Canada

Well, I've finally arrived in Canada, about 30 or so hours after I left home. It was a long Tuesday 24th April for me, and now, we've only just made it to wednesday. Flying was... well boring as usual. I watched a couple of movies - the pursuit of happyness, and the good year... but mostly I just slept the entire way, as well as reading a book.

I started my journey at 4am at the Airport, my flight left at 6:30am. From there, I went to Sydney, then to Honolulu, then to Vancouver, and lastly on to Toronto. Things I learnt from my trip:

-Carrying a laptop is a pain in the arse. I was carrying my sister's for her to Vancouver, and it had to be unloaded and put in a seperate box at EVERY x-ray machine. Pain in the arse.

-Going to America is shite. Avoid it at all costs. First of all they make you take off your shoes. And they check your bag (which has already been x-rayed) by pulling everything out. And then, they make you go through customs in Honolulu (and check your carry on luggage AGAIN), which means taking fingerprints and a photo of you. This means standing in a line for an hour, going up and down escalators, and finally finding yourself back at the same gate getting on the same plane. I think it's all a big decoy so they have time to clean up the plane personally.

- On domestic flights across Canada they don't feed you. This is bad as (a) they don't tell you they don't feed you until you arrive on the plane, (b) the plane trip is 4.5 hours, which would be an international flight in some places, and (c) they even charge you if you want a blanket and pillow. ($2 but still)

-The view flying into Vancouver is pretty amazing, as is any random islands you fly over in the pacific. Way cool.

Um, apart from that, the flight was non-evenful. Cold while flying = bad.

Ok -Canada. Today I am staying at my friend's just outside of Toronto, Ontario. I have a few things to do: Social insurance number (SIN) to apply for, Bank account to open, phone to get, place to live needed, job etc. lol. Ok a lot. Today I have been grocery shopping and to the SIN number place. Once. However, the stupid people don't take passports as a form of ID, so I had to come back and find my citizenship certificate. The Canadian government is strange. They expect other countries to accept their passports as the ultimate id, but they don't accept it themselves. They don't even have pens in their offices for filling out forms. So now I have to wait an see if anyone is going out again today later (I don't have a car), to go BACK to the office and see if I can get a new SIN card. I actually have a number from last time I was here in 2000, I just don't know what it is. Ugh, bureaucracy pain.

So yeah, that`s my random thought spew for the day. Canada is cold and brown (given all the brick houses and trees that haven`t decided it`s spring yet), my trip was long, camp was cool and tiring, and I haven`t done anything yet.

Photo of the view from the house I am staying in:



It just makes me want to sing the Weeds song...

`Little boxes, little boxes...`

ok, I hope you are all well...

Camp

Camp... was awesome. Met some way cool people. One of which wants to come to Spain with me to throw tomatoes! Yay, La tomatina!

Coming back from camp also cool, no more getting up at 6am, or looking after teenagers, but I was soooo tired. I only had a day and a half to get all my washing done, finish packing and leave. I'm sure I lost half my stuff in boxes that were hastily put away when I found out my cousin was coming, but hey, I think I got most of my clothes.

I also managed to get a cold, which was fun when travelling on aeroplanes. Blocked sinuses and a runny nose for 4 international flights. Woo yeah.

The camp I went on is kinda a lifeskills course for teenagers, and I was, with 21 other people, volunteer staff for a week. We also had a 3 day training workshop. The course was heaps of fun and lots of work. It's like most personal growth course, except for the fact that you have some teens who are relectant to be there, so you get to spend the first 3 days being energetic and trying to get them excited about it. I met some cool people there, and had a great time. Even if I was exhausted by then end! No sleep and a lots of running around will do that to you.

Overall, camp = fun. Awesome people, no sleep, far too much sugar, far too stodgy food, and lots of dancing and good chats with some amazing people. I loved it and will definitely be back next year if possible!

The sun back home

It's sunny! I'm at my parents place, hanging for the couple of weeks before I hop on a plane to the other side of the world. I've been very productive - visiting old friends from University days and running all over town trying to catch up with people. And it's been sunny!

You forget what hanging out on sunny days is like when you have been caged in an airconditioned building for so long! I'll say one thing for hicksville though - it's a whole lot easier to get downtown there. Trying to get down to see people who work in offices here involves driving to a bus stop, paying $6 for a day bus pass and then sitting for half an hour. And then trying to get home in rush hour when it's raining and bus after bus passes you and then other 70 people waiting at the stop because they are full.

In hicksville I walked 10 mins from my apartment, and was downtown.

Things to do... ahh so much.

It's the thursday before easter and I still have to....

UNpack my car and put all the boxes somewhere, then clean the car so Dad can sell it online, then I need to try and find the gear I want to take overseas, and then pull out the gear I want to take to camp next week. All by Wednesday when I leave, and I am thinking of going to the beach for Easter....yeah,

so what am I doing? Procrastinating here, and on Facebook.