Island Time

It doesn't take long for Qualicum to feel like home again. No matter how often I'm away, and lately that's been a lot, it feels like I never left when I'm there. I came here to load up the truck with some more of our possessions in storage at my dad's, but I stayed a week because it's been a long couple of years so far away from friends and family. 

I couldn't have asked for a better week, the weather has been phenomenal lately and I was able to see the island at it's best. Nobody needs to be told that after 9 months in Edmonton the mountains, lakes, rivers and beaches of BC are a welcome sight. It was especially nice to get out camping with my mom exploring places I'd never been. Even after all the time I've spent in QB there are lakes less than 2 hours away I've never been to. That's what makes the island so amazing.

It's always great to see my dad too. It was fun to cruise around town in his new Datsun and see the one he's working on for me. Luckily he saved some wiring at his house so I could feel useful, and his parts tally for the car was good motivation to get back to work. There was no shortage of financial motivation this week actually. 

It was really great to see all my friends too. I'd almost forgotten what a close group of friends felt like. It's been a fun couple years but it's also been a bit lonely at times. Just being able to go to the skate park, the river, and a back yard with a good group is something I took for granted before and I really appreciate now. 

I've got a number of parallel lives I wish I was living. Staying in London is one of them, but I think the one I'm most curious about is just being back on the island and enjoying good friends, family and surroundings.

I'm really happy with the direction my life has gone and is going, but after every good trip back home I wonder what I'm missing. I am; however,really looking forward to getting to Montreal and seeing Genevieve and the new home she's started for us. Now I've just got to cross the country to get there. 

The Beginnings of a Montreal Life

I just had to call the city of Montreal's help line in desperation because my borough's website is all in French and does not have an English option. I was trying to figure out how to get a parking permit so when Justin arrives he can park in our neighbourhood. Luckily the man on the other end of 311 spoke English and was very helpful. The language has been an issue... I don't even know how to call a cab. And trying to purchase huge things like beds and couches from French only speakers has been frustrating, mostly because I feel stupid. It seems like this is going to be the norm here. I need to learn French ASAP.

It's been a very busy couple days. Running around the city trying to rent a flat and buy a bed and furniture, all while figuring out the metro and buses. Transit is all very easy for the most part with the help of Google maps (only one major error which led to an hour delay walking aimlessly along a freeway before a $12 taxi ride to the correct address). My feet are killing me.

Just one of the old homes in my neighbourhood

My mom came to 'take care of me' for this week -- which was really nice of her. I didn't necessarily think I needed her help, but she wanted to feel needed, so I figured what was the harm. Her arms sure have come in handy -- especially as I was carrying a bed-in-a-bag, air mattress, and mattress topper for far too long around the city. I am going through some intense car withdrawals. I know it will wear off soon.

I am really happy so far with the place I have rented. It's probably too early to really tell because normal life hasn't set in, but the neighbourhood is so beautiful, and the condo is brand new; The appliances still have all the instructions in them. You can take a look at our place here - We are apartment 100 on the list of one bedrooms. It doesn't show the amazing huge courtyard that we are the only ones with access to. I think it's going to be really great.

The city is absolutely vibrant. I have seen a lot of it while looking for a home and trying to find the big box stores. The food is decent and we've only had the cheap touristy stuff. We went to a Just for Laughs show last night and it was awesome. The festival itself is huge and so much is going on at different venues throughout the city.


So far it's been a very draining, overwhelming experience, but I know it's going to get better and better once I sort everything out. I can't wait to explore everything when I have time to enjoy it.

Poutine - of course!

Smoked Meat Sandwich!

Canadian Rockies

So the big news in our lives is that Genevieve has been offered a job with the new Breakfast TV in Montreal and we will be moving there in a couple weeks. It's going to be an exciting new challenge for sure, and personally I'm really looking forward to putting Edmonton behind me. There has been one thing, however,  that's been a real diamond in the rough that I had wanted to write a little blog about, and that's been the Canadian Rockies.

I had always been of the opinion that the mountains in Canada, and the Rockies especially, were the most beautiful and stunning mountains in the world without question. I think you just grow up with that impression in BC. When we drove through the Alps, particularly the Dolomites in Italy, I was really surprised, humbled and a little disappointed by just how incredible they were. My whole belief system was rocked. At the time I thought they were easily more spectacular, they are jagged and raw, with peaks and valleys one after the other. The roads were thrilling hairpin turns and switchbacks. It really opened my eyes to the fact that while Canada is great and all, there's a whole big world out there challenging our landscape even where we excel most.

