E!

The End and the Long Trip Home

2011-08-22T23:11:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

And so here it is, the last installment on my amazing trip-of-a-lifetime. Hope you've enjoyed reading!

Day 21/Aug 20th

This morning Shawna and I celebrated taking down our tent for the last time! No more fumbling around with tent poles (or losing them), no more rolling thick canvas up in the dirt and dust, no more struggling to reach the top hooks which were the hardest to manipulate, no more making mistakes and starting over again. No More Tent!! Tonight we'd stay in a lodge, with everyone else, and we were SO glad.

Today we're crossing the border into Zimbabwe, so as per usual, it was a rushed and mildly stressful morning. We arrived at the Botswana exit-point in no time, but weren't quite prepared for the general chaos on the Zimbabwe side. THIS is why Colin wanted to get going each morning: people were everywhere. There was a tiny little office that could reasonably fit maybe 15-20 people? Three times as many tried to shove themselves through the doors. Apparently there was a queue, but you couldn't tell until a security guard showed up and started attempting to re-direct us all. None of our group was together. It was a mess.

For some reason Colin was able to successfully collect our entry forms, passports, and Visa fees, and stand in line for us. It still took forever, of course, but at least we were able to stand outside in the shade, and Colin got the entire group done at one time. Zimbabwe deals in American dollars. Apparently their own currency was so worthless that the bank notes numbered into the billions. People just couldn't carry around wads and wads of cash and bills anymore. So they switched to USD. Probably a good move.

Incidentally, do you know how much a Visa to enter Zimbabwe is? Well for Colin, a native Zim, of course it's nothing. What about Germans? $30. Not too bad. What about Australians? Also $30. Seems decent. What about those mild-mannered, polite Canadians? How about $75. Whaaaat!!? Seems hardly fair. Not to mention that we were not told to have American dollars at the ready, and we certainly wouldn't have thought to have $75 each anyways. Lucky for us our wonderful Australian friends were able to help us out until we passed the border, got to a bank machine, where it spewed out, yes, American dollars (never seen THAT one before). This is a very expensive trip.

Once we extracted ourselves from the border chaos, it was a short drive to Victoria Falls where we were to spend the last few days of our adventure before the long trek back to BC. Colin drove us around town where we saw beautiful hotels, shops, street vendors (very pushy street vendors in fact), and the beautiful personality of this town. It was touristy, sure, but it was a welcome sight and I wished we could have had more time there.

Our first stop was to a booking office where we had optional activities that we could book for the rest of the day and next. We had a tour of Victoria Falls already coming to us, but we were also interested in the "Walk With the Lions" Rehabilitation Center and treating ourselves to some time at a Garden Spa. We also had to fit in dinner at The Boma which was a fantastic restaurant right next to where we'd be staying.

Then we checked into our shared lodge with Vyv and Carol and got all settled in. There was a big mosquito next over our beds and I think this might be the only time on our trip that'd we'd actually use it. There have been so few mosquitoes that it was surprising. We were initially paranoid about getting bitten, but truthfully, even when we were next to lakes and rivers, they weren't abundant. They were certainly nothing remotely close to what I'd experienced in Bowron. The fact that I wore long sleeves and pants all the time probably helped, too.

Off to Victoria Falls. Oh, wow. There's no doubt as to why this place is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the world; it's breathtaking! It's also really wet and we were handed rain slickers at the entrance. The sound of the falls is heard well into town and the closer you get, the more the mist fills the air. Shawna and I marveled over the many rainbows and sheer size of this amazing place. You can't take a bad photo, although you do have to take care that your camera doesn't get too wet. There is one section of the falls where the spray is like thick rain - a downpour. We had raincoats on and were still running to get out of it. Awesome. It was simply amazing.

Our later afternoon activity was called "Walk With the Lions" and Shawna had her heart set on it as soon as she'd heard about it a few weeks back. We didn't know too much about it, but it sounded like an incredible opportunity. We not only got to walk beside lion cubs (still rather huge for only 18 months old), we got to pet them, rub their bellies, and pose for photos with them! And yes, there were rules, too: no walking in front of them or by their head, and no eye contact. Remember the wolf? It was like that except with the addition of 5-6 men.

The African Lion & Environmental Research Trust sets up this activity to support the Rehabilitation work they do with orphaned/adopted lions over the course of 4 stages and many years. The public will never interact with a lion that is beyond 2 years (indeed almost all human contact is eradicated at that point), and lions that have walked with humans will never be released into the wild completely. But newborn cubs that have been raised completely by lions with no human interaction will be truly wild. Anyways, I cannot remember all the details of the program (read about it here: http://www.lionalert.org/pages/ALERT-projects.html), but suffice it to say, Shawna and I felt great about it. Our money was donated directly to rehabilitation and conservation efforts. This wasn't some woman feeding porcupines in her backyard; this was actually making a difference to Africa, its peoples and its wildlife. Yes!

Back to the lodge and time to get ready for dinner at The Boma. By far the best place we'd eaten on the whole trip. When you walk in, they dress you in traditional garb (basically a brightly patterned sheet tied over one shoulder), paint your face (tiny white marks that indicate your gender), and seat you amongst a sprawling buffet. There were food and people everywhere! First, our server brought snacks, which included a selection of hot and cold nuts, and a small portion of local beer for everyone to try. It was thick, and fermented, and white. We laughed as we watched each other's faces while trying it. They gave each person only a taste, except Colin, who "grew up on that stuff."

The food was amazing. In the entree area, you chose which meat you would like, and they cut & cooked it for you on the spot while you waited. You could have almost any kind of meat you wanted, including kudu, ostrich and crocodile. There were 2 salad bars with appetizer-like choices, there were pastas and roast animal on a spit. There were desserts and a crepe-chef. In fact there was probably more that I missed, because I ate so much I had to stop before I got all the way around the place; that's how good it was. We'd been waiting 22 days to eat like this! What a treat. During dinner we were entertained by African singing and dancing and drumming, and we found out that after we'd left they'd brought around black worms to each table to see who would be courageous enough to eat them. We weren't sorry to miss that, and we heard all about it from the 2 German boys on our tour who had both earned certificates for doing it. Yuck!!

We could have easily stayed there all night, eating and drinking and dancing and enjoying the atmosphere & people. However, we had one more thing to do: we had booked a Garden Spa appointment for the end of the night. We were picked up from The Boma, and taken to the Spa. It so happens that the Spa is located right behind the backpacker's lodge in Victoria Falls. And it was Saturday night, and the bar was open. So while we were relaxing and being pampered, we watched and listened to 20-somethings dance and yell and sing and drink. Our spa was far enough away that we could enjoy the music and laugh at all the bad singing, from a distance. We weren't disturbed by it; on the contrary, we found it totally amusing and entertaining. T. I. A.

In talking to Cheryl, my personal pamperer, I discovered that you must go to school to be an esthetician just like here at home. The program is about a year long and she said that she enjoys her work very much. She has three kids under the age of 5 and she admitted to being 25 years old. Sometimes I wonder at all the young mothers I see. What do they think of motherhood - is it something they pursue, does it happen by accident, and do any of them feel that they have a choice? Those are questions I think about a lot myself, and I am ten years older than Cheryl. I wonder what she thought of me after hearing my age and the fact that I have no children. Life is so different there for women. Again, here I am feeling lucky for all the choices and opportunities I have had and continue to have.

We loved being pampered on the last night of our tour. Camping and environmental conditions really took a toll! It was such a nice thing to do for ourselves, and besides, it was ridiculously cheap - $40 USD for three separate spa services. That's a steal!! We were driven back to our lodge. What a crazy day. We loved it.

Day 22/Aug 21st

The only thing we had to do today was get-up, pack, eat breakfast and wait for the shuttle that would take us to the airport. We said goodbye to Carol & Vyv and were so sad to see them go; they had been our allies and counterparts this trip. They were extremely generous and funny. They want to visit Canada in 2013 and we can't wait to see them again! For a retired/near-retired couple, they have an amazing spirit and sense of adventure.

We ate breakfast with the German family and talked about all the activities they'd planned for their extra day in Victoria Falls. Hugs all around, well-wishes and goodbyes. Then we put together the items that we had brought to donate to children/schools (Shawna brought some school supplies, and we had each purchased soccer balls), and handed them off to Colin. We had been so impressed with his dedication to the local people on this trip. If he needed firewood, he'd buy from the village instead of the camp. He'd regularly find people to give our leftovers to. Food that we would throw out because it was unsightly (but otherwise fine), he'd make sure got to a local person or family. We'd catch him giving change or a few bills to security guards or other people in need. When he said that he knew which schools that generally didn't receive tourist dollars, we knew it was going to the right place.

And so we said goodbye to Colin, our steward and protector. Not once on this tour did I feel nervous, unsafe, worried, in danger, or vulnerable. Colin was incredibly knowledgeable and supportive. He had a stressful job coordinating the needs of all the people in our group - and sometimes the stress did show, but overall he was excellent. We knew he had everything covered, we knew he had our backs. He was our guide, cook and driver, but he was also a friend and companion. He's going to be missed.

Shawna & I were flying to Johannesburg from the Victoria Falls airport. Once we got there it became apparent that this small airport wasn't the same as other small airports I'd been to. Most noticeably, they hand-wrote our boarding passes and luggage tags. There were only 2 gates and we walked haphazardly across the tarmac to get to the plane. The flight was short and a long layover in Joberg was ahead of us. Lucky that the airport was nice. We both had a few items we needed to buy but my only real goal was to get a chunk of time on the internet so I wasn't weighed down with writing 10 days worth of stories once I got home.

Lucky for me, Shawna wheeled & dealed an under-the-table arrangement at one of the airport lounges, and we got to use their computers and eat their snacks for a small fee. :) We both used the internet, and when Shawna was done she patiently waited for me to finish as I raced through the days in my head and on the keyboard. Then we did some shopping, and ate some dinner. I was so tired at this point, that when I ordered lasagne I remember thinking how strange it was that there was ground beef in it. Then I remember that that's exactly the type I eat at home all the time.

When we headed to my gate for my flight to Washington DC, I was patted down by security and subsequently yelled at when I walked back to where Shawna was waiting to say goodbye. I didn't care about their threats that I'd have to do the search again - I wasn't leaving without a goodbye to my friend, my rock, my supporter, my conspirator, and my lifesaver for the past month! (Can you imagine if I had done this tour on my own like I had originally planned? I shudder at how lonely I would have been). Shawna and I certainly got to know each other very well on this trip. She's thoughtful and generous and sensitive and beautiful (which she needs to realize more often) and a great listener and has a wicked sense of humour. She's awesome!

My flight to Washington DC was pretty good. I sat next to a young South African guy and we made some good conversation and had some good laughs. He tried to convince me that noise-cancelling headphones were the best thing since sliced bread. He also asked if we had done a township tour as one of our optional activities, but we had not. I talked to him about not feeling "right" about entering the shantytowns or extremely poor villages and that it made me feel like people and their lives were some kind of sideshow. However, he kind of changed my mind about it as he explained that people really enjoy having visitors. They like being treated as humans who have a story to share, they want to participate in conversations, they want to show how they live. He says that you don't wear any jewelry and you don't dress flashy or carry expensive things, because theft will definitely occur. When people don't have food, your watch is suddenly a lot less valuable to you than you might think. But anyways, I really liked the idea of people getting a chance to tell their story, and I kind of regretted not doing a township tour.

The flight to DC stopped over in Dakar (which is in the country of Senegal), and the guy got off with about half the plane. And lucky me, nobody came to sit beside me afterwards! So I had the next leg of my flight with 2 luxurious economy seats to spread myself over. I didn't sleep as much as I should have. During the 17 hours of that (total) flight, I watched 4 movies: Africa Cats, The Adjustment Bureau, Water for Elephants, and The Lincoln Lawyer. Shawna had recommended African Cats, but I was so tired and seeing all the wild animals was too fresh, so every time a tough scenario came up for one of the cats, I started welling up. Thanks, Shawna. :P

The next two flights were uneventful. I arrived home approximately 42 hours after I left. As Vancouver became clearer and clearer through that little airplane window, I was sure I had never seen anything more beautiful. Breezed through customs, totally astounded that my bag showed up on the luggage cart. T picked me up. Finally, my heart is home.

xo
E!

Mokoros, Speedboats, Motor boats and more

2011-08-19T18:29:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone

Can't believe how time has been flying! We're getting really close to the end of this adventure.

Day 18/Aug 17

After breakfast we were taken directly from Guma Lodge by motor boat to an island. Waiting for us were several young men who were to be our guides for the better part of the day. Each of them hosted two of us in a traditional dug-out canoe called a mokoro, and they acted as our "polers". Shawna and I sat back, and our guide, Matthew, stood at the back of our boat with a 10 foot pole and steered us through the marsh.

In the Okavango Delta the surroundings change quite a bit. Instead of the dry, dusty desert that we were used to, we experienced more lush, green vegetation. Steering through the marsh, the reeds would part in front of us like curtains. It was silent except the sounds of nature. It was truly magical and a highlight for me. I absolutely loved every minute of it.

We were given instructions like, "please do not move much in the canoe" so that we wouldn't tip our guide, but Matthew had it covered. He had excellent balance and control - they all did. He told us stories in his broken English about hippopotamus and early fishermen. He made us necklaces and bracelets out of lilies. He pointed out trees, flowers, birds. It was fantastic. He'd also take shortcuts and go through places that the other boats didn't go. We were the last boat and so did not hold anyone up; if we stayed back to view something significant, he'd quickly catch up with powerful strokes and (we think), car engine noises. It was so fun. Matthew has been a poler since he was 5 years old.

Colin tried to bribe Matthew to dump us in the river but Matthew refused to break his perfect record of never tipping the boat. We were happy about that. :P Once we reached the Mokoro Island, we had a tour. We followed some elephants and watched them feed - from a safe distance, since it felt rather vulnerable to be without our vehicle! Some people in our group need to be told that when you pull back branches to walk, you don't let them go and hit the person behind you in the face. I learned to keep my distance from people who didn't know that rule, as Shawna tried to stifle her laughter. We learned about the baobab tree. We sat on the banks and ate a great lunch. Colin gave all of our leftover food to the polers.

Our mokoro ride back was much hotter but once we got into the motor boat the wind was great. We relaxed at the camp, and Carol & Vyv even let me use the shower in their cabin. I had confessed to them that I could barely step into our outdoor washrooms having discovered some huge spiders and funnel nests in there. They truly are wonderful people. :)

There were monkeys at Guma Lodge but we didn't get to see them. We scouted around camp but all we ran into was a couple of steers. Try facing off with a steer on a walkway - let me tell you, it's a formidable standoff.

We sat by the campfire until dinner time. Dinner came, and back to the campfire we went. While relaxing we heard a noise from across the water. It was like a baritone animal doing a half-laugh, half-snort. It echoed across the river. What on earth was this?? A hippo of course. :)

Day 19/Aug 18th

Today was a rushed morning as we all tried to get everything done in time to leave. We had to head to the border which made things more stressful again. We just wanted to get there - you never know how a border crossing is going to go. People in our group were starting to get irritable with each other and comments were getting blunter. Shawna and I stayed out of it.

Got through the Botswana border okay, went back down to Namibia. We stopped at a gas station for food. It was a little crazy and disorganized. We stopped for lunch at the side of the road and ate as quickly as possible. On to our next camp we go! We quickly set-up at Camp Kwando and headed into the truck for a late afternoon game drive. We saw baboons! They ran around and hid from us. We saw hippos! They sank underwater when they saw us coming. We didn't care. It was still cool. African animals in the wild - awesome!

Back to camp. We hung out at reception with Carol & Vyv and enjoyed a drink. I have had so much ginger ale on this trip it isn't funny. :) The lounge had wi-fi which was a nice treat, but not good for writing long messages. A nice visit with our Australian friends and dinner at the camp (roasted chicken and coleslaw) rounded out our night. Time for bed.

Day 20/Aug 19th

As we got up this morning we enjoyed our breakfast around the fire, which unfortunately was shared with another campsite. This was unfortunate because a member of the other campsite came out in his underwear to yell at us for being too loud. Oops. Most of us tried to be quieter but a few people in our group didn't seem to mind disturbing the peace... sigh.

We stopped for groceries and snacks at a real grocery store and Shawna & I managed to get some chips and dried fruit. Then we crossed the border and left Namibia for the last time. In no man's land, we pulled over and had a roadside lunch. As we were finishing our meal, we heard the most lovely sweet singing. About 5 young men were walking down the road singing together in harmony. It was beautiful. Colin ushered them over and gave them all of our leftover food (they would have confiscated much of it at the border anyways, he says - but we think he was probably just being kind). As we drove past they were snacking on the newfound goods.

At the Botswana border we were made to exit the vehicle, bring all pairs of shoes with us, clean them off, and walk up the road to the Immigration office. Just then we remembered that we'd left an apple in the truck (which was being searched) and worried that Colin would get in trouble for it. Turns out it wasn't even looked at.

We arrived at camp and at first, were disappointed. The camp was changed at the last minute and was not the camp we were supposed to be at. THIS one was basically a construction site. Shawna & I set up our tent (for the last time, yay!) as we listened to some of the others loudly complain. Turns out, it was pretty nice once you got past the construction part, and some people ate some crow. :P

Our group rushed to head out to our last excursion in Botswana: an early evening river cruise. This turned out to be a super highlight! Our guide, Vincent, took us around for 3 hours and we saw amazing animals and some that we hadn't yet seen. Crocodiles, Hippos, Buffalos, Elephants, Giraffes, Birds, Baboons, Lizards, it just went on and on. It wasn't a game "drive" but it was the best animal-sighting experience so far. Vincent was happy, extremely knowledgeable, and gave us a fantastic experience. Loved it!!

Back to the Lodge and dinner was ready. We had a great day. It was early but we headed off to bed in preparation for tomorrow's early rise and border crossing; this time, into Zimbabwe.

Until then,
xo
E!

Close calls, border crossings and puppy trauma

2011-08-16T20:55:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

Last I wrote we were being bombarded (not physically, thank goodness) by animals. There were still more animal experiences to come...

Day 15/Aug 14

Today Shawna and I got up and packed up our tent perfectly, and fast. So fast that we were sitting an enjoying our tea and breakfast while we watched the others stumble out of their tents. Okay, we might have been a little smug. But we were so proud of ourselves since usually we were on the tail-end of the morning routine and not the other way around.

Speaking of camp routines, many of them center around food. Colin does the cooking mostly, and we assist when we can, but mostly, we help set up for the meals and we do all the dishes. We kind of do dishes in turns, since we only need about 3 people and there are 10 of us. I don't mind doing dishes at all but if you know me I am pretty picky about getting things properly clean. So you can imagine my dismay at watching other people do dishes poorly. Like, handing over a dish covered in soap to the dish-dryer, is not acceptable. Why aren't we rinsing, people?! I don't want to eat soap! And it made the tea towels filthy. I volunteered to do the washing every time it was my turn, so I know that I was eating off clean dishes one-third of the time. Sigh. T.I.A.

We had a mini-game drive to do today before we headed out of Etosha. I found it irritating/fascinating that other people on the tour would say things like "ya, ya, ya, we've already seen a giraffe/elephant/wildebeeste." We are in AFRICA, people! It didn't lose any novelty for me. I could watch them all day. I was constantly marveling at the power of these animals, and the precariousness of their lives. Thank goodness that Shawna and I were on the same page. :)

We still hadn't seen a leopard or a buffalo. We were told that leopards were really difficult to locate in the wild because they are solitary hunters, and Etosha didn't play host to buffalo. But, we were assured that although there are no guarantees, we'd see much more wildlife and definitely species that we hadn't seen yet. With that, we left Etosha.

As we were speeding down the highway at say, 90km/hr, we approached an intersection where some idiot driver decided to make a right turn in front of us (equivalent to our left turns at home) and we almost hit him. Colin couldn't swerve too much or the trailer would jackknife us and we'd be toast. Shawna was in the front seat for the whole show. I think it rattled everyone pretty good. Even when you are doing everything right, accidents can happen... we were lucky that day.

Sitting in the LandCruiser is not a really enjoyable experience anyways, considering we travel by road for hours and hours at a time. We sit on our behinds, and when we get a chance to stop at a gas station, well, it's gas station food. And gas station restrooms. We eat a lot of junk food. We don't get a lot of exercise. We are having the time of our lives mentally, emotionally, spiritually even! But physically I feel icky all the time. We stopped at a small store today and to save time, Colin got us pre-made sandwiches. Mine had about half a cup of mayonnaise in it, no exaggeration. It was not very good. But when you have nothing else to eat...

The German family who travel with us are picky eaters because they have to be; 3 out of 4 of them have Celiac disease. But they also do this weird thing where they hold the food item up their heart with their right hand, and hold their left hand straight out to the side. Someone else tries to push their left arm down while they try to resist. If they cannot resist the push, the food is bad and they won't eat it. If they can resist the push, the food is good enough to eat. What??!! Has anyone ever heard of this? Sounds a little cockamamie to me.

As we drive to our next destination we see so many roadside huts that are made into little villages with wooden fences all around them. We see women balancing big tubs or heavy bags on their heads with babies strapped to their backs. Everyone is in really bright-coloured clothing and adults sit around in the shade visiting while kids play soccer and wield sticks.

We stopped in a town called Rundu before heading to Kaisosi River Lodge. Shawna and I were excited because we had decided to upgrade to an actual room! No setting up tents for 2 nights! What a way to treat ourselves! Right? Well, it was okay. The woman at reception was really unhelpful and seemed to know nothing about the establishment she worked for. The room was okay, although the bathroom didn't come with soap, which we found to be particularly inconvenient.

Our whole group had dinner together at the restaurant, and we called it a night. We relaxed in our beds (a.k.a. not tents) and fell asleep to the sounds of the Kaisosi river!

Day 16/Aug 15th

Colin made us breakfast & lunch today and we prepared for our day of leisure. I suppose that if we had been really smart we would have gone jogging or done some calisthenics, but who are we kidding. We relaxed, and it seemed to be much-needed. All that sitting on our tushes really wore us out!

We managed to catch a ride into Rundu with Colin who was replenishing our groceries, and headed to a local internet cafe. It was a rather nice establishment, but we didn't get much time there before it closed. Alas, it would have been nice to catch up on all the stories/writing, but we do what we can when we can. :)

At this point I had taken about 1000 photos and switched to a new memory card. I think I may actually run out of space! There's so much here that is photography-worthy. I'll be sure to send links to photos once I get home. There's GOT to be one or two good ones, right?

Kaisosi River Lodge is home to 2 resident peacocks, which I don't believe are endemic to the area. They were, unfortunately, the best part of that place. That night we had dinner at the restaurant again, and spent some time watching the local news afterwards in the lounge. I realized that I really have no idea what's going on at home. Normally I don't watch the news, but being "plugged-in" means that I am usually in the know. I hope that everything is okay.

Tomorrow, we are back at it. Get ready for go-go-go.

Day 17/Aug 16th

They screwed up our bill upon check-out (of course) and we were delayed leaving, which makes everyone a little stressed. We've learned that being early or ahead of schedule is fantastic, and being late or behind schedule means we put up our tent in the dark or eat dinner in the dark. And dark also means cold. So, we want to be on time. :)

We were also slowed down by many goats on the road, who don't seem very respectful of our schedule. :P We'd honk at them but animals are unpredictable and we'd have to slow down long enough to make sure that they weren't going to suddenly change direction.

Today was an important day - a border crossing. We'd leave Namibia, and enter Botswana. Everything was going more or less as planned, until another wrench was thrown our way. At the Namibian border we discovered a fairly flat tire. Good thing Colin used to work as a mechanic. Out comes the jack, the spare, and we ate lunch while he worked to save time. Fried egg sandwiches which we fed much of to a sweet & gentle dog who accepted all donations happily. I never want a fried egg sandwich again, thankyouverymuch.

In order to get to our next site, the Guma Lagoon Camp, we had to 4x4 through sand dunes and rivers. It was sketchy at times but fun - I guess that's the essence of 4x4ing. :) We arrived at the camp and immediately wished we had saved our upgrade money for THIS place which seemed much nicer and well-organized compared to Kaisosi. Ah well. Shawna and I started setting up our tent while the others trotted off to their luxury cabins.

In the middle of the tent set-up, we heard a distressing cry from the resident puppy who was whining and cowering over in the grass just behind us. The owner was cursing and yelling, trying to get ahold of the dog. Turns out the puppy had found a fishing fly in the bushes and thought it a toy. It had become embedded in his lower lip. :( I heard the owner and another staff member trying to figure out how to get it out and I ran over to help, trying to fight back tears all the while. I had to hold the dog down while they pulled it out. Poor puppy!! I was so traumatized but an hour or so later the puppy was running around wagging his tail and totally oblivious to what he'd put me through. The owner thanked me for my help and we noted how there wasn't even any visible mark. He seemed to be totally fine. I should probably not be a vet for my next career. I'd need constant therapy.

We relaxed until dinner which Colin made for us and we ate in the dining room. A bonus about Guma Lodge is that we were able to use their kitchen to cook and their dishes & cutlery. And they had a staff that did all the cleaning, so no dishes for us to do! Yay! We sat around the campfire and even roasted marshmallows. How heavenly.

Tomorrow was going to be a fantastic day.

Until then,
xo
E!

Lions and rhinos and giraffes, oh my!

2011-08-13T22:08:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

Last I wrote, we were at the Porcupine Camp. One of the great things about that camp was the outdoor showers. I had never showered by the light of the moon, looking up at the stars before! It was magical! Loved it! But, onto the next day...

Day 12/Aug 11th

There is pretty much no recycling from what we've seen. Occasionally we see a place that recycles glass or metal, but that's pretty rare and nobody seems to recycle plastic, which of course is everywhere. Plastic sucks.

We started our day by visiting a Himba village. The village is comprised of all women and children - boys aged 12 or 13 get sent to tend animals with the men, who don't spend their time at the village at all. The women do everything by themselves. They live simply, build their own shelters, grow food, take care of the children. They only cover the lower-half of their bodies and apparently they love to style their hair which looks like a form of dreadlock with clay infused into it. They encouraged us to take photos (this felt a little strange at first, it seemed so invasive), and the Himba women and children loved to see themselves on the screen. They'd actually give you a "thumbs up" sign if they liked the photo; otherwise they would ask you to re-take it so that they could pose again. The best part was when Carole & Vyv filmed the kids jumping around and goofing off for the camera, and then played it back for them. The kids all crowded around Vyv and he laughed as they shrieked with joy at seeing themselves. So cute. We were asked not to give anything to them - no handouts of any kind, but we could buy their crafts once they set-up a market. Most of us girls got a bracelet.

Then we headed to Outjo to stop in town for groceries and lunch. We tried the internet cafe in town but it was down. Soon we were off on the road again. We saw huge nests in the trees and telephone poles, and we found out that they are made by birds called social weavers, and there are sometimes a ton of them in one nest. Colin says that if it rains or gets damp, the weight of the huge nest can break the tree. There are also termite mounds everywhere.

Then we entered Etosha National Park, and our African experience was about to get a whole lot more African. Almost right away we had to stop our vehicle for a giraffe crossing. A giraffe crossing!! Those animals are so amazing and majestic. I could watch them and watch them and watch them. They are mostly skittish but we had one who just stood in the middle of the road and stared us down, as if he was saying, "you wanna go? you wanna piece of me? let's go!" We waited him out. We want no trouble.

Right on the heels of that amazing experience we drove past lions who had made a fresh kill. They weren't too close to us but you could see the sunlight glint off the blood of the dead animal they were relishing. It really reinforced for us early on the rule, "Do Not Leave Your Vehicle." Then, as we approached our camp, which is in a gated area inside the park, we had an elephant crossing. Elephants are easily my favourite African animal and I was over the moon. It was SO COOL! Can't wait to see more - and we did.

The camp set up a viewing platform at the edge of the camp (protected by barbed wire) where they had floodlights trained on the waterhole. So much action happens there at night! And there's quite a pecking order. We saw a ton of animals at the waterhole. And since the waterhole wasn't too far from our tent, and sound travels like crazy, we heard the rumblings of wild creatures all evening and as we tried to sleep. There were also jackals throughout the site and we were warned to put our shoes inside the tent or they'd be stolen by the furry little guys. They were just scavenging around, but always ran away from people. Size of a small/medium dog? Nothing worrisome anyways. We were looking forward to going "hunting" the next day. :)

Day 13/Aug 12th

We got up early and did a game drive for several hours as this can be one of the best times to see animals before it gets too hot. We saw springboks, more varied birds I've ever seen in my life, wildebeests, ostriches, ground squirrels, zebras, antelopes... none of the big game yet but it would show up.

The big 5 are as follows: Elephant, Leopard, Lion, Buffalo and Rhino. We wanted to see them all of course, and we'd already seen the Elephant and Lion. We saw Leopard if you counted Lisa the Leopard from the Conservation Center (which we didn't, really), and we still had to see Buffalo and Rhino.

I really wish I'd brought binoculars. Dumb dumb dumb.

We had lunch at the campsite, and headed to the pool where Shawna took a dip and I read my book poolside. However there were a zillion kids and before long we wanted to get out of there. So we took Carol & Vyv up on their offer to join them for drinks before dinner and had a good visit in their chalet (as they were not camping in tents at all, they were doing the full luxury package which, believe me, we wish we'd done too! Then we wouldn't have lost a tent pole - d'oh!). We went to the resort buffet for dinner, which was decent, although not much variety. Shawna and I both tried kudu meat. Not my fave.

After dinner we headed to the waterhole where quite the drama unfolded. First, two elephants clashed/crashed into each other and started a bit of a fight. Woo! The drama! Then they seemed to engage in a threat display which actually looked more like a dance where one would advance and the other would withdraw, and then the other would advance and the first one would withdraw. They went back and forth like this over and over. Quite comical. :)

Then we noticed a disturbance on the side of the waterhole and our guide, Colin, directed our attention to two female lions that were trying to attack a porcupine. Unsuccessfully. They'd approach, and the porcupine would spin around and shake his booty at them. It was loud enough to be heard across the waterhole. As predators, lions cannot afford to get injured and so they are very cautious when stalking prey. After a few failed attempts, they gave up. Lucky porcupine!

We went to sleep that night to the noises of a big male lion. Our campsite was fenced and protected, but there was national park all around us and animals everywhere. His nighttime song was kind of like a deep, catlike, staccato groan. Yeah, that's it. Sweet dreams!

Day 14/Aug 13

We started with breakfast at the campsite, before quickly packing up and heading for the other end of this huge National Park. Etosha had failed to disappoint so far, what more could we possibly be in for?

First stop was to play paparazzi to a big male lion that was lounging in the sun. Nothing quite like seeing that orange mane of hair frame his big head. Soon he caught wind of us and took off at a snail's pace, and we trekked on to see what was happening at another waterhole.

Young lions sat at the edge of the waterhole and sized up the action. Zebras and springboks and gnus all around. One lion was off like a shot, but the unwilling victims were hasty and he didn't stand a chance. It tried again, stalking, and they moved away. The prey certainly don't make the predator's job easy. Colin said that the lions were too young and were just "practice" hunting and that they would not catch anything yet. They still had to learn to work as part of a pride.

A few more stops had us viewing springbok, kudus, zebras, giraffes, and so many birds that I actually started looking up the names. I'm not normally a birder but they are SO diverse here in Africa that they're irresistible.

We stopped for lunch in Halili, a halfway point through Etosha National Park. Then we headed on to our next campsite at the other end, called Namutomi. Just before Namutomi we saw some amazing sights. First, we saw a Black Rhino right by the side of the road. We pulled up next to him, and he was totally unconcerned. Just kept eating his leaves and bushes and foliage. He posed rather nicely for several photos. :)

Then as we started down the last stretch before the campsite, we saw two giraffes standing opposite each other so that their necks made an "X" when we looked at them from a distance. It looked even romantic. However, when we got closer we saw that they were anything but amorous. Suddenly one of the big necks swung around and the giraffe used his head to hit the other one in the neck. Quickly, the other one returned the same blow. They were fighting!

