Last days in T.O...

My time in Toronto is winding down...only two more days before I head out west!

The last couple weeks have been a bit of blurr. I bought a car (yeah baby!) and since have been driving all over the place and LOVING it. Seriously, the feeling of getting behind the wheel and knowing you can go anyplace you want is incredible. I love to roll the window down, crank the music and just drive....
(until I pay for gas, then I dont love the car as much)

My feelings are a bit mixed now that the time has come to leave Ontario. On one hand I am super excited to get on the road and start a new adventure! To be honest, Im actually surprised at how much Im looking forward to having a stable place to call home, at least for a few months. Living out of my suitcase has started getting old and I am seriously sleep deprived from crashing on couches for the last few weeks (LOL While couches can definitely substitute as a bed in the short term, Ive learned that they really are designed only for sitting). Im also looking forward to having consistent internet available: I have been haunting the public libraries and starbucks and lately have been driving around Scarborough with my laptop open looking for unsecure wireless networks (Im in my car right now actually....I think the house Im parked outside might think Im stalking them). On the other hand Im sad to be leaving my family again, esp my baby niece Madison, and leaving the friends I only just have been able to catch up with....actually I didnt get a chance to see a lot of them... :( I also have been hanging out with a few people I wish I could stick around and hang out with more...

One thing I have come to realise over the past few weeks is that, no matter where I end up, my heart will always be here in Ontario. I have never really thought of any one place as home before, but I feel truly connected here. Michael Ignatieff was recently attacked because after all his time away, he said what he missed most about Canada was Algonquin Park. I totally understand. A part of me will always be watching the waves at the Rouge beach....camping in the interiors of Algonquin Park....paddling the Ottawa.... To me, these are places that I can be gone for for years but will always love and feel I belong.

My plans have changed a bit for my drive--think Im going to stick to driving through Canada rather than cross the border. I have already once almost been denied entry to the states because I couldnt prove that I would return to canada ( the "no job, no home" thing) and I have a feeling that adding a car packed full of all my stuff wont help. After travelling for so long, I also feel more comfortable with the idea of dealing with an accident, ticket, broken down car, etc. in my own country. I figure I can make the drive in an easy 3 days...my plan is to camp out in my car when Im tired, map out where the big fitness centres (goodlife, etc.) are along the way to shower and get some exercise and snack out of a cooler between diners. Im going to check out a Lonely Planet Canada tomorrow to find some fun places to detour along the way. There are a bunch of really great parks and stuff Id like to check out, but I dont know how safe it is to go hiking on my own in the middle of nowhere, Manitoba...

Baby Madison!

Toronto

Ive been in Toronto now for over a week now and am almost over my jet lag....tuesday night was the first night I stayed up past 9:30pm! (although those at the bar may disagree that I was actually fully awake...)

So Im back...and homeless and unemployed. Well, not completely unemployed: Nike has taken me back and have definitely put me to work the last week! I am super happy about it too because the new Air Span 6's have come out... (so yeah, Im a total running nerd..the air spans are my fav running shoe of all time). The new spring stuff is all retro fluorescent, which I guess looks cool if you are from Kenya and run a 28min 10K but Im not sure how it will look on me huffing and puffing up Yonge street...I feel like I would look more like a sweaty rocket popsicle. When we set up outside the Bloor St. store one of the Yorkville homeless guys actually said the green suited me! but then he started talking about the devil so im not completely sold...

Seems like I have traded my backpack in for my suitcase. I am couchsurfing friends places until I make my way out west. Exactly HOW Im heading out west is still fuzzy...I was originally planning on making it a bit of a Canada sight seeing trip, but now Im considering cutting through the states instead. Going thru the states means I can: a) drive faster (whohoo!) and b) get cheaper gas [oh! cant forget handy option c) stock up on cheap liquor for the summer]

Now, the only real detail is the buying of a car. My dad asked me the other day what I was looking for in a vehicle. I thought about it really hard and came up with 2 things: I need a car that has a hatchback and has a backseat/trunk large enough that I can sleep in/ store a kayak or snowboard plus gear. Let me say, my dad gave me a bit of a funny look: "A trunk you can sleep in?"