Before moving to Edmonton I had already driven through the Rockies more times than I can count, but the key words there are driven through. It's always been on the way to somewhere else, and while driving through both routes, Jasper and Banff, offer amazing scenery from the highway there is something to be said for making a destination of them and taking the time to stop and explore. In the past 8 months we've been lucky enough to do that several times. We've also driven through several more on our trips to BC. The first couple times through I still felt the Alps had us beat, but I'm beginning to appreciate the differences. The most obvious being the wildlife, we saw almost nothing in Europe and there is so much to see in the Rockies. Never been through without seeing at least an elk or some sheep. The little gophers and prairie dogs are awesome to watch stand on end and peak out of their holes. Reminds me of the British obsession with meerkats.

Our first visit was a 5 day stay in Canmore in February for some skiing and snowboarding at Sunshine and Lake Louise. We stayed at a condo with Gen's sister Michelle and a couple friends from the island, Cory and Ryan. We got great weather both times we went up the mountain, and the riding on Lake Louise was awesome. That's a mountain I'd love to go back to. Sunshine wasn't as great terrain wise, but the views were absolutely stunning. We had a perfect sunny day and you could see just how expansive the Rockies are from up there, seemingly endless peak after peak.

We went for a light hike through Johnson Canyon to the frozen waterfalls there a different day. The blue ice on the cliffs and the still beauty of frozen waterfalls are something you probably can't easily visit in many other countries. Cory and I were really tempted to dip at the pool below the falls, but a nearby tour guide assured us it would be certain death. This only fueled my desire, but the exit looked a little treacherous for frozen hands and feet so we had to opt for an easier entry point down the river. I'm always up for some stupid swimming and the looks on peoples faces was priceless as we ran back to the truck in our skivvies. A fascinated little girl told me I was silly as I clambered up the snowy bank. She was right.

We also had a night out on the town in Banff, which was a reasonably priced cab ride from Canmore, and had a lot of fun at a couple different places. These ski towns can be a really good time, and in another life I would love to have spent a season or 2 on the mountain. Aussies are far from perfect, but damn do they travel well.

Our second trip was to Jasper for a couple days when our friends Jaimie and Matt visited from Vancouver in April. We decided to take them to the mountains since there's only so much you can do in Edmonton after the mall and an Oilers game. The snow was still out and we had a nice walk through Maligne Canyon and the frozen waterfalls there. We drove out to Medicine Lake which was still covered in snow and ice and surrounded by the mountains. We had a close encounter there with a fox that was a bit of a show off. Jasper is a nice little town and the brew pub there was great for cheap craft beers and tasty food.

Our last and most memorable trip was just Gen and I, and her parents dog Zia, camping for 5 days from Kananaskis Country south of Canmore up the Icefields Parkway to Jasper. We went in early June, which is apparently still off season so camping was limited. Reminded me of trying to camp in Italy in September. Most people just seem to enjoy a 2 month season it seems. We did find couple nice spots, and everywhere we drove was spectacular. The weather wasn't great the first couple days, but we were lucky enough that it was inconsistent so we did still get the views of the peaks and the sun on the snow and water that really brings out the beauty of the mountains.

Even in June the tour buses were aplenty at the more famous spots like the Columbia Icefield and Moraine Lake. I think the tourism spectacle might be a bit much in high season. It was kind of strange to see Canada's vast natural landscape as a tourist attraction, especially the price gouging. Food along the Icefields Parkway is insanely priced, and a 90 minute boat ride on Maligne Lake was over $60 each. Our cruise around Cinque Terre in Italy was like $15 and I hate to say it, looked a hell of a lot better. These busy spots are quite picturesque though, and worth a look. Luckily there's countless equally nice and empty places to see with a little more exploration.

We headed east from the Saskatchewan River crossing towards Rocky Mountain House to a campsite at Crescent Falls that Michelle recommended. The site was awesome and the falls were nice too, but the weather wasn't great that night. We stopped at a lot of different waterfalls on the way up to Jasper, as well as a snowy walk up the the viewpoint at Peyto Lake. The turquoise water was something photos don't do justice.

