St. John’s giving us the warm & fuzzies

After a million hours of flying and about 400 stopovers (okay, only three), we arrived in St. John’s, NL on Thursday nite. There to greet us was a real, live Newfoundlander named Pat. A connection we made through the United Church, Pat was our first introduction to the unmatched generousity and kindness of these quirky (in a GREAT way), lovable island-living people. A newly retired school teacher, Pat has been quick to offer us rides whenever we need them, beers on her back patio, invites to delicious dinner parties and well, anything we could possibly need.

In the few short days we’ve been in St. John’s, we have met some truly amazing people. Community-minded people with diverse views and loads of support for our campaign. As St. John’s is the first community of many we’ll be visiting, being met with such positive interest has been a big confidence boost. Newfoundland is like a warm hug with a side of fish.

We had our first volunteering experience on Friday with the United Church George St. soup kitchen. Tracy worked the front counter, greeting people and handing them a warm plate while I did odd jobs like making juice, bagging bread and clearing dishes. People on both sides of the counter asked us a lot of questions about Point Seven Snowball and it was great to talk about it. Working at the soup kitchen gave us the chance to get to know lots of people who give way more than .7% on a regular basis. It was cool to see how much they enjoyed volunteering. While my personal volunteering record is shamefully modest, I could see that many people value their time volunteering as I value my time playing soccer or volleyball. There is a social value there with the added benefit of helping others at the same time. Totally win-win.

Post soup kitchen, Tracy and I headed off to help the SPCA set up a flea market fundraiser. Once again, we met some passionate, down-to-earth people who were so welcoming. They even gave us a t-shirt each, cookies, AND donuts. Gotta love Canadians.

Next day we worked the flea market – poor Tracy got a baaaad sunburn as she was outside manning the sidewalk sale. Kind strangers gave us a ride back to our hotel (note: we’ll be picking up Tracy’s car in our next stop, Halifax). Sidebar: our sponsor, the Ramada hotel, has been a lovely home away from home – not only have they offered us complimentary accommodation but they upgraded us to a deluxe suite complete with full kitchen so we’re saving lots of $$ by making meals at the hotel.

Saturday nite, we were taken out by Gerard & Ann – a hilarious couple we met working at the soup kitchen. They insisted on ‘screeching us in’ down on George St. at a bar called Trapper John’s. ‘Screeching in’ is an old tradition in which one is made an honourary Newfoundlander through a process of rum-shooting, bell-ringing, repeating-after-me (strange ‘Newfanese’ sayings) and puffin-kissing. And then at the end, you get a certificate that says:

‘Aving drunk aye shot ou rum – staide straite – kissed de provincial burd – twas nited wit aye sard – n having did des things become n onirary member of Trapper John’s and Newfoundland and Labrador’

Hee hee – good times. From there, it was down the street (note: George St. is simply a series of bars/clubs, pedestrians only), to a couple of Irish pubs for some live music and jig-dancing. We had an awesome time. Thanks Gerard & Ann – we love you and won’t tell anyone that you love dancing so much you sometimes start dancing in bed.

So much more to say but must go to bed so I’ll just say list a few random things I love about NL and you can google them if you’re curious: The Rooms art gallery, Gerard’s stories (might be tough to google this but worth a try), COLOURFUL city landscape, and of course, the accents.

Enjoy the pics!

– Brielle

soup kitchen volunteer getting craaayzee

windy at cape spear

Tracy and I with the wonderful and hilarious, Ann & Gerard at Signal Hill

tracy sporting the latest in jet-setter fashion trends

Getting screeched in at Trapper John

Tracy selling her wares at the flea market

we love Ramada!!