also note that Judas was the only one noted to have tried to make things right without being asked. He was the one, trying to beg for His life, returning the money, proclaiming that he was wrong. Peter, on the other hand, just stands around and cries when he realizes that he's in the wrong, and doesn't actually ever apologize for his betrayal. (Yes, yes, I heard the interjectors saying, "But he was too ashamed to actually apologize; he needed Jesus to bring him back into fellowship with Him, just as we need Him to initiate fellowship with us") However, I also note that Judas was the only one to feel enough anguish at his betrayal to -believe- that he was beyond redemption, and so ended his life. I know it is possible to feel enough sorrow, enough pain, to want to bring it to an end, and I wonder if Judas, of all the disciples, was the only one to understand the depth of their betrayal.
I think there is still room for redemption for Judas, -despite- his suicide, as there is for all of us, traitors and betrayors all. It -is- only through death that we can walk into life again, so I can only look to Judas and wonder....

Merry Christmas!

So I was thinking about some of the reasons why I appreciate my parents, and a few of them revolve around Christmas. Some of these things, I think, have been quite formative in how and why I think about certain things. I was chatting with a friend of mine, and he reminded me of this while we were talking about when/where we were having Christmas dinner this year. Most years for almost as long as I can remember, my folks have always invited people who were not family to eat with us and our family. Certainly, we don't eat all Norman Rockwell style; most of the time, we eat standing around the kitchen island, but that's besides the point. We've had foreign students, recent immigrants and single parents, both Christian and not, sit at various times around our 'table' for Christmas (admittedly also, most of the time, they're exclusively Korean people, but that's also besides the point). I think that is something that I profoundly respect about my folks. Their table has always remained open to people who had nowhere else to go for Christmas. We didn't have a turkey, nor any cranberry sauce this year (sadly), but I think this was the first time that I really saw the diversity around our table. And I think that makes up for any lack of cranberry sauce and turkey... Merry Christmas to you all... I hope you had a lovely one....

Feed the birds, tuppence a bag...

I am usually struck with the prevalence and profundity of depression, in all its forms. Sometimes I feel like these walking wounded are abnormally attracted to me, sensing in me some kinship or ability to walk alongside them on their descent to hell. I know that this was long-debated many moons ago about 'how tied up' in patients we get, but still... One of my preceptors once said that you end up with the practice you deserve. Some, I suppose, end up with the personalities, the anxious, the entitled, the various psychosomatisms, which would certainly not be my desire. I am not sure if the profoundly depressed are my particular little birds that I am to protect... Perhaps the ensuing folie a deux produces a vortex that helps shoot them out of the tornado, while I'm left spinning around in the dregs that are left...

Food for Thought (FFT) I

"I don't think you can live with the flat, metallic lakes, the brooding firs and pines, and the great expanses of grey rock that stretch all the way from Yellowknife to Labrador, with the naked birches and the rattling aspens, with the ghostly call of the loon and the haunting cry of the wolf, without being a very special kind of person." -- Pierre Berton

About snow tires

So I've successfully driven back out to the countryside last night, despite bad snow squalls and white-out conditions on several of the roads along the way; it took me an extra hour to get up there than it usually would b/c of this, with several rumblings of the roadsides when I swerved over the sides....
Which brings me to the snow tire issue; I know a few people have suggested that I get some for safety's sake. However, I did manage to get by 2.5 winters in Ottawa without them. Also, I'm looking at it from the perspective of probability; I get the feeling that my car, in general, being forced into going head-to-head with a truck/side rail/SUV/compact sedan/mini van, will likely lose. I thus suspect that if I was in a serious enough accident, I would probably die. Which, honestly, I think is better than being left quadriplegic. Which, after having seen many patients (today included) who have been left in various severe levels of disability d/t motor vehicle crashes, is not really my inclination. I figure, if I get snow tires, it just increases the chances that I would survive a crash. Not my inclination. "It's better to burn out than to fade away" states Tom Petty. I'd be inclined to agree; I think I'd rather smash up spectacularly than be partially crumpled.
On another note: I'm staying at this lovely little farm house B&B, so I just thought I would put a little advertising plug in for them: http://www.cedarbraeinn.ca/ . The hosts are lovely people, and it's a beautiful piece of property (though, admittedly, it's under a heck of a lot of snow right now, so I dunno what it looks like when it's all not snowy). It's nice to look out the window and just see trees and snow-covered fields out to the horizon....

Starting a landslide in my ego... A Day without me

I'm not entirely even sure how to start writing this one... I think I've been thinking a bit on archetypes: Love, death, self, sacrifice, etc. I don't have anything cohesive to say yet, but I think with the soul shrinking and other effects over the past couple of weeks may yet dredge up something potentially useful. Or it may bring up something more dark, terrifying and mystifying yet...

With literary and imagination regards to Brian...

So there was this contest in Ottawa to win tickets to the U2 concert, which, despite my many entries, I didn't win. So I'm going to post some of the better ones for ppl to peruse and see if maybe they would've picked mine... basically, you were supposed to write a very short answer to the question (very paraphrased) of how faith mingles with art and politics in U2's music.
Thanks of course to Brian who has helped my lack of arts-brain to think theologically about culture over the years too....

“Grace, she takes the blame, she covers the shame, removes the stain… a thought that changed the world… [and] makes beauty out of ugly things.”. “Touch me, take me to that other place, teach me, I know I’m not a hopeless case.”. A life touched by grace cannot help but offer hope and redemption to a hurting world. This is where Bono’s art and politics reach out to offer beauty and healing. He writes to “open up to the Lamb of God, to the love of He who made the blind to see… He’s coming back, oh believe Him.” (Very incomplete, but that was the word limit)

Hope amidst despair, resurrection amidst death: the dominant themes used in Bono's lyrics for decades now. Whether "claiming the victory Jesus won" on "Sunday Bloody Sunday", to declaring that "You broke the bonds, loosed the chains, carried the cross of my shame", Bono has consistently written about the only One who is able to offer hope. He realizes this when he declares that he "was born, a child of grace... all because of You, 'I AM' [YHWH]". The natural outflow of receiving of grace is helping heal Earth's wounds; for Bono, this is by his arts and his politics.

Anyways, the other ones kind of followed along those lines. Obviously not enough to score tickets though; apparently the winner talked about how Bono and Ali have been married for 25+ years now, though how that answers the original question, I'm not really sure... I'm suspecting a conspiracy about homogenized Christian radio that values 'family values' more than actual Christian thought...