Colin explained his theory: a little ways off in a distance was a smaller, presumably female, giraffe. He said that they were fighting over her. His theory seemed plausible when she started running straight at the two of them as if to break up the fighting... but then, she just ran straight past them as they turned to look at her, goggle-eyed. Sure enough, the fight was over, and they followed her into the bush. Colin made some comment about how all women act like that but we didn't let him get away with that one. :P

As we passed other tour groups we'd get the scoop on what wildlife was out there and we got a primo scoop - a cheetah mother and her two cubs were just up ahead! We hightailed it down to the best viewing spot and were just able to make out the mom and babies having an early dinner. Cheetahs have to consume their prey quickly because they often get bullied out of their kill by larger predators like hyena and lion.

We set up our tent and tried to help with dinner but remembered that Colin works better when you leave him alone since sometimes he doesn't know what he wants to cook until he's already doing it - which makes it a difficult scenario when you want to delegate. We'd love to get internet but availability is basically non-existent in these National Parks.

Until next time...
xo
E!

Losing and Gaining

2011-08-10T21:57:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

Internet has been sketchy for a while so we haven't had an opportunity to write until now. A LOT has happened. When I left you last, we were still in Swakopmund.

Day 9/Aug 8th

Shawna and I loved walking around town; we tried many different foods including biltong (kindof like beef jerky) and gelato (ummm, it was a miss). We did some shopping (most of the window-variety), enjoyed cafes, tea, and relaxed. A lot of this tour is go-go-go, so it was really nice to just chill out for a while.

That evening we had dinner at a restaurant with the whole group, and it was the best bonding we had done yet. We laughed and told stories, got to know each other and tried each other's dishes. Carol made Shawna and I try ostrich and gemsbok meat (both taste like beef), and I ordered a Camembert appetizer not realizing that it would be the entire wheel of cheese. I also had klipdrift and coke, which was recommended to me to try, but I had no idea what it actually was. I later found out that klipdrift is a type of brandy. :) Overall we had a pretty good time.

I couldn't finish my entire entree, however, and so we had it wrapped up and Colin took me and Shawna in search of someone who might like the leftovers. That kid outside the restaurant the night before was still on my mind, and if there were hungry people here, I wasn't about to throw out food. Before long we found someone, and he seemed grateful - also, Colin did it in such a way that it didn't seem like a handout, or pitiable, it just seemed like two buddies sharing good fortune.

It was still early and so the three of us decided to check out Gunter Krantz, a bar in downtown Swakopmund. We got in there and it was pretty deserted. Loud music, pool tables and foosball. We decided to play a few games of pool, both of which Colin won - although Shawna and I were doing really well against him in one game until I scratched on the 8-ball. Oops. Then we played some foosball with some local guys, who were really just humouring us since we were rather pathetic, but each of us teamed up with one of them and the teams were pretty even. Still, I am embarrassingly bad at foosball. The guys were gracious and friendly and not unnerving in any way. It was fun! But after a few games, we gave our thanks, collected Colin and headed back to our hotel for our last non-tent accommodation for a good long while.

Day 10/Aug 9th

We had breakfast at the hotel, which was included with our room, and headed out. Our first stop was the Cape Cross Seal Colony. As soon as we stepped out of the vehicle we were bombarded with the stench of the sea and thousands of sea animals. In fact, there are around 100,000 seals at that site at any particular time. They were so funny! Babies suckling, small arguments, half of them sleeping and half of them barking. Quite the chaos.

We stopped for lunch at the worst place thus far: the side of the highway, beside a garbage can that was overflowing with plastic. No restrooms - although there was a large rock that we could all take turns standing behind. Flying bugs everywhere. Bad sandwiches - fried bread, greasy egg, BLECH. Get me out of here!

Then we drove for another billion hours and we reached the valley of Brandberg Mountain and went on a tour to the famous "White Lady" rock painting. Colin mixed up his times and said it would be 45min total, but it was actually 2 hours total, in the hottest part of the day. People were not prepared. It was hiking over rocks, dusty trails, past cobra-inhabited trees, with not enough water... all to reach a very non-exciting rock painting at the end. The general feeling was that it was not worth it. You can imagine the response when Colin told us that we'd be seeing more rock paintings tomorrow.

Anyways, it wasn't so bad on the walk back because the sun had gone down and we weren't dying quite so badly. But it really took a lot out of us that day. The morale was pretty low. We were so relieved to reach our campsite and just go to bed. Once we drove up we noticed Elephant Warning signs everywhere as apparently they come through the camp quite regularly. Holy toledo!

Shawna and I figured we'd put up our tent, take a dip in the pool, eat dinner and go to bed. Well... we opened up our tent, which we had last used 3 days ago on the other side of the country, to discover that we had lost a tent pole.

Oh. My. God.

This was a fairly huge problem. The tents are very industrial; the poles hook to the outside of the tent and they are tall and of canvas construction. We had had the only one for which the tent poles were not all attached to each other. The rest of the tents couldn't lose a pole - but we got the one that could. And we did. @#$%!!

We were so tired and cranky we didn't even tell Colin until the next day. We set up a different tent (thank goodness there was one extra) and went to the pool for a dip. And a dip is all we got since it was not much of a pool. The highlight, besides being stared at by all the poolside guests (insert sarcasm here), was meeting Carlos, the resident mongoose who tooled around the pool area visiting all the people.

Dinner and bed. Figure out what to do tomorrow. We hoped...

Day 11/Aug 10th

I had nightmares all night and I don't know if it is because of the anti-malarial medication we're taking, the amount of salt in the food we're eating, or the strange animals and noises that invade our psyches. We asked Colin for a lesson in packing up our tent (which he said he'd do on the first night but never did) and we were determined to be the best tent-packers he'd ever seen. We still hadn't told him.

As we drove today we saw many Himba women on the side of the road dressed in colourful dresses and spinning around like whirling dervishes, selling their wares. We'd be visiting a traditional Himba colony tomorrow. I was really looking forward to it as these women were unlike any African peoples I'd seen thus far.

At one point we had to stop for some donkeys that were crossing the road. At first we laughed at how slowly they moved, but Colin explained that owners tied the donkeys' front legs together to keep them from getting very far. And sometimes, because they couldn't move quickly, they got hit by cars. We didn't laugh anymore. Poor donkeys.

Our first major stop was to Twyfelfontein, where we saw some more rock paintings. These ones, however, were worth the 45min trek into the rocks. The history of some of these amazing artistic renderings is stupefying. I can't believe I get to stand in the same place as someone else did so long ago. I bet none of my art will survive so long, hehe...

Then we headed to the Petrified Forest, where for me, the most interesting part was talking to our guide named Pinias. He was an older middle-aged man and he told me part of his story. He was illiterate for most of his life until he was able to take advantage of a government program and change his situation. It sounds like most people cannot get out of whatever situation they are born into, so his story was really inspiring. He now is literate and speaks more than 4 languages. He taught us about the trees, how plants were used to make perfume, and told us a story in his own language and showed us how to write. Awesome.

Camp that night was in the Porcupine Camp. By now we had told Colin about the missing tent pole, and he was great about it. We offered to pay, but he just kept saying, "we will make a plan, no worries!" We don't really know what he means by that.

The Porcupine Camp gets its name because the woman who runs it feeds the porcupines every night. She has been doing it for 5 years, and every night they come to eat carrots and apples and grub. She charges a fee, sets up a spotlight, and makes a little money off this entertainment for the tourists. She even has one that climbs up on her leg to get a treat. On one hand it was fascinating to see these nocturnal creatures up close (literally 10 inches from me), and she was obviously really knowledgeable as we got educated about everything to do with them. However, it made me feel slightly disgusted that wild animals were turned into a circus show for tourists.

So many things are like that here - I'm curious, fascinated, amazed and interested, all the while feeling disgusted, guilty, helpless. I'm never sure if what I am doing is right - but aside from the moral issue, I'm certainly getting an education. And that's what I do feel is important.

Until the next installment... :)
xo
E!

Pumbaa, TAB Cola, Dune 45 and Swakopmund

2011-08-08T11:41:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! :)

As we drive along these desert roads, we see many interesting things.
We've had to stop for an ostrich crossing, a train crossing, a goat crossing, a springbok crossing, and my all-time favourite, a warthog crossing. The warthogs were so funny!! They look exactly like Pumbaa from the Lion King. They were hilarious, I could watch them all day; they are my African version of weinerdogs, ha!

We also pass desert shantys, which are not unlike the ones we saw outside of Cape Town, except that they have no electricity and they look even more primitive, if that were possible. We get stared at a lot by the children, but when you smile at them and they smile back, it melts you. They love to wave at us in our truck as they play alongside the highway with their rocks or tires or soccer balls.

On Day 5 we went to Ai-Ais, which is home to hot springs. We had lunch, lounged by the pool, and took in the local wildlife (lizards and bugs, hehe). Then we headed to our camp. We had a special dinner planned for that evening! We went to Fish River Canyon which is the 2nd largest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon. It was indeed impressive. We even made our dinner up there on the picnic tables after doing a little hike along the trail. It might have been the windiest meal of saltiest spaghetti that I have ever eaten. Every meat dish Colin prepares seems to have a ton of salt in it, and the meat quality is poor. But I'm not complaining, I love the veggies and the rice and the pasta and most of the other stuff. Mostly.

Driving on dirt roads is like sitting in an automated massage chair for 4-6 hours at a time. And you'd think that would be good, but it's not so much. Especially when you need to use the facilities and there is not even a bush in sight - we are talking DESERT. Miles and miles of nothing, and nowhere to hide.

When we do get to stop for rest breaks at fuel stations or coffee shops, there are some things that I've noticed. For example, do you remember TAB Cola? They have that everywhere here; I swear I haven't seen that since the 80's. And they also have Pine Nut Pop. And they have Minute Maid "Breakfast Blend" drink - who knows what that is.

They also have tons of Rooibos tea and apple crumble. And the washrooms have actually been okay for the most part, sometimes even better than gas stations back home. People are friendly. Overall it's pretty nice.

Ohboy the weather. This is Africa's winter and so it is very extreme. At night it is extremely cold - not what we were expecting. We put on our fleeces and long johns and double-up our socks and toques and get in the sleeping bags and grab extra blankets when we can and it's STILL cold. And when we get up in the morning it's still that way - and if it's windy, a million times worse. When we arrived at the Canon Road House Campsite on Day 5 we had our coldest night yet. We froze our little patooties off!

The next day we were off to the Hammerstein Lodge; we were staying there for 2 nights. When we got there we went on a "cat walk" where we got to walk through some cages of Caracals and Cheetahs - and got to see a Leopard named Lisa. The cheetahs were cool and I got to pet one, which was awesome. The other cats were not approachable, but still amazing and majestic. In the camp there was also a tame springbok named Daisy who head-butted you if you tried to pet her. Carol figured that out rather quickly.

Day 7 we had a very early start from camp. It was dark and windy and we were frozen trying to eat breakfast and clean up at 6am. But we powered through and headed out to Sossusvlei, which is the site of the world's highest sand dunes. They are up to 350m tall and a deep red colour. We first did a drive into the dunes with Colin, and he took us down to the Dead Vlei (Lake). The Dead Vlei has got to be a total highlight for me so far - it was spectacular! Surrounded on all sides by red sand dunes, the white, dry lake floor was parched and housed petrified trees everywhere. Have you seen the movie The Cell with Jennifer Lopez? Scenes were filmed there - the visuals are fantastic.

It's no small feat to get to the Dead Vlei, though - it was like a 5km roundtrip hike, up and down hills of sand, in the scorching sun, and with a sandstorm filling your eyes, ears, mouth, shoes... it was not fun. Some crazy people brought their babies through that mess to get to the Vlei, and the poor things were screaming as the sand beat down on their unprotected faces. I felt so bad for them. Getting hit over and over with sand is like a thousand tiny little needles. I put sunscreen on before I left but of course I burned and had a touch of sunstroke to boot - felt rather sick the rest of the day. Stupid sun! (Stupid me)

And if *that* feat wasn't enough for people, there is also one dune, 250m, that you are allowed to climb, called Dune 45. Well there was no bloody way I was climbing that thing after the hike we just did. Shawna did, though, and so did the German dad (Peter) and his teenage son (Pascal). Kudos to them (although they are still nuts in my book). ;)

When we got back to Hammerstein Lodge we managed to grab the girl who did our catwalk tour yesterday and get her to take the two of us back to the cheetah enclosure so that Shawna could get her chance for a pat and a photo. Pretty cool. We rounded out our night with a fireside dinner, campfire, and drinks at the lodge. At this point Shawna & I were looking forward to the next 2 nights, which we would get to spend in a hotel along with everyone else, woot!

The drive yesterday (Day 8) was long and hot. It's hard to regulate temperature in the LandCruiser when some people want windows open, and some don't. We stopped in a small town called Solitaire where we had Rooibos tea and apple crumble (again), and then drove on until we reached the signs at the Tropic of Capricorn. Cool! Can't say that I have passed many geographical markers in my travels.

Then we stopped for a seaside lunch in Walvis Bay. It was the best location for lunch so far. We pulled up our chairs along the beach and commented on the jellyfishes we found along the shore. It wasn't very hot and it was very enjoyable. Once we got to Swakopmund, Colin drove us around town for a city tour and we also had a chance to book excursions for the next day. Shawna and I really wanted to do hot-air ballooning but the prices would have been about $400CDN and that was just too much for this trip.

We all went our own ways for dinner and Shawna & I decided on an Italian themed restaurant named Napolitana. On our way in, we were approached by a small child (maybe 8 yrs?) who asked if we would bring him our leftovers. I was highly disturbed by this because I am used to homeless asking for money, not children asking for food. Of course we agreed to do so, and I couldn't stop thinking about him all night - in fact I still haven't. But alas, when we were done, he was nowhere to be found - there are security guards all around town, and since this is a really nice place, they are employed to chase the "undesireables" away from tourists. Colin says that homelessness and starvation is not a big problem here because villages are so far away. He says that the kids are runaways and that they just take handouts and become dependent, but I don't know if he is glossing over a larger problem. Still, it weighs on me a bit.

Our server at the restaurant was funny. When we asked to split the bill, he ripped it straight down the middle and wrote T.I.A. at the top of each piece: "This Is Africa!" He stayed and talked with us about movies and other random topics until we eventually realized that he thought we were German. Huh?

Day 8 and Day 9 (today) are the only days until the end of the tour that we get to stay in a hotel like everyone else. It is so nice to have a bed, an ensuite and an included breakfast! Today is a day of leisure, so we are basically relaxing for the first time. It is SO NICE. We slept in, we chatted, we took our time over breakfast, it was lovely. Now we are going to walk around this very modern German town and do some shopping and see what we see. Tomorrow we leave for the Cape Cross Seal Colony and Brandberg Mountain.

Until my next internet access!
Hope all is well at home - I don't always have time to reply to your messages, but I love hearing from you so keep 'em coming. :) Helps my homesickness.
xo
E!

And so begins the tour of Africa

2011-08-03T11:35:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

When I left you last we were at the hotel in Cape Town just about to meet our tour group, and tour guide, Colin.

There are 11 of us total. The next morning (Monday) we packed all our stuff into a type of Toyota Landcruiser that I had never seen before. We pile all our gear on the roof, and we climb in the windows (which pivot at the top) to get in the seats. We also tow a trailer that houses a fridge and freezer, as well as the rest of the gear.

Before leaving this part of South Africa, Colin takes us to Table View which is a boardwalk by the water by which we can see the whole city of Cape Town with Table Mountain in the background. It's very beautiful and impressive. Then we go to a mall for a quick break - where Shawna and I bought hoodies, bottled water and candy - all of which end up being very handy.

We stopped at a gas station along our way and had lunch - sandwiches and drinks. Colin told us about the campsite that we'd be arriving at that night. He warned us that a wolf lives there and we should not interact with it. Ummm... huh? Sure enough, after a few hours of driving we arrive at the Gecko Creek Campsite and there's a sign, "Beware of Wolf." He sure doesn't look much like a wolf at first, since he's so plainly happy to have visitors. He is wagging his tail and giving a puppy dog look. But once you get a little closer you see that this thing is HUGE. He kinda looks like a Husky but way more muscular. He's a Husky on stereoids. Anyways, it's hard, but we don't interact with him. Later on, we get a little more information from the manager, who says, "he loves people, and he welcomes everyone into his pack, but his pack has a hierarchy, and you are at the bottom." This is further illustrated by "Wolf Rules" that say things like, "if you drop food on the ground when the wolf is near, do not pick it up - just back away slowly."

We have some time to relax on site which is nice because this Gecko Creek Campsite is really beautiful - way better than I was expecting. There are swings and chairs and hammocks, a pool with a bar, a fire pit, a barbeque, a kitchen area and decent showers. It was way better than any provincial park site I've stayed at, that's for sure. :)

Colin makes us dinner on most nights and that first night he made chicken, rice and mixed veggies. Colin has one heck of a time being our cook because out of 10 people, 5 of them have special dietary requirements. Shawna doesn't have dairy, Yvonne is vegetarian, and the 3 guys in the German family all have Celiac disease. This makes it really hard on Colin and especially since he only gets a certain budget; some of those diets are expensive to support. It also means that the rest of us get what we get!

After dinner we went to the fire pit and relaxed around the fire in, of course, bean bag chairs. We looked up at the stars and I can't believe how many there are. How come we don't have that many stars? The sky is filled with stars here, I can't find any constellations since it's so overwhelming! We are exhausted from our day on the road and head to bed early.

The next morning (Tuesday), we have breakfast, pack up our stuff and leave camp. We have a long day of driving ahead of us - over 500km and we're crossing the border into Namibia. We have to rotate positions in the Landcruiser because there are good and not-so-good spots. We drive and drive and drive. After several hours we pull over at a rest stop (like our rest stops but no washrooms) and have lunch. Colin pulls out a table, enough chairs for everyone and we start making sandwiches. He also made a salad out of last night's rice that, despite my skepticism, was really rather tasty. It had mint peas in it, rice, carrots, mayonnaise, onion and tomato. Sound strange? It actually tasted rather good. I was starting to have faith in Colin's cooking abilities. :)

We stopped in a town called Springbok not long after where we went to a grocery store. What I notice about the landscape leading up to the cities is that there are orange orchards everywhere. Orange vendors, orange trees, and now in Springbok, orange hawkers. They pleasantly harass us on the streets, trying to get us to buy bags of oranges. It's one of the big crops here it seems.

We motor on. Eventually we reach the South African/Namibian border crossing. First we have to get out and get our passports stamped to say we leave S.A., then we drive a little further to get out and get admitted to Namibia. All goes without incident. We marvel at the Orange River which is the natural border between the two countries. And no, it isn't orange - maybe that refers to the local crops?

We head to our campsite which is quite close. Shawna & I are the only two out of the group who are doing the full-camping option. Everyone else either has all cabins or half-and-half. So we set up our tent and try to help Colin out with preparing dinner. Have to say, it wasn't so good this time. Plain polenta (looks like mashed potatoes, fooled us into taking a lot), some kind of very salty BBQd meat, and spinach with peanut butter sauce. The peanut butter sauce wasn't real peanut butter, either. It was "caramel crunch" peanut butter. Not totally hideous, but not good. Not like gomae. Sigh - maybe this food thing is going to be hit-and-miss.

Early to bed. Breakfast this morning (Wednesday) was good (toast, eggs, sauteed veggies), and we headed off for the day's excursion on the Orange River. Yes that's right - we were spending a half day canoeing down the river for 20 kms. Good thing I'm an expert now, huh? Shawna and I were rock stars. :) We did well, and had no problem with the 4 sets of rapids we had to paddle through. We stopped early for lunch on the bank, and the bugs were crazy. The only relief you got from them was paddling, so our break wasn't too long. I thought I was being vigilant with suncreen, but apparently not good enough - I burned nearly everywhere that I had left exposed, which wasn't much: backs of my hands, cheeks, lips, nose. I was probably the most covered of everyone and still... how annoying. This African sun is gonna be tough to manage.

I was glad when the canoeing was done so we could get away from those bugs. We showered, did laundry, and discovered the business center - yay.

Tomorrow we are off on the road again. :)
Hope all is well at home,
xo
E!

Robben Island, High Tea, Wine Tours and Shanty Towns

2011-07-31T17:32:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

So Shawna arrived late with tales of drunken passengers getting thrown off her flight (no, not while in the air - although THAT would be a story!) and an emergency landing in Paris for a man who had a heart attack. Anyways, it wasn't the peaceful flight that I seemed to have had.

We stayed up late talking and then of course, seeing as how I napped earlier in the day, I couldn't sleep all night long. Thank you jet lag! And we were up n' at 'em pretty early because we had plans for Cape Town. We headed down to the waterfront, which is gorgeous, and took a ferry to Robben Island. Other than the huge waves and fighting off seasickness, it was a nice little ride.

We got to the island and they were a little disorganized and we didn't know where to go. We eventually got sorted and we started our tour with an ex-political prisoner named Jama. He toured us around the prison blocks and spoke about each section, the restrictions, pointed out where Nelson Mandela was kept, etc. He had been at Robben Island himself for 5 years. When I had a chance to ask, he said that he needed to work at the island (now a museum) to make a living, and if he had his choice, he'd never go back there again. Understandable. I can't imagine going back to a prison where my life was taken away, and giving tours like it was some kind of circus show. However, he did a great job, and he was very interesting to listen to. I learned much and I was really appreciative of his role.

The next part of our tour of the island was on a bus and they took us around to see the different buildings and areas. There was a leper cemetery and the limestone quarries where Mandela worked every day. Apparently the limestone dust damaged his tear ducts and he can no longer cry naturally. Maybe I should pursue a future career in limestone? Haha. The lady that was commentating on the bus for us was not an ex-prisoner but she was also very well-spoken and interesting to listen to. I was totally rapt, as was Shawna. They did a very good job. At one point she was naming some ex-prisoners and they had that funny click in the middle of their name which made me think of that Russell Peters sketch and I started giggling. Can't take me anywhere...

So once we're back from our hotel we arrange to have High Tea at the Mount Nelson 5-star hotel which is conveniently located right behind where we are staying. Shawna's idea - and I was totally up for it. Neither of us, however, really have anything suitable to wear since we have packed for a camping trip. Our "nice" clothes are not really all that nice - at least mine, anyways. But we don't let us hold us back and when we walk through the front of the hotet to be seated, we try to ignore how non-hoity-toity we are. We'll never see these people again, right? We'll show them our sophistication with our good Canadian manners, right? Well...

We get seated and given a tea menu. There are like 50 teas, most of which come with a description that makes your mouth water until you remember it's just tea. We order, and then get up to partake in the delicious buffet. There are sweets, there are savouries, and they are ALL fancy-schmancy. Really - it was exciting. They have silver platters and silver tongs to pick everything up with, it was so formal. What is not so formal is having the tongs slip, and the item you were trying to pick up, hit the chef across the buffet table who is talking to a fancy-schmancy guest. You know that scene in Pretty Woman? Yeah, it was like that. Except for the fact that Shawna & I dissolved into giggles. The chef pretty much pretended like it didn't happen, which made it seem even funnier. Leave it to me to throw food at the 5-star buffet.

The best were the cucumber sandwiches. I could have eaten 10 of them.

After that, we could barely move so we came back to the hotel to take a nap, which of course turned into a little longer than it should have been. Jet lag is still winning the battle at this point. :) We rounded out our evening with a late snack/dinner for me, and a movie before bed. It was set in Brazil with Timothy Olyphant where a group of Americans get led stray into the rainforest and then taken hostage to have their organs harvested. Anyone heard of this one? I don't need to tell you how our dreams went...

This morning (Sunday), we embarked on a half-day wine tour. First we were picked up at our hotel and we drove 30 minutes out of Cape Town. Along the way, our driver pointed out the conference centers and hospitals, and schools, and the architecture, and recounted a little bit of the history. He says that in South Africa, there are 80% blacks, 10% whites, 7% coloureds and 3% asian & indians. Coloureds??!! I don't know why, but I was inwardly wincing every time he said that word. A South African couple on the tour with us say that "coloured" is not a derogatory term at all, it is totally neutral like "black" or "white." Still, didn't feel right to me, although I guess that's the way it is here.

What made me feel even worse were the shanty towns we passed along the highway. I had seen something like them in movies of course, and I never thought that they didn't exist, but I didn't think it would be so BAD and I didn't know I would be confronted with so many millions of people barely even living like that. I suddenly felt disgusted that we were going on a wine tour. I felt so helpless and sad, and Shawna was upset by it too. I tried to get photos on the way back but I don't think any turned out since we were moving. I don't know how to describe it. A slum, basically. Metal shacks, garbage everywhere, people defecating beside the road, random cows wandering about (eating garbage), kids playing amidst it all. It went on for kilometers and kilometers, and when the township ended, it wasn't long before we encountered another one. Our driver said there were 4 or 5 shanty towns like that. It made me so depressed.

He also said that education is not free, and that's part of the problem. I am struck over and over again about how lucky I am.

So, back to the life of the privileged. We had a wine & cheese tasting at one winery, and another tasting at another winery. I am not much into wine (even on a Sunday morning at 10am, ha!) but I certainly enjoyed the cheese. Shawna doesn't eat cheese so I had double! :) Then we had a few extra minutes so our driver stopped at a conservation center where they house cheetahs! And you can go inside and pet the cheetahs! Isn't that nuts/totally cool?!! We totally would have done it except we didn't have the time; there was a fairly long lineup of people wanting to have a personal encounter. Too bad, since there will be no petting of cheetahs or any other animal once we start our tour. Ah well.

We then toured Stellenbosch city, South Africa's second oldest city next to Cape Town. Dutch influence everywhere, including the architechture and the language. Afrikaans was on all the street signs, and there was an Afrikaans university there as well. I noticed that this town was mainly full of caucasian people. I think it was actually rich people, who just happen to be mostly white.

When we got back from the half-day tour we were famished. So we headed down the street from our hotel and found a nice little restaurant across the street from the sushi place. Our lunch disappeared rather quickly, I'd say. :) Then we went walking - first inadvertently to the Garden Shopping Center, and then we found our way to The Company's Gardens, which is basically like a huge park and historical buildings all around. Reminded me of Hyde Park in London. Then we walked to the Castle of Good Hope, and the District Six museum, but it was closed. So, we headed back to our hotel. We're rather exhausted.

Tonight we have a meeting with our camping tour guide, and we take off tomorrow in the Land Cruiser on our trip! Sorry for this incredibly long email - but after we're on the road who knows when you'll hear from me...

Hope all is well. Count your blessings today and every day, we are the privileged people in this world, it's true! Nowhere is better than Beautiful British Columbia!!
xo
E!

Cape Town

2011-07-29T18:28:00.000-07:00

Hello all

Here I am in Africa, for the second time. Although it really feels like I am here for the first time, since everything is so different than my last experience.

The flight to London went well, I sat in the Emergency Exit row next to a lovely woman and her daughter. I wasn't, however, able to get a wink of sleep. That was not too fun since it was basically a red-eye. Once arrived in London I headed to my hotel for a shower & blissful 4.5 hours sleep before heading back to Heathrow. Another red-eye to Cape Town. The gentleman sitting next to me was pleasant enough, although his English was difficult to understand sometimes (he was German), and he was rather large and sometimes unmeaningly encroached on my personal space.

The flight to Cape Town was pretty good, actually. I watched some TV, and saw some movies (Invictus, of course), and this time I took a sleeping pill to get some rest. Worked great. Even the food on South African Airways was the best I'd had yet (sorry, Air Canada). I did find it strange that there were anti-smoking advisories everywhere but there were still cigarette ashtrays installed. And in the bathroom, the toilet paper was embossed with puppies. You had to look closely but yes, puppies on the toilet paper.

Soon I was all landed and they were happy to let me in. :) I was picked up at the airport by a man with a white piece of paper with my name handwritten on it. That was kind of cool. Um, sortof. I made sure that he was legit before I went anywhere with him, and we had a lovely conversation all the way to my hotel. I find that the English here takes some getting used to; both myself and everyone I talk to has to repeat themselves every other sentence or so. The driver, whose name was Nevr, would not respond to things with "oh?" or "oh ya?" -- he would instead say "is it?" Kinda threw me off a bit, heh.

So I had a nap once I got in here to the hotel, and now I am waiting for Shawna to arrive; she should be here sometime in the next 3-4 hours I think. It's 6:20pm S.A. time, so that's not too long to wait. I already had dinner which involved me venturing out on my own (gasp!) down to the end of the block. The guy at the front desk said twice, to hold onto my camera because I look a lot like a tourist, and somebody could swipe it. Probably a purse with a camera in it would be better. I would be lost without my camera!

There were some people yelling in the street so I just went in the first cafe I could find and it turned out to be sushi. Well, we are on the coast here, so it should be good, right? I ordered a couple of things and when she brought two of everything she explained that it was 2 for 1 until 5pm. Sheesh! No stranger to a lot of sushi at home, but do I want to be eating twice as much of it here? Who knows. Hopefully it sits well. Probably not my best choice for my first Cape Town meal.

The internet here is sketchy and keeping cutting out. Hopefully you get this!
Hope all is well,
xo
E!

Day 7 - Babcock Lake, Skoi Lake, Spectacle Lakes, Swan Lake & Bowron Lake

2011-07-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

Today we portaged along Babcock Creek so that we would miss plummeting down the huge Cariboo Falls we saw yesterday. We left early to avoid any weather issues, but the best laid plans...

Initially we made very good time on the water. I was paddling with Adam in the stern, and I had pretty much perfected the forward stroke at this point. A previous rotator cuff injury in my left shoulder had left me a little concerned about today's paddle, and what do you know, it turns out I wasn't doing the forward stroke as efficiently as I could have. Who knew? Well, Adam did. He was a great help and motivator for me. By the time I was running like a well-oiled machine, I couldn't feel even as much as a twinge in my shoulder. Amazing what proper form does!

We had beautiful weather, and it was sunny and calm. That is, until somebody looked back over our shoulder and saw a huge storm approaching us. Ohboy, does that ever put the wind in your sails! Sure enough, a lightning storm hit the lakes. The protocol for a storm is to get off the water, and wait it out. Luckily it was not directly overhead, it was more in the mountains to our left. Still, that kind of thing can shift and change at any moment, and if it does, you don't want to be the highest point on the lakes, holding a metal-shafted paddle. Eep! We paddled along the shore, fighting wind and impending rain, always ready to make a move to safety if necessary. It was exciting and stressful.

The storm passed on our left and soon we were paddling in clear and calm weather again. We came around a bend to a special treat: a baby moose and its mama. We just sat, and relaxed, and watched them for a while. We felt so privileged to be able to be in their world for a few moments. The cameras were flying, and everyone was pretty dead silent. The wildlife really came out after that. We were accompanied by an eagle who flew circles around us as we continued our paddle down the lakes. We also saw a mama duck with a group of babies swimming around her. It was incredibly special.

We took a short hiatus at a site for a bathroom break (turns out I was the only one, eep!), and as we pulled up we noticed another rainstorm headed our way. You can imagine how fast people got moving. Being rained upon is a great motivator! Doug was yelling at us, Adam was pushing to move, and you could feel the urgency in the group. Everyone wanted to get to our campsite.

Once we arrived at our site (#50), we had a discussion and a decision to make. We could set-up camp for the day and stay our last night as planned, or we could soldier on. The rest of the paddling would take us to the end of the trip, although it would be several more hours. Most people wanted to go ahead, myself included, even though I was already exhausted. We just felt like we were on a roll, and even though it probably meant spending money on a hotel room for the night, it sounded really attractive.

