A list! Because narrative takes time.

So a lot has happened since last week.  I'll just make a list of adventures/discoveries thus far to keep things simple.

1. I drove in Canada. Kilometres are tricky bitches. Just kidding...but seriously. I went out last Sunday on my own to the White Rock farmers' market and the huge pier. Even though it was grey out, it was still beautiful. I've also been on the Skytrain (like the metro) and local buses to get around downtown Vancouver. Walking around downtown was relatively simple and I am getting oriented well!

White Rock Pier

View of the water from the harbour downtown. So pretty!

2. Canadian fast food is not terrible. I experienced a lovely place called Tim Horton's one morning when we were in a rush. Apparently he's famous for some reason unbeknownst to me. There are so many fun local cafes and restaurants that I hope to avoid Mr. Horton's establishment as much as I can, though.

3. I got a play phone! My new Canadian cell phone functions (somewhat) but definitely looks like something my boyfriend's niece should be playing with, not me.

4. "Appys" and "grads." People here refer to appetizers as "appys." Yes, with a y. And if you couldn't tell already, grad is short for graduation. I'm all up for some word shortages, but they take it to the next level around here.

5. I already got to experience another longhouse! We went to the Chehalis reservation land for HIPPY Canada staff development day. It was much more rustic than the fancy downtown longhouse, with dirt floors and wooden benches to sit on, and a nice lovely stove with a fire. It reminded me of the stove in my house and my dad's workshop. Our leader/guide/facilitator told us several stories about their culture, we ate lunch there (homemade canned salmon, anyone?), and walked down to their river to wash our hands where they traditionally bathe to wash away negativity.

All the HIPPY Canada ladies in front of the longhouse.

Inside the longhouse.

Delicious home canned salmon.

Me with our guides.

Washing away negativity! Glacier water is CHILLY.

6. The sun sets reeeeeeally late here. Like 9:30pm late. The summer solstice is coming up on June 20, so I definitely plan to take advantage of the longest day of the year in a place where the sun stays out so late.

From when I tried to watch the transit of Venus...keyword: tried. 

7. Speaking of the sun, it finally came out! It has been gloomy, but finally this weekend the sun came to visit. Monday was also a beautiful day. Today the rain is back though, argh.

The sun! Taken on Friday.

8. I ate something called a Japadog. It's a Japanese-influenced hot dog. It was...interesting? I would definitely have to get used to the flavor profile of hot dog, teriyaki, Japanese mayo, and seaweed all together.

Japadog

9. I had the first meeting for my project on Thursday-there was a bit of a rocky start, but everything is progressing now. I will devote an entire post to project development after my next meeting later today! I'll also give more details about HIPPY Britannia in that one.

10. I explored this cutesy little town called Fort Langley. It reminded me of fun little Southern towns. You can walk anywhere and there are little boutiques, book shops, and cafes. I hope to go back again.

Beautiful view in Fort Langley.

An old train depot.

On the railroad with a train passing by.

11. Bhangra! I went to a Bhangra Festival in downtown Vancouver with my partner's niece and her friend (yay new friends!). It was in the Art Gallery Plaza and had all kinds of artists and dancers. My favorite artist was a guy who played violin to punjabi music with hip hop and dubstep influences. People started impromptu dancing while he played. My favorite group of dancers were these little boys that had been dancing together for 8 years. They were probably 11-12 and so into the music!

Violinder

Impressive.

12. After the festival, we walked around downtown a bit, into a cool aboriginal art gallery/shop in Gastown and to a restaurant near the water called Steamworks. Definitely planning to get a couple prints of native art from the shop. I ate the Canadian dish poutine for dinner. Delicious gravy and cheese curd covered fries. Yep.

Me and my poutine.

Up close- yuummm.

"I hold my hands up to you."

My first full day in Vancouver/White Rock/Surrey was very full, indeed. For the first part of the day, my project partner, Debbie, and I worked from home. We met to go over some specifics of the project and I got some great resources to check out. It was really laid back. We took a walk along Crescent Beach (check out the picture from the last post) and had a nice cup of tea. Love the tea culture here.

That afternoon, we went into Vancouver for an awards reception and an art show of a friend's daughter. On the way in, Debbie took me through East Vancouver, where the HIPPY Britannia office is. I'll be working there some. The area was very multicultural, with all kinds of places to eat. It is a lower income area- not what people typically think of when they think of Vancouver. I am pretty excited to be working there and getting to know some of the people. The main strip of restaurants and shops made me think of all my classmates around the world- it was like a showcase of all the kinds of foods and cultures we are all experiencing this summer. 