Mr. Puffy

This morning, the weather forecaster says it feels like -15 with the windchill right now. Also, snow's supposed to be coming tonight, and I'm on call at the hospital overnight... all this leads to: It is time. Time for Mr. Puffy to come on out! Yeah!

Death and it's trappings

While I've been up here in Chesley, I've had to go to various nursing homes to declare some deaths. This isn't a particularly new experience for me. However, I've always felt a little bit silly when I've gotten the call. What on earth do you say, as a complete stranger, to a family who has just lost a loved one, especially as a stranger who's there to "make sure" their loved one is really dead? How silly do I look when I call their name, expecting them not to answer? Or when I shine a light into their eyes, not expecting a squint or a response? Or when I listen to their chests, not expecting to hear a heartbeat?

That, I think, is the one thing that always still profoundly affects me every single time. When you listen to a living, breathing chest, you can hear the air circulating amongst the millions of alveoli, can hear the litres of blood pumping through the heart, every murmur, every bruit, every crackle, every wheeze. It sounds -alive- and vibrantly so.....

But the deadness of the silence of a heart that is stilled.... it's an echo that reverberates through your stethoscope that just goes on and on in the deepness of silence.... I think I get a small chill every time I hear that... I think it's the finality of that silence that always jars me for a bit.... For a small moment, it reminds me again of how small and narrow the line between life and death truly is...

The moment passes... I put back on my professional veneer and express my condolences to the family, and leave them to grieve and mourn their loved one's mortality, while I go to ponder my own...

Postcards from the Edge Episode XI Part XV

You know what's really scary about driving down country roads? Last night was really really rainy, and tonight was really really snowy. Not so bad if you're just staying in, but I've been driving around the area having dinner with various friends who live in other towns around here.... SCARY driving in my little car.... No lights, unless you're driving through a town, or you pass a farmhouse, or another car comes at you.... no street signs, so you pretty much have to know where you're going, or if you don't, at least know several different routes to your destination in case you miss Sideroad 10 or something (which is what I did last night)... but at least the ditches on the sides of the road are small, so you can't do toooo much damage... Tonight was pretty scary, as winds were gusting up to about 60-70 km/hr, and I couldn't see anything except the three or four feet in front of me and most of it was blowing snow; nothing out the back windows, nothing out the sides... One of the main things I was thinking about was: "If I get blown over into a ditch, and I break my arms or lose consciousness so I can't get to my phone, I certainly hope the OPP can call most ppl on my cell phone list to tell them that I'm dead or something".... However, I made it back from both destinations just fine (though driving much less quickly than I usually do).... aaahhh! The snow's sticking to the ground!
On the other hand, I really really like the way ladies in small towns call you "Hon" all the time, like "Oh, hon, that's just 'round the corner and down the street. You think you'll be OK getting there, hon?" or "That'll be $7.62, hon". I like it, it's sweet. At least I'm not being called "ma'am"... :)

Motivations and caveats

So, I'm back in the little town of Chesley, and, being given the grace of having leisure time again, I've decided to try to consolidate all the still-in-existence PFTEs (which, unfortunately, the first few Episodes are missing, and, I realize, many of the older ones are in storage somewhere, so it may take a while to transcribe them online)... someone had suggested to start a blog, as that might make my life a bit easier....
So here I am, running a blog, possibly one of the bigger neo-Luddites that there are around... I do, however, see the increased flexibility (hmmm, seems to be one of the running themes this year) of having the blog... at least now when I go off on some rampage (like the previous post), it can be from the perspective of the blog, rather than, strictly speaking, a 'postcard'....
I think it may also be useful in that I can finally get a real sense as to who is actually reading these things, and who just junks them when they land in the mailbox too...
At any rate, hopefully, you guys might get a bit more of a kick out of this, hopefully, I'll be a little bit broader in what I write about (ie PFTEs will still clearly be from abroad and away, and other extraneous stuff can end up here too), and hopefully, I'll write a little more frequently as well... (maybe)...

Postcards from the Edge Episode XI Part XIV

I know it's rather unusual that I would write a PFTE from the confines of Toronto or Ottawa, but I think I've been struck enough by being in Toronto that perhaps I should write. Certainly the culture-shock of being back here has been more striking this time around than even when going overseas to Africa. I can't quite put my finger on -why- that is, per se, as I've lived in this city for most of my lifetime. I've been working on this PFTE for a few weeks now (which is also not typical; usually I just type 'em up and send 'em off), as I'm not sure how this will come across since this is an observation 'from home', and not 'away'.... it's not meant as an indictment of anyone particularly in Toronto... it's just what I've observed/felt, like I do anywhere that I go....
The hustle-bustle, hurdy-gurdy, rush rush rush cacaphony that is the reality of a city this size is starting to grate on my very soul. In other parts of the country, I've heard repeatedly about the dislike that most of the rest of Canada harbours towards Toronto, but, now that I am here, I can -feel- why this is so. It is not all terribly bad; certainly, walking through Kensington regularly heartens me, and I am currently on the hunt for the perfect pad thai. Most of my patients are quite nice, and most of the people that I work with are as well. However, I have always contended that work is not, and should not, be the all-encompassing part of life, engulfing most of the precious hours that we live (this is not to say that I'm completely hating my job; to the contrary, I think my job is one of the more interesting ones going, but that doesn't mean it should gobble up my time like a big piece of tiramisu...)... I am not sure if it is the contrast between the isolation of the north, where, geographically speaking, you are alone (which is not bad at all) to the isolation of the city, where, emotionally speaking, you are alone (which, when living shoulder-to-shoulder with millions of others, strikes you as bad). The wide open spaces, the trees, the stars and the skies speak to something (well, really, Someone) much larger than yourself, whereas the hurriedness and busy-ness of people in the city speak more to the small-mindedness that we develop when we are so minutely engaged in the details of our own little lives..... I am not so sure if it is the small-ness of the soul in the big city that I feel weighing down or if it is something other....
Some ponderings...
julia