Our last night was just past Jasper on the Snaring River. This was a great little campground with a bunch of spots right on the river. I've realized that unless I'm camping within 100 feet of water the spot is a bit of a failure. It happened a lot in Europe, but luckily only once on this trip, and very view times in Canada in general.

The unexpected highlight of that trip came in the small mining town of Nordegg, west of Rocky Mountain House. We stopped here for the necessities, and found ourselves at the Beer Cabin, a log cabin turned cold beer & wine. The owners were an old couple, him from England and her from Scotland. We ended up being there for well over an hour listening to their life story. He had visited the area decades ago training with the British Army and loved it so much they ended up back here years later. They had lived all over the world and had such a fascinating life. He loved to talk and she loved to add her tidbits at all the right times. It sounds stupid but it was really enjoyable, and it was so nice to relate what little travel experience we had with them, and just listen to all of theirs. Some of the most interesting people we've met have been the ones that took chances, stepped out of their comfort zones, and worked hard along the way to make it all possible. It's a real inspiration. On that note, I'm gonna go duck into a mine for another 12 hours and then move to Montreal to give that a whirl. Wish us luck.

-Justin

Concrete Tundra

Snow blows over the concrete tundra

like low lying ghosts from an ancient era.

The sprawl of steel and rigs on the road

surely wasn't what they dreamed long ago. 

It's a crude life for many, a cold one for the rest. 

Dad's gone for a while. Mom's trying her best.

Men here have been wearing flannel and tight jeans

long before this hipster scene. 

'Help Wanted' signs in every window. 

People get high. The taxes are low. 

Forget the formalities just hop in and drive

those jacked up trucks; a source of pride. 

Pump jacks nod their heads in pleasure,

they keep working despite the weather. 

It snows in the fall, and in the spring there's still snow. 

It might snow in the summer for all I know. 

It's something only a Canadian can truly understand;

day to day living in this frozen flat land. 

Paying Dues

I've joked about working up in a camp for a couple of years now, never really sure how serious I was. However, the more money we spent in Europe the more it started looking like the best option, so when Genevieve's parents offered up their basement in Edmonton for a year that was kind of the catalyst. I've never liked Edmonton, I don't enjoy the cold, and working in a camp sounded like hell to me, but the idea of a new challenge after our year in London coupled with the ability to make twice as much money with half as many bills was enough to send us to the frozen north.

I knew a bunch of people who were working or have worked up north and got plenty of advice and companies to try, but when it came to getting a job it ended up being as simple as emailing about a dozen postings I found online and picking the offer I liked best. It's a workers market right now, which was really nice. The idea of working in a uranium mine in the middle of nowhere northern Saskatchewan was scary, but the money was better than anything in Fort McMurray, and it was 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off, which is pretty sweet. Turns out I much prefer the 15 degrees it is underground to the -40 it is above, so that was a real bonus I hadn't planned on.

I had absolutely no idea what to expect when I left. The information I was given was pretty well useless. I packed all kinds of winter gear I wasn't sure if I'd need, because I sure as hell didn't want to be unprepared. The address they gave me for the small private hangar near the Edmonton Airport was bogus, so finding that place took some time. That whole first day, flying out of Edmonton on a tiny propeller plane over 2 hours of flat frozen nothingness and landing in this dirty oasis, I was completely out of my element. It was a trip.

It's a little hard to explain what this place is like, I think in a way it's exactly how you would imagine it and completely different at the same time. It's a collage of shitty temporary buildings scattered on the tundra around a couple small towers that stand over shafts that lead to another world half a kilometer down. There's one permanent building where the kitchen, gym, some administrative rooms and some residences for permanent staff are. The rest of the place is a mess of Atco portable modules. The camp I'm in is about 40 years old, was moved here a few years ago and will likely crumble into the ground where it stands. The rooms are dirty, the walls are paper thin and the bathrooms are disgusting. The duct from the furnace goes through every room, so snores, farts and coughs flow freely throughout the place. There's also a lot of pigs here with little respect for the place or other peoples comfort, which can be frustrating. Anyone who has backpacked Europe, it is far worse than any hostel I have ever seen. Far worse.

