New Brunswick in a nutshell

Hi all,
it turns out, there's another province in Canada. I have travelled to this strange land, interacted with the natives, tried their cuisine and enjoyed some of their local carbonated spirits. A such here are my thoughts on the great province of New Brunswick, and despite their sarcasm, I did have a great time and will definitely be coming back.

New Brunswick is kind of the like the third tenor.. Domingo, Pavaratti and that other guy. It's the province when you know there is one more but it's name escapes you. Unfortunately, this reputation (or lack thereof) is undeserved. The province is beautiful (when you can see it through the fog), there is great wildlife (though most of it is currently lying in a ditch along highway 15), the food is good (if you like fiddleheads and lobster), and the people are nice (if they aren't a particular snobby waiter in a particular restaurant that shall remain nameless but needs to learn that yes sometimes women do travel alone, no its not because we are single lesbians who can't get a date, and no we don't mind being seen in public by ourselves!!)

I also have to take a moment to talk about the Acadians. It turns out they don't all play the accordion, eat bannock bread and dance to fiddle music day in and day out (I was really hoping they would break into song the way they did in my Canadian history movies in grade school). Acadians love being Acadian, you name the object, it has been painted the colours of their flag. Bumper stickers, pins, flags, sailboats, there are million symbols people will put out to let people know they are Acadian. I also have to note, that although my French isn't great, I have noticed Acadians love adverbs, adjectives and modifiers. I suppose that is why the French spoken here is so gosh darned fast, so they can fit in all those extra words.

I have to also conclude that New Brunswickers do a lot of drugs. Spending many hours in the car I am now very familiar with NB radio and not one, not two but THREE times, heard a radio DJ follow Celine Dion with psychedelic rock (Led Zepplin, Rush etc.) I can only blame the appeal of this mixture on the excessive use of recreational pharmaceuticals. I suspect BC might give this province a run for their money, we will withhold judgment here just yet

Finally, I have been asked to present an award to the Province of New Brunswick. On behalf of tourists everywhere I am honoured to give the province of New Brunswick the "Most useless free maps" award. New Brunswick could not be here tonight to accept but they wanted to thank the city of Saint John for coming up with the idea of saving paper by only putting 1/3 of the city on a map. NB also wants everyone to know that they couldn't have won without Moncton's pioneering use of the .025 font size (and their brilliant idea to use the same small font in the blown up picture of the downtown, wider roads, same font). As well, NB wanted a special mention given to Caraquet for it's "No-map" map and the slogan "It's only really one road anyway" (it isn't). Finally, NB could not have won this award without the assistance of the Road sign association of New Brunswick. They have finally managed to label almost half of the roads in New Brunswick, some roads even with three different names. This years initiative "Put signs where people can see them" was not the success they hoped for, but there is always next year.

NOrthern New Brunswick

Bonjour tout le monde, au’jourd’hui j’ai arrive au Caraquet, la centre de la couture Acadien.

So where do I catch everyone up too? I did my final two interviews in Saint John, both went very well and I am getting a lot of great information. The next day I stopped at another museum, and it was absolutely amazing. The Curator/manager there was really enthusiastic about engaging me on a series of difficult topics, all of which will be a great help to me.

I have to give a little plug, if you are ever in New Brunswick, take the time to pull off into Petitcodiac the cozy café has some pretty good food, there is an amazing bakery (mmmm, peanut butter chocolate cookies), and the war museum there is great, there is so much and the staff are very enthusiastic about their topics.

The drive up to Caraquet today was wonderful. I bought some Lebanese food to go in Moncton and stopped in Bouctouche for a little picnic. What a picturesque town, cold though by the water. I wish I'd had more time there.

I am now in Caraquet in the Maison Touriste Dugas, it is quite lovely (even if it does smell a bit like Tortiere, but I am sure some people find that smell appealing) I have a cabin to myself, so hopefully there will not be a repeat of the snoring incident of last night.

I have to make an observation on NB drivers, there is one group who drive country as I'll put it (they do the limit, almost, most of the time, except when on actual roads) and another group who drive crazy, I have driven in Montreal, I thought I'd seen it all, until I saw a little dingy red beater drive up a hill like a bat out of hell to pass three transport trucks. And that was one of the tamer ones. I think I will take them over the Sunday drivers, at least they pass me instead of slowing me down.

I'm looking forward to getting some work done tonight, I really want to get this paper finished. Oddly enough, the internet I am stealing is working much better than the hotels actual internet, lets hope it stays that way for another hour or so!

A Demain!

So Long and thanks for all the fish

Nice and early tomorrow morning I head off to Moncton. My last interview in town today went really well.

