oh dear

I'm back in the valley, and I'm not sure how this summer is going to go. Part of me thinks it might turn out to be fantastic, but a much larger part is already worried. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. There's so much I need to do, even just to get settled.

I'm going downtown tomorrow to buy some white paint. Gonna paint the walls of my room white - a literal tabula rasa - and then I'm going to start fresh. I'm going to de-clutter my room while I'm at it (seems a good time to do it), and get rid of all the stuff I never use.

'Stuff' is such an appropriate word...because that's what it is, just stuff. All those things that you never use, but never throw away, they just sit and sit and sit...until one day (if you're me...which you aren't but oh well), you just get sick of it all and you give it all away.

So all the junk will be gone from my room. And my walls will be ready for green. And I'll feel like it's a new beginning and a new room, and that will be very helpful in getting me through this time at home. I miss my old house already.

Summer 2004

I spent a week in Barcelona a couple years back. I'll add more photos to this post later (hooray for the power of editing), but I just wanted to post something, so here it is. Me, soaking wet, at the Barcelona World Forum.

What's the Barcelona World Forum? It was this giant forum (more like a festival, really) that took place in Barcelona in 2004. The topics were peace, cultural diversity, and environmental sustainability. I was invited to attend after some folks in the USA decided they liked an essay I wrote. I didn't actually get to participate in any of the forums or anything, but I got a personal tour and a special pass.... yeah, pretty much rocked. Bed now, more 'bout this later.

I'm leaving for home on Saturday, so tomorrow is my last real day in Victoria. I'm going to miss this house, and this room, and my roommates, and my friends, and this city. I'm not particularly excited to be heading back up island... to be frank. Though I won't be missing school (I think I'm tired of education in classrooms). When I get home I'm going to paint my room. I painted it a couple years ago - bright blue and purple - I think when I get home, I'm going to paint the walls green. I love change. I crave it. Which is why even though I'm not excited to be moving home, I'm stoked to be moving. I had so much fun taking things apart in my room today, taking everything off the walls...because I know I get to have the fun of putting everything back up again when I get home (after the paint job!). Green is a good colour.

Taxis and buses, hurrah!

Taxis

2222-999,

2222-222,

2666-666,

2222-220,

2639-639,

2536-536

Bus Terminals

The main bus terminal in Quito is Terminal Terrestre or El Cumandá. Some of the larger, well-known companies are TransEsmeraldas, Transportes Ecuador, Transporte Sucre, Panamericana and Flota Imbabura.

Stole these from a fellow traveler (thanks Jason!), figured this was the best place not to lose them

Set the Fire to the Third Bar - Snow Patrol

I find the map and draw a straight line
Over rivers, farms, and state lines
The distance from 'A' to where you'd be
It's only finger-lengths that I see
I touch the place where I'd find your face
My finger in creases of distant dark places

I hang my coat up in the first bar
There is no peace that I've found so far
The laughter penetrates my silence
As drunken men find flaws in science

Their words mostly noises
Ghosts with just voices
Your words in my memory
Are like music to me

I'm miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
I, I pray that something picks me up
And sets me down in your warm arms

After I have travelled so far
We'd set the fire to the third bar
We'd share each other like an island
Until exhausted, close our eyelids
And dreaming, pick up from
The last place we left off
Your soft skin is weeping
A joy you can't keep in

I'm miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
And I, I pray that something picks me up
and sets me down in your warm arms

I'm miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
and I, I pray that something picks me up
and sets me down in your warm arms

Just blame the Christians

I read this for Environmental Studies, and it was incredibly interesting. I have my own beef with Christianity and organized religion in general - but even if I didn't, I think I still would have found this article enlightening and intriguing. Gotta take it with a grain of salt, but White isn't wrong. There just may be more to the story.

The Historical Roots to our Ecological Crisis

note: as it has come to my attention that people may actually be reading this blog, I just want to say I'm not bashing Christianity. Read the article. It's interesting, and it's not bashing Christians either... it's about how early Christianity was based on an anthropocentric view of the world, and how Christian values are so deeply ingrained into western technology and science (which dominates throughout the world), that we will not be able to resolve our ecological crisis until we entirely reevaluate our core values, and thus our position on the environment. That's all. Well, there's more to it, but that's the gist.

on the edge of summer

It's almost that time of year again. Tomorrow I'm going to start packing up my room, and I'm ecstatic and also incredibly sad at the same time. The happiness stems from the fact that I hate being in one place for too long, and so I'm excited to pack up my room and move somewhere new. But I'm also well aware that I'm not moving somewhere new, I'm going back home, to my old room... and that's not exactly exciting. But I've decided I can live with it, as long as I paint my walls this summer. I think it will be enough of a change - and maybe if I move all the furniture around too - that I'll last until next January. Or at least September.

