So I have finally made it back. No thanks to my Sydney to SFO flight being delayed and making me miss my connecting flight to Vancouver. I must say I was less than thrilled at the prospect of spending 7hrsin San Fran, but I did manage to have a ridiculously delicious turkey and avocado sandwhich. No one does turkey like the yanks that's for sure.
Anyway so I spent last night in Vancouver waiting to take the greyhound up to Squamish where I am now. Missing that connection extended my travel time to around 42 hrs. Ridiculous!! But totally worth it. As the plane banked around the right just before we landed, I could see the whole city sprawled out, the tiny glowing lights illuminAting the coastline. It was nestled below the BC coastal mountains, which still hav the last scraps of snow on their tips. They were cloaked in thick swirling cloud. It was beautiful.
Arriving back in Canada feels like coming home. Everything is so wonderfully familiar. The city, the Sea to Sky corridor, even Squamish's indutrial area makes me feel nostalgic (we had some good times dropping off the Propane Pete, the bus that breaks ALL THE TIME)
First day of pre-camp was awesome, great to see old friends and start making new ones. Better head off to get some sleep before the rest of the week!!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Canada Mk II
Well here I am again, preparing to disembark the homeland to jet-sett off to my second homeland, the Great White North. I am so excited to be heading back to camp for a month over the winter uni break!!!
On Monday I make the mammoth flight from Perth to Sydney, then to LA and finally Vancouver before heading North to the Squamish River Valley and one of the most fun places on Earth, Camp Summit!
I'm going to be working as a camp counselor for 4 weeks, and as I'm returning staff this time I get paid (yeow!) and also won't be the go-to for all the super awesome jobs such as staining buildings (I'm pretty sure I still had stain ingrained in my skin months after we finished that job!)
Anyway this week has been a combo of trying to organise stuff before going away, as well as chilling to recover from my first set of uni exams and training hard so I won't get too unfit over my holiday. Might have to lay off the chicken grilled cheese sandwiches this year unfortunately...
Oh well!
Hopefully will post again in-transit to YVR. So excited!!!
On Monday I make the mammoth flight from Perth to Sydney, then to LA and finally Vancouver before heading North to the Squamish River Valley and one of the most fun places on Earth, Camp Summit!
I'm going to be working as a camp counselor for 4 weeks, and as I'm returning staff this time I get paid (yeow!) and also won't be the go-to for all the super awesome jobs such as staining buildings (I'm pretty sure I still had stain ingrained in my skin months after we finished that job!)
Anyway this week has been a combo of trying to organise stuff before going away, as well as chilling to recover from my first set of uni exams and training hard so I won't get too unfit over my holiday. Might have to lay off the chicken grilled cheese sandwiches this year unfortunately...
Oh well!
Hopefully will post again in-transit to YVR. So excited!!!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The Finale
Travelling is weird.
I mean, to be fair, it's any number of things. Exciting, eye opening, amazing, changing, dangerous, even boring at times... but of all the things that it is, weird is definitely the word that sticks out at me right now.
It may be that my 14 months out of anything remotely close to an educational institution has significantly decreased my vocabulary, (and also my ability to spell... and do basic maths... anyway irrelevant) but I think I'm sticking to it.
Right now I am sitting in the Suvarnabhumi Aiport in Bangkok, Thailand, waiting. Waiting to take my final flight... the last one of the eight that have transported me all around the globe. It feels so strange. So strange to think I have been travelling for 9 months. Dragging my bag around, finding places to sleep, eating without ever entering a kitchen, waiting in airports, bus ports, train stations, malls, street corners, concrete steps... you can probably name anything and I will have waited on, near, within sight of or for it. So much has happened in this time, 6 months, a full 3 seasons of camp as well as the other 3 months of backpacking. Camp itself was so long, so full... so many good times were had, so many lessons taught, so many experiences unlike anything I had ever done before. Friendships unlike any other, built on such different but such solid foundations. The whole thing was quite inexplicable, the experience is really one that has to be experienced to be fully appreciated.
And then once camp was over, I packed up my stuff and roamed far and wide, trundling the globe on the aimless but no less dedicated search that is backpacking. And I thought camp was full of unmatchable experiences. Turns out I had my fair share of eye-opening experiences that gave me a full new set of ways of looking at everything, the world, it's people, myself.
It feels weird to say that things will never be the same again, that I will never be the same again. The connotations are too negative, which is far far from what I mean when I say it. Change is useful, needed and in my case, refreshing. I feel like I can see everything through eyes no longer blinkered by the limits of what I knew before. I still have so much more to learn, but it's like I didn't even know what I did and didn't know before, but now I've been given a sort of clarity.
All this sort of rambling isn't really achieving what I intended... as my trip is literally hours away from ending, it almost feels like it never happened. But I know the things I've learnt will stick with me, even if it feels like I imagined the whole things. I know no one will be bothering to read this as I will be home so soon... but if any one of the incredible people I met while I was away reads this, thank you! Thank you for helping give me the best times of my life, I can't wait to see you again.
I hope anyone who has ever read or ever does read this gets a chance to experience the truly liberating feeling that is swinging your bag onto your back, pocketing your passport and heading out the door and into the big wide world. It's most definitely one of the best things you'll ever do.
I mean, to be fair, it's any number of things. Exciting, eye opening, amazing, changing, dangerous, even boring at times... but of all the things that it is, weird is definitely the word that sticks out at me right now.
It may be that my 14 months out of anything remotely close to an educational institution has significantly decreased my vocabulary, (and also my ability to spell... and do basic maths... anyway irrelevant) but I think I'm sticking to it.
Right now I am sitting in the Suvarnabhumi Aiport in Bangkok, Thailand, waiting. Waiting to take my final flight... the last one of the eight that have transported me all around the globe. It feels so strange. So strange to think I have been travelling for 9 months. Dragging my bag around, finding places to sleep, eating without ever entering a kitchen, waiting in airports, bus ports, train stations, malls, street corners, concrete steps... you can probably name anything and I will have waited on, near, within sight of or for it. So much has happened in this time, 6 months, a full 3 seasons of camp as well as the other 3 months of backpacking. Camp itself was so long, so full... so many good times were had, so many lessons taught, so many experiences unlike anything I had ever done before. Friendships unlike any other, built on such different but such solid foundations. The whole thing was quite inexplicable, the experience is really one that has to be experienced to be fully appreciated.
And then once camp was over, I packed up my stuff and roamed far and wide, trundling the globe on the aimless but no less dedicated search that is backpacking. And I thought camp was full of unmatchable experiences. Turns out I had my fair share of eye-opening experiences that gave me a full new set of ways of looking at everything, the world, it's people, myself.
It feels weird to say that things will never be the same again, that I will never be the same again. The connotations are too negative, which is far far from what I mean when I say it. Change is useful, needed and in my case, refreshing. I feel like I can see everything through eyes no longer blinkered by the limits of what I knew before. I still have so much more to learn, but it's like I didn't even know what I did and didn't know before, but now I've been given a sort of clarity.
All this sort of rambling isn't really achieving what I intended... as my trip is literally hours away from ending, it almost feels like it never happened. But I know the things I've learnt will stick with me, even if it feels like I imagined the whole things. I know no one will be bothering to read this as I will be home so soon... but if any one of the incredible people I met while I was away reads this, thank you! Thank you for helping give me the best times of my life, I can't wait to see you again.
I hope anyone who has ever read or ever does read this gets a chance to experience the truly liberating feeling that is swinging your bag onto your back, pocketing your passport and heading out the door and into the big wide world. It's most definitely one of the best things you'll ever do.
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