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Nina Near and Far

How to have adventures near and far.

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Category: Packing Guides

Posted on January 12, 2020January 13, 2020

How to Prevent Leg Cramps After Flying (and Other Travel Soreness)

Leg cramps? Sore neck?

  • Packing Guides
  • Travel
  • travel tips
 by ninanearandfar0 comment
How to Prevent Leg Cramps After Flying (and Other Travel Soreness)
Posted on April 18, 2019April 21, 2019

What to Pack for Costa Rica

Wondering what to pack for Costa Rica?

  • Costa Rica
  • Packing Guides
 by ninanearandfar1 comment
What to Pack for Costa Rica
Posted on February 4, 2019January 30, 2020

What to Wear in Canada in Winter: Recommendations from a Local

Recommendations from a local.

  • canada
  • Canada Tips
  • Ottawa-Gatineau Winter
  • Packing Guides
  • travel tips
  • winter
 by ninanearandfar1 comment
What to Wear in Canada in Winter: Recommendations from a Local
Posted on July 19, 2018January 24, 2019

What to Pack for Iceland Travel

What to pack for Iceland, with recommendations and a packing list!

  • Iceland
  • Packing Guides
 by ninanearandfar0 comment
What to Pack for Iceland Travel

Hi! I’m Nina, and welcome to Nina Near and Far – the Ottawa-based travel blog for people pursing career and academic goals. Nina Near and Far is about making the most of your time off, weekends, and vacation days by exploring you own city and taking short, adventure-packed trips.

