A Slice of The Nuje

A short story:
At the beginning of the summer, some friends of ours moved from Massachusetts to New Jersey. So, over the Labour Day weekend, we hopped on the train and went to visit them. Nothing beats a good long weekend getaway to see good friends!

***Backstory: Ted and John knew each other way back when during their undergrad days at the University of Victoria. Life happens, as it does and John went off to Quebec where he met and married his wife, Marie-Eve. They ultimately moved to the Boston area several years ago. When we moved here in 2013, luckily for me, Ted and John reconnected and we all became friends. John and Marie-Eve also have two very adorable little girls who are always a hoot to hang out with. ***

The weekend happened to coincide with the US Open so there was a day where John and Ted went to New York to watch some of the tournament while the ladies spent the day checking out a local farmer's market (which I love) and the local swimming pool where Sophie got to showcase what she had learned after a summer of swimming lessons.

A definite highlight of our first and very short visit to New Jersey was a visit to the Liberty Science Center -- lots to do and see and it was very interactive! There is an Infinity Climber (above), a suspended play space and a favourite of Sophie's.

There were also some animal displays, which to my delight, included this tortoise.

From the outdoor spaces of the Science Center, New York City's skyline was clearly visible.

We also took a walk through part of Liberty State Park and peered at the Statue of Liberty...

...and New York City across the way.

We took the Amtrak home and had a bit of time at Penn Station where we got some good ol' people watching in.

'Til next time, Nuje.

A Weekend in the Nation's Capital

Summer in Washington, DC is sweltering. We managed to survive the humidity (Ted and I do not do well in extreme temperatures) and took in some iconic American sights over a period of just under 48 hours. 

While walking is a good way to see the city, the metro isn't a bad option, either. I've noticed in various cities I've traveled to that have subway systems, is that one can often find interesting stations that are tailored to the neighbourhood/stop.

 We started our Washington weekend at the National Museum of American History -- home of Dorothy's ruby slippers and various historical and pop culture American items. Best overheard exchange: 

                       Woman (pointing at exhibit): "I had this exact dollhouse as a child!"
                                    Son: "And now it's in a museum...."

We strolled along the National Mall (with many breaks in the shade) and admired the Washington Monument and Reflecting pool (Anyone else think of Jenny from Forrest Gump splashing through it?).

 We took a quiet moment to take in the World War II Memorial...

...And the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial before continuing to...

... the grand (and very crowded) Lincoln Memorial.

The exploration of the city continued and we came across the Albert Einstein Memorial! Ted, as a scientist, was particularly pleased.

Later in the early evening, we wandered over to see The White House. While we obviously couldn't get anywhere near the actual structure, it was still neat to see, if a bit underwhelming. I'm not sure what I was expecting, actually.

And, of course, we had to pop by the J. Edgar Hoover building to say hello to Mulder and Scully

The next day, we stopped by the Canadian Embassy just because we couldn't help ourselves!

Our weekend in Washington was capped off with a visit to the 

National Gallery of Art.

City bonus: these amazing sights in Washington, including the various Smithsonian museums, are free! There's some talk that this may change soon -- so, have a visit sooner rather than later if there's ever an opportunity! 

"The Only Constant is Change"

Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

-- George Bernard Shaw 

After much soul searching, Ted decided to leave the bench and the world of academia behind. It wasn't making him happy and was, in fact, affecting his health and by extension, our quality of life. So, with great hope and excitement, Ted embarked on the fun road of job hunting in what he referred to as "the real world". And lo! He is now the Scientific Editor for a Ebiomedicine,  a new journal that reviews and publishes scientific journals that relate to the field of translational medicine. 

Last summer, I had just started a development internship at Community Research Initiative (CRI) as well as a position working most weekdays as a per diem clinical social worker in inpatient psychiatry units at a hospital in town. After my internship wrapped up in the beginning of December, I began working every weekend as a clinical social worker on various medicine floors at Boston Medical Center (in addition to my continued work in psychiatry during the week). Around the same time Ted was doing his soul-searching and answering the question of "what next" for himself, Ted and I had good discussions about how we were well-positioned to be able to carefully look for and choose jobs in fields we really wanted to be in, especially given that we are at a stage in life where a big part of our time and identity is wrapped up in what we do for work. I was doing all these various things to learn more about these different areas as I'm a big believer of testing things out, if I'm able to; Ted had just experienced the negative affects of a bad fit. Thus, we encouraged each other to really think about what we wanted to do, take action, and see where the cards fell. With this sense of renewed purpose, I also applied for another new job and am now the first-ever palliative care social worker at Boston Medical Center. Palliative care is a field I've long been interested in, and is in part what influenced my decision to return to school to become a social worker all those years ago (over a decade ago, now!). As someone who loves finding connections, you can be assured that this greatly pleases my sense of coming full circle, so to speak. And yes, here we go with yet another new beginning for the both of us at the same time (we've become quite accustomed to having change in our lives).

