Conference Travel

This past weekend I went on my first trip since returning to Canada last summer. After six months in storage, I dusted off my trusty suitcase and felt totally out of practice with the whole packing routine! I haven’t spent six months in one place without traveling for at least eight years!! Wow. It wasn’t a major holiday or anything of the sort, just a quick weekend away in Montreal, only 2 hours by train. My sister and I headed off together to check out the sights and sounds of the CanFitPro fitness conference as volunteers at the registration desk.

I’ve never attended a conference as a delegate before. Come to think of it, I wasn’t a delegate at this one either, but it’s a little bit closer than my past experiences. There are many similarities to attending whether your working or not. In my past life all of my expenses would be paid for by the company and I felt it my duty to attend as many sessions and learn as much as I could, as well as take my trade show duties seriously. I always felt it was so exhausting. Early morning lectures (6:30 AM at some), several hours at the trade show, sitting in on various sessions throughout the day, then evening symposia. I never found the time or energy to head down to the hotel gym. I found I ate terribly – I eat very consciously and diligently choose the healthiest possible foods. I always felt that traveling for work made staying healthy very difficult.

Well, it seems that while it’s a little bit easier to make healthy choices when you attend a conference on your own accord, it’s not all that different than working one. This past weekend I had very, very early morning starts: 6:00 and 7:30 AM respectively. Only two 3-hour shifts at the registration desk, but then I felt that since I’d paid to get myself there and for accommodation I wanted to attend and learn as much as I could. Cramming sessions into each time slot. Trying to find healthy places to eat (there wasn’t a single thing open for breakfast at 6 AM on Saturday – luckily I brought some Larabars). Find time for the hotel gym – forget about it! I was just lucky it was a fitness conference so the sessions were mostly workshops where you were actually working out. If we hadn’t had such an early morning ahead of us for Sunday I’m sure we would have gone out Saturday night, but we were totally wasted from the long day and after dinner we found our way back to our room and crashed hard.

My saving graces for the weekend were the facts that I’ve traveled enough to know to bring my own snacks. I had unsweetened soy milk for my morning breakfasts (and found a place to buy cereal, but I think next time I should bring my own), healthy snack bars that aren’t loaded down with the types of sugars and fats that I prefer not to ingest, nuts, rice chips, and some fruit. I wished I brought more fruit, but I was able to pick some up.

So my big lesson from the weekend is that traveling makes healthy living a challenge no matter what the situation. I’ve gotten really good at knowing what to bring along with me and how to communicate special dietary needs with hotel staff and the like, but it never ceases to amaze me at how much easier it would be the other way. It is getting a bit better, but overall our society is not set up to facilitate a healthy lifestyle. It’s quite sad really. I suppose the more of us who make different choices, the more those choices will be available because we will change demand.

On a lighter, and more positive note I learned heaps at the conference and my obliques and hamstrings seem to have taken the brunt of the punishment from the weekend workouts. I had fun and hope to save up in order to go next time as a registered delegate so as to fully enjoy all the sessions and perhaps find a little more down time in between.

9 Months Away from Home - how do you summarize that?

As you may have guessed, I've not been writing here since my travels came to an end. This is a blog about wanderlust after all. I will summarize a bit of what's been going on since Japan, however. I flew back to Sydney and spent a few days there. It was cold in Sydney with winter falling over the southern hemisphere. I was glad to have my warm coat at my disposal. One of my close friends' sister from back home happened to be visiting the city when I was there and we connected and spent a rainy day together. That weekend I made my way back on the long flight to Canada.

Coming home was a bit of a shock to the system. I was happy to see my close friends and family again, no doubt, but the change in routine and the reality of not traveling anymore started to set in quickly enough and I was on quite a downer. I knew that actually living abroad would change things for me. That was part of the point of doing it. But I never knew I still had such a huge capacity for change after all the changes I've made in my life over the past 5 years or so. It just showed me that there is no limit to new experiences opening up your mind and broadening your horizons. The people I met while away were the real reasons behind this even more than the beautiful places I visited. One thought that permeated my mind while in Japan is that there are beautiful places in every corner of the world. People travel and say how beautiful this or that place is and how amazed they are at that beauty, but frankly, I've ceased to be surprised at such things. I'm not exactly unmoved by the places I visit, but I am now more than ever almost expecting to see wonderful things when I travel. And that's kind of cool. It emphasizes the fact that it's the people and the differences in culture and things that you learn about a place that are the aspects of travel and affect us and teach us the most. To be able to experience all of that amongst natural beauty is the bonus. At any rate, I can't say enough how lucky I have been for the experiences I've taken away in the time I was gone from my home. I have yet another new perspective on my own existence and I'm open to new ideas and experiences moving forward. It's made me even bolder, I think, to take some chances in life. And speaking of which...