I still havent found a place to live yet in Canmore. Im not too worried about it right now tho...if all else fails I camp for the summer. To be honest, Ill likely be sleeping on an air mattress anyway (unless I find a place to rent that is furnished), so I figure exactly where that mattress is is more of a detail.

So thats about all thats new with me...aside from working, been getting my dad to teach me how to play chess and have been sorting thru all of 2000+ my photos to come up with a short and sweet 15 min slideshow. Next week I will use up the last of my cash (until my Nike cheques come thru) to buy my first ever pair of climbing shoes and a harness! Met a friend of Jo's who says if its warm enough he'll set up a trip out to the escarpment to climb...sweet!

Have a couch that is lonely and could use some attention? Send me an email..Id be happy to keep it company for a night or two :)

Back in T.O...sigh.

After a great week in Beijing, I am finally back in Toronto!

Beijing was like a totally different country compared to south-west china: Signs were in Chinese and English, the subway voice spoke to you in English, there were tonnes of foreigners and every other person spoke English. So easy to get around…I didn’t have to get out my Chinese phrasebook once! I am actually glad I started in the south and ended in Beijing, because if I went the other way I think I would have been totally unprepared and lost…


Hostels were literally 3-4x’s more expensive in Beijing, so I decided to try out couchsufing! I stayed on the futon of a guy named Jeff from Montreal who had been living in China for over 5 years teaching at a few different universities. He lived in an apartment in a building around the corner from the subway with his girlfriend from France and a roommate from Spain. It was cool to get the inside view on China from a foreigner…we chatted over dinners about Chinese culture, teaching, tv and censorship (the guy from spain works producing tv in Beijing).

The couch I slept on at Jeff's... (it pulled out)

Every week Jeff arranges a trip to the Great Wall for couchsurfers, which I went on and it was awesome! We hiked 10km of the wall that people don’t usually go to, so for most of the time it was just us and incredible scenery...miles and miles of unspoiled nature with the wall snaking on over the hills as far as you could see. I had been getting pretty burnt out of sight seeing, but the great wall was really something special. If I go back to China I will go see it again for sure. I also did the mandatory Forbidden City tour, checked out the Summer Palace, Tiannemen square and the Lama Temple.

It was odd visiting the Lama temple after visiting the Tibetan temples in Shangri-La that were so open and unrestricted….in the Lama the statues and pictures were roped off so you could barely see them and everything else was under glass protection. Guards were at the doors, no pictures and no incense allowed to be burned inside the buildings (people laid the incense infront of the statues unlit….fire hazard), signs everywhere saying no doing this and that. And weird that everyone was just looking and no one praying. The monks were wearing designer shoes….

I arrived late Monday in Toronto and since have been trying to shake my jet lag while visiting with family, friends and re-connecting my life. My phone is set up again (same number as before) and Im trying to figure out buying a car and insurance and a place to live in canmore. The first thing I did when I got back was stop off at Licks for a fully loaded veggie burger (yum!) which I washed down with a big glass of water…from the tap! Ive also been eating chocolate and cheese like they’ve been going out of style LOL

Even after only a few days, Im surprised how much I miss asia…I actually went to an asian grocery store and stood in one of the aisles smiling because all the packaged foods were familiar.

So I guess is my official last Asian post! When I set up this blog, I thought my posts would be more like a bunch of travel articles; writing about culture, experiences, events, the sights and smells of asia…. but somewhere along the way (well…I guess right from the start) it turned more into an online diary LOL. I thought only my dad and a couple friends were reading it, but since Ive been back Ive found out quite a few people have been following it! So…although this is the last post about asia, it is not the end: I have decided to keep the blog going for my next adventure! I am driving out to Canmore, Alberta the end of May to work as a raft guide. Its not as exciting as backpacking solo thru asia, but Im sure there will be interesting stories….

So thanks for following along! Take a peek again in June to read about my cross-country car trip and raft guide training :)

Cheers,

Anna