When i get home, I'll be going back to my old high school to get the kids involved in this amazing project started by a girl not much older than myself The Mosqoy Foundation

I might get the chance to work with them while I'm in Peru, or at least meet some of the students involved, who are lucky enough to receive the scholarships this organization provides.

At least it's not a hummer

I had my mom convinced. She was going to buy a Prius. I was all set to be proud of my environmentally-conscious mother. But then Toyota decided (I guess, I don't know if there was any conscious decision making going on!) that in this most expensive, state-of-the-art hybrid vehicle, they weren't going to bother giving the driver's seat the ability to move up and down. Back and forth - no problem! But not up and down. It was a deal breaker (god knows why), and now the new family car will probably be a Honda CRV - an SUV (which, you know, is pretty much the polar opposite of a hybrid, even if it's probably no worse than the boat we drive now (ford mercury sable...ugh...what an awful car!)). When I have enough money to afford a brand new car, I won't waste it on a gas guzzler. Then again, by the time I can afford to buy a brand new car, the environment will be so far gone that maybe it won't matter.

Some pictures of me and my best friend Lucy snowboarding this winter at Mt. Washington. Just a bunch of photos of us being goofs on the chairlift...

Me

I want to get a tattoo. I've wanted a tattoo for a long time, almost since I became an independent person with thoughts of her own.

So, around grade 10 or 11.

[rant begins...]
I mean, I had thoughts before that, but I don't think I was much of a unique individual. Not that I think I'm so different from everyone else. I hate people who think they're so different and alternative, because they're not. They're just like everyone else who thinks they're "different" which makes them all the same. I hate people who think they're oh so rebellious because of the music they listen to or the way they dress. Most of the time they just look like idiots, and they're just acting like everyone else anyways. A different "everyone else" than the people that were "everyone else" before, but it's all the same. I simply believe that I can think for myself now, and am intelligent enough to form my own opinions and thoughts about the world, etc, etc.
[....rant over]

I'm going to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro before I'm 40. It would be hard, but certainly not impossible. I'm giving myself a fair bit of time to get in shape, hahaha!

I obviously stole this bottom photo from someone, I would post a picture of the main summit, but I couldn't find any without someone standing proudly by the sign. I don't know what they'd think if they saw their pic on a random blog, but I didn't want to risk it. I'd take so many pictures at all stages of the trek. Awesome.

Okay, so I like posting photos of places I want to go. But someday (next year!) I'll have a million photos of my own. I'm especially looking forward to the one where I'm rescuing a baby sea turtle. I totally want to do that while I'm down in South America. Just cause they're adorable. I'm such a girl!

The roof of the Secret Garden Hostel in Quito, where I'll be staying (with any luck!)

the planning continues...

(and I'll probably change my mind a million times along the way, and keep planning and changing right up until the day before I leave...which isn't for a long long while)

Canada --> Ecuador --> Peru --> Chile --> Canada

Places I want to go/see (with illustrations!)
(not in any rank or order)

1. Machu Picchu
2. The Galapagos Islands


The Nazca Lines:
Okay, so these are some of the few more "tourist-y" ideas I have for my trip, that I'm willing to splurge on. Hooray. I'd also like to take a trip out to Easter Island, and obviously a MILLION other things, but I'll keep adding them as I go. This is enough for today.

Planning my trip

Things are starting to come together on the planning of my first solo adventure - actually, it's pretty much my first adventure, period. But the first of many, and I'm incredibly excited for it all. I know things will go wrong, but I also think a lot of things are going to go amazingly well and it will be yet another life changing experience. I can't wait.

My plan so far is to leave pretty much right after Christmas, I think maybe Jan 2nd... but I guess it all depends on flights. I'm going to fly to Quito, the capital of Ecuador, where I'll be staying for at least a month. I'm going to stay at The Secret Garden hostel (http://www.secretgardenquito.com/), and hopefully get a volunteer gig there (you can work for them, and stay for free!!!).

While there, I'm going to be learning Spanish (offered as part of the volunteer gig), and hopefully also doing some volunteer work with children. I may be in Ecuador for 2 or 3 months, I'm not sure yet... but from there, I'm going to do some traveling around Central or South America, probably for the last month of my stay - probably Peru and Chile, traveling along the Pacific coast, or in the opposite direction up through Central America, maybe Panama and Guatemala.


I'll be returning to Canada at the end of April, so that I won't miss my best friend's wedding, or my sister's graduation. And then I guess I'll be heading back to school, but we'll see.

unwritten goals: write something on here at least once a day, keep self sane, listen to more music from the nineties. awesome.

