Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (Long Post Alert!)

Well, I made it! Today is the end of my 3rd full day here and I think I'm mostly settled. It'll be about another 3 weeks before I'm really in a "schedule" but for the moment I'm doing ok. Where to start...

Saturday

Saturday was Michelle's wedding. Sort of the "beginning of homesickness." For those who maybe don't know - I get brutal cases of homesickness when I leave home. It only takes a few days before I'm fine, but for those few days, I'm a total mess. So, with basically EVERYBODY saying goodbye that night, I was in breakdown mode. It was multiplied by the fact that I had been averaging maybe 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night for a while. The wedding itself went well. Michelle is now married off and I'm letting everybody skip me with the "When are you getting married?" questions. Please feel free to direct these questions to Andrew.

Sunday

Well, Sunday started with waking up after about, again, 6 hours of sleep. Had to leave Weyburn at 8am to get to the airport in time. Fortunately dad took me, so that was awesome. Got to the airport and the whole trip went perfectly smoothly. All my flights were on time, all was well. I had a 4 hour layover in Toronto which was super short after my 14 hour layover in Minneapolis. However, the Toronto airport SUCKS. There's nothing to do - there aren't even business areas with desks to set up your laptop. So, I ended up sitting on the floor to use my laptop, in a random area where I could find a plug in. We got into Charlottetown at about 10:40pm local time. In Charlottetown you just walk down stairs right onto the runway and then into the building. It pretty much REALLY sucked to walk into the airport and have nobody there. It didn't seem bad when I did it last year in DC - but of course then I knew I was going to be home in 2 weeks, so whatever. Anyway, my luggage came through fine and I got a cab to my hotel. Loverly hotel, but expensive - that's me all over. I love to travel...in 5 star hotels.

Monday

Monday was raining. Bleh. So, I walked to the campus and got all checked in. Went into my room to check it out and met the roomie. Then I got a cab back to the hotel, grabbed my luggage, checked out, and cabbed back to my place here. So, officially moved in. The place seemed pretty shitty when I first got here. The walls are all cinder blocks and the floor is tile, no carpet. Feels a bit like a prison cell. But the more I'm here and look at it, it's not so bad. If we had drywall painted walls and carpet, the place would be quite nice. All the furniture looks brand new - I think it's only a couple years old, maybe less. I'm in a two-bedroom apartment - guess I should say that for anybody who isn't here. So, just one roommate.

Here's a picture of my bedroom:


Here's a picture of the kitchen:


And a picture of the living room:



The first night was a bit rough. Still in homesick mode. Nothing was open on Monday, so I couldn't do any shopping at all. Fortunately I had brought sheets, but I had no blanket - just one flimsy sheet.

Tuesday

Well, I got over my homesickness fairly quick! It's all about doing things and getting into the groove. I think I had about 3 bad homesick days in Saskatoon when I moved there - only 1 here, so not bad!

Tuesday was...SHOPPING. I just needed stuff for my apartment. So, off I went at 10am for shopping. I headed down to the RBC to change my address - found a Value Village and spent $11 there for a comforter, afghan, and lamp! I also went to Telus and got a SWEET new phone! Here's a picture:

So, the RBC is about 15 minutes walking from my place. That was the furthest I went in that direction. Then back home. Right across the street is a mall complex. It has a grocery store, Penningtons, Reitmans, Indigo (aka. Chapters...woot!), Mark's Work Wearhouse, some fast food places, etc. So, got a book I had been looking for at Indigo, my black, steel-toed, non-slip shoes for school at Mark's. Then I made 2 trips to the grocery store and loaded up with food and other things for the house.

After that I walked to Wal-Mart which is maybe a 20-25 minute walk the other way from my place. There I just got a few more things for my place - some posters for the wall, a mirror, tiny laundry baskets. So, I spent a bunch of money, but I think my place is looking a lot better now. A lot more livable.

That night I went to meet 2 of the girls that I knew were in my course, thanks to Facebook. One girl is just like me - not really sure what she's doing, no real pastry experience, kinda scared about the whole thing. The other girl managed to scare the two of us. :p She has been working in pastry for 5 years, has been here since January, and knows lots about the program/profs. So, apparently there are 2 chefs teaching - one is nice and the other is really strict. Also, there are going to be two classes. One starts at 6:30am and is in the kitchen until 10:30 and then at 10:30 the other class joins and the two classes do theory together. Then when theory is done, the first class leaves and the 2nd class heads to the kitchen. Then after Christmas we'll switch who goes at 6:30 and who goes at 10:30. So, I'm hoping for the strict chef and 6:30am for this term. Strict chef b/c it's easier to go from a strict chef to a lax one than the other way around. And 6:30 b/c this term is the warmer term - January/February are the horrible winter times. And I can't take transit to school at 6:30 - it doesn't start until 7am. So, for 4 months I'll be walking to school. I timed the walk tonight and going quickly it's a 40 minute walk.

Wednesday (Today!)

Today was registration. Brittany, the girl from the night before who was like me, came to pick me up so we could go together and have somebody to wander around with. Once we got there we met Andrew, who also came from Saskatoon. And there's another guy (didn't get his name) who is from Moose Jaw. So, there may be more Saskatchewan people. We didn't really get a chance to meet everyone - just if you went up to somebody and asked their name.

At registration I just confirmed that I paid my tuition. I paid $5 for a locker there - I have no intention of dragging my knives and stuff home every day. We then got our pictures taken for a student ID, but the card machine was broken, so they'll e-mail us once they're ready to be picked up. Then we picked up our books. Two huge pastry books, one that's on Microsoft Word, and there's one more to come that isn't here yet. The Microsoft Word one the guy said to keep in the shrink wrap because some people challenge it, and then if you want to return the book for credit, it has to be in the shrink wrap. And the missing book is for Business Communications. And the guy said that I could talk to my professor, but since I've taken Business Communications at the U of S, I could probably use that as credit and not have to take it again - which would ROCK. God that class was boring.

So, I've got some information to go through tonight and read - some textbooks to flip through. Tomorrow is where we get a bit more detailed information in terms of classes for the next few weeks. From what I've heard it's a week of Food/Kitchen Safety and 3 days of CPR (Woot!) so that's cool. And not at 6:30am from what I've heard. But I'll find out for sure tomorrow. We also possibly get our knife sets and we get measured for our uniforms. We have to wear a uniform at all times. Even when not in kitchen classes there is a uniform of black dress shoes/pants, etc. So, I think I need to go shopping this weekend.

We had a social at 4pm tonight, but not really anybody showed up. Just a few of us who had already met. So, we played pool for an hour and then all headed home. I walked to the school from where we were and then walked home so that I could time it. While there I took some pictures.

Here's a picture of the coast. This is a view from my school:


Well, I was told the dirt was red here and it is, but it's still weird. I feel like I'm always on a baseball field with shale. I don't know if this picture does it justice, but here's some dirt:


And here's a picture of my school:


So, I walked home and it took about 40 minutes. So, I'm thinking probably a 50 minute walk through snow. Which means I'll be leaving for school and hour early every day. Oh well. It's just 4 months really - the other 4, if we have 10:30 classes, I can take transit. And I can take transit home.

Then I got here and said "OK, I should probably tell people how stuff is going" since you've all been texting/e-mailing. So, here ya go! Feel free to ask questions in comments - I'll respond!

P.S. If you want a postcard, tell me!