I am generally enjoying my research, however I am going to have a crapload of transcribing to do, I am tying to get a jump start on it, but I have so many other things piling up too. I need to find a way to shorten the interviews a little, it is entirely my fault because I love to talk, and I love talking to museum people. Something about working as a public figure makes it really easy to ask for clarification or even to disagree with a person and still have a respectful conversation. I have a feeling if I were interviewing government workers who rarely have to deal with the public these interviews would not be so congenial.

The fact is I have challenged them and they have challenged me. If I have a question where the wording is shoddy or vague, they let me know. If someone says something that is contradicted by the literature, I feel comfortable going in and asking more, maybe even for a defense.

Something is brewing inside me though, I sometimes worry that as an academic I have chosen a career where I won't get to be around people this much, I really do enjoy the respectful back and forth, even if I sometimes burst waiting for the other person to finish their point.

Anyway, be that as it may, on to fish. Wow, they eat a lot of it, I like fish, a lot, even weird fish that other people don't like such as pickled and smoked fishes, smelt and weird fish like creatures such as octopus. However, I am really starting to crave tofu or beans or some other protein substitute. I am sure however that vegetarian things will get harder and harder to find as I go further north.

I also want to take a moment to offer props to the man who invented powdered milk. With cereal, milk and fruit I spent maybe 10 dollars, and I know that will cover me for the next week minimum. Life without a fridge is slightly more complicated but I don't mind. I am actually looking at it as a challenge, and I think the hostel I am in tomorrow night has a kitchen/stove. I can't wait to cook my own food again.

Finally, off topic again. For those of you that pray. I met a lovely woman here whose husband is undergoing one last dialysis to try and give him 6 more months of life. I know there is nothing to say that can help her, but I sat with her last night to watch TV and gave her a ride to the hospital this morning. All I can say is wow, what an accepting and kind woman, who for some reason enjoyed my jokes. I can only selfishly pray that I never have to go through what she is, or that it is a very long time before I do. Also that I can have that kind of love and support for my own family. So if some of you don't mind, just say a quick prayer for her, her family and her husband. Now go home tonight and hug someone you love.

Hugs to all of you...

Fredericton

Let me say right off the bat, I like Fredericton, but I hate spelling it.

I had a great bus ride where I slept for half, worked for half. I did catch the most interesting fencepost while looking out the window though. Apparently some efficient farmer, needing fence posts but having only a car, decided to cut his car in half (from top to bottom) using the top half as one post and the bottom as the other. I appreciate ingenuity wherever I can find it.

After arriving in F-town, I went to the loyalist cemetery which dates to the 1700s, very interesting overhearing Americans learning about the revolution from the loyalist point of view, which is definitely different from the narrative told in the states (generally the role of the bad guy switches, I mean really, they both tarred and feathered each other, lets move on).

I also spent some time in the York Sunbury Museum. Talk about the little museum that could, they have so much stuff and cover so many topics on what is obviously a very small budget. Good for them. I sometimes wonder what would happen if small museums like this were given the opportunities afforded to museums in other big cities.

I am also curious, where do you think the birth of Canada happened, I have now talked to people from PEI, Newfoundland, Quebec, Winnipeg and New Brunswick, all of whom claim that the birth of Canada happened in their province (each giving a variety of dates). I guess how we define “birth” will change that answer, but I’ll be interested to see what people think and how they define it.

I then had tea at a place called “Trinitieas” which turned out to be a teashop run by some Evangelical Christians…hence the pun. Lovely tea and a nice veggie soup. I then hopped on the bus back to Saint John, where I slept again and had my dinner at a little Thai place where the two ladies on staff both wear Hawaiian shirts and there are fake palm trees, quite the little establishment.

I have two more days here, I am working at the Jewish Museum today and looking forward to it. I also bid goodbye to the Delta tonight and move to the student residences on campus. Goodbye free breakfast, but hello 20 dollars a night.

I miss you all and I will post again soon!

Wandering around Saint John

Hello all,
I decided I would write today’s post on the bus to Fredericton. I will actually put it up online when I get home tonight and back to the free internet.

So, yesterday I spent the morning working on my CSSR paper got sick of that and decided to do the tourist thing around Saint John. This city has some of the most beautiful rock formations I have ever seen, however everything is overshadowed by the giant factories and processing plants owned by Irving, there is a constant hum to the town along with hundred of other industrial noises.

After getting lost by turning the wrong way (it had to happen once) I ended up at the Anglican Cathedral in town. The history plaque said it was one of the oldest structures in town, pre-dating the Saint John fires. The stones used to build the church were actually brought over in the hulls of ships from England to serve as counter-weights to keep the top heavy boats from tipping (they would be filled with fish and furs on the way back).

