Time is Crucial

Saturday June 5 - Monday June 7

There is no time to do anything in this program. No time for anything.

Our days are so full that I find studying French to even be difficult to fit in. But I'll talk about that later.

As mentioned previously on Saturday morning a group of seven girls, myself included, packed a minivan (rented by yours truly), and headed to PEI. It was pretty awesome. I'd never drove a minivan before and I honestly thought I would hate the day I had to drive one to make room for all my babies but after my wonderful experience with the silver dodge caravan I can't wait. ha.

We headed out as early as Hertz allowed (around 8am) and drove. It took about an hour to get to Confederation Bridge - which was an pretty cool in its own rights. What a very long bridge. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Upon arriving on the island we took a right turn to Charlottetown to do some exploring and see if we wanted to stay the night. I have to say that PEI is one of the prettiest places I've seen and I can't wait to go back. It is gorgeous and quaint. The entire province is picturesque. We took a few roadside stops along the way to check out little towns and coastlines. Upon arriving we parked and the sun came out. How lovely because we came from non-stop rain for a week.

We walked around the downtown a little bit and eventually made our way to the pier area. There were many nice little stores to browse and as Mexico taught me to do I made some purchases and didn't look back. I bought (surprise surprise) a few big rings which I love and are made out of some crazy nut from Africa. It started to spit so we asked for some advice on where to go for lunch. We were told about this wonderful restaurant that was also a brewery that brewed all the beer that it served and best of all you could order a sample tray of all their beers in 3oz glasses, with a total of 8 glasses. It was great, almost everyone at the table ordered the samplers so we had tons of beer on the table, plus a complimentary glass of some beers mixed, and a few shots. It was a great meal and the brewers even took us downstairs to show us around the tanks.

I guess because PEI is such a tourist location their stores aren't always open and it just so happened that we showed up on the first weekend that most stores were opening. Unfortunately this meant that there were many still closed and the plays and other entertainment weren't running yet because they had to wait for the summer crowds to pick up.

After lunch we walked into a few shops but it was pouring rain and the streets were turning into rivers. We stopped into the Anne of Green Gables gift shop to try and sort out somewhere to stay for the night. After a few phone calls we decided our most economical choice was a hostel a few blocks out of downtown. Although a few of the girls were more than hesitant about hosteling we walked over to the hostel to see what they could do for us.

It turns out that it was not only adorable, it was affordable, and lovely. The beds were more comfortable than the res beds. Amazing. They had a crazy games room, wonderful kitchen, and equally friendly workers. After seeing that the hostel was an adorable house and not some warehouse that people get killed (Hostel, 2005) the girls were pretty excited. Because it was raining so much we just hung out for a while.

We decided that the best thing to do was try some lobster because we were on the coast and lobster is in season. We were given suggestions for the best place to buy it and how to save some money (get them to cook it for take-out costs about $17 less, amazing). We headed down to a little shop that we would have never guessed makes the best lobster in town - I fully expected a fancy, swanky, big restaurant, beautifully decorated and instead it was a cute little kitchen diner with about 10 tables inside. We each picked out a lobster, bought some potato salad, paid our money and headed back to the hostel. Before we left the lady helping us showed us a massive lobster, it was huge and somewhere in the 7 or 9 pound range, I can't remember but it could take your arm off I'm sure.

So back to the hostel we went with our cooked lobsters in plastic bags. I was excited but slightly apprehensive, I've tried lobster before and never really liked it, and I had never cracked it out of its shell. It was quite a long process, and one I wasn't all that fond of. Next time I'll surely get them to get the meat out, so much work and it was kind of gross. I say that reluctantly because I don't like things to gross me out but it was gross. By the time I was done cracking and poking the meat out I was not all that interested in eating it. Sad I know. I had a few bites and it was tasty but I ended up giving it away. Maybe lobster just isn't my thing.

Exhausted we decided that we had to go out because we wouldn't have another opportunity. We changed and headed out on the town. We had intended to go to "Fishbones" a bar with some live music for the night but when we got there there was another dance club next door that we decided to go to. It wasn't that great, in fact the music was really bad and it wasn't that full. It got a little busy later on but I wasn't feeling it. A few of us thought we might go back to Fishbones but they were still charging cover. It was a nice night, somewhat warm and not raining so we went for a walk back to the pier area. There was another bar that was still charging cover too - I should mention it was after 1am and the bars closed at 2am. We talked to some locals about where the place to go is and most said not to go where we had gone and to go to fishbones. Lesson learned. We met some nice cops, got a slice of pizza, and went back to bed.

The next morning I couldn't stay awake once I was up at 8:30 so I got out of bed, showered, and went for a walk. It was actually really nice. By the time I got back everyone was up and eating breakfast. We left around 10:30 to continue our adventure.

