Newfoundland and Labrador: Back Seat Memories (II)

October 26, 2014 Magdalena Leave a comment

In the first part of this story I didn’t talk about our stopping in Montreal, where I visited my Canadian Alma Mater, McGill University. After spending the weekend with friends, we’ve started our two-up motorcycle trip moving towards Baie-Comeau and then Labrador City. This itinerary took us through Churchill Falls, Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Red Bay, Blanc Sablon, St. Barbe, Flower’s Cove, L’Anse aux Meadows – back South towards Gros Morne National Park, Corner Brook, Bay of Islands, Deer Lake, Twillingate. Of course, the pretty town of St. John’s followed this long sequence. We didn’t stop, as initially planned, in Terra Nova National Park and also skipped touring the Bonavista peninsula, because the weather was incredibly miserable, cold, and foggy. Locals said this is how the weather mostly is on the island, one just gets used to it. Yet the month before, July, was simply gorgeous, all nice and sunny, incredible blue skies, as many local mentioned.

After St. Johns, we rode to Placentia and embarked on a 16 hours ferry to Nova Scotia (North Sydney). Spent some interesting time on the Cape Breton Island, and then headed South, just East of Moncton, on Hwy 1, through Saint John, took the picturesque route 172 South towards Deer Island, followed by Campobello Island, all connected through small local ferries. The weather was golden. You could almost smell the fall, but it wasn’t there yet. Once at a small US crossing point, Lubec, we went past the border and continued down the coast. Eventually made it to Boston two days latter.

CowHead-NL

Now let’s go back to the story. This gorgeous sunset caught us on the shores of Cow Head (Gros Morne area), where we checked into a B&B right on the bay. The light outside was just amazing. It was incredibly quiet and it took me a little bit to realize that – for the first time in days – the wind had been silenced. As if everything that’s movable was emerged into a sacred ritual of sun admiration. Picture-like surroundings were merging into our eyes and, at the time the sun was just half above the sea, the light was of a vivid orange.

Pure happenstance, but we stayed in Cow Head during the Annual Gros Morne Theater Festival, showcasing Newfoundland talent. We wanted to go to the Neddy Norris Night, a great show by all reviews – but ended up feeling lazy and not going. And that’s too bad. If I will ever go back to Newfoundland, I’d like to stay in this little place for at least a week during the theater festival and breathe in the great atmosphere.

Corner Brook is nothing but a bigger city. All I remember is having a great dinner, some amazing sushi at Newfoundland Sushi (we had a Dory Load of Sushi for Two). The next morning, after a great hot breakfast our host at the Green Garden B&B graciously made for us, we hopped on our Honda CBF1000 and took a loop trip to see the Bay of Islands. It started like a fun day, beautiful blue sky, puffy clouds, nice sea food for lunch, all until we realized we have a flat on the back tire. But my hubby was ready and trained to use his super-kit and got it fixed in less then 1 hour, right there on the side of the highway. I can’t really give any technical details, but what’s certain is that today, more than 8,000 Km latter, he’s riding with the same back tire on. I guess he did a good job. The shore you see in this picture is in Twillingate – one of the most picturesque outports in Newfoundland, located on the centre edge of what is known as Iceberg Alley. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen any floating icebergs as July was too hot and they all melted. Yep. But to make up for that, we went to one of the local wineries, Auk Island Winery, and had tasted several amazing wines. Nope, I’m not going to tell you what happened after, but we did get a bottle of Aurora, a medium-dry white named after the Northern Lights, to enjoy at our B&B that night.

In St. John’s we had to change our Honda’s chain and sprockets. We knew this was coming since we were back in Corner Brook, where we stopped at a motorcycle shop, had them ordered and had the appointment booked at Honda 1 in St. John’s. It was a really great service and they had it ready for us in one hour, so we didn’t have to sacrifice too much time out of our site seeing. St. John’s is considered by some to be the oldest English-founded city in North America, but it was incorporated as a city only in 1921. It’s amazing to see how both old and new mingle in this small town, considered, of course, the largest city in Newfoundland. We went to Cape Spear Lighthouse, and also to Signal Hill, and didn’t miss the famous George Street for some nightlife excitement. We had a good time, but I wouldn’t go that far and say that ‘this place is like no other’. Two days latter we headed to Placentia and embarked on the ferry to Nova Scotia. This was a fun trip: 16 hours, it’s almost like a cruise, only a lot more expensive – considering it’s just a night and you have to pay for all the restaurants.

