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!!
Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Niagara Falls: A Bad Canadian Vegas... to the Untrained Eye
Hey crew
Kind of interesting that my Toronto post was from Niagara and my Niagara post is going to be from Toronto... but I'm technically in Transit in Toronto. I got in at like 4:30pm from Niagara, weighed up a couple of options thanks to the free wireless internet you can get in various buildings in Toronto and decided upon this one: Waiting 7 hours and then taking the midnight bus to Kingston that in fact takes 12 hours because it goes the most roundabout way possible, when it could really take like 4. This doesn't sound like the best choice ever but its the cheapest (don't have to find somewhere to sleep tonight) and gets me to Kingston the earliest, thus not wasting any valuable time I have in this part of the world. I would be totally sold on this option if it wasn't for my good mate Crumbles being in the same city as me, but being virtually uncontactable. No harm done, I'm fairly soon our paths will be crossing very soon, maybe even in Kingston for a mini-camp reunion with Tyler and Alex.
So, my trip to Niagara Falls was never really on the cards, but Alex (Perth Alex) suggested it, she and her road trip crew had been there and enjoyed it. I had basically done everything I wanted to do in Toronto but couldn't go to Kingston til Monday, so I though 'Why Not?. This thought led to more awkward public transit catching with my large pack in tow. However, there has been a rather revolutionary development in the carriage of the pack, backpack, tripod and guitar. The tripod goes on the side of the pack, the guitar loops around the back of the pack and the backpack goes on the front. I discovered today that you can clip my backpack onto the front of my pack. This sounds lame but it was like the most awesome thing ever for me. Back at camp, Crumbles and Billy were always strong advocates for the front-pack, but I remained unconvinced until today, when a pair of Poms from Somerset I met at the hostel put the idea of clipping a backpack onto the front of a pack into my head. Now I can walk for miles without being super unbalanced and getting stuck upside down like a turtle if I drop a coin.
Speaking of walking miles, I had googled the location of my hostel (Lyon's House Hostel)and seen that it was a mere 3.5km from the bus terminal. In the interest of saving money and getting some exercise, I decided to walk. I'm still of both minds about that decision. Luckily I managed to miss the freak snowstorm that blew in and out literally half an hour before I arrived. Also, the walk led me from the normal Niagara Falls through to the tourist district of Clifton Hill. As I came upon Victoria Ave, I was really feeling the 25kgs or so I was lugging about. However, as I looked toward the skyline, my spirits were lifted by the beautiful sunset staining the skies hues of pink and purple. I could only imagine how beautiful the Falls must look in that light. The wonder of the natural beauty of the heavens was somehow deadened as I got closer and closer to Clifton Hill. To be honest, the thing that first led me to the Bad Vegas conclusion was a large glass walled building with the letters WATERPARK emblazoned in crimson across its roof. The giant ferris wheel and fiberglass Frankenstein holding a Burger King Whopper didn't help either.
Before I knew it, I reached my destination and met the friendly hostel owner Patrick. He was super cool, really welcoming and liked a chat. The hostel was awesome, a convereted apartment building with the healthiest and best free breakfast I've ever seen! Homemade rasberry-bluberry muffins every day!
That evening in front of the TV I met 2 girls, Shonelle and Lindsay, an Aussie and a Yank who had met whilst Shonelle was studying abroad in Nashville. They were cool, it was their first time in Canada and they had walked in to the country. Literally! They had flown to Buffalo, caught a bus to the Rainbow Bridge that joins the USA and Canada across the Falls, hopped off, walked along the Bridge, gone through customs and then strolled on down to the hostel, which is a 5 minute walk from the waterfront.
The following day, Patrick sent Shonelle, Lindsay and I off in a cab on the 'Disorganised Organised Wine Tour'. We drove along the waterside to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a cute little township that looked more British than Canadian. After stopping to see a few sights, the Whirlpool (a tight bend in the river where the water forms a current that can trap debris for weeks at a time) and the 'World's Smallest Chapel' (see the photo below... it's pretty small) we made it to Jackson-Triggs winery. We walked in and were the only people there so a nice young man called Austin took us for a tour and tastings. The tour was cool, he let us eat grapes off the vine, we learnt a bit about why the region was so well suited to grapes (the Escarpment stops warm air escaping so the area is always a few degrees warmer than the surrounds). We got to go behind the scenes, see how they loaded grapes into the machines, learnt the differences between fermenting red (horizontal machine where the wine is agitated so as to extract the dye from the skin) and white wine (vertical machine that allows the skin to float to the top), and saw the cellar where they let the wines mature. Even the barrels are an important part of the process, the usual American and French woods were used, as long as some experimental work with Canadian and Hungarian woods. After the tour we got down to the business of tasting. Now I'm no wine connoisseur but I thoroughly enjoyed the couple of reds and whites we tried. However, my absolute favourite was the icewines. Icewine is made by leaving the grapes out so late in the season that they freeze. Pressing frozen grapes results in a much sweeter, dessert wine that you can only drink in very small amounts. The Cabernet Franc was absolutely delicious! If I was able to afford/transport a $65 bottle of the stuff I would have done it in a snap.
After trying way more wines than we were supposed to, and getting free corkscrews from Austin (it probably had something to do with the fact that we were three lovely young ladies and he was a not half bad young man) we set off to walk back to Niagara-on-the-Lake. Lindsay and Shonelle, being Canadian newbies, had yet to go to a Tim Hortons, so I ensured that this sad fact was rectified. They were impressed... mostly by the prices.
Once we made it back to the town we looked about in the many small artsy shops and galleries. It was quite a nice change sightseeing with girls. I had done it so many times with the guys at camp which was super fun, but we definitely didn't get to look in little boutiques and the like.
That afternoon we were back to the tourist trap. Shonelle and Lindsay head off to Toronto, and I decided to go and check out the Falls.
I must say, they are very impressive. There are actually 2 Falls that make up Niagara Falls, the American Falls (the smaller one) and the Horseshoe, or Canadian Falls. This is the one that most people think of when they think Niagara Falls. That one totally trumps the American one. The thunderous roar of a million bathtubs a minute flowing over the slowly eroding rock is really quite something. At night, the Falls are illuminated by these giant beams of light. I thought this was kinda tacky, but it did make for some cool photos.
My last full day in Niagara I hired a bike from Patrick and set off for a ride to Niagara Glen, a bouldering and hiking site around the bend in the river. It was nice to get out to nature, I felt quite starved of it after being in the cities for the past 2 weeks or so, especially considering I pretty much lived outside for 6 months. Niagara Glen was really nice. I hiked around through heaps of boulders and forests, all the way down to the waters edge. So many seagulls soaring over the water's surface. It was super picturesque. The hikes were nice too, so many yellow and brown leaves everywhere for me to crunch. That never gets old. EVER.
That night the Winter Festival of Lights was opening by the waterfront. A whole bunch of illuminated displays, particularly of Disney characters, had been erected by the Falls. It seemed an odd sort of thing to do, but hey, the people and their kiddies were flocking! Personally, I was a big fan of the fireworks. My we are such a strange race, to celebrate by firing massive balls of light that explode into many colours into the night sky.
My final morning I capped off with my last sight I had yet to see, The Journey Behind the Falls. A large tunnel had been dug over 40 years ago underneath the Horseshoe Falls, so you can go there and watch the water plummet in this massive white sheet in front of you. There is also a lower viewing platform where you literally get to shower in Niagara Falls. The massive rainbows and amazing sight of the water rushing was totally worth the mild saturation.
Then back to the hostel to share a cab to the bus depot, onto the 2pm bus and here I am, back in Toronto. Just watched the new Coen brothers movie and have since been chilling in a foodcourt with free internet just down the road from the Greyhound station where I stowed my pack in a locker. But there is a dude trying to pack it up so I best skedaddle. Wish me luck for my 12 hour bus ride to Kingston! I'm sure it will be a ball.
What trip is complete without a ridiculously long and uncomfortable bus ride. I suppose at the least it won't be too busy.... I hope!
I'll post the photos a bit later.
Kind of interesting that my Toronto post was from Niagara and my Niagara post is going to be from Toronto... but I'm technically in Transit in Toronto. I got in at like 4:30pm from Niagara, weighed up a couple of options thanks to the free wireless internet you can get in various buildings in Toronto and decided upon this one: Waiting 7 hours and then taking the midnight bus to Kingston that in fact takes 12 hours because it goes the most roundabout way possible, when it could really take like 4. This doesn't sound like the best choice ever but its the cheapest (don't have to find somewhere to sleep tonight) and gets me to Kingston the earliest, thus not wasting any valuable time I have in this part of the world. I would be totally sold on this option if it wasn't for my good mate Crumbles being in the same city as me, but being virtually uncontactable. No harm done, I'm fairly soon our paths will be crossing very soon, maybe even in Kingston for a mini-camp reunion with Tyler and Alex.
So, my trip to Niagara Falls was never really on the cards, but Alex (Perth Alex) suggested it, she and her road trip crew had been there and enjoyed it. I had basically done everything I wanted to do in Toronto but couldn't go to Kingston til Monday, so I though 'Why Not?. This thought led to more awkward public transit catching with my large pack in tow. However, there has been a rather revolutionary development in the carriage of the pack, backpack, tripod and guitar. The tripod goes on the side of the pack, the guitar loops around the back of the pack and the backpack goes on the front. I discovered today that you can clip my backpack onto the front of my pack. This sounds lame but it was like the most awesome thing ever for me. Back at camp, Crumbles and Billy were always strong advocates for the front-pack, but I remained unconvinced until today, when a pair of Poms from Somerset I met at the hostel put the idea of clipping a backpack onto the front of a pack into my head. Now I can walk for miles without being super unbalanced and getting stuck upside down like a turtle if I drop a coin.
Speaking of walking miles, I had googled the location of my hostel (Lyon's House Hostel)and seen that it was a mere 3.5km from the bus terminal. In the interest of saving money and getting some exercise, I decided to walk. I'm still of both minds about that decision. Luckily I managed to miss the freak snowstorm that blew in and out literally half an hour before I arrived. Also, the walk led me from the normal Niagara Falls through to the tourist district of Clifton Hill. As I came upon Victoria Ave, I was really feeling the 25kgs or so I was lugging about. However, as I looked toward the skyline, my spirits were lifted by the beautiful sunset staining the skies hues of pink and purple. I could only imagine how beautiful the Falls must look in that light. The wonder of the natural beauty of the heavens was somehow deadened as I got closer and closer to Clifton Hill. To be honest, the thing that first led me to the Bad Vegas conclusion was a large glass walled building with the letters WATERPARK emblazoned in crimson across its roof. The giant ferris wheel and fiberglass Frankenstein holding a Burger King Whopper didn't help either.
Before I knew it, I reached my destination and met the friendly hostel owner Patrick. He was super cool, really welcoming and liked a chat. The hostel was awesome, a convereted apartment building with the healthiest and best free breakfast I've ever seen! Homemade rasberry-bluberry muffins every day!
That evening in front of the TV I met 2 girls, Shonelle and Lindsay, an Aussie and a Yank who had met whilst Shonelle was studying abroad in Nashville. They were cool, it was their first time in Canada and they had walked in to the country. Literally! They had flown to Buffalo, caught a bus to the Rainbow Bridge that joins the USA and Canada across the Falls, hopped off, walked along the Bridge, gone through customs and then strolled on down to the hostel, which is a 5 minute walk from the waterfront.
