Japan was very excellent. Solar eclipse was celestial wonder. That's all kind of overshadowed by the fact that, after 9 months away, goddamn it's good to be home.

Seeing and speaking to my friends and family has been amazing. I've started the slow process of spending time and catching up with the many people that I've missed. Some relationships are different - some stronger, some not - but it's by far mostly been happy and easy and very lifting. It was great to see Dimi after a year apart. Our friendship has strengthened over this time, despite some serious bumps in the first few months, and I'm looking forward to discovering where this takes us.

I stayed with my parents for this first week and moved in with Brynley & Kenji this weekend - I am surrounded by boxes as we await Kenj's return from Japan so we can switch around rooms and I can UNPACK and mmmmm, settle. New house is win. Good friends. Good vibe. Phenomenal musics. Cosy. Close to work. Closer to the city than I've ever lived. I like it :) which is good because I plan on living here for a while.

I applied for a job at the Melbourne Children's Sleep Unit before I came home (when it became clear that there wouldn't be many shifts spare at my work) and had my interview on Friday. I was stoked to see they had a vacancy because I've been wanting to work there for a while - moving into paediatrics not only helps with my plan to eventually move into child psych, but also means new clinical experiences and ongoing learning and professional development. And I got the job! Yay for advancing my career! Just one set-up shift a week to start with, but there are some day hours (a coveted thing in the sleep industry) coming up on a maternity cover position that they've asked me to apply for too. Which is very encouraging. I'm a little nervous about starting, but mostly excited. In the meantime, it turns out there's actually tonnes of day work at my job so I'm staring down the barrel of two weeks of full time work - very odd after 3.5 months of holidaying. I'm glad there's a week at Buller shining at the end of that tunnel.

:) this track reminds me of sunrise on the day of the solar eclipse. Me and Pete playing with the waves and then standing waist-deep in the clear, warm tropical ocean watching the sky gradually lighten and sparkle. A great start to an excellent morning at the beach stage listening and dancing to beautiful IDM and drinking sake with good friends. The music is turned off for the mid 2hrs of the eclipse - it's cloudy but you can still see the sun gradually shrinking, shrinking, until it disappears. The sky looks dawn-like, but lit from above instead of below - white clouds painted on a darkened sky. The crowd cheers when the sun reappears. And during my swim just after the sea was still as a pond, with the tide and waves only resuming a few minutes later. The walk back to camp takes us past the mainstage which is playing Dayvan Cowboy by Boards Of Canada. Was a good day.

I've discovered that the secret to not accidentally leaving things behind while travelling is to intentionally leave something behind whenever I leave somewhere. It seems to appease the gods.

...how I spend my time when it's raining...

It looks so pretty all laid out like that.

WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER HIRE A CAR IN FRANCE
By Bronwyn Stevens


It's a hassle.

Getting the car is a hassle. The web reservation will give you the wrong address. You will end up walking one hour (which is definitely not 15min, as the receptionist at the first place you went to suggested in broken English) in a massive storm. The last half of the walk is spent worrying if the rental place will still be open when you (eventually) arrive. You will arrive literally wringing wet.

Driving the car is a hassle. This is more than the obvious getting used to driving on the right (yes, roundabouts are tricky and entrances to parking lots are on the wrong side). The car is (also obviously) left-hand drive, so you have to think about lane position constantly (less obvious). The roads are old, narrow and meander in no discernible pattern. Your maps only cover the centre of town and the main roads outside of town, which makes navigating from the main roads to town a game of luck and nerve. And the french seem to have spent half their signage and traffic light budgets on chocolate bread... I believe signs should indicate more than the eventual destination of a road (especially when six different roads go to this location), and that they should be able to be read from distances greater than 2m. I also believe that you should be able to see traffic lights when you're stopped at the front of traffic lights - having them next to you is not helpful.

