My Volunteering Experience

                                                                          ( Draft 1)

I live in rural area and we don’t have any developed infrastructure here such as grocery stores, banks, a pharmacy, a library, a hospital, gas stations. So one day my husband decided to move to the closest city which is located 30 km away for temporary living in hoping to find a job for me and that time was more convenient for his work.

 It was January 2016. We rented an apartment in the centre of city. Location was perfect because I could reach any place by walking in 5-10 minutes. After a few months of living there I started to think about finding a job. I sent my resume into two grocery stores but have not got any responses. One day I met our neighbour and she suggested me to try to find some volunteer work. She said that there is Thrift Shop (in my country we called it Second Hand) in the city and they are looking for volunteers. I went there next day, talked to general manager, left the application. I started working after three days. I worked from Monday to Friday, from 12am to 4pm. Every day was a new team of four-five people. So I met around 20-25 new people just during one week. In that team was one woman from Japan, one from Vietnam, a few people with German, Russian, and Ukrainian background. The oldest member of the team was 92 years old.

The main concept of our store was receiving donations from people, setting low prices and selling it. We had sold everything:  adult clothes, kid’s clothes, shoes, kitchenware, books, DVD, wall pictures, toys, different accessories. That was interesting but very intense job because we had got a lot of donations every day!

My main responsibilities were:  receiving donations, sorting, handing up. Despite intense work we always had some time for having break and drinking a tea or coffee, gossiping, exchanging some recipes, joking. I had worked for three summer months before we came back to our rural area. I was sad because that job had finished for me. I often remember my volunteering job. And now when I go to the city for some reason I always visit Thrift Shop at least to say “Hello”.

I would say that was a simple but in the same time a very useful job. I had got some advantages since I had been working as a volunteer such as meeting new people and friends, better understanding of team work, becoming more confident in myself, improving language skill.

P.S. The latest good new which I have heard about Thrift  Shop. Approximately 1120 square feet will be added to the back of the existing building because donations have progressively increased over the past five years and there is no room to store all the items received!

 

 

 

 

CLB5R Read a plain-language text
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Compare the minimum wage across Canada's provinces (http://canadaonline.about.com/od/labourstandards/a/minimum-wage-in-canada.htm). Using "more than" and "less than," write three sentences on your blog comparing your province's minimum wage with that of other places.

 

 

Minimum Wage in Canada

I would like to compare the minimum wage across Canada’s provinces.
A minimum wage is the lowest amount of money that employers may legally pay to workers. I live in British Columbia and according to my research, our province had a $10.25 general wage in 2015. That is more than Alberta’s $10.20 and Saskatchewan’s $10.20 but less than Manitoba’s $10.70, Ontario’s $11, Quebec’s $10.55 or Yukon’s $10.86. The lowest wage rate was in provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan, at $10.20, British Columbia and Newfoundland, at $10.25, and New Brunswick at $10.30. The highest wage rate was in provinces such as Nunavut and Ontario, at $11, and Northwest Territories, at $12.5. By the way Canadian law prohibits paying workers less that the minimum wage.

        
                                            Minimum Wage in Canada

                 I would compare today the minimum wage across Canada`s provinces.
A minimum wage is the basic labour standard that seats the lowest wage rate an employer can pay to employees who are covered by the legislation. I live in British Columbia and according to my research  our province had $10.25 general wage in 2015. It is more than in Alberta $10.20 and Saskatchewan $10.20 but it less than in Manitoba $10.70, or Ontario $11, or Quebec $10.55, or Yukon $10.86. The lowest wage rate has provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan $10.20, British Columbia  and Newfoundland $10.25, New Brunswick $10.30. The highest wage rate has provinces such as Nunavut and Ontario $11, Northwest Territories $12.50. By the way Employment legislation in Canada forbids to pay workers less than the minimum wage.

My First Winter in Canada

 

 

Before moving to Canada I had limited knowledge about the country. For me Canada was a country of maple syrup, hockey, many forests, extremely cold and snowy winters, and a lot of bears around. But now that I am in Canada, I would tell my impressions about Canadian winters.

I moved to Canada from Ukraine in September 2015. It was the right time to adjust to my first winter here.  In preparation for the cold and snowy winter, I brought with me a winter coat, boots, gloves and hat to keep me warm. In Ukraine I lived in the northeastern part of the country, where we have a humid continental climate with moderately cold, snowy and long winters, which last about four to five months.  The coldest months are January and February. The average winter temperature is around -10C, but sometimes the temperature drops to -20C. Here, in Canada, I live in the western part of British Columbia, 500km away from the Pacific Ocean. Our small village has a sunny winter with lots of snowfall and average temperatures of about -10C to -13C. Therefore, comparing Ukrainian and Canadian winters, I would say the winters are similar in general. I noticed that Canadian winters are more dry then Ukrainian ones because here is low humidity.