The people up here are a mix, many seem relatively normal, like I would consider myself. Others seem to be the exact amount of fucked you would expect from a life long camp worker. There are just as many met expectations as there are surprises up here. A surprise I should have expected was the number of natives working here. Probably around a third are Saskatchewan locals from the nearby (1000km radius) area. Makes sense when an employer this size opens up shop, and it's really good to see so many working hard and making a decent living. I just hope anyone whose job affects my safety is here because they're the best at what they do. I also hadn't expected to see so many women, around 1 in 10. There's a lot of work being done here besides the trades underground, if you don't like your office you should see these ones. It'd be a strange place to be a woman. There are a lot of people working here from all over Canada, it's not quite like meeting people from all over the world when traveling, but it has been really cool to learn more about other cities and provinces. Newfie accents are always a treat too.

The food here is alright, I'd heard camp food was pretty good, and I'm told this is some of the best. I wouldn't rave about it, but there's always choice and it's rarely gross. It does take effort to have reasonable portions and some healthy options when you have the choice to eat all the fried unhealthy junk you want every day. The Christmas and New Year's dinners were quite a treat, almost enough to forget where you were for a minute. There's a nice gym that some of the guys play ball hockey in once in a while, which has been a lot of fun. Really puts to shame how rarely we played back home considering here we're working 12 hours every day. It's not easy on the body, but it's good to do something other than work, eat and sleep once in a while.

The first time I was squeezed in the cage with 20 other guys to descend 500m of darkness to the mine is something I won't forget. There's no rails except where you stop, so the cage lowers on cables in silence, swaying side to side, water dripping all around. It's eery. The mine itself is more open than I expected. The passageways are wide enough for full sized scoops to race up and down with buckets of rock and mud. There are many open areas, where I do most of my work, that will house all the various equipment and machinery when the mine is operational. Some of these areas are quite large, it's amazing to think that every bit of rock went up that small shaft, and every piece of equipment came down it. All the heavy machinery and lifts would have to have been taken completely apart and reassembled. There are 2 levels to the mine, and I would guess around 50 km of tunnels. An experienced miner told us it was a small mine in a world sense. I never want to be an experienced miner. It's dark, dirty, noisy, and the air quality isn't too great. Some of these guys are hacking up a lung all the time. I don't want that. When I'm involved in a task it starts to feel like a relatively normal place, but if I go for a walk down a quiet dark corridor with no one around and start thinking about everything in between me and the surface it can be a little scary. For now though, it's interesting to see, and it's damn nice to be warm. It's still cold enough to see my breath, but it's perfect to work in. I still spend around half an hour a day walking between various buildings on the surface, which is plenty. I'm some glad I'm not out working in that. I felt my face and eyes literally freezing on my -49 wind chilled walk last night. Interesting to go through a 90 degree change in about a month, from 45 degrees in Sicily to -45 here.

This is my first industrial job, and the first large company I've worked for. It is a huge difference from the commercial environment I'm used to. There, profit margins are small, and productivity has to be high. Things get done by any means necessary. Here, safety is key. I had 3 days of orientation before even going underground, and everything we do is documented and reviewed and signed off on. Some of it seems like bullshit, some of it seems like good habits to make, all of it is new to me. A big part of my day is spent on paperwork and formalities, things get done much slower here. I'm told the oil industry is the same. I've never worried about my job before, but there are no second chances here. There's too many people for the one's in charge to even know if you're particularly good and worth keeping, so if you make a mistake with a safety rule you're gone. Seen it a few times already.

Staying healthy is going to be difficult here, I've gotten sick the last two times. There's always something going around, and there's so many people living so close together. I also got a couple random nosebleeds last time, apparently they can be caused by cold, dry air. Being from a rainforest I guess my nose wasn't prepared. I gotta say, when somewhere is so cold that your head starts spontaneously bleeding, that might be your body saying 'it's too fucking cold for human beings here!'

There are few good things about being here, and the money is really the only one that matters, especially not spending a dime for two weeks. But the other is the wildlife. I've seen lots of snow grouse, and a few timber wolves, which are massive. Bear season is coming too. My favorite are the foxes though, I've seen them about 10 times now, sometimes 2 of them playing in the snow, other times one will walk within a few feet of me, just checking me out. Fox days are good days. Even the tiny arctic trees are kinda cool, and all the frozen lakes from the plane. I'm patiently waiting to see the northern lights too, been checking the space weather site for solar storms, nothin' yet.