Returning the car is a hassle. It needs a full fuel tank, but it's diesel (which you will realise when you initially stop to fill the tank). You will then go to the rental place for directions to a petrol station that actually has diesel, and an hour of attempting to find either place "down the road" that were indicated to you will ensue - please re-note all the above hassles involved with driving the car at this point. When you return to the rental place you will find that, like most of France, it is closed from 12-2pm and you now need to wait 1hr 50min for the man to come back to work after his 2hr luxurious lunch-break. This will at least give you time to go look at the 12m high replica of the Statue Of Liberty that is on a nearby roundabout.

In fact, the only hassle free experience I had driving in France, all quickly and kindly sorted out with minimum fuss, was when I side-swiped a bus.




The Ultimae Records gig I rented the car to get to was really really REALLY good though. Incredible even. Driving back from it through the Alsace countryside at dawn was also pretty amazing - old church spires framed in pink light and tiny towns nestled in gently glowing valleys... As was the afternoon I spent driving through the very green Vosges Mountains. But it is very very nice to be back in Cambridge with my family.

The past month been crazy busy lots of moving around awesome.

Manchester for JMJ (epic - though i missed the first quarter cause my bus took 2.5hrs longer than it should've), UAF festival in Austria with Rich and Katie (more epic), Vienna, boat trip down the Danube River, Visegrad (tiny town in Hungary on the Danube), Budapest (wow - eastern european adventuring will have to be done some day), Italy (Venice and some surrounding towns with family friends - felt like visiting extended family, was really lovely), Paris, a week on the beach at Katie and Joost's surf-camp in Moliets (south France), and now i'm in Amsterdam!Went to Awakenings on Saturday - mmmmm, techno... And have been meeting lots of friends of friends - Dutchie's friend Jasper in Leiden (funny day being dinked around over canals while slightly wasted), Katie's friend Minouk at Awakenings (dutch girls like HARD music), and tonight i'm catching up with Dimi's friend Dani in Utrecht.

Only one month til i'm on my plane home! Heading out to Colmar (north France) tomorrow for the Solar Fields gig, then a bit of UK action, then JAPAN (which is finally taking shape, think we've got most of the important stuff sorted) - will be spending most of my time on Amami Oshima (tropical island, psy-trance, solar eclipse, drool), with a few days in Tokyo to begin with and a few days in Kyoto to finish with. Will be amazing.

Yay for european summer!! My first warm weather since early 2008. My thermostat has been completely reset by the canadian winter though - i now find 27deg super hot. I'm going to die next australian summer.

I've been really enjoying my trip, but don't think i will be travelling like this again. Longer stops, yes. Or short trips from a home base, yes. Or van-trip around europe for summer festivals - i can dream... :) But being constantly on the move is super exhausting for me. But, that said, wonder how long after I get home til I start getting the travel itch?

It's nice having some plans for when i get back - stay with my parents, move in with Bryn & Kenj, buller trip with my dad & Rich, work, counselling training, some kind of paediatric clinical experience etc... I feel like the past year or so has been a bit of (very enjoyable and eye-opening and personally-strengthening) limbo and i'm looking forward to DOING again. And i'm feeling inspired so i'm looking forward to seeing what i create when i have the facilities to do so.

Mmmmmm - Melbourne. Can't wait to be back.

I've been on the move a lot in the month since i left lake louise (as the endless photos on facebook might indicate). At the moment i'm catching my breath at my family's place in cambridge - yesterday i didn't have to go anywhere, do anything, worry about anything, talk to anyone i didn't know... it was relaxing. And today i just walked into town in the lovely spring sunshine to buy groceries. Ah, normality. I haven't been able to walk to a decently stocked supermarket and come back to a normal home environment since october, and i liked it.

My month has been pretty packed...
( ...so there was lots to write about... )
...and i got into cambridge on sunday evening!