I decided to take advantage of having some time off that I've actually never had in my life, and registered to take an intensive, 4-day per week, month-long French course. I wanted to just be immersed in the language and speaking it every day. I figured it would help me if I got interviews for bilingual positions. I can speak perfectly well, but I don't often get the chance to, so I can get a little rusty and trip over my words when I'm on the spot. I also got certified to teach spinning that month.

Since then I've moved out of my brother-in-law and sister's place into a house downtown (living downtown is so much more my pace!) with two roommates. It's working out well. I've got a part-time job at a health food store down here and teaching spinning once a week now. Still looking for something full-time and better paying in order to save some money and pay for the courses I took in July, but I've been so very grateful for all the free time here this summer. I've been busy, don't get me wrong, but it's been a totally different busy than I've ever known before.

I've been cycling a lot in the past month and a half (July wasn't the best for motivation on my part, nor for the weather). I'm madly in love with the bike at the moment, heading out about 6 days per week. I participated in a TTT at the end of August and had a lot of fun. I've actually done a faster TT before than what we did, but none of us had ridden together in echelon before (and most of the rest of my team had never done it at all), so there was a bit of getting comfortable with each other in the first lap of the race, then there was the fact that it was a tough course and some of us (ahem - moi) weren't in top shape at the time. Nevertheless, the point was to have fun and we did! We even got a second place medal!!! I've never had a medal in my life!! How cool is that????! I hope I'm around next spring for the next installation of this same race, as we plan to do it again and put our last result to shame. :)

I have plans for the near future that I'm working on, both travel and career related, but I will be keeping them all to myself until things are clearer and more concrete. In the meantime there likely won't be much activity here, but check in from time to time and we'll head off to another part of the world together soon! Thanks for reading and spending time virtually traveling with me. I'm glad I can share it. xo

All Business

Well, I may have finally gotten down to the last of the 'sorting out my business' end of things here (famous last words). I was hoping to leave Auckland today, but as luck would have it I could not confirm a place up north to stay in time and had to spend another day here. This was not a bad thing in the end, as I still had some things to figure out, book, plan, etc. I have not relaxed one minute yet. It's been quite tiring. I look very much forward to some R&R this weekend. So tomorrow is a non-computer day. I need a break from the screen and the bookings and the....
the list could go on.

I'm not sure I've given Auckland it's fair shake, as my time here has been consumed by matters that aren't really of a tourist nature. The only real thing I've done as a tourist was the Sky Tower. I have been around the city a little bit though. I got to travel across the Harbour Bridge yesterday to the suburbs to have dinner with Kiwi-Mike's parents. That was super!! We had a great dinner, their house is totally, amazingly cool, and they took me down to the beach near their place for a walk. The kids were out after school for their surf and sailing lessons. No, no hockey after school in the City of Sails. ;)

I left the B&B today to stay at more affordable accommodations. The B&B upon my arrival was my splurge. I needed a nice, quiet place to stay and take a load off while I acclimatized to the new circadian rhythm over here. So now I'm at a hostel. It's ok, but not half as nice. I was getting used to the family at the B&B and when I left they said I had become a member of the family. It was a nice place to stay.

I've met several people in similar situations as myself: taking a break from work or looking for a change. It's nice to meet like-minded people (read of my same age range). A lot of the kids down here are from Germany. In fact, I'd say the majority of those at the IEP have come from there. I've met two Canadians now (one sharing my room at the hostel tonight) and a couple Brits and a couple Americans. So I'm off to relax and meet more new people tomorrow. Til then!

Kia ora tatou!

Which means: "hello everyone!" in Maori. I have arrived safe and sound. The flight was much less painful than usual, even given it was a total of 19 hours flying time (plus a short 1.5 hour layover in beautiful Vancouver). It was also shorter than I had anticipated, given what I'd been told by others. The Air NZ folks were totally amazing.

So what to tell you about first. I haven't seen much yet. Just got here an hour or so ago. My lovely hosts here at the B&B got my room ready in a pinch, even though the person occupying my room had just left. Very sweet of them. I need a shower... that will come next (certainly before I head out to explore the city). The only thing to fill you in on so far are the particulars of the journey.

