Weekend at Lake Anne

This past weekend we spent up at Dan's cabin near Morin Heights. It was beautiful! The weather didn't cooperate all weekend but gave us a few good moments here and there. We went swimming, played frisbee, played board games, and ate our group body weight equivalent in yummy food. We had a blast with our friends. We're thinking of going back up there in a few weeks for our book club, turning our meeting into a whole weekend of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies fun! Hopefully we won't run into any actual zombies in the woods there.

Charlie and Charles were the first brave ones to jump into the lake.
The rest of us followed, and froze our butts off, a couple hours later.

The girls! Sunday morning was sunny and beautiful so we sat on the dock for a while.

Cheers!

Chab Dai Canada

The Chab Dai Canada logos are official! We need to celebrate the small victories in this new challenge, because setting up a charitable organisation is more difficult than it seems. Our colleague in California who does such a great job at the communications designed these new Chad Dai logos, and Canada is being added to Cambodia and U.S.A.

We're so happy we can stay a part of the Chab Dai team, we really enjoyed working with them and they influenced us a great deal. Although we have no idea where we'll be headed after I finish my Masters, staying in touch with them through our projects here will be a big perk to the job!

Us with the Chab Dai team at Ta Prohm, at the Angkor temples.

So for those of you who are wondering what exactly those projects are, here's a brief list of Chab Dai Canada's goals:

• Research domestic issues of trafficking.
• Raise awareness of issues of sexual exploitation and trafficking, domestically and globally, particularly in the ecumenical community;
• Engage people in taking action;
• Network with NGOs, people, churches, and coalitions already working on these issues;
• Identify and apply for funding for projects in both Cambodia and Canada.

Until next time, keep us in your thoughts and keep in touch!

Back from Winnipeg!

We just spent a great week in Winnipeg with our friends and family! I've never eaten so much in my life! We had good visits and it was so nice to stay with Charlie's parents. We were also there for Dave and Jenn's wedding. Dave and Charlie have known each other their whole lives.

We had a blast at the wedding. Isn't Jen gorgeous?!!

Us with Charlie's family and Char's best friend, Jeremy's family. Lorraine and Louise are two of the infamous 4 L's who have been best friends since high school!

BBQ at John and Charlene's. Their oldest daughter, Danica, here with John, Phil and Lorraine.

I got to spend some time with Kim, my college roommate. She lives in Winnipeg with her husband Alex and their two kids, Sofia and Tegan.

A walk in Assinaboine Park with Mom and Dad Brake.

Graduate School Here I Come!!

I got in!

Starting in September, I will be studying International Community Economic Development at SNHU. I will be taking scary courses like Accounting, Economics, and Financial Management, and instead of writing a thesis, I have to implement a CED project. And one of the best parts is that I get to stay in Montreal! It is a weekend program; I go to the New Hampshire campus once a month for three days and do the bulk of my work from home.

You can check out more about the program here: http://www.snhu.edu/146.asp.

Charlie took me out for a celebratory dinner last week!

We're back!!

So, it's about time we start writing our blog again. If I wait until things settle down and get less stressful, I'll never blog again! I PROMISE one of us will write every week... if we don't, you have our permission to yell at us (or at Charlie, he can take it!)

We finished up our time in Thailand and left Phil in Bangkok the day before he headed back to Canada. We had such a great trip with him. Of course, the day we left him, he got robbed and missed his flight (Murphy's law, right?) But overall, the three of us had a blast together.

The night we left Chang Mai was my birthday, so we went out for
celebratory sushi just before catching our 10-hour bus ride back to Bangkok.

We then spent 10 days in Phnom Penh, seeing all our friends, saying goodbye again, wrapping things up at Chab Dai and meeting with Helen to discuss our first steps into starting Chab Dai Canada. We spent a lot of time with our very dear friends, Ray and Christine Cantwell, and Amie and Steve Gosselin. Both couples are also from Canada (Ontario and Alberta, respectively) and they became such good friends over our short months in Cambodia. We will miss them very much. They loved us and challenged us and had a big impact on our lives. Also, Ray and Christine introduced us to Settlers of Catan and Bohnanza, and we will be forever grateful!!

(From left to right: Amie, Christine, Steve, Ray and Charlie) After eating at our favourite Chinese Noddles place, we would sit at one the smoothie stands and have the most delicious milkshakes ever! If you're ever in the area, try the soursop!

Now we're home and busy as ever! As many of you know already, I was just accepted into the M.Sc. program at Southern New Hampshire University. I will be studying International Community Economic Development. It's a distance learning program so we will be able to stay in Montreal and I will travel down to campus once a month for three days. Charlie will be staying with his job at Backcheck and we will both be working on establishing Chab Dai Canada in the next couple years. It will be a busy time!

Sorry for the delay of this post, but we're back on now and planning to stay a while!

Flight of the Gibbon

This is our last week in Southeast Asia! We are back in Phnom Penh for a week before heading back to Montreal on April 30. Travelling was fun, and interesting, and exciting, and tiring all at once. We're glad to be back to familiarity and friends for a bit before coming home. One of the last things we did in Chiang Mai before coming back to Cambodia was Flight of the Gibbon. It was a morning of zip-lining through the Thai jungle!! It was amazing! There were a dozen zip lines, two sky bridges and three drops, one of at least 100 feet! It was definitely worth it, very exhilarating, and an experience to remember.

Ready to go!

The "honeymoon" zipline :)

Our group, coincidentally made up only of Canadians and Danes (or 'Danishes' as Charlie calls them)!

Are you sure about this?

Happy Birthday Julia

Today is Julia's 25th Birthday! She is now a quarter of a century old! Congrats Julia on the accomplishment! For her birthday we enjoyed a buffet breakfast, with amazing scrambled eggs, followed by a nice sit around the pool and a massage! We're going to top it off with a 10 hour overnight bus ride to Bangkok leaving at 8:00 tonight!

Happy Birthday Julia!