After getting home, then doing the groceries and having dinner we headed off to the Cambie again for drinks with a couple of guys Cam went to school with, Justin and Dave. It was a great evening of a few drinks, catching up on old times (for Cam), discussing Vancouver and watching a bit of sports. We go a month not having people to go out with then 3 nights in a row we catch up with people, it was really great. Turns out I think we have found somewhere that may play the All Blacks games, well they were advertising the tri nations on the TV, so fingers crossed we may get to catch at least one game. We headed home at a reasonably decent time as I had to get up at "normal" time again to head to work for a normal 8 hour day of nursing orientation.
So Tuesday and Wednesday at my new job were about getting to know each other and the leaders within the hospital. We spent a lot of time discussing the values and missions of the hospital, how these related to us and what we wanted/expected of the hospital. It was actually good to write down your ideas, then all the leaders went around the room looking at what our expectations were and what we wanted out of this experience. We spent time talking about different policies and safety. I can't believe how positive the staff seem here, you get a really good vibe being there, lets hope it stays this way. The people that spoke to us seemed to really love working here and it made you feel really positive and wanted. It is encouraging that about 80% of people that spoke to us have been in the organisation for over 20 years without leaving, so maybe we will end up staying longer, who knows. The last half of Wednesday we were shown around our unit, looked at the computer systems, registered for courses and talked about what we wanted to learn from the unit. I always forget how tiring learning is, I was stuffed when I got home.
Th
ursday was a day off work for me, we slept in for a little while, then headed to be tourists again. This time our destination was Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. This is located in Chinatown, Vancouver. It was built in 1985-86 to maintain and enhance the bridge of understanding between Chinese and Western cultures. It was built using equipment/materials sent over from China and uses only this equipment. It honors principles and techniques from the Ming dynasty garden, halls and pathways are constructed with precise joinery and without the use of
nails, screws or glue. Even though it is a reasonably small-moderate garden there is a lot of story behind the construction of it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We decided to take the free tour they had on offer which described why everything is constructed in the way it is and how yin and yang have a role in this (feng Sui). I found it very informative, I think if we hadn't done this we would have been in and out in 20 mins or so. It meant that we actually had things in particular to take photos of. There was a piece of embroidery that looks the same on the front as it does on the back, there is no bad side (something I thought you would appreciate Kay). Only thing is you can't really appreciate it properly from the photo.
Th
ursday was a day off work for me, we slept in for a little while, then headed to be tourists again. This time our destination was Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. This is located in Chinatown, Vancouver. It was built in 1985-86 to maintain and enhance the bridge of understanding between Chinese and Western cultures. It was built using equipment/materials sent over from China and uses only this equipment. It honors principles and techniques from the Ming dynasty garden, halls and pathways are constructed with precise joinery and without the use of
nails, screws or glue. Even though it is a reasonably small-moderate garden there is a lot of story behind the construction of it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We decided to take the free tour they had on offer which described why everything is constructed in the way it is and how yin and yang have a role in this (feng Sui). I found it very informative, I think if we hadn't done this we would have been in and out in 20 mins or so. It meant that we actually had things in particular to take photos of. There was a piece of embroidery that looks the same on the front as it does on the back, there is no bad side (something I thought you would appreciate Kay). Only thing is you can't really appreciate it properly from the photo.
The garden is set up in a masculine/femine way (yin and yang). For the women it has an outside walk which is set up so that there are two pathways for different times of the day so that she can stay in the s
hade. It has seats along the side of the pathway which are made uncomfortable to sit on with your back directly against the ledge so you have to sit sideways which is more flattering. These areas have beautiful views of the gardens and water, these areas were used for the scholar to entertain his guests. This particular garden is a scholars garden, scholars worked for the emperor. They built these gardens at their houses outside of the city, they built them away from the city as their the emperors generally changed their mood frequently, one minute you may be his best friend and the next minute he hated you. This was a place to go to do their work away from the emperor. This garden had an area away from the water where the scholar would do his work in peace from the running water and he would have someone playing a musical instrument in the corner while he was working. It was quite interesting the difference in noise from one area to the other just by stepping through a door way in the walls around the garden. Overall this was much better than I was expecting from when we first entered.
