I moved to Newfoundland 5 months ago (and this is my first blog post about the move . . .ooooooppppppssss)!! How has the time gone by so quickly?! And why haven’t I been screeched in yet?! (That’s a great question, by the way, and I don’t have a good answer for it.)
A little over five months ago, I spent my last weekend in my little Saint John. The weekend was full of all kinds of shenanigans which included dinner at Italian by Night, getting to go onto one of the Tall Ships (shout out to Anthony for taking me as his Plus One), dancing, naps, brunch, Prosecco, an Anthony BBQ, a million laughs and even more last minute packing. (Thank you Brynn for keeping my butt in packing gear!)
So, I hate endings. I hate the endings of books, movies and TV shows. I hate the end of summer. I hate the end of Christmas break. I hate the endings of trips. But even more than I hate endings, I HATE goodbyes.
My last weekend was the worst combination of all these things. Saying goodbye to Saint John. The end of summer. The end of my time as a UNB student. Goodbye to family and goodbye to friends.
With all that in mind, I woke up on August 21st and immediately started to cry. (I know, no one is surprised by this.) I had said all my goodbyes the day before and now ahead of me was a family trip and simultaneous move to St John’s. Our first stop on the Wallace Family Road Trip was Cape Breton. I cried the whole six-hour drive there. (So if my eyes look a little red/puffy in the pictures from the first evening – you know why.)
Our first stop once we got to Cape Breton was Rita McNeil’s tea house for high tea. I mean I do really like tea…so maybe that helped with the tears.
Most of the rest of the day was spent driving with me squished in the back of the car with as many of my belongings as could fit. Eventually, we arrived in Bedeck, where we spent the evening walking around.
Day 2 of our road trip took us to a museum dedicated to a giant (only Father Wallace could find somewhere like this for us to visit), the Cabot Trail (including the most beautiful beach and an after-dark Skyline hike) and whale watching where we got to see Pilot Whales!
This beach though.
The majority of Day 3 was spent at Fortress Louisbourg after a bit of exploring in Cheticamp. After visiting the fortress, we had supper with Cruise in Sydney and then we got on board the ferry and headed across to the island that I now call home.
I am absolutely #proudlyunb even though I now go to MUN. I owe so much of what I'm doing now to UNBSJ and I am eternally grateful for everything I learned during my time at UNB.
* * * Fun fact: my first scientific paper (aka the paper that includes the data I collected for my UNBSJ honours project while working in Jim Kieffer's sturgeon ecophysiology lab) was just accepted for publication!!!!!!
More super late blog posts coming your way soon (because I cannot deal with unfinished things)!
Happy Saturday!
H.