Of course there were tears at the airport when Beth & Andrew sent me off. To be honest, until I got into the airport I had only felt excitement for the trip for the past 1-2 weeks. At the airport I started to feel nervous because it was all actually real for the first time. Although, I also have a feeling that my nerves were caused by a mixture of adventuring out into the unknown, and worrying about my bike. When I took her over to the oversized luggage area and set her down on the conveyor belt I prayed that I'd get her back in one piece on the other side of the world. As I waited for the oversized luggage to come out at the Auckland airport the anticipation was nothing short of waiting for a loved one coming back from a long trip - I kid you not. I almost kissed the box when I grabbed it. Didn't open the box until I arrived at the B&B - the sweet little girl (granddaughter of the owners) helped me open it. She was pretty excited to see my bike, and complimented me on how nice it was too. :) So far so good. A little paint scratched off one spoke - no worries (getting down with the kiwi venacular there if you hadn't noticed). I digress...

I only had my executive seat for the YVR-AKL leg of the journey confirmed last week - one of the most exciting days this year! Executive from home to Van was nice - from Van to Auckland was fantabulous!!!! I had my own little pod, in-pod entertainment system, a foot rest, and the piece de resistance: the pod converts into a full lie-down bed!!!!!!!!!! Side note for those who aren't aware: I saved all - ALL - of my points to get this ticket and I have never - NEVER - in all the travels, all the flights I've taken in my lifetime, ever flown business/executive or any other classification other than economy. This was an experience that I appreciated immensely. We took off from Van at 9 PM -> midnight for my internal clock (and the rest of you on EST). They proceeded to serve dinner. I was fried. I was not hungry. So I ate a little bread and some salad and (since I HAD to) had a vodka and soda (which was amazing - this NZ vodka that has some sort of honey taste) and promptly curled up in my pod all scrunched-up-like with the big pillow and the eye mask they provided and fell asleep. I could not keep my eyes open. One of the crew came by at one point and covered me with a blanket, and I knew they had but I couldn't get myself to move. Next time I woke up was after the dinner service when one of the crew was trying to adjust my blanket which I probably moved or something. When I got up he offered to convert my pod to a bed and I was so all over that. Next thing I'm in my little bed and snuggled up and I can't fall back to sleep because I'm so damned excited about how awesome this little bed thing is! Eventually I did sleep - most of the night. It was great. Got up a couple of hours before the breakfast (which was fantastic) and then we were landing.

Landing was great. I got a nice view of Auckland as we came in overhead and then swooped back around to approach it from the west to land. The landscape around in the rural areas we flew over (and some totally uninhabited areas) was beautiful: lush and green and hilly and ocean and sand. Next few days I'll tour Auckland and fill you in. Until then: Haere ra!

Adjusting

So last Friday I moved all the stuff that I hadn't thrown away, given away, or sold into my new storage locker. I could never have done this on my own:
The movers screwed me I think - charged me way too much. At any rate, I was too tired and too brain-dead to care or to complain. It was done, I'm glad it's done and I was on to more pressing things: get the remainder of the little things out of my place and into my sister's and clean the apartment up for the new tenants - some cool people I know.

The rest of the weekend was nice and I had some time to come down from all of the stress and trauma of moving out of my beloved apartment. I may sound slightly melodramatic, but it truly was stressful and traumatic. It has only been a few short days, and living with my sister and her hubby is still better than being a real guest in someone else's home, but it's also still an adjustment. I don't want to do something that they might not like and I also don't have everything my way. In fact nothing is my way really. That's ok, but imagine having absolutely everything in your environment and your life your way for years at a time. I knew when I moved out on my own that I would come to this kind of crossroads one day. So here I am. It's not all about me. But I'll stop whining. Life really is pretty good. I've got a sister who loves me enough to have me stay with her (and I guess my brother-in-law thinks I'm pretty ok too). I'm heading off for a totally amazing trip of a lifetime pretty soon. But with all changes in life I guess you grieve the things you leave behind.

And hopefully not everything about my place is gone with me leaving it... tonight when I was out for my little ride on my own I ran into Robbie-O and I got to ride with him. He helped me get my first real bike, my second f-ing amazing bike (the Colnago), he changed several tires for me in a pinch when I was running late for group rides and had flats, he taught me how to change an inner tube, and introduced me to lots of great people to ride with, amongst other things. In all the years I lived downstairs from him we never did ride together. Took me moving out for us to run into each other on the bike path and head up to the park together.

