Busy, Busy, Busy...
I`ve been so busy that I haven`t been able to even check my emails in a few days (which is very unusual for me).
On Thursday evening I had coffee with Chantal, a friend of mine here in Ottawa that I haven`t seen in about five years. We met in Jonquière, on the Summer Language Bursary Program thing. Another friend of ours from Jonquière is in Toronto, and will probably come up some time during the summer.
Yesterday evening was the "Passing of the Torch" from the winter tour guides to the summer ones. We had pizza in the Reading Room of Centre Block (where the fire of 1916 started), and then the old guides did skits mocking the IOs (Interpretation Officers -our bosses). After the pizza, most of us headed out to a local establishment for refreshments. I was so happy that they actually had Leffe Blonde!
This morning all of us guides went on a tour of the city of Ottawa (and crossed into Hull, Québec), and found out lots of cool tidbits of info about the city from the IOs. For example, we drove over the vaults that hold most of Canada`s gold, as well as the gold of 7 other countries (I don`t know which ones those are though). We then had a tour of Rideau Hall (the Governor General`s residence) before having a potluck in West Block (I love this being able to have parties in the Parliament buildings!).
The whole group of tour guides this summer seems to be really cool (despite some of them being nerds). Part of our training has been doing stupid skits to demonstrate different parts of good (and bad) guiding. Let`s just say that you have to be able to laugh at yourself... It`s been fun though. My first day of work is on Tuesday, out front and in the Peace Tower. My first real tour is on Wednesday morning.