December 2010

I've finished my first semester of ABE courses at Vancouver Island University. I had absolutely dreaded Math, I have always struggled with his course. After the initial assessment I was placed in Math 10 and it's really helped give me a refresher on the basics, I won't be surprised to receive an A or B as I've managed to keep my marks around 90-95% The Math 11 is done in 2 semesters, I have a seat in Math 045 and English 12. I'm still tentative on whether I should take Math 046 in the intermission, or wait until Sept 2011. I am pleased with my current Math teacher, her methods obviously work for me and I think it would be wise for me to stick with her classes. However, if I don't take an intermission course, I will be out of school for 3-4 months and it seems like such a waste when I could be getting myself ahead. Alternatively, if I could get the funding I could take part-time studies towards Criminology, they have Crim 101 & Engl 115 available during the intermission (7 weeks)... decisions, decisions.

Heath has been working in Iqaluit, Nunavut for the past 2 weeks. The job posting stated the accommodation, food and travel was provided. When they arrived it was announced that they would be supplying their own food, using their Northern Allowance of $35/day. Initially the crew took it well and they pooled their monies together to save money. It was 2 days before a landline was installed, the crew had means to contact their families for 3 days before the phone stopped working for long distance, outgoing and incoming. Internet was installed, Heath brought the kids little laptop but somehow it was damaged during travel to Iqaluit. It's been 2 weeks and the crew still does not have answers on whether they are getting paid overtime, or when their paydays will be. This outfit is extremely unorganized. Apparently there was supposed to be 18 crew members sent to Iqaluit for this construction project, but the subcontractor only brought in 6... Heath is the only one who has the experience and knowledge, he's been training the remainder of the crew. Thankfully the crew is being sent home for Christmas, it was first said they would come back December 17th, now they're talking about December 14th and expect crews to return December 27th. Regretfully, Heath will not be returning to Iqaluit, we do not have the time nor the desire to deal with such chaos, these things should have been organized and planned before crews where sent in to work. The employers should have been more forthcoming to the employees about what they were walking into. You can't alienate these people from their families and leave them hanging about their pay and expect them to remain loyal.