I'm currently scheming and planning my next 2 months. Booking flights. Buying tickets. Researching transport and accommodation. Talking with people i'm meeting up with with. Thankfully my family isn't very demanding because i need this time to sort my everything out. And thankfully they have excellent internet :)

I'm off to manchester on saturday morning, seeing jean michel jarre that night :D Then back to london for tuesday night. And off to austria on wednesday!! Looking forward to catching up with rich, looking forward to the MUSIC, looking forward to exploring vienna and budapest with katie. Got a trip to NE Italy to stay with a family friend locked in after that (ooooh - i'm going to venice!), then 2 weeks in france that isn't fully planned yet (but will include 4 or 5 days in paris), then to amsterdam for awakenings festival, maybe popping down to utrecht afterwards. then i head back to france, out east near strasbourg, to see solar fields/aes dana/huva network. back to cambridge to see the family that isn't here right now. back to london to hang out with ksana more. then japan! phew. i'm glad japan is a group effort - kenji, pete and packer are being amazing in organising things, which takes some pressure off. i'm also glad that google translate exists. and i continue to wish i could speak another language - i think i will have to remedy this when i get home.

Home in 10 weeks :) lots to live before then, but it's a warming thought that makes me smile.

In the past few days i've seen Shift, eaten bread, and basked in 29deg weather. I like Montreal.

Reading over my last post it's cool to see that i've done the things i wanted to do during the end of my time in lake louise :)

( Skiing, visiting Kim in Whistler, Rach visiting, Vibrasphere in Calgary, other ski resorts, hiking the local area... )

The mood here picked up in late Feb when it FINALLY started snowing again for the first time since early Jan. Having good snow, in combination with longer days and warmer weather (overall - we still had a few -30deg cold snaps) has made everyone much happier to be here. Being able to get a few first track runs in on fresh powder before work definitely makes me a happier Bronwyn :) these have been some of my best "oh, that's why i'm in canada!" moments.

I'm now sad to be leaving. These last two months have been great! A lot of that is due to the friends i've really gotten to know over this last little while - there are some excellent women that i intend on keeping for a long time and will be seeing again soon: Katie in Austria for UAF festival and a week of travelling around that part of europe and then back in melbs, Kaz in London at the start and end of my european adventures (oddly she knows russ, and her best friend went to my high school but was the year below me) and in melbs whenever she heads home, Jess is coming down to melb for a month in oct for my birthday and spring racing carnival, Little Jess is trekking around canada for a while but when she's home we're hitting up byron for some doofing adventures, and not sure when Liz will be back in aus... Our regular wine-fuelled estrogen-fests have been a highlight of this time. And there is still so much i could do here - years of exploring, hiking, snow-shoeing, cross-country skiing, telemarking... i love living in the mountains and the amazing-ness of Banff National Park. Waking up to not beatiful tranquility is going to take some getting used to. And the rest of Canada (which is so so goddamn big) calls me - Vancouver Island, Nova Scotia, the Yukon... but it's good to be hitting the road and moving on.

I'm looking forward to FOOD - lamb, bron-friendly bread (i haven't eaten bread in nearly 6 months), dairy & soy free butter, non-preservative/filler filled everything (fucking even cornflakes here contain gluten, not goddamn fair), easy access to fresh produce, good coffee, good coffee, good coffee (this is what 6 months of working at starbucks will do to you). I'm looking forward to returning to a mentally stimulating job, and not dealing with people en masse anymore.  I'm looking forward to not living with 150 other people and cleaning up after trashed 18 year olds. I'm looking forward to new places and new faces, and then home and my wondeful people.

I leave here in a week and it feels like i'm leaving for home. ...just taking the very very very scenic route. See you kids in not too long :) xo


ps: my collection of retarded drink orders, just for posterity's sake: - cappucino without foam (so coffee with milk then?), cappucino without milk (that's just half a litre of foam darling...), cappucino with whipped cream (i just don't get this one), all the half caff half fat no foam extra hot sugar-free dopio hazelnut etc bullshit bullshit bullshit (just accept you drink vaguely flavoured hot milk and move on), straight up black nothing fancy good old fashioned drip coffee (there's a singular word for that - it's "coffee") and my absolute favourite, a latte with room for milk (what did she think we put in it?).

Ummm... chronological might work best...