We ate some lunch and some people switched partners. I was now paddling with Peter in the stern. We headed off to begin the last few hours of paddling, which turned out to be harder than I thought. Peter & I were the last boat to launch, and the sweep boat (with Laureen & Doug) were waiting for us. Everyone else was ahead of us, but I was enjoying myself too much to care. We paddled through the end of the lake and into a marshy area, where we came upon another treat! A young moose bathing in the river. He kept his eye on us, all the while giving us a show. It was pretty majestic.

Anyone who has ever been out of their element physically knows how hard it is to push yourself and work as hard as you can to catch up to your group, only to have them push off again and leave you behind as you struggle to catch your breath. That's what the last leg was like for our 2 boats. We worked hard to catch up, and our group who had had a nice little break & snack while waiting for us, were rested and ready to go once we arrived. We never really got a chance for a break, and it showed. It was incredibly frustrating, actually. But, people were spurred on to reach the end, and it also looked like some more inclement weather was headed our way.

And so it was, and in full-force, too. Our two boats got blown apart from the group as they paddled away from us. We were in super-choppy water with a heavy headwind. At first it was distressing that the rest of our group seemed to be such small specks on the horizon (we had so far to go!), but we supported each other, talked and encouraged. There was no point in despairing when there was work to do! Nobody's going to get you out of this except yourself! And so we re-started that well-oiled machine and hunkered down. Soon enough we re-joined our group, and finally, we all took a break together at the shore side.

The last bit of paddling took us down Bowron Lake and to the beginning where we started. We cheered a little as we hauled our boats out of the water, and did our last portage to the parking lot. We packed up gear, cleaned up garbage, hoisted canoes back onto people's vehicles, changed into different clothes, and finally met as a group with Lance for a short & sweet presentation of certificates. Yes, I got certified! My certificate says that I have successfully completed the Recreational Canoeing Association of BC's Paddler's Course as a Basic Tandem, Advanced Tandem and Tripping Paddler. Woohoo! Yay me.

All of us except two drove to Quesnel and had dinner at Boston Pizza. It was the best food I'd had in my life! Then Quina, Erin and I drove to Williams Lake and stayed in the Coast Hotel where I had the best shower in my life! And then the best sleep of my life on the best bed!

The biggest thing that I came out of this trip with is a huge sense of gratitude. I'm so grateful that I could do this trip. Out of all 14 participants, everyone had either done the trip before, was an camping/outdoor enthusiast, or was fairly athletic. I fit in none of those categories, and I didn't let it stop me. I was able to succeed with the support of my friends and colleagues. The fact that it was a struggle at times has given me confidence about what I am able to accomplish, and more importantly, the great things that can happen when people come together and support one another. I'm proud to work in a district where there are opportunities like this for kids, and I feel like I can be an advocate where I couldn't be before.

I am also grateful for the clean drinking water we have at home, the relative absence of mosquitoes, the fresh food and vegetables I have available to me, and have a total appreciation for pioneers and settlers to this country. My little trip doesn't even begin to touch the hardship, struggle and strife they must have encountered.

My deepest gratitude goes out to my colleagues and friends from this trip. It was an experience like none other, and I'll never forget it!

(Day 7 photos here.)

Day 6 - Lanezi Lake, Sandy Lake, Cariboo River, Unna Lake & Rum Lake

2011-07-12T17:36:00.000-07:00

This morning we not only left uber-early to avoid that crazy wind we saw yesterday, but we weren't quiet about taking down camp! You see, the aforementioned individuals at the neighbouring shelter were up rather late, and they were definitely hooting & hollering. So, we figured it was kind of payback. So there, you hooligans! Take that! :)

And we were off. Today I paddled with Peter in the stern. There was very little wind and we were glad to have left early. We paddled through some very marshy areas with a sharp eye, looking for the elusive wildlife. At one point, Peter, who is in a men's choir, and Laureen, who is also a singer, started singing the most beautiful melody. It was amazing and lovely, and somehow totally suited for our surroundings. That is, until the rest of the group (who were ahead of us) started yelling at our boats to shut up. They were more keen on not scaring away any possible moose or bears - everyone wanted to try out their new photography tips! ;)

Once we were all together, Adam organized our boats into a star-shape and we did a reflection activity. It was nice to just sit, relax, and think about all we had accomplished so far. Much of this trip was go-go-go, and this was a nice change. At least it was nice until the mosquitoes found us. Once we were targeted, our quiet reverie was consistently interrupted by somebody slapping away a bug. Then it was more like a drum circle. :P

We paddled on. Through the lakes and rivers, and over to a lovely group site (#42) at the edge of Rum Lake. Rum Lake was extremely beautiful, and people were angling for a swim by this point, given that none of us had showered in many days. So we set-up camp, ate some lunch, and then had a quick dip in very cold water. It felt great! Later on we discovered that it had leeches. Yup, leeches. Good thing that it was a very quick swim!

After a little relaxing, we took a side-trip to Cariboo Falls, another waterfall area which we would be avoiding with a portage tomorrow. We paddled across Rum Lake and Unna Lake, and hiked a trail down to Cariboo Falls. They were huge! They made the previous falls we saw look rather puny. It was a monster waterfall. It rained a little bit, but not much, and it stopped after not too long. And really, rain wasn't daunting me much anymore after making it through Day 1 and 2.

Once we got back to camp, we soon had guests! The local rangers (who looked to be just out of highschool) came by on their jet boat and chatted with us for a bit. They mainly wanted to know about the rowdy hooligans who'd stayed next to us yesterday. Apparently other campers had made complaints about them as well. It was nice to chat with those guys and see some fresh faces.

Once we finished eating dinner, Quina gave her presentation to the group: How to Make Bannock. She explained how bannock came about, and then made it for everyone in our group. The treat was that she had brought some bona fide maple butter with her, all the way from Quebec! It was good before, but it was even more delicious with that maple butter. YUM.

Soon after we had our treat, Jeff gave his presentation on Giardia aka "Beaver Fever." It was just wonderful to hear about how this little organism gets in your system and reproduces, all the while causing havoc and pain. It was ICK - not that Jeff minded - he's a science guy. It was rather informative and interesting, but it had all of us questioning our water purification techniques. I think after that presentation, Quina & I filtered, boiled AND treated our water. Too bad we got that presentation on Day 6.

Once we gathered around the fire, Peter did his workshop. He taught us traditional songs from Barkerville and the area. I wish I could remember the names of them! He had us singing in 3-part harmony around the fire; it was really neat. It really added to the feeling and the ambiance of the area. Plus, we just had fun together singing and laughing. Another great day ended with hot chocolate, and wonderful people.

(Day 6 photos are here.)

Day 5 - Isaac River, McLeary Lake, Cariboo River & Lanezi Lake

2011-07-11T13:23:00.000-07:00

Today started with a portage along the Isaac River, which was about 1.6 km. We stopped at the waterfall for lunch; we were able to hike along the end of the trail and get pretty close to take some photos and enjoy a few bites.

Then we had a short paddle (0.5 km) and then another short portage (0.2 km). Then we were onto McLeary Lake. Adam was in the stern, and I in the bow. After a bit of paddling (1.5 km), the lake turned into the Cariboo River, which we paddled for 8 km.

Not that you paddle much on rivers, mind you. Many of our group say that Day 5 was their favourite day because it was so peaceful. The river currents pretty much just take you along, and you only have to do minor corrections to stay on the right path. There are a few times when you need to work hard to fight against the current, but they are worth the rest of the time on the river. You also cover a lot of ground on the river, because it's doing all the work for you - so it can go pretty fast.

One of the bow person's jobs is to watch for trees and logs and other obstructions coming up in the path of the boat. The stern person has to steer, and so they rely on the bow person to yell "deadhead" (large tree or stick coming straight up from the bottom) or "sweep" (a long-reaching item coming out from the shore) if they need to change course. This is even more important on a river since you're moving quite fast. If you get a hole in your boat, you're pretty much done for. On the trip we saw several destroyed/ruined/abandoned boats.

By the time we got to the end of Cariboo River, it had become quite windy. And not at our backs, either. We still had 4 km of Lanezi Lake to cover before we'd reach our campsite and we were fighting the whole way. It was exhausting!

Adam remembered that there was a shelter next to the campsite, and we were hoping to get there but once we arrived, we saw that it was taken by a bunch of young men. This was sorely disappointing since there were 14 of us and we surely would have utilized that space better than the 4 of them. Adam volunteered to go and check out the situation at the shelter while our group set-up camp. And who is paddling with Adam? You guessed it.

The waves were huge by this time due to that crazy wind and we were seeing some whitecaps. We had a very short paddle to do (the shelter was next door to our campsite but was separated by a creek, so we couldn't walk there), but it was tumultuous! It was, honestly, totally fun! That might have been the most fun I had in a canoe in the whole trip. When the waves are bouncing you around like that, you have to stay really loose in your hips and counter-balance your weight. It was a little mini ab-workout! The short trip was fun, but I can't imagine what it'd be like to paddle in that all day.

So Adam & I approach these guys who are in the shelter area, and they are not terribly forthcoming, but neither are they unfriendly. We scope the area out, confirm that they are using up the whole space (d'oh!), and head back to our canoe - choppy waves to be conquered yet again. Strangely, those guys show up at OUR camp not too long later - a couple of them are just wandering around, looking at our stuff. This rather bothers Doug, who approaches them with an axe in hand, and demands to know what they were looking for. They answer with "a piece of wood that might have floated down here" or something else as ridiculous. Some of us are convinced that they were sussing out our camp to see if there were things to steal. Nothing came of it, though, and besides, we grossly outnumbered them. And they don't have Doug on their side!

Each of us on this trip was asked to present a workshop during the trip. The workshop could be on any topic related to this expedition. Doug gave us information about Bear & Cougar Safety, Penny forwarded information about the History of Bowron Lakes, etc. My workshop of choice was Beginner's Photography Tips. Given that most of the people on the trip had small, point & shoot cameras, I gave a few suggestions about composition, how to manipulate the flash, how to focus (depth of field), what makes a photo interesting, basic technical tips, and showed a few examples. I think it went well enough, although if you know me, you know that I hate presenting because I get terribly nervous. However at this point people had seen me at my worst, so really... how much worse could it get? ;)

Then Ed did his presentation on compass & mapping. Soon afterwards we headed to bed, because we were leaving uber-early to avoid the headwind the next day. I think the wake-up call was to be 5am or something almost as painful. After we got in our tents and invested some time in killing the mosquitoes who managed to join us, we drifted off to dream of another amazing day on the water!

(Day 5 photos here.)

Day 4 - Isaac Lake (is big)

2011-07-10T19:39:00.000-07:00

Today we paddled the rest of Isaac Lake. It was a fairly long paddle, coming in at 16.5 km. I was in the stern this time, with Adam in the bow. Time to put my thinking cap on!

Every day sometime near the beginning of our paddle, Lance would bring us together in a group and teach us how to do more specialized canoe strokes. In addition to the J-stroke, the pry, the draw, the forward stroke, the scull and the sweep, we also learned the Canadian stroke and the pitch stroke. In fact, I am certain we learned more strokes than that - I just can't remember.

No rain today. Amazing views. Just check out the photos if you don't believe me! Today I was truly feeling the gratitude of having the opportunity to do this trip. It wasn't like Day 1 and 2 never happened, but it sure made it seem more and more worth it.

We paddled by a huge waterfall and I briefly joked with Adam about how I wanted to get out of the boat and get my photo taken on the rocks at the bottom. I quickly retracted that though, and to our amazement two of our group had the same idea. We watched as Roj and Erin got out of their respective canoes and climbed up the rocks.

And kept climbing. Waitaminute, where are they going? Apparently the photo ops from higher up were more desirable, but once they finished their poses, it became clear that coming down again would be no easy feat. I was imagining all sorts of horrors and Adam was getting nervous as well. From where we were sitting we could see that their footing was very slippery and the rockface was steep. Suddenly this didn't seem like such a great idea after all. I was glad I wasn't up there with them!

Their athletic prowess served them well, however, and perhaps luck also played a part. They made it down pretty much unscathed. Talk about drama! Yikes!

Before arriving at each campsite, we needed to stop at a woodpile and pick up our firewood for the night. The woodpile sites were not often near the campsites, and seeing as how we didn't want to leave camp once we got there, that meant everyone made the pit stop on the way. It basically meant pulling up to a bank (designated with a large sign with a "W" on it), the bow person clambered out of the boat, and hiked off to find the woodpile. In the meantime the stern person usually needed to pull out of the bank to let other canoes in. Then we rotated back around to pick up our bow person and the (hopefully dry) firewood they brought back with them. It was like a slow-moving traffic jam. By the last day, we had it pretty coordinated but the first few times it seemed a bit of a gong show.

Today I was in the stern, so Adam got out of the boat, found the woodpile and hucked a bunch of semi-dry logs into our boat. I had to navigate the canoe by myself without his help, which wasn't too hard since I didn't have to go too far. It was kind of fun, actually.

Arriving at camp (#28/29) this time was great because the group campsite was located right beside the group shelter - you know, the covered area with a stove and picnic tables. This was especially handy and made meal-making an enjoyable and social time. Inside the shelter are all sorts of graffiti & notes and mementos left by previous paddlers. Hanging from the boughs and the ceiling are hand-carved paddles and canoes that people inscribe with their names and dates. They were everywhere at this shelter! It was really neat. We had fun reading the stories people left and their little poems and carvings, and seeing where everyone was from. I don't think we left any of our own... our legacy came in the form of blood, sweat and tears! ;) That was more than enough for me.

Right beside the group shelter was a river, and Lance took people out before dinner to have a little "fun" on the rapids. Quina & I were still setting up camp at the time people were going, so we just decided to watch from the safety of the bank. I took video clips of several twosomes crossing from one side of the river to another and there were a couple of dramatic moments! River canoeing is fun, but you sure gotta be on the ball!

After dinner, we went for a hike down the portage trail that we'd be doing tomorrow. It was nice to use our legs for a change. At the end, we got to see where the rapids ended up - in a huge waterfall (which was part of the reason for the portage, so we wouldn't canoe over the falls to a watery demise!). When we got back, we had a meeting about the next day's plan, and took a few more photos.

I was either back at the shelter or on the bank by the river when I caught the news of a moose in our camp. Well, not only was it in the camp, it ran directly beside our tent to get to the lake on the other side! Furthermore, Quina was IN our tent when it happened! She got out rather quickly and joined the others who watched the moose swim across the water to the other side. Pretty exciting!

This trip just keeps getting better. :)

(Day 4 photos here.)

Day 3 - Isaac Lake

2011-07-09T21:24:00.000-07:00

We woke up to rain today, but it was nothing like we had encountered so far. It was a light sprinkling, a mere misting of drops. I felt so grateful to just have a chance to relax a bit. When it was pouring, everything was so stressful and depressing. This light rain was almost rejuvenating.

I paddled 17 km halfway down Isaac Lake with Adam in the stern. We were the lead boat and set the pace for everyone else. What a treat this was for me not to be last! Plus, we chatted and told stories and Adam helped me with correcting & improving my canoe strokes. It was so much better than the previous two days, already!

By the time we reached our campsite (#21), we noticed that something really strange had happened - it had stopped raining! We set up camp and actually made food that was eaten this time. We were able to enjoy the campsite and each other's company. Hallelujah! This is what I came for!

Quina and I had planned our meals together and every night we had a dehydrated dinner. It's basically a big plastic pouch that says something like "Three Cheese Chicken Pasta" or similar on it. You open it up, pour in 2 cups of boiling water, wait 10 minutes, and voila! Dinner is served. I think our favourite one was "Turkey Tetrazzini." I didn't think they were too bad, really, but I am pretty easy to please in the food department. Plus, after not eating much for 2 days and paddling all day long, it tasted delicious. Even the power bars and protein bars tasted great to me, and I normally can't stand those things.

Our evening was rounded out with some morale-boosting songs around the fire. AND, best of all, there seemed to be no mosquitoes here! What a treat to take off that mosquito shirt!

(Day 3 photos here.)

Day 2 - Indianpoint Lake & Isaac Lake

2011-07-08T08:53:00.000-07:00

It rained all night. It deluged. It poured. It showered and drenched us in torrents and monsoons. We woke up, and it continued. Rain, rain, go away...

First we had to take-down the camp. We had managed to set-up our tent and tarp in a way that was effective, thank goodness, but we didn't really have spare clothes. So, we put the cold & wet stuff from yesterday back on. We huddled underneath a common cooking area trying to eat something for breakfast. Again, I didn't have much appetite. And it's hard to form routines and be efficient (i.e. learn) when you are constantly distracted by your own physical & emotional situation.

Back onto Indianpoint Lake. I was paddling with Quina again, she in the stern and me in the bow. I preferred the bow because although you are the "motor" of the boat, you do less steering and therefore less thinking. My brain was protesting any form of intelligent thought by that point, so I figured it was a safer bet. It didn't help us much though; I was so exhausted that I didn't have much steam and we ended up being the last of our group at the portage site, again.

Another portage. 2 km. In the pouring rain. At one point we switched portage partners, and I went with Doug, who was great. He had energy, he kept me going, he let me rest, and was generally supportive. When we got to the end, we ate our lunch while waiting for the canoes ahead of us to launch. Pulling out your crushed/smashed food (which for me was pita with pb & j) and trying to eat in the rain while fending off mosquitoes was not super-pleasant. I got a few bites of food this time I think, but people were rushing us because everyone wanted to get to camp as soon as possible, to get out of the drowning rain.

The place where we were launching the canoes was so muddy that we struggled with keeping our shoes on. The mud was so deep and wet it would suck your shoe right off your foot. Made it kind of hard to get your balance. Once we launched, we paddled through a zig-zag marsh and headed down Isaac Lake. It's still raining. 7 km paddle to our campsite (#14), again with Quina and again we are last. By this time I'm fairly convinced that I am the weak link, because, well, I sure as heck feel weak.

Oh, what's this? Our campsite is flooded? There's a waterfall running through it? Oh, good, I just didn't think this day could get any better.

We paddle a little ways further and with luck, find a communal shelter that is not in use by anyone else. This is great because there are 14 of us and the shelter is meant to be shared. It's basically a covered area with picnic tables underneath and a wood-burning stove. It's NOT supposed to be a camping area. But, with our campsite flooded we didn't have much choice.

First thing we did is get changed out of our wet clothes and we hung them all around the shelter to drip. They didn't really dry, unless you had them right up next to the stove, and as you can imagine, that space was at a premium. We huddled around that stove like it was our lifeline, and it sure seemed that it was. I had a really hard time warming up; I may have had a touch of hypothermia. Even after they moved me to sit right in front of the stove (the warmest spot), I couldn't stop the teeth chattering and shivering for a while. But eventually it got better, and I dried out and warmed up.

Then there was discussion about the next day's paddle, which sounded tough. The trip leaders decided to switch partners around the group to balance things out. The stronger paddlers were going to be paired with the weaker paddlers, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I was lucky enough to be paired with Adam, who definitely knows his way around a canoe. Not to mention he was super nice about being stuck with me. ;)

Time to set-up camp. In the rain. Again. We did it with a fair amount of success and everything stayed relatively dry underneath the awesome tarp we were using. Setting up a tarp is like a big problem-solving activity since you might not have many/any trees available and you need to predict where water is going to go. The water issue's not a hard one to solve when it's already raining, because your skill (or ineptitude) becomes clear rather quickly. I have to say, Quina and I were a very good tarp-team. We got consistent compliments from people about how well our tarp was set-up. I even started to look forward to the next campsite to see what variables we'd have to navigate. It was... fun?

Didn't eat much again. But my appetite, the weather, and our morale were about to take a drastic turn for the better!

(No photos. It rained too much to take out the camera.)

Day 1 - Kibbee Lake & Indianpoint Lake

2011-07-07T17:23:00.000-07:00

Okay, let's get this out of the way right now: Day 1 and 2 did not go well. In fact, they were downright miserable. If the whole trip had been like Day 1 and 2, I would have had a nervous breakdown. However, in the end I was totally happy and grateful for the opportunity and truthfully, the first two days had a lot to do with that. If I knew then what I know now, yes, I would do it again. This trip was AWESOME. But... the first two days were not.

Let me back up a bit. So, before Day 1 even started, we were to spend the night in the Bowron Lakes Provincial Campground. This was a great idea because if anyone had problems with equipment, or forgot something, or didn't prepare properly, they would know before we really got into it.

We arrived in the campground after visiting the Barkerville Cemetery and people were setting up their tents and getting re-acquainted. As soon as we stepped out of our vehicle, we were encompassed with huge clouds of mosquitoes. Voracious mosquitoes, and they were everywhere. According to the locals, it was the worst they had ever seen in ten years with something like 10 times the amount of bugs they'd seen last year. In any case, it was bad. We did what we could to fight them off: we kept moving, some people broke out the DEET, and we put on our mosquito face nets, which turned out to be rather ineffective.

We got down to business and started setting up our tent. Much to our dismay, the tent that Quina brought for the two of us to share, had faulty cord inside the tent poles. The tent was only a few years old but the cord had become dry & brittle, and had no elasticity. This was a rather large concern for us given that it was our shelter! While we were able to stretch, cut and tie the cord so that the poles would stay together, we didn't know how long that method would last us over 8 days. It turned out to be fine, although each time we set-up camp we worried if our luck had run out.

So off to sleep we went, with an early 6am rise the next day. It was officially Day 1! We were a little frantic around camp since we had to arrive at Registration & Orientation by a certain time or we'd be bumped to a later start time. Lance wanted to get going, and we just wanted to get away from those bugs!

One of our group, Doug, was wearing a "mosquito shirt" which is like a light jacket with material that is impenetrable to bugs, and comes with a hood that fits loosely over your face. He said it was great, and so when Lance had to make a trip down to the store, Quina and I went down and purchased some shirts of our own (and one for Erin too). It was the best $60 I have ever spent! A very, very good investment. I came back with a ton of bites, but none where that shirt had covered me. It worked like a charm. Not to mention, both Quina & I were reluctant to put DEET (you know, the stuff that melts plastic) on our skin. The mosquito shirts were fantastic.

So, we headed to Registration and Orientation where they give you a map, a garbage bag (everything you take in, must come out with you!), and make you watch a video. I just loved the part where they show a bear attacking a tent. Moral of the story? Don't put food in your tent. Still, that freaked me out a bit. I thought perhaps I wouldn't be able to sleep for fear of bears attacking the tent, but turns out that I was too exhausted to care. Several times on the trip I was so tired that if a bear had come along, I would have probably lied down and said "go ahead." I was too tired to worry about bears. Plus, there were fourteen of us, and we weren't exactly quiet.

After Orientation, we weighed our stuff. They only allow you to pack a certain amount of weight into your canoe for the portages; the rest you have to carry on your back. We were lucky enough to have canoe carts, which are wheels that you strap onto the bottom of your canoe so that you can push it through the portage trails rather than carry the canoe and then have to go back for a 2nd trip to get all of your stuff. If we had to carry those canoes, well, let's just say... I probably would have died. I have total respect for all the people that have ever done that, but it is way beyond my capacity. :P

So, the first portage was the longest. 2.4 km to Kibbee Lake. In the rain. Imagine carrying a pack on your back so heavy that if someone pushes your shoulder, you fall over. And then you are going uphill, and it's raining, and you have a huge heavy canoe with a bunch of gear in it. And even though there's two of you, if one of you makes an unanticipated move, the other person goes flying off the trail. Or perhaps the canoe hits a rock, or a hole, or a huge puddle, and goes over, with your stuff all over the ground. Or the cart gets dislodged. Or you drive it into the ditch. Or someone ahead of you stops at the top of a hill and you can't put your canoe down or it will go sliding all the way back down.

I came home with a lot of bruises.

The worst part of the portaging for me was the carrying of my huge, heavy pack and going uphill while pushing a heavy canoe. My poor cardio was pushed to the limit those times. It was really, really hard. Thank goodness for some of the guys in our group who stepped up to help those of us that were having a tough time. :)

When we got to Kibbee Lake, the rain had mostly stopped and I was able to take a few photos. It was already breathtakingly beautiful. I've been camping before, but nothing like this. Unspoiled riches of BC wilderness. It was awesome.

We started our paddle across this small 2.3 km lake and halfway across, we heard it: thunder. Uh oh. Here we go! Paddling in the bow with Quina in the stern, we tried to step it up a notch given that the rainstorm was coming and most of our group was ahead of us. We made it to the other side only to begin another portage, this one 2.1 km and no less difficult. I was already exhausted - in fact I was fatigued long before. However, we made it to Indianpoint Lake, paddled another 3 km and found our campsite (#7).

Setting up camp in the rain is... not so fun. That night, I think Quina & I went to bed at 6:30pm. No joke. I didn't eat much for dinner, and I was too tired to make anything. I was cold, wet and miserable.

And the next day would be even worse.

(Day 1 Photos here.)

Wells & Barkerville

2011-07-06T09:50:00.000-07:00

Quina, Erin (Quina's longtime friend and our district colleague) & I left one day early and made the road trip up to Wells, BC on July 5th (many thanks to Erin who drove!). There was much chatting, eager anticipation, excited stories, stops for Subway & DQ and plenty of small towns to see along the highway. We drove through Hope, Yale, Boston Bar, Lytton, Ashcroft, Cache Creek, Clinton, 100 Mile House, Williams Lake and Quesnel before arriving in the very small district of Wells. We had booked a room at The Wells Hotel for the night.

Once arrived, we settled in and had some dinner at the hotel restaurant, which was fairly decent. Then we walked about town. It definitely had a small-town feel. There were a few local art installations, interesting bits here and there, and some lovely flowers around. But mostly, it was devoid of all activity. It was pretty dead. It's not even a town, really, it's a district. I gather that it's not big enough to be a town.

The next morning after breakfast we headed to Barkerville! Seeing that Barkerville is so close to the Bowron Lakes Provincial Campground (the start of our circuit), we wanted to go a day early and spend it there. I had never been before, and I think Erin and/or Quina had only been when they were little. We also agreed that it was better seen before the canoe trip, and not afterwards, when we were likely to want to just get home.

As soon as you step foot into Barkerville, you're transported back in time. There are actors ready to greet & educate you, shops to peruse, and presentations to see. We made our way up the main concourse, stopping in almost all of the restored buildings. We watched a presentation on etiquette, Quina & Erin dressed up for an old-time photo, I panned for gold, we had ice cream, we sat in the Richfield courtroom (of Judge Begbie fame) and listened to the actors thunder away, we took many photos, and we even attended school.

Ah, yes. School. The three of us being teachers, we were very interested in attending the Barkerville school. 30 adults and kids jammed their selves into the one-room schoolhouse and awaited the lessons of the day. The teacher was very strict, and put up with no nonsense of any kind; she even shooed away adults who were looking in through the windows. First, all ladies & girls were made to wear bonnets. Then, there was a health and cleanliness inspection (hair & fingernails). Then we practiced some handwriting and learned the differences between animal, mineral and plant. We finished our lessons with another "fun" etiquette activity (one which I was called to the front to demonstrate).

Ironically, upon leaving the schoolhouse, I ran into a highschool friend, Laura, who I had not seen in years. How small the world is!

Once we were done in Barkerville for the day, we headed out to the parking lot only to run into Doug & Ed, two of our canoe trip colleagues. We made a plan to meet back at the Wells Hotel for dinner, before we all had to make our way to the campground for our first night. Before dinner though, we made one last stop to the Barkerville graveyard, which was somber and lovely.

Civilization was soon to be left behind, however...

Photos here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjvvJBjQ

Into the BC Wilderness

2011-07-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

Our district's resident outdoor education guru, Lance, sent an email earlier this year to all teachers asking if anyone might be interested in doing the Bowron Lakes canoe circuit in July, as a Pro-D activity. I probably deleted it (I get SO many emails during my work day) but Quina (pronounced: Keena), my lovely friend and colleague, forwarded it to our staff and asked if anyone would be interested in doing the trip. Beginners were welcome, and the price was right. From then on, I was pretty much hooked.

Initially it didn't even look like the trip would be a go. Only Quina and I had responded to Lance's email, and it took a few more tries before we had a full group. However, after Lance sent out his last call, there was a waiting list. We had the maximum number of people that could go: 14. That's a lot of teacher talk!

In preparation for the trip, Lance held two mandatory canoeing workshops and 1 optional one. I attended all of them. I had been in a kayak once, and I might have been in a canoe once?, but overall my confidence was low. I really didn't know what I was doing on the water, and I wanted to be as prepared as possible. Also, I know myself pretty well, and I don't have a very steep learning curve when it comes to athletic pursuits. I need to practice, practice, practice. I need to practice more than the average joe, methinks. But I'm okay with that.

We also met Lance at his school and he went over a bazillion things for the trip: how to pack, what to pack, how much to pack, what to avoid, examples of different gear, etc. I was taking notes like crazy. I bought a backpack, I borrowed gear from everyone I could, I went shopping at MEC, and tried to plan all my meals & snacks. All in, like, one weekend. :)

You don't want to be unprepared for a canoe & camping trip that takes you into the BC wilderness for eight days. You need to pack all your food, there's no vehicle access, and once you're out there... there's no turning back. These were my thoughts as I was trying to pack for this trip. I wanted to bring everything and be prepared for every eventuality, but when you carry everything on your back, you need to be pretty exact.

Now I was ready to embark upon what surely would be an amazing experience!

Awesome #7 - Cherry Blossom Trees

2011-04-21T22:33:00.000-07:00

Cherry blossom trees are great because they take me by surprise. The cold, dreary, dark weather of winter seems to extend into spring, but little by little, the days get lighter and the temperature rises. So subtly, though, that I almost don't notice. Then one day I'll be driving or walking down the street and pass a tree that has exploded into white and pink blossoms. It's like cotton candy. It's like nature has woken up and is saying, "ta da!". It's like the signal that even better days are ahead.
It's like, awesome.

Awesome #6 - Sushi

2011-02-06T23:35:00.000-08:00

Ebi sunomono is the dish that I order each and every time I have sushi. At the right establishment, it is pure heaven and the cornerstone of my enjoyment. Add to that some good sashimi, avocado rolls, tempura, gomae, gyoza and more, and you've got a vertiable feast on your hands. I like it so much that sometimes, when I order, the server thinks I have ordered for the whole table. Awesome!

Awesome #5 - Friends that have your back

2011-02-01T21:12:00.000-08:00

I have this friend named Alison who is awesome. She's one of my best friends for sure, and she is awesome in a very specific way: she has my back. She is loyal to me, supports me, and always tells me what I NEED to hear (i.e. not necessarily what I WANT to hear). I never feel like she's on anyone's side but mine, and that is the closest to unconditional love that I have ever had in a friendship. Yup, it's awesome.

Awesome #4 - Going somewhere hot when your home is rather cold

2011-01-18T06:41:00.000-08:00

There's something to the whole Seasonal Affective Disorder thing. Waking up and going to work when it's dark out, and then getting home when it's dark again, sure doesn't make you feel like you're having a worthwhile day. Indeed, you may not even see the light of day - and forget about getting your Vitamin D.

So when you get the chance to head off to somewhere warm & sunny, even if it's just for a few days or a week, it's a little like paradise. You're transported into a new world with warm breezes and the ocean and sunshine that you didn't even know you were missing this badly. Home is great, because it's home. But a vacation during the darkest & dreariest part of the year is awesome!!