But wait. What did this change in employment mean for our visa status? It meant that it was time to change our visa status from our current J-status to a TN visa status. As Canadians and with jobs that fall under the NAFTA professionals list, we were eligible to apply for this non-immigrant status visa. We each applied for this in different ways: Ted's employer completed a petition for this change in visa status, which was processed without Ted having to meet with anyone in person; for my part, after gathering the necessary documents (in short: your degree [the original], passport, application fee, and one of the key pieces -- a formal letter from your prospective employer, preferably written by their legal team), we took a drive to the Canadian border to process my visa request in person!! As the visa is meant to be processed upon entry into the country, I had to drive across the border into Canada (Quebec) and immediately turn around to cross the border into the US again. Made for some interesting questioning at the border:

Border guard: When were you last in the United States?

Me: Um... 5 minutes ago. I just crossed the border over there. **points across the way** 

So, in the end, Ted and I both now have our own TN visa statuses that are independent of each other. Overall, Ted's visa took a bit longer to process once all the documentation was submitted; mine was much quicker (ie. essentially immediate) once I had everything I needed and presented myself at the border at my appointed time. Thank you, NAFTA agreement! 

Time-saving tip: Call the designated point of entry you have decided to cross that processes TN visas to make an appointment ahead of time and clarify the documents you need!!! We learned this the hard way and ended up driving up to Highgate Springs, Vermont twice. It is, after all U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that will be processing this visa request.

Welcome (back) to America! The border at Highgate Springs, VT from the Canadian side.

The 18-Month Rollercoaster

It was approximately 18 months ago that Ted and I made some decisions that started a jam-packed, rollicking journey that would mark an Interesting Period of our lives. Here's a brief timeline and some of the main events that have happened in this time:

In these past months, I've learned a few things:

~ Boston is ripe with American history -- one can randomly come across some plaque or stone marker indicating what Important Event (such as where Washington first took command of American troops) related to the American Revolution occurred there. However, there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of information regarding First Nations populations here or pre-contact populations (you know, before the Pilgrims with their hats arrived at Plymouth Rock), so  I tried to find out a bit more about the area. Boston (and I think Cambridge) sits on the Massachusett traditional territory, the tribe the state of Massachusetts is named after. I've tried to look up information about this particular tribe, but apparently, while there are small bands living around the state, the people were nearly wiped out during post-colonial contact. Their language (and the word Massachusetts) is a dialect of Algonquin. Here's a map from Wikipedia:

~ Massachusetts has a form of socialized healthcare and has for some time. It's a point of pride, apparently.
~ I've mentioned this one before - the immigration process is a painful exercise in waiting... which I whine about despite coming to the U.S. under good circumstances and carrying a Canadian passport (the point being that this very likely makes it much easier for me than someone carrying another sort of passport or identification).
~ Apparently, one needs a Social Security Number (aka "a social") in order to do a number of things such as: apply for a job, get a driver's license, apply to see if one is eligible to take a social work licensing exam, get a bank account (although, we were able to circumvent this somehow), do volunteer work (they need your social to run a check on you), etc. One cannot get a social until their immigration stuff is done. See above point.
~ A surprising number of people do not know what you mean when asking for a washroom. One should request a bathroom.
~ Boston has a super great food scene. I'm glad I had a full physical, including blood pressure and cholesterol check earlier this year. Who knows what the numbers will be the next time I have a check up.
~ Reconnecting with old friends, even ones you haven't seen or spoken to in years (even since junior high school), is always lovely and fun. You get to hear all the interesting things that have happened with people in those intervening years. It's never boring.
~ Job-hunting, particularly when one is trying to pursue new-ish areas of social work that have long been of interest, is not the time to be squeamish! Many applications were sent out! Many interviews (in person and via phone) were scheduled! Many diplomatic rejection letters/responses came in.... I started the process tentatively at first and eventually found myself perusing job postings and saying to myself, "well, I don't necessarily fit 100% of the preferences or requirements, but I'm going to apply anyway!". And I did. The worst that could happen, I figured? No response or a "no" (something I was getting used to, anyway). I mean, it still sucked. And some days, Ted would come home to find me being overly-dramatic and bemoaning my life (like I said -- dramatic). I'm sure he was always really happy about that.
~ One in-person, super supportive person in your life can change everything. Ted and I have a great support network. Unfortunately, most of this network is currently not in Boston and while emails and such are fantastic, it's just not the same as commiserating with or bouncing ideas off someone in person. So, we've leaned heavily on each other as we navigated some of the milestones we've recently experienced. I'm not certain I would have survived the emotional ups and downs that have occurred without Ted. I'm sure there were times where he wasn't certain he would survive my emotional ups and downs, either. But, I'd like to think the reverse is true as well and while his emotional ups and downs look very different from mine, I'm sure he had them, too. Having that person also gives us the freedom and luxury of BEING dramatic and wallowing in short-lived dumpitudes before getting our act together (sometimes at the prodding of the other person), acknowledging how blessed we are, and plugging along.