Postcards from the Edge Episode XI Part XIII

So a few interesting notes since I've been up here: I finally went fishing for the first time in North America last week. After all that delicious fish in NWT, I felt maybe it was time to try to get some of my own (once I got over the hypocritical guilt pangs of deliberately trying to hunt something down to eat it). So I got myself a fishing licence and went out on the water (appropriately wearing my Tilley - that really made me look like I was supposed to go fish). Of course, I was the total city-slicker girl; someone else had to bait my hook with live minnows. But surprisingly, I was the only one in a boat to actually get a bite. Managed to land a 10 inch walleye without a net (though, of course, I screamed so loud when the fish landed, flopping around in the boat, they didn't really have a chance to grab a net, and then with my attempts to jump out of the boat to avoid getting slimy fish flesh all over myself... it was a pretty feeble, stereotypically city-girl response to catching a fish, I must embarassingly say). Bleah. Of course, then one of the men had to unhook my fish, hold it and measure it for me before it was determined to be too small to take home for dinner, so they threw it back in. -That- was rather anticlimactic. I didn't even get to eat my prey after all of that.... though I then returned home and had some previously caught pickerel, so I guess over all, I did get some fish for dinner, so that was good... :)
Yet another thing in the roster of "domestic skills learned abroad": I've learned how to can and preserve things; isn't that bizarre? I haven't yet made jam (on the other hand, blueberry season is wayyyy over here, so likely won't), but I did learn how to actually make things that can go in jars so they won't go bad.... that's small potatoes for some of the people on this list, but it's a big deal for me, so that goes right up there with scrapbooking... :)
Apparently, there have been many more bears wandering around town the last little while. Ever since the politically-motivated-by-people-in-the-south-elimination-of-the-spring-bear-hunt-because-bears-are-so-cute-we-shouldn't-kill-them three years ago, there have been many more bears wandering around where people actually live up in the North. I haven't seen any personally (yet), though there is basically just bush behind my house, and most of the bear sightings have been up in my area of town (in fact, the week before I arrived, a bear was wandering around in front of the emergency dept of the hospital). I really really really really want to see one, but I hope I don't, if that makes sense. The other night I was walking home from someone's house who lives up in the north end of town about a half hour from my house, walking by the (unlit) ball park and the (unlit) curling club and the (unlit) bush, kind of far-ish from any other houses, and thought nothing of it, until a couple of nurses told me the next day that that was not a terribly intelligent thing to do. Not that any people would harm me necessarily, but that the bears could... yikes...
Love you all!
julia

Postcards from the Edge Episode XI Part XII

Welcome back! I know I've been "off the air" for a few weeks, but as some of you know, I've been spending the past few weeks in Ottawa preparing for a friend's wedding (for those of you who have been breathlessly anticipating seeing some photos from said wedding, I'll send you links as soon as I get some...), and spending some time with my man Bono at the ACC :P (Thx to D & O !!) To those of you new to the series: Welcome!
I have now been back up in Sioux Lookout for the past few days. As you may recall, this is where I spent a good chunk of my springtime this year. It's nice to be back, as now there is no snow nor ice on the ground ( ! like there was in April ! ), and they're enjoying a bit of Indian summer (with no mosquitoes!! Whoopee!! ) before the winter comes.... at least I don't have to worry about tripping over ice on the way to the one and only supermarket in town :) (If you recall, back when I was here in March, I arrived the same w/e as the grand opening of said supermarket, which was the biggest thing to have happened in town for a while.... it -is- a very lovely and wonderful supermarket, so I can understand the fuss... It's like visiting a Great Canadian Superstore, or one of those massive Loblaws, so it's pretty impressive in a town this size... )
It's been a bit lovely-embarassing to be back in town, as many people have been so happy to see me come back, and remembering my name, and wondering how the weddings have gone, etc etc... whereas, dementia-afflicted that I am, I'm having a hard time keeping up with names and such. On the other hand, I jumped right back into the Bible study group that I had been with in the spring, and noticed how much their kids have all grown!!
Since for some reason, a good chunk of you believed that I spent my summer in the Yukon (is this b/c Canadians are geographically disabled, cause I know I am? Is it b/c most Canadians don't remember that Whitehorse is the capital of the Yukon, but Yellowknife is the capital of the NWT? Is it b/c only Gr. 9 geography is compulsory?), I am enclosing a map showing exactly where I am this time around, so there's no confusion.
For those of you who are interested, my home number up here is (807) 737-7252. There is an answering machine in the house, but I am not entirely sure how it works. Also, please keep in mind that I'm on Central Time. Also, I think it may be time to clean up my address list, so if you no longer wish to be part of this list, please let me know! Also, if there's anybody who should be on this list, but I keep forgetting to put them on, please also let me know!
Thinking of you all fondly,
Julia

Postcards from the Edge Episode XI Part XI

I didn’t really expect to write another one of these before I left the territory, but a few more interesting notes, and another corny joke:
What do you call a half order of bison? Unison! Har har har… groan…

At any rate, I’ve had the privilege of taking care of the Anglican bishop of the Arctic in the hospital last week. This is important as he was, and still is, very respected by the Inuit people, as he was sent here from England over fifty years ago, where he has spent his entire adult life, working in the North. Indeed, he’s written his memoirs in a rather well-known book (well, well-known for modern Inuit culture etc at any rate) published several years ago called “Igloo Dwellers Were My Church”, which he and his family gifted to me for taking care of him in hospital. I’m now busily reading it, as it also records how life has changed in the North since the 1950s… at any rate, I’ve just been struck with this gentleman and his legendary exploits in the North when he was younger, including dogsledding (!) over 4500km (!) every year (!) through the Arctic to visit his parishioners and translating the Bible into Inuinaktun single-handedly…
Furthermore, the last few days have been windy and very very rainy up here, flooding the gutters and sidewalks… it just kind of reminded me of Katrina, bearing down on the southern US, though not nearly similar in its ferocity or damage…
Now that’s really it… heading home in five days now…
julia

Postcards from the Edge Episode XI Part X

I’m heading home really soon, so there’s not that much to report: I’m working loads, trying to eat as much fish as I can before I go back and trying to visit people on their houseboats or in their homes before I skedaddle out of town. BUT, I wanted to share my new favorite joke: Did you hear about the Inuk who was told to move to Toronto? He would have Nunavut… har har har! OK, even people up here groaned when they heard the joke….
So one of the more curious things I’ve noted since I’ve been up here is my exposure to skills that have little to nothing to do with my work. I’ve learned how to scrapbook, make jewellery, run a day-care and home-school my children while I’ve been up here. Strange set of skills, but perhaps handy in a pinch. I think. Maybe. Not particularly useful if my car runs down, or my pants need hemming, but skills nonetheless…
One thing that struck me walking on the way to work this morning, and, I know I’ve written about this before when I was in Iqaluit, but ravens are very huge birds… they are the size of car tires! And they ‘caw caw’, like our blackbirds do, but it’s an ominous sounding cry… It’s almost kind of scary walking by them on the sidewalks, cause they really do look like they could fly up and gobble up your eyeballs… Actually, I think they would, given the opportunity… I understand the darkness in the choice of Poe’s The Raven…
I’ve encountered another “questionable intelligence patient” story, but it’s not really a story that I can write about in a family column like this… but certainly, new heights in ‘rolling my eyes’ have been achieved… If you’re interested in being grossed out or sickened, you can write, but otherwise, I guess you can just leave it to the imagination…
I’m heading home in the next two weeks, so I suspect I shall see a few of you in the next little while. Love you all!
julia