* I moved apartments and into my own room. Yay! Love my new place and new housemates, and love having my own space. Really been feeling more settled since the move, partly because of the people i moved in with and partly just cause although i still live in a shoebox it's MY shoebox.
* POWDER DAYS - Jan 7 & 8 brought 45cm+ of beautiful fresh powder. I had an amazing two days riding on the best snow of my life. And on the first powder day the hill was almost empty, so there were no crowds to deal with. It was unbelievable. People were getting to the bottom of runs and screaming with joy :)
* Then the following week i got super super sick, the sickest i remember being. It coincided with a celebrity weekend where i was supposed to be serving at the celebrity lunch, but when i realised i was kneeling and holding myself up against a table while i was polishing an urn cause i couldn't stand i thought i should probably just skip work and go home. At my worst i slept for 24hrs straight - would wake up, roll over, think "that was tiring" and go back to sleep. It wasn't fun. That was a month ago and i'd say i'm only now 100% better.
* Kim visited for a few days :) which was so excellent, so good to see a familiar face, relax in the company of a good friend and tourist it up. Going out for dinner. Ice-skating on the lake. Hot tubs. Cruisng the mountain. A great few days.
* People have been leaving. Lots of people. Including a good friend Sean, and my excellent housemate Kev. Both of which were sad and unfortunately conincided so some of my key people disappeared simultaneously.
* Australia Day was a crazy drunken party since the staff is probably 50%+ Australian. But it just made me miss home lots cause i knew i was missing Rainbow. Had fun on a 3 day bender though.
* I've worked up at the on-hill kids' lodge the past two weekends - got paid to ride to and from work, got out of Ten Peaks lodge, and got to avoid the stupid crazy weekend busy, so it's been all kinds of goodness.
* Spent a couple of days at Fernie Ski Resort (in BC)! It snowed the first morning we were there - the first decent snowfall i've experienced since the powder days. I'd forgotten how good it is to ride on snow, rather than crusty crunchy crap and ice.  Plus, it is NOT Lake Louise. There aren't really words for how excellent it was spending time NOT in Lake Louise. It is beautiful here, and there are some great people. But i am not a small town girl and the cabin fever can get pretty bad. And not just me, so many people are getting frustrated by our isolation. So the trip to Fernie was, in a word, good.
* And Jess moved in tonight, taking over Kev's room. Love the girl, so should be great.

The countdown to leaving Lake Louise has begun! Eight weeks to go! These are going to be pretty busy weeks - i want to try skiing again (for the first time in around 8 years... it should be interesting), i'm going to visit Kim in Whistler (four whole days of holiday, again NOT in Lake Louise), Vibrasphere is playing in Calgary (this will be my first gig since i arrived in Canada and i am so pumped and so excited), i want to get out to some other ski resorts like Revelstoke and Kicking Horse, and i'm keen to hike around the local area some more.

I've also been planning out the 3.5 months of travel that are rapidly approaching. I've been toying with the idea of coming back to Canada for a few months after Japan (there are some excellent looking festivals, and the idea of having two consecutive summers after these two consecutive winters appeals to me), but my budget to do so is looking pretty dismal... I'm thinking that when i leave i'll head off to Edmonton to visit a friend i met in Kenya, then brave the 2.5 day bus ride to get me out to the east coast. Maybe stopping somewhere along the way. Planning on spending nearly 2 weeks in Montreal (hoping to catch a Shift gig and an Extrawelt gig while i'm there), including a brief trip up to Quebec City, then head down to Toronto and Niagara Falls. Then it's off to New York for 5 days, then Reykjavik for 5 days, then Europe for 2 months... which is still being figured out... then Japan... then Melbourne :)

Reading about the fires has been very surreal. Finding out that someone from work (work in Melbourne that is) died defending their house was... intense. Been thinking about it heaps, and people have been seeing that i'm from Melbourne on my nametag and talking about it. I don't think the enormity of it all will sink in until i'm home and i see the scars that this event has left on my home.