The following day, Patrick sent Shonelle, Lindsay and I off in a cab on the 'Disorganised Organised Wine Tour'. We drove along the waterside to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a cute little township that looked more British than Canadian. After stopping to see a few sights, the Whirlpool (a tight bend in the river where the water forms a current that can trap debris for weeks at a time) and the 'World's Smallest Chapel' (see the photo below... it's pretty small) we made it to Jackson-Triggs winery. We walked in and were the only people there so a nice young man called Austin took us for a tour and tastings. The tour was cool, he let us eat grapes off the vine, we learnt a bit about why the region was so well suited to grapes (the Escarpment stops warm air escaping so the area is always a few degrees warmer than the surrounds). We got to go behind the scenes, see how they loaded grapes into the machines, learnt the differences between fermenting red (horizontal machine where the wine is agitated so as to extract the dye from the skin) and white wine (vertical machine that allows the skin to float to the top), and saw the cellar where they let the wines mature. Even the barrels are an important part of the process, the usual American and French woods were used, as long as some experimental work with Canadian and Hungarian woods. After the tour we got down to the business of tasting. Now I'm no wine connoisseur but I thoroughly enjoyed the couple of reds and whites we tried. However, my absolute favourite was the icewines. Icewine is made by leaving the grapes out so late in the season that they freeze. Pressing frozen grapes results in a much sweeter, dessert wine that you can only drink in very small amounts. The Cabernet Franc was absolutely delicious! If I was able to afford/transport a $65 bottle of the stuff I would have done it in a snap.
After trying way more wines than we were supposed to, and getting free corkscrews from Austin (it probably had something to do with the fact that we were three lovely young ladies and he was a not half bad young man) we set off to walk back to Niagara-on-the-Lake. Lindsay and Shonelle, being Canadian newbies, had yet to go to a Tim Hortons, so I ensured that this sad fact was rectified. They were impressed... mostly by the prices.
Once we made it back to the town we looked about in the many small artsy shops and galleries. It was quite a nice change sightseeing with girls. I had done it so many times with the guys at camp which was super fun, but we definitely didn't get to look in little boutiques and the like.
That afternoon we were back to the tourist trap. Shonelle and Lindsay head off to Toronto, and I decided to go and check out the Falls.
I must say, they are very impressive. There are actually 2 Falls that make up Niagara Falls, the American Falls (the smaller one) and the Horseshoe, or Canadian Falls. This is the one that most people think of when they think Niagara Falls. That one totally trumps the American one. The thunderous roar of a million bathtubs a minute flowing over the slowly eroding rock is really quite something. At night, the Falls are illuminated by these giant beams of light. I thought this was kinda tacky, but it did make for some cool photos.
My last full day in Niagara I hired a bike from Patrick and set off for a ride to Niagara Glen, a bouldering and hiking site around the bend in the river. It was nice to get out to nature, I felt quite starved of it after being in the cities for the past 2 weeks or so, especially considering I pretty much lived outside for 6 months. Niagara Glen was really nice. I hiked around through heaps of boulders and forests, all the way down to the waters edge. So many seagulls soaring over the water's surface. It was super picturesque. The hikes were nice too, so many yellow and brown leaves everywhere for me to crunch. That never gets old. EVER.
That night the Winter Festival of Lights was opening by the waterfront. A whole bunch of illuminated displays, particularly of Disney characters, had been erected by the Falls. It seemed an odd sort of thing to do, but hey, the people and their kiddies were flocking! Personally, I was a big fan of the fireworks. My we are such a strange race, to celebrate by firing massive balls of light that explode into many colours into the night sky.
My final morning I capped off with my last sight I had yet to see, The Journey Behind the Falls. A large tunnel had been dug over 40 years ago underneath the Horseshoe Falls, so you can go there and watch the water plummet in this massive white sheet in front of you. There is also a lower viewing platform where you literally get to shower in Niagara Falls. The massive rainbows and amazing sight of the water rushing was totally worth the mild saturation.
Then back to the hostel to share a cab to the bus depot, onto the 2pm bus and here I am, back in Toronto. Just watched the new Coen brothers movie and have since been chilling in a foodcourt with free internet just down the road from the Greyhound station where I stowed my pack in a locker. But there is a dude trying to pack it up so I best skedaddle. Wish me luck for my 12 hour bus ride to Kingston! I'm sure it will be a ball.
What trip is complete without a ridiculously long and uncomfortable bus ride. I suppose at the least it won't be too busy.... I hope!
I'll post the photos a bit later.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Toronto: A Lot Bigger Than Perth. Really!
Hey team
I realise I am sort of playing blog catch up, so I'm going to try and hammer out 2 posts relatively close together so I can get my posts and my locations matching up a tad better.
Alrighty so I am in the city of Niagara Falls at the current moment in time however I shall be casting my mind back to those days, just a week ago, when I departed the beautiful warm climes and friendly company of Phoenix, and hopped on a plane to return to the Great White North. As usual Air Canada came through with the TV system, 3 excellent episodes of How I Met Your Mother, my routine favourite on plane trips.
Touching down in Toronto was all good, knowing I had Vanessa's apartment and good friend Jay to get me there I was pretty stoked on how easy it was all turning out. Immigration (as always) a bit stressful. I felt kind of out of place being the only girl in the line. They always look at you with this incriminating stare. Despite what their eyes said, I managed to happily make my way into the country, making my way into my 2nd Canadian province and Fifth Stop on my trip.
The next day I arose and went for a bit of a shop, stocking up on the very bare essentials. I was pretty happy with my food budget, I probably spent less than or close to a dollar on every meal. That afternoon I decided to puzzle my way into town via the Subway. Thankfully a kind local put me on the right track just before I attempted catching a bus the wrong way. It was quite nerve wracking not knowing where I was, Squamish was the last place I had to manouver myself about and I knew it like the back of my hand. So I promptly invested in a map, and armed with the TTC tokens Jay gave me, made my way into the city. I originally was looking for a visitors centre, but shortly abandoned this idea when a lady at the library told me I would have to get back on the subway. However, a pocket sized map dispensed from some automatic machine thing ended up becoming my saviour and I never went anywhere without it stowed safely in my hoody pocket. Consulting my new found papery guide to the city, I saw I was not far from the Royal Ontario Museum. I figured any museum with 3 names must be pretty sweet so I hotfooted it down there.
Managing to sweet talk the lady to giving me a students fare even though I have no proof I am a student apart from the fact I look like a massive juvie was a good idea, as this was not a cheap attraction. Guess you gotta pay by the name. Anyhoo I was so glad I went despite the high prices. I got to see some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, thousand year old parchment that had many fascinating inscriptions. I even saw one that was an original script from the Bible! It was pretty awe inspiring to see words that had so dramatically influenced the world I live in today. Kind of makes you wish you could wield that same sort of power... unlikely. Unless you are Ron L. Hubbard. Anyway...
I headed home through the rain and dark (yes, it gets dark at like 5 here) and rustled myself up some mighty fine pasta with sauce and vegetable hunks. A couple of episodes of Friends later I was in slarpyland. Ah, the excitement of being underage and travelling solo ;)
The next day I left the apartment with a plan, to hit the southern part of downtown. Having new found freedom of mastering the bus and subway route that takes me from the apartment to the city, I strolled on down feeling like the king of Toronto. The greatest thing about trying to find the 2nd tallest free-standing building in the world is you pretty much just keep walking at it until you get there. It's not like something else is going to block it. The CN Tower was pretty darn sweet, the view from up there was amazing. The city sky scrapers were nothing on the tower. Lake Ontario stretching out as far as the eye could see. I even saw lightning at one point. But, to top it all off, I came face to face with the World's Highest Mailbox. Yep, that's right people. Life-changing experiences, that's what trips like this are all about.
The next stop on my small paper with pictures drawn on it guided tour was something I thought apt to visit, the Hockey Hall of Fame. As the NHL Team I have decided to pledge my support to is indeed from Toronto (YEAH MAPLE LEAFS!) it seemed fitting. It was really cool, so many jerseys, gloves, sticks, pucks, you name it, it was probably there. I learnt alot more about Wayne Gretzky (or, The Great One as I believe he is referred to here) and saw the current and original Stanley Cups. Managed to find 2 Australian ice hockey jerseys, I'm glad we could represent despite our fairly blatant lack of ice. Probably the coolest thing in there though was the complete set of Olympic medals from every single modern Olympics, both winter and summer, laid out in all its splendour. It was super cool to see which cities changed the medals completely and which ones reverted back to the traditional type.
My day, which had otherwise already been pretty darn good, was totally capped off by the fact I bought 2 homemade delicious muffins for $1.57. Yeah man do I live it up.
My final full day in Toronto I wanted to ensure I saw the remaining sites I had decided upon. So I was up and at it nice and early, busting out my mad public transportation skills. I must say there is something incredibly freeing about getting the system down, especially as the Toronto subway makes the entire city so easy to access. I felt like a Emperor riding his Chariot into the great civilisation. Except I'm not a dude, my chariot was not horsedrawn and smelt kind of funny.
My first stop was the centre of town, Yonge-Dundas Square. When I stepped out of the station I realised I had not yet actually been downtown as I thought I had and that in fact Toronto was exponentially bigger than Perth. At first I had wondered what all the fuss was about. Seeing that square pretty much straightened it out for me. I just wandered about it for a little bit, the many billboards, signs, lights and screens had me rather preoccupied for a decent while.
My next destination was sort of where I had just come from. It was called the Eaton Centre and is a network of over 27km of subterranean shopping malls. With the subway in there, you can actually arrive, do all the shopping you could ever want and then leave without having to surface once. I guess its pretty good when its like freezing cold out.
Third sight I decided to see that day came on the recommendation of Vanessa, my friend from work who let me stay in her apartment. To get to the Kensington Markets, I went on a nice stroll all the way along Dundas St. West. It was pretty cool, lead me through Downtown, then China Town, then the artsy district (complete with giant glass art gallery) before arriving at Kensington. The vibe there was super cool, like the Freo markets but actual permanent stores. However, they seemed just as ramshackle but lets call it character. Real sort of hippy ville, but the stuff there was awesome. I grabbed an organic fair trade mocha at Wanda's Pie in the Sky and scored Livi's Canadian present. A successful visit that was finished nicely by seeing an old car full to the brim of dirt and bursting at the seams with plants. The hood at even come off to reveal a small lawn. Definitely objectified the feel of the area.
My final stop on my marathon sightseeing trip was a decent walk north of town, that led me up past the University of Toronto. That is one large campus I must say. I arrived at my final destination after a good hour or so. Casa Loma, a huge castle home built by wealthy Canadian financier Sir Henry Pellatt. Unfortunately it eventually stripped him of his wealth, but it was pretty cool to look at all the same. The thing truly was a castle, complete with Gothic architecture, stables, a Great Hall and 2 massive towers. Certainly got some cool views from up there. It was so empty and creepy though, I have no clue how he and his wife could have lived there alone.
To sum it all up, Toronto was a super cool city, and although I'm generally not so partial to the whole city business, I did really enjoy my time there and am so glad I decided to tour Eastern Canada, which was never originally on the cards.
Here are the photographic images I managed to rustle up while I was there:
The Royal Ontario Museum
Toronto from the CN Tower
The glass floor at the CN Tower. Creepy to stand on, but pretty cool too. Apparently can hold the weight of 61 hippos... why?
Randoms enjoying the glass floor
The complete set of all the Olympic medals at the Hockey Hall of Fame
Yonge-Dundas Square
Part of the University of Toronto campus... and a streetcar!
The Great Hall at Casa Loma
Toronto skyline from the East Tower
Casa Loma
I realise I am sort of playing blog catch up, so I'm going to try and hammer out 2 posts relatively close together so I can get my posts and my locations matching up a tad better.
Alrighty so I am in the city of Niagara Falls at the current moment in time however I shall be casting my mind back to those days, just a week ago, when I departed the beautiful warm climes and friendly company of Phoenix, and hopped on a plane to return to the Great White North. As usual Air Canada came through with the TV system, 3 excellent episodes of How I Met Your Mother, my routine favourite on plane trips.
Touching down in Toronto was all good, knowing I had Vanessa's apartment and good friend Jay to get me there I was pretty stoked on how easy it was all turning out. Immigration (as always) a bit stressful. I felt kind of out of place being the only girl in the line. They always look at you with this incriminating stare. Despite what their eyes said, I managed to happily make my way into the country, making my way into my 2nd Canadian province and Fifth Stop on my trip.