Postcards from the Edge Episode XI Part IX

So, it’s starting to get noticeably darker up here. The sun actually does go down, and the sky actually gets ‘dark’ now for a few hours every night. I don’t have to cover up my windows anymore at night in order to sleep (or maybe I’m used to sleeping with the lights on now?). I suppose being almost two months from the Summer Solstice (and, conversely, four months from the dead of winter), it’s not surprising that the sun changes so quickly up here. Incidentally, it’s also starting to get a bit chilly up here. Admittedly, being the cold wimp that I am, I haven’t exactly been ‘hot’ this whole summer. I brought up some shorts to YK for the summer heat…. Well, suffice it to say that I never actually got them out of the suitcase… ☺ People note up here at least I come home where there will still be summer-like weather, when they’ll certainly be entrenched in autumn.
Despite the non-hotness, I’ve still managed to get out on the rocks, lakes and trees of this landscape. I’ve eaten more roasted marshmallows and s’mores over the past few weeks than I think I ever have my entire life! And, the coolness causing me to cover up certainly protects from the insane mosquitos and black flies that are up here! (Really insane! They don’t even buzz, so you can’t hear them coming, and then you blow up like a balloon when they bite you, so it looks like you got beaten up by a baseball bat!)
The teens at my church up here are awesome (well, OK, so are the kids! ☺ ), and I’m totally loving them. It’s good to see such potential and childish hope and the NON-know-it-all-seen-it-all attitude that distinguishes them from many teens that I’ve met. I think in contrast with a lot of the messed up kids and equally messed up teenage moms that I have to work with up here, it gives me great hope to get through my workdays. I first met them back in June at a dinner the grown-ups had prepared for them. They had assumed I was one of them, and started chatting with me, until their parents pointed out that I was one of the doctors at the hospital… hee hee hee… they had me pegged at about 17 or 18 years old…. At any rate, it’s funny where the flowers are found when you go walking along the fields of life…

Love you all!
julia

Postcards from the Edge Episode XI Part VIII

So I recently had, in medical terms, my very first truly brown pants episode. Those terrifying moments when you’re watching someone die right before your eyes and you’re trying valiantly to do something, but you’re not sure they’re gonna make it. I had my first difficult shoulder dystocia. For those who don’t know what that is, that’s when you deliver a baby, and the head comes out, but the shoulders get stuck inside. Babies can die in that position, halfway being born, nearly being able to provide huge amounts of joy to parents, and then expiring on their way out of the womb. It took me three minutes to get that child out, and I had to sit down for a minute before I could finish with the rest of the delivery cause my knees were shaking so bad. And then I went out to my car to cry before I drove myself home. It’s still giving me shivers.
On the other hand, I went bison watching on the highway a few weekends ago. There’s a bison sanctuary about a six hour drive from Yellowknife (didn’t go that far), but a lot of bison roam freely by the highway. So I set out to go see some… and you know what? I did. Two of them, chewing their cud (do they have cuds?) by the side of the highway, not even blinking when tractor trailers were zooming by. They are quite impressive beasts, quite big (bigger than my car) and dangerous looking, in the way that you wouldn’t want to be trampled by one. So that was neat…. Considering that in our neck of the woods, the most impressive animal you are likely to see is a woodchuck or a raccoon flattened by some vehicle, that was pretty neat….
This past weekend was the big annual folk festival up here: Folk on the Rocks (you can check it out at www.folkontherocks.com) … Sloan actually came up to play as the headliners. I was volunteering with the musicians’ gear lock-up, so I got to meet some of the musicians, which was kind of neat. It’s kind of weird how you see people on music videos and stuff, and when you meet them, they really do kind of look like what they look like on TV. It seems intuitive that you would still look like yourself, even if you’re not on TV, but it’s still strange…. However, what I found more interesting was all the throat singers who came to perform cause I LOVE throat-singing… it’s hypnotically beautiful…. and neater still, they had performers from different parts of the Arctic, demonstrating the regional differences in throat-singing, as well as a group from Eastern Mongolia, who themselves have developed their own method of throat-singing…
Traditionally, in Inuit and Inuvialuit cultures, women do the throat-singing in pairs. It was a method of entertaining themselves while the men were out caribou/seal/polar bear hunting for food. The pairing off allowed a kind of game, with the woman being able to outlast her singing partner being a semi-‘winner’. It was actually outlawed by Christian missionaries and almost disappeared as an art form, however, it has been gradually finding a new renaissance over the past decade or so, with a few young women taking it seriously as an art form… finally found some CDs with throat-singing, so I’ve been blasting it in my apartment… um, it’s eclectic, at best, so I don’t think many of you would be banging down my door to have a dance party, however, if any of you are ever interested in listening when I return…
Love you all!
julia

Postcards from the Edge Episode XI Part VII

Just a mish-mash of thoughts today….

Now about this aurora borealis… the season for watching them is actually the winter time (I mean, really, with all this sunlight in the summer time, there’s no way you can actually see the Northern Lights). Apparently Yellowknife is overrun with Japanese and other Asian tourists every winter who go out into the countryside to watch the Northern Lights all night long. There are tons of stores here selling touristy knick-knacks, and galleries that sell some pretty stunning photographs of the Yellowknife skies. There’s even “Aurora Village” where you can go eat caribou and muskox, watch Aboriginal dancing, and then sleep under the Northern Lights (geesh! How touristy!). What people here tell me is that in Japanese (and other Asian cultures, I’m guessing, since they come here too) culture, it is extremely lucky to be conceived under the Northern Lights, hence a rather popular destination for young couples.

