Hilary Meets the Land of the Morning Calm

This morning, I awoke successfully to my alarm, so progress has been made. Two hours later my boss dropped off the 100+ page booklet I need to read through for tomorrow when she, Melissa and I meet at school (yes, on a Saturday!) to review it. This is going to be our "orientation" since we weren't allowed to attend our company's official training program. (They kept us in quarantine, away from the other foreigners who have already proved lack of swine flu through the test of time.)

Today I got off to a rather late start. Due to lack of alarm clock, I slept until noon, and woke up from my boss calling me on the hotel phone. She asked me to stay put until she dropped off a reading packet of training info for me to read before we meet Saturday, but two hours later she called saying she couldn't make it, so I was free to go exploring.

I went on an adventure to the mall that is connected to the subway station near my school/hotel, and used the bathrooms. I had to take a picture of this when I realized what it was. Maybe this exists elsewhere, I don't know, but I saw it for the first time here. This was on the wall of every stall. I don't know if you can read the writing in English on the bottom line, but it says:

"Press 'PUSH' button and flushing sounds"

First thing I have to say is that Korean Air is awesome, I highly recommend. Especially the meal part. The flight went surprisingly fast, Quite typical of myself, I accidentally made getting from the airport to the meeting place with my employers much more time consuming and complicated than necessary, but I have arrived. The first night's shower, food and sleep was very much needed and appreciated.

Moving home from my apartment in QC went much more smoothly than I could have hoped. I did the majority of my packing Friday afternoon when I got out of work, and was worried when I realized that my packed boxes took up a good portion of the living room. I showed the mountain to Dad when he arrived but he seemed perfectly confident, so I stopped worrying.

I am down to the last full week in Lennoxville, Québec. It is funny to think of my fears a year ago, when I worried about what leaving dear Lennoxvegas would be like. I was convinced it would nearly break my heart to leave this town. The time I have spent here has had an enormous impact on my life. The 5ish years represent a truly happy time, full of so many memories and awesome people. I know once I leave, I can never come back to the way it is now. And I don't think I will ever live in this little corner of the world again.