We then drove into Gastown, which is more of the downtown area, with some touristy spots near the water. It was cute and will be fun to explore in the coming weeks! The central HIPPY Canada office is near this section, and I will also get to work there. It will be nice to have several places to work and experience different parts of the Vancouver area.

Our destination was the Native Education College. The building is a traditional longhouse, complete with elder seating and a central fire. One of the women that works at HIPPY, Tammy, is from an aboriginal tribe and received a leadership award. I don't know much background, but it was a great experience to start off the summer.

There was a traditional song to begin the evening. (I couldn't get a good angle on the shot.)

A local chief blessed everyone and asked for witnesses. At the end of the evening, the witnesses were asked to give wisdom and advice to everyone.

One of the witnesses, Chief Leonard George, had the coolest shoes. Hot pink!

Throughout the evening, whenever someone sought to show respect or was impressed with the success of another person, they lifted up their hands and said "I hold my hands up to you." It seemed like such a nice, simple gesture. Nothing grandiose about it, but meaningful. The culture is full of such respect- of people, of places, of the earth- that was evident every time a person spoke. Another quote I loved is pictured below. Similar pictures hung all around, but this one stood out to me. 

"I've worked all my life and with all kinds of people.
Come with me and I'll work with you too."

They explained that at the beginning of each semester, all the students enter through this door, leaving all baggage and negativity behind. The concept really resonated with me- almost like clearing your cache before beginning a new chapter in life. Yep, I just made a tech reference. Weird.

The most awesome part about this longhouse? It's in the middle of downtown Vancouver! It was literally surrounded by other commercial buildings. What a clash of the past and modern times!

I wish I had a bit more information about the NEC to share- if you want to learn more, go to http://www.necvancouver.org/

After we left the longhouse reception, we stopped by an art showing. It was a bit odd after the longhouse experience, but still nice. I didn't get to take any pictures there.

I am really glad I got to experience a sliver of the aboriginal culture early on in my time here. Lasting impressions of the culture is everywhere in Vancouver- from street names to local traditions. It is important to distinguish that while I am grouping it as aboriginal culture, there are many tribes with their own native lands. These groups are commonly all referred to as "First Nations," although during the reception, the women who received awards all stated what tribe they are in and thanked the local nation for allowing them to live on their lands. This was so interesting to hear, given that millions of people live on tribes' native lands and probably never once thought to thank them for it. I hope to do a bit more research on First Nations so I can better appreciate both their influence on modern life in Vancouver and their many struggles, even today, to fight racism and be true to their culture in today's society.

Canada, eh?

So I had every intention of writing more before my trip, but life seemed to get in the way. I went and stayed at the boyfriend's casa for a bit while I finished up school requirements for my project, then made it home to visit my parents and sis for a couple days before hopping on the flight to Vancouver. I don't think I was quite ready, as I had no real "break" from schoolwork and didn't have much preparation time, but here I am!

I've been in "beautiful British Columbia" (as the license plates say) for about 27 hours now. My partner and her husband met me at the airport and took me out for dinner at a local institution of a restaurant called Charlie Don't Surf. It was rainy and grey when I arrived, so I have no pictures of the place, but I'm sure I will be back. It was right down by the water at White Rock, the town my partner lives in, about 45 minutes south of Vancouver. Then we went to their house and I got settled into a nice little room of my own.

This morning, my partner and I worked from home and then went into the city for a reception at an aboriginal longhouse (yes, seriously) and to an art showing (also serious). However, you will just have to live with your suspense, as I will write more details and post pictures (yay!) in my next post. For now, I just want to give a little information on what I will be accomplishing this summer!

The first picture of me in Vancouver- on the beach in White Rock in a jacket of my partner's because it was quite cold.

I am working with an organization called HIPPY Canada. HIPPY stands for Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters. Google it, it's a pretty interesting model for teaching parents how to be their child's first teacher and prepare them for school using home visitors. And it has all these other great benefits besides the education piece. For example, a lot of immigrant women are enrolled in the program and they have found that participation has helped them overcome some of the challenges of immigrating to a new place.

That's sort of where I come in. I am here to assess how HIPPY programming has impacted the settlement process of immigrant women who have completed the program. But not in a traditional evaluation format- I'll be working with two of the home visitors and the women themselves to design a participatory process to collect oral histories of their experiences. There will be plenty more about this later, and we're still working out the details, but I think it has such great potential to honor the women's most likely hard and emotional experiences while gathering valuable information to inform HIPPY programming on what to enhance, change, or continue. In addition to all of that, I will be developing the research design as a replicable tool for home visitors to do the oral histories evaluation at other HIPPY Canada sites.

Needless to say, I'm pretty stoked about the possibilities!