The next day I arose and went for a bit of a shop, stocking up on the very bare essentials. I was pretty happy with my food budget, I probably spent less than or close to a dollar on every meal. That afternoon I decided to puzzle my way into town via the Subway. Thankfully a kind local put me on the right track just before I attempted catching a bus the wrong way. It was quite nerve wracking not knowing where I was, Squamish was the last place I had to manouver myself about and I knew it like the back of my hand. So I promptly invested in a map, and armed with the TTC tokens Jay gave me, made my way into the city. I originally was looking for a visitors centre, but shortly abandoned this idea when a lady at the library told me I would have to get back on the subway. However, a pocket sized map dispensed from some automatic machine thing ended up becoming my saviour and I never went anywhere without it stowed safely in my hoody pocket. Consulting my new found papery guide to the city, I saw I was not far from the Royal Ontario Museum. I figured any museum with 3 names must be pretty sweet so I hotfooted it down there.
Managing to sweet talk the lady to giving me a students fare even though I have no proof I am a student apart from the fact I look like a massive juvie was a good idea, as this was not a cheap attraction. Guess you gotta pay by the name. Anyhoo I was so glad I went despite the high prices. I got to see some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, thousand year old parchment that had many fascinating inscriptions. I even saw one that was an original script from the Bible! It was pretty awe inspiring to see words that had so dramatically influenced the world I live in today. Kind of makes you wish you could wield that same sort of power... unlikely. Unless you are Ron L. Hubbard. Anyway...
I headed home through the rain and dark (yes, it gets dark at like 5 here) and rustled myself up some mighty fine pasta with sauce and vegetable hunks. A couple of episodes of Friends later I was in slarpyland. Ah, the excitement of being underage and travelling solo ;)
The next day I left the apartment with a plan, to hit the southern part of downtown. Having new found freedom of mastering the bus and subway route that takes me from the apartment to the city, I strolled on down feeling like the king of Toronto. The greatest thing about trying to find the 2nd tallest free-standing building in the world is you pretty much just keep walking at it until you get there. It's not like something else is going to block it. The CN Tower was pretty darn sweet, the view from up there was amazing. The city sky scrapers were nothing on the tower. Lake Ontario stretching out as far as the eye could see. I even saw lightning at one point. But, to top it all off, I came face to face with the World's Highest Mailbox. Yep, that's right people. Life-changing experiences, that's what trips like this are all about.
The next stop on my small paper with pictures drawn on it guided tour was something I thought apt to visit, the Hockey Hall of Fame. As the NHL Team I have decided to pledge my support to is indeed from Toronto (YEAH MAPLE LEAFS!) it seemed fitting. It was really cool, so many jerseys, gloves, sticks, pucks, you name it, it was probably there. I learnt alot more about Wayne Gretzky (or, The Great One as I believe he is referred to here) and saw the current and original Stanley Cups. Managed to find 2 Australian ice hockey jerseys, I'm glad we could represent despite our fairly blatant lack of ice. Probably the coolest thing in there though was the complete set of Olympic medals from every single modern Olympics, both winter and summer, laid out in all its splendour. It was super cool to see which cities changed the medals completely and which ones reverted back to the traditional type.
My day, which had otherwise already been pretty darn good, was totally capped off by the fact I bought 2 homemade delicious muffins for $1.57. Yeah man do I live it up.
My final full day in Toronto I wanted to ensure I saw the remaining sites I had decided upon. So I was up and at it nice and early, busting out my mad public transportation skills. I must say there is something incredibly freeing about getting the system down, especially as the Toronto subway makes the entire city so easy to access. I felt like a Emperor riding his Chariot into the great civilisation. Except I'm not a dude, my chariot was not horsedrawn and smelt kind of funny.
My first stop was the centre of town, Yonge-Dundas Square. When I stepped out of the station I realised I had not yet actually been downtown as I thought I had and that in fact Toronto was exponentially bigger than Perth. At first I had wondered what all the fuss was about. Seeing that square pretty much straightened it out for me. I just wandered about it for a little bit, the many billboards, signs, lights and screens had me rather preoccupied for a decent while.
My next destination was sort of where I had just come from. It was called the Eaton Centre and is a network of over 27km of subterranean shopping malls. With the subway in there, you can actually arrive, do all the shopping you could ever want and then leave without having to surface once. I guess its pretty good when its like freezing cold out.
Third sight I decided to see that day came on the recommendation of Vanessa, my friend from work who let me stay in her apartment. To get to the Kensington Markets, I went on a nice stroll all the way along Dundas St. West. It was pretty cool, lead me through Downtown, then China Town, then the artsy district (complete with giant glass art gallery) before arriving at Kensington. The vibe there was super cool, like the Freo markets but actual permanent stores. However, they seemed just as ramshackle but lets call it character. Real sort of hippy ville, but the stuff there was awesome. I grabbed an organic fair trade mocha at Wanda's Pie in the Sky and scored Livi's Canadian present. A successful visit that was finished nicely by seeing an old car full to the brim of dirt and bursting at the seams with plants. The hood at even come off to reveal a small lawn. Definitely objectified the feel of the area.
My final stop on my marathon sightseeing trip was a decent walk north of town, that led me up past the University of Toronto. That is one large campus I must say. I arrived at my final destination after a good hour or so. Casa Loma, a huge castle home built by wealthy Canadian financier Sir Henry Pellatt. Unfortunately it eventually stripped him of his wealth, but it was pretty cool to look at all the same. The thing truly was a castle, complete with Gothic architecture, stables, a Great Hall and 2 massive towers. Certainly got some cool views from up there. It was so empty and creepy though, I have no clue how he and his wife could have lived there alone.
To sum it all up, Toronto was a super cool city, and although I'm generally not so partial to the whole city business, I did really enjoy my time there and am so glad I decided to tour Eastern Canada, which was never originally on the cards.
Here are the photographic images I managed to rustle up while I was there:
The Royal Ontario Museum
Toronto from the CN Tower
The glass floor at the CN Tower. Creepy to stand on, but pretty cool too. Apparently can hold the weight of 61 hippos... why?
Randoms enjoying the glass floor
The complete set of all the Olympic medals at the Hockey Hall of Fame
Yonge-Dundas Square
Part of the University of Toronto campus... and a streetcar!
The Great Hall at Casa Loma
Toronto skyline from the East Tower
Casa Loma
Monday, November 2, 2009
Phoenix: Pink Jeeps, Fine Dining and a Re-assessment of 'America'
Hey crew
Just thought I'd clarify, I am in Toronto at the moment, but this post is intended to be about Phoenix where I just was. I would have posted from there, but I was having way too much fun with Dave, Vicki, Summer, Kylie and Mum to spend the time it takes to write a post. However, being in Toronto by myself provides a multitude of time. Mainly because I decided I didn't really want to be too far from the apartment I'm staying at after dark.... and it gets dark at like 5pm. Anyway free Toronto Public Library Internet sounded pretty good to me.
So Phoenix was a really sweet time, the Vacala's picked me up from the airport and from then on they were the best hosts ever. It was like luxury, having my own room, not having to sleep in a sleeping bag, getting to choose what we ate... heaven! Vicki even took me to Sprouts to buy trail mix as I told her I'd been craving nuts since camp is a nut free zone. It's crazy how much Summer and Kylie have grown since I last saw them about 4 and a half years ago. They're so big! And fun to hang out with. We had some good times playing airplane and walking to Walgreens to buy Arizona Iced Tea. You know it tastes even better in Arizona... and at only $1 a giant can how can you say no?
Anyway so Mum arrived a couple of days later (after Vicki and I went and bought amazing Belgian chocolates and even more amazing Belgian chocolate drinks) and I was pretty stoked. It was so nice to be able to see someone from home, especially Mum, after quite a while. At first it was kinda weird having a Mum again, but I liked it!
We got down to business once Mum arrived, going to San Tan Flats for dinner... best burgers ever!! Then we went hiking at South Mountain amongst the most cacti I think I have ever seen in my life.
Vicki drove us to Sedona to go on a Pink Jeep ride through the red rocks. It was spectacular, despite being incredibly windy and a little chilly. For a while I had an advantage coming from BC to the much warmer climes of Arizona, but after a week or so my internal thermostat seemed to revert to Australian sensitivity. However, I thought I was going to be colder once I got to Toronto, but so far 8 degrees and one hoody seem to be doing ok. We'll see how it goes if it snows on Thursday like the forecast says.
Anyway.... that night we spent at the college town of Flagstaff. It was amazing to be able to literally see the climate changing as we drove to higher and higher elevations, the cacti quickly disappeared to leave large shrubs which progressively became tall Alpine trees. It was pretty sweet. Flagstaff was neat, had an amazing dinner at this place Vicki frequents that was really good but I can't remember the name of for some reason. It sort of snowed that night, just like the blowy stuff that is really more of a nuisance than anything else but Mum and I didn't think so. Novelty of falling snow definitely not worn off yet. I'll keep you posted as to when that will happen. Don't hold your breath.
Before we headed south to warmer climes, Vicki drove us to this really large crater that was quite literally in the middle of nowhere. And when I say nowhere, I mean nowhere. Like, it was so nowhere there weren't even trees or shrubs or anything. Just kind of lame looking grass and a few rocks. But the crater itself was cool, it was like 50 000 years old and created by a very large iron meteorite. It was so big, you couldn't see a 6ft tall painted person at the bottom with the naked eye from the viewing platform on the edge. Just large. You could fit like 6 football games in the bottom or something. I thought it was pretty cool.
Once we returned safely to Chandler, having narrowly missed a decent size dust storm, Mum, Vicki and I got down to proper business. Shopping. Mum found lots of interesting shops and ideas to no doubt pester the family with upon her return. JOKES MUM LOVE YA! I actually think they are good ideas! Saw a couple of Williams-Sonoma stores in Toronto today. Anyway I discovered a Vans store so promptly spent the most money I have in AGES... but well worth it I feel.
I really hope that's not rain I can hear.... I don't want to walk home in the rain!
Digression? A tad. Anyway so Dave and Vicki had a little partay on my second last night which was super cool, Mum and I got to meet a bunch of their mates. It was really fun, they were all super nice and asked me heaps about my trip and stuff. Loads of them had traveled a decent bit too so it was cool to share stories and that.
My last night was Halloween, and I was lucky enough to be taken trick or treating for the first time, at the ripe old age of 18, by 2 genuine Americans in a genuine American neighbourhood. Result? 173 pieces of candy. Yep. And apparently that was a low figure as the neighbourhood isn't finished yet. Last years take was in the 300s. Ridiculous? Delicious! It was actually super fun walking around seeing everyone in their costumes, all the houses were like super decorated with pumpkins, lights, fake gravestones, inflatable skeletons, music, dry ice, the whole shebang! All the parents were like chillin out the front of their houses drinking beer and handing out lollies. It has a really cool vibe actually, maybe we should try and see if it will catch on at home. Upsetting for me, I couldn't physically take the gigantic piles of candy I had managed to stockpile, but Summer and Kylie were more than happy to take the rejects off my hands. I will probably not have to buy a chocolate bar until I return home, which I suppose from a budget perspective is pretty good.
So to sum up my trip to Phoenix I must say it was really enjoyable. Staying at the Vacala's house was awesome as it was like living with a family again. Also, the places I went and the people I met helped me shrug off the unfair stereotype of 'Americans' that is constantly perpetrated by overseas media and formulate my own opinions on the country and its people. Sure, there are those who can be ignorant or racist or whatever (just a quick note, I always knew Dave and Vicki were definitely not the stereotypical American Aussie media likes to scapegoat... just in case it sounded weird), but they are certainly not even close to being as widespread as the Australian and UK media would have you believe. Also, the country itself is not an urban wasteland, but home to some beautiful scenery and untouched ecosystems, that are quite hard to come by in modern times. What I mean by all this is, I urge any non-American, next time you have a go at the Seppos, try to avoid generalizing them or their country, as it is a pretty amazing place home to some really cool people.
Anyway, enough rambling. Photographs often tell the story better than words, so here are some of the shots I took whilst in Arizona.
