Pre-Departure Training in Ottawa

Hello everyone. Back again. In Ottawa sitting in the hotel figuring I should write a bit on my time here since my pre-departure training started 3 days ago.

Here are a few highlights:

Thursday

-I went out with Jeffrey and the boys Thursday which was nice. We had a bbq then went downtown for a drink. It was good to meet up with some friends and have some non-restaurant food a bit.

Friday

-went to Empire GRill Friday night for dinner and after ordering a $20 burger and 1.5hrs of waiting, we were going to walk out but the manager came and we ended up getting all the food for free. Good right? Well ya, it was a $20 burger, but by the time I got it (2 hours later) I was so nauseous from not eating for 9 hours (since lunch) that all I could stomach was a few fries.

Saturday
-Got invited to a wedding and went to a wedding...I know, so sudden? Let me explain. I met with my 'country resource' person (a recent immigrant from Burkina Faso) and got to talk to her for a couple hours to get the inside scoop on the country and the 'faut pas' in the country. Well she ended our encounter by inviting me to join her wedding reception which was the following day in order to taste some traditional Burkina foods and get a feel for Burkina tradition. I was pretty taken aback to be honest. I don't even really know this person and she's inviting me to her big day? Needless to say, I went and brought another friend whom I had met at the training session (who is going to Ghana, just next door to Burkina). In the end, it went really well. The reception was small but the food and people really nice and inviting. We had some great conversations and made a bunch of contacts.

And so this brings us to the present. Just chilling the rest of the night in my room and off to brunch tomorrow morning before checking out something during the day (got Sunday off woot!).

Alright folks. THat's all for now.

Ciao

Tiana

4 week countdown!

Holly man, it's coming quick. Well I'd describe it as a slow quickness, that seems to go by slow, yet the end point seems so close (if that makes any sense at all).

Anyways, I am now at the 4 week mark, omg, 4 weeks and then im gone for the year! I have 11/2 weeks left at work before I go to Ottawa/Gatineau for my training (for a week) then one last week at home until I depart. Im flying to Ottawa from Toronto for my training (I know, it seems a little obsessive, but it's only $20 more and saves me 9hrs of travel time!) so as you can see it's a pretty sweet deal.

Got most of what I need...backpacking backpack, mosquito net, first aid kit (hopefully won't be needing that too much), bug spray, headlamp, blah blah blah. Hopefully itll all fit into my 2 baggage allowance (one of which will be my backpack).

It's so good to be able to read my friends' blogs who are currently on their coops. Following their experiences so far and the details of the good/bad have (im sure) subconsciously helped me prepare for my placement. Speaking of preparation, I got together with Nathalie (coop student 1 year older who just got back from Ouagadougou) over the weekend. Thanks Nat! It was great to just sit down and listen to her advice about anything and everything.

Okay, Im not going to drag this out too long (that'll come when im actually on coop ;). I dont have too much more to say, so thanks for reading!