"baby when you're gone, I realize I'm in love. Days go on and on, and the nights just seem so long. Even food don't taste that good, drinking doing what it should. Things just feel so wrong, baby when you're gone"

listen to Bryan Adams again, CHECK

Attempting to write a research report. Not doing so good. Went to starbucks instead. Chai frappes are delicious, but I have quite possibly reached chai overload. Maybe a venti is too much frappe. The human body just cannot handle that much frappe.

My playlist is set to AWESOME right now, but actually shuffle, but it keeps coming up GOLD!

When I go to South America, this is going to become my travel diary.

I need to buy a digital camera. That is what I'm going to spend my first paycheck on when I get home and get a job.

60 things

An extended life-long list of goals (some less realistic than others), inspired by The Buried Life, and because I like lists:

(in no particular order, as always)

1. Live in Barcelona
2. Own a scooter and ride it through the streets of Barcelona (see 1)
3. Volunteer in an orphanage in a third world country
4. Speak Spanish fluently
5. Go skydiving
6. Have lunch with David Tennant (and ask him if his house is bigger on the inside)
7. Dance with Ellen Degeneres
8. Adopt a child
9. Backpack around Europe
10. Own a westfalia van and drive it across Canada. Start and end on a beach.
11. Stand on the Great Wall of China at sunset/sunrise (and walk it)
12. Ride on an elephant
13. Get a tattoo
14. Learn how to surf
15. See Circ du Soleil live
16. See Radiohead in concert
17. Meet Joss Whedon
18. Swim with dolphins
19. Go hiking in New Zealand
20. Climb the Grouse Grind without stopping for a break
21. Bike around Amsterdam
22. Be an extra on a movie/tv
23. Spend (at least) a week living on a sailboat out on the water
24. Kiss the blarney stone
25. Visit Stonehenge
26. Travel around South America and Central America
27. See the pyramids in Egypt up close and bring home a jar of sand
28. Fly to Philadelphia for the sole purpose of saying "gooooing to Philly!"
29. Meet the guys from the Lonely Island if only for long enough to tell them they rule
30. Walk up to Neil Patrick Harris and ask him for a high five. Tell him it will be legendary
31. Co-direct a theatrical production of Once More With Feeling with Alison.
32. Go scuba diving in some tropical place
33. Change someone's life for the better
34. Organize a concert/show
35. Throw a dart on a map and travel where it lands
36. Build a tree fort
37. Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro
38. Buy a house
39. Step foot on every continent (possibly excluding Antarctica)
40. Be a regular at a coffee place
41. Be the one to say the words "live from New York, it's Saturday Night" on SNL
42. Learn swing dance or ballroom
43. Make a documentary/video diary
44. Build an igloo in Central Park
45. Learn to drive standard
46. Play soccer again on a team
47. Feel amazing in a bikini
48. Live on a houseboat (for a summer, at least)
49. Go streaking
50. Step foot in every country (see 39)
51. Write an entire novel during NaNoWriMo
52. Go on a road trip to Coachella
53. Volunteer in a soup kitchen
54. Build a house with Habitat for Humanity
55. Get serious air off a jump and actually land it (snowboarding)
56. Kiss someone at the top of the Eiffel Tower
57. Find my soul mate
58. Ride on the back of a motorcycle
59. Be a guest lecturer at a prestigious university
60. Die happy

This song transports me back to the nineties, and listening to savage garden on my tape player. that's right, tapes. For some reason I seem to be posting a lot of random song lyrics on here, but maybe that will all change soon. When I have something real to say.


Savage Garden - I Want You

Anytime I need to see your face
I just close my eyes
And I am taken to a place where
Your crystal mind and
Magenta feelings take up shelter
In the base of my spine
Sweet like a chic a cherry cola

I don't need to try and explain
I just hold on tight
And if it happens again I might move
So slightly
To the arms and the lips and the face
Of the human cannonball
That I need to I want to

Come stand a little bit closer
Breath in and get a bit higher
You'll never know what hit you
When I get to you

Chorus

Ooh I want you
I don't know if I need you
But ooh I'd die to find out
Ooh I want you
I don't know if I need you
But ooh Id die to find out

I'm the kind of person who endorses
A deep commitment
Getting comfy getting perfect
Is what I live for
But a look then a smell of perfume
Its like I'm down on the floor
And I don't know what I'm in for

Conversation has a time and place
In the interaction of a lover and
A mate
But the time of talking
Using symbols using words
Can be likened to a deep sea diver
Who is swimming with a raincoat

Come stand a little bit closer
Breathe in and get a bit higher
You'll never know what hit you
When I get to you

Chorus

Anytime I need to see your face
I just close my eyes
And I am taken to a place where
Your crystal mind and
Magenta feelings take up shelter
In the base of my spine
Sweet like a chic a cherry cola

I don't need to try and explain
I just hold on tight
And if it happens again I might move
So slightly
To the arms and the lips and the face
Of the human cannonball
That I need to I want to

Chorus

So can we find out

I've Got A Theory - House style

Alex just sent me this, it is the best thing ever... if you know where it came from (Buffy - Once More With Feeling). I had to post it, because as I finished singing it out loud (you can't just read it in your head, I dare you to try!) I said (in a Barney-like voice) "man, this is totally going in my blog" and then I proceeded to high five myself - Neil Patrick Harris style! AWESOME. Anyways, this song is totally legendary!!!