One year ❤️❤️❤️ ⁣ The West Block of One year ❤️❤️❤️ ⁣ The West Block of Parliament was my Dad’s last project before he passed away one year ago today. He was a Senior Building Systems Coordinator and his other work included the Shaw Conference Centre, the Museum of Nature restoration project, the Ottawa airport, and some work on the train station that is now housing the Senate. To be left a legacy in some of the city’s most iconic buildings is both wonderful and overwhelming at times. I toured every building while it was a construction site and got to see nooks and crannies (and best of all - the dinosaurs in the Museum of Nature before they were painted). ⁣ My best memory from the last few years of his life was taking him to see the West Block when it was finished. He was on the renovation project when he got sick. 3 years later Nick and I took him to see the finished renovations and current home to the House of Commons. It was probably the happiest that I had seen him since his diagnosis. ⁣ Sending hugs to you if you are missing someone today ❤️ ⁣ To those of you who are new to following my account, we have a system here for when you want to express something but just can’t quite find the words. Comment with 3 hearts ❤️❤️❤️ and I will know exactly what you mean 😌
The views we never get tired of 😍 ⁣ I learned The views we never get tired of 😍 ⁣ I learned that this is the first time in 2 years that the entire length of the canal is open! Some of you will remember how a partial closure from Bronson to Bank disrupted my morning skate commute last year 😅 When I tried to skate to school only to discover I couldn’t... so I tried to walk a kilometre in skate guards 🤦🏼‍♀️ I thought it would be a ‘short walk’ so didn’t want to bother putting my boots on. I deeply regretted that decision. And yes - I am the friend who says ‘we can walk that far!’ and then we totally can’t 🙃 ⁣ My experiences on the canal have been much better so far this year! I’m loving going for morning skates before work 🥰 Even though things are closed and often strange I have no regrets about moving downtown this year. Totally worth it for mornings on the ice. ⁣ #MyOttawa #OttawaWinter #FacesOttawa #TopOttawaPhoto #DiscoverON #RideauCanalSkateway #RideauCanal
One season to another... SWIPE to see the seasons One season to another... SWIPE to see the seasons change! ❄️/🌺 ⁣ Things bringing me happiness today: ⁣ 1. It has (and I cringe at myself for being so Canadian for even saying this) warmed up outside. It’s still -10C with the windchill, but that is such an improvement over the -27C windchill we faced over the weekend! 🥶 ⁣ 2. Tomorrow sunset will be at 5:01 PM! We are officially through with sunsets before 5 o’clock ☀️ and I am so excited to be getting more day light. ⁣ 3. I peer-reviewed a couple of conferences papers today ALL BY MYSELF and I am confident that I gave the authors constructive and relevant comments 🥰 Honestly, I surprised myself by how readily I had thoughts and feedback on each paper and it shows me how much I have learned in my masters. ⁣ I have to admit, I found the weekend hard. It was so cold that it was hard to be outside much... so, just trying to think a little about the good things going on. What about you? What’s a happy thing right now? ⁣ #MyOttawa #OttawaWinter #FacesOttawa #TopOttawaPhoto #CanadaGram #CanadaWinter #VirtualMeet613
The downtown has been pretty quiet lately. It seem The downtown has been pretty quiet lately. It seems that with less people out and about, fantastical creatures have begun to explore our little city 🐉 ⁣ My renewed love of fiction and fantasy novels has been keeping me sane and entertained these days. I got so immersed in the last series I read that I went an entire week without watching any shows or movies (not typical for me lol). As you can see, I have decided to let fantasy and reality be one and the same for now 😉 It’s just more fun that way. If you spotted a dragon flying over, what would you do? ⁣ #OttawaWinter #OttawaLife #TopOttawaPhoto #FacesOttawa
Winter magic ❄️ Days like this make me feel li Winter magic ❄️ Days like this make me feel like I’m walking into Narnia 🥰 I woke up this morning and couldn’t help but immediately make my way into the snowscape! It’s a beautiful day for a walk in Ottawa so I hope you get out to enjoy it. ⁣ Speaking of snowscapes! What are your favourite winter scenes from movies or books? ⁣ #MyOttawa #OttawaWinter #OttawaLife #TopOttawaPhoto #FacesOttawa
