Six Weeks Down!

Whilst at the Yarmouth Farmer's Market today, I decided that I was going to post some pictures to help show my journey as an intern, including the photos I've taken of the past 6 weeks that I've been in Yarmouth. 

The first two pictures were taken at the World Breastfeeding Week Celebration on October 1st at the NSCC Burridge Campus gym. We had a few hiccups, such as the radio announcer getting confused and announcing that we were having "free breastfeeding activities" for the whole family, and fighting the battle of whether or not to have cake (thankfully the popular vote was to veto said cake and have fresh healthy foods instead). Overall, we (the Baby Friendly Initiative committee and the Make Breastfeeding Your Business subcommittee) felt it was a success!








My task during the event was to prepare the trays of food (wash, cut, arrange) and then stay at the snack table (as I was the only one on the committee with an up-to-date Food Handler's Certificate) refilling and making sure foods were kept food-safe. It was great to hear the fantastic feedback regarding the healthy snacks (the presence of watermelon excited numerous families).

 I have volunteered for the Canadian Cancer Society for 4 years now. Previously, I was the Health Promotion Team Lead when I lived in the Valley, but now I'm a Health Promotion volunteer as I don't have an abundance of time anymore. This is a picture of me at the beginning of October at the Ye Olde Argyler Lodge in Lower Argyle, NS at the tiny wedding show they were holding. Fellow dietetic intern and good friend, Tina, accompanied me to help out at the booth. It was a pretty slow day, so we followed suit when other venders packed up an hour early. We then went to dinner at the Red Top in Pubnico as we were starving and opted not to eat the hot dog and fries offered to us at the wedding show. Fun day all-in-all and as it turned out, also my 27th birthday! Pretty neat to spend it surrounded by bridal bliss!

The following week I was honored to be asked to attend the Recreation Nova Scotia Conference in Digby for a session to hear the third dietetic intern, Lindsay, present on her research. The location was a beautiful golf and spa resort called Digby Pines. Here is a picture of Lindsay near a banner advertising the supporters of the conference. Lindsay's research was to identify if the public would purchase (and if there was a demand for) health foods to be sold at recreation centres and community centres. Her results were quite exciting in that they showed, by a significant difference, that the public did in fact want healthy foods to be sold! 

 Today Tina and I went to the Yarmouth Farmer's Market to get some tasty and inexpensive veggies and fruit. We both tried Macoun apples for the first time today - they are a cross between a Macintosh and Jersey Black. The vender who gave them to us as she wanted us to try them (another reason why small towns trump cities, but I digress) was not over-exaggerating when she said they were juicy. Delicious!

Also at the market we stumbled upon a 26lb squash. So I clearly had to take a picture of it. If you look closely, you can see a regular 3lb squash on the shelf below it.   

Now that I have finally overcome my intense feelings of homesickness and my public health rotation half complete, I believe I have found my groove and am set to give the remaining part of my internship (all 9.5 months of it) my all!

Tonight, I'm going to watch Forks Over Knives, a documentary that discusses what the state of the world's health would be like if we rejected animal-based and processed foods. I have tried to avoid hearing people discuss this movie and haven't read any synopses of the film as I want to watch it to form an opinion for myself first.