Turning into a pumpkin?

Caroline and I with pumpkins at the Byward markets. It was about 4C outside when we set off for our walk!

Bonjour! What's new with me? I had a great week in Ottawa and Montreal recently. I stayed with my friends Paul and Caroline in their new/old "chateau" - they just moved into a 3-storey house with a turret! They were wonderful hosts again (I stayed with them in Toronto 3 years ago) and made me very welcome, as well as taking time out to show me around. I really, really enjoyed seeing the beautiful fall colours in that part of the country. Apparently I missed the peak of the fall colour palette about two weeks prior to my trip, but I was still really taken with what I saw - orange, red, yellow, gold, amber and everything in between! Flying across the prairies was quite something for someone from a much smaller country. I'd never seen so much flat land that seemed to go on forever!

The changing seasons sort of became a theme for my week. Pumpkins (and squash) are in plentiful supply at this time, and there are pumpkins everywhere - carved pumpkins as part of Halloween displays and all kinds of foods made with pumpkin! I love pumpkin and was happy to try as many pumpkin-flavoured things as I could find! We picked up some pumpkins from the farmer's market and I made pumpkin soup and pumpkin and bacon risotto. Caro made some lovely pumpkin muffins (that I now have the recipe for!). We even found some pumpkin beer so had to buy some and try it! Not too bad but you wouldn't want to drink a lot of it. I also saw pumpkin creme brulee but didn't try it. In the interests of research I also tried a pumpkin spice latte this week (not recommended) and I plan to try a pumpkin scone tomorrow.

Ottawa, being Canada's capital, has lots of museums and galleries to check out. Unfortunately I was sick (just a cold, nothing too serious!) while I was away so I didn't see quite as many things as I would have liked to, but I did see the National Gallery, the parliament buildings, the Byward market area, and went to several nice places to eat (Persian, Thai, Mexican). It was also nice just to have some time out to read, sleep in, get better, hang out with Paul and Caro, and eat lots! I don't know who has the biggest sweet tooth but we seemed to have a week of desserts, with the praline butter tart being a highlight.

Because I was a little under the weather I decided to wait till the weekend to go to Montreal with Paul and Caro, instead of going there midweek by myself for a couple of days. I was blessed with great weather most of the week in Ottawa, but sadly it was raining cats and dogs when we were in Montreal! We stayed downtown and walked around Old Montreal the next morning, and found some nice places to eat and keep out of the weather. Another sweet toothed highlight: the chocolate and fresh banana brioche I had for breakfast at a great organic cafe!

Other trip highlights were Paul's guided bicycle tour along the Rideau Canal and the fact that just when it was time to leave and head to the airport, we looked outside and it was snowing! Yes, that's right. it SNOWED! That was pretty cool.

Work update: before leaving for Ottawa, I finished up my four weeks with the Evaluation Studies Unit. The people there were really lovely and took me out for lunch on my last day and gave me a card! It was so sweet and certainly not expected! I enjoyed working there as a research assistant although it was quite high intensity at times. They mostly do curriculum evaluation of the medical degree program, which feeds back to curriculum planners. I also worked on a special project to attempt to determine predictive factors for where graduates end up practising, as there is a big shortage of doctors in rural locations so anything that might help encourage them towards rural practice is of interest.

I checked my email two days before flying back to Vancouver and there was a message asking if they could have me back for another six weeks, right up till when I leave! That's great because it helps with budgeting and planning. I've been back for a week now and they've even made me a door sign with my name and title on it :D I get along well with my boss who is just two years older than me. Like me, she is number 3 out of 4 sisters. and one of her sisters lives in New Zealand (married to a Kiwi) so she has a bit of a Kiwi connection.

I will add more pics from my trip soon!