Bound Down for Newfoundland
Friday dawned nice and sunny for St. John's. We ambled over to Ken and Diane's and spent some time with them. Ended up having lunch on the grill at their house. We spent the rest of the day shopping on Duckworth Street. I got a bunch of souvenirs and went to Living Planet and Fred's Records, one of my favorite spots in St. John's to spend money. Fred's has a great selection of Newfoundland music in addition to any other kind of music you'd ever want. Their Newfoundland CDs have little reviews attached to them. It's great! A poster advertising Jim's new CD, In This World by Musaik,  was in a doorway of one of the stores on Duckworth. I snapped a picture of it.
You really should consider buying this CD. The idea of cultural sharing from three different continents was born in this band long before 9/11/2001. They had already written and recorded a demo of Salama, a song for peace. Lekbir from Morrocco, Thierry from St. Pierre and Jim from Newfoundland all got together and co-wrote songs for peace. Some are in Arabic, some French and some English. Even though I have no idea what Lekbir is singing in Arabic, those songs are some of the most heartfelt, likeable songs on the CD. The fact that Jim tied it all together around a reggae beat is even more amazing. You wouldn't think it works, but oh baby! It is a priceless combination. Go visit www.jimfidler.com and see what talent lies there. Then order the CDs from there (leave Jim an email) or order from Fred's. You'll love In This World, you really will. Plus my class and I are thanked in the liner notes! 

Seriously - check out the CD and his others while you're at it. The man is a musical genius. You won't be disappointed.
We walked down Duckworth, stoppping in this store and that, picking up souvenirs and I looked up at one of the many almost vertical streets in St. John's. Walking around this town is easy if you stay near the harbour. Heaven forbid if you have to go uphill though.

While I was snapping this photo, another couple strolled by with the idea of doing the same thing. We were both impressed by the mountain-goat streets the residents of St. John's have to brave every day. I think this is the same street the b'ys in GBS are walking down in the End of the World video. Wouldn't want to do it in the winter. No sir!

Beneath is a close-up of said street.
For the past three years my class has participated in a distance-learning type activity called "Project Groundhog." It originated in Newfoundland and I found out about it quite by accident while researching Groundhog's Day on teh Internet. I am a team leader for a group of 6-8 schools who keep track of weather data for the six weeks following the Groundhog's prediction of early spring or late spring. We are paired with schools all over the North American continent, exchanging pictures, photos, letters, information about our communities and comparing weather data. At the end we make a judgment about whether or not the groundhog is a good predictor of weather. We 've had mixed results in the years we've done it but always had a grand time and met some great teachers and classes on the Net.

One of the schools we were once paired with was Mundy Pond School and also St. Theresa's right there in St. John's.  So I went in search of them and found Munday pond (the pond) and St. Theresa's. SO I took a picture to show the schoolkids when the time comes.
One exciting development was the interview in the Telegram with Jim and his group. His photo was on the front page and they had almost the entire front page of the Entertainment Section. great interview and story.

We visited Auntie Crae's on Water Street where you'll find anything food-wise that has to do with Newfoundland. But they couldn't give us the one thing Karen wanted the most. They said they didn't think the partridgeberries would last, having them shipped home frozen. And they weren't really in season yet, so I couldn't have a jar of fresh ones. And anyway, I wasn't going home when I left Newfoundland. I still had 2 weeks in Cape Breton to look forward to. So no partridgeberries for Karen. They really make great muffins. We'd been looking forward to them for so long. *sniff*

While on Water Street, I visited O'Brien's Music Store and bought a tipper for my bodhran. I had left mine at home and needed it for school in Cape Breton. It was an experience buying one there. At home, if you ask for a tipper in the music store, they have one or two kinds. Here, he gave me a whole cardboard box with all sizes, shapes and styles of tippers. More than I could ever dream of. It took me a while to pick one out. Too many choices.

We had an early meal with Ken and Diane at My Brother's Place and I heard the strangest phrase there. One lady at the table next to us was talking about her nephew who used to be a fisherman. She said "Since he got a taste of a job in St. John's, he's been landstruck." Meaning he hasn't been out on the boat since. What an odd phrase! But then again - I'm in Newfoundland where they have their own Newfoundland-English Dictionary that's 300+ pages long! Ken and Diane kept teasing us about eating at Ches' so much - we were sick of eating at Ches' and Ken almost ordered a plate of fries for us. We are REALLY sick of fries. I think Vic would have dumped them over his head, to tell you the truth, had he ordered them.

Spent the evening with Ken and Diane, my last evening in St. John's for this year. *sniff* They fed us the most delicious chocolate dessert in the world. I had a second helping, which the Newfoundlanders call "good'ns." Just chatted and enjoyed each others' company till 11 PM. Then it was time to go "home" because we had to wake up about 4:30 to get me to the Argentia ferry on time. I packed up everything but my computer which had crashed with almost all of my vacation photos on it. I prayed Vic would be able to fix it at home. I was out of luck if he couldn't. (He did - otherwise you wouldn't have seen all those nice photos before this! Thanks Vic!)

We had asked for a wake-up call for 4:30 AM. Elizabeth, who worked at the hotel overnight, called us right on time and then - surprise! - had breakfast all ready for us to eat! We met two other tourists who were getting the ferry, Rob and Louise from South Wales. We offered to drive them -they were going to call a cab! Here, they had sailed their boat into Sydney Harbour and taken the ferry across to see Newfoundland. Their boat is called the Puffin. How fitting! Rob had his accordion with him and had been able to play in a couple places, I think. The ride to Argentia was made much shorter with their company and we checked the clothes but not the instruments onto the boat. Carry-on for instruments only. LOL! I kissed Vic good-bye with very mixed feelings. He was going to be traveling with the Fidlers to St. Pierre on Monday and I would not be with him for two weeks. I had to be in Cape Breton at the Gaelic College. Boo Hoo!
"Was I sailing to Sydney?
Ferry Riding, Ferry Riding
Did I entertain for free?
Riding on the ferry."