On Tuesday was not only the Summer Solstice (the longest day of the year, which, admittedly, here, you couldn’t really tell that there was that much of a difference), but also National Aboriginal Day. I was told a small itty-bitty parade happened in Toronto, but here in NWT, it’s actually a holiday. There were many celebrations and artists performing that day. We had a fish-fry (yum!), and there was a big ceremony honouring Aboriginal veterans (since this year is also the Year of the Veteran). I was busy helping sell jewellery with some girls that I met at one of the churches out here, while being on call at the same time. So a really nice day out. This whole week is the Summer Solstice Festival up here in Yellowknife, so lots of performers and vendors on the streets. Tomorrow night is the Raven Mad Daze, an all night street festival, but I’m on obstetrical call, so hopefully, if no babies are being born that night, I’ll be able to hang out.

Crack cocaine is a huge problem here. I have honestly seen more users here than I ever did in Toronto. My emerg shifts usually produces at least one user coming because they’re in withdrawal, or needing something to carry them over till their next hit. Crystal meth is also coming, as it is in Ontario too. I have delivered a bunch of crack babies already (as well as the tons of babies affected by alcohol), which just makes me angry, more than anything. The nursery, that I’m running this week, has four babies in it, most premature, half on crack, all on alcohol. Absolutely maddening. How are children expected to achieve if they’re already at a huge disadvantage from the get go?
julia

Postcards from the Edge Episode XI Part VI

So Yellowknife certainly does give off the ‘vibe’ of a frontier town… it’s kind of hard to explain unless you’re here… feels much different than the South, and different from Iqaluit too… hard to explain…
Yellowknife is fairly diverse: Of approx 20,000 people, I’ve been told about 19% are First Nations people. There are a whole bunch here: Dene, Gwich’in, Inuit, North Slavey, South Slavey, Inuvialuit, Metis, etc etc etc…. there are also about 300 Chinese people, about 1000 Phillipinos and about 1000 Vietnamese (so I was told by one of the Chinese docs up here)… also, there’s a large population of Indian subcontinent people, mainly immigrating here due to their skills in diamond cutting/working/engineering. So, this city certainly has been found to be more culturally diverse than others I have been to in Canada.
I think that may be what contributes to its feel as ‘frontier country’, especially in light of the ‘second gold rush’ of diamonds…. Whole bunches of people from around the globe coming in to stake their claim… incidentally, I went on a rock walk with a geologist near one of the old gold mines outside Yellowknife, and it was quite interesting seeing all the different types of rock (the mosquitos are HUGE and hungry…). We actually saw some old claim stakes and ramshackle digs made by people looking for gold in the 30s. So that was neat. However, it was also sad to see how much had been built and how much of the rock had been blasted and blighted just to find gold, especially since now, as the gold deposits are harder to extract, these landscapes have been abandoned… and they repeat the process at the diamond mines, all over again… OK, OK… getting off my soapbox again…
For those who wanted to hear more, um, “interesting” patient stories… I had a woman who booked an appointment to come see me, as she hadn’t been able to find her pulse for the last few weeks. That was it. I spent the visit teaching her that 1) it’s impossible to not have a pulse and still be able to come into the office to see me and 2) where the right places are to find a pulse. I’m not entirely sure, but I think I was helpful, although it certainly left me scratching my head at the lack of common sense in people in general, AGAIN.

julia

Postcards from the Edge Episode XI Part V

Greetings from the "Diamond Capital of North America" - Yellowknife: Population approx 20,000! I am here for basically the summer, which is good, as I really dislike sticky, hot humid weather; in its place, I just get very warm, moderate weather with 22+ hours of sunlight every day (I think I have the better deal in weather).
I've been super-duper sick for the past week, so all I've been doing since I've been here is drag myself to work, and drag home and then sleep. I'm getting better, thanks to this routine, but it's been a bit draining (mainly from my nose, but physically draining otherwise – har har har).
So far this week I’ve learned: Tin foil is bad for your windows. I am not entirely sure why, but this is true. One of the first things I noted when I moved into my apartment up here is that, among the instructions left for me was a note in bold: DO NOT PUT TIN FOIL ON YOUR WINDOWS. I thought that that was a bit of a strange instruction amongst when garbage day pick-up was and where the laundry facilities are. Why? Am I not allowed to make foil stars and hang them up? Am I trying to convection-heat some of my food via sunlight? Is it a ban against hydroponics at home? It didn’t really make sense to me, but I learned that night why you might be tempted to do so…. I hadn’t really noticed the time passing as I was unpacking that night and when I finally looked up, realized it was already 11:30pm (1:30 am at home)!!!! Wayyyy past my bedtime, but I got thrown off b/c of all the light coming in through the window… I could’ve sworn it was still 7pm outside (which also didn’t make sense as my plane had landed at 9pm). So, I figured it was probably a good time to sleep. Except I couldn’t. Cause it was broad daylight outside my window. Then I woke up at 3am, and it was still light out (or maybe the sun had kind of gone down, and I had just missed it), and I thought I was late for work since it was BROAD DAYLIGHT outside. Realized it was 3am, tried going back to bed. This repeated itself at 4am and at 5am until I finally gave up because it looked like lunchtime outside. It always looks like it’s lunchtime outside; the shadows are moving, but I think it’s quite deceptive… I haven’t yet had the chance to stay up long enough to see if the sun actually sets or not, but once I feel better then I plan to do so….
Incidentally, I’m enclosing my mailing address and phone number up here. I know some of you had mentioned coming up this summer, so I’d be most glad for you to come! They’ve given me a little white Ford Focus (which is big compared to my regular car, but certainly is dwarfed by all the –legitimate- trucks up here), so I think of her as my little polar bear car….
My mailing address is:
Dr. Julia
Family Medical Clinic
Tundra Building
Box 1559
Yellowknife NWT
X1A 2P2
The phone number at my apartment is 867-669-7016. Note this is NOT a toll free number (I found that out the hard way…. I had assumed 867 was like 866…. It’s NOT!)
Thinking of you all fondly,
julia