Mum with the rather amusing cactus we found on South Mountain
Me in Fat Man's Gap, at South Mountain
Mum and I on our South Mountain hike
Mum and Vicki at South Moutain
Summer and Kylie, looking very grown up compared to last time
My Halloween pumpkin
Vicki, Mum and I trying not to get blown over whilst on the Pink Jeep ride in Sedona
Some of Sedona's beautiful erosional formations
The Pink Jeep
Us with the Pink Jeep
Ever wondered what a 50 000 year old meteorite crater looks like? That.
Mum and I at the Crater
The flattest, emptiest place I have ever seen a giant hole in the middle of.
Mum and Dave at the Morning Glory cafe having breakfast
Just thought I'd clarify, I am in Toronto at the moment, but this post is intended to be about Phoenix where I just was. I would have posted from there, but I was having way too much fun with Dave, Vicki, Summer, Kylie and Mum to spend the time it takes to write a post. However, being in Toronto by myself provides a multitude of time. Mainly because I decided I didn't really want to be too far from the apartment I'm staying at after dark.... and it gets dark at like 5pm. Anyway free Toronto Public Library Internet sounded pretty good to me.
So Phoenix was a really sweet time, the Vacala's picked me up from the airport and from then on they were the best hosts ever. It was like luxury, having my own room, not having to sleep in a sleeping bag, getting to choose what we ate... heaven! Vicki even took me to Sprouts to buy trail mix as I told her I'd been craving nuts since camp is a nut free zone. It's crazy how much Summer and Kylie have grown since I last saw them about 4 and a half years ago. They're so big! And fun to hang out with. We had some good times playing airplane and walking to Walgreens to buy Arizona Iced Tea. You know it tastes even better in Arizona... and at only $1 a giant can how can you say no?
Anyway so Mum arrived a couple of days later (after Vicki and I went and bought amazing Belgian chocolates and even more amazing Belgian chocolate drinks) and I was pretty stoked. It was so nice to be able to see someone from home, especially Mum, after quite a while. At first it was kinda weird having a Mum again, but I liked it!
We got down to business once Mum arrived, going to San Tan Flats for dinner... best burgers ever!! Then we went hiking at South Mountain amongst the most cacti I think I have ever seen in my life.
Vicki drove us to Sedona to go on a Pink Jeep ride through the red rocks. It was spectacular, despite being incredibly windy and a little chilly. For a while I had an advantage coming from BC to the much warmer climes of Arizona, but after a week or so my internal thermostat seemed to revert to Australian sensitivity. However, I thought I was going to be colder once I got to Toronto, but so far 8 degrees and one hoody seem to be doing ok. We'll see how it goes if it snows on Thursday like the forecast says.
Anyway.... that night we spent at the college town of Flagstaff. It was amazing to be able to literally see the climate changing as we drove to higher and higher elevations, the cacti quickly disappeared to leave large shrubs which progressively became tall Alpine trees. It was pretty sweet. Flagstaff was neat, had an amazing dinner at this place Vicki frequents that was really good but I can't remember the name of for some reason. It sort of snowed that night, just like the blowy stuff that is really more of a nuisance than anything else but Mum and I didn't think so. Novelty of falling snow definitely not worn off yet. I'll keep you posted as to when that will happen. Don't hold your breath.
Before we headed south to warmer climes, Vicki drove us to this really large crater that was quite literally in the middle of nowhere. And when I say nowhere, I mean nowhere. Like, it was so nowhere there weren't even trees or shrubs or anything. Just kind of lame looking grass and a few rocks. But the crater itself was cool, it was like 50 000 years old and created by a very large iron meteorite. It was so big, you couldn't see a 6ft tall painted person at the bottom with the naked eye from the viewing platform on the edge. Just large. You could fit like 6 football games in the bottom or something. I thought it was pretty cool.
Once we returned safely to Chandler, having narrowly missed a decent size dust storm, Mum, Vicki and I got down to proper business. Shopping. Mum found lots of interesting shops and ideas to no doubt pester the family with upon her return. JOKES MUM LOVE YA! I actually think they are good ideas! Saw a couple of Williams-Sonoma stores in Toronto today. Anyway I discovered a Vans store so promptly spent the most money I have in AGES... but well worth it I feel.
I really hope that's not rain I can hear.... I don't want to walk home in the rain!
Digression? A tad. Anyway so Dave and Vicki had a little partay on my second last night which was super cool, Mum and I got to meet a bunch of their mates. It was really fun, they were all super nice and asked me heaps about my trip and stuff. Loads of them had traveled a decent bit too so it was cool to share stories and that.
My last night was Halloween, and I was lucky enough to be taken trick or treating for the first time, at the ripe old age of 18, by 2 genuine Americans in a genuine American neighbourhood. Result? 173 pieces of candy. Yep. And apparently that was a low figure as the neighbourhood isn't finished yet. Last years take was in the 300s. Ridiculous? Delicious! It was actually super fun walking around seeing everyone in their costumes, all the houses were like super decorated with pumpkins, lights, fake gravestones, inflatable skeletons, music, dry ice, the whole shebang! All the parents were like chillin out the front of their houses drinking beer and handing out lollies. It has a really cool vibe actually, maybe we should try and see if it will catch on at home. Upsetting for me, I couldn't physically take the gigantic piles of candy I had managed to stockpile, but Summer and Kylie were more than happy to take the rejects off my hands. I will probably not have to buy a chocolate bar until I return home, which I suppose from a budget perspective is pretty good.
So to sum up my trip to Phoenix I must say it was really enjoyable. Staying at the Vacala's house was awesome as it was like living with a family again. Also, the places I went and the people I met helped me shrug off the unfair stereotype of 'Americans' that is constantly perpetrated by overseas media and formulate my own opinions on the country and its people. Sure, there are those who can be ignorant or racist or whatever (just a quick note, I always knew Dave and Vicki were definitely not the stereotypical American Aussie media likes to scapegoat... just in case it sounded weird), but they are certainly not even close to being as widespread as the Australian and UK media would have you believe. Also, the country itself is not an urban wasteland, but home to some beautiful scenery and untouched ecosystems, that are quite hard to come by in modern times. What I mean by all this is, I urge any non-American, next time you have a go at the Seppos, try to avoid generalizing them or their country, as it is a pretty amazing place home to some really cool people.
Anyway, enough rambling. Photographs often tell the story better than words, so here are some of the shots I took whilst in Arizona.
Mum with the rather amusing cactus we found on South Mountain
Me in Fat Man's Gap, at South Mountain
Mum and I on our South Mountain hike
Mum and Vicki at South Moutain
Summer and Kylie, looking very grown up compared to last time
My Halloween pumpkin
Vicki, Mum and I trying not to get blown over whilst on the Pink Jeep ride in Sedona
Some of Sedona's beautiful erosional formations
The Pink Jeep
Us with the Pink Jeep
Ever wondered what a 50 000 year old meteorite crater looks like? That.
Mum and I at the Crater
The flattest, emptiest place I have ever seen a giant hole in the middle of.
Mum and Dave at the Morning Glory cafe having breakfast
Monday, October 5, 2009
Welcome to Fall, the Season Where Nothing Ever Dries
Hey team
Yes so first off apologies for not writing in like... a month... whoops.
Anyway so Fall is definitely well under way, in fact, we only have 2 groups left until the whole thing is done and dusted. I can't believe its coming on 6 months working at camp. I've been here for so long I can't fully imagine how its going to be not being here.
So quite a few things have happened since I last wrote at the very beginning of Fall. The vast majority of these things is work. Fall has been quite literally jam packed full of kids! We saw the same number of kids in the first 2 weeks of Fall that we saw in the entire Summer.
Oh and just quickly I'll point out that I have not forgotten that it is indeed called 'Autumn'. However, as I am in a country where things do quite literally fall from the sky (mainly leaves and snow) I feel that particular moniker a rather appropriate one.
On that note of things falling from the sky, the landscape really has taken on some amazingly dramatic changes in the last few weeks. Trees are now nearly bare, their leaves in massive piles of brown and yellow. I raked my first pile of leaves and then jumped into it. Actually I pretended to die into it... Emily shot me... so to speak.
And speaking of shooting, yesterday we had the day off and so Tyler, Crumbles and I put it to good use. We found some foam dart guns under the house, loaded up and spent a good 6 hours running around in the forest pretending to be members of a rebel guerilla force fighting against a coup that had overthrown Parky (he was out of town for the weekend). The militia were the kids onsite and the other staff, we couldn't let them see us. We barely even fired any darts, it was all in our heads, creeping through the bush, seeing parts of camp for the first time, building a giant fort from trees and moss. It was such an awesome day, we stormed the kitchen (it was actually a terrorist base) and stormed Eddie as he cleaned the Lodge bathroom (he was actually using chemicals to make a bomb to take out the fort). It was a truly brilliant day.
So just before Fall began, we had a few days off, which I mentioned in the last post. We were undecided as of what to do so we headed down to Vancouver for a few days to see what would happen. Quite a few interesting things did happen, some of which involved going to airports... being kicked out of them for asking about hotel rooms in silly accents... walking... lots and lots of walking... some poor map reading... more walking... some sidewalk napping and finally a well earned coffee and muffin the following morning. Eddie took us to the cultural hub of Granville Island, before I met up with Alex. It was awesome to see her again after so long, we were pretty stoked. It's funny, Crumbles reckoned we talked exactly the same. Perhaps Perth has an accent? I ended up taking a ferry with Al over to the Island to meet up with George. It was awesome to all meet up, it was like we had never left, but at the same time we were all completely different people with all new friends, stories and experiences. It was so weird to all hang out, it felt like we were right back at the beginning of our trip, even though we had all been living in Canada for 5 months.
Other fun things have happened this Fall, such as our whole staff trip to a Vancouver Giants vs. Emmerton Silvertips ice hockey game. It was a Western Hockey League match (like the WAFL) so all the players were like 16-19 years old and busting their butts to make the big league. Good quality hockey, aggression-wise and lots of fights. The best type of hockey, or so I'm told. I had to sit next to Emily so she could explain to me what was going on.
Fall is now rapidly coming to a close, after leaving camp I'm going to head to Arizona to visit Spud and Vicki, and maybe even Mum. Then 2 weeks maybe touring some of Eastern Canada (Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa) before heading to New York then on to London. If it all works out should be a real party.
Anyway I better head off, I'm missing the mad action of Pauly Shore and 'In the Army Now'. Great film. Hopefully will post again after my very first Thanksgiving (next weekend) but no guarantees there will be one before I leave camp, so this may be the last Summit blog!!! Hope its satisfactory.
Here are a few pictures from the Fall:
George and I looking awesome? on the streets of Victoria
Alex and I dancing down the streets of Victoria.... because we can?
The Perth Reunion on Vancouver Island at Alex's Aunt Roberta and Uncle Fred's house
The Vancouver Giants ice hockey game we went to as a staff. The guy on the right is a Storm Trooper from a bachelor party that was sitting next to us.
Crumbles, Luke and Emily getting angry at the game
Nothing like a good old Canadian hockey fight
Bouldering at the base of the Chief
Pancakes and an omelette for dinner? Gotta love IHOP.
Great Wall of China? Bay of Fundy? The Pyramids? Nah, IHOP in Vancouver, definitely the greatest place the Summit flag has ever been.
Yes so first off apologies for not writing in like... a month... whoops.
Anyway so Fall is definitely well under way, in fact, we only have 2 groups left until the whole thing is done and dusted. I can't believe its coming on 6 months working at camp. I've been here for so long I can't fully imagine how its going to be not being here.
So quite a few things have happened since I last wrote at the very beginning of Fall. The vast majority of these things is work. Fall has been quite literally jam packed full of kids! We saw the same number of kids in the first 2 weeks of Fall that we saw in the entire Summer.
Oh and just quickly I'll point out that I have not forgotten that it is indeed called 'Autumn'. However, as I am in a country where things do quite literally fall from the sky (mainly leaves and snow) I feel that particular moniker a rather appropriate one.
On that note of things falling from the sky, the landscape really has taken on some amazingly dramatic changes in the last few weeks. Trees are now nearly bare, their leaves in massive piles of brown and yellow. I raked my first pile of leaves and then jumped into it. Actually I pretended to die into it... Emily shot me... so to speak.
