it's been one week

Last Saturday my three coworkers, 37 students and I hopped in our vans and drove some 15 hours from Rocky Mountain house AB to Vancouver BC. We had great weather as we missed a huge mountain snowstorm by a day… and made great time.

Last Sunday I celebrated the 29th birthday of Jason, one of the guys I work with, by going out for breakfast at a café overlooking the Ocean in beautiful White Rock BC. Thus making it the second champagne/golden birthday of the week. I spent the rest of the day in Abbotsford celebrating my birthday with friends from college.

Last Monday I spent the day on the streets of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Canada’s poorest postal code.

Last Tuesday I took the day off and went back to Abbotsford to relax for the day and spent it with some pretty rad people.

Last Wednesday I got a phone call from my Dad that pretty much rocked me. My uncle Pat had a heart attack and passed away. It’s still hard for me to wrap my head around this and I feel so far from home at a time when I just want to be home with my family. Yeah, it doesn’t make sense to me at all.

Last Thursday I visited a Islamic Mosque, a Buddhist Temple and a Sikh temple as part of a cultural day. And had Indian food for both lunch and dinner. I also met up with Meghan, my next door neighbour from home, and we went out for coffee on Broadway street in Vancouver (nothing feels out of place for us as we both travel so much that it doesn’t even matter where we “run” into each other anymore).

Last Friday I went back to Abbotsford and invited myself over to a friend’s place and spent the afternoon napping and watching movies. In the process of slowing down I’m afraid the cold I’ve been fighting off for weeks finally caught up with me.

Saturday (yesterday) I packed up my belongings from the infamous Ivanhoe Hotel and left rainy Vancouver for the ferry terminal which whisked me away to Vancouver Island where I’ll be staying for the next week in Victoria.

Sunday (today) I spent the day in my hotel room recovering from the week described above, and pampered myself with tea, lots of sleep and several episodes of the Simpsons.