BIRTHDAY: 27 🎂 🎉 ⁣ Well... the last year h BIRTHDAY: 27 🎂 🎉 ⁣ Well... the last year has been a bit strange, wouldn’t you say? Still... I am grateful for so much. Here are some things I did and some things I did not end up doing! ⁣ 📚 I proposed my thesis, received ethics approval, and collected data. 2 days ago I finished the last course of my MSc - just my thesis write-up left! ⁣ 🚗 I visited Montreal and Montebello early in the year and 1,000 Islands National Park in the summer. ⁣ ✈️ I did not go to Denmark 🇩🇰 Croatia 🇭🇷 Hungary 🇭🇺 or Newfoundland 🇨🇦 so I have a lot of airline credits. ⁣ 🥙 I learned that there is grocery shopping, and there is pandemic grocery shopping. I infinitely prefer grocery shopping. ⁣ 🖥 I designed and produced a virtual orientation for the Telfer MBA and MHA programs. ⁣ 📑 My research side projects got sidelined because of COVID-19. ⁣ 🗽 I started teaching virtual workshops for a non-profit in NYC that supports underprivileged women entering the workforce. ⁣ 😔 My Dad died. 10 months ago. I remember the last time I celebrated my birthday with him and everything was so different then. ❤️❤️❤️ ⁣ 🏡 Nick and I moved downtown. It felt like a funny thing to do with all the closures, but we absolutely love it here. ⁣ 💻 The most popular posts on Nina Near and Far flipped entirely - from multi-day itineraries in big cities to small towns outside of Ottawa! ⁣ 🥈 I placed 2nd in the Telfer Thesis Competition. ⁣ 😴 I am very, very tired. Not tired from the week, or the semester, but cumulatively tired from a very hard year. I am glad I didn’t give up on my goals. I’m also exhausted and very, very excited for a Christmas break of sleep and novels. ⁣ ⭐️ Many of you know that I am applying for PhD programs... and have I ever got the A Team. The support and encouragement I have received throughout this process has been incredible. ⁣ Thanks for being with me another year ☺️ I won’t pretend to know what the next year has in store but if we stick together, we’ll be okay ❤️
‘Tis the season to get scoffed at by chickadees ‘Tis the season to get scoffed at by chickadees every time you run out of sunflower seeds... but it’s fine because they’re adorable 😍 Have you hand fed birds before? ⁣ Here are a couple of great @ncc_ccn trails to feed the birds around Ottawa: • Mer Bleue • Jack Pine Trail • Stony Swamp • Chapman Mills • Sarsaparilla Trail • Shirley’s Bay ⁣ #myOttawa #Ottawa #OttawaWinter
O, Christmas tree! 🤩 The Lights at Landsdowne a O, Christmas tree! 🤩 The Lights at Landsdowne are absolutely beautiful and the skating rink at night is pure magic. I’m so glad they went ahead with the lights this year even though the Christmas Market wasn’t able to go ahead. It’s such a nice destination to enjoy some time outside! ⁣ I vote we revert to Daylight Time so it stops getting dark at 4PM and keep the pretty lights up until Spring! ✨ Who is with me? 🙋🏼‍♀️ ⁣ #ottawa #ottawalife #myottawa #facesottawa #topottawaphoto #christmasphotoshoot #christmasphotos
OTTAWA IN DECEMBER: HOLIDAY LIGHTS & VILLAGES ❄️ ⁣ It looks like winter is finally here to stay! And there is actually enough to do in Ottawa right now (following public safety guidelines of course) for a round up post. December is in just a few days but a lot of things start this weekend! Hit SAVE for when you need a fun activity this holiday season! ⁣ HOLIDAY LIGHTS & VILLAGES ⁣ ✨ Christmas Lights Across Canada starts November 30 throughout Ottawa. ⁣ ✨ @saundersfarmfun is hosting a drive-through Light & Sounds Show at night and a Country Christmas during the day. ⁣ ✨ @enchantedottawa is taking over an old go kart for their drive-through light show ⁣ ✨ Lights at Lansdowne kicks off November 27. Ottawa’s biggest Christmas tree is back! The skating rink will also be open ⛸ ⁣ ✨ Alight at Night is back at @uppercanadavill - bundle up and enjoy the lights in Bundle up for an evening stroll through this picture-perfect postcard setting! Over one million lights adorn the heritage buildings, ⁣ ✨ Magic of Lights Ottawa is on at @thewcparks (drive-through) ⁣ ✨ Visit the Christmas village at @stanleysoldemaplelanefarm - perfect for kids! Visit the elves and explore the village. ⁣ ✨ Step back in time at the Vintage Village of Lights at the Cumberland Heritage Village @cumberlandmuseum ⁣ ✨ Take the family to @ianschristmaspark for Christmas trees, rope mazes, and wagon rides. ⁣ Prefer to stay in? Check out 10 Ottawa Experiences to Have at Home for fun ways to support local businesses and have unique experiences in your own home 🥰 #myottawa #ottawa #ottawaphoto
Good news from my academic life! 😍 (From a virt Good news from my academic life! 😍 (From a virtual event for which I have exactly zero photos lol) ⁣ On October 23 I competed in a thesis competition among Masters and Ph.D. research students in my department. My presentation won 2nd place! 🥈 SWIPE for a snippet of my slides. ⁣ My work examines how leadership impacts the way that employees experience stress at work (positively as challenges or as something threatening and hindering). I developed a theory of how leaders might be able to do this - by promoting a few different psychological states or mindsets in employees - and I’m just about done collecting date to test me hypotheses! During the Q&A of the presentation I shared the story of my former co-worker passing away from depression last Fall as an example of a stressful experience that can not be construed as a positive (and therefore falls outside of the theory I explore through my research). I plan to donate 10% of my prize money to an organization that supports men’s mental health in memory of my co-worker ❤️❤️❤️
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