Postcards from the Edge Episode XI Part IV

I know it's been a while since I've written, but mainly, I've been working. And working, for the most part, isn't funny enough to write about. For those of you new to this series, welcome! This is Julia's little series of sometimes humourous, often brilliant (har har) observations of the world at large.
So, I am currently working in a little town called Chesley. Very small. And, for those of you wondering why I hadn't written more about Wiarton Willie while I was there, well, there wasn't that much to say, apart from the work. Work is just work, although, admittedly, I haven't come across any "eyebrow plucking" stories yet up here in Chesley.... Actually, today's postcard is less funny, but more introspective, so please just put up with me for now...
Most of you (myself included) have NO IDEA where Chesley is located, except for one thing: It's nearest bigger town is Walkerton, which is where I am living during this locum. (Not only am I covering a practice for a doc, but I'm also housesitting for them simultaneously) Now, everyone knows, vaguely, where Walkerton is. I don't know how many comments about the water I got before I left to come here. The reason I mention this today is because the medical community here invited me to have dinner tonight. It was interesting to hear their stories of what happened five years ago. How every single person in town was NOT left unaffected by what happened. How many of the people around the table had children and grandchildren evacuated to Owen Sound, London, Toronto to help save their lives. How there are still kids today in Walkerton that are still affected, not just emotionally, but also physically by what the infections left their bodies with. How amazing the Walkerton folk were at pulling together and dealing with Fox News helicopters buzzing around,and all the families that were mourning, etc etc that whole summer.
Which made me think a bit harder about the jokes about the Walkerton water that I heard before I left for here. I was thinking about what a miracle is the fact that we can drink our tap water directly, despite our obsessive attempts to Brita-ize and reverse osmosis our tap water. About what a huge tragedy that it is that we can't drink the water from (Southern) Ontario's streams and lakes (cause you can in some parts of Northern Ontario, that's for sure). About what an even bigger tragedy that the majority of people on the planet don't have any water at all.
I know I'm getting a bit into my preachy and my non-amusing mode, but it really did strike me at how something as essential and good as water can still be utterly screwed up and messed up by humans. I am sure that there are theological implications for that, but I will spare those who don't believe in the same stuff as I do. Off my soapbox....
At any rate, I'd be glad to hear from all of you! I PROMISE to be funny next time. If you'd please like to drop me a note, just to let me know that a) you're alive or b) that your email is still working/still accepting email from me or c) just to let me know what you're up to, I'd be glad to hear! Promise that I WILL be funny next time, but all my thinking about water was just particularly striking to me today.
Love you all.
julia

Postcards from the Edge Episode XI Part III

Hello! I know I haven't written since my first few impressions of Sioux Lookout, but after that, I was mainly working and going to church, so nothing terribly earth-shattering...
I am now, however, in Wiarton, Ontario, home of Willie, groundhog extraordinaire. For those who are geographically retarded because they were raised in Toronto (like myself), Wiarton is found on the Bruce Peninsula, a beautiful little part of the province that is, not surprisingly, a peninsula. It juts out between Georgian Bay and Lake Huron. Wiarton is found on the
Georgian Bay side, on the edge of a bay called Colpoy's Bay. Nice town. I'm also doing a clinic in Sauble Beach, which has been voted best beach in Ontario. It actually is quite nice, and, so far, less touristy than Wasaga.
However, it's bigger claims to fame lie with the fact that it lies right on the Bruce Trail, and, of course, the groundhog. I just walked by Willie's house today. Did you know he actually has a corrugated metal HOUSE???? Holy cannoli, who would've figured that one little albinio groundhog would outsmarten a whole bunch of humans to make him a two-storied (for a ground hog) house, with windows, little (caged) porch, and all the straw you could throw a matchstick at? Also, on the edge of the bay is a statue of Willie, which I, of course, took a picture of for CERTAIN people who wanted to know
what he looked like. :P
At any rate, it's quite a nice place to do a short w/e trip, especially to do some of the trails, so anyone in the Toronto area who wants to make the drive up, lemme know!
Love you all!
julia

Postcards from the Edge Episode XI Part II

So I had totally the best weekend. Lemme tell you what I did in this little town... firstly, they had a grand opening of a brand new supermarket (well, actually, the owners re-opened their little food shop and opened a supermarket, and it happened to co-incide with my arrival...), which was REALLY COOL! Who would've thought that it would be exciting to walk through a new supermarket!
However, it's really quite nice; I felt like I was in a Loblaws or something... now don't think that that's lame that the whole town got excited about a supermarket (snobbish urbanites....)... it actually was like participating in something really really nifty... So I got to buy bananas at 29 cents a pound... now that's a thrill! :)
THEN, I got invited to go to a pow-wow. My very first, honest to goodness, pow-wow. What was really helpful is that some of the women there were kind of explaining what was going on so I wasn't entirely clueless to the whole thing. It was also kind of nice, being the only non-native, that my face kind of blended in with the crowd :) . I must say, there's something about drumming in every culture that it just primary, like you can feel it deep inside... thinking about the various drumming events that I've been to with various people groups is making me want to look more into percussion... At any rate, it was beautiful drumming and chanting... and then there was dancing (and yes, I know I can't dance)... and then, I was given the gift of these beautiful (what I call my) Ojibway princess earrings... well, at least I kind of feel like an Ojibway princess when I wear them.... :P
ALSO, (How much more fun could there be in one weekend???) the church that I've visited is so welcoming and kind. One thing that I always hope to see in a church is how it welcomes its visitors and newcomers (one thing I LOVE about CGC), and I must say, I was a bit overwhelmed at the love... I'm already in a Bible Study group, and tonight I'm going to one of the Baptist camps outside of town for a little shindig :) I was even invited over for lunch and stuffed my face full of blueberries... sigh... I cannot believe how much I've been blessed in just a week of being here... God is good. Speaking of which, I did my very first emergency shift, and it went OK!!!! So that's pretty stupendous too. God is really good.
AND! as a bonus, I also got to watch A Bug's Life and Bedknobs and Broomsticks... could life get any better??? :)
julia