Cape Breton Island was truly exquisite. If you ever plan to go to the East coast but only have a week or less, definitely do the trails here. We had a little bit of a story with the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) and lost a day practically because of extremely bad customer service, but decided that we’re going to stay one more day and will complete the trails as we initially wanted. The host at The Maven Gypsy B&B on the Cabot trail was originally from Vancouver, and I actually felt quite excited to finally hear some good ‘vancouverite’ accent. Accommodation was a great, welcoming atmosphere, plus really good breakfast – a bit pricey though. Well, I guess that’s what one pays for such a great location. There is so much more to say about all we’ve seen on our way to Boston. I really liked the two islands: Deer Island and Campobello Island. I’m not sure how the winter looks around there, I would imagine is a bit less romantic and more isolated, as one of the ferries is not working and the other has pretty irregular hours in the winter. But those definitely are gorgeous places to visit! Boston was phenomenal. We stayed at Marriott this time, left our motorcycle parked at the hotel and hopped on subway using a 7-Days pass. There is no way I could possible single out one thing I liked most about Boston, but probably the way people gather, talk, eat, smile, and listen to street performances made me think of Timisoara, the Romanian city of my Alma Mater university. Or maybe it’s just because there was something magical about it, something that made me forget about future plans and, like a gigantic hand, managed to hold me in the present – a beautiful one, where I was in a place like this with someone I love and it just felt good. It felt so good.

After Boston we split ways. I took a flight back to Vancouver, where my husband arrived one week latter after riding the motorcycle all the way back to BC. He had a nice tan and a victorious smile on his face, “I made it” he said, and went for a 20-hour long sleep.

Magdalena Mot

Books & Travel

Newfoundland and Labrador: Back Seat Memories (I)

October 12, 2014 Magdalena Leave a comment

This past summer, we decided it’s worth spending our vacation at home, in Canada. Looking at the map, there were not too many provinces we haven’t been to so far and, by elimination, Newfoundland and Labrador was really the only one left on the map. Followed by the Territories. Looking at the very few roads (mostly unpaved) Labrador has, I thought… oh my! But it was adventure time. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) I didn’t realize until it was too late how wild some parts of Newfoundland (and especially Labrador) really are. As someone said before, on a trip you may get wet, cold, hungry, tired or even lost, but then you’re back home safe and you call it “adventure”.

And truth be told, I came back from this trip incredibly refreshed and fully energized. Memories of places, people, and stories are vivid and they overtake in both size and power any idea of a “fun all-inclusive” vacation type. These life experiences are slowly shaping us, as they travel with us towards reaching our own goals. What did we bring back this time? People. Nature. Life. A completely different look at what Canada – as a whole – really is. Shores like nowhere else. Sea food. Vikings village & trails. Boats. Lighthouses and their keepers. What I didn’t see that much of around was immigrants. Funny enough, I didn’t even notice this until after being in the province for over a week. Then I remembered how Newfoundland and Labrador have this Provincial Nominee Program (NLPNP) that works quite hard towards providing an alternate and quicker entry into Canada, allowing the Province to nominate applicants, a much quicker process for qualified skilled workers, international graduates, and their families who wish to permanently settle here. Yet we weren’t able to see many around.

Time for a little story. Just south of L’Anse aux Meadows, when we stopped to fill-up on gas, I went inside the convenience store to warm up and add an extra layer (it was 8 degrees Celsius on a beautiful August day at noon). Here, I’ve started a conversation with the store keeper, a lady in her late 50s, and her friend, who was keeping her company over a cup of coffee. Yes, they do have a funny accent and I had to pay close attention to make sure I understand, but when they asked me what I do for work and I said I’m an employment counsellor, the store keeper was quite confused. Trying to help, I went on to tell her that I work in a program called “Skills Connect for Immigrants”. But this confused her even more: “immigrants”? – she asked. Too bad I couldn’t take a picture, her face looked priceless. Now, her girlfriend, who was more traveled (she actually visited Vancouver, as she proudly told me latter), joined us and said: “you know, they have lots of immigrants in the Vancouver area, and there are big communities with people from all over the world, thousands of them!” Poor store keeper was still looking at me in great disbelief. Then she confessed that she never in her life left the island (Newfoundland).