A Summary of Shenanigans

Hanging out at Boston Common

Just after my first Easter in Boston, some of my very favourite people trekked across the country by way of Minneapolis for a quick visit. Despite the months-long separation, we quickly embroiled ourselves in our usual idiotic and funny (to us) shenanigans while racing around, taking in the sights. While the trip was short, the memories will be long - I present a 6 day trip to Boston and New York City in a series of picture collages! 

Day 1 (Boston): While Mac, Cheese, and Crumbs battled jet lag, we took a stroll around Harvard, went on a Duck Tour around the city and along the Charles River where Sara got to DRIVE A DUCK BOAT, and ended the night with watching the hilarious musical, The Book of Mormon.

Day 2a (Boston): Walked most of the Freedom Trail which took us around to most of the historical landmarks in Boston related to the American Revolution, had chowder (chowdah) at Quincy Market and ate cannolis from Mike's Pastry.

Day 2b (Boston): Stopped for midday drinks at the aptly named Frost Ice Bar.

Day 2c (Boston): Continued wandering around the Freedom Trail, including the North End and ended the day by spending several hours at The Bell in Hand - America's Oldest Tavern.

Day 3 (Boston to New York): Spent the day taking the Amtrak from Boston to NYC (about 4.5 hours trip). Our first night in NYC found us down at Times Square!

Day 4 (New York City): Our first full day in New York started with a meal at Katz's Deli, followed by a bus tour of the city, riding the subway, and checking out the neat architecture! We finished with a meal at The National and checking out the Waldorf Astoria.

Day 5 (New York City): Went to Top of the Rock, the Public Library (where Sara re-enacted select scenes from the Sex and the City movie), and Chelsea Market.

Day 6 (New York City): Our last morning was spent biking around at Central Park before capping the trip off by enjoying some wine on the train back to Boston!

Practically Locals!! (Reprise)

I'm back on the grid! I'm no longer an anonymous (well...actually, I am still anonymous, but you know what I mean) person who has to truck around her passport for ID purposes wherever she goes! I got myself some bona fide U.S. identification bearing my name, face, signature, and in one case, my fingerprint.

My passport reassures me that I'm still Canadian, though. Phew! :)

Besides the ID thing, I've slowly been attempting to integrate into the community beyond the neighbourhood and restaurant/eatery explorations we still do and the visits to the wine store across the street.

I'm volunteering at the little community centre near our place that have various neat programs that run out of it for kids of all ages. I get to help out with middle school aged people who are at once hilarious, sassy, naive, worldly and terrifying. It's a community centre in a true sense: it's been around for ages and generations of families have gone through here; it's an old building that you can tell has been added onto over time, making it look a bit like a building that's been cobbled together; there's a weekend market that happens here with fantastic locally grown/harvested/made veggies, seafood, cheeses, etc.; and it really feels like a meeting place for the neighbourhood.

Just beyond that tree there is an art piece titled "Inner City Totem"

Also, to feed my love of learning languages (although, I don't have a natural aptitude for it), I've started taking Spanish lessons! At this point, I can have a super basic conversation as long as it doesn't deviate from asking basic questions (names, where one lives, how someone is), listing members of the family, listing random foods, and occasionally asking at what time something is (when I can remember how to formulate the question). And I can count to 50. Ta-da! Learning!

Also, I can list random nouns. Makes for riveting conversation, no?

See? I'm practically a local!

Hasta luego (<-- learning AND applying new skills).

Seen Around Beantown

In the last couple of months, we took in a couple of notable Boston sights: the New England Aquarium and the Museum of Fine Arts. These were great indoor activities for a few of those blustery New England winter weekends.

New England Aquarium:

The Aquarium had a really neat set-up that was both engaging and beautiful with a large penguin exhibit right in the centre. There was also a Giant Ocean Tank - a huge cylindrical tank that rose from the floor up to the ceiling (about 4 floors) - that was filled with various sea-life and served as a coral reef exhibit. Plus, they had a couple of "touch tanks" where we got to feel rays as they swam by and other little critters.

These fun guys greet you outside 
the entrance!

This picture doesn't do this ENORMOUS
 guy justice...

                     

     

          

Overall impression: Thoroughly enjoyable, although I was sad to see few to no amphibians/reptiles. While the New England Aquarium had wonderful exhibits, it did make us realize how large the Vancouver Aquarium is.

Museum of Fine Arts (MFA):

A museum that has a bit of everything from the well-known great masters such as Monet, Manet, Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Titian, to ancient artifacts and weird and whacky contemporary pieces. There was also a fairly decent exhibit on First Nations art, in both traditional and contemporary styles. 

Fun fact: museum admission includes a free 'repeat visit' within 10 days which was a handy little perk that we took full advantage of. We ended up spending about 7.5 - 8 hours over 2 Saturdays at the MFA after we got over our shock at how large it was (something neither of us were expecting for some reason). 

Our favourite exhibit was the one showcasing John Singer Sargent. His portraits were amazing and so full of life, which even an art rube like myself could recognize. We also played our own private game of searching for Very Ugly Painted Children. There were many. May I present, the winner:

Our very favourite piece, judging from the amount of giggling we did (because we're super juvenile):