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A Mahoney in Paris
Hello everyone! My name is Trish Mahoney, I'm from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. I graduated from St. Francis Xavier University with a BSc in Biology in May, and now I've taken a position with Veteran's Affairs Canada as a Student Guide at the Vimy Ridge National Historic Site of Canada and the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial National Historic Site of Canada in Northern France. From August to December I hope to gain a deeper understanding of the first world war and travel throughout Europe. Here's a way for me to keep in touch and keep you updated along the way.trishmahoney
Days I've been away
Back in Ottawa!
Travel Blog Posts
September 9th 2011
So, once every month we have our two days off split up. BUT I did not spend them sitting at home! This past Tuesday I spent the day with Monsieur Sheitquatte (pronounced Shit cat). He is the Shepard for Beaumont Hamel and he invited me and whoever was off to come horseback riding at his place! So Maya, Chantal and I took him up on the offer. We went with the B-H guides to work and he picked us up there. Then we saddled up Princesse and Rayon to go riding. I rode Rayon, he was just a pony but we became best friends very quickly. We rode around in the corral for a little bit so M. Sheitquatte could get a feel for our level and then we got to go out in the fields ... read more
September 2nd 2011
Hi Everyone! Sorry the blog posts have been super delayed! It's tough because we get back from work around 7, so once you eat and clean up it's like 8:30 - 9, so there's not much time! But I have to update everyone about my incredible trip to Belgium this past weekend!! So Kaitlyn, Gorana, Cresence and I left at 5:30 am (ugh.) and took the train from Arras to Lille, then Lille to Brussels, and then Brussels to Bruges, and we were there before 9:30! Not bad for stopovers and such. Then we beelined in for food so we didn't get too grumpy. I discovered that Europeans seemed to have an obsession with uncooked ground beef. My hamburger was done only medium when I went to Paris and I ordered a "Boeuf Basilic" sandwhich in ... read more
August 28th 2011
So much has been happening! So the last update was wednesday of last week. Since then we've moved into the guide houses! It's so nice to have a couch and a kitchen and the places are so nice!! I'm roomates with Kaitlyn, from PEI, she's super nice and fun so I'm so happy! Faye has her own room on the same floor as me, and then Elise and Sam share a room in the third floor, and so do Maya and Crescence. Kariane, a return guide who gets here tomorrow, will have the last spot in the house on St. Aubert Street, Arras, France. So far it's been going really well. I came home Thursday night to a huge Roast beef meal with potatoes and carrots made by Maya and Elise the first day and it ... read more
August 23rd 2011
Theodore Roosevelt Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. Just finished off my first two days! So Monday was technically another training day, we shadowed the old guides and learned the ropes from them about how to run the site! I learned so much, and I got to go on two tours with Shaundel and Sao Mai. Both tours were so different so it was great to have two really neat perspectives. We learned the three different positions: Accueil (you're at the front desk of the visitors centre), Entree (Greeting visitors at the entrance), and Caribou (where you watch out for the monument and answer people's questions). It was so great to get the advice from the old guides too about ... read more
August 21st 2011
Hi Everyone, What a crazy and amazing couple of days. So. Lets start from where we left off, shall we? Thursday, August 18 Today was another day of full history inside the training room. All morning we learned about the battle of the Somme (Where the Newfoundlanders fought at Beaumont-Hamel was part of this major battle) and also the battle of Arras (of which taking Vimy Ridge was a part of). This was soooo helpful because that's the bulk of what we're going to need to know for the job, the day before was mostly putting these battles into context. THEN that night the guides that have been working here all summer had us over to their house for a party and pubcrawl. It was really great to meet everyone and to finally go out in ... read more
August 17th 2011
Bonjour! Today was the third day of training. We had a presentation in the morning from Claudette, the Director, European Operations for Veteran Affairs Canada. She asked if there was a Theresa here, and there wasn't. So she said that there were a bunch of Canadian teachers who were there in July that (she was giving a conference for them) and one of them knew a guide that was coming and left a note for them. I remembered Eric saying that he told Mr. Saikaley (my grade 10 history teacher at Canterbury High School) I was going over to Vimy Ridge, and Mr. Saikaley said he was visiting over the summer and in the spring, so I asked her if it could be Mr. Saikaley. She couldn't remember, so she ran and got the note, and ... read more
August 16th 2011
Hello everyone! So I've gotten a lot of emails, messages, skype calls from people asking about what I've been up to, so I figure this is a way to keep in touch with everyone without having to type it out a million times and worry about time differences! I also want to be able to keep track of every bit of it because I'm having a great time so far :) Let's start from the beginning... http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=10150741866615413&set=t.501934486&type=1&theater I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move. ~Robert Louis Stevenson I flew Ottawa to Montreal and landed with lots of time to spare between my next flight. I didn't even have to recheck my bagga... read more
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