Love and light to all xo

I've been hiding a bit. Still. Getting out and about more though. Enjoying developing friendships and still meeting new people. Working full-time sucks though. Been a long time since i've done it and it's reminded me of why i don't like it. Much prefer shift-work cause it means i can have extra time off during the days. Four 10hr days? Lovely. Five 8hr days? Get fucked.

Since i last attempted to post i've... survived a week and a half of -30deg temperatures (with no riding cause there was no way in fuck i was going out in that). Survived work during the stupidly busy christmas holidays (well, there's one day to go... but i've got my fingers crossed). Survived christmas - cooked up an awesome dinner for my housemates, drank some rum & soy-nog, drank some rum & hot chocolate, then crashed another house's christmas dinner for a second feed (they were eating late cause snow-makers don't finish work until 10pm) and drinking games (involving rum). Survived a hike up to and on a frozen over Lake Louise in the snow. Survived a hell-trashy new years eve and then work on new years day on no sleep . Well, christmas, the hike and new years were lots of fun so it wasn't so much "survived" as "enjoyed" :) Although i missed everyone - nothing like the holidays to make you feel every km you are away from people you love. And i'm (just) surviving a detox me and Charlie started on Jan 2 - no caffeine, no sugar, no dairy (and a few other things that don't hurt nearly as much on a day to day basis). Damn Charlie selecting Jan 2 to start. Caffeine withdrawal is just what you want to be dealing with when you're recovering from NYs and attempting to perform customer service. Also, surviving the steady ebb and flow of staff - lots of new staff arrived just before christmas, and staff are always leaving, getting fired or running out of work (like snow-makers). And surviving working in ten peaks lodge with no word as to whether i get to move to the back-side lodge, but i'm keeping my fingers crossed.

And i'm coming up to another weekend! Got some plans to go riding (again, it's a hard life) - hit some amazing amazing powder last week (hiking across eagle ridge with Mick in the howling gale was worth it, the snow was so deep and fluffy i fell on my arse at the end of the run and got stuck, buried from my armpits to my knees) and i'm hoping for some more snow so i can repeat the experience as my confidence is slowly coming back after... god knows what... ate it all and i'm emerging from a period of riding like shit. Sean is coming back from his christmas holiday in a few days and we're planning to head to the hot springs in jasper, which should be wicked. And i'm getting my own room!!! After 2 months of sharing a tiny tiny room, i'm moving into a single room!!!! It's slightly more expensive, but meh. And it's in a different apartment, but by a fluke it's in Charlie's apartment and i've been hanging out there anyway so it's already my 2nd home. Yay! Sad to leave my current house... but it's a SINGLE room. With no snoring. And personal space!

2009, going ok :)

I've been in a grump of claustrophia for the past few days. Being crazy busy at work due the world cup (dear god people get grumpy if their venti 5 shot caramel machiatto takes longer than 5min to construct, bearing in mind this is over 0.5L of steamed milk and the machine only does 1L of milk and 2 shots of coffee at a time) and having my house fumigated for bedbugs (on my day off, so i had to be out of the house instead of in bed where i wanted to be) didn't help either. ...work/live/party with a huge group of people that all know you (but not well), bad pubs with bad music and a never ending flow of drinking and drunks, no personal space, small town with almost zero recreational activities in the evenings, paper-thin walls, spending recreational time AT work... but the grump is lifting :)

Having the beautiful rocky mountains as the constant background to everything you do helps - the tips were pink this morning during sunrise. Sequestering myself away for a day in bed reading (Into The Wild, great read interesting due to my current location and from general biographical, literary and psychological perspectives) also helped - think I had the house all to myself for THREE CONSECUTIVE HOURS. Also cutting down my coffee and alcohol and sugar intake has probably helped. As did random conversations with a variety of excellent people at home and here throughout yesterday. Today brought two big things to smile about: 1) my work now stocks chai and green teas that i can drink for free, and 2) a friend of mine had an extra microwave that she has donated to my house, so we now have a microwave and we can heat leftovers. (it doesn't take much to make me happy).

