Charmaine's Adventure in Yukon

I should write something about -45 weather. Before experiencing it, I would never imagine myself in it and would never know what to expect in that situation. It's finally over now... I wish it would never come back again (this is just my wishful thinking if we live in the Yukon). Those who never experience this would probably picture -45 with heavy snow. But there was no snow at all when it was that cold, only thing I remember was ice fog, endless ice fog even in the middle of the day. Sun was like a piece of round pale paper hanging on the sky without any power. I coughed every time when I took a breath outside. I can not understand how people here can survive and even enjoy the weather like this. I will have to admit that I am not tough enough to be a real Yukoner no matter how much I like them. Maybe I should start planning a trip to somewhere warm when it's -45 next year.

24小时后2007年就将成为过去式了。从上星期开始我们就陆陆续续的放假休息，总共加在一起比上班的天数还要多。即便是在上班的时候，心情也是松散的，收音机里放的尽是圣诞节的音乐，单位里的人也大多都休假了，整整的一个星期下来，除了睡了很长时间觉以外也想不出来都干了些什么。加拿大的冬天是有名的长而冷，从10月底的第一场雪开始要持续到来年的4月，并且还要忍受极短的日照，每天都是披星戴月地上下班。总算捱到十二月有个圣诞节，大家终于可以挂挂灯，烤烤火鸡，呼朋唤友一番。为了防止自己被闷出病来，在我的坚持下，我们家也竖起了圣诞树挂起闪闪的彩灯和五颜六色的装饰品，去朋友家吃了几顿火鸡大餐，也算过了一个地地道道的圣诞节。

Time flies. It has almost been 2 months since the last entry. Many things have happened during this time: first I got a job at Whitehorse General Hospital as a Recruitment Specialist; second I went back to Shanghai for 2 weeks to visit my family and friends before the start. Everybody was happy but also surprise to see me back only after 4 months. To me, I was so happy that nothing has been changed since I left; I was like a fish back to the river that feels so familiar...

October is the best month in Shanghai. It has prefect fall weather...sunny, fresh, 25 Celsius degree all along... During the whole trip, I spent most of the time with my family and friends did not even do much shopping (i was going to but barely had time for myself). Having been away for several months, I felt even stronger about family and friendship, so every second there was precious to me. Mom wrote down my schedule everyday so that she could prepare food if I was eating at home.... hairy crab, chestnut, fresh sea food... all the good stuffs I can not get in Whitehorse! Thanks Mom! I wish I could spend more time with her. The first week was really fun but I got very emotional in the second week as I started thinking about leaving again soon. When I was listening to my friends talking about their work, their life...it brought me back to the stressful yet exciting life in this fascinating city. I was sad at that moment...I left something I deeply enjoyed... It's very hard to explain my feelings and attachment to Shanghai...I spent most of the 31 years there, all the significant steps in my life happened there, all my families and friends are there....I know it's not a prefect place, yet to me, nothing can compare to it in my heart.

So long, Shanghai! I flew back to Whitehorse on Oct 20th.

When I first moved into our house, the backyard looked pretty disorganized and full of weeds and bushes. It backs into the green space. I've never had a backyard in my entire life until I came to Canada (I've always lived in condominiums in major cities). I had no idea what was in our yard until about three weeks ago. Our friend Michael found out that we had a whole bunch of raspberry bushes and the raspberries were ripe and ready to pick. What a nice surprise! :-)

After that time, I couldn't help but go look at my raspberry bushes everyday after work. The red little berries hanging on the bushes looked so pretty and tasty! I was able to get a cereal bowl full of berries every other day, not including the ones that I ate while picking. ;-) Berry picking is a very enjoyable experience because there are so many hidden surprises for me when I lift up a branch or look at the same bush from different angles. I feel like I'm searching for hidden treasure in my backyard!

After I found out about the raspberries, I was imagining that I'd be looking forward to picking them again throughout the winter. Coming from a city with over 20 million people, I've always had to spend money to buy things I want, but now I find that something so simple and even free, can be so much fun. How nice!

暑假放了有两个月，sign....应该开学了。从温哥华回来后，我就开始加紧求职的脚步。上网站、看报纸，还把以前在国内做猎头的那套方法搬过来：找出target companies, 然后找到Human Resource Director的联系方式，打cold call过去介绍自己。哈，以前是卖工作，现在是卖自己，不求买个好价钱，但求找个好买家。这里的人大多都很nice, 都会在电话里耐心地解释他们公司的情况，目前招聘的需求，还会邀请我把简历发过去。可是简历过去后几乎是没有回复的。还好以前做猎头锻炼出来的绝世好耐心，才没有让自己轻易地丧失自信心，只有鼓励自己再接再厉！！！

通过网站报纸得到了几个面试机会。第一个是在商会的行政助理职位，整个面试进行的还算顺利，除了一些关于当地商业环境的问题我对其他问题基本上对答如流。原本对这份工作寄予蛮大的期望，一则觉得自己可以胜任，再则这个工作可以建立广泛的人际网络，对我以后的发展有帮助。但可惜的是，我被拒了，原因是对当地市场不够熟悉。第二个是慈善基金的协调员，主要是协调和组织慈善募捐活动。其实我挺诧异得到这个面试机会的，因为我知道这个职位需要在当地很好的人际网络，包括报刊，政府，尤其是对文化背景有深刻的了解。正如我的猜想，我没能得到这个职位，但interviewers觉得我很professional，而且有很好的工作经验，所以他们愿意推荐我去另外一个公司。这当然是后话了，我又一次被拒。第三次是在animal shelter的administrator职位，animal shelter主要是负责小动物的收容和领养工作，这个职位要负责整个shelter的财务、人事、日常管理，听起来是个challenged的职位。和前两次一样，面试进行的顺利，他们会在这个周末要做reference check，我应该明天可以得到回复。希望好运拉！