The Appeal of 101 Short Stories

2011-01-13T07:27:00.000-08:00

The Marc and Angel Hack Life website put together 101 Short Stories that Will Leave You Smiling, Crying and Thinking and posted it. They all come from http://makesmethink.com/ and they are pretty beautiful. Here's some of the ones that I read that stuck with me:

Today, while I was driving my grandfather to his doctor’s appointment, I complained about hitting 2 red lights in a row. My grandfather chuckled and said, “You always complain about the red lights, but you never celebrate the green ones.” MMT

Today, as my grandfather (a military doctor, war hero, and successful business owner) rested in his hospice bed, I asked him what his greatest life accomplishment was. He turned around, grabbed my grandmother’s hand, looked her in the eyes, and said, “Growing old with you.” MMT

Today, I was in an accident that left me with a gash on my forehead. The doctors wrapped a bandage around my head and said I have to keep it on all week. I hate wearing it. Two minutes ago my little brother walked into my room wearing a bandage on his head. My mom said he insisted that he didn’t want me to feel alone. MMT

Today, I interviewed a woman who is terminally ill. “So,” I tried to delicately ask, “What is it like to wake up every morning and know that you are dying?” “Well,” she responded, “What is it like to wake up every morning and pretend that you are not?” MMT

Awesome #3 - Snow lighting up the night sky

2011-01-11T21:55:00.000-08:00

There's just something about a snowfall that makes a dark winter night light up with sparkles and glow. In the middle of the dreary season when days are so short, a fresh snow at night makes going outside a magical experience. Awesome!

Awesome #2 - Riding in a Limo

2011-01-09T10:35:00.000-08:00

Having a driver is cool. Being able to sit facing your friends is cool. The mood lighting is cool. The rows of glasses, snifters, and flutes are cool. Stretching your legs out is cool. Looking out through tinted windows is cool. The view outside is cool. Getting out of one is cool!

Awesome #1 - Getting your hair washed by someone else

2011-01-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

Inspired by http://1000awesomethings.com/

When you go to the hairdresser, and lean way back in the chair, rest your head against the sink, you prepare yourself for a treat! The water is the perrrrrfect temperature, and your hairdresser's fingers are magic. Nothing quite like having someone run their hands through your hair, massaging your scalp and getting all those pressure points on your skull. Ahhhhhhh - it's so great. :)

Top Movies of 2010

2011-01-02T01:09:00.001-08:00

In no particular order, here are my top 7 movies of 2010:

1. Shutter Island - I LOVE it when a movie isn't predictable. And this one sure wasn't.

2. Hot Tub Time Machine - Yes, I said it. Admittedly, it was not a theatrical masterpiece, but it had me laughing. If you suspend your logic and expectations, you are in for a good time.

3. Inception - Never seen anything like it before. And I loved the ending.

4. Easy A - Clever. Teen movie, yes. But quite clever.

5. The Town - A little cheesy. But I liked it. Ben Affleck does well, I think.

6. The Fighter - Gotta admit it, I am a sucker for sports-movies. Oh, and also a sucker for "based on a true story" movies. So this one was extra good.

7. The Social Network - Perhaps my overall favourite, and the most surprising. Upon seeing the trailer and groaning "oh no, not a movie about Facebook," I succumbed to the good press and was incredibly entertained. Very intelligent dialogue.

Looking forward to some great movies in 2011...

Reflecting on 2010

2010-12-31T15:13:00.000-08:00

I was reading an article the other day called Seven Important Questions to Ask Yourself Before the Year Ends, and I thought I might do a little reflecting. My humble thoughts:

1. On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with 2010?
I would rate it 6 out of 10. Maybe 7 out of 10.

2. Why did you score that way?
2010 was a year full of amazing experiences, and not all of them good ones. But, I have learned a lot about people, and a lot about myself this year. I can only hope to continue down the road of personal growth. Everything I have been a part of has served me, one way or another.

3. What are your biggest accomplishments this year?
I helped friends and family commemorate some epic milestones this year. I went to five weddings, celebrated many births, attended a graduation ceremony, helped colleagues finish a two-year program, was part of a championship team, mourned several losses, watched children grow before my very eyes, and shared in some very personal & some very public struggles. My biggest accomplishments are in supporting others.

I also did some travelling this year: Mexico, New Orleans, Portland, Las Vegas - and to some more local destinations like Harrison Hot Springs, Campbell River, Kelowna & Kamloops. I know that travelling isn't much of an accomplishment, but it's something I enjoy doing, and it helps me appreciate everything I have. I saw some amazing things, I did some amazing things. I wouldn't trade my experiences for the world, but the best thing about travelling is coming home. Although there aren't many places in the world that I don't want to go, I love coming home. BC is beautiful, and I am so lucky to live here. Home is where my family is. Home is where my friends are. Home is where my heart is. And there's nothing like sleeping in your own bed! Having said that, I am excited to plan my next series of adventures away from home.

4. What are the biggest lessons you learned this year?
Not to work so much. To eat dinner at home instead of at my desk. To go outside more instead of looking at a screen all day. That my time is valuable - for my health and general happiness. To spend more time with people that give back. To appreciate my success, but more importantly, to appreciate those who help me succeed. That I have a long way to go. That I talk the talk way more than I walk the walk. I have learned, again, that change is HARD.

5. What are your biggest goals that you want to achieve next year?
I want to participate in a No Impact Week. I want to drink more water, eat better, exercise more, get more sleep, don't let work run my whole life, and stay as mentally & physically balanced as possible. Literally too - I'd really like to be able to balance on one foot with my eyes closed. That would be great.

6. What new habits do you want to cultivate?
I want to be a better neighbour. I want to be a positive part of my local and global community. Before the Olympics began, I was caught up in the furor of controversy. I wasn't sure that it was going to be good for us, and I'll admit it - I was rather blasé about the whole thing. It just seemed like a bunch of hullabaloo. Boy, was I wrong. One of my colleagues said it best: "No matter what your politics are concerning these Olympic Games, they are here, and it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to celebrate with your compatriots in your own backyard. This opportunity will likely never happen to any of us again." It was the surge of Canadian pride that affected me the most. I will always remember walking downtown high-fiving strangers, singing 'O Canada' on the Skytrain with other commuters, seeing the torch amidst a happy Vancouver crowd, watching events alongside friends and family, and screaming my head off when Crosby scored the epic goal - a feeling shared by many and heard in the streets. It was this sense of community and pride that I take with me now. I'm so proud to be Canadian.

7. What are your immediate next steps to achieve them?
Well, I started by writing this post. Next I will look into some exercise options for 2011 and see who else I can get on board. I will put up a calendar and track how successful I am. And go from there. :)

Saying goodbye to a beloved pet

2010-11-07T11:50:00.000-08:00

If the world is classified into cat-people or dog-people, I'd probably align myself with the dog-people. I love the unwavering loyalty of a dog, the affection & attention that they give you, their constant companionship, and their happy wagging tails. We had a family dog growing up, and she was the best pet. We never had a cat.

However, when I moved out on my own and into an apartment, having a dog didn't seem feasible. It seemed like having a backyard was rather necessary for a dog, and besides, a dog is pretty high-maintenance. So, I got a cat. His name was Katmandu. We found Katmandu from the local SPCA and took him home. Katmandu was a lovely indoor/outdoor cat, and it wasn't long before we wanted him to have a friend for company.

Camouflage and I were fated to be together; I found her at the local animal hospital and fell in love with her instantly. Her multi-coloured fur was beautiful, and I loved how a line down her face & nose divided her in half, one side grey & one side tan. Her patchy colours looked just like army camouflage. However, I couldn't take her home right away; I was moving, and I wouldn't be settled for 3 more weeks. I told the animal hospital that I would come back, and if she was there, I would take her home with me.

Three weeks later, and true to my word, I came back to get her. She was still there, miraculously. They told me that during the last three weeks, Cami had been taken home THREE times by people, and all 3 times she'd been brought back: a wife didn't get a husband's permission, someone found out they were allergic to cats, and someone decided that they didn't "have room." I like to think she was just waiting for me.

Over the years she has been a terrific cat. She was dainty, and didn't like to be picked up, but she was affectionate and loved to be pet. She was sweet, and often "talked" to you if you addressed her. She loved to perch up on high places or inside boxes, and she always greeted you in the morning. She purred like crazy. The vet said that she was so well-behaved that she should be a "model" cat and used as an example in vet school. She was pretty angelic. She really never did anything wrong or got into anything. She was no dog, but she definitely was a sweetheart of a cat.

A few nights ago, we had to put Cami down. She had kidney damage (this, we knew about), lung cancer (this, we didn't know), and for some reason couldn't stand up or walk. She yowled in pain and she could hardly breathe. It came on so suddenly. We struggled with considering other choices: waiting until morning, taking her home, getting a third and fourth opinion. But in the end I just couldn't bear to see her in pain. The vet was not optimistic, more test results wouldn't change anything, and waiting just wouldn't help. We made the call; it was her time. We stayed with her and talked to her and petted her until she was at peace. It was so sad.

Pets give us unconditional love. They give us their whole lives. We gain so much from them. And in return, we have to endure times when they are sick and can't tell us, in pain and need it to stop. If we don't make the hard decisions, they will try and try and try, just to please us. This is a heavy burden to bear, but worth it I think.

Cami will be missed and her memory will be treasured. She was a great cat. I made two picture slideshows to commemorate her. The first one is just photos with a sad song playing; the lyrics convey the sadness of her passing. The second one is photos interspersed with the poem "The Last Battle" and some classical music. They are both very sad, but I am glad that I made them. They really helped me to grieve and to honour her.

Sadness warning alert:
Saying Goodbye to Cami
Goodbye Sweet Cami

To all pet-owners out there: give your pet some extra affection today. And treasure your moments with them.

"I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul."

-Jean Cocteau

If New Orleans is Sinking...

2010-08-14T22:03:00.000-07:00

Hello lovely people!

On Wednesday after we explored the Garden District we came back to our hotel and decided to head to the pool (we did bring swimsuits, after all). Although there are 2 pools here at the Hilton the one attached to our particular building is rather pathetic. It was strange to be in an outdoor pool with the air so warm outside. We struck up a conversation with a guy from Virginia/Florida and when Lisa mentioned how hot we thought it was down here, he said, "Where are you guys from, Canada?" like it was some kinda joke. He loved it when we told him we were from Vancouver because then he spent the next few minutes making cracks about how he would import snow for us. He thought he was hilarious. We didn't stay too long at the pool.

After that we got all dressed up in our finery and headed out to a rather nice restaurant for dinner. It was called the Bon Ton Cafe and we had a salad and shrimp etouffee (sorry, there should be accents on that but I just can't bother figuring that out right now). Etouffee means "smothered" down here, and yes, it was. (I took a picture; I have been taking lots of photos of food!.) Then we headed to our favourite store to get some snacks for tomorrow and called it a night.

For the next 2 days we were pretty derailed by the weather. We had an AMAZING bike tour booked (check it out here), but they cancelled due to the storm. I guess that was a good idea cause we didn't really want to be riding a bike around the city in the rain, but still, it was pretty disappointing - the bike tour was the only thing I really wanted to do, and it didn't happen. I guess I will have to come back. Anyone want to come with? :)

We had some lunch, did some shopping, and booked a ghost tour of the city for that evening. We went to Pat O'Brien's, got a famous Hurricane drink in a "go cup" and headed out, ready to be spooked. Our tour guide was Jennifer and she was kind of a riot. She had us cracking up pretty good. Or maybe it was the Hurricane. But in any case, we had a good time. :) After the 2-hour tour we had dinner at a pretty fancy place (that also happens to be haunted) called Muriel's. The best thing we ate had to have been the shrimp & goat cheese crepes. SO GOOD.

Let me mention that the food here has been fantastic. Almost every person that we've spoken to has talked about the food and how people have a misconception about it not being safe to eat due to the oil spill. As far as we can tell, it's totally safe, and extremely delicious to boot. People here seem quite upset that people think otherwise - and you can see why. They just start to get back on their feet after Katrina, and now the oil spill. Tourism is a big industry here, and so is commercial fishing. So, the food here is great. We are still walking up those flights of stairs everyday to justify eating so much of it. :)

We had rebooked our swamp tour for Friday morning and I am so glad that we did. I don't know what I was expecting - Lisa seemed to have a better idea about what would happen than I - but it was absolutely fantastic and worth every penny of that eighty-five dollars!! We were on a small, 6-person airboat, and our tour guide, Jay, was very enthusiastic (I got footage of him so I could remember him later).

Right away Jay sped us around in the airboat and it was awesome - it was also very, very wet. He sprayed all of us on purpose and had a good laugh about it. I knew it was coming when he asked me to cover up my camera. The poor Italian couple sitting next to me were pretty nonplussed about it at first, especially the wife since she didn't understand any English and had no idea what was coming... Anyways, it turned out to be a good thing that he sprayed us because for the next 20-30 minutes or so it acted like a natural air-conditioning and cooled us down as we flew around the water. Method to his madness, for sure. :)

As soon as we were out in the bayou an alligator swam right up to us. Jay called to her in French, and she swam up to the boat and Jay fed her marshmallows. Apparently alligators are attracted to white things. I got to feel her tail (rubbery & smooth!) and she entertained us by swimming around the boat. Once I got over being nervous I was pretty transfixed. Then in another part of the bayou a large male alligator swam up and Jay got him to jump out of the water for the marshmallow. He explained that his family, including his children, have a bond with these alligators that has grown over a number of years, and that there is a level of trust between them (although never forgetting that this animal is wild and that accidents can very easily happen when you are putting things in its mouth!).

We saw the hugest spiders I have ever seen (nobody needs that), herons, ducks, other birds and the best part was when we got to hold a baby alligator!! It was so soft and cute, I wanted to snuggle it and take it home. But, the rain was approaching and we had to get back to the dock, and fast.

Well, it wasn't fast enough.

The rain came down on us, fast and furious, warm and hitting our face like hail as we raced to get back to the dock. By the time we got there, we were soaked - and it was only maybe 5 minutes from start to finish. We thought we were wet from Jay spraying us before? Oh NO - this was sitting your butt in huge pools of water, soaked through to your underwear. Your shoes and socks are soaked, everything is soaked (our bags and cameras were okay cause they were wrapped up). We got off the boat, dripping and saturated from head to toe. It was like we went swimming with all our clothes on. All I could do is laugh. It was totally worth it! We had an amazing time.

Back on the bus with air conditioning. That kinda sucked. But we survived and once we got back to the hotel we rejuvenated with hot showers. Then we went out for lunch, had ice cream (yeah we earned it!), went shopping again (not much else to do with the weather being what it was). Then since we had no other plans, and it had cleared up, we decided to book another evening tour.

What tour did we book for Friday the 13th? Well, a Vampire Tour of course. Jonathan our tour guide was most entertaining and informative, and like the other locals we've met, loves this city and is pretty proud of it. Especially the dark history. It was creepy! I found this tour to be way more creepy than the ghost tour we had done earlier. We enjoyed it though, and it took us into parts of the city that we had not gone yet.

Once the tour was done Jonathan recommended a joint to eat called Coop's Place - he was the second person to direct us there. The service there is not terribly friendly, because they don't much like tourists. Locals eat there and we could easily see why - the food was pretty amazing. Yum!

Being Friday night, we decided to walk through Bourbon Street on the way back to our hotel. Oh, my god. Can I just be honest for a minute and dub it the Bourbon Street Nightmare? I can see why the locals don't go there - it's a total mess. Here are some words to describe it: beads, balconies, drunks, strippers, bars, music, cops, trashy, neon, garbage, crowded, loud, smokers, and signs denoting "Huge Ass Beers" and "Barely Legal Girls." Again, I got footage so that I can remember just how bad it was. I guess it'd be good if you were 19 (oops, I mean 21) and here with a stag. Other than that it was just obnoxious and kind of gross. I feel old for saying that. :P

One thing you should know about New Orleans is that it's pretty old, and the streets and sidewalks are not flat. This is important to keep in mind because you will likely do a lot of walking, with or without a "go cup" in your hand. There are many holes that cannot be described in any other way than "treacherous." Hospital-visit kinda holes. Maybe they do that for sport - obnoxious tourists do get tiring after all...

The day that we had gone to the Garden District, we took a cab home and the driver was thrilled to hear that we were Canadian - so much so that he asked us to sign his "book"; a veritable compendium of all the out-of-town guests he's ported around the city. He also told us about the Red Dress Run, which is basically a charity event where groups of people (and especially men) put on red dresses and go bar-hopping for charity. So as we were making our way around the city Friday & Saturday, we'd see these groups of people all in red and totally outrageous. I can't imagine what Mardi Gras would be like here! Crazy!!

Some random last thoughts:
- Humidity means waiting for your camera lens to become unfogged. This takes a while. Most inconvenient.
- Humidity also means never being dry. Also inconvenient.
- After a while, getting the "uh huh" response to my "thank you"s really started to bug me. I know, I know... it's an American thing...
- We had a celebrity sighting! Della Reese! Oh, oh, and we sat next to a guy with a Green Lantern t-shirt! Does that count??
- The pineapple is a symbol of southern hospitality; we saw it everywhere - mostly carvings and ironwork.
- Child hustlers attached the tops of pop cans to the bottoms of their shoes and tap-danced for money on the street.
- Rats. Roaches. Need I say more?

So today was our last day in New Orleans. At the airport, there was a mix-up with my reservation because someone had entered me into the system as a man. So when I tried to check-in as a woman, they couldn't do it. Hmmm... anyways after some stressed looks from the agents, and subsequent worrying on our part, it was all sorted. Except for maybe inside my own head, as is illustrated by the fact that right after, I went in the men's washroom by accident. I quite confused and upset a young ESL boy when I did that. Oh well...

We flew into Vancouver this evening with an amazing sunset over the mountains and Pacific Ocean. It's good to be home!

Cheers & love,
E!

Tropical Opulence

2010-08-11T16:52:00.000-07:00

Hello lovelies,

Did you know that New Orleans is on the same latitude as Cairo? That explains a lot. Plus, it's interesting since I was in Cairo this time last year, and can confirm that the heat here is pretty darn oppressive as well. The humidity makes it hugely different, but the uncomfortableness is still the same. In fact, I don't actually mind the humidity that much except for the fact that you are always sticky and usually downright doused in rivulets of sweat. When you are so wet all the time, and then step into air conditioning, then you freeze your butt off. It's a bit of a challenge.

Bourbon Street in New Orleans reminds me of Las Vegas. There are palm trees everywhere, neon lights, bars, tourists, drinks, and general mayhem. It's not the part of New Orleans that I love best, but it's certainly busy and no matter what night of the week it is, it's fulled with activity. Probably mostly tourist activity - I don't think the locals go there at all.

After we got back from Oak Alley on Monday, we decided that we would take a streetcar up to a local cemetery to take some photos but as we were waiting there we heard a great ruckus coming our way. It was a parade! Complete with marching bands, throwing of beads and other paraphernalia, Mardi Gras floats, police and fire escorts and wonderful music. Quite the sight! We got some beads, and even a t-shirt. The parade was to celebrate the kickoff of the football season, as the Saints are the current Superbowl champs! According to a few locals, the city has not stopped celebrating since the win. :)

Once the parade was done it was too dark to get any good photos at the cemetery, but we jumped on the streetcar anyways and at the end of the line, the streetcar operator was kind enough to let us get off, take a few (probably not very good) photos through the gates, and ride free of charge back into town. We headed to Walgreens for snacks because we are finding that we need to have liquids on us at all times, and eating at the hotel is quite expensive, so... snacks are handy. And besides, we're still climbing the stairs to our hotel room every day! We can eat what we want, right?? Haha...

Yesterday we got up and walked a few blocks to visit a client of Lisa's whose office is just down the street from our hotel. Then we took a streetcar and walked up to the most famous cemetery in New Orleans, which houses the tombs of Marie Laveau, Homer Plessy, Daniel Clarke and Ernest Morial. The grave of Marie Laveau is covered with XXX's everywhere, and there was obviously tons of pilgrimmages made to her grave. She's the only one who I had even heard of before reading up on the history of New Orleans.

After that, we went to the St. Louis Cathedral and saw the Mardi Gras museum in the Presbytere. It must be absolutely crazy to be here during Mardi Gras! Just based on that tiny little parade we saw, I bet it's totally nuts! Then we had lunch at Napoleon House, where they are famous for their Pimms Cup and Muffuletta. Then we headed to the Pharmacy Museum, and took pictures at the famous Cornstalk Hotel. Then we saw Beauregard-Keyes House and went by the Old Ursuline Convent, which is reportedly the only remaining French building in the French Quarter (all the rest were built when the Spanish ruled).

Then we went to the Old US Mint, which is now a museum and looked at a few exhibits including a fairly serious one called Target America and was all about the devastating effects of drug use. Then we walked through the French Markets and took in the ambiance before heading to our big-ticket item for the day: an afternoon Mississippi cruise on the Steamboat Natchez. Two hours to relax, re-hydrate, chat, and take in the sights is exactly what we needed considering the exhausting morning we had had in the heat.

The people here are especially friendly. I am not quite used to striking up conversations with strangers - I am always immediately trying to figure out what their motives are for talking to me. But down here, you have to let go of all that. People are friendly and welcoming, and love a good chat. We've had really favourable responses when we tell people that we are from Vancouver.

On the way from the dock back to our hotel, we struck up a conversation with a busker (okay, he struck it up with us) who was playing the trumpet. In fact, he played Stevie Wonder's "Isn't she Lovely" just for the two of us! Quite the charmer. He invited me to sit next to him while he played and as Lisa went to take a photo he swung my arm around him and we looked quite cozy. Like I said, people down here are friendly! Even the old, busking trumpet players have moves.

Hardly believing that we packed that much into one day, we got to our hotel and passed out for a couple of hours. Then we had dinner at Mother's - we'd been hearing about their famous Po' Boy sandwiches. We got one called "Debris" which was shredded beef, gravy, cabbage, & mayo. All that plus a root beer was YUM. We have a list of local foods that we want to try before we leave here, and there are only a few things left...

Today we had booked a swamp tour but the thunder & lightning at 8am clued us in to the tropical storm that is approaching, and alas... it was cancelled. We rebooked for Friday. Tomorrow we have a bike tour booked but fear that it will be cancelled too. In the meantime we are struggling to find activities that we can do mainly indoors. This morning we went to the Aquarium and then went to visit another client of Lisa's. The rain had slowed to just a little spitting, and so we ventured out into the opulent (and I mean OP-U-LENT!) Garden District. Holy crow - these are dream homes in a dream neighbourhood!

We saw a few famous homes including Anne Rice's former residence. Then we treated ourselves to cheesecake, a cab ride back to our hotel, and some shopping. Cross your fingers for us that the storm dissipates and we can head outside again soon!

Hope all of you are well,

Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree

2010-08-09T17:00:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

I can't believe it's only Monday and I have only been here for 2 whole days (well, not counting Saturday...). We've already done so much!

Saturday night after I last wrote, Lisa & I had dinner at the hotel restaurant, called Drago's. Apparently it is famous for crabcakes so we made sure to order that, some salad, and some "surf n' turf" to share for dinner. It was fabulous. Our waiter, Richie, filled us in on the places to go in the French Quarter (which our hotel is right beside).

We also decided that each night we would walk up the stairs to our hotel room, which is on the 18th floor. No really, we think it's a great idea since we'll be eating rich food every day. Right?? Right?!! Riiiiiight....

Yesterday we had breakfast at the hotel and booked some tours. We went walking along the Mississippi River, past the Holocaust memorial, Moonwalk promenade and ending at Washington Artillary Park. Then we headed down into Jackson Square where the famous Cafe du Monde is located and we had beignets and drinks. Beignets are French donuts - square and deep fried and served with heaping powdered sugar on top. It's quite an ordeal to eat them; we got pictures.

Then we headed into Jackson Square where there were tons of local artists and psychics and people selling their wares all around. Music everywhere. Hotter than hot. Humider than humid. We explored Pirates Alley and walked throughout the French Quarter. There were streets blocked off to cars and bands playing really cool music. We looked in some shops and wandered around a bit until the start time of our first tour!

We chose to go on a Cocktail tour. Now before you go thinking that this is some kinda pub crawl, think again. Drinks are not included, and the tour guide took us around the French Quarter talking about the history, and yes, stopping in several establishments to tell us about the drink specialties. A bunch were highlighted: Pimms Cup, Fleur de Lis, The Green Fairy (made from absinthe), Bayou Bash and the Sazerac. We tried a few but I refused to drink the ones that tasted awful. Yech!

And do you know about "go cups"? You can drink in the street here. So you can get your drink to go and walk around with it. Very handy.

Our tour guide was named Joe and he is a Hurricane Katrina survivor. Katrina is everywhere here. You see it all around and the locals all have stories about where they were and what happened and how it affected them. Most (that work in tourism) are pretty happy to have people to tell stories to - they are glad that we came. :)

Joe lived in Gentilly, which according to him, had the largest death toll of all the New Orleans' neighbourhoods. He said a wave of water came at him and lifted him up high enough and he had to scramble to get on top of a roof. All of his neighbours one street over were elderly and died. He and others stayed on their roofs for 5 days, with no food or water, swimming from house to house to scavenge whatever they could. Sometimes they had to break through roofs to rescue people stuck in their attics. He said that they spent so long up there and nobody had any news, obviously no TV or radio, and they didn't know if anyone even knew that they were there. When they were finally lifted out by helicopter, they were put on a bus and spent 7 hours trying to cross a bridge to get out of the city (along with just about everyone) and he said that people died on the bus, but there was nothing anyone could do about it. You just had to ride the bus with people that were dead & dying.

Let me just say right now that I am so happy to live where I live. Katrina aside, New Orleans isn't the place I would choose to live. Those of us on the west coast are SO LUCKY. Okay, I'm done. :)

After the tour was over, we had jambalaya and shrimp remoulade at a restaurant in the Quarter and it was delish! Then we went to another bar of Lisa's choosing.

Today is Monday and we spent most of our day at the Oak Alley Plantation. It is this totally awesome plantation that lies on the Mississippi River and there is a walkway from the river to the big house that is lined with 28 Oak trees. We got AWESOME photos - Lisa especially cause she has the skookum camera! It was gorgeous there. Our tour bus driver's name was Bryan and he was basically like Eddie Murphy, the same huge laugh and cracking jokes and being comedic all the time. It was funny at first and I must admit, got a little tiring by the end.

Okay, that's enough for now. This internet cafe is about to close! Tell you more later. :)

Cheers

Epicure Lemon Dilly Dip

2010-07-30T13:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, now I know that I have mentioned an Epicure dip mix before, but I just want to take time to mention the Lemon Dilly Dip Mix because it is also amazing. Having so many cherry tomatoes left over from my last recipe, plus a bunch of fresh veggies in the fridge, prompted me to find my as-of-yet-unopened jar of Epicure dip mix.

Originally I had bought the Lemon Dilly, 3 Onion and Cheese Chives & Bacon dip mixes so that I could make a batch of the "Extraordinary Cheese Dip" I had had at a party. That cheese dip was SO GOOD that I knew I had to have it again - and that's what led me to Epicure.

Anyways, I am not promoting Epicure products for any other reason than the ones that I've tried, I love. If I don't have success with something or don't like it, I'll say so. I have only tried a few things from the Epicure company so far, and I don't expect to like everything, but these dips are not included - they are amazing!

So, today I made the Lemon Dilly dip mix to accompany some fresh veggies. I mixed equal parts sour cream & mayonnaise, added the dip mix, and chilled it in the fridge. It was excellent. I won't hesitate to make this for a party, or just for myself! :) 10/10 on both counts!

Balsamic Strawberries & Blackberries with Ricotta Cream

2010-07-30T13:15:00.000-07:00

My friend Mark sent me a link with comments that echoed my thoughts: YUM. I knew that berries & cream wouldn't be T's ideal dessert, but it was very close to mine, and since I had already decided to get him some sort of rich chocolate cake for his birthday, I figured I could afford to spend a little time making a "pre-dessert, dessert."

Basically you mix up ricotta cheese with honey and vanilla, blend it until it's smooth and refrigerate for a couple of hours. Then you make the sweet balsamic drizzle by cooking the vinegar and sugar in a saucepan and then letting it cool. Mix the berries with some basil, the drizzle, spoon over top of the ricotta cream, and voila! Berries and cream.

Did we like it? Well, we both agreed that it was interesting. T said that it would be ideal at a wine-and-cheese type party. I think that it simply wasn't sweet enough - we thought that the berries & drizzle on vanilla ice cream would be heavenly. Perhaps if there was more honey mixed with the ricotta it would be better. Over I would give it a 6/10 for taste; I ate all of it, but wouldn't make it - at least the same way - again. For ease of preparation I would give it a 9/10; it was easy. Next time though, I'm breaking out the ice cream!

Ohya, and here's a photo of the chocolate-brownie cheesecake that I bought for T's birthday. He's a chocolate lover and I knew that he would appreciate a professional cake for his birthday. It was delicious and rich, and went over quite well - although it's quite expensive for its size. Perhaps my next endeavour will be a foray into the land of chocolate! I may never come back!

Sweet Cherry Tomato and Sausage Bake

2010-07-30T11:34:00.000-07:00

It was T's birthday, and I asked him to pick a recipe that he'd like me to make for his birthday dinner. Of course, he picked something from Jamie Oliver - his favourite, and my nemesis. Okay, it may be a bit strong to say nemesis. I do like Jamie's FOOD after all. I just have a hard time following his recipes. But really, I should give it another shot. I don't have too much to base my opinion on.

As I read over the ingredient list and recipe, I think to myself that T has chosen (perhaps deliberately) something that actually seems easy and dare I say, quick, to prepare. There are not many ingredients to it and the procedure seems rather straightforward, if not exactly the itemized list of steps that I prefer to work with. All I need is cherry tomatoes, herbs, sausages and some seasonings. Off I go to the store.

Jamie asks for 4 and 1/4 pounds of cherry tomatoes. The kind of cherry tomatoes I am looking for (the ones with varied colours and sizes) come in clamshell containers of about 8 oz. each. I punch 4.5 (just to be sure) into the Conversion App in my iPhone and it says that I need 72 ounces - that's NINE containers of cherry tomatoes. Seems like a lot to me, but I don't like to question amounts in recipes that I have never tried... especially from gurus like Jamie Oliver.

The directions said, "Get yourself an appropriately sized roasting pan, large enough to take all the tomatoes in one snug-fitting layer." As I started washing the tomatoes I realized that I did not have a pan to fit all of them. In fact, I only ended up using HALF the amount of tomatoes that Jamie said to use. Sheesh! Good thing we like tomatoes in our house.

Anyways, I didn't have a pan that would take them all, so I ended up choosing to use a 9x13 clear-glass casserole dish. Turns out that was a mistake. After you cook the tomatoes, herbs & sausages, you are supposed to reduce the sauce down a little bit. Jamie says to "lift the sausages out and place the pan on the stove," which I did. However, T informed me - in a rather panicked tone of voice - that you are not supposed to place glass on direct heat and could I please get it off the stove right now!!

Oops. Well, no harm done. See what I mean about not having that intuition in the kitchen?

Anyways. The dish was really yummy - we both loved it. We had, as a treat, white Italian bread to mop up the sauce. It was delicious! We score 10/10 for taste (T says it's the best thing I have ever made), and I would give it... 9/10 for ease of preparation. Definitely going to have this one again - soon!

Creamy Pasta Salad

2010-07-23T12:54:00.000-07:00

I know that it's practically a staple at every BBQ and picnic, but I have never made creamy pasta salad. And upon deliberating what to bring to a friend's BBQ, I was informed that it was really simple and fast to make. You can just imagine how my eyes lit up at those two words: simple, and fast.

A friend of mine is a consultant/representative for the Epicure Selections company, which deals in gourmet spices, mixes, cookware, and more. She introduced me to a few things, and while I haven't fully delved into everything that Epicure has to offer, I am quite pleased with the few things I have tried.

One of those things was the creamy pasta salad. All it took was the making of the noodles, adding whatever accompaniments that you choose (I chose bell peppers, cheese, grape tomatoes, broccoli and parsley), and then adding the creamy sauce - that's where Epicure came in.

The Cheese, Chives & Bacon Dip Mix is mixed with sour cream and mayonnaise (low-fat versions if you wish), and after sitting in the fridge for a few hours, makes the most delicious & creamy dip or sauce. I was doing quite a bit of taste-testing before adding it to the salad.