It's funny to work a rotation like this. The couple days leading up to work feel like the ultimate Sunday drag, day 7 is the ultimate hump day, and the days before leaving are like you're going on vacation. It's hard to be up here and working like this, but it's also nice to be able to plan things for the time off without interrupting work or pay. The frustration of something lining up with work (like Tragically Hip tickets we bought months ago) is offset by the joy of something lining up with time at home (like all three Canucks games in Edmonton).

When I say home, I guess I mean Edmonton, but that's another thought.

I am more me

"And the question is, was I more alive then than I am now? 
I happily have to disagree
I laugh more often now, I cry more often now,
I am more me"

I've been having a hard time putting into words how I feel after the year we just had in London. The chorus of this Peter, Bjorn & John song Objects of my Affection has really stood out to me when it comes on my ipod, and I think it sums it up. I knew that moving to London would be a pretty big deal, that we would face some challenges, see some new stuff and have a pretty good time, but I hadn't really anticipated how much it would change me. I kinda feel like I had been living with one eye closed and now all of a sudden it's open and I can see so much more to life than what was in my view before. I don't mean that I've seen so much of the world and how other people live, because I've hardly scratched the surface and haven't even seen anywhere third world. I just mean on a completely personal level I feel like my eyes have been opened up to a multitude of directions to follow.

I think most people know I wasn't ready to leave London, I liked my most recent job and it paid enough to live there comfortably, we were settled in and having a really good time. We were also fortunate enough to not only meet some new people to hang out with, but actually make what I would consider some really great friends that I'm really going to miss. The reasons to come home made sense though, and I really appreciate Genevieve's practicality, and desire to get on with real life. But the decision was not an easy one and I am still struggling with it. It's a strange situation when you live your whole life with one basic path in mind, and then all of a sudden one or two other paths present themselves, and they look pretty good too. There's not enough years in a life to enjoy everything out there, and that sucks.

One of my favourite parts of moving to London was all the challenges it presented, and the satisfaction of conquering them. We are far from coming home with our tails between our legs, we were actually settled in quite nicely. I think the longer we were there, the easier it would have gotten and the harder it would have been to leave, so in that sense I guess I'm glad it was only a year. London is an absolutely amazing, exciting, interesting and vibrant city and I'm so happy to have gotten to know it so well.

I stop short of saying we're lucky to have had the year we just did, as a couple people have said. The only good luck I've ever had was being born in Canada to loving parents, everything after that has been worked for. Nobody helped us get to London, nobody was there to welcome us in or show us around. Everything was done through planning, trial and error, risks and rewards, and I don't give any credit to luck. It was a lot of fucking work.

I think traveling is a lot like having kids, if you wait until you are ready you'll never do it. There's always a reason not to travel, but if you really wanted to you would make it happen. Unless someone else is paying, it's never going to be easy.

Obviously a big reason to head to Alberta is to pay for the last little bit of our trip, and get started on a down payment, but it's also to pay for the next adventure. The travel bug is definitely there and the list of places to see only grows every time you cross one off. London is full of travellers, and no matter where you've been someone has been way more places and they're happy to tell you how amazing they are. I'm just hoping I can handle working up north long enough to bank enough money to have another adventure.

As much as I'm not looking forward to the cold, and I'm not a fan of Edmonton, I'm really looking forward to a new challenge and the opportunities available. I still feel kinda jacked up from our trip and there's no way I'm ready to settle back in to the life I had in Vancouver. I'm a little uncertain if I ever will be, but I've heard that's normal and maybe that will fade. I guess a year in northern Saskatchewan will send me running home a little quicker than a year in London. That being said, it was really great to see all our friends and family, to catch up on the past year of their lives and share some stories. A big thanks to anyone who put us up over those 2 weeks.

If it's not obvious, my emotions have been all over the place the past month. Between leaving our life in London, our amazing trip through Italy, coming home to BC and soon heading up north for a very hard year of work, my head is rattled. I don't know if it'll settle again, and I'm not sure I want it to. I've never been hungrier to succeed, to try new things and to squeeze every bit of life I can out of the years I have. Right now my energy is going to shift towards work, which certainly isn't as fun as traveling, but I am still excited, and I really don't know where it will take me next. I'm far from done exploring though, hopefully Genevieve is too. That's another chorus that's been getting to me the longer we have no clear home, Edward Sharp & the Magnetic Zeros, "Home is wherever I'm with you"

We're settled into Edmonton now, Genevieve starts work at Breakfast TV tomorrow, and I fly out to Cigar Lake in Saskatchewan on Friday. It's definitely interesting to see the differences between moving to London and moving to another Canadian city. Having our work experience and qualifications mean something is a nice change. City TV basically created a job in Edmonton for Genevieve, and I was actually interviewing multiple job offers the other day. It's no London, and it's cold and snowy, but our bank accounts will appreciate the effort.

