Summer 2012

Life is a strange beast, eh? I knew right off that bat that this experience would fundamentally change my career path but I had no idea that it would also fundamentally change my whole life. I am so incredibly far from where I thought I would be. Feeling incredibly vulnerable but also incredibly strong.

Now that I've committed to staying here I'm starting to check out of the school work part of this program. The class we've just started (and are now a third of the way through, modular courses are so weird!), First Nations and Natural Resources, is really great and involves a lot of guest lecturers and trips out into the communities of Haida Gwaii. I'm really loving it, the only problem is it also involves a lot of homework, which I'm not so in to. I feel like now that I've admitted that this program was kind of a 'gateway drug' to this incredibly new phase of my life that I'm no longer as interested in the program itself. But it's going so fast that I'm working hard to appreciate every moment.

One of the craziest things about small communities, at least the communities here, are the access we are given to important, busy people. Mayors, executive directors, presidents all come to our class and talk to us, take us on tours, answer our inane questions and enthusiastically welcome us to their homes. Literally, their homes. And then they feed us. It's so strange and wonderful. Today I went for dinner at the home of a friend of a friend. His parents fed us dinner and we talked and laughed like we'd all known each other for years, despite the fact that I met this guy a week and a half ago and the guy I know him through about six weeks ago. People here are extremely open. They are generous with their time, their ideas, their stories and their support. I've been teased in the past for trying to become best friends with every single person I interact with in a day but man, Haida Gwaii is giving me a run for my money. I'm positively unfriendly compared with the locals.

It's strange how recognizable I am here. I guess being a women with short, white blond hair I guess I shouldn't be so surprised - plus 'the students' as we're called are pretty well known around here and everyone who's new and young is assumed to be part of the mass - but I was at Howlers, the Charlotte bar, the other night and met a guy who I've known of for a long time but never actually met before (it's a small town, I've heard of pretty much everyone at this point I think) and he knew exactly who I was and introduced himself to me. People call me Cait Blue here, partially to differentiate my from my roommate who is also Kate and whose last name rhymes with mine. Guy from the bar walked up to me and stuck out his hand and said "Hey, Cait Blue, nice to finally meet you." And I knew who he was pretty quickly too cause he looks like his brother (Sorry for all the weird lack of names, I just don't want to identify people on this blog without their permission).

I've made a couple good friends up here outside of my program and their very enthusiastic about teaching the city girl about their islands. I've started a to-do list for this summer that's been eagerly endorsed.

Summer 2012

• Learn to shoot a rifle so that when deer season starts in the fall I can shoot a deer. And eat it.
• Learn to fish, from ocean or river to plate
• Learn to surf and spend entirely too much time at North Beach in the water
• Bike from Charlotte to Masset (the northern most town on-island)
• Learn to drive stick. I feel like it's a skill everyone should have, just in case
• Buy a car and possibly an outrigger and possibly a wetsuit. Eeep.
• Learn to light better fires. I'm getting pretty good at my fireplace but there's always room for improvement
• Chainsaw. Nuff said.
• Hiking and camping. A lot of both of these.

That's all for now, but I'm sure it will get longer in the future.