The trick is to make sure that your pasta is very cold before you add your sauce. I think that my pasta was slightly warm and it may have encouraged absorption of the sauce into the noodles (or maybe it just does that anyways, who knows...). Epicure products are generally low in salt, so it could have used a little seasoning to really bring out the flavours, but other than that, it tasted good. I would give it a 7.5/10 for taste and a 10/10 for ease of preparation! I am definitely going to make it again.

Roasted Salmon with Lemon Relish

2010-07-21T18:31:00.000-07:00

As I was sitting in the parking lot of the grocery store, pouring over this week's chosen cookbook, Great Food Fast: Everyday Food from the Kitchens of Martha Stewart Living, I wanted a recipe that was quick and didn't require a lot of groceries - mainly because I had plans after dinner and I only had one reusable grocery bag with me in the car.

Roasted Salmon with Lemon Relish seemed like it would fit the bill; besides, earlier a few of my friends had dog-eared it as a recipe to try. As any normal-cooking-person will know, roasting salmon in the oven is pretty easy. Even I had done it once before with some success.

Here's what I learned at the grocery store:
- Pine nuts are expensive. I better not make any recipes with prosciutto and pine nuts in it, or I'll probably go broke.
- I don't really understand the difference between Coho and Sockeye salmon. Research on this coming soon (i.e. ask Mom).
- Based on the debacle in the back of the fish department, it's not that easy to take the skin off a fillet.
- Why is parsley sold in huge bunches like that? And who would ever use that much??! I have no idea what to do with the rest of it.

I liked this recipe because it had 5 steps and said it would take 25 minutes. Great! Step one required me to toast the pine nuts for 5-7 minutes to a "lightly golden" colour. I set the timer to 6 minutes and walked away.

Mistake.

They burned. Not all of them, but many. And the ones that didn't burn were pretty darn brown. Not much "golden" in the pan after that. D'oh! Ah well, I got rid of the blackened ones, taste-tested the brown ones (they were fine), and soldiered on.

The biggest time-taker in this recipe is making the lemon zest. Especially when you have to stop part-way through to put a band-aid on the knuckle you just skinned with the vegetable peeler. Ouch! After all the lemon peel was off, it was painstaking to slice it into thin little slivers. But really, that was the hardest part. The rest was easy.

The lemon relish had raisins in it too, which I thought was strange at first but after eating it I was actually wanted more of them. I think a little more sweetness in the relish would compliment the salt & pepper in the recipe quite nicely.

Overall, I thought this was pretty good although I don't know that I would make it again. For taste I would give it 6/10 (more raisins would help, and/or less salt) and for ease of preparation I would give it 9/10.

I feel like eating something sweet after this meal. Fresh blueberries are calling!

To BBQ or To BBQ

2010-07-19T14:47:00.000-07:00

I have never BBQed in my life.

It's summer, and with the season comes great summer food. As I crack open the cookbooks I notice so many recipes for BBQ chicken or burgers, or grilled veggies or shish-kebabs. In the past I have pretty much passed by these with a few cursory glances, but now - things are different. I have more than just a George Foreman Grill at my disposal.

We bought a BBQ! It's called the Napoleon Prestige. T was sold on the fact that it is made in Canada and has a 10-year warranty. He went for quality, that's for sure. I was hoping to get a BBQ with the handy feature that tells you when your propane gas is low, but I am okay with sacrificing that for something that T is comfortable cooking with. After all, he's the guy, and he'll be doing the cooking on the BBQ. Right?

Not necessarily. I know that my summer goal was to try out new recipes every week and post my efforts & experiences, but if we are going to invest our hard-earned money in a fairly substantial cooking tool, I better learn how to use it! I am determined. I'm not going to break-out the BBQ recipes just yet - I'll take a few lessons from T first. But by the end of summer, let my BBQ prowess prevail! Or, at least, just not start a fire and ruin the food. :) It's all about the food.

Cheers & happy BBQing!

Balsamic-baked Onions and Potatoes with Roast Pork

2010-07-13T19:19:00.000-07:00

So, this was the week to go out of my comfort zone. I picked up Jamie Oliver's Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life cookbook, and flipped through the "Summer" section. I marked all the pages of recipes that I would be willing to try, and let T pick one that he wanted. He picked Balsamic-baked onions and potatoes with roast pork.

Okay, I can do this. I have never made a roast before, and never cooked from this cookbook before (despite having it since December), but I am not daunted. I love balsamic-anything, so I am prepared to make some YUM!

One thing about the cookbook is that the instructions are given in prose - there are 6 well-developed paragraphs on the page. I kinda prefer an itemized list, but it should be fine, right? There are several things that I need clarification on, and so I call my Mom: "What colour are 'waxy' potatoes?" "What does 'chuff them up a bit' mean?" "Do I put the pan in the oven with a lid or without - it doesn't say?!"

I love Jamie Oliver - he does an amazing TED talk about food that is inspirational. But I love my Mom more. And if I could cook half as good as her, I'd be happy. But for now, I just have to be content with phoning her half a dozen times every time I cook something new (and truth be told, I think she kinda likes it). She's way better than the internet.

This recipe wasn't all that difficult. Mostly. The roast, which was intimidating for me, was the easiest part. Take the roast, roll it in some herbs and spices, brown it in the pan, stick it in the oven with some chopped onion and celery. That's it.

The hard part of this recipe is that Jamie has you cooking potatoes and onions at the same time, and there are quite a few steps for those. Chop, chop, chop, grind, smash, blend. Boil the potatoes for a bit, then add spices and onions, add balsamic and put into oven. When the roast is done, you take the drippings and broth and onions and celery and mash them all up, add some white wine, reduce, and you've got a sauce for your pork.

I had timers going all over the place, for the potatoes, then the pork, then the onion-potato-balsamic mix, then the reduction. The potatoes didn't cook through the first time (I should have had more of a rolling boil I guess, or cooked them longer than the 8 minutes Jamie suggests), so I had to have a second shot at them in the oven with a lid. The pork juices weren't convincing enough, and so I threw that back into the oven, too.

The whole thing took 3 hours, and I was exhausted at the end! This is why I usually cook out of books like "Great Food Fast"; I mean, what if I had screwed this up irreparably? I would have lost 3 hours of my life and about $50. Sheesh.

Anyways, it turned out. T loved it and was complimenting it all night and even did all the dishes for me. I thought it was pretty good, but almost more trouble than it was worth. I would give it an 8/10 for taste and a 6/10 for ease of preparation. I would probably make the roast again, but I doubt I would try doing a million other things at the same time. :)

Asparagus Rolls

2010-07-09T13:08:00.000-07:00

Recipe from Save-On-Foods Healthy Recipes cookbook.

Needing to bring an appetizer to a party prompted me to again delve into the "appy" section of my cookbook. I have been getting away with avoiding meat for the most part (unless you count the shrimp or the ground turkey), but one of these days I will make myself get out of my comfort zone. :) But not just yet.

The very first recipe in the Save-On-Foods Healthy Recipes cookbook is for Asparagus Rolls. At first glance, it appears to be very easy, which I like. Take a piece of prosciutto, spread it with goat cheese and pepper, and roll it around an asparagus spear. Ta da! Well, it was a little more involved than that.

First let me say that prosciutto is expensive! I got 18 thin slices for $22. Also, working with prosciutto is a little painstaking for a few reasons:
(1) the slices are very thin
(2) prosciutto is very greasy
(3) you need to remove the fat that is clinging around the edges

Other than that, it went pretty well. It wasn't terribly fast, but it was pretty easy. I would give it a 8/10 for preparation.

As for taste, I needed to rely on others to help me out with the score. I am not a huge fan of prosciutto myself, but I knew it would be a popular choice at the party. I asked a few people what they would score it, and they said 8 or 9 out of 10. Knowing that I made it though, perhaps they scored it a bit high. :) I was given the suggestion to try a little balsamic drizzle on top, or to add a little more spice.

A few hours later, all of it was gone - so I will take that as a sign of success!

Easy Lettuce Wraps and Bruschetta

2010-07-06T23:15:00.000-07:00

Recipes from Save-On-Foods Healthy Recipes cookbook.

Lettuce wraps & bruschetta - yum! Perfect picnic food... well, almost. The lettuce wraps taste better when warm so if there's a way to transport them to the picnic or party and keep the heat, then great. Keep in mind that you want to add the steam fried noodles pretty much right before you eat them so that they stay crunchy. For ease of preparation I would give them a 10/10 - it was dead easy. The hardest part was taking apart the iceberg lettuce so that the leaves were intact and bowl-shaped. The hoisin sauce is really what makes this dish, and you don't need much because its flavour packs a punch. I would say for taste, it's a 9/10. I will definitely make this again!

As for the bruschetta, I wanted to make this because I had just rediscovered my love for it at my cousin's wedding. It was very yummy! This recipe was great, and it combined sun dried tomatoes and basil with fresh tomatoes, green onion and garlic. It then instructed to leave the tomato mixture at room temperature for up to 2 hours - probably to let all those flavours come out with gusto. And they did!

First, a spread of goat cheese/ricotta/basil on your crostini, and then the tomato mixture on top. It was delicious! Lots of chopping but it was really easy to make - 9/10. Make sure to drain the fresh tomatoes of the extra juice and seeds. The flavours were awesome and for taste I give it a 10/10 although I may be biased! :) The recipe yields 60 pieces and so I cut it in half - and there is still lots left over. Picnic, anyone?

Curried Apple and Shrimp Wraps

2010-07-05T19:33:00.000-07:00

Recipe from Save-On-Foods Healthy Recipes.

This "dinner" was a perfect recipe to start with my summer goal because it didn't really require much cooking. Although it didn't take me much out of my comfort zone, it was something new and it was a nice summer-patio-type dish.

The hardest part of this recipe is peeling and chopping the mango, and cleaning the blender afterwards. :) I would give it 9/10 for ease of preparation.

The combination of the mango-curry sauce with the apples and shrimp was especially delicious. I would give it 10/10 for taste! Yum. I would recommend having just one amply-filled tortilla, with a side salad. I ate 2 tortillas and was immediately regretful. Plus, with each tortilla being 311 calories, there's no need to double-up.

The cookbook tip says to fill the wraps and store them in the fridge for up to 2 hours in order to make them more stable. This is probably a great idea too, since it can get a little messy.

There's enough to make about 6 tortillas - so some for lunch tomorrow! Yay.

Summer Goal: Cooking

2010-06-30T08:13:00.000-07:00

One of my goals this summer is to cook dinner twice a week. I don't want to take over the cooking completely because T loves to cook, and I am hoping that as soon as we get a BBQ he'll be wanting to do even more of it. However, he's working lots right now, and I am not, so it's a perfect opportunity to take some of the load off him while also brushing up on a few kitchen skills!

I enjoy cooking but I find that I don't do much of it. I am rather tired and/or impatient much of the time, and I don't have the intuition that some people do. T can watch the Food Network, and then come home with ingredients the next day for a culinary experiment... which is inevitably delicious. I, on the other hand, am pretty good with a recipe - but that's as far as it goes. My penchant for choosing insta-foods is part of the reason I gave myself this summer goal!

My most favourite cookbooks are the ones with pictures. Not only do they help me decide what I want to cook, they give me a reference point for what the food should look like! One of my most favourite cookbooks is Save-On-Foods Healthy Recipes. Photos of nearly every recipe, health and nutritional information throughout, and tons of awesome dishes to try! I also like to work out of Great Food Fast and T swears by any cookbook written by Jamie Oliver. There will be lots for me to choose from.

As I try out my recipes, I will try to take photos, rate them on tastiness and perhaps ease of preparation, and comment generally on the process. I don't know if anyone will read my cooking posts (which is fine since I am certainly NOT a cook), but they may be invaluable to myself if I am trying to remember something later on.

A shout-out to some inspirational culinary bloggers:
Brandon
Leela

Cheers - and Bon Appetit!
E!

Harrowing Hotel & Dinner Disaster

2010-04-02T20:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay, so it hasn't all been great. When I checked into the Hilton at the Mexico City Airport, it was the perfect location. Right by International Departures, beautiful lobby, and I had already pre-paid for my room, so ahhhhh... nothing to do but sit and relax, right?

Well, when I got into my room yesterday I immediately noticed a strange smell. After a couple of minutes I didn't notice it again, so I didn't say anything to the front desk. Plus, I was totally exhausted and Ted was with me and he was leaving in an hour and I didn't want to spend that hour complaining. And after he left I just wanted to go to bed.

Anyways, when I got back to my hotel room this evening after my day tour, I couldn't get in. My key card didn't work anymore. I went up to the front desk and they said that it would take a few minutes to fix. The concierge let me into my room with his own key, but I quickly remembered that the key card actvates the lights in the room and I didn't really want to sit in the dark. So I told the front desk that I would be in the business center and they said that when the key was ready they would come and bring it to me there.

The business center is located right by the front desk. I sat in there for AN HOUR writing emails and the like, waiting for my bloody room key. Finally, the concierge brought it to me. I finished what I was doing and headed down to my room. Nope, this key card didn't work either. GREAT. Back to the lobby I go.

I see the concierge, tell him, and he tells me to please speak to the front desk. Well I would love to but now they are helping multiple customers and nobody has time to acknowledge me. I am just tired and hungry and I want to get into my room, for crying out loud! So I wait and wait and wait. Finally, they talk to me and I get my new card in about 20 seconds. Why have I been waiting for an hour and 20 minutes?

I get into my room. Oh, RIGHT. The SMELL. It's even worse and now I am choked enough to say something about it. Turns out that it's coming from the floor drain beside the toilet, which housekeeping has now covered with a wet towel. Yuck. I figure that for my last night in Mexico City, I will take myself out for a nice dinner (there are several nice resturants nearby) and even though I am not keen on eating alone, it sure beats hanging out in my smelly room!

So I stop by the front desk. I tell them about the smell. They want to change my room, but I don't want to since it will mean a lot of hassle and I am checking out at 4am anyways - that's only a couple of hours from now. They know I am unhappy and they are duly apologetic. To be fair, the front desk staff and concierge have been pretty great. It's all the rest of it I am not pleased about. I would have expected a discount on my room for all the trouble but since I prepaid that's not likely.

Anyways, so off I go to find some dinner. I settle on Casa Avila, a nice looking if-slightly-fancy-for-my-taste kind of place. I do a quick check on the menu to make sure I will actually eat something and in I go. I am almost happy to see that there's no-one else in there, so I feel less dumb eating alone.

The waiter asks me what I'd like to drink. Well, that's what he means anyways - his English isn't super great. I want some juice, they don't have any. He keeps suggesting all these alcoholic drinks, but I'm not interested. Finally he suggests lemonade, or so I thought. What actually came is the bitterest carbonated lime drink that I have ever tasted. It was so bitter that I actually winced. Convinced that trying to explain what was wrong would get me nowhere, I said nothing. I settled for the bitter drink. I would survive.

I ask about the Casa Avila salad. I ask what's in it and I specifically ask if there's meat in it. He says no. Sounds great - bring it on. In the meantime he brings out bread and sliced radishes.

While I wait for my salad, I try some bread (pretty good) and some radishes. I had imagined that the radishes would be cool & fresh with a bit of a kick, like they are at home. But these were just covered with salt. More wincing. More bitter drink to wash it down. More wincing.

So now a family of 5 comes into the restaurant, which is fine except that they could have sat anywhere but choose to be only 2 tables away from me so that their kids can stare at me wondering why I am sitting there by myself. It got even better when the father went ballistic and started yelling. Now they are staring at me because they are embarrassed about the scene their father is making. Get me out of here!

Salad comes. Initially it looks great - has endive, mango, avocado, tomato, and ... what's this? Crabmeat? That definitely qualifies as meat in my books. Oh well - it's not like I am vegetarian, I just won't eat the crab. No big deal.

I start into the salad and soon realize that it's drenched, no, DROWNED in salad dressing. It's so bad that I put my spoon under the edge of my plate so that I can get most of it to pool on one side of my plate (the side where I have put my crab). I actually want a paper towel to pat down the greens so I can have an easier time of choking them down, but why bother when I can just wash it down with this bitter carbonated lime drink?

I do my best with the salad. I decide that before I head back up to my room I am going to have some dessert. I saw chocolate mousse on the menu and that's what I want, please. Who cares if it was listed under the "low-calorie" part of the menu? How can they possibly screw up chocolate mousse?

By adding coffee. I don't drink coffee, never have, and generally abhor coffee-flavoured items (aside from an occasional Coffee Crisp, that is). So yes, the menu failed to mention that it was coffee/chocolate mousse, and here I am stuck with yet another consumable that I don't want.

Anyways. I paid. I tipped (it's not their fault they didn't quite have the English down, and they can't read my mind!). And I got the heck out of there. Now I am going to bed in my smelly room and will be home in a few short hours to a place that is all sorts of welcoming!!

Mexico City tour

2010-04-02T18:00:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up early and prepared myself for the Mexico City tour. I had ordered room service for breakfast, and on the form it indicated exactly what time you'd like your food to arrive. You could choose any 15 minute interval between 6:00am and 10:00am. I chose 7:00-7:15am. That would give me enough time to eat, and finish getting ready before I was picked up at 8:15am for the tour.

My food arrived at 6:45am. Which was fine, but slightly annoying. I had just put on my clothes 2 minutes before the knock on my door - why do they ask for a specific time if they are just going to show up early? Ah well, no harm done. Breakfast was pretty good - fruit and eggs and toast and something unidentifiable which tasted ok.

I exchanged a few bucks into pesos and waited to be picked up. Eventually a friendly English-speaking Mexican man arrived and whisked me off to the tour van. We picked up some other people who were also going on tours (not the same one as me though) from France and Peru. While we were driving around town picking up people I noticed that the little man who indicates that it's time to cross the street is green & animated. First you see him walking and as the time counts down closer to the end, he walks faster and faster - he kinda seems to break into a run. I found this rather mesmerizing to watch. I wish I had gotten some footage of it.

We went through the main square of the Zocalo area, and our guide explained that it was fairly quiet in Mexico City today because of it being Good Friday and many of the people are out of town. I noticed large groups of police everywhere, and in particular, a group of cops on horses with sombreros - the Mexican version of RCMP. Quite the sight!

Anyways, we headed to the tour office, paid for our tours, and split off into different groups depending on what we were doing that day. My group was heading to the famous Teotihuacan pyramids and a few other places. It turns out in my tour group that I am the only native English speaker. The driver & tour guide are Mexican, a family of 4 is Mexican, and a group of three sitting behind me were all from Germany. We all managed to communicate pretty effectively by the end of the day - although it started off rather lonely for me.

The first stop on our tour was to see the ruins at Tlatelolco. They were located right in the middle of the city and were many centuries old. We took some photos but did not stay there very long. Off we went to the Basilica of Guadalupe, and it was rather busy since it was Easter weekend. There is an "old" basilica and a "new" basilica - the old basilica is rather like the leaning tower of Pisa, and it is very off-kilter. From the outside you can tell things are not level, but from the inside it is even more apparent as you try to gain some solid footing.

Inside the new basilica there is a painting of Lady Guadalupe (the virgin Mary) on display at the front of the altar. There is an underground level right underneath the altar, and there are 3 or 4 escalators that go back and forth underneath this painting, so that people can pay their respects to it without disturbing whatever service is going on above. Photos are even allowed - with no flash.

The next & last stop on our trip was out to the pyramids. We drove for an hour to get outside of the city limits. Before the actual pyramids, though, we headed to an artisan shop where individuals gave us a tour, information about their craft, and then invite us to do some shopping. This seems to be a popular and convenient (and probably lucrative) arrangement for tours - I remember it from when I travelled to Egypt.

Anyways, we saw how they carved obsidian, how they did craftwork with silver & beading, other souvenirs and how they used the local plants. We had samples of a few drinks made from plants - the only one I recognized was tequila, and no, it does not taste any better down in Mexico. They did point out though, that it's not supposed to be salt, tequila, then lime - like so many in Canada do, but that it's supposed to be salted lime, then tequila. The lime juice "prepares" your throat for the tequila and make it easier & smoother to take.

After we had a good look around the shop, it was time for the big ticket event. We were heading straight to the Teotihuacan pyramids! These ruins are different than the other ones in Mexico in that people are allowed to walk on them. You used to be able to climb up Chichen Itza, but no longer - I wonder how long it will take Teotihuacan to follow suit. I imagine that having thousands of people trod on the archaeological sites does a fair amount of damage.

Once we arrived at Teotihuacan, our guide took us to a few places and we climbed up a pyramid to have a look at the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. It was harder than it looked - the steps are really high & steep. Going down wasn't much fun either - you had to go sideways, and it had a bit of the dizzying effect. I can see people just bailing down the steps to certain injury.

Then he let us go and have free time to walk around the huge site - apparently it was about a 1km walk from one end to the other end. It didn't sound like much to me, but in the heat of the afternoon it seemed to go on forever. The walk was punctuated by the huge Pyramid of the Sun and ended with the Pyramid of the Moon. There were people everywhere and lineups to go up and down each pyramid.

After that our guide met with us again and talked about the frescoes in the Patio of the Jaguars and then we were off to have lunch. By this time we were starving! We went to a little local place, and we all ordered various authentic Mexican food. I had chicken tacos - they were okay. We had a great time talking and laughing. The Mexican family that we were on tour with didn't speak any English but their two kids were uninhibited and adorable. We all bonded over food & drink and our shared experience.

Happily fed, we chatted all the way back into Mexico City. We parted ways at our various hotels, and even promised to share photos online. How fast we make friends when travelling!

Tulum to Mexico City

2010-04-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today we got up early and packed our things. We checked out of our resort and started the 2-hour drive back to the airport. The speed limits are all posted at the side of the highway and they frequently change. Anytime you pass by the entrance of a big hotel, it slows down to 40km/hr and then is right back to 80 or 100 a few seconds later. Needless to say, most drivers ignore the slow-down-zone. And I was getting comfortable enough to start ignoring it myself. Except well, I forgot about the fact that there are Mexican police parked by the side of the road every 5 minutes or so - there are a lot of them around.

Anyways, so I go zooming past one of them, and sure enough, he pulls out and gets on the highway after me. I am sweating bullets now because I can't speak Spanish and I have heard that the police are uber-corrupt down here, and I pretty much want to do anything I can to avoid them. To my surprise though, he goes more slowly than I was expecting, and as it turns out, pulls over a van that was travelling behind me. Needless to say, I drove the speed limit thereafter pretty fastidiously.

After we get to the airport, we check-in, go through security, and settle down to eat some lunch. I hate to admit it, but it was fast food. We didn't really have time to sit down at a restaurant, and convenience food IS rather convenient. I don't think I need mention that I regretted this decision later - kinda goes without saying. :P

The flight back to Mexico City was uneventful. They served us "cracker peanuts" for a snack. The Spanish translation on the package means... "Japanese peanuts"? I don't know. But they were peanuts coated in this cracker-like substance and there was some kind of spice (wasabi, maybe?) in it that gave it a slight kick.

We got to the airport and took the shuttle to Terminal 1 where my hotel was supposedly located. After a few glitches (one information agent insisted that there was no Hilton hotel at the airport), we found it, checked into my room - there was a strange smell but otherwise it looked pretty nice - and headed downstairs to check Ted into his flight back to Europe. While waiting in the incredibly long line for the KLM check-in, I had many close encounters with the woman behind me who seemed to think that "personal space" was just an expression. Ah well, I was too tired and too Canadian to do anything about it.

Ted & I grabbed a snack before he left, and then I was by myself in Mexico City again. This time however, I was feeling much less nervous. I went upstairs, talked to the concierge at my hotel (named "Jesus") and he arranged a tour of Mexico City for the next day. It was exactly what I wanted: they picked me up at my hotel, toured me around a few sites for the day, and returned me back to my hotel. Nice! All this for $55 USD. I'm in.

Another thing I love about the hotel is that it has free Wi-Fi and free 24hr Business Center access, which means I can get on the internet as much as I want in the next 36 hours. Yay! Right now though, I badly need a shower (the salt-water shower I took at the cabana in Tulum just doesn't cut it), and sleep. Last full day in Mexico tomorrow!

Another Life Goal Completed

2010-03-31T22:00:00.000-07:00

We got up early today because the woman in the cabana next to ours had been to Chichen Itza before and she strongly suggested that we get there as early as possible, to avoid the crowds and the heat. We had meant to leave by 7am, but it ended up being more like 8.

On the way to CI, we stopped at 7-11 and got some snacks to eat for breakfast. At home, 7-11 is not ideal for breakfast and this is still true in Mexico. However, we needed something to sustain us on the 2 hour drive, so bad convenience food it was.

It was basically one road from Tulum to Chichen Itza. And it was one road (albeit a different one) from the Cancun airport to Tulum. I kind of like this one-road thing! Makes getting around really easy. :) We saw a couple of small side streets that said San Diego 2km, and San Francisco 1km and had ourselves a chuckle about how close we were to California.

Anyways, when we arrived at Chichen Itza my first impression was that it was HUGE. We walked in and was immediately greeted by the famous "El Castillo." This was what I came here to see, this is what was on the life goal list. I was a little awestruck, and I think I kept murmuring "Oh my god, oh my god," but in truth I don't remember much. Let me just tell you that it was impressive.

In the middle of it all, they were setting up for a concert - Elton John was coming to play right amidst all the ruins. But despite all the equipment everywhere, we pretty much had free reign and walked anywhere and everywhere we wanted. It wasn't even all that busy at first.

There were several little stands set-up by locals who were there to sell some souvenirs, and it was really nice looking stuff. As the day went on, they were everywhere. You couldn't walk anywhere without going by them. Ted bought a really cool mask. It was really very hot though, and I was not that interested in shopping & bartering, so I didn't get anything for myself. I suppose I probably should have.

After we left the huge site, we stopped for some lunch at the little local cafe. We shared some burritas and they were excellent. While eating we were entertained by some Mexican dancers one of which performed while balancing bottles on her head!

When we drove home we went through a military checkpoint. We had seen them on the way there, but they were waving everyone through. On the way back, however, they seemed to be pulling people over and searching their car. Lucky for us, they seemed busy enough and we were waved through again. Big sigh of relief!!

On the one road between Tulum and CI, you pass through several small towns. One of which was called Valladolid, and it was charming. An old cathedral, colourful buildings, a park, and many great shops accentuated it. It was really pretty.

Passing through another small village, we could see kids up ahead on the road playing soccer. There are always speed bumps in the main parts of town (any town in Mexico, it seems), and they "accidentally" kicked the soccer ball right at our car and hit it straight on. As we slowed down, they came racing up to our vehicle trying to sell us stuff. Clever ploy, eh? I imagine that some people feel bad enough to buy something from them.

When we got back to our resort we went to the beach to join up with the rest of the group, soak up some rays, and play in the surf while the sun was still out. And then for our last night in Tulum Ted & I went in search of a really nice dinner. We walked down the road and found a lovely hotel that was serving outside on the patio right on the beach. We had the sunset, then candlelight for dinner. It was very romantic (although at times, really quite windy).

After dinner we spent the last bit of our time with the group, having drinks and socializing at the resort restaurant. Up at the bar they had swings instead of stools, so that was fun to hang out there. It was our last bit of time in Tulum - tomorrow we are back to Mexico City!

Day of Whatever-we-want

2010-03-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

Slept late this morning. Ahhhh, it was decadent. Well, pretty decadent anyways. The cold night and the birds chirping at 5am were not ideal, but hey, it's just a different form of paradise to adapt to. ;)

Speaking of those chirping birds. The one right by the cabana had me awake long enough to determine that it was changing its chirp over and over. It would always do the same chirp twice, and then change it up. Double-chirp, just to make sure you heard him correctly, and then onto the next. Made for interesting listening, actually - just not at 5am. Anyways, I haven't seen him yet, so I don't know what kind of bird he is.

We headed down to the beach bar, which served breakfast overlooking the ocean. Crystal blue waters and gorgeous sand beach. Warm air, tropical breeze. NICE. Oh, but if you sit facing the wrong way you can get more than you bargained for - the beach is clothing-optional. It was a little jolt in my morning paradise to see naked-man doing handstands and yoga poses as I was trying to just chill out and enjoy my meal. Ted says it's all in where you sit and what way you face.

We decided to take the 10 minute journey to the Tulum ruins, which are just down the street from where we are staying. Apparently they are unusual because they are situated on the coast, while other ruins in Mexico are inland.

We were there for a couple of hours and it was pretty awesome. I am always amazed by being able to experience something that was built so long ago. I am walking in those same footsteps, seeing the same rocks, wondering at the same carvings. Fantastic!

When we were done we stopped at the little market/shopping area located on the way back to our car. There were a few cultural performances happening around us, too. It seems like many of these people depend on tourist dollars or tips to make a living.

I had lunch at Subway. Despite all the bonafide Mexican food I have been eating, I really have been craving a good veggie sandwich. And so that's what I had! So far, no problems with my stomach - hope it lasts. The sandwich is just like what I'd have at home... except for the pickles. I don't know exactly how to describe the pickles, but they are not the same. More sour, more salty maybe?

We got back to our cabana and had a bit of a rest. The heat really saps your energy, and we just spent 2 hours walking, walking, walking. A nap was in order! Upon waking we went to the restaurant and had a snack and a drink. While we were sitting there we saw 2 guys from the wedding arrive. We visited with them for a while, and waited a bit longer for the rest of the group - 20 more were on their way. We are going to take over this place, haha!

As the rest of the group arrived we hung out with them down by the beach and then we eventually all moved up to the restaurant when it became too windy. We are planning to go to Chichen Itza tomorrow but none of them will come with us since they have another week her and just want to relax. We can hardly blame them. But, as we are leaving in 2 days, we want to take the chance while we have it!

Off to shower & bed. I think the shower water is salt water, and it does not do a great job of washing my hair. I don't really feel clean afterwards. I suppose I'd get used to it if I had to, but for now it just leaves a little grimy feeling. Ah well, better than the sweaty, sticky-suncreen feeling. Tomorrow, Chichen Itza!!

Travelling to Tulum

2010-03-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today was a travel day. We got up early, which was difficult since we got home so late from the wedding last night. We arranged a taxi to the airport through our hotel, and checked into our flight.

Then we had breakfast at a restaurant at the airport. It had a buffet, but I think that best be avoided when travelling. I ordered some familiar-looking stuff, and Ted had bread - he was feeling rather sick.

A friend of mine recommended that I get some Grapefruit Seed Extract and put some in whatever I drink down here in Mexico. It's from the health food store and apparently neutralizes any (bad) bacteria that is in your system. Anyways, I must admit that I am a bit of a skeptic, but after getting sick on my last trip I am willing to try something new. More than a few drops makes your drinks taste bitter though, so I just put it in my juice.

One thing that I am impressed about at the airports here in Mexico is that there are many individuals in wheelchairs working as information agents. I don't see that much at home, and it seems like a good job to have.

The flight to Cancun was pretty uneventful - only 2 hours. When we arrived we talked to some information agents about how to get to Tulum, which is almost 2 hours drive away. We were convinced to rent a car, as it would be cheaper in the end and allow us a bit more freedom.

They gave us a standard, so I started us off with the driving, much to a few people's surprise. Ted hasn't driven a manual in a while, so he didn't want to take the first shift. Anyways, the drive was long and in some places harrowing - not surprisingly, there are fewer rules here than there are at home. Cars squeezing themselves into any spot that they can find, passing within inches of each other, Mexican police parked by the side of the road every 5 minutes or so. There were also these speed bumps every once in a while which forced everyone to come to a virtual stop on the highway. Lucky for us it was one road from the airport to Tulum, but I have to admit, I was wishing we had taken a taxi by the time we actually got there.