And speaking of shooting, yesterday we had the day off and so Tyler, Crumbles and I put it to good use. We found some foam dart guns under the house, loaded up and spent a good 6 hours running around in the forest pretending to be members of a rebel guerilla force fighting against a coup that had overthrown Parky (he was out of town for the weekend). The militia were the kids onsite and the other staff, we couldn't let them see us. We barely even fired any darts, it was all in our heads, creeping through the bush, seeing parts of camp for the first time, building a giant fort from trees and moss. It was such an awesome day, we stormed the kitchen (it was actually a terrorist base) and stormed Eddie as he cleaned the Lodge bathroom (he was actually using chemicals to make a bomb to take out the fort). It was a truly brilliant day.
So just before Fall began, we had a few days off, which I mentioned in the last post. We were undecided as of what to do so we headed down to Vancouver for a few days to see what would happen. Quite a few interesting things did happen, some of which involved going to airports... being kicked out of them for asking about hotel rooms in silly accents... walking... lots and lots of walking... some poor map reading... more walking... some sidewalk napping and finally a well earned coffee and muffin the following morning. Eddie took us to the cultural hub of Granville Island, before I met up with Alex. It was awesome to see her again after so long, we were pretty stoked. It's funny, Crumbles reckoned we talked exactly the same. Perhaps Perth has an accent? I ended up taking a ferry with Al over to the Island to meet up with George. It was awesome to all meet up, it was like we had never left, but at the same time we were all completely different people with all new friends, stories and experiences. It was so weird to all hang out, it felt like we were right back at the beginning of our trip, even though we had all been living in Canada for 5 months.
Other fun things have happened this Fall, such as our whole staff trip to a Vancouver Giants vs. Emmerton Silvertips ice hockey game. It was a Western Hockey League match (like the WAFL) so all the players were like 16-19 years old and busting their butts to make the big league. Good quality hockey, aggression-wise and lots of fights. The best type of hockey, or so I'm told. I had to sit next to Emily so she could explain to me what was going on.
Fall is now rapidly coming to a close, after leaving camp I'm going to head to Arizona to visit Spud and Vicki, and maybe even Mum. Then 2 weeks maybe touring some of Eastern Canada (Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa) before heading to New York then on to London. If it all works out should be a real party.
Anyway I better head off, I'm missing the mad action of Pauly Shore and 'In the Army Now'. Great film. Hopefully will post again after my very first Thanksgiving (next weekend) but no guarantees there will be one before I leave camp, so this may be the last Summit blog!!! Hope its satisfactory.
Here are a few pictures from the Fall:
George and I looking awesome? on the streets of Victoria
Alex and I dancing down the streets of Victoria.... because we can?
The Perth Reunion on Vancouver Island at Alex's Aunt Roberta and Uncle Fred's house
The Vancouver Giants ice hockey game we went to as a staff. The guy on the right is a Storm Trooper from a bachelor party that was sitting next to us.
Crumbles, Luke and Emily getting angry at the game
Nothing like a good old Canadian hockey fight
Bouldering at the base of the Chief
Pancakes and an omelette for dinner? Gotta love IHOP.
Great Wall of China? Bay of Fundy? The Pyramids? Nah, IHOP in Vancouver, definitely the greatest place the Summit flag has ever been.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Tofino? Maybe. Alberta? Perhaps but no. Random small town we have no idea exists yet? Most likely.
Hey everyone.
Am now back at camp safe and sound after our super awesome Seattle trip. Since then a fair bit has happened, we hiked a mountain, then a ridge, had staff training for Fall and our first group of the season. Right now we are struggling to decide what to do for our 5 days off before we get into the hectic Fall season.
Hiking Garibaldi was a super awesome experience. The hike 9km up pretty steep switchbacks was not the greatest thing I've ever done, however it is still pretty fun. We didn't leave til quite late in the day, so the sunset stained the surrounding rock faces pink and purple, which was pretty nice. Getting into camp in the dark at 9:30pm not so nice but do-able. We pitched our tents and feasted on Hamburger Helper... it did take a while for the Canadians to explain to us what on earth 'Hamburger' was... beef mince. Some good times were spent sitting in the food shelter.
The next morning we got going kind of slow, and didn't start the day hike up to Panorama Ridge til 12:30pm. It was a 14km round trip where we climbed a decent amount. The last k or 2 was super sketchy, steep slopes of loose rock. The views when we got to the top made it all worthwhile. Garibaldi Lake, in all its ridiculous-blue glory, splayed out beneath us. To our left was a huge old snowfield leftover from the winter, to our right we could see our campground, a miniscule little settlement dwarfed by the gigantuan body of water. We had carried the Summit flag all the way up there so everyone took turns getting photos.
Hiking down was a whole lot of fun, waayyy easier. Tyler ran down in like 40mins, he's nuts.
Since Garibaldi we have met the three new staff, Duncan, Emily and Krista, and had Fall Staff Training which was a grand total of one day... nearly everyone has worked with Summit before, as well as the Squamish Elementary coming for a day of team building activities. It was pretty chill, and now we have 5 days off. We were going to go to Tofino, but its thunderstorming all week. We were then going to go to Alberta, but couldn't afford it. So now we are going to head down to Van and see what happens from there. We were thinking of heading to the Interior, maybe Nelson or something. But right now we are eating cereal and watching Die Hard 4, so I think I better go get on that. I'll try and post again once Fall is underway.
Here are some shots from Seattle and Garibaldi:
Pike Place Markets, Seattle
Looking 'American' at the Elliot Bay Cafe, near Pioneer Square in Seattle
Seattle Storm vs. Indiana Fever. The Storm won.
At the top of Panorama Ridge
The Garibaldi Trip Crew, from left to right: Crumbles, Tyler, Luke, Eddie, Alex, Megan, and in front, Kate and I.
Am now back at camp safe and sound after our super awesome Seattle trip. Since then a fair bit has happened, we hiked a mountain, then a ridge, had staff training for Fall and our first group of the season. Right now we are struggling to decide what to do for our 5 days off before we get into the hectic Fall season.
Hiking Garibaldi was a super awesome experience. The hike 9km up pretty steep switchbacks was not the greatest thing I've ever done, however it is still pretty fun. We didn't leave til quite late in the day, so the sunset stained the surrounding rock faces pink and purple, which was pretty nice. Getting into camp in the dark at 9:30pm not so nice but do-able. We pitched our tents and feasted on Hamburger Helper... it did take a while for the Canadians to explain to us what on earth 'Hamburger' was... beef mince. Some good times were spent sitting in the food shelter.
The next morning we got going kind of slow, and didn't start the day hike up to Panorama Ridge til 12:30pm. It was a 14km round trip where we climbed a decent amount. The last k or 2 was super sketchy, steep slopes of loose rock. The views when we got to the top made it all worthwhile. Garibaldi Lake, in all its ridiculous-blue glory, splayed out beneath us. To our left was a huge old snowfield leftover from the winter, to our right we could see our campground, a miniscule little settlement dwarfed by the gigantuan body of water. We had carried the Summit flag all the way up there so everyone took turns getting photos.
Hiking down was a whole lot of fun, waayyy easier. Tyler ran down in like 40mins, he's nuts.
Since Garibaldi we have met the three new staff, Duncan, Emily and Krista, and had Fall Staff Training which was a grand total of one day... nearly everyone has worked with Summit before, as well as the Squamish Elementary coming for a day of team building activities. It was pretty chill, and now we have 5 days off. We were going to go to Tofino, but its thunderstorming all week. We were then going to go to Alberta, but couldn't afford it. So now we are going to head down to Van and see what happens from there. We were thinking of heading to the Interior, maybe Nelson or something. But right now we are eating cereal and watching Die Hard 4, so I think I better go get on that. I'll try and post again once Fall is underway.
Here are some shots from Seattle and Garibaldi:
Pike Place Markets, Seattle
Looking 'American' at the Elliot Bay Cafe, near Pioneer Square in Seattle
Seattle Storm vs. Indiana Fever. The Storm won.
At the top of Panorama Ridge
The Garibaldi Trip Crew, from left to right: Crumbles, Tyler, Luke, Eddie, Alex, Megan, and in front, Kate and I.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Minioning
Hey team
Apologies for the last post being so short. I will try to sort of make up for it with this one, I have arisen early so as to use the phone and found myself with a bit of time to jot down a few things.
So the 2 week session was an absolute ball. I had a wicked cabin of 8 9-12 yo girls who were pretty much self sufficient by the end of the first week so my LIT Tricia and I just lived the good life, unlike some of our colleagues who had less than agreeable cabins shall we say. I loved the longer session, I felt I got to know the kids alot better, and it was fun to have things like trip where we could all just hang out and you could just chat to them. Cheakamus Lake was a beautiful place to stay for a few days, nothing quite like a glacier fed lake for a bit of refreshment.
After the 2 weeker we had 2.5 days off. This was much anticipated as we had been working pretty much 3 weeks straight (we had 3 hours off one evening... we took off to Brohm Lake and lay on the rocks after a quick Walmart run). The majority of the staff headed up to Whistler to hang out, shop and have a bit of fun. We had a pretty sweet time, playing soccer in the main square at night, staying in hotel rooms and eating ridiculously priced supermarket food. I'm reasonably sure all I ate that weekend was peanut butter, oreos, honey nut cheerios and cinnamon bagels.... healthy? no. But delicious.
Now we are back at work, everyone returning from Whistler more tired than when they left camp, but I suppose that just shows we had a good time. The scary thing is there's only 2 weeks left of summer camp and then half the staff pack up and leave! 2 one week sessions remain. This session running now is probably one of the smaller ones camper wise, so Tyler, Crumbles and I have been swapped out from being counsellors and are on site work, or 'Special Ops' as Parky likes to call it. We're giving Trevor a hand with some of the maintenance around the site/being the kitchen hand. It's super fun, we get evenings and rest hour off and we get to listen to music all day and pretend to be council workers. Yesterday we painted some protective stuff on the fresh plywood around the base of all the wooden buildings. Being the smallest minion, I did all the parts underneath the porches, so I spent most of the day trying to keep spiders out of my hair. Good fun though. Today I think we are staining everything we sealed yesterday.... and after that who knows what wonderful jobs are in store for us. I also went on the bus run with Aaron yesterday to pick up the fresh campers from Vancouver. Always a good time, Tim Hortons from brekky and then listening to tunes through the bus speakers. Ah it's a hard life I lead!
In the upcoming break I am planning on hiking Garibaldi to see the mountain lake that is up there for a few days and then maybe a trip to Seattle with the other gappers/anyone who is still hanging around. Will try not to spend too much moolah... will hopefully get one more paycheck before the break starts.
Just wanted to shout out to Grantie and Grandpa, who I understand are in the UK at the moment so might not be able to read this, and say thankyou for the letter and the newspaper articles. I love getting mail so much, it totally makes my day when Shannie or Parky hands me a letter. Kicks email any day. But yeah, thanks again guys!
Hope everything is well in the big smoke of Perth... it has been hottttt here, like 37 degrees plus. It is cooling down this week to high 20s, low 30s which is like ultimately awesome perfect-ness. Summer should finish off amazingly.
Am semi freakin out not being able to go surfing/even buy an Aussie surf mag. American surf mags suck even more when it comes to equality between men and women in surfing. I just get frustrated every time I read it so I have given up. If I ever see an ASL I am hitting that up in a big way. Planning a trip to Tofino in the Fall when its meant to be super chill and less people and all that so should satisfy the craving which by then will be a fever pitch.
Here are a couple of shots from the 2 week session:
This is the view from the campsite we stayed in at Cheakamus Lake. That's my and Tricia's tent on the left and yes those are sweet glacier topped mountains on the right.
Here is Serratus, the tent cabin which is now pretty much mine as I will have lived in it for a month by the end of this week. Been there 2nd session for one week as an instructor, had it when I was a counsellor for the 2 week and now as a minion I have had it for another week.