Packing

Whew! I'm gettin-er done. Yep. Packing up a storm, as I put it today. And purging like mad! I took 3 heavy bags of clothes to the women's shelter this morning. Thank you to Mir for helping me let go of things I don't wear anymore (and I thought I'd already done much of that over the past months).

I've been doing well over the past years to learn to remain serene during adverse situations. Packing up to move out of my place has definitely been testing me. And on the weekend I wasn't passing the test. Moody-me went out for a bike ride on Saturday, only to have my riding company of the day, Andrew, tell me that he thought I should take some time off the bike. Well, at least I hadn't lost my listening skills. I wasn't having fun on the bike. I was stressing about all of the things I need to do in the next week and a half. Things I was not able to control in that particular moment. Yes, I should have been focused on riding the bike and instead I couldn't stop fretting. Plus I was mad at my garmin, and having asthma issues, but that's another story. So, yes, I heard the message and I did not head out for a ride yesterday. Besides, I have a really annoying saddle sore that needs a rest right now. I spent the day plowing through the packing and by the time I saw him again last night, my response to how I was feeling was: "I'm great!!" I took another day off the bike today and got more packing done (not that I would have ventured out in the crazy thunderstorm that descended upon us this evening).

When you want to log 5,000 km on the bike in a single season (about 5 months) it takes the majority of your free time - unless you race and you are faster than I. Most rides are a minimum of 2 hours - the weekend rides are 3-4 hours. I haven't been doing the long rides I normally do. Then I have a full-time job and things like work travel, working evenings, fatigue - oh, and maybe uprooting my life, packing up my apartment and moving out - getting in the way of the goal... well it's hard to set the goal to the side for reality. It kinda sucks. (not to mention that I actually have lovely people in my life that I would like to spend some of that free time with when I can find it - I'm lucky that they are all very patient and accepting of my bike obsession and find time for me when I find it for them) Then I was reminded: I'm heading off to ride my bike for the whole 'off-season'. Perspective. Patience. It will pay off in the end.

Dirty Dishes

I am the worst when it comes to doing dishes. I love to cook, but detest the clean-up involved. This week, as I really start to roll up my sleeves and dig into packing, I neglect the dishes as they are not my priority. Yesterday my negligence made me laugh and I had to document it for you. Notice how good I am at stacking them up on the counter. There are frequent, near accidents as they teeter to keep balance. It made me think that I'm really happy that all of my friends who have offered for me to stay with them in the next month before I leave (although I will be bunking with my sister and her hubby) have dishwashers! Hooray for dishwashers! After university, when I moved out of my parents' place, I never thought I'd still be dishwasher-less at this late date. The laugh's on me, I guess!

Spud Island

I've been off the computer for over a week now: on vacation. It was a really nice break. Quite busy though. Lots of riding. :) The weather was all over the place, but we managed to get rides in regardless. There were 11 of us and we rode most days all together. A few days we split into smaller groups or did individual rides. Visited my grandmother while on the island. Spent a day at the beach. Ate a lot of fish. Here are some photos. Perhaps I'll be inspired to write more later...

Rubber Side Down

First ride in a whole week this afternoon. I'm glad I waited. I could feel all the vibrations of the road in my road rash - it hurt for a bit, then I got used to it, other than going over bumps. The bumps still hurt no matter what. I hadn't thought about the road vibration. At any rate, this afternoon was the earliest I felt ready to cover the wound up in order to ride. That 2nd skin is fantastic, btw!! It has made a world of difference to the healing - and the pain!

I had originally thought I might get out on the group ride this morning, but I also told myself and a couple of my friends that I would be taking it one day at a time. If I didn't feel up to it when I woke up I wouldn't be there. When I woke up I realized how much effort it was going to take to get ready to make it out to the remote start and I also didn't want to cover up the rash this morning so I went back to sleep (that was at 7 AM - I'm allowed!). This afternoon though, I made myself go out. I was starting to stiffen up significantly. My body isn't used to 7 days with absolutely no physical activity. When I spoke with my parents on the phone this morning even they expressed their surprise to hear that I hadn't gone out on the bike at all this week. I also taught my dad the 'rubber side down' expression when he said of my going out today: "keep your wheels on the ground". I geared up, prepped the bike, and as I was leaving I felt a little self conscious of how I was going to look to the outside world with a bandaged arm and some pretty nasty looking bruises. So I took a picture for posterity.