When we arrived at our resort, Copal, I was initially charmed. Cabanas right by the beach, water views, the sound of the ocean with clear blue water and the finest sand I have seen. Magical! The reality of the eco-friendly resort was, however, not terribly luxurious. I describe it as similar to camping. No electricity, no lights, sleeping with the sounds of the outdoors (ocean = good, squawking birds at 5am = bad), sand everywhere on your floor, running water but fickle plumbing, etc. All in all, it was good - but luxury, it was not. There were however fresh tropical flowers waiting for us in the cabana when we got there, courtesy of Ted. They were beautiful and made the cabana smell lovely!

We were pretty hungry by the time we checked in and so we had dinner at the resort restaurant. We were accompanied by a very friendly feline friend who sat next to us and talked to us and wanted to be petted and waited patiently for handouts while we ate. We had yummy Mexican food - fajitas and guacamole and chips and salsa... it was heaven. It was right at dusk though and there was another feast going on - and the dish was me. That's right, mosquitoes came out in force and I got about fifteen bites in 10 minutes. By the end of dinner I was squirming. Why didn't I bring my insect repellent??

Off to the local grocery store we go. We pick up some Off, After Bite, sunscreen, snacks and drinks. The sunscreen was about $17. I think that store made a killing from unprepared tourists! Ah well. The After Bite was soooooo nice, and made me much more tolerable to be around, I'm sure.

Sleeping in the cabana was fine, although it takes some getting used to. I didn't know it was going to be so cold! In the middle of the night I had to get 2 more blankets. The sound of the ocean is nice to fall asleep to though, and even though I had nightmares that night, I still woke up to a little bit of paradise. :)

The Wedding

2010-03-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

Well, today was the big day. The day of the Mexican-Norwegian-British-Canadian wedding that we have all been anticipating. We found out that we would be getting on a bus at 11:00am and the bus wouldn't be coming back until 1:00am, so this really was going to be an all-day event.

We got up fairly early (we had crashed pretty early from all the travel-itis) and had breakfast at the hotel. Then we got all dolled up (me in an orange dress, no less) and got onto a bus that took us 1.5 hours and outside the Mexico City city limits.

When we arrived at the Ranchero, it was immediately apparent that it was going to be gorgeous. And lush. Apparently it's the oldest Ranchero in the area. It was green and lovely with rock-face walls and a back-in-time kinda feel. We went through corridors to nooks and areas that held flora & fauna everywhere. There were little lizards about, and lovebirds in cages all around the outside.

It was a gorgeous day. It was sunny and unfortunately for me it was quite hot. I managed to almost pass out during the (long-ish, Catholic) ceremony. Heatstroke is always nearby with me. Anyways, after the ceremony, we went to a courtyard where we were treated to some live music and waiters serving drinks and canapes. Yum! Food and drink was exactly what I needed, and it was really quite good.

Then the reception started. Pretty much right away. We were seated pretty close to the stage and our 3 course meal started coming out. We all had menu cards explaining what our choices were for the meal. Oh, except that for the starter, we didn't really get a choice, everyone just got what they got, random as it was. I managed to snag my choice of tomato, cheese, & balsamic salad tower. It was great.

Did I mention that this wedding was British/Mexican/Norwegian/Canadian? The groom is English & Canadian, and the bride is Mexican & Norwegian. This made for some really entertaining traditions. Read on.

The Norwegian cousins and friends at our table explained that one tradition at the wedding reception is for all the men in the room to run up to the bride and kiss her if her groom leaves her at the table. And if the bride leaves her groom alone, all the women rush up to kiss him. There was also the typical clinking of glasses. Muchos kissing!!

Our main courses and desserts came quickly too, and all-in-all, we were done all the eating by 4:30pm. 4:30!! So early. Then came speeches, which were suitable, funny, and in three languages. At one point a very inebriated Mexican relative or friend came up and interrupted the MC's, which lead to laughter of course. They shooed him away pretty effectively.

Dancing started at 5:00pm and lasted the rest of the night. It was obvious that the bride LOVES dancing, but it was hard not to bust a move yourself with the great music that was playing. There were Mexican favourites and Latin songs and the usual top 40. The dance floor was pretty much packed all night.

There were also dancefloor "novelties" as well. Little gimmicks that made things quite interesting, and which appeared every hour or so. First, a mini-wrestling ring was brought out and Mexican wrestling masks were handed out to everyone. You know, like the movie Nacho Libre? Some theatrics ensued and then dancing continued.

The next novelty was a guy that came out on stilts with a mini-soccer goal attached behind his head. Then beach balls that looked like soccer balls were thrown about and everyone tried to score. That was pretty fun. Perhaps that was a nod to the groom since he's a soccer player.

At one point, the bride was given a box full of slippers embroidered with her & the groom's initials, and she threw them up in the air all over the dancefloor, "for the ladies." I didn't get any, but then I was wearing pretty comfortable sandals so it didn't much matter.

The next novelty was wigs of all sorts of colours: red, green, blue, yellow, orange. Everyone passed them around and posed for photos. That was quite comical too.

The last novetly was a man on stilts who came out on the dancefloor, passed out hats (kinda looked like a Mexican cowboy hat) and gave out shots to everyone - in cups and sometimes straight from the bottle. That one was popular!

Eventually some typical traditions came out, sortof. At one point late in the evening all the girls were gathered together, linked hands and ran around the room - first slowly and then faster and faster. We ended up in a line in front of the bride & groom, who were waiting on top of chairs. You had to pass between them and have them feed you tequila as you went under. THEN they did the bouquet toss. I guess a little tequila helps your bouquet-catching abilities. Needless to say, I didn't catch it. Nobody was disappointed about that. :)

Next the groom-taking-garter-off-the-bride ceremony. Then all the guys lined up, linked arms and ran about the room. And then yes, they also had to be doused with tequila by the bride & groom. There were a lot of wet shirts.

Sometime before the end of the night, they served a snack which was really tasty - chips and black beans and some kind of green sauce. It was REALLY yummy and well-timed since we had all eaten nothing since 4:30.

The reception finally ended at 12:30am after 7.5 hours of dancing. Whew! What a party! And a wedding like no other!

First Impressions

2010-03-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

Well my flight to Mexico was pretty uneventful. I was lucky enough to sit near the back of the plane and thus get a whole row to myself, which was nice. I tried to sleep, but no luck there. I am glad that at the last minute I grabbed a fleece to wear on the plane, because it was cold!

When we landed in Mexico City, we got off the plane and onto a bus - I was the last one to squeeze on before we took off towards the terminal. After arriving at the terminal, they made us wait outside for a while, which I thought was rather strange - but hey, at least it was nice and warm.

Of course as luck would have it, I get pulled aside immediately after entering the terminal and all my luggage is swabbed down - presumably for drugs. What, now I look like a drug dealer? :)

Once I found Immigration (just followed the crowd, really) it was a huge line. While you are waiting in line these guys came around and made sure that you filled out your "Welcome to Mexico" card properly. I hadn't. Had to find a pen (I left my 4 dollar pen on the plane, argh!) and sign the back of the card in a not-very-conspicuous space. Anyways, then I went through Customs and all was fine.

As soon as I got out of Customs my phone rang and I was talking to Ted for the first time in weeks. The part of the trip I was most worried about was finding a taxi at the airport and getting to the hotel, but turns out it was totally organized & safe. There are these kiosks called "authorized taxis" and apparently they are the only taxi companies that are allowed to work at the airport. You pre-pay, you get a receipt, you get the taxicab #, and off you go.

During the taxi ride we were stopped at a red light and these 2 shady looking guys came out and suddenly started a drumming/fire performance act. I guess they do this at lights for extra cash. My taxi driver paid them a few coins. Beats the squeegie punks!!

Ted called me again while I was in the cab and asked if I wanted him to get some food, which I gratefully accepted since I was starving!! I got to the hotel ahead of him, but soon after he arrived with Burger King. :) So great to see him after so long. Soon after that it was bedtime though, and tomorrow was bound to be a very long day!

Africa

2010-03-23T19:55:00.001-07:00

This video was sent to me by my Mom. I love watching it, and seeing how a collective of people come together and make something so beautiful. No kidding - I actually get a little choked up. I think it's fantastic. Do you?

Stephen Brunt Video Essay - Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics

2010-03-01T07:36:00.000-08:00

Real Captivity is Inside Your Mind

2010-01-25T06:57:00.000-08:00

I went to Las Vegas recently, and inside one of the hotels, there were lions on display in a glass enclosure. The enclosure was pretty big, held toys, water, food, and all sorts of artificial habitat items.

From the information that was available about the "attraction," I gathered that the lions in the enclosure were actually not there every single day. They did a short stint, and then were subbed out. I guess they do this so that the lions don't suffer any adverse effects from being gawked at for 24hrs at a time in a city that never sleeps.

Watching them brought back a few memories from a few years back.

While I was doing my teacher-training program there came a day when we had the opportunity to take ourselves on a field trip. We were specifically asked to partner-up and visit a local attraction with the purpose of evaluating what features made it an attractive field trip.

I went to the zoo.

I picked the zoo because although I know that I had been there before (perhaps as a child), I couldn't remember what it was like there, what my impressions had been, or even what animals were on display.

Immediately upon arrival we were greeted by some elephants that were chained up outside the front of the zoo - which happened to be located directly off a busy highway road. Going inside, there wasn't too much more that put me at ease. I saw tethered birds, big cats pacing back and forth at their cage fences for hours, and other animals who seemed rather big for their enclosures.

It was upsetting. I started thinking about how kids are brought here to view these animals outside of their natural habitat. How they probably think it's "cool" that they get to see a zebra, an elephant, a hippo. How they are probably not thinking about some of the larger issues like the effects of captivity on the mental & physical well-being of a wild animal. At the time I swore that I would never bring kids on a field trip like that.

I do think that there is value in talking with kids about the effects of captivity on animals. I don't know that it would be as valuable to younger students, but I believe that older kids would be able to identify some of the stressors on an animal in captivity. And it's relevant; there are animals (wild and otherwise) in captivity all over the place. What about animals born into their situations? What about aquariums, circuses, or other shows? What about animal rescue shelters? Our own homes?

Sometimes it's absolutely better for the animal that they have been taken in. Clearly, sometimes it's worse. What I'd like students to do is to think more about the factors under which we decide that one situation is "good" and another is not. That's all I want - a conversation, a debate, a critical look -- rather than a passive acceptance or spectator sport.

With all of the live web-cam feeds into various animal habitats, I feel that zoos are becoming less of an attraction. People don't need to pay admission to see live animals if they can just turn on a computer. The same kids of conversations can still be had. The kids can still ooh and ahh. Furthermore, they can talk about it at home - and maybe parents can even join in the conversation.

So, is the zoo a good field trip? Maybe. Honestly, I don't think it's likely I would take students there. But I have changed my tune a bit about how useful it could be in terms of education. It's certainly an opportunity for a great conversation. Animals in cages; let's think outside the box!

One Child Inspires

2009-12-16T16:19:00.000-08:00

Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 3:09 PM

The News Tribune / Tacoma, WA
Word on the Street
December 16, 2009 - Tacoma, WA

Lakewood police officer pens Christmas story
Posted By Mike Archbold on December 16, 2009 at 9:50 am

A little boy and his toy dinosaur who came by the Lakewood Office Department
station last Sunday to honor the four slain police officers touched an
officer enough that the officer wanted to share the story in a Christmas
letter to friends.

One of the friends who received the letter, Tukwila police officer Mike
Murphy, said he and his fellow officers were so touched by the story that
they thought it should be shared with the community.

Murphy said the officer who wrote it agreed but wanted to remain anonymous.

"It is just a story of one child reaching out and helping heal the pain we
have all suffered," Murphy said in his e-mail. "Our only goal in sending it
is to reach out to our community and thank them for this and all the other
love and support they have sent us through this very difficult time."

The Christmas story is reprinted below:

December 13, 2009

I'm not much for writing Christmas letters, and in fact this year, I didn't
even feel like making the effort of buying and addressing Christmas cards at
all. I'm sure you all have heard of the terrible tragedy that occurred here
in Lakewood two weeks ago today - four of our officers, four people that
have become my friends over the past 5 years as we all worked here together,
were gunned down as they sat in a coffee shop. Three fathers and a mother -
all of whom were dedicated to their jobs and their families - now dead. The
grief at our station and in our community has been overwhelming and we have
all now just barely begun to process what this means for our department and
for police departments all across our state and nation. Several times since
this event happened, police agencies have responded to reports of
individuals across King and Pierce Counties causing commotions and claiming
to be planning to kill more officers. We do our best to maintain our
composure and continue to do our jobs the best that we can.

It is hard not to remain bleak and jaded with these events so fresh in our
minds. But something happened today, just 20 minutes ago, which made me want
to send out a Christmas letter. I'm here at work and was just out in our
secure parking lot helping another officer load collection bins into his car
to take to a local Lakewood Police Independent Guild fundraiser event. I
heard a woman, standing with a boy who couldn't have been more than 3 or 4
years old, calling, "Excuse me...." through our locked gate. She had
apparently been trying to get to our front counter but found no one there,
it being Sunday, and had just happened to see us in the parking lot. I
walked over to her and saw that the little boy was holding a plastic baggy
containing a dollar and some change, and was clutching a well-worn stuffed
dinosaur.

The woman told me that her son, AJ, had seen the stories on tv about our 4
slain officers. She said that they had driven to our station all the way
from Kingston because her son was so intent on helping the children of these
officers. I opened the gate and the boy handed me the plastic baggy
containing all the money from his piggybank and a note on which he had
written "AJ....From me to Pleec. I Love You." And then, with tears in his
eyes, he handed me his stuffed dinosaur. AJ's mom explained that he wanted
to give the children of the slain officers the most precious thing that he
owned, and that was his dinosaur, Bruno.

I told AJ that I would take the money that he wanted to donate, but that I
thought the best thing he could do for the children of our 4 officers was to
keep Bruno safe with him but to keep those kids in his heart when he hugged
his dinosaur. He agreed and gratefully took Bruno back from me and held him
tightly as if he never wanted to let him go again.

We have seen many, many acts of generosity and kindness over the past 2
weeks. We have hugged more friends and strangers than we could have ever
imagined and have mended broken ties with people we haven't talked to for
years. Yet nothing has touched me deeper, or given me more hope for the
future, than AJ and his stuffed dinosaur. I gave AJ one of our department
challenge coins, explaining to him that we only gave them out to the bravest
and most deserving people we came across. I hope he will realize someday how
much more than a dollar and some change he gave to me and to the Lakewood
Police Department today.

So anyway, none of that is about Christmas, but it is about hope and love
and I thought it was appropriate to share this holiday season.

I hope this letter finds all of you well and eager to spend the holidays
with those you love. Squeeze everyone a little tighter and hug them a little
longer today because life really is precious. Merry Christmas!

Great Quotes About Learning & Change

2009-08-17T14:10:00.000-07:00

Found in Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/858082@N25/pool/show/

The Grand Adventure - Wordle

2009-08-16T22:15:00.000-07:00

www.wordle.net

The Grand Adventure is Drawing to a Close

2009-08-12T21:52:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

At the moment I am in London and this time tomorrow I will be happily in my own bed, so you're looking at the last of my emails (yay!). I am looking forward to enjoying so many familiarities and comforts of home that I have been doing without for the past 33 days, including not-living-out-of-a-suitcase!!

So, we went to Spain. Dan, Tracy & I piled all our stuff into Dan's car and we took a road trip north. The border between Morocco & Spain is totally insane. These guys run up to your car and give you a border entry card, (and expect payment, of course), then you fill it out and have to park your car - right at the border - and go to a wicket to get the stamp. Then you go through about 4 or 5 passport checks and questions from men who sometimes look like they are buddy-down-the-street and are sometimes carrying guns. It's all chaos - people bud in line, yell over top of each other... and it was a Sunday when we went!

Anyways, we arrived in Ceuta/Sebta (Spanish/Arabic) and it was a lovely departure from our travels so far. Like being back in Europe. Tracy got us by with her Spanish skills (is there any language she doesn't speak?? apparently she hasn't been formally trained in either Pig Latin or Arabic) and we had an awesome time, soaking up the atmosphere. We walked around town, ate ice cream, took photos, soaked our feet in the Mediterranean and went to a pizzeria for dinner.

Ok, so we're at the Pizzeria and the server asks if we want to share a Caeser salad to start, and we agree. Let me tell you what was in the salad. No, wait, let me tell you what wasn't in the salad: the kitchen sink! It had lettuce, tomato, corn, artichokes, rice, olives, carrots, cucumbers, palm hearts, tuna, beets... and more. We're not kidding. And strange thing is, it was pretty good! But it ain't no Ceasar salad!!

The next day (Monday), we got up early and drove back to Rabat. Dan only tried to kill us a couple of times by looking somewhere else other than the road, but little does he know how hearty we are from weeks of crossing the street in Egypt! So, we made it all the way to the train station unscathed. Sad goodbye to Dan who was a very generous host - thanks Dan!!

Arriving in Marrakech, we checked in to our Riad and two young guys seemed to be running the place. They amused themselves greatly by continually quoting us ridiculous times for things - i.e. 4 hours to get to the airport, 3 hour walk to get to the main square, etc. However they were really friendly and helpful once they had their laugh. The Riad was very nice, as well. My only complaint is that there was no door on the bathroom (just a curtain), and you don't realize how important that is until you don't have one! Yeesh.

We walked to the main square which was called Jemaa El Fna, and it was crazy there at night! So alive with kiosks selling orange juice, crowds of people around storytellers, food stands, henna tattoo artists, kids trying to sell you tissue, and shopping shopping shopping. Marrakech is the Moroccan city most like Egypt in that people hassled us the most here out of any place in Morocco.

Tracy had another henna done on her hand and we decided to walk back to our Riad. Then, I was rudely welcomed to Marrkech by having a tomato thrown at me!! I was shocked and dismayed; I certainly do love my vegetables, but not when used in an unfriendly projectile sort of manner. There were Arabic guys walking on the street towards us and they were really shocked too, apologizing and making sure all was ok. I was pretty upset - but we wrote it off to random kids driving by and being idiots. Everybody else in Morocco has been so nice, it was such a shame, really. Washed out my clothes when I got back to the Riad.

The next day we took Marrakesh by storm and we spent time again at Jemaa El Fna (saw snake-charmers!), the Tombeaux, Marjorelle Gardens (an oasis in the middle of the insanity; we loved it), Palace ruins, Marrakech Museum, Ben Youssef and some famous monument thingy that we don't even know what it was - but was neat anyways.

Totally strange coincidence - while at the Museum we ran into 2 people that were staying at our Dar in Fes! Really specific places to be running into each other. Almost creepy... :) And then at the airport later we ran into more people that were staying at that Dar in Fes! What a small, small world. There were only 3 people at the Dar that we didn't see in a different Moroccan city (the strange English/French family that kepy insulting Tracy... maybe it was good that we didn't run in to them).

Our last Moroccan meal was delicious; cucumber soup, Moroccan chicken curry, vegetable pastry and poached pear & ice cream for dessert. We will definitely miss the food! Our last night in Morocco was a little annoying because there was really loud music going on at some neighbouring building - and it went on all-night-long!! Seriously, it was still going when we woke up this morning at 5:45am.

So, we flew to London. We had a proper English meal of fish n' chips and we stocked up on snacks and whatnot for travels ahead. I fly home tomorrow and Tracy has a few more days in the UK before she's back in the GVRD.

Here's some random thoughts:
- we've tried 4 types of Fanta: apple, orange, black current & lemon.
- the Moroccans eat their french fries with dijon mustard; Tracy has now converted.
- we saw several instances of Moroccans hitting their children out in public. Hard. :(
- shoving clothes into your bag willy-nilly makes them really wrinkled, but sweating de-wrinkle-fies anything pretty quick.
- there was regularly no shower curtain and you need a certain amount of skill to not get the bathroom floor flooded.
- I have eaten more pizza and drank more pop on this trip than any other one food/drink.
- there's no row 13 in airplanes? Like elevators I guess. I mean, who wants to sit in row 13 in a flying tin can?
- my Canada flag keychain was stolen off my suitcase. It would have been very difficult to remove. My carabeener clips got stolen off my luggage, but they would have been easy.
- a bunch of songs I paid for through iTunes, about 30 of them, still 'play' on my iPhone but with no sound. I have restarted the phone but to no avail. Strange! They were definitely working before, and went blank about halfway through my trip. Anyone know why?
- I have played inordinate amounts of cribbage on my iPhone and am now convinced that I am a better player. Anyone wanna take me on?
- if I were to do Morocco again, I would do Marrakech first, then Fes, then end with Dan in Rabat because it was so nice to have some real relaxing time without a crazy agenda.
- how do pilots know, when they are flying right IN the clouds, that there isn't another airplane in there coming the other way?? Karl??

Thanks all of you for reading these emails (or, well, for receiving them anyways!). Typing out my experiences is much faster than writing them all down and they are often things I want to remember too. Hopefully you've gotten a giggle or some helpful info out of them at one point or another. I'll send links to photos sometime in the next few weeks.

If you are in the GVRD, look me up before I go back to work on Sep 8th! If not, I hope we can get together sometime soon for a visit. Take care, and be good.

Cheers,
Elaan

Rock the Kasbah

2009-08-08T21:51:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

Just a quick note this time.

We are in Rabat, staying at my friend Dan's place and it has been awesome - a great change of pace and nice to actually be in someone's home rather than dealing with room cleaners, check-out times, and sometimes unfriendly staff! Dan has been great and his two kids are a riot - two girls, 9 and 10 years old. They and the cat, Fudge, keep us entertained all the time. :)

Yesterday Dan took us out and we went to the Chellah (my nickname for it: the Chinchilla) which was like old castle ruins dating back to the Roman civilization. It's also a breeding ground for storks. Storks are very large, and it's certainly something to watch them fly around. We saw more lush greenery, flora & fauna in the Chellah than anywhere else on the trip so far.

After the Chellah, we went to the beach and the Kasbah. It was amazing. There were locals jumping off huge rocks into the crystal blue water (posted a photo on FB for your viewing pleasure). Yesterday was Tracy`s birthday and she had the choice between McDonald`s McFlurrys or an ice cream cake. She chose the McFlurry and we ended off the very hot afternoon with a great treat. N.B. - Moroccan McFlurrys are just sundaes; they don`t mix anything. They were still pretty good.

Came back to the pad and relaxed and then Dan made an amazing dinner of salmon, potatoes, pasta salad and garden salad. Yum & double-yum. The great day was capped off with a view of the ocean sunset from the roof, accompanied by a glass of lovely Spanish wine.

Today we went to the Rabat medina. Very different from the Fes medina. We did a little shopping and now have no idea how to fit anything in our luggage or how to get it home. Woes of a traveller!

Dan & the girls went out tonight so Tracy and I made our own dinner of pasta & salad and it was pretty scrumptious if we do say so ourselves!

Tomorrow, we go to Spain. A city right on the tip of Morocco belongs to Spain and we have to go across the border to get there. Should be great. After that we part ways with Dan & his family and head to Marrakech - and then London - and then home! Not sure how many more emails I will be sending. :)

Hope all is well at home and things have cooled down for you guys,
xo
Elaan

Funky Hot Medina

2009-08-06T21:45:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

Ok, so it's my intention to send this email to you twice - the first time with an attachment (a voice clip from me!!) and the second time without, in case some people have trouble downloading/opening attachments. If you get the first email ok, then just delete the second one. :)

Where did I leave you last...? Ah yes, back in Egypt.

On our tour they would often give us a "welcome drink" at some of the places/businesses that we visited. It was Tang. Tang is big in Egypt, it seems. Strange thing is, we were advised not to drink the tap water in Egypt, although the locals drink it with no problem. Given that Tang is an orange-flavoured powder, I asked my tour leader if these places were mixing their Tang with the tap water, and he said no - that it was made with bottled water. RIGHT. I don't believe that for a second. And neither should you.

When going to an Egyptian restaurant, this is how it will generally go:
1. You tell them what you want.
2. They bring the food and you tell them what you ordered so they can give it to you.
3. They will not bring you your bill until you ask.
4. You have to tell them what you ordered so that they can figure out how much you owe.
5. What they say you owe is not actually what you should owe according to the menu, and they hope you don't notice this.
6. You pay with cash, and they will deny that they have any change.

Oh, and the cleanliness of food and drink? They don't have standards like at home. I mentioned that they drink the tap water, right? And that they get the tap water from the Nile? And that their sewage goes in the Nile? (I hope your sister doesn't do much travelling Lauren - she'd never eat!)

The light switches here are backwards - you push down to turn them on and upwards to turn them off. When I get home I will probably be doing it backwards. I will also probably ignore people when they talk to me, be afraid to cross the street, and brush my teeth with bottled water. I wonder if my daily pop quota will make its way back to North America, too - all the good dental habits I acquired are going to waste! D'oh.

For our last night in Cairo, we changed hotels and stayed in a really nice one called the Meridien Heliopolis. The guy that drove us there was the only person I had seen in Egypt that used turn signals. It was neato! His name was Ehab. I remember his name because I was thinking about Captain Ahab from Moby Dick. Ya, ok, random. Whatevs.

In the fancy hotels that we have been staying in, there is usually a bidet in the bathroom. How exactly do you use a bidet, anyways? I mean, are you supposed to SIT on it? IN it? I can see all sorts of SNL skits coming out of the experimentation with the bidet. What if you got stuck in the bidet? My butt is a little wider than some of the ones we've seen... hehe.

So, we travelled from Cairo to Milan, and all I have to say about that is: it's nearly impossible to not notice when then guy beside you on the airplane is having an anxiety attack. Yep, lucky me, the guy beside me seemed very afraid of flying. He nearly hyperventilated during takeoff. Thing is, when it's an Arab MAN, you pretty much don't want to be friendly for fear that you are giving the wrong impression. Anyways, the flight was not full and he eventually moved to an empty row so he could spaz-out in private.

Then we were back in Italy. Ahhhh, being able to trust the food/water again is such a luxury! We only had a few hours there - stayed at another very lovely hotel and then were up at the godawful hour of 2:30am to get on our airport shuttle bus. This time we were flying out of Bergamo airport. Note to self: Italian airports don't make finding bathrooms very easy.

Back on the airplane again. This time flying Ryanair from Milan to Fes in Morocco. Ryanair is the cheapest airline ever, and they nickel and dime you for every service you could possibly want. Which means, it's not very good service. Case in point: they let a woman on the airplane that shouldn't have been there. SHE thought she was supposed to be there, but they did not. Why they didn't discover this before she actually made it on the plane, I don't know. So we sat on the tarmac for an hour and Tracy & I had a front row seat and watched the woman scream at various airport employees. The police finally came, she was taken away, and the whole airplane erupted in applause. And so we were off to Morocco.

When we arrived in Fes we had to go through customs of course and we got pulled aside for a health check and I got interrogated a bit. I got interrogated in French. Did I mention that I don't speak French? I actually knew what the guy was saying, but couldn't answer him appropriately ("zut alors!" , "mon dieu!" and "j'adore le francais, ca va?" came to mind) or quickly enough. Thank goodness for Tracy!! She saved me. I had visions of being hauled off to a Moroccan jail before she came to my rescue.

We were picked up at the Fes airport and taken to our Dar - a Dar is like a guest house. We stayed in Dar El Hana, which was right in the center of the medina. The medina is a section of the city, usually enclosed by walls, that has a billion streets that run in every direction and is home to a bazillion people and shops. There are 9000 streets in the Fes medina - okay, so that's not a billion, but it might as well be. It's still insane. You can get lost for hours in there - another reason why we needed to get picked up.

As soon as I got in the medina, I noticed very strong smells. I thought it was going to be like the Egyptian markets, but it was different in a number of ways. For example, we rarely got talked to. Where it's a constant harassment in Egypt everywhere you go, for the most part in Morocco they leave you alone. The odd person tries to talk to you or sell you something, but coming from Egypt we were well-rehearsed in ignoring people. There are donkeys and carts and motorbikes all vying for space in the narrow roads, whereas it was mainly pedestrian traffic in Egypt.

There are cats everywhere, like Egypt. They seem to get fed more in Fes - the shopkeepers will give them raw meat scraps and such. It still strikes me as rather sad.

We had dinner at our Dar, two nights in a row. Oh wow, is Moroccan food ever GOOD. The cook made Tajine, which is slow-cooked meat and spices and fruit in a clay pot. Last night we had chicken and apricots - yummm. The breakfasts are good too -- fruit and yogurt and honey and Moroccan pancakes with butter and jams.

While staying at the Dar, we had dinner with another family. They live in France, but the husband was English. Tracy talked about her family connections to England, and the husband proceeded to say that everyone from that her particular town were redneck hicks and strange ducks. She wasn't impressed. Then he asked me about Canada's political position in Iraq - to which I almost laughed. Can you imagine someone asking me about Canadian politics? Ha ha ha. Well anyways, despite those things, the family was pretty nice.

Yesterday we did a little shopping in the Fes medina and I picked up a couple of things but I am not much of a shopper when I travel. I'm not much of a shopper at home - when I have to carry it around on my back it's even less attractive. Still, I bargained myself a little Moroccan bag even though I hate bargaining! Why can't people just say what the actual price is?? Sheesh. :)

Today we left Fes and carried our heavy bags all through the medina, and I have never sweat so much in my life. I was the Elaan-filling in a donkey sandwich a couple of times, when I was caught in an inopportune moment in the medina. The donkeys give way to nobody. I almost got knocked over, too. It is rather treacherous at the best of times, and when you add another huge pack on your back, medium pack on your front... it gets even worse. But hey, what doesn't kill ya makes you stronger! And sometimes smellier!

We caught a lovely air-conditioned train to Rabat, and there my friend Dan was waiting to pick us up with his 2 lovely daughters. He gave us a quick tour of the school where he works, then took us for a "North American" meal at T.G.I. Friday's. Then we saw an amazing sunset at the beach, went his place where Tracy & I high-fived over the washing machine (yay!!) and settled in. Can't wait to just do whatever, without a schedule and stress.

Home soon, hope y'all are well!
Elaan

p.s. thanks for making it to the end of the longest-email-EVER!

Seeing the sights of Cairo, and then some

2009-08-01T17:09:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

All over Egypt there are half-built buildings everywhere. Everything seems to be in a state of either creation or disrepair. There will be huge stretches of land, and then a tiny little hut, half-built, in the middle of it. Mudi says this is because the government will only sell/give pieces of land to people who build on it within a certain period of time. So they half-build something in order to keep ownership of their land.

Lots of fully-built buildings are crumbling and dirty and look totally unsafe for habitation, but you see the telltale signs of life all over: laundry hanging outside, A/C units fastened to the outside of the building, and satellite dishes. I thought it was strange that there were satellite dishes pretty much everywhere, even on the worst buildings in the worst areas of town (or at least the ones we saw - we probably never even got near the worst area of town!), but it's the way of life here.

I know I have remarked on the garbage here already; people throw their trash on the ground as easily as they walk. It's disgusting. Yesterday Tracy and I went for a walk down the street from our hotel, and we had to get off the sidewalk and walk in the street because there were huge piles of garbage blocking the way. As we did, an Egyptian man said to us, "yes, walk over here, it is much better. Sorry, but this is how it is in Egypt."

Pedestrian street traffic is primarily men and infrequently women. Mudi says that Egyptian women stay home with the kids while the Dad works, and when I asked if it was ever the other way around, he said that an Egyptian man would rather be dead than to take care of his kids all day and have his wife support him.

So we climbed up Mt. Sinai. It is the highest point in Egypt, and apparently has something to do with Moses?... hehe. There is a monastery at the bottom of the mountain that we had toured earlier that day and learned all about St. Catherine. That evening we got our stuff together and started the hike with our bonafide Bedouin guide. I compare it to hiking the Chief, because I thought I was going to die and it seemingly was never going to end. But then, when I thought I could take no more, it turned into the Grouse Grind and consisted of 750 slab steps to the top - what a nightmare. Tracy loved every minute of it of course, and kept saying, "This is so much fun! This is awesome!" People that were suffering (as was I) silently/not-so-silently cursed her at those moments.