Postcards from the Edge Episode XI Part I

OK, so now this is in line with my Pembroke series of PFTEs, as I'm still in the province, but over the next few months, as I'm going to be seeing different regions of our (well, most of the mailing list is in Ontario) beautiful province, I figured I'd share some stuff, though I also know some people on this list have much more experience in the north than I (you know who you are :) )...
So I'm up (at my very first real life grown-up job!!!! It's about time! :P ) in the Sioux Lookout region, which, basically, if you look at a map of Ontario, is almost the entire "thigh" region of the chicken thigh/leg shape that is Ontario. If you look at a map, Sioux Lookout is just north west of Thunder Bay, near Kenora, and is actually halfway between Winnipeg and Thunder
Bay. It's the main hospital for the native reserves that are scattered north of there, serving, I think, about 150,000 people who are mainly of Cree-Ojibway heritage. (or maybe that's 15,000... I'd have to look it up; Steve, do you know the answer to this?). I'm actually sharing a time zone with Manitoba, so that's kind of interesting....
Due to an influenza outbreak that's currently affecting the north, my hospital in Sioux Lookout's been closed down except for essential services. So instead of standing around and twiddling my thumbs, this week they sent me even further north (I think... to be completely honest, I don't know where I am right now... I just got on the plane and four hours later, I got off). I in fact may actually be west, I'm not sure. At any rate, this week, I've been the local country doc in a small reserve of about 300 people. That's right; three hundred people. And, strangely enough, it's been OK. I know I've expressed worry about how well I'd function 'on my own', but it's been OK, so far.
Admittedly, it's hard to get a lot of 'emergencies' when there's only 300 people to take care of, but that's besides the point... It's actually been a nice introduction to work, so that's been excellent.
This week, the town had a 'drum social', where the elders tell stories and the townspeople bring their drums and instruments to play, but, due to workload and such, I was INCREDIBLY DISAPPOINTED that I couldn't go. Darn it all...
Incidentally, I've been watching Breakfast Television in the mornings, and guess what? It's actually MUCH warmer here than it is down south... I can actually get around without my coat (which is saying a lot)... bwa ha ha ha haaaaaa to all those people who say that it's much colder up here than in Toronto...
Love,
julia

Postcards from Middle Earth VI

Despair, despair! Oh wail and weep! This has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with New Zealand, but it's impt to me nonetheless; NZ information will be found below. I just found out the other day that U2 released its concert dates and 1) they're not playing in Toronto or Montreal, at least not at this point and 2)I don't have tickets yet. This is just a subliminal message to all that whoever can snag me a ticket to go with them to see U2 will be forever owed my affection and devotion...
Back to the point: I am now winding up my New Zealand leg of my trip and am flying out to Fiji in the morning. Since my last postcard, I have seen mountains, glaciers, blue lakes, waterfalls, beaches, ancient towering forests, and great fjords. Of course, I've been playing on the South Island of New Zealand. I've actually been on a helicopter that dropped me on a glacier, and then I went hiking on blue ice! And I didn't slip and fall down! That was an experience! I also went sailing on the Tasman Sea (briefly), and have climbed a few more small mountains. I actually also just missed out on a free bungy jump, but that's a whole other story, but suffice it to say that I didn't end up going :(.
As this was the last weekend that I'm here in New Zealand, I finally travelled to the city that my sister lives in (Christchurch), in order to spend some more time with her before I leave. Lovely city. I like it quite a lot, actually. At any rate, in order to help educated her about why New Zealand is so important in the order of nature, I finally got her to watch one of the LOTR movies. Now, this is a girl who has never read any of the books, and has never tolerated sitting through any of the movies in its entirety. (Yes, yes, I know: Hard to believe she's related to me) So we had some takeaway fish and chips and watched The Fellowship of the Ring. And she disliked it greatly. Siiiigh. On the plus side, I did actually recognize some of the scenery (well, OK, mainly the mountain ranges - a field just looks like a field after a while).
I fly out to Fiji tomorrow, so I suspect that this will be the end of this series of PFTE this time around: I have been told that internet in Fiji is pricey (in the range of 40 cents/minute for dial up service), so I may not necessarily be able to write you directly from the beach havens of Viti Levu. However, if the internet rumours are unfounded, then I will endeavour to write something about Fijian culture, outside of the well known facts that they were a major cannibalistic culture and their narcotic national drink of kava.
Love you all!
julia

Postcards from Middle Earth V

(Another caveat: Some ppl can't take any photos at all, so this is the non-photo attachment one)

(Sorry if you receive this several times: Most ppl's email wouldn't let me send as many photos as I would like, so I've been culling them down to try and send one at least...)
I think I must secretly be a vacuum... why? Well, nature abhors a vacuum, and I think the same applies to me... I'm not entirely sure why, but so far since I've been here, I've sustained (with the caveat that I -know- I'm very klutzy): several bonks on the head (by trees, branches, one by a bird hide - hard enough to make me fall down!), one fall into a pond of mud, a bumble bee sting, one twisted, bunged up knee, one gash over my chin and neck, falling into streams... it's gotten to the point where the rest of my team with the environmental volunteering look at me with a little bit of concern every time we leave in the morning... they're concerned I may fall off a cliff or fall into a volcano or something... I think I need to take up tai chi or something...
I think this may have something to do with the fact that I'm in an organized program.. I didn't hurt myself at all until I got here to 'help out the planet'... I'm half wondering if it doesn't really want my help in the first place... :P Doing all the other stuff I was doing before I got here seemed to be OK... it's making me a bit paranoid... tomorrow we're going on a sailing trip to identify dolphins and seals, and I think they're packing an extra life jacket for me, so I can have two... :P
That being said, this weekend was a holiday weekend in Wellington. (Each major city has a "City Day", ie Wellington Day, during the summer time, so each region gets a long weekend for free during the summer, neat, eh? Next weekend is Auckland Day, but I'm not in Auckland, so it doesn't count for me.... it kind of spreads out all the long weekend chaos to certain regions of the country only)
At any rate, because it was the long weekend, I decided to go back to conquer previous mountain that I had mentioned before (Postcard II) since the weather's been nicer.
However, as mentioned, I had twisted my knee two days prior to when I was gonna do it. At any rate, stubborn ass that I am, I went anyways, bought a tensor bandage and some medication, and had a walking stick lent to me. Did the Tongariro Crossing ("the finest one day walk in all of New Zealand"), which basically climbs between Mt. Tongariro and Mt Ngauruhoe (ie. Mt. Doom) and then back down again. Perfectly fascinating. And I did it in a little bit over average time, despite my bum knee (although I must say, there was a little old Japanese man that kept on overtaking me on the trail). God is good. And the weather was completely gorgeous. Highly recommended walk. Also note: I didn't fall into a crater. I didn't fall off a cliff. I didn't roll down a mountain. I didn't burn myself with lava. Heck, I didn't even get a sunburn. My knees, of course, regret it today, but I suppose that's part of the price to pay for ultimate beauty.
Enclosed, you will find several pictures from the hike, courtesy of Caitlin, one of the girls that I went with.
Love you all!
julia