After this “convenience store conversation” I’ve started to look around more carefully and realized that not only there were not too many immigrants in the area, but also not too many young people, not too many children, and most likely not enough schools. The unemployment rate in the province (I learned later) is the highest in Canada. And so is the lack of literacy. Newfoundland and Labrador are now at a critical crossroad for addressing and advancing literacy skills, yet they need federal help; there are many provincial councils supporting this effort to help all people reach their full literacy potential. Yes, it’s different when you only read about it, but the news certainly make a bigger impact on us when we get to see it.

People in Newfoundland are so friendly. Not one single sign of the Vancouverite-specific sophistication. I’ve heard many times about the old fashioned hospitality in this province, but it’s actually much better then I imagined. At a Bed & Breakfast we stayed in the Red Bay area (http://www.grenfellbandb.ca), our hosts knew we were coming on a motorcycle from Happy Valley-Goose Bay, and they knew it has been raining the whole day, with miserable cold winds, and they also knew we were getting across over 560 KM of unpaved roads (as part of our Trans-Labrador Hwy Adventure). Well, as a welcome, they’ve started a fire in this cast iron wood stove inside their beautiful backyard gazebo, white and tall, with large windows and glass doors. Here, we were invited to hang to dry our motorcycle rain suits, boots, and gloves – all on a long rope the host has fastened across the gazebo’s wooden ceiling. That’s what locals do when they return form a stormy fishing day at sea, we were told, it’s quite standard procedure. Then, to be able to walk back to the house through the mushy-wet emerald-green grass, we were provided with these huge rubber clogs. Their beautiful house, a historic building, served as a Nursing Station back in 1930s. As I stepped in, I suddenly forgot I was covered in wet mud just an hour ago. I forgot we had to use a hose at a gas station nearby to clean ourselves up before checking in. I forgot all of that. The world felt, all of a sudden, strangely light, like I was 12 again. A girl coming back into her grandma’s warm kitchen after running through a summer storm. A soaking-wet redhead, with lots of freckles, and shiny blue eyes (yes, just like Anne of Green Gables). They were waiting for us with hot tea and biscuits. Each room was decorated with thrilling quilted covers and ivory embroideries. Slightly squawking hardwood, warm floors, sparkling clean bedsheets, it all felt like heaven. I even found mini chocolates on the elegantly wrapped king bed. After a long warm bath, I slept like an angel. When I woke up in the morning I ran straight to the window. The ocean was beautiful, but really stormy. Wait, what? Raining and windy again? It was raining pretty bad, but so beautiful. I decided I was going to just ignore the weather. Downstairs, in an elegant dining room, at a long table seating twelve, decorated with beautiful china and a generously overflowing fruit platter, our hostess Peggy was making breakfast. The smell was mouthwatering. I poured myself some hot black coffee and enjoyed looking at the rain outside while chatting with our hostess. Out in the rain, my husband was upping pressure in the tires, to change firmness as appropriate for the paved road ahead. Our Honda CBF 1000 did very well so far. Such a reliable and nimble motorcycle. No more unpaved roads ahead (at least that’s what I thought at the time), so I said to myself: happy birthday girl, you’re on the other side of the world!

Grateful, dry, and full of hope, we loaded up our stuff after breakfast and headed off to the Blanc Sablon (QC) ferry to cross over to St. Barbe (NL). This was just a quick two-hour ride. Here is where we said “Good bye” to Labrador. A couple of peculiar facts about this ferry: even if Blanc Sablon is practically in Quebec, the ferry operates by Newfoundland Standard Time (NST), plus one must make a reservation no matter what, and the staff here is not exactly motorcycle friendly (those who are used to our BC Ferries know what I’m talking about). Anyhow, we made it to St. Barbe, it was still raining on the island, still windy, but we managed to brace up an had a nice and dry afternoon in L’Anse aux Meadows, where we checked in at Viking Village Bed and Breakfast. A rather elegant dinner of authentic Newfoundland sea food followed to celebrate by birthday.