A shot I took one evening when there were some sweet thunderclouds and the sky changed colour from golden to purple to red... And just to cap it off there was a double rainbow!
Tacky Tourist Dinner (one of our many themed dinners where everyone has to dress up), it was so hot in the lodge that butter melted off my face. Gross.
I think I will go listen to the humourous bingo game that is currently occuring in the Lodge and make a cup of tea... finally got myself some English Breakfast. Take care y'all have a good time til next we meet/vicariously meet through the world wide web..........
Apologies for the last post being so short. I will try to sort of make up for it with this one, I have arisen early so as to use the phone and found myself with a bit of time to jot down a few things.
So the 2 week session was an absolute ball. I had a wicked cabin of 8 9-12 yo girls who were pretty much self sufficient by the end of the first week so my LIT Tricia and I just lived the good life, unlike some of our colleagues who had less than agreeable cabins shall we say. I loved the longer session, I felt I got to know the kids alot better, and it was fun to have things like trip where we could all just hang out and you could just chat to them. Cheakamus Lake was a beautiful place to stay for a few days, nothing quite like a glacier fed lake for a bit of refreshment.
After the 2 weeker we had 2.5 days off. This was much anticipated as we had been working pretty much 3 weeks straight (we had 3 hours off one evening... we took off to Brohm Lake and lay on the rocks after a quick Walmart run). The majority of the staff headed up to Whistler to hang out, shop and have a bit of fun. We had a pretty sweet time, playing soccer in the main square at night, staying in hotel rooms and eating ridiculously priced supermarket food. I'm reasonably sure all I ate that weekend was peanut butter, oreos, honey nut cheerios and cinnamon bagels.... healthy? no. But delicious.
Now we are back at work, everyone returning from Whistler more tired than when they left camp, but I suppose that just shows we had a good time. The scary thing is there's only 2 weeks left of summer camp and then half the staff pack up and leave! 2 one week sessions remain. This session running now is probably one of the smaller ones camper wise, so Tyler, Crumbles and I have been swapped out from being counsellors and are on site work, or 'Special Ops' as Parky likes to call it. We're giving Trevor a hand with some of the maintenance around the site/being the kitchen hand. It's super fun, we get evenings and rest hour off and we get to listen to music all day and pretend to be council workers. Yesterday we painted some protective stuff on the fresh plywood around the base of all the wooden buildings. Being the smallest minion, I did all the parts underneath the porches, so I spent most of the day trying to keep spiders out of my hair. Good fun though. Today I think we are staining everything we sealed yesterday.... and after that who knows what wonderful jobs are in store for us. I also went on the bus run with Aaron yesterday to pick up the fresh campers from Vancouver. Always a good time, Tim Hortons from brekky and then listening to tunes through the bus speakers. Ah it's a hard life I lead!
In the upcoming break I am planning on hiking Garibaldi to see the mountain lake that is up there for a few days and then maybe a trip to Seattle with the other gappers/anyone who is still hanging around. Will try not to spend too much moolah... will hopefully get one more paycheck before the break starts.
Just wanted to shout out to Grantie and Grandpa, who I understand are in the UK at the moment so might not be able to read this, and say thankyou for the letter and the newspaper articles. I love getting mail so much, it totally makes my day when Shannie or Parky hands me a letter. Kicks email any day. But yeah, thanks again guys!
Hope everything is well in the big smoke of Perth... it has been hottttt here, like 37 degrees plus. It is cooling down this week to high 20s, low 30s which is like ultimately awesome perfect-ness. Summer should finish off amazingly.
Am semi freakin out not being able to go surfing/even buy an Aussie surf mag. American surf mags suck even more when it comes to equality between men and women in surfing. I just get frustrated every time I read it so I have given up. If I ever see an ASL I am hitting that up in a big way. Planning a trip to Tofino in the Fall when its meant to be super chill and less people and all that so should satisfy the craving which by then will be a fever pitch.
Here are a couple of shots from the 2 week session:
This is the view from the campsite we stayed in at Cheakamus Lake. That's my and Tricia's tent on the left and yes those are sweet glacier topped mountains on the right.
Here is Serratus, the tent cabin which is now pretty much mine as I will have lived in it for a month by the end of this week. Been there 2nd session for one week as an instructor, had it when I was a counsellor for the 2 week and now as a minion I have had it for another week.
A shot I took one evening when there were some sweet thunderclouds and the sky changed colour from golden to purple to red... And just to cap it off there was a double rainbow!
Tacky Tourist Dinner (one of our many themed dinners where everyone has to dress up), it was so hot in the lodge that butter melted off my face. Gross.
I think I will go listen to the humourous bingo game that is currently occuring in the Lodge and make a cup of tea... finally got myself some English Breakfast. Take care y'all have a good time til next we meet/vicariously meet through the world wide web..........
Friday, July 31, 2009
Trip, Olympics, Grilled Cheese and Vegemite Necklaces
Just a quickie as I haven't posted in a month and felt awful about it. So today is the last morning of the two week session. I am farewelling campers I have had for the longest time period all summer, so it is a pretty sad day. The reason I have managed to snag computer time was because I was up at 6am getting 4 of my campers packed to catch an 11am flight to Monterey. There is quite a strong Mexican contingent who fly up for the 2 weeks. They are really awesome kids and I was pretty stoked when they started teaching me some Spanish. So far I can only name about 6 colours, but hey that is more spanish than I knew before thats for sure.
Two of our Mexican LITs also left as they had to head back to school, so it was sad to see them go as they have been with us since the beginning of Pre-Camp at the end of June.
Oh the bell just rung so I better skedaddle and wake up the remainder of my cabin so they can get to brekky! Adios.
Here are a couple of pictures. They were taken on the camp camera and uploaded to the Camp Summit website. They upload a few pictures from the session every day so feel free to check it out. The link is here.
Serratus (My cabin) all dressed up for Halloween dinner
About to head out on trip with Aaron to Cheakamus Lake for 3 days
Being chased as the sheep in a camp wide game called Zoobreak
All the Zoobreak animals
Two of our Mexican LITs also left as they had to head back to school, so it was sad to see them go as they have been with us since the beginning of Pre-Camp at the end of June.
Oh the bell just rung so I better skedaddle and wake up the remainder of my cabin so they can get to brekky! Adios.
Here are a couple of pictures. They were taken on the camp camera and uploaded to the Camp Summit website. They upload a few pictures from the session every day so feel free to check it out. The link is here.
Serratus (My cabin) all dressed up for Halloween dinner
About to head out on trip with Aaron to Cheakamus Lake for 3 days
Being chased as the sheep in a camp wide game called Zoobreak
All the Zoobreak animals
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Opening Session
Hey crew. Sorry it has been a while between postings but I have been a rather busy little gapper so let me fill you in on all the goings on of late.
Firstly would like to thank Mum for sending me that awesome package. Parky and Megan and everyone were like Issy you have a package! And its like the biggest one I swear I've ever seen. Trust me, the caramello koalas were well shared
Just got off my first session of the summer! I had 7 7-9yo girls for 5 days of non-stop activities, getting up, going to sleep, eating, showering, crying, laughing, running, screaming and everything else that happens when you are looking after kids 24/7. Not gonna lie I was a bit nervous before they first showed up on Saturday, never having counselled before and everything, but the whole thing went off very smoothly. My LIT (Leader-In-Training/my cabin second), Krystyn, is one of Summit's first lot of 'stayer' campers - she has been a camper for 5 years and is now working her way up to being staff - so she knew exactly how stuff worked. But yeah, counselling is so much fun but rather exhausting. I now have 2 days off before being plunged into a super marathon of work, I think it is about 5 weeks or so straight with only a couple of stray nights off in between sessions. It's going to be so much fun.
Last night a bunch of us headed down to the beach and let off some steam. We set some giant logs on fire which burnt for about 6 hours. It was pretty schweet. The summer stuff are a really cool bunch of people, we have another Aussie who has joined the ranks - Luke, as well as a Mexican - Alex Belden, a couple from Van - Stu, Kendra, Matt and Kate, and some from the States (Hawaii, Utah and Washington DC) - Ely, Garrett and Anna. All the LITs are a cool bunch too, Priscilla and Lucy are from Spain, Trisha lives in Hong Kong I'm pretty sure, Julian is from Hong Kong and Connor and Krystyn are locals. I think that covers everybody, will rectify if I realise I'm a terrible person and have forgotten someone or got a detail wrong.
Next session is a 7 day but this time I am an instructor. So that means I don't have my own cabin to look after but I run the programs that kids rotate through, such as ropes, archery, bouldering and the like. Less intense as no 24/7 responsibility but also not quite as fun as don't get to know the kids as well and can get boring if you instruct the same thing day in day out. I am looking forward to it though. It will be a good time.
So today the plan is for a girls road trip to Whistler, just to grab some lunch and mess around. We have some serious fun pumping music and dancing in the car so that will probably come into play quite alot. I think the guys are heading to Whistler too so we will probably all end up meeting up. I unfortunately don't have more than about $6 as I have been unable to cash my last pay cheque but we shall see how that goes.
Anyway lads and ladettes I am a little peckish and really desperately need a shower so I will catch you all on the flipside. I hope life is treating you all well and that the bad weather clears up! Miss and love you all!
Firstly would like to thank Mum for sending me that awesome package. Parky and Megan and everyone were like Issy you have a package! And its like the biggest one I swear I've ever seen. Trust me, the caramello koalas were well shared
Just got off my first session of the summer! I had 7 7-9yo girls for 5 days of non-stop activities, getting up, going to sleep, eating, showering, crying, laughing, running, screaming and everything else that happens when you are looking after kids 24/7. Not gonna lie I was a bit nervous before they first showed up on Saturday, never having counselled before and everything, but the whole thing went off very smoothly. My LIT (Leader-In-Training/my cabin second), Krystyn, is one of Summit's first lot of 'stayer' campers - she has been a camper for 5 years and is now working her way up to being staff - so she knew exactly how stuff worked. But yeah, counselling is so much fun but rather exhausting. I now have 2 days off before being plunged into a super marathon of work, I think it is about 5 weeks or so straight with only a couple of stray nights off in between sessions. It's going to be so much fun.
Last night a bunch of us headed down to the beach and let off some steam. We set some giant logs on fire which burnt for about 6 hours. It was pretty schweet. The summer stuff are a really cool bunch of people, we have another Aussie who has joined the ranks - Luke, as well as a Mexican - Alex Belden, a couple from Van - Stu, Kendra, Matt and Kate, and some from the States (Hawaii, Utah and Washington DC) - Ely, Garrett and Anna. All the LITs are a cool bunch too, Priscilla and Lucy are from Spain, Trisha lives in Hong Kong I'm pretty sure, Julian is from Hong Kong and Connor and Krystyn are locals. I think that covers everybody, will rectify if I realise I'm a terrible person and have forgotten someone or got a detail wrong.
Next session is a 7 day but this time I am an instructor. So that means I don't have my own cabin to look after but I run the programs that kids rotate through, such as ropes, archery, bouldering and the like. Less intense as no 24/7 responsibility but also not quite as fun as don't get to know the kids as well and can get boring if you instruct the same thing day in day out. I am looking forward to it though. It will be a good time.
So today the plan is for a girls road trip to Whistler, just to grab some lunch and mess around. We have some serious fun pumping music and dancing in the car so that will probably come into play quite alot. I think the guys are heading to Whistler too so we will probably all end up meeting up. I unfortunately don't have more than about $6 as I have been unable to cash my last pay cheque but we shall see how that goes.
Anyway lads and ladettes I am a little peckish and really desperately need a shower so I will catch you all on the flipside. I hope life is treating you all well and that the bad weather clears up! Miss and love you all!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Graduation, Burnt Rope and the Realisation That I Have Too Many Jumpers
Hey team! I have managed to score a few hours before everyone else gets up so I can be as computery and anti-social as I like... this may sound like a bad thing but it is actually good as it means I can write the blog and email people and the like. Hooray!
