today..

i am going home.

currently sitting in the vancouver airport and i cannot stop smiling. these two weeks on the west coast have been great.. (so relaxing! ha) it has been so good for me to cope with all the little things going through my head while here instead of the inevitable overloading of senses and emotions with all my family and friends around. so regina.. foxwarren.. prairies.. i'm ready!

see you soon.

update.

the gala thursday evening was lots of fun. it was hosted by a finalist from one of those 'next top model' shows. there were silent auctions, a catwalk with some cool pieces, and it was bartended by danelle and yours truly! free wine, a perk - especially since we had planned on 'attending' the event and not working it - :) it was coordinated by one of danelle's friends as the final project for her entertainment business management degree; and she needed volunteers. i think we enjoyed ourselves more than had we merely been part of the audience.. and we got free gift bags, too. how posh.

friday i spent the day swimming in a 'lake' at the park.. it was a beautiful day and it turned into a beautiful evening with the most colorful sky. we unexpectedly came into free weekend passes for the folk fest and showed up that evening in time for iron & wine. he was charming and witty and wonderfully talented. i look forward to seeing his set and checking out others when it rolls through regina in a few weeks. afterwards we dashed downtown to catch a few bands at another venue.

saturday morning we found ourselves in northern vancouver at a film studio helping construct a pagan church. (random, i know.) this extremely talented construction set worker and his set decorator fiance decided they were going to build their own church, haul it down to arizona in sections on the back of a semi, and get married at the site of 'burning man' [a huge sustainability music festival where absolutely everything that is brought in (stages, food, everything) is taken out again. no traces left behind..] it's in the middle of the desert. insane. that night, another show and great hangouts.

all morning and right into the late afternoon of sunday was spent at third beach. we had a good crew of friends and lots of laughs. when the sun started getting pretty low we picked up and moved to the theatre for a late show.

monday brought melissa to my doorstep. we spent the morning catching up on the last month of each others lives; discussing feelings about being back in canada and going home, the mysterious future.. the afternoon was spent running around with her adorable 18 month old nephew, elijah. what a sweetheart! it was our third and final goodbye. i have no doubt we'll see each other again.

i spent today at the most westernly point of the city, rec beach. it was a scorcher, and the water was cold. perfect combo. old spruce trees blocked the view of skyscrapers and all i could see were mountains and the open water.

west coast lovin.

vancouver so far:

on saturday morning i went to work with danelle at the race tracks.. it was full of old bukowski's and women heavily made up, holding onto that shimmer and hope of winning big. i lost $2. mostly i just watched the horses, they were beauties. she got done early and we went down to the beach to take advantage of the fabulous summer weather. that night we went to a back yard party with a band playing and had hubba bubba bubble blowing contests and made interpretive art.. you probably had to be there. it was a pretty good party.

sunday we went out for breakfast with a few of danelle's friends then had a pretty mellow day. went to supper at kyle's parents' place and then went to see the vancouver orchestra playing a free concert in the park.

monday i hung out with julia all day.. walked around the city, drank some tea. great talks and great weather. that night danelle's parents took us out for supper and then dropped us off the the farmont for a swim, sauna, and hotel party with the girls. we wore robes and drank champagne. :)

tuesday we spent the whole day at the aquarium with danelle and her parents.. there was a new baby beluga whale! too cute. and so many sweet underwater things. that night we went out to the movies and watched "up".. cute story. it was in 3-D so we wore glasses; the things they can do with computer animation these days is amazing..

wednesday i spent the day cleaning and organising danelle's room as a surprise.. she just moved in and didn't have time to do it yet because she's been working so much. then i walked down to a park and watched dogs running around and splashing in the lake. then last night we biked down to a sikh temple for a free vegetarian meal.. so many amazing indian dishes.. i haven't eaten like that since india.

thursday, today, i am relaxing. beautiful weather outside. i'll have to check out another park or beach or something. tonight we are going to a cancer benefit gala.. getting all dolled up and supporting a cause. there will be live entertainment, julia is doing the opening music.. local celebrities and such.. should be fun! i've certainly been keeping myself busy. only one more week tomorrow and i'll be back in the queen city!

vancouver/tim hortons.

so after having a straightfacedavoidingeyecontactgoodbye with stacy, because dragging it out only makes things that much harder; i turned my back and headed into the airport, only to have a slight breakdown after turning my first corner.. (i am my mother's daughter, after all.) it's so hard because as much as i see myself as being independent, stacy has kind of been my other half for the entire year.. so it was really hard to go off on my own knowing that i would be crossing the ocean and unable to hang out with her for at least a year to come! but, that is life.

and here i am in vancouver! first thing i did once i got through customs was grab some sweet sweet timmy ho's. i don't even know what exactly it is about that place, but it's both delicious and so canadian that i couldn't resist. 3 buses, a skytrain, way too much walking and the help of many kind strangers later, and i am sitting in danelle's room anxiously awaiting her return from work! our currency looks absurdly disproportionate; i'm actually quite certain the coins have shrunk since i've left! and the bills are much too big. i also felt highly uncomfortable riding the bus on the right side of the road! it felt so wrong! funny that my own country will take some getting used to..

tairua.

stacy's flat is starting to feel homie, and i have nothing but good things to say of stacy's flatmates(conor a canadian; sara and andrew kiwis). for the last two days, stacy andrew and i rented a car and got out of the city.. we went south to 'tairua' where his mom owns a house. a beautiful two hour drive of green hills and mountainsides, farmland, animals and water. our first night down we bbq'd up supper and played some cards, relaxed. our second day we headed down to 'hot water beach' for a unique spa experience! geothermal water comes up through the sand in a few different places on this strip of beach, so you just need a shovel, and you make your own disposable hot tub. a good excuse to play in the sand! afterwards we did the 'cathedral cove' walk up and down along the shoreline which brings you down into this secluded beach with huge caves and tunnels and a waterfall. i can only imagine what the south island has for scenery as i am doubly impressed with the north island thus far.

so here we are. back in the city. me, having a panic attack coping with the pros and cons of leaving tomorrow. stacy and i have just dined-in and are going out for 'reminiscing' drinks. we are not allowing each other to get emotional..

auckland.

we made it! got in around 4, and by that evening we had already lunched, walked a good portion of the downtown area, viewed two apartments, and stacy put a down payment on a beautiful mod two story flat. the next morning we moved into a different hostel, one a little less expensive [and slightly resembling our infamous melbourne residence!] and as we should have realised, full of sketchy characters.. we went grocery shopping and found the next morning that almost all of our food had been taken from the community kitchen! maybe we should've just paid the extra $5 a night..

yesterday we did a free city tour, which was so great. we got taken around to the different harbours, up to 'mount eden' which is an old volcano with a symultanous view of both the pacific ocean and the tasman sea.. watched someone do a base jump off the sky tower, [which stacy has a fabulous view of from her huge balcony!] and got to do the harbour bridge walk.. when we got up to the top, two people in our group decided to bungy jump, one guy even getting his head and shoulders dunked in the water! pretty cool.

this morning we moved in, did some shopping, starting to make the place feel like home for stace.. right now we're just lounging in the living room with the new roomies while the rain is just starting to clear up outside.