The Anglican bishop in Saint John at the time was from England and said he would use the stones rather than dumping them in the harbour (which was the original disposal method). The church is quite lovely and after knocking at the door, a volunteer there took me around to se the stained glass (a little obsession of mine). Realising how much I like it, she took me up into the balconies (on the condition I helped her carry some heavy bags down from storage). On the right hand side of the church on the upper level is an Angel with two right feet, what no one had noticed before is that the angel next to it had two left feet. I suppose that the artist made the feet in advance just attached them incorrectly, regardless, it was the highlight of my day.

It was sobering however, what I wound up carrying were clothes for some local people in town who were down on their luck. The economic downturn has hit hard here and the church actually started a clothing and laundry repair service for men and women who need outfits for job interviews or new clothes for their children. The woman also told me that the food bank is stretched to the max. You can tell by parts of the uptown core that times are tough. The woman who gave me my tour though was hopeful, she said the best thing about this town is that even though she finds people gruff, they help each other out.

After that I took a long walk over to the reversing falls, very anticlimactic, you have to go at just the right time to see the water reversing. They aren’t even really falls, just rapids, but they aren’t even rapids right now because the water is so deep from the spring run off. I took a cab home (my legs still aren’t 100% from the race yet). My cab driver works a second job as a tour guide in the summer so he gave me a little detour and told me where to take some of the best photos in the city.

After that it was dinner with John and some of his colleagues. Very interesting people. It is a good thing I like seafood though, there was one vegetarian option on the menu, and it didn’t look that good. I felt bad for the other woman at the table who was also vegetarian.

I’ll post tomorrow about my time in Fredericton. I have two interviews today, both of which I am looking forward too. However, I m sucking my batteries on my recorder dry, I’ll have to do something to offset the carbon footprint of my research on that count.
Until tomorrow!

Research on the Road, Day one

I’ve decided to record some notes and thoughts about my time in New Brunswick and PEI, and possibly the rest of my research on the road.

So in one day, here are the lessons I have learned thus far from one day travelling and in Saint John:

Lesson One:
Small Planes smell, really bad ‘nuff said.

Lesson Two
Planning for research is more work than actually doing research. Organizing, finding places to stay, budgeting enough to eat, recruiting interviewees, scheduling, getting your questions set up were all much more difficult than actually doing any interview or transcribing it.

Lesson Three:
Hotels are nice, especially fancy hotels. I am in a hotel with my husband for three days and let me tell you, I could get used to this. Having stayed in places where you are afraid that the shower will make you more dirty, a clean bathroom and an included breakfast (which by the way, if your pockets are deep enough can stretch to lunch and dinner) might just soften me up a bit two much for the next two weeks. However I maintain what I always told Andrea’s Mom. “If I eat enough of your food here, I won’t have to feed myself for at least two weeks.”

Lesson Four:
Blend in with the local culture. When someone says, “Are you going to the Lobster Boil Tuesday?” Particularly if said person is a Maritimer, never answer that you don’t like lobster; you might as well claim to not like air. However, a surprising number of the Toronto people on the shuttle agreed with me. It’s not that the taste of lobster is unpleasant, it is just too much work. If a lobster shell were more like an eggshell, then perhaps I would be more inclined to eat it.


Those are my lessons thus far. I only have boring plans for today, doing school work, going out and buying a map of the province, maybe going to see the reversing falls. I brought some textbooks that I am hoping to send home with my husband so I am going to get to writing my paper for the CSSR.

FYI for all who care, my race time for the Half Marathon was 2:36:23. The Elites ran the full Marathon faster than this, but I am happy to have finished with no major injuries. If I do it again next year I will aim to get under 2:30.

The Academic's Burden

You want to know what I would love to do more than anything else in the world (short of having a thesis fairy write my dissertation for me)?

I want to be able to answer questions with a simple yes or no.

There is a biblical precedent for this, Jesus said "let your yes be yes and your no be no." Jesus never met a PhD student.

It seems this problem spreads, it began in classes. For example the professor would say "Do you think there should be a separation between church and state." I could say yes or no, but instead I say...

"Weeeeeeellllllll, it depends, we can impose artifical separation on arbitrarily constructed categories that are a product of 17th century enlightenment thinking but the reality is any modern form of the state that exists today developed from and/or with religion, a such the state and religion are already inextribably combined. And this doesn't even begin to address what happens when the state becomes religion."

You may see this pattern in yourself and justify my answer by telling me that in reality it is a complex question that deserves more than a yes or no answer, but remember...it spreads Dun-Dun-DUN

My mom asked if I wanted pants for Chritmas I got into a discussion about sweat shops and ideal body types. My husband asked if we should start gardening, I answered with a discussion about weather patterns. A man on the road asked me if I knew how to drive...I told him to...well that doesn't really count.

The final straw...."did you want fries with that?" Want to know something, a waitress doesn't really care what you think about trans fats.

So I have a new goal, learn to say yes and no again and let that be enough. Is this a feasible or realistic project? Well, that depends.....