A few people have asked if we'll keep this blog going. I think the subject matter would take a serious nosedive if we did, but never say never.

-Justin

Gaining A Whole Year

It's hard to explain how much this past year of gallivanting around the globe has meant to me, and I'm positive this post won't capture what I truly feel about the whole experience, but I thought I would give it a try anyways.

To understand how much I have always wanted to travel, you have to know a little bit about my childhood; Sorry for the backstory and sentimentality about to follow.
I grew up with my Dad, stepmom, and step sister in a loving, hard working family. I never felt that I went without, I did extra curricular activities, and in the summer they would take us to Kelowna or somewhere similar for two weeks to enjoy the sun and a hotel pool. For the rest of the summer I visited my mom on Vancouver Island; swimming in the rivers and ocean, and generally enjoying my young life. It was a great upbringing and more than any girl could ask for. But what really put the travel bug in me, from the time I can remember, is that my step sister would go to far away destinations with her Dad and his family once or twice a year. I remember she often went to Hawaii for Christmas; looking at the pictures, and dreaming about the day I would one day get to do that as well. I wondered what a warm ocean felt like, and remember seeing pictures of geckos and being so fascinated by them. It was hard to see her go to so many places that I never got to, but my parents did a great job of making it seem normal for me, and as I said, it's not like I had a rough life. It was just something that really stuck with me, more than a lot of things did.
When I was 15 my family moved from Prince George to Edmonton, and I struggled to make new friends and fit in. I learned about the Rotary exchange program which places you in another country for a year to go to school and learn about their culture. I filled out all the paperwork and passionately wrote the necessary essay, but when the time came to get the parental signature my Dad wouldn't sign it. I understand his reasons but at the time, being a very hormonal and slightly displaced teenage girl, it was the worst thing that had ever happened to me. I really thought it was my chance to finally go somewhere no one in my family had, and I was devastated that I couldn't. Those of you that know me well know I have an absolutely terrible memory. These are some of the very few things I remember vividly from my childhood.

Over the years through out the rest of high school and college I still always thought of traveling. I'd see so many of my friends do it and they said it was so simple once they made the decision to go; but I always had a reason not to. I thought I would go after I graduated from BCIT, but I was offered a great job the day of my graduation, and I intrinsically am far to practical of a person to turn down an opportunity like that. And that was the story up until last year - Other good things always came along and stopped me from planning anything. But part of me knew that this was something I needed to do, and if I didn't I would always dream of the 'what if'.

It's really great to have someone in your life who pushes you to break free of the boundaries you set for yourself. We all have reasons for setting these in the first place; the way you were brought up perhaps, or to protect yourself. But without Justin I can say that it is highly likely I would not have done this trip. And I am so grateful for him. Sometimes you have an idea and a plan, and nothing comes of it - not unlike all the years I dreamed of traveling and it didn't work out. And other times things just start rolling and you can't even pinpoint why this time is different. That's what happened to me last year, and before I knew it I had quit my job and packed my life into a suitcase. Facing the results of this decision now that I am home are a bit daunting, but I will never regret it, and I am an improved person for it. I am more myself now. More of who I always knew I was.

Living in London and traveling was of course amazing. All the sites and touristic things are just as you imagine they will be when you watch travel programs on TV and look at pictures from your friend's vacations. But this past year was so much more than learning how people in the UK live, and getting stamps in a passport. It was about proving I could do all the things I dreamed of, and I could come back home a better version of myself for it. Removing myself from my normal routine and familiar surroundings has taught me what my strengths and weaknesses are, and what I need to do to be a better person.

I hope that I can apply what I have discovered through out the rest of my life. I hope I don't every let myself get consumed by the bubble we so often find ourselves suffocated by. I don't think I need to keep living abroad to remember these lessons, I just think I need to keep the broader perspective I have gained and apply it to wherever I am. I'm very happy to be home and close to those that I love, and I feel privileged to have so many people in my life who care about me as much as I do them.

I look forward to seeing you all before we head to Edmonton for our next year long adventure.

Gen