East Coast Exploring

The whole school plus working thing has put a pretty major cramp on the exploring business but I have managed to get out and see a few things on the weekends.

Point Pleasant Park- This is a big park past downtown that's right on the water. Lots of intersecting trails. I trekked out there and took the trail that goes around the park, right along the water. Very pretty so you get pictures!

 

Duncan's Cove- This is maybe half an hourish outside of Halifax. I found a meetup group that was going on a hike out there so I tagged along. It was nice to have some human interaction and it was an easy hike, wonderful weather, and an amazing view! There is a little community right there with houses that I thought were super cute:

Perhaps not the best picture, but they seemed very coastal to me. Almost all of the hike is right by the water, either down near the shore or up on the hills overlooking the cove. When we got up higher there was this really neat gap with a rock jammed in between the two edges of land.

                    

 

There were also a whole bunch of seals sunning themselves on some rocks right off the shore. Sadly no pictures. There were kids and a dog in our group so they scared the seals away before the camera came out. Where we ate lunch looked out to this wee island with a lighthouse on it which is apparently the oldest still functioning lighthouse in the country. Pretty cool! No pictures of that either because I win at taking pictures buut more pretty coastline ones for you! I couldn't get over how beautiful it was (the water was actually that colour!) and would have practically walked into the water for picture taking purposes if it wasn't for those super slimy rocks right at the edge.

           

I'm hoping the adventuring might be aided by the arrival of Merlin. He's almost here and hasn't broken down yet *knock on wood* so things sound promising in that department!!

Halifax Part 2

Ahem. That didn't take long to fall of the rails.

So, because I don't really feel like writing out the rest of the ordeal in detail and I want to get on to more exciting things, here's the Coles Notes version of the apartment scenario to date:

-moved into the empty suite the next day (with no power but I was told it would get switched on and that they'd pay for it until I moved into new unit) with the intent of moving to upstairs unit that was having floors redone.
-power proves to be a slow process so I finally get an extension cord to steal electricity from the hallway so I can plug a few things in (like the fridge. Having chilled food is novel!)
-renovations on other apartment also appear to be slow going. Get used to living off of extension cord and with no power. Also, the apartment I'm staying (squatting?) in is being shown which means at any time someone can come knocking on the door wanting to see it. Awesome.
-finally get power..10 days later. Being able to use the oven/bathroom light has never seemed so glorious! (and it turns out, after I called NS power, that I possibly could have had power earlier. There was just some switch in the basement of the building that needed to be flipped for power to come to the unit. The building superintendent is a bit of a piece of work.)
-get keys to new unit on the 24th. Call internet provider to see when I can get it switched over - no break in service would be ideal. They say the earliest date they have is the 30th. Splendid. My take-away from all of this is that nothing happens quickly in NS.

So, here I am. Still in old unit but slowly moving stuff up to new unit. Talked to superintended and I'm okay to stay here for the weekend so I have great plans to do all the work/school stuff on the internet over the weekend. We shall see how well that goes...Also, have grand plots of seeing if I can snafoo password from one of my neighbours but that is awkward and so am I, so there's that.

Anyhow, I have fun pictures from NS adventure of last weekend for next post (hopefully not to be published a month from now..). Miss you all!!

Halifax!!

So, giving this a go again. First up, chronicles of moving:

September 4, 2014

Well, I made it! I`m writing this from my ‘charging station’ on my kitchen floor (in the dark) after my first day of class. But let’s back up to the beginning.

Monday (travel day): Up bright and early at 5:30. Actually, that’s a lie. I set my alarm for then, but did a bit of snoozing post alarm. Off to the airport with my three suitcases in tow. Three flights and 12 hours later, I arrived in Halifax. Headed off to pick up my rental car which ended up being a swanky soccer mom minivan. Handy given the luggage situation and what was to come! Give apartment superintendent a call before I leave the airport to give him a heads up that I’m on my way. Arrive at apartment and call superintendent, Randy. He answers saying he had just left me a message suggesting that maybe we could give the apartment a walk through and sign papers tomorrow. “Er, well my plan was to crash on the floor of the apartment tonight…” So we head into the office to sign papers, get keys etc. Only to find that the papers seemed to be MIA…

Fast forward through many rounds of paper shuffling in the office and trips to Randy's apartment to see if they were in his personal office. Negatory. Finally, since it appears he would be happy shuffling papers for the rest of the night, I suggest I could give one of the owners a call since he had given me his number in case there were any problems. Randy seems quite reluctant to have that happen but finally he gives owner a call. No answer so he leaves a message and gets started on another round of paper shuffling. Finally the papers get located and I sign lease (for an apartment number (408) that’s different than what I was told in my last email with owner (108) but nevermind). We head upstairs to go check out the apartment. This seems unnecessary to me – at this point I’m not about to turn the place down unless it’s truly a dump. Randy knocks on the door and lo and behold someone answers! It’s probably about 10pm at this point and the girl is in her pajamas and clearly unimpressed. Turns out she isn’t moving out until October. Right. Back down to the office for more paper shuffling. Perhaps I was supposed to be in 108 after all? Paper shuffling ensues. Nope. No indication that 108 has or is about to be vacated. 103, on the other hand, has just been vacated so we head down that way. Initial knock yields success and it is indeed empty when we unlock the door! Success!! Except it appears the power has been switched off. Randy suggests that I could stay there for the night and we could sort things out in the morning. This seems like the best plan so I agree and he goes off to fetch me a flashlight. When he returns and starts talking about how he isn’t really supposed to do this but doesn’t mind if he gets into trouble, I start having second thoughts. What happens if this apartment has been rented out and the owners come in while I’m squatting there etc.? So, we decide it probably makes more sense for me to stay in the hotel down the street for the night and sort things out, hopefully including a hotel reimbursement, in the am.

Drag self down to hotel, get checked in, update parents, start scoping out apartment alternatives online and head to bed.