The most interesting and wonderful parts of Canadian winters for me were their nature and wildlife. I have never seen such a beautiful scenery like here in winter. I have never seen so much wildlife approaching very close to my house in search of food.

Also, the most exciting part of Canadian winter is snowshoes. I saw snowshoes here for the first time in my life and I got some experience in snowshoeing. As I live in a private house with a huge property around, snowshoeing is a very important part of winter activities here. It seems everybody has snowshoes in our small village!

I am happy to live in the country with a similar climate to that I had before. I would probably miss the winter, if I lived in a warm country. I really enjoyed my first winter in Canada with lots of snow, wildlife, snowshoeing, nature and lots of sunny days.

 

                                                      My First Winter In Canada


   Before to  move to Canada I had limited imagination about the country. For me Canada was country of  maple syrup, hockey, many forests, extremely cold and snowy winter and a lot of bears around. But now when I am in Canada I would tell my  impression about Canadian winter.
   I moved to Canada from Ukraine in September 2015. It was the right time to adjust to my first winter here.   Kind of I was prepared to the cold and snowy winter and I brought with me the winter coat, boots, gloves and hat to keep me warm. In Ukraine I lived on the north-eastern part of the country where we have  humid continental climate  with moderately cold, snowy and long winters which lasting about four-five month.  The coldest month are January and February. The average winter temperature is around -10C, but sometimes temperature drops to -20C. Here, in Canada, I live on the western part of British Columbia, 500km far away from Pacific Ocean. Our small village has a sunny winters with lots of snowfall and with average temperatures about -10C -13C. Therefore comparing Ukrainian and Canadian winter I would say the winters are similar in general. Only one thing what I noticed  Canadian winter is more dry then Ukrainian because here is low humidity.
   The most interesting and wonderful parts of Canadian winter for me was nature and wildlife. I have never seen such a beautiful nature like  here in winter. I have never seen so many wildlife  approaching very close to the house in searching of food.
   Also, the most exciting part of Canadian winter was snowshoes. I have seen showshoes here first time in my life and I got some experience on snowshoesing. As I live in the private house with a huge property so showshoesing is very important part of winter activities here. Seems everybody has snowshoes in our small village!
     I am happy to live in the country with the similar climate that I had before. Probably, I would miss the winter, if I lived somewhere in a warm country. I really enjoed my first winter in Canada with lots of snow, wildlife, snowshoesing, nature and lots of sunny days.
   

My summer camping trip

     I was traveling last week with my husband by camper. Our goal was: "programa  maximum for short time" and seems we did it.
      During four days we visited  five national parks:

1. Banff National Park, Alberta.
2. Yoho National Park, BC.
3. Jasper National Park,Alberta.
4. Glacier National Park,BC.
5. Revelstok National Park,BC.

    Also we drov through Mount Pobson Provincial Park, BC.   There we went to the visitor center, took a few booklets, took some  photos and kept driving.

  By the way: park passes are required for entry into any of Canada's national parks. All park entry fees will be waived in 2017. We have paid 58,80$ CAD for three nights.

      In Banff National Park  we visited:

•   Peyto Lake
• Moraine Lake
• Lake Louise
• Bow Lake

  In Yoho National Park we visited:

•  Esmerald Lake , in my opinion it is the most beautiful lake what I have  been ever seen
• Takakkaws Falls
• Natural Bridge
• Spiral tunnels-tunnels where  the train snakes through the tunnels and you could see the "had" and "tail" of train

   In Jasper National Park:

• we walked in the nice and interesting town Jasper
• went up a mountain by Jasper SkyTram
• visited Athabaska Fall

      In Glacier National Park we tried to approach as much as possible to see the glacier, which was formed million years ago.

     In Revelstok National Park:

• we visited "BC Interior Forestry Museum"
• we saw very massive trees, very old and tall "Giant Cedars Boardwalk Trail"
• we drove  up a  Mount Revelstok

  Making a short conclusion of our trip I would say that all places what we visited are unique, beautiful, amazing, indescribable.  Each of them is worthy of attention and included  in the category "must-see".

   I would like to add about  campgrounds. As we were traveling by camper  September 13 to 19 it was still  the high season. Some nights we were placed in the camp. Sometimes was  difficult to get a site with electric power, because all camps were  full. So I would advise in advance  to reserve a place in the camper.

   In total  we drove 2500 km for  six days.