Anyways, we made it and it took us only 2.5 hours to get there. We didn't die. And we got to the top and watched a great sunset with the most amazing views of the mountains all around us. It was rather heavenly. But then, as were starting to feel complete as human beings, we had to go down again. No chairlift - no gondola - no donkey - no camel. IN THE DARK. Ya, I thought it was a little nuts to be walking along this rock trail, along big dropoffs and sand and rocks and next to certain death or injury with only a flashlight. But hey, let's just say it was a bonding experience for us. I will also say that I need a wayyyyyy better flashlight than the one I have. Anyways we all made it unscathed, another 2 hours later.

And back to Cairo we came. Today we saw the Citadel, Alabaster Mosque and the Cairo markets. Oh, and an Egyptian hospital - but that wasn't on the itinerary. It was an unscheduled stop but well worth it and with good results (antibiotics). Tomorrow we have one more day in Cairo and then Tracy & I fly back to Milan before heading to Morocco!

Some random observations/thoughts/comments:
- The elevators commonly have level 0 (zero), and one we've seen even had a -1 floor.
- We get stared at a lot. Kids wanted to take our photo today cause they had never seen Westerners outside of TV before.
- Tracy has somehow earned the nickname of "angel" or "St. Tracy". Wonder what that makes me. ;)
- We saw a camel in the back of a pickup truck.
- We saw a guy riding a bike, while balancing a huge flat (maybe 8x5') of bread on his head.
- The billboards/advertisements that we've seen that feature women NEVER show women wearing the headscarf.
- Mudi says you have to give money evenly to multiple child beggars or they will kill each other to get the money from one.
- 5 hours is much too long to wait for a bathroom break.

Hope all is well at home. Any news going on besides the heat wave hitting YVR?
xo
Elaan

Burn Baby Burn

2009-07-29T15:50:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone

There is all sorts of interesting street traffic here in Egypt. Try to imagine cars, public buses, greyhound-style buses, motorcycles (never helmets), donkeys pulling carts, people riding donkeys, people riding camels, bicycles made into flatbed carts, horse-drawn carriages, pedestrians, beggars... all swarming the street at once. There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to anything, and yet there is. Most of the time it seems to work. Although, while in Cairo we DID see a pretty bad car crash, and when our taxi took us to our hotel he nonchalantly smashed off someone's side mirror (obviously it was their own fault since everyone else on that extremely narrow street had their mirrors pulled in).

Everyone here is driven by money, money, money. The tourist industry is big and everyone's in on it. When we have long bus rides we make occasional stops at public washrooms and coffee shops to give everyone a break, and there are always beggars, toilet attendants, and sometimes there's even entertainment - like the muslim women who paraded around donkeys with baby goats balancing on their backs (I didn't pay to take a photo of that, but if it was a goat on a donkey on a CAMEL then that I would have paid to see!) or the guy who um, shall we say, kinda made all kissy-face with his camel. Ew. Still trying to forget about that one - maybe passing it on to you will help. :P

I kind of think it's a shame that many Arab men can be a little smarmy. While I generally just (inwardly or outwardly) roll my eyes, when you are by yourself or clearly outnumbed it can feel a little uncomfortable. We have gotten a few offers of marriage and some have loudly declared their single status in order to lure us away to their den of Egyptian love. A guy got right in my face and asked, "how many goats for you?" As usual, you pretty much don't react, pretend you don't understand them, and don't make eye contact. Our tour leader Mudi is very helpful and he tells them all to back off if they give us any hassle, but that's only if they don't realize that he's with us; they don't mess with their own. Anyways, I think it's kind of a shame because it makes me reluctant to have real conversations with the people here, even when in totally different, friendly and respectful settings because I start worrying about what their motives are or what they are thinking. I don't really feel free to be myself.

Anyways. Our last night in Luxor we had a tour of the city in horse-drawn carriages and we ended up at the Luxor Temple which looks amazing all lit up at night. Posted a photo of it on FB so you can see. It is an amazing place and I can't really describe the feeling that you get from being there -- I want to touch everything (but I don't) with wonderment and I can't believe that kings and queens walked there and people 5000 years ago carved those stones and made those monuments. What are people going to be looking at 5000 years from now?

There is precious little to do in Hurghadab, unless you want to PAY to go to the beach. That's right, all the beachfront belongs to hotels, and our hotel was not on the beach. The Egypt guidebook describes Hurghadab as a tourist-mess, and that's about right. It was not terribly impressive. We only had one night there, so we just did some walking around, relaxed, recharged and spent a night out at the local bar. It was pretty fun - great live band, good company and amusing cheesy ninja show with a dude walking on glass and stepping on knives, etc.

Upon our arrival in Dahab, we were taken to a resort village (called the "Happy Life Village") which for most people is basically an all-inclusive getup with awesome beachfront, 3 pools, swim-up bars, several restaurants (our breakfast was eaten in one that was built like a boat) and desert mountain views all around. It definitely feels a little luxurious; we're not complaining.

Yesterday evening we went out on the town and went ATVing/Quad-ing in the desert hills. It was awesome! I had the luck and misfortune of being the leader of our little pack; lucky because I had very little dirt and dust in my face like everyone behind me did, and misfortunate because the ATV leader-guy was sitting behind me yapping in my ear the whole time so I knew where to go. And he kept telling me to slow down so that we didn't lose the others in the group -- sheesh! I got up to 90km on the road but only 50km on the sand & rocks. It was SO MUCH FUN.

After that we went to an amazing seafood restaurant right on the water (they are all right on the water in Dahab) and they had these things called Mango Thickshakes - I drank all of mine before my meal ever arrived. Yum yum! We got to bed pretty late and were up again this morning to go snorkeling. We snorkeled around an amazing coral reef just off the coast - it was filled with life and colour, totally amazing. Purple fishes, orange fishes, striped fishes, mini jellyfishes, corals and rocks and life teeming everywhere- if only I had an underwater camera. Oh, and despite my best intentions and preparations, I burnt myself quite nicely today - all over my back. I guess it was only a matter of time.

For those that asked, yes I am feeling a little homesick. We are lucky to be busy most of the time though, so I am trying not to dwell on it.

The next few days we are off to climb Mount Sinai and I think I will be off the internet-radar again for a few days (okay, Mom??) but hopefully I will have lots to tell you when I get back online. Soon we will be back in Cairo to finish up our tour and shortly after we'll be heading to Morocco!

Hope all is well and you guys are surviving the heat!
xo
Elaan

Water Water Everywhere, and Not a Drop to Drink

2009-07-25T21:41:00.000-07:00

Hi all

So no risk of dehydration really, cause we are drinking bottled water like crazy. I can barely get down half of the H2O I need at home, but here it is a total necessity. You are basically thirsty all the time - and we all carry 2L water jugs with us everywhere. We buy them cheap but will pay whatever we have to if we need. And they are best cold (of course) but they don't stay that way for long - so another reason to drink lots, and to drink often.

No recycling here. Garbage is a problem, too. A couple in our tour group watched as the waiter at our last hotel threw their empty pop cans into the Nile. THE NILE. What the heck?? People swim in there! And drink the water in there! I bet the sewage goes in there. It goes without saying that when offered a chance to refresh with a quick dip in the river, we all declined.

No real risk of sunburn either. Sounds strange, given that we are in such a hot place. And we do get up each morning, shower, and put sunscreen on... but truthfully we are pretty much covered up all the time. I am always wearing at least capri-length bottoms, and always have sleeves of some sort on top. So we just need to apply suncreen to ankles, arms and be careful about face & back of the neck, etc. If we are out in the direct sunlight we usually wear out hats, too. I fear that I will come home as white as I left, but with really tanned/burned forearms (should look great for your wedding Yuuko, ha!).

The tourist police are everywhere we go - all the sights and even parts of the city. They wear white uniforms and carry machine guns. They look rather imposing but some of them will offer to take a photo of you standing next to whatever, which is great. But then they want money. And they have a gun, so... ha, no it isn't as bad as all that, but yeah, this is a tipping culture and everybody wants a piece.

The public washrooms are pay, too. Technically they can't stop you from using it if you have no money, but they will not give you any toilet paper if you don't pay. I have all my own toilet paper with me, but I tip them anyways because many of the attendants seem to be poor and/or kids. It's only 1 Egyptian pound anyways - like 20 cents. I bet they make more money than we think!

We went to a restaurant a few days back that was like being on a farm. An area for cooking/eating, and an area for animals. There were camels, goats, birds, ponies, cats... etc. And you could take pictures of them if you wanted to pay. There are lots of cats that run around the streets here too, staying under your feet while you eat in hopes of getting some scraps. They are cute but not so cuddly... and no, I didn't try to cuddle them - you can just tell that they are not the snuggly kind!

This is a primarily Muslim country, so there is a call to prayer five times a day and unless you are working, you are supposed to face Mecca and do your thing. Sometimes it's a little distracting, especially when you are trying to sleep. Even when we were on the river in the felucca, it kept us awake from the city. They pretty much broadcast it everywhere. There is some Christianity here too - at our last hotel the Internet Cafe was adorned with Jesus everywhere. Seemed a bit out of place, actually.

Today we rode donkeys on our way to the Valley of the Kings. My donkey's name was Ali Baba and man, was he a stubborn ass! No but seriously, he would not do a darn thing that I told it to. I tried yanking on the rope, steering it, kicking it, yelling at it, making the requisite sound effects at it, but it still wanted to walk in the middle of the road where the oncoming traffic was approaching. I don't think he liked me. Or maybe he had given up on life. Or maybe he was kamikaze-donkey. Who knows...

After the Valley of the Kings (which was basically the desert with a bunch of tombs that were elaborately deisgned & decorated beneath the sand), we went to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut - the only woman to have ever ruled Egypt. By that point it was SO hot that we were in and out of there like a flash. You get really efficient with your time and your camera when you have to be.

Tomorrow it's the Karnak Temple and the Luxor temple light show. Then the day after we move on to Hurghadab to do some beaching/frolicking/sunning. Relaxation, basically. I hope.

Thanks for listening to my latest update... :P Be good!
xo
Elaan

Walk Like An Egyptian

2009-07-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

What I should say is, SWEAT like an Egyptian. Except that sweating doesn't seem to phase them much here, while I remain in a constant state of discomfort. Everyone sweats so much that I don't even really smell anyone. So, either I have gotten so used to the B.O. smell that I don't even notice, or perspiration actually recycles itself so often that it doesn't have time to stink. Like Tracy says, you should listen to anybody that tells you to avoid this place in July/August! I actually think this place would be a lot more paradise-like in December or March.

So we started our Egyptian tour a few days ago. The way that tours work is that they not only take you to the most popular tourist locations, but they also try to expose you to snippets of the culture, and arrange for you to have typical tourist experiences but under the safety and guidance of a group leader. Our group leader's name is Mudi, and he speaks English quite well and has a Masters degree in Egyptian History & Culture, which comes in handy.

Amidst seeing the pyramids and museums and temples, he also has arrangements with certain places that sell tourist souvenirs. For example, yesterday we went to a papyrus shop. They did a demo and explanation and then they try to sell you stuff. It can seem a bit annoying to have someone give you a sales pitch, but it's actually really informative and you know that the stuff is good quality and you aren't getting ripped off. Having said that, I haven't bought anything yet - my bag is heavy enough as it is!

One of the first activities we did with our group was to have an authentic Egyptian dinner called a Koshary - I think it literally means "mixture" - which is what it is, a mixture of stuff. Pasta, meat, lentils, chick peas, tomatoes... and you mix it all up with garlic sauce. It was YUM. I Loved it. It was awesome. And tasty. And flavourful. And... I woke the next morning sick to my stomach. And so begins my love/hate relationship with Egyptian food. It's REALLY good - but I try to mix it with a fair amount of bland stuff (breads, buns, rice, plain pasta, french fries etc.) so that I am not upsetting my delicate system too much, hehe! It's been 5 days in Egypt and everybody in our group except 2 have been less than 100% at one point or another.

On our 2nd day of the tour we went to the Egyptian Museum (got to see mummies, King Tut's stuff,and about a million/billion other mind-boggling pieces) and the pyramids at Giza. Oh, it was amazing there! Talk about fulfilling a dream. We rode camels down closer to the pyramids, and that was really really cool - definitely a highlight for me so far. LOVED the camels. You gotta lean back when they stand up/sit down though, cause otherwise you will flip right off of them. :P We also got to go right inside a pyramid, which was awesome - how many people can say they have been inside a pyramid?? And the sphynx too - was very impressive.

That night we went straight to an overnight train, which was kinda awful because we had been up since 6am or something and sweat all day. Then we get on the train and Mudi says to make sure we use bug spray. So now we are covered in greasy sunscreen, oily sweat, and sticky putrid bug spray. There was a train attendant who was the Egyptian-equivalent of Mr. Bean - except that he was creepy, too. And just for future reference... train food = bad. And then we had to try to sleep on the train. It was... bleh.

So we arrived in Aswan the next morning and we went straight to our hotel to shower. Tracy & I discovered that the A/C in our room was leaking through the ceiling. We told them, they said they would fix it. We had some lunch, and then met our group for a Felucca ride down the Nile. Very majestic. We stopped at a Nubian village for lunch (again, it was very yummy but...) and we got henna tattoos from a local artisan. Then we went back to our hotel and we noticed that our A/C was still leaking so they came to fix it again. Then we spent the evening at the pool. It's less hot when the sun goes down, but doesn't cool off as much as you hope.

While at the pool we chatted a bit about the blue fluorescent lights they had up, that zap the mosquitoes when they land on them; we have them at home too. A few minutes later, we noticed that there was smoke and flames coming from somewhere across the Nile. The quiet order of the night erupted into frantic shoutings and boats going back and forth to put the fire out. It was quite the scene. Amidst all this, I became distracted by the noise of the mosquito-killing-machine, and muttered, "those little buggers can fry!". Uhhhhhhhh, that was an untimely remark. Luckily Tracy figured out that I wasn't talking about the Egyptian people in the burning building, and cleared it up quickly. For a minute though, the people in my tour group were probably wondering, though. We all had a very big laugh at that one. After that, we watched some Egyptian National Soccer (thanks to you Ted I knew more of what was actually going on!) and went to bed.

Day 4 of the tour we went to Abu Simbel, which is this huge, amazing temple that is basically built into the side of mountain. It was optional, but everyone in our group went. Most people had heard of it or had it recommended to them by someone. In order to go, though, we had to wake up at 2am, and be on the bus by 3am. You cannot go to Abu Simbel on your own; you must be part of a convoy, and there are only 2 convoys a day - 330am and 4am. You basically drive 3 hours, spend 2 hours at the temple, and drive 3 hours back. The temple is fantastic - and totally worth seeing, but holy crow that was a tough day. No sleeping on the bus for me and we were all crammed in there and the only thing to drink is pop.

On our way back from Abu Simbel we were taken to an aromatherapy shop and given lunch. Of course, after lunch we got a sales pitch about the aromatherapy oils and essences (not to be confused with perfumes) and given free 5 min massages. I didn't buy anything. When we got back to our hotel, the A/C was STILL LEAKING. By that point we didn't care and were totally used to dodging the 2 buckets that we had to have at the foot of our beds. We went to sleep for the rest of the afternoon (had to use earplugs at this point to block out sound of dripping).

That night we had Shawarma for dinner (kinda like a donair) at the Aswan markets. The markets are crazy, they remind me of HK - people yell all sorts of things at you to try to get your attention. We heard, "hello lady," "g'day mate," "hola!," "moins chere," and our personal favourite, "everything free! everything for nothing!". They also jump right in front of you and follow you around. Mudi says that sometimes they can be very touchy too, but I haven't experienced that yet. Perhaps it was because he was with us. Basically you just avoid eye contact and ignore them and they give up.

Yesterday (Day 5) we checked out of our hotel, and went on a Felucca again... this time all the way down the Nile on our way to Luxor. We stayed overnight on the Felucca, which was another special brand of Egyptian torture. It wasn't too bad when we were moving, but when we stopped (for Lunch, Dinner, or Breakfast this morning) it was a dead heat and totally awful. The worst was at night, because it didn't cool down at all like we expected. There were 12 of us all sleeping together on this big boat, 10 out of 12 of us were sick in one way or another (and some in our group are really, really sick), and the food wasn't exactly... well, as Tracy puts it, they probably don't have Foodsafe standards to live up to. The toilets overflowed, the sinks didn't work, and most people didn't sleep at all. I chose to stay up all night (wasn't sleeping anyways) with 2 of the sickest girls - keep them company, brought them tissues, bottled water, sympathized through their dashes to the toilet or barfing over the edge. I am not feeling well, but I am nowhere near that bad; somehow I manage to stop feeling sorry for myself when I see that others are suffering worse than I am. Despite that, it was lovely to see the stars overhead and besides, how many people can say that they have slept on the Nile? (At least it wasn't IN the Nile!)

This morning we woke up, had Breakfast on the Felucca (ick) and took a 3 hour bus ride to complete our journey to Luxor. We stopped at a public toilet halfway there, and all I can say is, have you seen that movie Trainspotting? 'Nuff said.

Upon arrival, all of us headed straight to our hotel rooms. We showered and went to bed and aren't meeting up again until dinner tonight. So, Tracy and I had a nap and decided to catch up on some emails! So that's the update on Egypt. It has been amazing, fabulous, once-of-a-lifetime, breathtaking experience so far. But there have understandably been some very trying days. Still, we have a really great group and we are having fun and staying positive despite the heat and the food, hehe. :)

When the days are tough it's really nice to hear from home so feel free to send me a message when you get a chance. :) I have posted 4 photos on my Facebook account so you can see a few highlights. As expected, we haven't had regular access to the Internet, so sorry that this message was SO long! Hope all is well with you!

Cheers,
xo
Elaan

The Journey to Cairo: Trials & Tribulations (and a few bits of Awesomeness!)

2009-07-19T21:28:00.000-07:00

Oh, the trials and tribulations of travel...

When we got to the airport in Milan, we couldn't find our flight to Cairo on the departures list. Turns out it had left that morning - we had the wrong time written on our itinerary (who made our itinerary? I DID!!). There's a small chance that it might be Expedia's fault, cause there are a few things that don't quite add up, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it might just have been my own error. @#$%!! Very pricey mistake.

So, we had 2 choices; take the next flight to Cairo with Alitalia (Italian Air) which left the next day or take the next flight to Cairo with Egyptair which left in a couple of hours. We chose Egyptair - we'd keep our hotel booking in Cairo, we would only be an hour behind schedule, we were already at the airport... although truthfully, we didn't much want to be flying with them. I think we were quite comfortable in our little Italian bubble and weren't quite ready to be gawked at by the Arab men. Turns out the Arab men gawked no more or less than the Italian men did. :P

While waiting in the very long line to check-in for Egyptair, we got pulled out and told to go stand in the Business Class lineup. A bit strange, we thought - kinda like reverse discrimination. All went smoothly though. When we got on the plane we realized that we were assigned 2 of the best seats in Economy - lots of legroom and space. And, to our mild surprise, the flight was actually enjoyable - as far as flights ever are, that is. We were feeling very lucky.

Going through security, I set off the alarm (of course). I kept taking things off - my watch, my ring, my sunglasses - but was still getting the alarm. It was my hair clip that was causing all the commotion, but we only discovered that after the female security officer gave me a few raised eyebrows and vigorous pat downs. Sheeeeesh.

Upon getting off the flight in Cairo there were many, many checkpoints, the first of which was a health check. I didn't say anything about my sore throat - in fact, it seems to have completely subsided. We had to buy a Visa, go through immigration, get our photo taken, passport check, luggage area and final secuity check. They're nothing if not thorough!

As soon as we go through all that, we got accosted by a young man who wanted to drive us to the hotel. Tracy tried unsuccessfully to bargain him down from his seemingly ridiculous price. We went with him anyways, and when we got to the parking lot we realized that it was just some guy with his car... not a taxi like we had thought. He seemed like a nice enough guy though so we went with him anyways. As soon as we got to an airport checkpoint (kinda like a toll booth-ish place), he wanted more money. I was choked, but I didn't know what to do since we were stuck in this guy's car! Tracy was much more straightforward and pleasant with him than I was - at least at first.

It all worked out ok, actually. The drive to our hotel was worth the seemingly ridiculous price (given that it was an hour and a half), and even though that extra $$ at the checkpoint was definitely a scam, we didn't care - he was pleasant, cheerful and really personable. He chatted with us and pointed out landmarks, practiced his English and played the popular local music (he kept turning it up and saying "now, practice listening" - it was cute). He was only a kid, about 25 years old, and there was nothing creepy or smarmy about him. He called Tracy "Treezee" and he called me "Chicken." Perhaps it was because I sat in the front and had a much-too-close view of the style of traffic here. As he said, there's "no system" - cars wedge themselves anywhere - drive centimeters apart - don't generally heed pedestrians (and pedestrians don't heed them) - people use the horn as a reminder instead of a warning - it's total insanity. We passed by numerous breakdowns and accidents, and it was a miracle that we didn't hit anybody on the street.

But, we made it to the hotel unscathed, at about midnight. We got told that there was good news and bad news. The bad news is that our room only had one King bed. The good news is that it was one of the Royal Suites on the top floor - and once we got up there we saw why it was Royal. We shrieked and danced around and high-fived each other and lamented that we were only staying one night. It's a huge suite, with a living area, kitchen, patio, bathroom - and we had a view of THREE PYRAMIDS right outside!! I still can't believe it. We got up early this morning just to take photos. It's amazing. Seeing those pyramids in person has been a life goal for as long as I can remember. I am excited to start our tour tomorrow so I can see them more up close.

Today, we go to our new hotel and meet up with our tour group. Emails from me will likely be more sparse from now on (I know this will be a relief for some of you) since we'll be on tour and there are several points where I am fairly certain that there will be no internet available (like when we stay overnight on a felucca!). The tour starts in its entirety tomorrow. Yay, Egypt!! :)

Hope all is well, miss you guys.
Elaan

Milano to Cairo

2009-07-18T21:25:00.000-07:00

Buon Giorno!

Killing time at our hotel in Milan because we are a bit ahead of schedule - Tracy is uber-organized and it means that we have time to relax, check messages, enjoy non-rushed meals, take lotsa photos.. and we don't feel like we are missing out on anything. I like it!

When we arrived at the hotel yesterday I noticed a card in our room that read, "so that you can plan your day tomorrow, we have included the weather forecast for you" and it listed highs of 32, lows of 26. It also marked sun\cloud and an X next to a picture of what looked like lightning. I thought to myself, "what a waste of paper if they print this out every day for every room!"

After we checked in, we quickly headed out again to get the most out of Milan while we were here. We went to the world-famous Duomo (3rd largest church in the world!), a huge Castello (medieval castle), navigated the subway and ate baaaaad food for dinner (which was oh so good at the time). A great evening, in our estimation, given that we only had a few hours.

When we got back to the hotel we relaxed a bit, checked messages, and treated ourselves to hot chocolate and fresh fruit in the hotel lounge. The hot chocolate was the thickest richest drink I have ever had in my life! Seriously, we were dipping our fruit in it like our very own personal fondue.

We went to bed early last night - today is another heavy travel day - and planned to be up fairly early this morning. I woke at about 3am, a little disoriented and having dreams about nightclubs, strobe lights and Spanish children (who knows... dreams are crazy). It wasn't a strobe light though, it was a lightning storm! The rain was SO loud it woke us up, and the lightening was flashing over and over into our hotel room. I have never seen a storm like that before; no thunder really, but lightning every 1 or 2 seconds. Torrential rain - the streets were flooded. There was so much lightning that I was able to get a photo of it after only a few tries (albeit not a very good one since I was not willing to open the window)!

Anyways, we got back to sleep and this morning it looks as if nothing ever happened. Go figure.

On the health front, I have had a bit of a sore throat for about a week now and yesterday it got particularly bad. Strange thing is, it's only on one side of my throat! And I don't feel sick in any other way. Online-diagnosis, anyone? I was thinking that maybe it was just the pollution or something, but it's really been persisting. I do NOT want to have to see a doctor in Egypt. Hopefully we can find some lozenges today before we leave Italy and that will do the trick. Now I know why I have been drinking so much pop!

We are flying into Cairo this afternoon. Going to spend time getting to know our hotel. Take a crack at the pool, maybe (ack! bathing suits!). We meet up with our tour group tomorrow night so we don't want to do a bunch of sightseeing that we will end up repeating with them, anyways.

Hope y'all are well,
Elaan

Viva Venezia!

2009-07-16T21:23:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

Tracy & I are in Venice and soaking up Italian life. I have been living on a diet consisting of mainly gelato & pop - I might be diabetic when I return home. We did manage to squeeze in some bona fide pizza and spaghetti, but really they are just accompaniments to our gelato-diet.

It is hot here- apparently they are having a heat wave and this coming week will be even hotter. We keep telling ourselves that it's just preparation for Egypt & Morocco. Truthfully, we've been surviving by frequently returning to our hotel to refresh and recharge. We're located right in the heart of Venice, so it's quite convenient, especially since the public washrooms charge a fee!

Nighttime here is the best; it cools down, the daytripping tourists disappear, and the ambiance comes out full force. Quite lovely- and very romantic! We've done our share of sightseeing too: St. Mark's Square, Doge's Palace, the Bridge of Sighs, Rialto Bridge... and boy, is it ever ornate and picturesque.

I have taken 456 photos so far, and I am six days in to my 34 day trip (but don't worry, I have lotsa memory card space and I still have yet to change my batteries!). It's difficult to post pictures while I am travelling because they are quite huge files and I need to carry my cords with me, etc. I can write a quick email in about 10 minutes and don't really have the time to spend an hour or more uploading photos. Hopefully my descriptions are imagery enough for now!

Tomorrow Tracy & I are going to Milan. We take a public boat (like a bus but there are no cars in Venice) to the train station and it'll be about 3 hours on the train to Milan. We'll have one night there before we fly to Cairo!! Holy crow I'm going to Africa -- isn't that crazy?! :P

Hope all is well at home. Even though I don't have time to respond to all your messages, I sure love getting them - makes me considerably less homesick. So keep 'em coming if you have time.

Cheers,
Elaan

The Last of London

2009-07-14T21:21:00.000-07:00

Heya peeps,

I know, I know.. emails from me every day. Don't worry, once we hit Egypt I think we will be severely limited as to when we can access the internet. So it may be Elaan-overload NOW, but... bear with me. :P

Today Tracy and I went to Leicester Square to try and get half-price tix to a musical... no go. It was cold & rainy and the lineup was long. So we decided to pass. Then we went to the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, down to the Tower Bridge and Tower of London, Hyde Park, Harrods, Picadilly Circus and we are soon meeting up with Frank to have dinner.

- the weather here is totally schizophrenic. Seriously, it changes every ten minutes: cold, rainy, windy, cloudy, sunny, cloudy, windy, rainy, sunny... kinda makes it hard to dress yourself properly. I made the mistake yesterday of underestimating the nice weather, and yes.. got sunburned. I shrieked when I saw myself in the mirror; Tracy thought there was a spider in the bathroom.

- officially I have almost gotten shmucked by vehicles twice. Looking the wrong way for traffic is a bad pedestrian mistake to make. They even write directions on the road for you, i.e. "LOOK RIGHT -->" so now I am pretty savvy.

- I am disappointed at the lack of recycling facilities here.

- except for missing out on home-cooked meals, I could eat at Marks & Spencer and Pret A Manger every single day. One thing I have noticed here is that there is 2 prices on foodstuffs - a higher price if you are going to eat "IN" and a cheaper price if you are "TAKE AWAY". Interesting.

- crowds of people make me homicidal. Guess I'd better get over that. It is sooooo crowded here. Much reminds me of Hong Kong, like the subway, and the crowds, and the pollution.

- Harrods is pretentious and the changing of the guard was boring. Eep! I really do love it though. The theatre district is really nice - might like to live here.

- an incredible city for people-watching. People have their own personal sense of style & behaviour. Sometimes it's _very_ odd. Like the guy on the subway who listened to his iPod and sang out loud, the women with spiked hair and the many buskers in the stations.

- tomorrow morning we fly to Venice! Romantic city, woooo! :)

Hope all is well, thanks for all the messages.
xo
Elaan

Shakespeare & Tate

2009-07-13T21:18:00.000-07:00

Hi all

Just wanted to send another short message!

We started the day with the London Eye and 360 degree views of the city. Nice! Saw Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, went to the Tate Modern Gallery, had a tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (woo!!), went to St. Paul's, and then went back to the Globe to watch a show.

Here's the short sheet:

- My back aches and my feet hurt. Walk, walk, walk!
- It's been windy but it did NOT rain on us today. Thanks heavens! :)
- The Underground is awesome. And humid and sticky and crammed full of sticky people.
- The Tate Modern art gallery had lots of nudity in it and reaffirmed for me that men are not pretty naked (sorry guys).
- Shakespeare's Globe is AWESOME. Tour was totally worth it.
- St. Paul's had amazing architcture and sculpture.
- As You Like It at the Globe was AWESOME. A little uncomfortable, but still awesome. Now I am officially complete (and Shakespeare-d OUT - I've had enough to last me... well... until next year).

Tomorrow we are gonna try to get half-price tix to a musical, see the changing of the guard, go to Piccadilly circus, London Tower, Harrods... and meet up with Mark nd possibly Frank. We leave Wed morning!

Thanks for all the messages. Love you guys!
Cheers
E!

The Eagle Has Landed

2009-07-12T21:16:00.000-07:00

Hi all

Just a quick note to let you know that I am in London! This place is crazy, busy, filled with a million people and there are a million things to do. Too bad I only have a few days here. :)

I didn't sleep on my flight, so I am pretty much a zombie - but it didn't stop me & Tracy from making sure we got some sights in! We have already seen Buckingham Palace, the Institute of Contemporary Art (should have been Institute of Confusing Art, but perhaps I not cultured enough.), had a picnic in the park, went to a pub for drinks, went to the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square.

Tomorrow we are going to see the changing of the guard, the London Eye, and watch As You Like It in Shakespeare's very own Globe Theatre!
Woo! Which reminds me, when I was packing, I ignored all references to rain gear since 31 of 34 of my days are in a very hot/dry climate.
But guess what - those three days? Yep, the forecast is RAIN. Not quite sure what I am going to do about that. Suffer, maybe. :)

Have overheard the locals complain about Americans a couple of times, so I make sure that if I must speak - Canada gets mentioned in there.
Yeesh, those Yanks giving us Nucks a hard time on our travels!

Anyways, there's not much more to say except that we are already having fun and having some laughs. More to come...

Hope y'all are well!
xo
Elaan

Selling Jackson to the Gypsies

2009-06-28T23:53:00.000-07:00

I have two cats.

Cami is 9 years old and most of the time, she is an angel. She doesn’t make a lot of noise, she waits patiently to be fed, likes to be near people and is even occasionally affectionate. The worst thing Cami ever does is urinate outside of the litter box if I have been significantly remiss in my duties – which is rare, and pretty much my own fault. She’s quite well-behaved and a very low-maintenance cat.

A few years back I had the bright idea to get another cat to keep her company. I felt guilty leaving her alone all day. In retrospect this seems rather silly since most cats sleep all day, and Cami is no exception. Since she was a girl, I figured that it would work best if her companion was a boy.

And along came Jackson. Jackson is about 4 years old now, but when I got him he was a tiny little adorable kitten. He purred a lot and loved attention. He was (and still is) my “baby.” He always had more energy than Cami, and at first I thought this was a good thing.

