Home from Winterpeg

Well after 5 fun-filled and sleepless nights and days in Winterpeg I have returned home. What an adventure. I am truly glad that I went and experienced the conference and met so many fantastic people.

Our table at the banquet

My last night in Winterpeg was great. It started off with an awards banquet and dinner. The food was very good and was served to us.







After the awards and food the dance began. Unfortunately the DJ they hired was terrible and most people left early. Well my room mate Laura and I hooked up with some of the great people from Ontario and we all went to a night club called Silverado's and danced the night away. We returned to our hotel room at about 2-230 ish and I went to sleep after packing at around 3-330 am only to have to get up at 6am to catch my flight home! I was uber tired on the plane ride home!

Lindsey (from Ontario), Laura (my room mate), and me!

Lindsey and Ryan from Ontario and moi at Silverado's!

After returning to BC, where the average temperature is not -30 I got off the plane only to find out that it was snowing!! I apologize to everyone, but I think I brought the snowy Winterpeg weather with me!! Ooops!!

Well, I have been home for 3 days now and have not had to go to school even once! Praise the Lord for SNOW DAYS!! I have been able to catch up on the school work I missed and finish my paper that is due on friday!

I am so happy to have been chosen to go to Winterpeg and to the CNSA National Conference even though I didn't know that I would enjoy it! But I am even more happy to be back in BC where my eye brows and nostrils wont freeze and I will never have to experience -45 temperatures!

I will finish this post off with a video clip of my lovely room mate Laura's hidden talent:

Winterpeg: Day 3/4

Well folks, sorry that I didn't get an update posted as promised yesterday. The 80's night last night went very late! We didn't get back to our hotel until 2am and we had to be up for conference speaker sessions at 630 (430 am BC time). WAY TOO EARLY! :) Anyways, I will start at the beginning.

Day 3 began with key note and session speakers on a variety of topics, most of them quite interesting. I really enjoyed listening to them and I even learned a little bit about holistic and "spirited nursing" and how important it is to ensure I am taking care of my whole self to enable me to in turn take care and give to others.

In the afternoon I attended a 2 hour work shop on how to write the CRNE exam. It came with lots of hints and tips and a complete breakdown of what to expect. It was fabulous and really informative. I can't wait to share all the info with all who are interested.

The evening was spent eating dinner at this quaint little Italian bistro with some fellow BC conference attendees and we had great pasta and fantastic wine!

Then my room mate and I, and the token guy Aaron, from BC hit the hot tub/pool. The hot tub was the HOTTEST thing I have ever been in! My legs turned instantly red and I never actually fully got into the water. We ended up opting for a dip in the pool and then it was off to prepare for 80's night.

My room mate Laura did an amazing job making my hair the biggest I have ever seen it and topped it off with this huge ass silver sparkley head band and I did some great 80's make up! She rocked the side pony and wave bangs. Pictures will be posted on my facebook account for you all to laugh at! :)

As I said before we returned to our hotel at 2am and were able to get to bed around 230.

We then peeled ourselves out of bed this morning, after sleeping through the first hour of speakers and headed down to the conferences and sat in on more topic sessions. Today's speakers were not as interesting and they seemed to be running behind all day so our breaks became shorter and shorter until we literally had minutes to scramble out and pee or grab a drink and race back so as to not interrupt the speaker once they had started.

The conference wrap up today was very good though. Susan Aglukark, the Inuit singer/song writer was there and told us her story and spoke about the issues facing aboriginal people today and then sang several of her songs and she was truly inspirational and a lot of fun to listen too. I got an autographed cd people! :) I will post some videos on facebook of her songs later.

And finally, as I write this I am supposed to be getting ready to attend a "Traditional Manitoba Social". What that is, Laura and I have no idea!!! But it starts at 930 and I had better get my butt in gear and get ready so that I can experience this Manitoba social in all it's glory and splendor. I will report in the morning on what exactly is included and done at such an event!

Good night all!! Oh, and current temp in Winterpeg is a balmy -14!! It's getting warmer people!

Winterpeg: Day 3

Quick note:

For some stupid reason I am still unable to upload my photos to blogger!! Grrr!! So I have posted them on my facebook account under photo albums. Enjoy.

More about my day to follow later tonight.

Bye for now! Oh, and current temp: -20!! :) Weee its warm!

Winterpeg: Day 2

View from our hotel room

Average temperature for today: -42 people! Yah! That's freakin cold! Here is a lovely picture taken by my roomie to prove the chilliness of the weather here:

All bundled up. It was -42!!!

Yes, that is ice!!

But, back to the beginning of the day. Laura and I went to have breakfast at the Velvet Glove Restaurant in the Fairmont Hotel. Here is what a $42 breakfast looks like:

Banana bread french toast

Eggs Benedict with odd little juice shot thingy

Yikes eh!? It was good but nothing fantastic. Needless to say we wont be going back to the place! :) Haha blew our BCNU budget.

The day went on and Laura and I had nothing to attend until 7pm today so we went into town and to the Forks Market and shopped till we dropped and spent some time outside walking on their rivers which they skate on in the winter. We had a productive afternoon and both made our own scented body butter at this cute little independent bath products store. So much fun.