Also, today i learned that if it's cold enough the inside of your nose will freeze. And cold enough is about -20deg. It feels really odd. This is what you learn when the building where you live has a fire drill a few hours after dark and you have to stand around outside for nearly 30min.

Lastly. To everyone that's about to head off to India. Have a motherfucking ball!! Safe and happy travels to each and every one of you xo

Had an excellent two days off. Mostly spent boarding. Got up to the top of the mountain and out on the backside, thanks to courtney's encouragement. Don't know if I'd have had the guts to ride the evil pommer to the top of Summit without it (410m rise and 1119m long, tows you almost horizontally at one point as well as over big ridges and bumps - whore whore whore). I normally avoid pommers and t-bars like the plague. Hate them. But, the views... goodness. I took so long getting back yesterday afternoon that I was still up on top of the mountain when the sun dipped down below the ranges - gorgeous. Would have been awesome to have my camera, but sometimes it's just nice to stand and appreciate it, you know?

There isn't enough natural cover around so there was a fair bit of hiking to avoid rocks (and a few knicks in my brand new baby due to the ones i didn't manage to avoid). But it was worth it. Foot deep powder. I've never been on anything like it!!! I can't ride it yet, my nose kept sinking in and i'd flip over laughing in a giant *POOF* of freezing cold that got in under my jacket's powder skirt and down my pants... but Ange, my canadian housemate, tells me to keep my weight back and i should be sweet. Hoping to hit it again next week. With hopefully more success. And hopefully more snow. Also did a few runs of straight switch (on intermediate groomed runs, not foot deep powder) which was pretty fantastic for my ego. Still building up the guts to try tricks.

In non-snowboarding news... the supervisor that runs the lodge on the backside of the hill (drunkenly) told me he wants me to work up there once it opens. Hell YES! Going to wait to see if it eventuates before getting really excited, but was a nice cherry on top of a good weekend. 9am-4pm days. Ride to work. Ride home. Sounds heavenly. Also had a sauna and hot tub down at the lake louise inn over my weekend - mmmm, it was warm... nice change to the -20deg it was today. We also now have our 7th and final housemate - angus the liftie from adelaide. So far, somehow, we all fit without driving each other crazy.

And then back to work! The world cup starts tomorrow so it's bound to be pretty busy. Early day tomorrow, which should mean squeezing in a few runs after my shift :)

1. Every third ad on canadian TV is for a sandwich. Seriously! Every. Third. Ad. And they're for different sandwiches. How many cheap, fast-food sandwiches does this country need? My favourite is the Wendy's Double Stack for 99c. I can only imagine the gastrointestinal horror waiting for whoever eats these.

2. Danger Can - the drinking game. Take a beer can. Shake vigorously while yelling DANGER CAN! DANGER CAN! DANGER CAN! Smack beer can into forehead as hard as possible. Pass beer can to the next young scottish guy. Repeat. Whichever young scottsman that splits the beer can open on his head has to scull it.

:D

...

:D

Good to be out on the canadian snow. Only one run open, but it's like 2km long so that's ok. Not too busy cause it's mid-week. Riding with my housemate, Angie. Getting to know people not in my department out on the slopes. So, in summary, day made of win! Got to do what I came here to do. FINALLY. On a rental board for the morning - like riding a surfboard, so chunky and stiff, but needed to be out riding today so there you go. And on my housemate's little poppy 148cm board in the arvo - much more enjoyable, lots of fun. Heading to Banff tomorrow for some  board shopping :) ...and to buy much needed groceries. That too. And maybe a steak lunch :)

Photos - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=69407&l=9d084&id=722564046

So I've been here about 2wks now. NO SNOWBOARDING YET!! Working at a ski field, watching other people ride...  ugh - driving me crazy. I spent my 2 days off sick in bed, but my weekend is rocking around again so I'm planning to hit the slopes on Tuesday. And the snow is dumping down :) Can't wait!