Postcards from Middle Earth IV

To clarify: I haven't seen my sister for about three weeks now. I was blessed with only having to walk with her for about three days, and then I was allowed to go at my own pace :) :) I will be joining up with her later, but more about those adventures (I'm sure my feet are already pre-regretting it :) )
I have now been with my volunteering job with an environmental organization. I must say, this time around, I've been learning a bit about ecology, volcanoes and their effect on land formation, animal adaptation and NZ nature in general. It's quite fascinating, actually. New Zealand is actually quite strict with what kind of biological material you can take in and out of the country. They actually have a place in their airports where you have to declare your shoes and sleeping bags, etc, in case they have any foreign soil or seeds that could contaminate New Zealand. The fruit I was carrying in my bag was confiscated at the airport when I arrived, due to the presence of seeds. One of the people on my team is from France, and her parents are cheesemakers, and they confiscated her parents' cheese that she had brought to eat!
At any rate, I am living in the volunteer hourse of the Nga Kaitiaki (Friends of the Earth) just outside of Wellington (which is why many of you have seen me online quite a bit). I have just returned from a three day camping trip out in the New Zealand countryside. Not very many mozzies (mosquitoes), but on the other hand, I got stung by a bumblebee!!! My tricep now has a lump the size of a kiwi! At any rate, I've been busy removing and killing introduced plant species, such as many very pretty flowers, mainly because they are non-native and they 'squeeze out' the native flora. I've also been busy planting native trees and plants in various wetlands and parks. It's also been neat because I've been watching for various birds, introduced and native species. Next week, we're supposed to go looking for seals and dolphins. It's really quite neat, and I'm glad that I'm able to help out, even though a lot of the plants I've been killing have actually been quite attractive... interesting that some things can be so beautiful and yet be so damaging....
julia

Postcards from Middle Earth III

I've noticed that a lot of Kiwis walk around barefoot: on the streets, in the supermarkets, basically everywhere. Very strange... but then again, very hobbit-like.
That being said, I have also been struck by the general goodwill of Kiwis. So help me if I ever get the strange notion of hitch-hiking or accepting a ride from a stranger in Canada, but for some reason, it's OK to do that here. I'm not sure why... I've already taken rides from little old ladies, to big strapping young guys, to families going in the same direction as I anyways, and I'm not dead yet... very strange... It kind of comforts me that there are still nice people in the world who aren't going to strangle you and steal all your stuff....
The weather has cleared up quite a bit here in the last few days, and now it finally feels like summer. On the last of the rainy rainy, gray and gloomy days, I went on a winery tour... at first, I could actually tell the difference between a Chardonnay vs a Sauvignon Blanc vs a Reisling, though I must admit, as the day went on, honestly, it just all tastes like wine at the end of the day...
why do I bring this up? I must say, travelling through this country, I'm meeting some of the most interesting travel stories... in this winery thing, I met a very nice older couple who had had it with the rat race and were taking a four year sabbatical to travel around the world (now even I think that's a bit too long....)... there have been various travellers who had come from the devastation in Thailand and Indonesia that I had met, who, for various providential reasons, did not get injured... the 70 year old man from California who was here for a fishing trip, waiting for his wife to arrive in New Zealand after she had left for a two month trip on an Antarctic ice breaker... interesting stories all, I must say... various people have asked me about backpacking through Canada, and it's making me curious about our own country, and how to explore it better...
julia

Postcards from Middle Earth II

It's amazing: New Zealand has this reputation of being this adventure-seeking nation, or, at the very least, able to help you push your limits. But I think my 'pushing limits' is b/c of my sister; she's a bit of a sadomasochistic dictator :) . A -small- part of it lies with the fact that I over-estimated just how much I could really do, but I think most of it is b/c of Mussolini existing right in my own household.
I like the idea of walks. Really, I do. However, the idea of doing a 13 km walk, one way, with three mountains and several hills intervening in what would normally be a very nice walk, is verging on a little bit of a tortuous idea for someone who hasn't been walking in long long distances for a while, especially in new shoes (ie. myself). HOWEVER, for my sister, her feet could be cut up and bleeding, with a toe hanging off her foot, and gangrene setting in, and she would yell, "Onwards, Christian soldiers!". For some reason, it is still FUN at that point. Anyways, not having walked for a very long while, for a very long time, in new shoes, led to soreness, to say the least, on the first day after arriving in New Zealand. Auckland is a city made up of a lot of old volcanoes, so it is quite hilly and actually has a few small mountains interspersed in the city. This makes it hilly, like San Francisco (but worse), so a bit hard to walk around easily. At any rate, I was very very sore after the first day out. To compound matters, we decided to take a ferry out to another island the very next day and climb ANOTHER extinct volcano which was about, I think 300-400 m above sea level, and then come back down. I've never had arthritis in my knees before, but I think I've had a foretaste of the future... and I don't really like it...
On the other hand, I think I've been blessed, a bit... it's started raining today, and I was planning on tackling a mountainous 20k hike in a few days time (like, really mountainous.... this would be the mountain range amongst which Peter Jackson chose one to play Mount Doom), but it's looking like the weather won't co-operate in making the hike safe (ie muddy, very windy, poor visibility, ice formation and snow in the mountains)... it's a bit disappointing, but on the other hand, I think God is intervening and setting limits for me that perhaps I'm not quite ready for... (although I'm sure I could do it if I steeled myself for it... I know if I had my Urukhai-type sister along, I would definitely get it done... :) )
That being said, however, I have been (kind of) pushing my limits. I've already been rock climbing (!), rappeling down caves (!!), caving through small crevices in wetsuits (!!!!), and doing stuff I wouldn't normally think would be stuff I'd do. However, I refuse to pay these silly tourist sums to bungy jump, despite the fact that this is the birth place of bungy jumping and the like. Others have suggested Zorbing, which is basically putting yourself in a gerbil-like clear plastic ball, which they put cold water in, and you roll down the hill at 50-60 km/hr, while getting a good wash.... There's also this other sport where you put on this special suit and then they put you over this really strong fan/vent, and then you fly over this vent about a metre in the air... I don't really understand some of the offerings that I've hard about... maybe I'll go find somewhere to shear a sheep... now THAT's extreme sporting....
julia

Postcards from Middle Earth I

Welcome to the 10th anniversary edition of the PFTE! Whoo hoo (fireworks, etc)!
Congratulations to those who have stuck through every single edition! I wish I still had all the old ones from wayyyy back...
After a long and harrowing journey of 38 hrs + to get here, I'm finally in New Zealand. It's really quite nice here, but, being in a big city initially, I'm not sure what I think of the whole thing yet. Looks much like San Francisco, if that helps anyone...
This will totally not be very entertaining right now, as I only have a few minutes left on my time, however, I'm here safely, and there's ppl from all over the English speaking world! Brits, Scots, Aussies, Yanks, etc etc... I haven't actually heard anyone speak Kiwi English yet...