I love my life!

That time of the year

jamesshanks — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:05:00 GMT

This time of the year is very significant to me. Not only does it mark one year since I traded the beautiful beaches of Sydney for the the unknown, but it's also time to renew my travel insurance.

Last year my primary influence was my mother. Maybe some peers, but mostly my mother. I didn't purchase any insurance until the day before my departure. Similarly, it is the day before my current policy is going to expire, and despite the two week reminders I received via email from World Nomads (thanks guys!) I am just starting to look into it.

This time round, nobody is here to influence me. I have to choose between levels of insurance - whether I am going to be snowboarding, part taking in "extreme sports" and decide whether to opt for the standard insurance, or the explorer?? Even that is a personal challenge to me; I'm an explorer! The thought has occurred to me to just skip the insurance part, and you can't blame me for thinking that! I've met so many travellers who haven't had it, and been fine. I've been insured for the past 12 months by this very site, World Nomads, and the only thing I have used this site for is this travel journal, got to get my money's worth!

One year… Is it a long time? Well yes and no. A year simply put is 12 months. So the length of time does not change, so I guess a better question to ask is; has it felt like a long time? Again, yes and no. Man, I'm not going to get anywhere with this entry if I keep entertaining that question!

In short, yes there have been times where it has felt like I am the only one in the world. Brief moments of loneliness, uncertainty, worry. These moments came, lingered, but disappeared quickly. On the other hand, I have experienced not just moments, but lengthy periods of elation, bliss and pure unadulterated joy!

This is one of those moments.

Speaking of camp! That seems to be the talk of the town right now. Sort of. Not exactly all of the town, but my main circle of friends - most of which are from camp! This morning, I have spent a good portion of my time watching videos I have already seen, the one above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiU3Mz2cVco

Or this one.

Camp, insurance, camp and more insurance.

NY, New York!

jamesshanks — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 11:10:00 GMT

Where on earth do I start when trying to describe and recount a two week getaway to New York, New York?! Typically I start my journal entries by going over the photos I have of what I want to write about. Upon going through my vast collection of happy snaps, I flagged seventy-one photos that I would deem worthy of putting in the entry. Whilst it could be done, it is far from necessary. So I will make another cut, and then maybe even one more. I feel like a movie producer… or at least the script writer… ? I'm going to go ahead and produce my script now

I recall when I set off almost a year ago that before leaving for the airport it was a "cocktail of emotions". This time though, there was no cocktail, just unbottled emotions! There was stress! Stress that we wouldn't make our 3pm flight due to extreme winds which a few days earlier caused BC ferries to stop running. There was excitement! Excitement because we were heading to the Big Apple! What is your first thought when you think "New York?" I think Home Alone 2.

This time though, I wasn't tackling the unexpected alone. I was going to be accompanied by Daniela Santangelo! She had flown into Vancouver at the beginning of December and for two and a half weeks she had stayed with me at my temporary place of residence in Victoria, I'll dive into those two and a half weeks another time, for now, let's focus on New York.

Daniela with her wheeled suitcase, me and my oversized backpack, we made it to YVR in time. After multiple buses, a ferry, a sky-train here and there, we were ready to collapse in the airport with hours to spare. Despite the lack of sleep due to excitement (and last minute packing) the night before, PLUS all the travel time that day, being at the airport was quite exhilarating and energising! Receiving our boarding passes, filling out a declaration card and then dropping baggage off, going through customs and security… I love it all!

Who's excited?!

December 22nd - Arriving in New York

Daniela and I flew into Newark, New Jersey late that evening, by the time we got out of the airport it was past midnight and we were both absolutely buggered. The following morning we caught a very packed train into 42nd st Manhattan, which connects with many of the other lines. We didn't surface from the substation yet as we were both desperate to dump our luggage. A few more trains and transfers here and there and we finally made it to brisk Brooklyn. The air was cool and the streets were Polish. Yes, Polish. We were staying in Greenpoint, Brooklyn which turned out to be a very Polish inhabited community. Cozy though.

Eventually we found the yoga studio where we would be staying during our time in New York. There was no time wasted unpacking or washing up, someone was hungry! I'm not going to say who, but in the end we sought out a very cozy and quaint cafe a few blocks from where we were staying. It was somewhat liberating to walk with no luggage through the crisp streets of Brooklyn. The excitement between us could not be contained!

This is no ordinary playground. It's American!!

I'm not sure what was better looking? That food, or Daniela??

Just... EAT!

This was our first dining experience in New York, and probably one of our best! Such simple, delicious, fresh food. In short, the cafe specialises in seasonal, locally sourced food. Even the name of the cafe is simple; EAT.