I'm working in Food & Beverage at http://www.skilouise.com - just in the resort cafeteria (Ten Peaks) at the moment. Cashier. Bussing. Stocking. It's highly exciting and stimulating work. I also work in the, ahem, Starbucks they have there. That's right! I peddle their filth with a smile. I kinda like frothing milk though. Hoping to work in the cafes up on the mountain as they start opening up as the season progresses. In the meantime, at least the view is incredibly awesome. And being in the cafe means seeing lots of people everyday as, thanks to the 40% discount we get, it's the cheapest place for staff to eat in the area. Pity I can't eat any of the goddamn food.

I'm living in the Charleston Staff Residence in Lake Louise Village. In a mini apartment with 5 other people who all work on the mountain - two girls from Brisbane (one that I share a room with), a guy from Safety Beach, a guy from Quebec and another chick from Calgary. We still have an empty room too. Disturbing. Interested to see who will end up squished in with us.

It's a big party here. Always. There are probably 150+ people in chucktown, mostly around 20 years old, with very limited responsibilities, in a very small town where the only thing that is sold without a 1,000,000% mark up is alcohol. Combine that with no internet for the past week (some douche downloaded a virus with their porn, it started spamming the whole network, the ISP cracked it and IT had to redo our connection, sigh) and, as you can imagine, my liver is being trained well.

And that's pretty much me for the past little while! Work. Sickness. Drinking. Making new friends. Hankering for snowboarding.

Gloating about snow to follow once I actually get out on the snow.

I've popped some photos up on facebook. Sitting around drinking with a friend right now who is getting grumpy about my computer use (FUCK OFF ALEX - stop putting on caps lock), BUT i'll post aGAIN soon :)

I seem to leave something in every city I visit. And this time it's my goddamn watch!! Not happy :(

That'll teach me for getting drunk and putting it in a "special place" as I crawl into bed. Was hoping it would turn up as I packed up, but no. No sign. Sigh.

I'm in Canada! :D

The first few days have been pretty uneventful though. Mainly due to needing a stupid amount of sleep following a crazy pre-departure week filled with as much packing, working and seeing people as humanly possible (and only about 25hrs sleep), detoxing from the stupid amount of caffeine I drank during that week, jet-lag, and the hangover I gave myself after drinking a whole bottle of red on my first night here. Has given me an opportunity to sit and read though - I've been happily burning my way through Stranger In A Strange Land (my brain now tells me I 'grok'... or don't, and that things will come to be when the waiting is complete, thanks brain). And I've had time to go to yoga... mmm, bikram... I've missed you. Nothing like it to work out the stress and tension of leaving home and make you feel grounded in a new city.

I'm staying downtown. Lots of homeless. Lots of XXX stores. Big shopping strip round the corner though - odd. I like wandering around and looking down roads to see either the bay, mountains, or forest (which is currently red as it's autumn) peeking back up at me from in between the tall city buildings. And looking up to see the vibrant colours of the maple (?) trees that line most streets. Photos when I can be bothered plugging my camera into my computer.

Today I actually got out and about properly. Got my tax number. Set up a bank account. Wandered through chinatown and grabbed some lunch (I only found about three restaurants... which doesn't seem right to me, but there were an incredible amount of shops selling mounds of dried everything from whole fish, to oysters, to mushrooms, to mounds of stuff that smelled funky and that i have no idea what they could possibly be). Walked across Granville Bridge down to the Granville Public Market and got some sushi for dinner, had one of the most amazing cups of chai ever, bought myself a fossilised mammoth tusk ring present, marvelled at the view from the bridge into the sunset and across the bay to the mountains. Vancouver is absolutely beautiful. My ipod decided to play one of the Faranheit Project comps (amazing ambient psy) while I was wandering back home... definitely added to the experience.

Tomorrow night I join a tour that will get me to Banff on Friday. Then I sign on for my job at Lake Louise on Saturday. Then I start work on Monday. So very glad I've had a little holiday before then, some time to do nothing. It's been excellent.

Oh, and Russ was right, candied salmon is delicious.

My tickets are booked and paid for! Finally! I leave one month from today!

( ...queue a day spent doing very little work but lots of daydreaming... )