If you’d like to read about more Newfoundland adventures, follow a 16-hour long ferry crossing to Nova Scotia and a beautiful East-coast style ride to Boston in the second part of this travel story.

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Workplace Culture & Team Dynamics

May 21, 2014 Magdalena Leave a comment

Canadian employers emphasize in almost every job description their preference towards someone who is a ‘team player.’ As a result, these words were overused in job applications and ended up being listed as buzzwords in 2013. What can we do to avoid overusing certain buzzwords in our resumes or cover letters? The most common advise is to describe our abilities and skills through storytelling and accomplishment statements. Stories paint us in a unique way, they provide our reader with a cultural context and highlight whom we are both as professionals and as people.

At work, most teams are made of diverse people and these teams thrive through exposing new ideas, different views on facts, and through using good communication. Because good communicators know that differences can be explained and turned into new experiences. We are all born with this extraordinary ability to learn any culture and adapt to almost anything. We just need to stay open, observe our surroundings, and learn. As Henry Ford mentioned, “coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success”. For a team to be successful, its members would have to be able (and willing) to give and receive feedback in a comfortable environment, where they can communicate honestly and openly. Once in a new workplace, we should be open to learning, to understanding the dynamics of this new team. We should consider it an adventure of some kind, add to what we already know, build new experiences on previous ones, and we’ll get to a beautiful completion of the puzzle. A successful team player is focused on the next steps, on what was omitted, on what needs to be done to cover the gaps. By contrast, a nostalgic team member will normally focus on the past, which will hinder those much needed actions. An approach not always popular (as it’s not very inclusive) has divided teams into high performing and low performing (see Mark Murphy’s book Hiring for Attitude).

Many have questioned if everything in building good teams comes down to leadership style? And many have agreed it does. An effective leadership will build collaboration and self-confidence through empowering its team members and through providing a healthy work environment. This may require professional development, team building activities, and communication training. Team building is normally regarded as a way of “growing together”, as a way of developing feelings of belonging.
How can someone new to a place learn more about its culture? Volunteer. Participate in various events. Conduct Informational Interviews. Make friends outside your family, circle, or community. Bristle at prejudices. People say it all the time, “it’s a Catch 22”: job seekers have a hard time to get that first job because of the lack of local work experience, which they can’t get because no employer gives them a chance. Yet everyone gets that first job, eventually. Some sooner, some latter. Some will move up fast, some will do it slowly, and some will just linger in there. It depends on how each individual career development strategy is built. If you don’t have one, it’s time to consider it. Your success comes down to preparation, commitment, and consistency. “Are you really ready?” Think about a combination of Canadian workplace culture knowledge + strong presentation skills + self-confidence + unpretentiousness. It is great if you bring strong technical skills + knowledge + intelligence, but this formula alone will not secure you what you want. In a job interview, 5 people have the exact same technical skills, and only one gets the job. The interview will primarily assess soft skills and your ability to fit with the existing team (a team you don’t know anything about). Go to the interview and prove the employer that you have done your part. Don’t sell them apples when they expect to buy oranges.

Books & Travel

Arriving to Vancouver

March 22, 2014 Magdalena Leave a comment

Flying to Canada for the first time, to Vancouver more precisely, was a different experience for each of us (and I mean a small family of three: myself, my husband, and our son). It happened over 10 years ago. To our son, whose age was still counted in months at the time, this sure was just one of those trips mom drags him on. Being used to be on the go from day one, he didn’t really get all the fuss and so this time around was no different. To me, honestly, there was lots of trying to enjoy it, as much as a young mother could. I’ve been only minimally involved in the planning of the trip and there were simply too many things I didn’t know. Plus, I didn’t really speak English at the time. That loaded statement “you’re changing your life forever” flew by my ears and I don’t recall it. But there was this very sad picture of our parents saying good-bye at the airport in Timisoara, Romania. At the time I didn’t realize how sad their faces were. Even though we were moving to Vancouver from Munich (Germany) we decided to take three weeks off and we went to spend some time with our parents before flying away.

So let’s go back to arriving here. Well, to my husband, this whole trip was a whole different story. As he was watching over the Rockies from his window seat (and it was a beautiful sunny day) I noticed how he was barely breathing. I remember feeling somehow annoyed. He was living a dream, I was too preoccupied with our little son to even get a sense of how big this step was for us. First day of May. I didn’t understand much at the time, even though I thought I did. The plan was to move to Canada, so we were moving. All the invisible wheels turning behind this gigantic mechanism were not my troubles I thought. And that’s how my life has changed. Forever.