经过了这几次面试，我意识到对不同文化的理解是如此地重要，细小到语气语调都会影响到沟通效果。在这个过程中，常常要提醒自己重新审视以前在潜移默化中养成的习惯，情绪又常常无法控制地在肯定与否定之间徘徊，我不知道我能经历多少失败，不知道能坚持多久。我想我不是一个轻易服输的人，既然已经做了这样的决定，我应该在这样的经历中让自己更坚强，希望能在多年后回忆起来，我能感激这段时光带给生命的可贵财富。

I know I am very bad at keeping my blog updated. Especially now, I should not have an excuse to say 'no time to write'. I always admire people who can freely express their thoughts and feelings in writing, and it's also a wonderful way to keep memories. I used to write a lot when I was in school, in Chinese of course. After so many years of writing in English at work, I feel that I am losing the ability to write in my native language, which is kind of sad. Anyhow, I just hope I can write more in either languages.

Norris and I had decided to go to Vancouver to visit his family 2 weeks ago. Because we couldn't get the same flight, I had to leave one day later than him, which was July 11th. The day that I arrived was the hottest day in Vancouver this year: 35 degrees celcious. I was very happy about it as Whitehorse doesn't get anywhere above 30 degrees and I miss a real hot summer. During the 10 days, the majority of our activities were meeting family and friends, and of course eating out a lot. Vancouver is one of the places in the world that have very good Cantonese food outside of China. That's because a lot of HK chefs immigrated there. In fact, when you are in Richmond, you can communicate with people in Cantonese or even Mandarin without speaking any English. Norris and I were so excited in the Chinese grocery stores as we were able to find everything we needed, just like we were in China or HK. In the end, we loaded several luggage of dry mushroom, wood ear (a type mushroom), and Chinese sausages. Thanks to the Air Canada Aeroplan Elite member privileges, we were able to carry an extra 2 bags per person.

时间过的真快， 转眼已经来了1个月了。感觉象在放暑假，早上睡到自然醒，下午上网找工作，晚上看书或者上网聊天、、、但我常常会想：什么时候能开学呢？生活就是这样，当一种压力过去的时候，另一种压力就会不约而至，幸福和满足只能存在于瞬间吧。和其他新移民相比，我该算是很幸运的一个： 有老公的陪伴和支持，有属于自己的房子，没有必须在短期内找到工作的压力，有朋友的帮助、、、我还能奢求什么呢？

对上海的思念没有一刻停止过，常常在半梦半醒之间又回到熟悉的大街小巷，看到妈妈，又和朋友谈天说地、、、然后惊醒，心里好一阵难过。那样亲密又熟悉的感觉仿佛就在咫尺之遥却又无法触及，那一刻觉得自己好无力。

思念是一种很玄的东西 如影随形
无声又无息 出没在心底 转眼吞没我在寂寞里
我无力抗拒 特别是夜里 想你到无法呼吸、、、

As I briefly mentioned in my previous post, Norris and I are both passionate about cooking. Surprisingly, with only one shelf of Chinese food section at Superstore, we can cook about 70% of the dishes on the cook book we have. Cooking becomes to one of our major events everyday and it makes me feel connected to my hometown while I am away from it. I just hope my weight does not go up as I spend so much time on cooking and eating everyday. :-P

June 28
No 1: Stir Fired Vegetable by Charmaine
No 2: Tomato Egg by Charmaine
No 3: Black Pepper Salmon by Norris
No 4: Mini Choloclate Chip Muffins by Norris



June 29
No 1: Fried Rice Noodles with Shitake Mushrooms, Ham, Bean Spouts, Green Onions by Norris (Lunch)
No 2: Stir Fried Chayote with Ham and Shitake Mushrooms by Charmaine
No 3: Pepper & Salt Prawns with Garlic by Norris



June 30
No 1: Stir Fried Iceberg Lettuce with Garlic by Charmaine
No 2: Stir Fried Chicken with Suger Snap Peas & Carrot by Charmaine
No 3: BBQ Spareribs by Norris & Charmaine

A lot of people think Whitehorse is a quiet city. While you actually look into it, it has many activities going on from time to time. Last week was Cultural Diversity week, the city celebrated its multiculturalism throughout the whole week and Aboriginal Day on June 21st

I found the following information about National Aboriginal Day on Wikipedia. It can help you to understand the background of this canadian festival. National Aboriginal Day is a Canadian day of recognition of the diverse cultures and outstanding contributions to Canada of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis, who are collectively known as Aboriginal peoples in Canada. It was proclaimed in 1996 by then Governor General of Canada Roméo LeBlanc to be celebrated on June 21 of every year.

Performance on Aborginal Day.



The lady in blue suit is the Governor General of Canada. As the representative of the Queen in Canada, she is one of the most respected persons in Canada.



Free lunch from Northwestel!



You see the National flag? This is our China booth!