Canada Mk II

Well here I am again, preparing to disembark the homeland to jet-sett off to my second homeland, the Great White North. I am so excited to be heading back to camp for a month over the winter uni break!!!
On Monday I make the mammoth flight from Perth to Sydney, then to LA and finally Vancouver before heading North to the Squamish River Valley and one of the most fun places on Earth, Camp Summit!
I'm going to be working as a camp counselor for 4 weeks, and as I'm returning staff this time I get paid (yeow!) and also won't be the go-to for all the super awesome jobs such as staining buildings (I'm pretty sure I still had stain ingrained in my skin months after we finished that job!)
Anyway this week has been a combo of trying to organise stuff before going away, as well as chilling to recover from my first set of uni exams and training hard so I won't get too unfit over my holiday. Might have to lay off the chicken grilled cheese sandwiches this year unfortunately...
Oh well!
Hopefully will post again in-transit to YVR. So excited!!!

The Countdown is On

So here I am, less than 77 hours away from my departure. Had my last chance shopping day, so if I don't have it now, I guess it will have to wait!!

I want to thank everyone who turned up to my party last night, I was so stoked and completely taken by surprise. Especially thanks to the many people who helped organise it, it must have been a substantial effort. I am so grateful to have you all as my friends.

I also want to thank my friends at work, the Mountain Design voucher was well spent! I will send you a picture of me with my awesome new rain pants. I'm sure they will be well used, I think Squamish is one of the rainiest places in Canada. Thank you for being so good to me during my first job in the 'real world'.

I'll chuck another post down before I leave/in Sydney airport if I run out of time.

The Plan

The Plan is...

I'm taking a gap year between school and uni to travel around the world and see the sights before knuckling down to 6 more years of education. And this blog will be where I post my photographs and updates on how the trip is going.

Here is a very tentative itinerary subject to approval, mainly of people I would like to stay with and my wallet... (Click on the links to find out more)

Leave Perth mid-April, fly to Vancouver and hang out there for a few days.
Report to Camp Summit and volunteer for 6 months. (I got this gig through Lattitude, formerly GAP Australia. I'll be working with regular camp staff as well as 3 other volunteers)
On my 2 week holiday in August head to Seattle for a few days to see the Storm (my favourite basketball team) play.
After camp I'd like to head to Arizona to visit Spud and Vicki (subject to them having me :) )
Then maybe a trip to New York is in order to visit my mate Bevs at NYU and maybe meet up with the family if they make it over. Also, meet up with my travel buddy Alex after her stint in Alberta.
Another flight over to London, to repack and relax before heading over to Athens, purchasing a Eurail pass and going on a spontaneous 15 day holiday throughout Europe...
Then back to London to kill time until Christmas. I imagine we will try to get jobs, hang out in Southwold, live off the seat of our pants, the normal backpacking stuff.
Christmas with the family, both Aussie and English if things go well. Then Alex and I plan to head up to Edinburgh for New Years.
Then, if we still have any money left, we'll just make it up from there. I suppose that will have to involve a trip home to start uni at UWA in March.

But yes, thought I'd whack this up here so people would have something to look at when I show them to this page...