On our way out of town we stopped at a flea market that the owner of the hostel had told us about, it was just outside of Charlottetown. It was about as flea market as it gets, the majority of the stuff was more of community garage sale. We didn't stay long although I found some Hunter Wellies for sale for $35 brand new, sadly they were two sizes too big or four sizes too small. I did buy a ring that reminds me of a jolly rancher. What can I say big rings are in.

Along the way we made a stop at Timmies, something that we did a lot. We drove north to Cavendish - where one can find the Anne of Green Gables national park as well as the PEI provincial park. We decided to take a more scenic route and drive along the coast as much as possible. This was great because it was beautiful even though it was quite foggy. We saw a fox with a fox pup, we pulled a "Waterton tourist" and stopped in the middle of the road for pictures, some said it was the first time they had seen a fox. Lots of success.

We stopped at the Green Gables home - or a remake of the home/land that inspired the books. This was good, but was enjoyed by some of the others more than I because I don't know if I ever read the books and I surely disliked "Road to Avonlea" (sorry Becs). Looking back it is weird that I wasn't more excited about a precocious red head on tv - I seemed to love that - but I just didn't like it. Regardless, it was cool to see.

Upon leaving it started to rain and get windy, regardless we headed towards Cavendish beach. It was a lovely sight to see. A cold sight, but lovely. The beaches rolled out of green grass with red-ish sand. I definitely would like to go back. Not everyone was willing to brave the weather for a beach picture but some even went so far as to put their feet in. I'm glad I made my way over.

We left and made our slow exit from the province. This involved a stop at Cows creamery (and ice cream shop that originated in PEI). Unfortunately most of the stores and food places in the area were still closed because of the down season.

The thing about driving around PEI is the roads are mostly awful, patchy, and narrow, to add to this the road signs are almost non-existent. This made getting off the island a little longer than initially intended. It didn't end up being a problem, but it was a little confusing. Before we crossed the bridge back to New Brunswick I stopped for a coffee and sandwich because we hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was nearing 4pm. The toll to get off the island is just over $40.

Along the way home we stopped at Shediac, a coast town about 25 minutes outside of Moncton, it was a quick break. We drove back in time to get our dinners from the cafeteria at UdeM. After dinner I was tired and wanted to get the van off my hands asap. It was a great van that drove more like a car and was equipped with a reverse camera.

The rest of the night was rather inconsequential but involved a mandatory meeting at 8pm, me trying to recover a few pictures I accidentally deleted (didn't work), and doing my homework for Monday morning.

Monday I had been so tired from the trip (Sunday was a lot of driving) that I ended up sleeping through my alarm and didn't wake up until 7:20 (class is at 8). I rushed and made it - phew - in our meeting the night before they had just told us the importance of being on time. It was a long and sleepy class. After class I had lunch - as usual - and came back to res to have a sleep. It was great but I woke up exhausted. Instead of our regular activities a group filming some promotional videos for UdeM needed us as extras so we went over to the campus arena to do some staged cheering, it took about 2 hours.

They were also filming at a pub downtown and we were invited to go for free pizza. A few of us took them up on the offer and headed down around 7pm. It was interesting, they wanted it to look like summer so we were in light clothes and we weren't allowed to eat the snacks in front of us, we were mixed up into random assortments of tables - three of us were put with a friendly local. It was fun. At 8 they told us they were going to kill time until the sun went down then do some more so we went for Subway because seemingly this pub didn't serve food, we showed up back at the restaurant, speedily ate, and then were told they were actually going to call it quits for the night. Silly.

Myself and one other girl came back to res, the rest stayed. I think Mexico ended my need to drink for a really long time. I was an alcoholic for a month and now I have more of an interest in sleeping and eating vegetables.

Upon returning we quickly changed and made our way to the swimming pool for the last 20minutes of a swim. It was a great swim. Hopefully this time it won't kill my neck like it did last time.

So as I was saying earlier (and sorry for this LONG post) there is hardly any time for me to actually sit down and study words so I can actually do some talking. Hopefully things settle down and I'm not so tired so I can find the time to do homework as opposed to nap all the time. At this point my res room has exploded and I feel like I'm falling behind in learning stuff for class. Hopefully I can get caught up and start getting to bed earlier.

Today I learned:

• PEI is really really pretty
• I think I'd love to live there for a summer
• How much I missed driving, although I got tired of it by the end I really had fun being the driver, and having a great seat to watch the scenery
• Swimming will always be my fave
• Accidentally deleting a picture really really sucks
• ATP I don't really know how much I like this program

I am grateful for:

• A swimming buddy
• Having my own room
• Prince Edward Island, everyone should go

Leaving New Brunswick crossing Confederation Bridge to PEI

My lunch at the brewer. Fish&Chips and lots of beers. Delicious!

Our adorable hostel for the night

Northern coast in PEI Park

Anne of Green Gables Home

Cavendish Beach

Enjoying the beach