First week in NL

Top: Keith at Conception Bay playing with a rock that apparently looks like Jay Leno's head.
Middle: Iceberg I saw at Signal Hill on my first day.
Left: Cabot Tower of Signal Hill. This is where Marconi received the first Transatlantic wireless signal from Ireland.
Right: View of St. John's Harbor from Signal Hill at Sunset. Both were taken only a few days before I left



So, I know I haven't posted in a couple of weeks, but I've had a few things to catch up on at home (notably, a season of LOST on DVD...).

My first week in St. John's was eventful. After Sam had picked me up at the airport, we traveled back to his beautiful home on the outskirts of the city. After a short rest, I awoke bright and early (since there's an obscene amount of daylight hours in St. John's in the summer) for breakfast and packed up to go to check out the office and my residence for the next 7 weeks. First, though, Sam gave me a quick car tour of the area, stopping at the major tourist stop, Signal Hill. Signal Hill is one of the highest points on the narrows, the area that precedes the harbor. As such, it was an optimal place to set up fortifications from a naval invasion. So, the Brits set up Cabot Tower there with a battery of cannons, barracks, etc. Today, all of this has become a national historic site that provides some great hiking and views (which I didn't really take advantage of until my last few days in St. John's). What was great about the day Sam took me to the hill was that I saw my first icebergs ever! Of all the amazing flora and fauna I saw over my 7 weeks, nothing quite compares to a massive iceberg floating down the Atlantic Ocean. These icebergs that have broken off from the icesheets in Greenland are not only beautiful, but a major hazard to offshore oilrigs. For that reason, several icebergs need to be towed away with tugboats to avoid hitting these oilrigs.


After seeing Signal Hill, Sam took me to the Geology building at MUN. Sam helped me get my bearings and fill out the necessary paperwork, etc. Then I settled into my residence at Hatcher House, which was alright: I had a double to myself, although some of the facilities were still kind of crummy, although there was a communal kitchen so I could at least cook some of my own meals.

The first group of people I met were a group of recently-graduated students from Carleton University in Ottawa, not to be confused with Carleton College in Deep Haven, MN. They were a lot of fun to hang out with during my first few days in town. We all went downtown to George Street (the equivalent of Bourbon Street in St. John's) to watch the end of what would be the final game of the NHL season as the Ottawa Senators lost handily to the Anaheim Ducks. To be honest, I was a little happy to see Anaheim win, especially for their goalie, J.S. Giguere, the montreal native.

By the end of the week, I'd also met two graduate students (Ryan and Keith) from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia who I'd go on two big camping trips, not once, but twice in my time in Newfoundland. Ryan and Keith were working on their masters in the Resource and Environmental Management studying the environmental impacts of mink farming in Newfoundland for their summer work. That weekend, we all went down to Conception Bay to hang out on the pebble beach. I thought it was cool because of the awesome geology of the rocks. Soon, I'll fill you in on my camping adventures the next weekend.