However, lately Jackson is driving me nutso. He runs around in the middle of the night and when he’s particularly determined to wake me up, he runs across the bed at various trajectories – usually it’s across my legs, but he’s also been known to run across my head (that’s the worst), torso, or other delicate bits. It’s most disconcerting to be woken up in such a fashion. 3 or 4am is not my idea of a great wake-up call.

It’s particularly bad when my boyfriend stays over. It’s completely endearing and charming that T loves cats despite being allergic to them; he always seeks out Cami and Jackson minutes after arriving, and interacts with them in a playful and loving way. He just takes care to wash his hands afterwards. He takes an allergy pill if he’s staying for a while, just to be sure.

Sleeping here is another matter. If I know that T is going to stay over, I do the best I can to prepare: I wash the sheets and pillowcases, vacuum, swiffer, and use the lint remover on anything that might retain errant cat hairs. All in all, we are both pretty good about controlling his allergy (still, I suspect he has serious misgivings about our moving in together – and rightly so – but that is fodder for another post).

Despite his allergy, T loves cats. But having a cat run across various parts of your body while trying to sleep is totally unacceptable. And when I am at home alone, I deal with it in various ways: I shut the bedroom door (Jackson meows louder and louder outside of it), I fill his food dish (sometimes this works), or I put a pillow over my head and arrange my body so that a cat-race around my bedroom will not cause significant discomfort (but will always inevitably wake me up).

Eventually Jackson calms down and lets me sleep. But when T is here I cannot “wait it out,” and am thus plagued by insomnia. I feel so guilty! I mean, T is extremely tolerant and understanding but when he comes over he already fights an allergy – the least I can do is try to ensure he has the best sleep possible (and I want nothing more than to escape into a peaceful slumber myself)!

Nights like this, when I am woken up over & over, feeling fatigued, stressed and guilty, are the nights that I get grumpy and tell Jackson that I am “selling him to the gypsies.” In the light of the day I try to find practical solutions (although I am not so productive on 3 or 4 hours sleep, ha!) but I feel defeated. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to get rid of Jackson, but I can’t imagine living the rest of my life like this.

And with that, I am off to attempt some slumber; maybe the answer will come to me in a dream!

Pfffffft! The Pitfalls of Presenting at Pro-D

2009-02-20T21:24:00.001-08:00

I don’t know about you, but I really look forward to Professional Days. They are worth way more than simply “a day without kids” (which really IS valuable). Often in the school year, we are so busy trying to get through the day, week, month, that time for generating new ideas and collaborating with colleagues is limited.

Like many, I learn best visually and when engaged with others. Even having a conversation with my own staff helps me think my way out of the box. The instant feedback of others is often necessary for me to be challenged and experience growth. It works wonders for problem solving, creating choices, engendering support and inspiring change. One would think that Professional Days would have the same kinds of effects.

The fact that many sessions at Pro-D are inspirational is without debate. It is exciting to hear about the amazing things that other educators are doing with their practice - and I feel honoured that they give up their time to come and share with us at Pro-D. They give us license and encouragement to try something new, take some risks, and hopefully effect vast amounts of improvement in our own practice.

However, I have often left a conference, workshop, or keynote speech feeling a bit demoralized and debilitated - probably pretty much the opposite of what the presenter would have expected. For a time, I just kept my mouth shut about it and said nothing. But as my years of teaching experience grew, so did my willingness to be frank about what I saw as my own “shortcomings.” I was both happy and dismayed to discover that many others had similar experiences at Pro-D - indeed, some of whom are professionals that I highly respect.

Don’t get me wrong, these sessions are inspirational. But the other half of the equation is the reality that seems to set in during the session or after it is over. Some thought processes might reflect something similar to this:

Guilt/Shame - “I haven’t been doing that” / “I’ve been doing it wrong”

Often the presenter will identify some antiquated ways of doing things, or even go so far as to say they are wrong. Wanting the best for our kids, it tends to feel like we aren’t doing the best we can for them, and in some cases are even being a detriment.

Fear/Uncertainty - “I don’t know how to do that”

Sometimes the presenter introduces something that is foreign or complicated and it instills fear about the unknown.

Overwhelmed - “How do I even begin?” / “It’s too much”

Of course it makes sense to show us all the end product – we want to be wowed, and the process to get there might be lengthy and mundane. But without a map to get there we can feel lost and the task too great to undertake.

Shut Down/Defeat - “I can’t” / “I’m not good enough”

All of this can result in not very much change: It’s easier to stick with what we know—we’ll do it later—there isn’t enough time to “figure it out”—obviously we don’t have the skills that the person presenting does—etc.

Any time I have been asked to present at a Pro-D, I have done it. As a nervous public speaker, I am not the most confident about my abilities to deliver a useful, riveting workshop. But I do it because I have no hesitation sharing what I have with anyone - and I want to give back to my professional community. What do I try to keep in mind when presenting so that people don’t leave with any of the aforementioned feelings? Here are some suggestions (and I’d love to hear more):

**Relate to your audience by telling them the kinds of things you were doing before you changed your practice with your new method/strategy.

“I also used to teach PowerPoint every day before I discovered the impact of this Media Literacy program”

**Validate some common practices, and then talk about how your new method/strategy could improve them.

“Teaching this lesson out of the Math textbook works ok, but using Lego-Dacta manipulatives totally improved how my kids could visualize the problem solving questions”

**Identify the parts of your method/strategy that may seem foreign or complicated to others.

“When I first started using the online program with my class, I thought it was strange that the menus were located on the side – but I got used to it pretty quickly”

**Give the audience your email or your Twitter ID and encourage them to contact you if they have questions or hit roadblocks. Give a sample activity to try with their class, and tell them to email you with feedback afterwards.

**Near the end of the presentation, review some starting points for teachers. Give a handout or send an email with step-by-step instructions on how to get started. Or give a “Top 5” list of the most important points you covered.

**Emphasize that these major changes will take some time, and that teachers shouldn’t expect themselves to accomplish all of it at once. Suggest biting off small chunks and making goals, like trying something new each week or each month and developing change slowly. Teachers are more likely to shut down if there is too much to change all at once.

A Twitter colleague (@bengrey) asked a question the other day:

“A very high percentage of what many presenters demonstrate at conferences, isn’t happening in their own district. Why?”

I think it’s because of many of the reasons I’ve stated here. There is amazing & inspiring work going on around the world, in your own country and in your own district. It is important to not only make it accessible, but also realistic and digestible for teachers. When we support growth amongst ourselves as professionals, we are better prepared to nurture growth for our students – because after all, we are all students in this journey together!

(This post was originally published here)

Valentine's Day

2009-01-17T13:00:00.000-08:00

I usually alternate between making fun of Valentine’s Day and being disdainful of it. I resent this holiday for being one of the biggest commercial & consumer gluts of the year. Still, I do try to see the good in it – it’s good that we be reminded that we should love each other, and that love should be celebrated in all its forms. I just don’t like being told HOW to celebrate – specifically, with dinners, flowers, chocolates, etc. Love & Romance is not obligatory, contrived, prescribed, manufactured, required, stipulated, or imposed – but Valentine’s Day seems to be. Perhaps it just isn't a day that we need to take very seriously.

Here's some of the sites where you can send a very politically incorrect Valentine's day card:

Some e-cards – Valentine’s Day
http://www.someecards.com/upload/valentine_s_day/index.html?ep=30

Be My Anti-Valentine
http://www.meish.org/vd/

Notes from the Teachers' Congress

2008-11-28T17:36:00.000-08:00

Teachers’ Congress – Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Asia Pacific Hall
November 28th, 2008

Minister of Education Shirley Bond
- welcome, overview & introductory remarks

Dr. Martha Piper – Keynote
- times have changed
- world of challenge leads the way to a world of hope
- confront global issues with hope rather than fear
- education rids us of fear and equips us with hope
- global citizenship is imperative
- we each dwell in two communities: local community of our birth, and the global community
- each of us needs to do our part
- Lester Pearson in 1946, foresaw the dangers of a rapidly changing world: “there is no refuge in remoteness” – no protection to be gained by distance
- we must seek mutual understanding through education
- three areas of educational focus as designated by Mr. Lee, president of Singapore: 1) language 2) scientific/computer technology 3) understanding of world cultures & religions
- five possible approaches to introducing global citizenship:

o How many schools have adequate language departments? How do we expose children to foreign language?
o How do we integrate what it means to be human into curriculum? How do we emphasize humanity?
o We must embed the messages of global citizenship within every class and every class, every year. Socio-political implications need to be introduced into our curriculum. Global issues need to be interwoven into teaching.
o Community Service Learning. Volunteering, giving, and service to others.
o Teach tolerance, respect & citizenship. Be a role model and demonstrate through your own actions. Students need to be secure enough to explore their own curiosity. Celebrate diversity.

- students need ownership of their own thoughts and speech
- the need for free citizens with free minds has never been greater
- African sentiment – ubuntu – “I am, because you are”

Focus groups – Developing Global Citizens
- discussions with groups of people around us
Thoughts:
- mandated curriculum and provincial exams severely limit our ability to create global citizenship because of the need to teach to a test
- teachers need to expand beyond provincial curriculum
- also a need to teach appreciation of what we have
- in order to teach languages and cultural literature, we need to stop underfunding libraries, closing libraries
- how to implement language education when the ESL program is underfunded and has little support
- “tyranny of coverage” – if you take a breath, you miss something. There is so much curriculum that it does not allow for the tangents that so often contain the best teaching moments
- reconciling the noble ideal with reality – we are struggling to keep our heads above water
- creativity costs money and it costs time
- teachers are overwhelmed, overworked, overtired
- we need to give hope to the teachers as well as the students
- teachers need to feel inspiration in order to be inspirational

Daniella Salazar, Todd Bethune, Lauren Bone & Brent Greenless – Sharing the Dream Webcasting Series – Student Led Initiative and Overview of 2010 Educational Resources
- webcasts coordinated between highschool students from Prince George and Coquitlam (Heritage Woods)
- the leadership program at College Heights Secondary, Prince George involved many initiatives outside of school
- reflections about interview with Carol Huynh – overcoming obstacles is about learning at every possible opportunity
- http://www.sharingthedream.gov.bc.ca/
- Next webcast is February 20th, 2009

Don Black, Director, Education Programs for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
- teachers can access online bilingual resources, events and activities to be integrated into curriculum
- teachers are integral to the program development
- teacher forum is hosted by UBC faculty of Education
- teachers can showcase lessons and student work on the website
o http://www.vancouver2010.com/en/culture-and-education/education/feature-programs/-/34032/33978/11dl109/sharing-the-dream-webcast-seri.html

Kathryn Graham, Amber Church & Matthew Carroll – Youth Climate Leadership Alliance – Integrating Sustainability into the Classroom
- engage and encourage youth to take action for the environment
- Idle-Free Ambassadors – work to reduce instances of idling
- Climate Action Facilitators are located all over BC – there are 2 for Metro Vancouver
- Key concept – CARE: Complexity, Aesthetic Appreciation, Responsibility, Ethics
- Students come to understand how their actions affect both local and global environments
- Websites/programs/initiatives that are available:
o http://www.treesfortomorrow.gov.bc.ca/
o http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/environment_ed/
o http://www.greenlearning.ca/
o http://www.hastebc.org/
o http://www.bcgreengames.ca/

Ian Grbavec & Cheryl Woods - Healthy Schools Network and Draft Healthy Living Performance Standards- healthy living is an umbrella topic that permeates all other learning outcomes
- direct links to: PE, HCE, Planning, Grad Transitions, Home Ec
- Emerging/Developing/Acquired/Accomplished – change to use positive language instead of the old performance standards
- Comprised of 4 aspect areas: Healthy Eating, Active Living, Healthy Relationships and Healthy Practices
- 6 big strategies:
o thoughtful feedback
o criteria for success
o teaching/learning
o etc.
- integrating DPA into curriculum
- Canadian Medical Association praises DPA but says it’s not enough

Minister of Education Shirley Bond – General Discussion
- mental health issues are prevalent as well as physical
- issue of too many IEP kids in provincially examinable classes
- comprehensive provincial plan for suicide prevention
- brain-drain of top BC students to out-of-province universities
- struggling families are not being addressed – they are in survival mode – students have specific learning needs that are not being addressed
- the issues that students bring to school today are often very different than the issues that were brought forward 20 years ago
- school counselors would like to come to the table to discuss issues with the government/ministry
- with staff shortages and class size increases, how can you ensure an increase in student (specifically aboriginal students) graduation rates
- DPA: who, what, when, where & how
- moving away from universal FSA’s to random selection with no identifiers
- the need to invest in social services, mental health, etc.
- 6-8 IEP kids in a class – added initiatives just further stress and overwhelm the teacher
- premier spending thousands of $ on newspaper advertisements instead of investing in education
- less than 20% of students choosing to write the provincial exams in courses where it is optional – will they be cancelled?
- what can teachers do to prevent burnout – and keep ourselves healthy and happy
- parental leave for fathers/harmonization of benefits
- gifted and advanced learners deserve to have their needs met as well
- help schools that score low on the FSA’s by investing in them – if you are going to persist in giving the FSA’s then do something positive with the results
- money was “de-targeted” from gifted programs, but stayed in the system – boards made decisions about how to allot the money
- teacher education courses should include ESL training since there are ESL kids in every classroom
- teaching practitioners need to inform policy more than any other partner
- ranking schools and then allowing parents to choose which school they send their kid to

Marc Kielburger – “Me to We” – Approaches to Fostering Student Engagement – Free the Children
- http://www.freethechildren.com/
- parents endure major sacrifices to ensure that their children have access to education
- student achievement = student engagement
- sign up for Monday column in Vancouver Sun that have lessons/ideas/suggestions for global issues
- make gratitude a regular part of their lives
- every child can be a philanthropist
- become a responsible shopper
- lead by example
- reach out through empathy
- don’t shelter young people from the issues
- celebrate heroes and people that make the world a better place
- teaching compassion
- www.metowe.org
- “do small things with great love” – Mother Theresa

Edinburgh to Galloway

2008-08-07T22:49:00.000-07:00

Hello lovely people,

Rest easy, because this just might be the last email you get from me about my travels (for some of you that will be a welcome relief, I know...)! Today is Friday, we head South from Edinburgh to the Borders/Dumfries/Galloway region, stay down there for tonight, and then come back up to Glasgow and fly home on Sunday. Yay!

Edinburgh was easily the best city that we saw on the trip. However, cities were my least favourite part of the trip. But considering I am *still* awed and excited to be in Scotland, it's really all good. Edinburgh Castle wasn't terribly impressive, but we may be coming to the point where we have seen so many castles and churches and galleries and museums and historical sites, that it's a bit of overload. C'est la vie... I'm not going to complain. ;)

Today is the 8th day of the 8th month of 2008, which I gather is a very very lucky day for Asian culture. My cousin Mike is getting married today, so I hope that the luck works in his favour to make everything go smoothly. From what I hear, Vancouver is looking rather gorgeous as of late! Should be a lovely day.

Christine & I have been trying to add up how much we have spent here to make sure we have our stories straight when we get to customs (cough, cough), and more importantly, trying to see where it will all fit! All I have to say is, whisky is big and heavy, not to mention expensive. It better not break!

One thing that doesn't often happen here is when we go to a restaurant and pay with a credit card, there is no place to add a tip. I never really realized how much I appreciate having that little gratuity line, because I am trying to travel here with as little cash as possible, and sometimes that has meant a meagre tip or worse, none at all! With food being as expensive as it is, I kinda just wish the tip was included in prices -- wouldn't that make everything so much easier?? Anyways.

Being that Christine has so many food allergies, we have been virtually unable to share food. Or at least, she can't have anything that I can eat -- which is good in a way, because it keeps the money thing very separate and "yours/mine" issues very clear, but I feel bad that I can't give her some of my treats or share an entree when neither of us are particularly famished. Ah well. I am just happy that she stayed healthy. :)

So, highlights of the trip? Barra. Love Barra. All the islands, for sure -- Orkney and Iona and Skye... but Barra still is my favourite. The people were also a highlight -- I love the people here. And the landscape -- wow. The museums and galleries and castles etc. were great too (except for the overload). Still haven't found that deep-fried Mars bar, but despite that, the dinner at Iona was the highlight for food.

And with that, I am off. Hope to see y'all soon... expect photos to come sometime in the next few weeks. :)
Cheers
xo
Elaan

Edinburgh

2008-08-06T22:48:00.000-07:00

Hello hello

Yesterday and today was Edinburgh. We got into the city later in the evening and Christine did an amazing job of navigating the craziness of downtown (one-way streets and festivals and bus-only lanes and people everywhere and bridges and basic insanity) and I was the stellar co-pilot! Woo! Anyways, we had to stay in a hostel last night, which we were NOT looking forward to (the B&B's have spoiled us), and with good reason... it was the same sweaty stinky noisy sleepless experience. The difference was, it was located RIGHT on the Royal Mile! Which is the main strip of downtown.

Unfortunately we had to leave our car several blocks away, and so we had to get up this morning at 7am to go move it before it got towed. That's okay, we didn't really need an excuse to get out of that hostel. We decided to drive straight to the Marriott and hopefully leave our bags and car while we found food and maybe also our way back into the city. The Marriott was a package deal we got with our tickets to the Military Tattoo (big military band, music, marching, dancing, singing performance that is apparently quite famous, although neither of us had heard of it before we started telling people that we were going to Scotland, and then many of them said "are you going to the Tattoo?" and "you HAVE to go to the Tattoo!" -- so, we got the only tickets left, which were a package deal with the Marriott hotel).

So, we get to the Marriott totally exhausted from not sleeping at the hostel, and have a super awesome gourmet breakfast... yummmmm... and then they manage to get our room ready quickly so we could get in there. SO nice! We showered and napped and Christine even went for a swim. Ahhhh, luxury. Hostels are bollocks and rubbish I say! We got onto a handy-dandy bus that took us straight downtown and went to the National Gallery. Wow... I don't even know what to say about that place. Amazing and stupendous. I could have spent all day in there. Except that they don't let you wear your backpacks on your back (or front, or one shoulder) which is annoying. What the purpose for that is, I have no idea.

We also went to the Fruitmarket Gallery. Weird stuff in there. Weirder stuff in the gift shop even. Brits have some messed up sense of humour... sometimes it totally works and is hilarious but other times it just crosses the line or doesn't make any sense. Like a card that said "catch the ball, because if you don't your wife will leave you and take the kids". Dub-tee-eff?! Anyways. Just sayin'. Weird.

So we had dinner at a great little Italian joint called Rocco's and then headed to the Tattoo. It was awesome, amazing, marvelous, incredible and wicked. It also poured rain on us like God was trying to put out a fire in our souls (I have no idea where THAT imagery came from, honest). No but seriously, it rained so hard that people started leaving the stands (oh, did I mention it is an uncovered, outdoor performace that has never ever been cancelled in any weather conditions?) about 30 minutes into the 90 minute show. I was fairly miserable, but I kept my mouth shut and just focused on the excellent show. I tried with all my might to avoid thinking about how my shoes had become puddles for my feet, and how my jeans had wicked the water all the way to my waist.

I think the last time I was completely soaked like that was when I was a kid taking swimming lessons and they asked us to get in the pool with our clothes on so we could get the feeling of what it felt like. But, my core remained fairly dry -- that raincoat I bought the night before I left did a really great job. Not sure what I am going to do about my wet shoes. I may have to break out the hairdryer.

All in all, we have had really great bright and sunny weather, so I am not going to complain if it rains. We have been super lucky so far, so it is what it is. :)

We have tomorrow and Friday morning in Edinburgh, Friday afternoon and Saturday in the South, and then on Sunday we are back in YVR! I hope the nice heat wave you guys are having holds out until we get home. :)

Hope y'all are well, and dry, and snug
xo
Elaan

Orkney to Inverness to Blairgowrie to Edinburgh

2008-08-05T22:47:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

So on Sunday in Orkney we went to see the Tomb of the Eagles and a Bronze-age house, and we also stopped at a famous Italian Chapel that was made completely out of garbage and found materials during WWII. Very neat. Then we stopped back in Kirkwall, and went shopping. I must say it's the first time on the trip I really wanted to buy something for myself -- so guess what I bought -- a necklace and earrings, and a cheese board. Yes, I said cheese board. It's not just any cheese board though, it has ancient viking runes etched into it! So that makes it an ultra-cool awesome cheese board.

Anyways, with those purchases I think I have officially run out of money. Any time I consider buying anything it is usually at the expense of a meal or two, haha. So I think my purchases will stop there -- I just don't have room in my bags or money for anything else! Although Christine thinks we could buy another bag to check at the airport... but my motivation for being here really isn't shopping, so that's okay.

Yesterday at the B&B we were staying at in Inverness, they offered haggis as part of the morning meal, so I tried it!! I figured it was a safe way to try it since there would be lots of other food, and it was all part of the package. So, haggis... hmmm. It wasn't bad really. It kinda tasted like ground beef and barley put together. It sure wasn't my favourite, me being not a very big meat-eater anyways, but it was fine. I didn't finish it all. So now I have had the whiskey AND the haggis. I wonder if there are any other Scottish traditions to have before I leave here?

After breakfast we went down to Loch Ness to go swimming. Except... that it was freezing ice-cold. We stood in the water up to our calves and I swear after about 30 seconds I couldn't feel my feet anymore. So, we didn't swim. But we did dip our toes in the water!

After Loch Ness we went to Dundee (not a very pretty city, but family history abounds there for Christine). We also went to the famous Glamis Castle, which was amazing, and headed to a lovely B&B for the night.

Oddly, we have seen 4 or 5 instances of fighter jets?? in the sky while we've been here. Seriously, it's something out of Top Gun. Strange to see them flying so low. And we have also seen many instances of mating cows. Related? Maybe so.

Anyways, I must be going because my time is running out but tonight we head to Edinburgh! It's going to be fabulous! We are home soon after that. Hope y'all are well...
xo
Elaan

Orkney rocks

2008-08-02T22:47:00.000-07:00

Helloooooo...

So today we did Orkney... and tomorrow we do more Orkney, before we leave Orkney. We love Orkney. Today, was beautiful. We couldn't ask for better weather.

There were three sites we visited today that were more than 5000 years old -- older than the pyramids! Wow. Names won't mean much to you, but the Ring of Brodgar, Skara Brae, Brough of Birsay, Standing Stones of Stenness and Maes Howe were awesome. I attached the links so you can have a look in case you are at all interested in that stuff. We also went to the Orkney Museum, Earl's Palace, Bishop's Palace and Wideford Hill. We find again and again that our cameras just can't do it justice here. You will have to come and see for yourselves -- we recommend it!

The Orkney accent is different and much stronger than the regular Scottish accent, which makes it difficult to understand some people -- I find myself doing a little more of the smiling-and-nodding schtick, although this could be problematic since today I think a Scottish man was trying to get me to take him home with me, and there I was with my smile & nod... oops.

Tomorrow we are going to the Tomb of Eagles, Orphir Church (no, I won't be worshipping this time), Stromness Museum, and maybe some others... but we have to get back on the ferry in the afternoon, to go back to the mainland. We are pretty disappointed, because we really liked it here. So far, Scottish isles have really impressed!

Also impressive are towel warming racks in the hotels and B&B's -- why don't we have those? They come in especially handy when you need to wash some clothing and it needs to dry quickly.

I have discovered that I really like rhubarb yogurt. And rhubarb jam. And I like that grilled tomatoes and mushrooms is standard breakfast fare here. I don't really like the bacon (it's thick slabs, more like back bacon) and the sausages always get delivered to me in varying shapes and sizes... I don't like that, makes me suspicious! Haha.

Cute story from today: we were driving along the country road (they are pretty much all country roads until we get back down to Edinburgh I think), and we see this huge crowd of big black cows huddled up at a fence. And there's a guy, a tourist with a camera, standing directly on the other side of the fence within about an arm's reach of the cows. Thing is, he's not taking photos -- he appears to be talking to them (or with them), quite animatedly. Funnier still, I kinda wanted to jump out of the car and join in the conversation. Just BE there, you know? :P Ya, so I might be crazy... but I feel a lot saner than I have been in a very long time. It heals your soul to be somewhere like this, it really does.

We stay at a different B&B in Inverness this time tomorrow. And they know we are coming late, so hopefully they won't be cranky. :)

We have heard the news about the sea-to-sky landslide and butchery on the bus to Winnipeg (very disturbing) -- hopefully there's more good news (and weather) in the works for you guys back home.

Hope y'all are well!
xo
Elaan

Skye to Inverness to Orkney

2008-08-01T22:46:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone

We can hardly believe that it's August already! That means we come home in nine days... so much to pack in between now and then. Christine and I are actually really good travelling companions in that we seem to have the same disposition towards our activities; when I feel like eating, so does she, when she wants to get out of the city, I am in agreement, and so on. We have disagreed about precious little -- indeed, nothing really comes to mind! It's all good.

Some random observations:

The cool thing about driving around in Scotland is that all the signs are in Gaelic and in English, and sometimes you can see how they have just made up the English words to be as similar sounding to the original Gaelic ones... so you get some pretty funny place names. I really wanted to visit Tongue, but it just wasn't in the cards for today. ;) We did get to John o' Groats and Portnalong and Sligachen though.

And, as a few of you warned, there are roundabouts everywhere instead of stoplights, which is great -- there haven't really been any bottlenecks unless there was construction, although the traffic is much faster when there are two lanes rather than those treacherous one-laners. I don't much like those!

On the sides of the roads and beyond are sheep. A few times I caught myself thinking about the nice dog sitting there, and then realized that it was a sheep. Although they seem to gravitate away from human bodies, they are generally unphased by the huge motor vehicles hurtling down the road... sometimes they walk right down the middle, taking their sweet time. Christine calls those ones "kamikaze death-wishers"... and there are a few drivers like that here too.

I also really like how the outlets in the walls have switches, and you have to turn the switch on to get power, so that it conserves energy. Why don't we have those??

Midges suck, big time. They are tiny biting little bugs that get you. We hate them. They are everywhere. Smaller than moquitoes, and more insidious.

They offer English mustard and French mustard at the restaurants here. Ironically, it's the English mustard that looks like the regular yellow "French's" mustard I have back home in my fridge. French mustard is black. BLACK. Tastes like mustard, though, despite its look of tar. And no, I haven't had haggis yet.

Ok, so back to the travel update. I will try to be brief (hah!).

We drove from Skye and stayed at a B&B in Inverness with a mildly cranky lady who was mad that we were late checking in - she tried to lie and say that she had re-let our room but when we made to leave she suddenly found it to be empty. Hmmm. We didn't like Inverness much -- just a city with a mall, and it wasn't quaint or beautiful and there wasn't much there to see, or that we wanted to see.

Outside of Inverness, though, are some amazing sites. Like the Culloden Battlefield, which was the best visitor center and facility we have been to yet. Simply excellent. We also saw Cawdor Castle, where Macbeth is supposed to have been set for Shakespeare's play, and we went to Fort George but it was closed when we got there. We also saw Loch Ness (and Nessie, of course) and Urquhart Castle. Both were pretty good.

Today we drove up the east coast of Scotland and went to the most northern tip. We caught the ferry to Orkney, and we are here for 2 nights. We LOVE the place that we are staying at (not the least of which because they have fast & free internet), it's right by the water with amazing views and we are SO excited to be in Orkney. We have some very famous archaeological sites to visit tomorrow. On Sunday we go back to Inverness.

Today was the first day we got caught in the rain and wind... it was very hard to take good photos. Hopefully it's nice out tomorrow! I hope you guys are having great weather too!
xo
Elaan

Fort William to the Isle of Skye

2008-07-29T22:46:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the other side of the Atlantic!

Today we saw the Commando momument, the Well of the Seven Heads, and the Eilean Donan Castle. The castle was amazing! A recreation of a medieval castle and in the most amazing setting on the water. Excellent!

I forgot to mention yesterday that Christine & I went on the first of our many, many whiskey distillery tours. Just joking... I don't think we will go to that many -- maybe one more. We went to the Oban Distillery in Oban, and it was a small, traditional distillery so we are thinking that we might go again to one of the bigger ones to compare. In fact where we are staying right now on Skye is very close to the Talisker Distillery, so we may go there.

Whisky... oh my. Not a drink for me! They gave us two tastes of it on the tour, and the first one wasn't completely through the process yet and it was at like 55% alcohol -- tasted like rubbish! Made the back of my throat burn and my mouth water... ick. By the time we got to the end of the tour and they gave us the good stuff, it tasted much better -- must be a ploy to make people think whiskey tastes good (sorry, Dad & Wes, I will still keep my eye out for that Lagavulin you want).

Also, I had my first stint driving on the wrong side of the road -- SO weird. The hard part is that your body wants to be on the right instead of the left so you have to be careful to not drift over to the shoulder. Today Christine was a little nervous when I came a little close to a cyclist. :P The other hard part of driving on the left is shifting with your left hand! That takes some getting used to. But other than that, it's actually been pretty intuitive. We just wish the the roads over here weren't so bloody narrow!

And that leads me to our first great tragedy of the trip. Haha, okay so it wasn't a tragedy, more like an adventure to keep us humble! Just outside of the Isle of Skye we were driving on a highway in the middle of nowhere with nobody around, and we hear a strange noise, so we pull over. Sure enough, yes, it's an extremely flat tire!! Oh goody gumdrops. I was mildly phased at first but Christine jumped right in and started pulling the spare out of the trunk and between the two of us we had the jack and wheel lock (thank goodness I had one of those on my car or we may have been hooped!) all figured out and we changed that tire pronto! Dad would have been proud.

Even though we wracked our brain to find a good reason for why the tire was flat, we just can't figure it out. We called the rental company who basically told us that we were on our own because we were so far away from civilization (we are way out here in the country, people!), and that we would have to pay for it ourselves since it was obviously "driver error" which pissed us off a bit. Me so more than Christine, but whatever.

We got to where we were going on Skye (a hostel, but with a private room, yay!), drove into town, found the garage, they found us a tire and replaced it for us all within about 30 minutes, and we are now pleased as punch to be back on the road in fine form! If that's the worst thing to happen on the trip then we are lucky-lucky.

Tomorrow we are driving all over the island. We have some sightseeing to do and then Christine wants to go shopping. We are 2 nights here on Skye, and then on to Inverness!

Hope y'all are well.
xo
Elaan

Fort William

2008-07-28T22:45:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone

Christine & I have arrived in Fort William. It is a nice little town, although one of the tour books describes it as a major shopping district, which is laughable. They don't even have a movie theatre, and I think it's the biggest city of the highlands! We are thinking we should be prepared for REALLY small towns for the next while until we get back into Edinburgh.

En route today we stopped in Glencoe and went to this really cool museum and stopped at the Glencoe Massacre monument. I am learning a lot about Scottish history on this trip! It might not help that I am reading the second book in the Outlander series (which is set in Scotland) because all the history and politics in there are kinda confusing... I am hoping the REAL historical accounts will help me figure out what's going on in the book!

This evening we saw Neptune's Staircase, the Caledonian Canal, the Glenfinnan Monument, Ben Nevis, and Inverlochy Castle. And that was all done in a couple of hours! The bugs have come out tonight and they served to drive us away from staying still in any one place for too long. I hate stupid biting itchy bugs!

We have bought this Explorer Pass that gives us free entry into a number of castles and historical sites, and we just finished working out what we want to see and roughly when we think it will happen. We are doing well, although today I am feeling totally drained because it was SO hot here, and I wilted pretty good. Me + Heat = Blah. Thank goodness we have AC in the car. :)

Tomorrow we head to the Isle of Skye for two nights. We are also counting down the nights that we have booked in hostels... we are much more looking forward to rooms with privacy! There is one place down near Perth that was a highly recommended B&B, but the only catch was that they didn't have twin beds, only a double bed. I hope Christine doesn't mind that I am a cuddler! Hahaha.

Anyways, gotta get going... hope y'all are well. Drop me a line when you can!
Cheers
xo
Elaan