Then we arrived back at our hotel at just after 5pm and had a msg on our phone from the BCNU rep requesting that we meet her for dinner at 530!! ACK! So we hurried and changed and raced to the restaurant to meet her. We had a nice dinner on her and then proceeded to the entertainment for the evening. It was an action and introduction of the guests etc. The auction was supposed to last 20 mins, it took almost 2 hours!!! SOOOO LONG!! Then we had the band Hawk and Eagle, a native band play. Laura and I only stayed for a few mins of that as we were tired. We went back to our room instead with Aaron, the other guy who got sponsored to come here. He is very nice. (No, Anica, he is not single, he is married and I didn't go to his single room!!)

Anyways, that was pretty much the day for today. There are some VERY keen people here and it's funny to watch them get psyched about stuff. I am so glad that my roomie, and Aaron even are not keen conference people.

I am off to bed. It is almost midnight here and we have to be up at like 630 am to get ready to get to the meetings and speakers and such on time.

Goodnight from frigid Winterpeg!

P.S. Ok so the stupid pictures wont upload right now so I will add them to their appropriate places tomorrow when I have a minute because they are AWESOME!! So check back for pictures.

Winterpeg: Day 1

Well here is the first installment of the chronicling of my whirl wind Winterpeg adventure. It started off with a short flight to Calgary. The flight went well and I arrived in Calgary with 25 mins to get to the other end of the terminal and board my flight to Winnipeg. I made it. No worries. I even had 3 mins to spair!!

When I arrived in Winterpeg it was a balmy -22 degrees outside (even colder with wind chill). Let me explain to you as graphically as I can what that kind of cold feels like to someone who is not used to it.

I took one breath and my stuffy nose froze shut!! (I woke up with a bit of a head cold this am...nice! I thought my ears were gonna explode on the plane) I am not joking people. Instant freezage. I then wrapped my scarf around my face and attempted not to panic that I now couldn't breath out of my nose at all because of the icicles forming on the inside!

As the air then reached my lungs I felt as though someone has punched me in the chest with a sledge hammer. Yup, that bad. I am a wimp when it comes to cold so this was not the province for me.

Once I had figured out how to take small shallow breaths through my scarf I did manage to breath without further damaging my alveoli! :)

Then I arrived at the Fairmont and checked into my room. Pretty nice...pictures to come later. I spent the next few hours registering and wandering around the hotel and then I went and had some dinner at the lounge in the lobby.

8pm, my room mate Laura arrived. I think we are gonna get along just fine! We have a lot in common and have spent the evening chatting and giggling and telling both our strange stories of how we ended up here at this random conference in Winterpeg. The first question she asked me upon entering the room was: Are you a morning person?? To which I answered, "heck no!!!" And she laughed and exclaimed "Oh thank goodness!!" So yah I think we are well matched.

Anyways, so far day one has been good. REALLY COLD, but good. Laura and I have NO CLUE what the heck we are supposed to be doing here and what we have to attend but we have planned out some shopping spots we wanna hit and such. So I am going to try and make the best of this strange situation and have as much fun as possible!

Until tomorrow, goodnight from Winterpeg, as it is 11pm here!

Current temp is: -28 degrees...brrrrr!! Forecast: -34 degrees over night. Weee!

Congratulations! You have been selected!

Selected for what you might ask. And you have every right to ask that, I did too. Let me explain.

I was asked to meet with one of my new 4th year instructors today after writing my final exam for my health law class. I walked over to the nursing building nervously to inquire as to why I had been singled out as needing to talk to this instructor.

When the instructor came out of her office, she handed me an email wishing me congratulations and telling me the good news that I had been selected to fill one of the 3 all expense paid spots for nursing students in British Columbia to attend the Canadian Nursing Student Association National conference in Winnipeg.....IN 6DAYS!

Some thoughts ran through my head such as: Wow! What an honor! What a great opportunity! Then this thought entered my mind:

How on EARTH did this happen?? I never applied to go to this conference!!

Well apparently when the possibility of this conference was mentioned to my nursing class my good friend Darla expressed an interest in attending and maybe because I was sitting next to her, and because we tend to do everything together, it was assumed that I must want to attend as well! So my name also got put forward without my knowledge.

So, of all the people in B.C. that could have been chosen as delegates to attend this conference the only person who didn't actually want to go, or even knew their name had been put forward to be involved, gets chosen.

Yes people, that is my luck. Darla got a really good laugh on my behalf as I explained to her this uncanny situation.

So yes, I will now be leaving for Winnipeg in 6 days to attend a conference with 400+ other nursing students from all over Canada, none of which I will know, and sharing a room at the Fairmont Hotel with another nursing student, that I also do not know. Wow.

How does this happen to me!?

The beginning of the end

No, not the end of the world. Like I know when that is going to happen people, geez! I am talking about the beginning of the end of my nursing school life. I am 3 days into my 4th year of nursing and in less than a week I will have written a final exam. Sigh...welcome to nursing school folks.

It is a little eerie to call myself a 4th year nursing student and I am not quite sure if it has sunk in yet. Maybe once I begin to do my public health rotation and really get into the meat of the semester I will no longer be in denial that this is really and truly my final semester of school before my final 16 week practicum. Unbelievable.

So I must only persevere for one more year and then I will no longer have to deal with the stress and sleep deprivation that seems to be synonymous with nursing school. I will no longer have to deal with papers, exams, and assignments. That is such a blissful thought that I can hardly contain myself.

So I will keep on truckin through the stress and sleep deprivation and the paper, exam and assignment writing and come through this semester on the other side, knowing that I am that much closer to completion and that much closer to being done this "game" of nursing school.

Bring on 4th year!!

Two things that have gotten me through 3 years of nursing:
Cosmo's and Darla!