First off I would like to say thank you to Grantie and Grandpa for sending me that lovely letter. I got it a few days ago and it was so nice to have that contact from home. Snail mail beats email every time! I was so stoked to get it, it is now nestled carefully amongst my books in my cabin. Thanks for the postcards too, the Canadians thought the surfing kangaroo was hilarious.
Since I last posted we have really only had one school group - the British American School, or BAS as we like to call them. They were about 30 or so kids from Mexico and their program is a little different to other schools. As they come a reasonable distance, their program is about 10 days in length and the spend a few of those days doing touristy things like sightseeing in Van, shopping in Whistler, going whitewater rafting and visiting the PNE and Metrotown. Because of this, not everyone is needed to work for the whole time, so I was off for quite alot of that week. In fact all of that week, except Tuesday when I worked with a day group. However I did manage to make myself useful, I learnt how to lube a bike chain (to go along with my mad tyre changing skillz) and I played all the camp wide games because to be honest, being chased at a full sprint through the woods by 5 15yo Mexican boys screaming in Spanish wearing a sheep costume is not my idea of work. That is just plain fun.
To make more good use of our time off Trevor invited Crumbles, Tyler, Alex and I down to his parent's house in North Van to chill out for a couple of days with some modern conveniences that I must admit I took for granted at home but have come to realise how nice they are to have. Things such as playing guitar hero on a widescreen tv, or swimming in a heated pool, or even just not having to kill the mosquito trying to drink my blood every 20 seconds. Ah the joys of civilization. We also got to do some laundry... for free!!! A big thankyou to Trev's Mum and Dad for having us stay with them for a couple of days.
Whilst at camp we had devised a list of things we needed to do while we were in the big smoke, such as going to a thrift store to get an outfit for the staff party, buying a Blizzard from Dairy Queen, getting a Moleskine notebook, trying an Orange Julius, eating something with peanuts in it, having fun (thanks Smolinski) and a bunch of other things that escape me as we actually lost the list before we even made it to Van. We also managed to go swimming in 2 different pools. The wave pool sesh was pretty epic, we played tag for like 2 hours... we looked a tad out of place, being the only people there above the age of 12. Totally worth it though. Our second pool sesh proved a bit of an eye opener for Tyler and I, we witnessed what Canadians wear when they go scuba diving.... DRY SUITS!! They were fully kitted out to the nines in booties, under suits, 9mm dry suits and hoods and stuff. They were having a training session in the pool. Tyler and I quickly realised that what we thought was cold water obviously wasn't... as our thickest suits are 3mm... man I am going to be able to surf allll day in the winter when I get back!
Our thrift store adventures proved very fruitful, Alex and I tried on about 10 of the most bizarre dresses I have ever seen. The theme for the spring staff party was Graduation so we were searching for some appropriate gear. I managed to find one that was velour, with sleeves and beads sewn on it. Priceless! At our second thrift store visit I managed to find the hat I had been wanting for some time now, all for the princely sum of $3.99 - an epic straw fedora. I feel it some how completes me. Also got a brightly coloured sports jacket that reminds me of '80s ski gear. I swear when I get back I am only shopping at thrift stores. They are ace!
We headed back to camp citied out and ready to lie on the beach and catch some Zs in the sunshine, vowing to go to bed early that night in preparation for the end of season staff party. We succeeded, bouncing out of bed after a solid 10 hours sleep, ready and raring for a morning of summer camp prep. Everyone split into work parties and we were given lists by Parky and off we went. I think one of the best jobs was taking the machetes and going to town on the edges of Boundary Trail. Nothing like hacking stuff to pieces with a giant knife. Good times.
We also had to move house. Our cosy little staff cabins are no longer home for the gappers, Alex and I. As counsellors we sleep in the back section of our kids' tent cabin, and as instructors (us gappers are usually half and half) we usually share a spare tent cabin as we are junior staff. For pre-camp however, all the girl staff (excluding the senior staff, they still keep their cabins) are in Charlie Charlie (one of the wooden kid cabins). Alex and I quickly took over the entire back section. After only having to share with one person to having to share with probably about 6 or 7 (I'm not sure yet they arrive on Monday) it is a bit of a change. But it will be super fun all bunking together so I am pretty stoked. Having to move all my stuff across the village has made me realise how much stuff I have got since I have come here. I will not be able to bring all my jumpers and shorts and things with me, not a chance. Looks like I will be sending a package of gear home. I have 9 jumpers now, I came with 2. I have purchased 3 from thrift stores, 1 from Walmart, been given 2 and I have no clue how the last one came into my possession. I also have 3 more pairs of shorts than I came with. Sooo much stuff!! Not gunna lie though, some of the most rowdy gear I have ever seen so I am super stoked.
So the Spring Staff party was last night. So much fun! We had a delicious steak dinner with amazing salads, courtesy of Marty and Sarah. There were speeches, awards given out and a slideshow. Our Valedictorian, as voted, was Crumbles. He delivered a truly hilarious speech that was exactly the reason why we all voted for him. Funniest thing I think I have ever heard in my entire life. I won the award for 'Best camp legs' (Camp legs are a phenomenon which I have gotten to know quite well over the last 9 weeks, basically your legs get super scratched up/dirty) and also the 'Up for anything award'. Pretty funny. I also got my first rope bracelet! In the camp/outdoor ed world, when people go through something quite significant like a long trip or a season working together, everyone gets a piece of identical rope which you melt on to your ankle or wrist. Now I've got to see how long I can keep mine on. There was a dude at the reunion who had worked at Summit for years, and he still had a rope that had been burnt around his ankle from when he was a camper! Sean Keast has one on his wrist from his LIT year, which was 1999. My left wrist is sort of becoming a way of storing my memories. I have my Headspace wristband, my rextape bracelet I made whilst working Crofton House, which was my very first program, an embroidery thread bracelet made by a camper called Olivia from York House and my Spring rope.
So we have nearly 2 days off before the rest of the summer staff arrive on Monday at 5pm. I'm pretty amped to meet all of them, yay new people! Smolinsk knows most of them and says they are pretty sweet so I am g'd to get to know them. I think today's plan is to chill out and head into town to get a few supplies as once summer starts we have very little time off. I will have to make an effort to keep this blog going, but with so many people sharing one very slow satellite connection, I'll just have to play it by ear.
And so Spring has finally drawn to a close, and with it 1/3 of my placement is done and dusted. Summer is a very short 7 weeks so I am sure it will fly by, so I will be making the most of it! I hope you are all loving life down under, I miss you all but I am sure Feb next year will be here before we know it. Keep safe!!
P.S. Tahnee is currently in NZ atm if you guys didn't know, she has her own travel blog (somewhat inspired by this one I like to think) You should check it out by clicking here
First off I would like to say thank you to Grantie and Grandpa for sending me that lovely letter. I got it a few days ago and it was so nice to have that contact from home. Snail mail beats email every time! I was so stoked to get it, it is now nestled carefully amongst my books in my cabin. Thanks for the postcards too, the Canadians thought the surfing kangaroo was hilarious.
Since I last posted we have really only had one school group - the British American School, or BAS as we like to call them. They were about 30 or so kids from Mexico and their program is a little different to other schools. As they come a reasonable distance, their program is about 10 days in length and the spend a few of those days doing touristy things like sightseeing in Van, shopping in Whistler, going whitewater rafting and visiting the PNE and Metrotown. Because of this, not everyone is needed to work for the whole time, so I was off for quite alot of that week. In fact all of that week, except Tuesday when I worked with a day group. However I did manage to make myself useful, I learnt how to lube a bike chain (to go along with my mad tyre changing skillz) and I played all the camp wide games because to be honest, being chased at a full sprint through the woods by 5 15yo Mexican boys screaming in Spanish wearing a sheep costume is not my idea of work. That is just plain fun.
To make more good use of our time off Trevor invited Crumbles, Tyler, Alex and I down to his parent's house in North Van to chill out for a couple of days with some modern conveniences that I must admit I took for granted at home but have come to realise how nice they are to have. Things such as playing guitar hero on a widescreen tv, or swimming in a heated pool, or even just not having to kill the mosquito trying to drink my blood every 20 seconds. Ah the joys of civilization. We also got to do some laundry... for free!!! A big thankyou to Trev's Mum and Dad for having us stay with them for a couple of days.
Whilst at camp we had devised a list of things we needed to do while we were in the big smoke, such as going to a thrift store to get an outfit for the staff party, buying a Blizzard from Dairy Queen, getting a Moleskine notebook, trying an Orange Julius, eating something with peanuts in it, having fun (thanks Smolinski) and a bunch of other things that escape me as we actually lost the list before we even made it to Van. We also managed to go swimming in 2 different pools. The wave pool sesh was pretty epic, we played tag for like 2 hours... we looked a tad out of place, being the only people there above the age of 12. Totally worth it though. Our second pool sesh proved a bit of an eye opener for Tyler and I, we witnessed what Canadians wear when they go scuba diving.... DRY SUITS!! They were fully kitted out to the nines in booties, under suits, 9mm dry suits and hoods and stuff. They were having a training session in the pool. Tyler and I quickly realised that what we thought was cold water obviously wasn't... as our thickest suits are 3mm... man I am going to be able to surf allll day in the winter when I get back!
Our thrift store adventures proved very fruitful, Alex and I tried on about 10 of the most bizarre dresses I have ever seen. The theme for the spring staff party was Graduation so we were searching for some appropriate gear. I managed to find one that was velour, with sleeves and beads sewn on it. Priceless! At our second thrift store visit I managed to find the hat I had been wanting for some time now, all for the princely sum of $3.99 - an epic straw fedora. I feel it some how completes me. Also got a brightly coloured sports jacket that reminds me of '80s ski gear. I swear when I get back I am only shopping at thrift stores. They are ace!
We headed back to camp citied out and ready to lie on the beach and catch some Zs in the sunshine, vowing to go to bed early that night in preparation for the end of season staff party. We succeeded, bouncing out of bed after a solid 10 hours sleep, ready and raring for a morning of summer camp prep. Everyone split into work parties and we were given lists by Parky and off we went. I think one of the best jobs was taking the machetes and going to town on the edges of Boundary Trail. Nothing like hacking stuff to pieces with a giant knife. Good times.
We also had to move house. Our cosy little staff cabins are no longer home for the gappers, Alex and I. As counsellors we sleep in the back section of our kids' tent cabin, and as instructors (us gappers are usually half and half) we usually share a spare tent cabin as we are junior staff. For pre-camp however, all the girl staff (excluding the senior staff, they still keep their cabins) are in Charlie Charlie (one of the wooden kid cabins). Alex and I quickly took over the entire back section. After only having to share with one person to having to share with probably about 6 or 7 (I'm not sure yet they arrive on Monday) it is a bit of a change. But it will be super fun all bunking together so I am pretty stoked. Having to move all my stuff across the village has made me realise how much stuff I have got since I have come here. I will not be able to bring all my jumpers and shorts and things with me, not a chance. Looks like I will be sending a package of gear home. I have 9 jumpers now, I came with 2. I have purchased 3 from thrift stores, 1 from Walmart, been given 2 and I have no clue how the last one came into my possession. I also have 3 more pairs of shorts than I came with. Sooo much stuff!! Not gunna lie though, some of the most rowdy gear I have ever seen so I am super stoked.
So the Spring Staff party was last night. So much fun! We had a delicious steak dinner with amazing salads, courtesy of Marty and Sarah. There were speeches, awards given out and a slideshow. Our Valedictorian, as voted, was Crumbles. He delivered a truly hilarious speech that was exactly the reason why we all voted for him. Funniest thing I think I have ever heard in my entire life. I won the award for 'Best camp legs' (Camp legs are a phenomenon which I have gotten to know quite well over the last 9 weeks, basically your legs get super scratched up/dirty) and also the 'Up for anything award'. Pretty funny. I also got my first rope bracelet! In the camp/outdoor ed world, when people go through something quite significant like a long trip or a season working together, everyone gets a piece of identical rope which you melt on to your ankle or wrist. Now I've got to see how long I can keep mine on. There was a dude at the reunion who had worked at Summit for years, and he still had a rope that had been burnt around his ankle from when he was a camper! Sean Keast has one on his wrist from his LIT year, which was 1999. My left wrist is sort of becoming a way of storing my memories. I have my Headspace wristband, my rextape bracelet I made whilst working Crofton House, which was my very first program, an embroidery thread bracelet made by a camper called Olivia from York House and my Spring rope.