hade. It has seats along the side of the pathway which are made uncomfortable to sit on with your back directly against the ledge so you have to sit sideways which is more flattering. These areas have beautiful views of the gardens and water, these areas were used for the scholar to entertain his guests. This particular garden is a scholars garden, scholars worked for the emperor. They built these gardens at their houses outside of the city, they built them away from the city as their the emperors generally changed their mood frequently, one minute you may be his best friend and the next minute he hated you. This was a place to go to do their work away from the emperor. This garden had an area away from the water where the scholar would do his work in peace from the running water and he would have someone playing a musical instrument in the corner while he was working. It was quite interesting the difference in noise from one area to the other just by stepping through a door way in the walls around the garden. Overall this was much better than I was expecting from when we first entered.After leaving the garden we walked past the guiness book of records worlds s
kinniest building. It goes from the red part of the building to the dark blue, the lighter blue stripe on the left hand side is a different building. We were shown this on our sins of the city tour.
kinniest building. It goes from the red part of the building to the dark blue, the lighter blue stripe on the left hand side is a different building. We were shown this on our sins of the city tour.
Friday was another day off for me. We decided to go for another walk today through Stanley Park, there are so many different walks around the area, we still haven't managed to get around them all. We headed off to find Lumberman's Arch which we though we were near when we were last walking around the area however we couldn't find it. This time we found it and it was right next to where we had been before but was obscured by trees from our direction, easy to miss. Lumberman's Arch is the site where 2 squamish nations log houses were situated at one point in history. It is a basically a huge arch made from a tree trunk. It was home of Khwaykhway a major village and gathering place. It was such a hot day we decided to sit in the shade and have an ice block.
After this we headed into Stanley Park and headed towards Beaver La
ke. Beaver Lake is currently changing from a lake to a bog which may eventually become a meadow and then a forest ecosystem. There is a decreased amount of incoming water, increased amounts of sediments and incomplete decomposed plant material which is accumulating on the lake bottom, this is making the lake decrease in size. Lillies were introduced to the lake and are now overtaking which has slightly increased the rate which Beaver Lake is transitioning from a lake to a bog. The area around the lake is home to many Douglas Firs, Western Red Cedars, Sundews (a carnivorous plant) and flying squirrels. Well actually they don't fly but are called this as they jump from tree to tree, jumping gaps up to 58m wide. We did see some but not jumping. From here we headed along Stanley Park seawall and back home, another beautiful, hot, sunny day.
ke. Beaver Lake is currently changing from a lake to a bog which may eventually become a meadow and then a forest ecosystem. There is a decreased amount of incoming water, increased amounts of sediments and incomplete decomposed plant material which is accumulating on the lake bottom, this is making the lake decrease in size. Lillies were introduced to the lake and are now overtaking which has slightly increased the rate which Beaver Lake is transitioning from a lake to a bog. The area around the lake is home to many Douglas Firs, Western Red Cedars, Sundews (a carnivorous plant) and flying squirrels. Well actually they don't fly but are called this as they jump from tree to tree, jumping gaps up to 58m wide. We did see some but not jumping. From here we headed along Stanley Park seawall and back home, another beautiful, hot, sunny day.
Just a random photo we took on our way, a 2 ways over bridge accross the road with designated lanes, weird.
Saturday and Sunday we my first 2 12hour days at work. We were straight into it you don't get any days off here, on my first day we had 3 reasonably complex patients. However it was good for me as these 3 patients were similar to what I have looked after in New Zealand, which was helpful. It helps having nursed before as things are very different over here, so its nice to have the general nursing processes sorted, then I just have to adapt to the way things are done over here, what I am or aren't allowed to do, different paper work and of course the different medication names. I guess something I will get used to eventually, though it makes you feel like a brand new nurse again. The other thing I find difficult is the accent, its so frustrating. Its hard to believe that we all speak English but it can be so different. I really feel for people now that go to a different country where they speak a different language. Its even had with the different names for things eg: torch=flashlight, nappy=diaper, plaster=bandaid. Oh I can't forget loo, but they just don't even know what that means hehe. We didn't end up doing anything these evenings after work as I was stuffed, I think 12 hour shifts will mean work, eat and sleep. Activities will have to wait for days off I think.
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