Find 'sometime'

So whoever says Toronto is a concrete jungle, I beg to differ! It may be a city that experiences harsh, cold winters that turn the city brown and barren, and I had been told to expect a hot Summer, but a JUNGLE? You think I'm exaggerating. I'm not! I swear, some days if you told me to close my eyes and guess where I was by my other senses, I'd say Uganda or India or Malaysia. Especially on those 35+ degree days. The humidity is saturating, the air is hot, the cicadas buzz like a weed-whacker in the trees when the heat has quieted the birds, the evenings are full of chirping crickets, and best of all the air smells of that lush, wet, leafy, peaty, smucky smell of a real tropical jungle. Mixing that with just a tiny touch of exhaust fumes it smells EXACTLY like a city in the tropics. It's the smell that gets me the most. I love it. And some days it's even misty/steamy in the mornings, which reminds me of waking up in a tent or banda in Uganda and looking out over a ...

If you're Canadian, you should watch this! CTV Olympics - Video by Stephen Brunt I saw it at work yesterday while bartending and I had to fight a few tears of pride! Although these kind of things always get me gushy, it runs in the family. Especially the scene with the older man with tears running down his cheek, and the family walking down the street all clad in Canada gear, and the truth to how Canadians seem to spontaneously break out into singing the national anthem. We DO do that a lot! My mom with the Torch in Abbotsford, BC I know a lot of people have negative things to say about the whole Olympics idea and I hear your valid points. However, I can't help but feel moved by this well-put-together and beautiful video by Stephen Brunt at CTV. It's about Canada's growing (modest) patriotism brought on by sports enthusiasm and a sense of national community through the Olympics. This is one of the non-monetary/economic positive results of the Olympics, and I'm excit...

So technically I still live in the same country, Canada. I may have moved to a different province 4,000 kilometers away from Vancouver, but it's not much different here, really.  It's funny to me that places like Europe and South Asia have so many countries in the same close proximity as we have provinces in Canada, and the difference in culture is HUGE across those borders. Within the same 4,000 km distance, there are dozens of different languages and cultural differences, whereas we have basically a uni-culture across the whole country except for Quebec and some minor pockets of more minor differences. Or DO we? First of all, apparently I have an 'accent'. Dani's husband was the first person to point this out. Now a couple of people at work have mentioned the same thing and even using the same words as Jamie used to point out my accent! The main problem here is my use of the 'A' vowel! Apparently I say 'Vancouver' more like "Vohn-couver"...

Well... since I last wrote I was still wallowing in the loss of poor Frank. He and I parted ways and I now own a bigger, better bottle of tantalizing deliciousness. In my fridge in Toronto that is! Just a brief update because I have to go to work... On October 23, 2009, Lindsay and I piled into Bo-Deese the Big Bad Blue (my VW Golf) at 4:30am and DROVE to Toronto! We stayed in Calgary, Prince Albert, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie along the way, and arrived safe and sound (and could probably handle another 6 days of driving if we really wanted to) in Toronto on October 28, 2009! Check out the video if you want: And I'm still here! I love it so far. It's been just over 3 months, and I'm living in a great area of Toronto, just about on the border of Etobicoke. I'm a couple blocks north of the Lake, just west of High Park, in the Bloor West Village area. I really could not live in a better area. It's close to everything, it's not too city-ish. It's ...

My half-empty bottle of Frank's Red Hot Sauce . You know when you move somewhere and your fridge starts out empty, but then starts to get filled up as the months go on, and it's all expensive stuff like mayo and ketchup and pickles... and the best thing EVER, a staple in my fridge at least, Frank's Red Hot Sauce? I have been letting my kitchen supplies dwindle over the past few weeks because I know I'm leaving soon, on Sept 30th, but I'm not moving just down the street, I'm moving to Toronto! And I realized just now as I prepared my delicious cheese quesadilla that I will not be able to bring my Frank's with me. I just don't think he'll survive the drive. I was sincerely disappointed. It took me a second to realize it and it made me laugh a little when I did. I've grown attached to Frank, he's more than half empty, and has started gathering the dry sauce crust in the cap because he's so well used. Anyways, I just thought that it was funny...

This is my declaration. I am going on a no-burgers-for-as-long-as-I-can-stand-it diet. I have to stop eating so much bad food. Its not necessarily that I'm concerned about gaining weight, I don't really have that problem (yet) but I am tired of feeling gross, unhealthy, unconfident and guilty after I scarf down a delicious meatfilled and mayo-loaded bun!!! You are what you eat right?! So I wanna be hot fresh juicy and yummy not greasy lardy sticky and lukewarm. I've been so lazy eating at the food court at work all the time, wasting money on salt, fat and sugar. I also could probably afford a gym membership for the price of 4 mozza burgers a month!!! Anyone else wanna join me in this feat of monstrous proportions?! Its gonna be hard, those cravings are hard to beat. Two mouths eating veggies are better than one. It could be like the Seinfeld "master of their domain" episode, but with less scandalous terms. I challenge you! Wish me luck. I'll keep u posted on h...

Yes, another blog. For those of you who know me I have a travel blog, which is gonna be out of commission for a while. I used to LOVE writing. I did it for years! About anything and everything. Poetry, random prose, short stories, notes, and quotes! I also LOVE writing the most, lately, when I'm traveling. It is a great way to keep memories of the slight things that in today's hectic lifestyles we are too busy to remember. One of my favourite things to do every few months is to go back and read my travel blogs. It's relaxing, funny, and like going back in time. But I've been asked to write articles before, and have also considered writing a blog in the past, but I find it ridiculously hard to get inspired to write when I'm not abroad. I feel like I have nothing to write about. But really, I do! Things happen every day! Thoughts cross my mind all the time! I update my Facebook status CONSTANTLY! There's gotta be some way I can focus that into writing again. SO.....