So we have nearly 2 days off before the rest of the summer staff arrive on Monday at 5pm. I'm pretty amped to meet all of them, yay new people! Smolinsk knows most of them and says they are pretty sweet so I am g'd to get to know them. I think today's plan is to chill out and head into town to get a few supplies as once summer starts we have very little time off. I will have to make an effort to keep this blog going, but with so many people sharing one very slow satellite connection, I'll just have to play it by ear.
And so Spring has finally drawn to a close, and with it 1/3 of my placement is done and dusted. Summer is a very short 7 weeks so I am sure it will fly by, so I will be making the most of it! I hope you are all loving life down under, I miss you all but I am sure Feb next year will be here before we know it. Keep safe!!
P.S. Tahnee is currently in NZ atm if you guys didn't know, she has her own travel blog (somewhat inspired by this one I like to think) You should check it out by clicking here
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Russian Thursday
Hey team
Sorry it has been such a long time between posts. We only got like a day and a bit off last weekend as we had a group on site Saturday so I was pretty busy doing other things. However I will recap the previous week here, so get settled for a long entry.
So the Sunday after my last post we decided to be super outdoorsy and we headed in to Squamish to hike the Stawamus Chief. The Chief is a 702m high granite monolith and is world regarded as a climbing, bouldering and hiking area. Chris Sharma (this like super rowdy climbing guy) has climbed this route their called 'Dreamcatcher'. It is pretty much flat wall... I have no clue how he did it. Sean Keast (one of our staff) was so stoked he actually licked Sharma's chalk off the wall. That is how awesome Chris Sharma is. Anyhoo so hiking the Chief was so much fun. We absolutely booked it up there, like mad. It took us less than 45mins, with kids it can take 2hrs. We sorta crashed out at the top though, we were pretty knackered. Coming down was so much fun, Tyler and I were like running down, jumping off logs and sliding down sections and rocks and things. Was wicked fun. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the local pool in Brennan Park, messing around, swinging on ropes and diving and playing Marco Polo. They also had a spa which was awesome. Plus we got in for free since we volunteered at Relay for Life.
Monday we were super lucky and got a day off because the group wasn't coming in until Tuesday. So Alex, Jen Brown, Tyler, Crumbles and I headed into Vancouver for a day to do some shopping and veg out off site. As beautiful as camp is, it is nice to get away from it all for a day or so and just be somewhere different. I bought the rowdiest glasses ever, they are SWEET. Must get a pic of them up. The frames are rubber and bendy. Nuff said. Also got a pair of satin electric blue and highlighter green shorts from Lululemon. Oh man love that shop. Most comfortable clothes ever, like ridiculously comfortable. Insane! The shopping scene in Vancouver is very different to that of Perth. They have heaps of rowdy, brightly coloured gear and super sweet shoes. I'm going to go to Van again and get some sweet ass shoes. Tis going to be wicked.
Tuesday we got a bunch of about 40 York House girls. They were pretty cool, I did High Ropes with them, as well as Arts and Crafts. Making bracelets = good times. I have some bracelets that I am going to send home in the next couple of days. Lisa and I decided that we should make all the spring staff matching but unique embroidery thread bracelets so for the rest of the week we covertly made about 20 bracelets and handed them out to all the staff. Each one has 3 colours that we picked out specifically for each person. Lisa made mine, it is orange, green and burgundy. It's pretty sweet. I'm actually gathering together a pretty sweet set of wrist bling. I have a rextape bracelet I made when we were in Squeah running our very first program with Crofton House, I have my rubber headspace bracelet from when I worked at FGPN, I have my spring staff bracelet and I have another embroidery thread bracelet that was made for me by a student called Olivia from York House. I'm sure I will have even more by the time the end of summer rolls around.
York House left on Friday, but a West Point Grey group of Yr 12s came in for their dry grad. (Straight after graduation classes get sent somewhere as a group to hang out without alcohol. They then go home and get rooooowdy.) They stayed Friday night and Saturday so we were working on the weekend but as we had had Monday off it wasn't too bad. Plus running program for them was easy, they were chill. We didn't have to do much, they pretty much just hung out and we just let them do their thing. Did run high ropes with them on Saturday. They were actually the same age (and some of them older) as Tyler and I so we had a few cover stories. I was 19 turning 20 so I was born in '89... I think. But yeah I felt younger than them but none of them asked so I guess I looked older. Once WPG left we were free to go. We headed into town armed with a list of chores to do. Five hours later we had completed them. Items on the list included buying a chocolate and peanut butter gelato, cake mix ingredients and eating 2 two bite brownies in one go. I called them half-bite brownies because I thought they were sissy. Then the Canadians made me eat 2 in one mouthful. Bit of a struggle, nearly choked but I got there. Us Aussies are made of tougher stuff when it comes to junk food. Also took a trip to Walmart and discovered there are Coffee Crisp McFlurries. Getting one the second I go to town next. Excited!! I know Walmart is like a corporate devil that is sucking the life out of our planet, but man, it is so cheap! I bought a sweet fluro orange sweater for $10. Wicked!
This week we had a really sweet school group called Larson. They were an awesome group, so much personality. It was also fun because they didn't have any teachers with them so a few of us got to try our hand at being counsellors. It was pretty sweet, we got to change around activities instead of instructing them, and had to send them off to bed and things. It was a nice change to what we usually do. The kids were awesome. Today when I was taking a day group around the biking trail, they were all high fiving me as I rode pass. It was awesome, I really enjoyed hanging out with them.
So I am off and on over the next few days, heading down to Van for some of it, hanging around Camp, doing stuff. Will be good times. Sorry this post has sort of trailed off but I have been distracted. It happens. Anyway I hope you are all well and to make up for my lacklustre words I have included photographs:
Random shot of one of our many beach campfires
Gathered on the beach for Eddie's birthday celebration
The view from the Chief's First Peak
Me at the top of the Chief. The large body of water on the left is Howe Sound and the buildings on the right are part of Squamish, the closest town to camp.
Crumbles, Alex and Tyler in Vancouver. This shot is outside the sushi place where we missed the deadline for lunch. We went for crepes instead.
Oh and by the way, the reason for the title of this post is because today is Russian Thursday, one of our many themed days. Today we speak in russian accents for most of the day. We have other days such as One-armed Monday and Backwards Name Tuesday. Tomorrow is Facial Accessory Friday. The guys have been preparing. Shall be entertaining.
Sorry it has been such a long time between posts. We only got like a day and a bit off last weekend as we had a group on site Saturday so I was pretty busy doing other things. However I will recap the previous week here, so get settled for a long entry.
So the Sunday after my last post we decided to be super outdoorsy and we headed in to Squamish to hike the Stawamus Chief. The Chief is a 702m high granite monolith and is world regarded as a climbing, bouldering and hiking area. Chris Sharma (this like super rowdy climbing guy) has climbed this route their called 'Dreamcatcher'. It is pretty much flat wall... I have no clue how he did it. Sean Keast (one of our staff) was so stoked he actually licked Sharma's chalk off the wall. That is how awesome Chris Sharma is. Anyhoo so hiking the Chief was so much fun. We absolutely booked it up there, like mad. It took us less than 45mins, with kids it can take 2hrs. We sorta crashed out at the top though, we were pretty knackered. Coming down was so much fun, Tyler and I were like running down, jumping off logs and sliding down sections and rocks and things. Was wicked fun. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the local pool in Brennan Park, messing around, swinging on ropes and diving and playing Marco Polo. They also had a spa which was awesome. Plus we got in for free since we volunteered at Relay for Life.
Monday we were super lucky and got a day off because the group wasn't coming in until Tuesday. So Alex, Jen Brown, Tyler, Crumbles and I headed into Vancouver for a day to do some shopping and veg out off site. As beautiful as camp is, it is nice to get away from it all for a day or so and just be somewhere different. I bought the rowdiest glasses ever, they are SWEET. Must get a pic of them up. The frames are rubber and bendy. Nuff said. Also got a pair of satin electric blue and highlighter green shorts from Lululemon. Oh man love that shop. Most comfortable clothes ever, like ridiculously comfortable. Insane! The shopping scene in Vancouver is very different to that of Perth. They have heaps of rowdy, brightly coloured gear and super sweet shoes. I'm going to go to Van again and get some sweet ass shoes. Tis going to be wicked.
Tuesday we got a bunch of about 40 York House girls. They were pretty cool, I did High Ropes with them, as well as Arts and Crafts. Making bracelets = good times. I have some bracelets that I am going to send home in the next couple of days. Lisa and I decided that we should make all the spring staff matching but unique embroidery thread bracelets so for the rest of the week we covertly made about 20 bracelets and handed them out to all the staff. Each one has 3 colours that we picked out specifically for each person. Lisa made mine, it is orange, green and burgundy. It's pretty sweet. I'm actually gathering together a pretty sweet set of wrist bling. I have a rextape bracelet I made when we were in Squeah running our very first program with Crofton House, I have my rubber headspace bracelet from when I worked at FGPN, I have my spring staff bracelet and I have another embroidery thread bracelet that was made for me by a student called Olivia from York House. I'm sure I will have even more by the time the end of summer rolls around.
York House left on Friday, but a West Point Grey group of Yr 12s came in for their dry grad. (Straight after graduation classes get sent somewhere as a group to hang out without alcohol. They then go home and get rooooowdy.) They stayed Friday night and Saturday so we were working on the weekend but as we had had Monday off it wasn't too bad. Plus running program for them was easy, they were chill. We didn't have to do much, they pretty much just hung out and we just let them do their thing. Did run high ropes with them on Saturday. They were actually the same age (and some of them older) as Tyler and I so we had a few cover stories. I was 19 turning 20 so I was born in '89... I think. But yeah I felt younger than them but none of them asked so I guess I looked older. Once WPG left we were free to go. We headed into town armed with a list of chores to do. Five hours later we had completed them. Items on the list included buying a chocolate and peanut butter gelato, cake mix ingredients and eating 2 two bite brownies in one go. I called them half-bite brownies because I thought they were sissy. Then the Canadians made me eat 2 in one mouthful. Bit of a struggle, nearly choked but I got there. Us Aussies are made of tougher stuff when it comes to junk food. Also took a trip to Walmart and discovered there are Coffee Crisp McFlurries. Getting one the second I go to town next. Excited!! I know Walmart is like a corporate devil that is sucking the life out of our planet, but man, it is so cheap! I bought a sweet fluro orange sweater for $10. Wicked!
This week we had a really sweet school group called Larson. They were an awesome group, so much personality. It was also fun because they didn't have any teachers with them so a few of us got to try our hand at being counsellors. It was pretty sweet, we got to change around activities instead of instructing them, and had to send them off to bed and things. It was a nice change to what we usually do. The kids were awesome. Today when I was taking a day group around the biking trail, they were all high fiving me as I rode pass. It was awesome, I really enjoyed hanging out with them.
So I am off and on over the next few days, heading down to Van for some of it, hanging around Camp, doing stuff. Will be good times. Sorry this post has sort of trailed off but I have been distracted. It happens. Anyway I hope you are all well and to make up for my lacklustre words I have included photographs:
Random shot of one of our many beach campfires
Gathered on the beach for Eddie's birthday celebration
The view from the Chief's First Peak
Me at the top of the Chief. The large body of water on the left is Howe Sound and the buildings on the right are part of Squamish, the closest town to camp.
Crumbles, Alex and Tyler in Vancouver. This shot is outside the sushi place where we missed the deadline for lunch. We went for crepes instead.Oh and by the way, the reason for the title of this post is because today is Russian Thursday, one of our many themed days. Today we speak in russian accents for most of the day. We have other days such as One-armed Monday and Backwards Name Tuesday. Tomorrow is Facial Accessory Friday. The guys have been preparing. Shall be entertaining.
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