The Easter Bunny

Good long weekend. Too bad it's over. :( Training, babysitting my sister's pooch, training some more. Sigh.

Anyway, tonight I remembered a funny story from when we were kids. It goes something like this...

My sister and I entered an Easter colouring contest at the neighbourhood pharmacy in Edmonton. I helped her colour it. She's 3.5 years younger than me. We entered in her name. We won. I don't know if that qualifies as cheating, but if it does I guess we're guilty and it's one of the handful of times I could think that I've cheated at something. I take solace in the fact that I had an accomplice. It's also one of the handful of times I've actually won something! We won an enormous stuffed bunny. We had that thing for years and years. It just sat in the basement - even when we were teenagers. I don't know what you're supposed to do with a giant stuffed bunny, but the dog seemed to like dominating it. And I won't go into any more details. I don't know what my folks did with that thing when they moved. ??

I'm quickly going to mention chocolate so that I can tag it as a post label since it's Easter and all. Yum. Chocolate. I ate a bunch of it this weekend.

The Single Life

This weekend was epic (not a new word, but a bit of a joke - although the person for whom the joke would ring true does not read this blog, funny for me alone I guess). I spent my time skate skiing both days. The weather was the best of the whole season, with the snow conditions being really great - perhaps not the best snow conditions, but combine them with the amazing sunny days and the total package was, well - EPIC. :) Beyond that I did very little else. I did some laundry. I made chili and took it over to my sister's and bother-in-law's for dinner tonight. I did no studying for the exam that's coming up (Neurology), I did not clean the bathrooms, I did not vacuum (something I've been meaning to do for at least 2 weeks now - yeah, I know - gross). I completely flaked out on the couch last night and it took most of today for me to remember what it was on the TV that I was barely half paying attention to for hours (it was Forrest Gump). I did finally do the dishes this afternoon. I waxed my skis twice because I had to change the wax for the different conditions. On Friday I ate peanut butter and jam on toast - 2 pieces - for dinner. Oh. I've even started getting creative with putting together weird combinations of food I want to eat when I'm too lazy to make a real meal. This afternoon, after skiing, it consisted of 2 potato pancake things (these frozen kosher things from the health food store that I wanted to get out of my freezer once and for all) with hummus and salsa on them. Actually, I seem to be putting hummus and salsa combo on lots of things these days. Hmm. Maybe it's not so creative afterall. Oh well. It tastes good. Yes, this is what you call the single life people. The best part about it is that I'm still reveling in it after a few years. I love eating weird stuff and doing whatever I want whenever I want to and not vacuuming and leaving my unfolded laundry all over the couch. It's fun. It's totally liberating. One of the best stages in my life. I'm happy that for once I'm aware - conscious - of what I have today so that I can appreciate it now and not look back later when things have all changed and wish I'd known how great it was at the time. I guess I'm learning that lesson and practicing living in the moment more and more now. So here's to today - and being single and messy and silly. :)

Friendship Amitié Amicizia Amistad Vänskap

Tonight I talked on the phone with my oldest friend for about 112 minutes. At least that's what it was when I checked the phone and told her that we'd been talking that long. Give or take a few to say goodbye afterward. It kind of amazes me that after nearly 20 years of knowing each other that we still have that much to talk about. But we do! Isn't that great? Tonight we were gabbing as if we were in high school. I don't think I've run out of things I can talk to Mir about. And we've come to a point in our relationship that it seems there is no taboo subject. I feel a bit bad for any guys I date - because she gets the full scoop: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Oh well. They don't have to know.

I've made some really amazing friends over the years, and there is a core group of them who are truly sisters to me. If you include the great friendship I have with my sister of actual blood-relation, I currently have 5 amazing women in my life whom I feel I have developed that close a relationship with. I'm a pretty lucky chick. Thanks girls! Mwah!!!

CSI Potato

It kept bothering me - when did Mr. Potato sprout to life? He's always been around during my lifetime. We used to go to the vegetable stand every single time we visited my grandparents in Fredericton, and last October I stopped in and snapped the photo of him that I posted below. Actually, I have many photos of him from various visits. Maybe I have a problem.

Mystery Solved...
Mr. Potato was born in 1969. Quite an auspicious year.
He's 19 feet tall. I like tall men - likely part of my attraction to him.
And he's got a nice smile. He's very photogenic.
So, next time you're in Fredericton, take a short jaunt down old highway 105 and say hi to my man.