A friend was very kind and picked us up at YVR. I remember how different my first impression was. Things seemed small. With heavy eyes I was watching out of the van’s windows at what I thought was really ugly architecture. Of course, I didn’t know it’s impossible to see anything pretty on your way from the airport. Then we arrived at their condo in North Vancouver and I fell in love with the Lion’s Gate bridge view from their balcony. I remember sitting there with a glass of wine starring at it the whole evening. We were so lucky to have such gracious hosts!

Two days later, back on the go, we moved our luggage into a rented car and embarked on a two weeks’ road-trip around British Columbia – our very first Canadian journey. The plan was to stop for the first night at a hidden in the forest cottage on Sheridan Lake, then stay a couple of days in Prince George (as I had to visit UNBC), drive on Yellowhead towards Jasper and the national park with the same name, stop for three days in Edmonton, then Calgary, then stop in Banff for a couple of days. We drove north on the Ice Fields Parkway towards Mt. Athabasca, did some hiking, and came back to Lake Louise (which I fell in love with, forever). On our way back to Vancouver we stopped at Yoho National Park, then spend a night in Revelstoke, and Kelowna was our last stop before returning to North Vancouver. I still remember pretty well many of the amazing Bed & Breakfast locations we stayed at throughout this trip. They have added that local flavor to the evening tea or to our breakfast time, allowing us to engage with our hosts and to learn about the local culture. I recall wondering at the time what was so particular about the Canadian culture. Why do people have so much fun saying ‘eh?’ at the end of pretty much every question? But it’s true, this trip helped us see how huge, how beautiful, and also how delicate British Columbia, our new home, is. Even though I didn’t provide much insight here about our each stay, especially in Prince George, I hope to come back here someday and write more about our first road-trip in Canada.

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SFU’s Backpack to Briefcase Conference

March 19, 2014 Magdalena Leave a comment

One amazing situation/question passed on by my student audience at SFU’s Backpack to Briefcase Conference last Saturday: In this competitive labour market, where everyone is so driven, so talented, so educated, and so willing to show s/he has the skills and passion to do the job, how do we, as candidates, distinguish ourselves, how do we find that unique side we all supposedly have?

Theodore Roosevelt’s words, “Believe you can, and you’re halfway there” stand strong when I think about this. We would all benefit from each others’ thoughts on this topic, so I’m considering the front open to comments. As far as I’m concerned, there are not two people alike, not even after a so called “superficial” five minutes conversation. We’re usually not doing a good enough job at getting to know ourselves, and that doesn’t stop at youth or digital gen, but applies to all of us, thus we need help from others (anyone who can be completely honest will do) and we need to access/ use available personality tests (MBTI, Personality Dimensions) to run a comprehensive research on ourselves. We need to start with understanding ourselves, this comes first. When we have a chance to talk to prospective employers at an event, they will see through us right away (surveys say it’s a game of seconds). We need to be able to help them see the whole we represent: our abilities, soft skills, transferable skills, all of it conveyed in a certain way, all of it properly displayed. Imagine yourself at a professional event, walking elegant, talking with confidence, smiling. Yes, you need that kind of day dreaming.

Then reality kicks in, and at the same event we have just imagined ourselves shining, we stumble into things, or people, or just mumble what was supposed to be a glorious introduction speech. When we look back, we think “gosh, I should’ve said that!” Something’s missing, right? Yes, you’ve got it, it’s called practice. A gold medal doesn’t come without hard work and lots of perspiration, so imagine the job of your dreams is that gold medal. Fight for it. Think about your story. Have it ready. Say it with confidence. One of the students told me he kept a job along to pay for his own studies and I could see the sparkle in his eyes, he was proud of what he has achieved. I liked that. So I encouraged him to use his survival story, make it beautiful, tell it to his friends, and become a natural at taking about it. A short and compelling story, told from your heart. That is what will differentiate you from others. People remember stories, and while not all of us are good story tellers, here’s the good news: most of us have improved by working at it. Once you became good at it – you may add this skill to your portfolio.