[Chase]
I've got a theory, that he's allergic!

[House] (hitting Chase on the head with the cane)
To breathing AIR? Uh, something isn't right here.

[Foreman]
I've got a theory, House is acerbic --
'cause you're repeating dumb ideas that don't help here.

[House]
I've got a theory we should solve this case...
Or else I'll throw these whiteboard markers right in your face.

[Chase]
Could be the girlfriend!
His evil girlfriend!

(glare from Cameron)

--Which is ridiculous
Relationships are happy flowers
perfect love that never dies
And Cameron's scary, I'll be over here. (sulks to coffee maker)

[Cameron]
...I've got a theory, it's vasculitis.

(long pause)

[Foreman] (Rolling eyes)
I've got a--

[Cameron] (standing on the table)
Vasculitis isn't nice like everyone supposes!
It inflames capillaries, even in your noses!
It messes up your organs...
Why do we need to do more testing anyway?!
Ducklings, ducklings -- it's vasculitiiiiiis!

(crickets; Cameron hops off table, chagrined)

[Wilson] (walking in)
...or maybe cancer?

[Foreman] (pacing)
I've got a theory we should treat this fast...

[Foreman, Chase] (pacing together)
Because if we don't solve it in time, he may not last.

[Chase]
I've got a theory--

[House]
It doesn't matter...
What can we do if it's contagious?
Getting sick isn't advantageous.
In quarantine? I won't go there --
It's dull as hell, no comfy chairs.

[Everyone]
What can we do if we can't visit?
We'll get infected in a minute...

[Cameron]
I have to try, I'll pay the price!

[Foreman]
You do, you'll die!

[House]
Sounds kinda nice...

[Everyone]
We'll have to solve it on the whiteboard
Eventually, we'll hit the right chord
There's nothing we can't treat...

[Wilson] (aside, sipping coffee)
...except for cancer.

I just really like this song, is all

Lyrics to Scared by Albert Hammond Jr (awesome side project of guitarist from the Strokes)


You know that something inside of you
Still plays a part in what i do, always
I'm here for you
I think that if we were all we had
That's more than most people ever have, anyway
Oh anyway, you can stay here

I know you're still there because you're scared that you'll lose everybody
I know you're still there because you're scared that you'll lose everything
I know you're still there because you're scared

I'm here if you're scared to go through
Anything just reach out in front of you, always
Won't you stay near
So close we played it as if we cared
Don't stop now that we're almost there, anyway
Oh i'm here for you

I know you're still there because you're scared that you'll lose everybody
I know you're still there because you're scared that you'll lose everything
I know you're still there because you're scared

I know you're still there because you're scared that you'll lose everybody
I know you're still there because you're scared that you'll lose everything

I know you're still there because you're scared that you'll lose everybody
I know you're still there because you're scared that you'll lose everything

I know you're still there because you're scared that you'll lose everybody
I know you're still there because you're scared that you'll lose everything
I know you're still there because you're scared

once again proving i have no life

Sometimes even I think I watch too much TV. But for those people who don't think that quite yet, I'm here to prove you wrong by listing every single show I watch on even a semi-regular basis (not just flipping channels from time to time, mind you, but actually downloading and watching):
So here goes, in no particular order...

1. house
2. heroes
3. battlestar galactica
4. 10 items or less
5. buffy the vampire slayer
6. angel
7. studio 60 on the sunset strip
8. dexter
9. veronica mars
10. smallville
11. grey's anatomy
12. gilmore girls
13. america's next top model
14. the office (us)
15. robin hood (on the BBC)
16. the riches
17. bones
18. psych
19. the O.C.
20. Andy Barker, PI
21. arrested development
22. how i met your mother
23. Doctor Who
24. Weeds
25. Dead Like Me

I've also started watching 24, but I'm only two episodes in so I don't think it counts. Mind you, I've only seen a few episodes of 10 items or less, but that's only cause I can't find them, not because I haven't tried. It's a new series that I would recommend checking out if you like arrested development or the office. It runs along those same lines... Also, Andy Barker, PI is Andy Richter's new show which also stars Tony Hale, so.... yeah... a.d. fans once again, rejoice...or whatever.