The next part of our day was super awesome… We called it a day! Time to rest and recoup before we head to downtown Manhattan.

December 23rd - First Impressions

The next day, which was the 23rd, was our first venture into the big city, and boy oh boy is it big! From my perspective, I have been living on Vancouver island since June 2012, and emerging from the substation into the busy and bustling streets of NYC was quite overwhelming and stimulating! I can honestly say, I wasn't prepared for the mad rush of Christmas tourists, obnoxious locals and fast paced life that is NYC. Our first tourist stop was St. Patricks Cathedral which was at the time, undergoing major renovations so we didn't get any great photos from the outside. Again, it was like a mad house going in and coming out. After we had seen enough there, lost and confused, we stumbled upon the Rockefeller Centre. I have no knowledge of what the purpose of this centre is, but it was still pretty cool to see.

Rockefeller - Outside. I struggled attempting to frame the building in my shot!

Rockefeller - Inside. I thought it was pretty cool!

What followed next was probably the highlight of my entire trip, well it's right up there! We ventured up 5th Ave and stumbled upon…

I was always a fan of The Apprentice, and we wandered in looking to fill out an application for the next seasons show. Unfortunately, Donald wasn't around, so we took to his lower lobby food court to indulge in our home packed tupperware food.

Date with Donald! I mean... Daniela!

We felt moderately bad about not supporting his small business(s) so we felt inclined to make a purchase before we left. Our second New York dining experience was a…

It was so good, that we had to get another!

Our fine dining experience in Trump Tower was followed by a quick attempt to reach Central Park and have a quick look around there. Unfortunately we underestimated how big Central Park is and we were going to be late for our 2:30pm appointment! Daniela had booked to have a tour of ground zero, where the World Trade Centres stood, and where the Freedom Towers are currently being built. Again, we didn't set aside enough time to get there in time, and when we did, we found out that we had to go back 5 blocks to pick up our tickets from another location. Ugh! So more brisk and impatient walking, we finally cut the line to grab our tickets - thanks D for pre booking us - but then had to wait in a snake of a line to go through security to get into ground zero. I was pulled aside for my pocket knife that is attached to my keys, the guy just told me not to take it out (this wasn't the first and last time it bought me attention) and we marched through to ground zero. Apparently there was something like 4 World Trade Centres? And now there will be 7 Freedom Towers. It was somewhat daunting to be there, so we didn't stay for long.

Construction of the new Freedom Towers

Ground Zero memorials

It was as if we hadn't crammed enough into our day already, we decided to tackle Times Square before heading home. Times Square, what a place! The lights, the energy, the other annoying tourists. I love it! This has got to be one of my favourite places that we visited. So much going on, and did I mention, the lights?!

Tourist 1

Tourist 2

I think it's obvious that we were both in awe of this place. It really is the city that never sleeps.

Daniela lit up New York!

I'm not entirely sure why or if these red steps are significant, but I do know that to get cheaper tickets to broadway shows, TKTS underneath the stairs is the place to go!

December 24th - Christmas Eve

The following day, we did squat-diddly apart from go out to dinner. For some reason, I think we were both still very tried/jet-lagged. The time difference is only 3 hours ahead from Victoria, but when you're waking up at 7 or 8am New York time, it does make a slight difference, or at least it feels like it does! I can only imagine how Daniela felt. That didn't stop us from some fine-dining that evening in an area which to me, resembled Newtown. Williamsburg is a pretty hip and funky area and we accidently stumbled upon this super Pan-Asian Vegan restaurant. We enjoyed it so much that we actually came back… with special guests!

Some of us eat rather elegantly...

Others, not so much...

When the dance party in our mouths came to an end, we made our way home, but not before some photo snaps in front of these groovy murals in the subway.

Interpret as you will!

December 25th - Christmas Day

The following day was Christmas!! Christmas in New York! No way, right? To start the day we went to mass at St. Patricks Cathedral. We were almost late because I got attempted to take us a "quicker way". After the service we decided to see what was open… nothing! Nothing was open. Daniela was disappointed that she couldn't check out Fao Schwarz.

A Toy Factory I hadn't heard of until then. Apparently it's a big deal!

Unfortunately it wasn't the white Christmas we had imagined, so what was left to do but… cook!

Italian in the kitchen. Back up!

After hours of slaving away in the kitchen, we produced a scrumptious meal fit for a king… and his whole army!

Christmas lunch

All up, it took us around 4-5 hours to prepare (myself 1 hour, Daniela 4 hours) and we finished eating within 15 minutes, and then to clean everything up, another 2 hours. HOWEVER! It was well worth it!! Daniela's pesto gnocchi was the best I've ever had. She did labour for hours to prepare it and it was better than any Italian restaurant I've been to! And no, I am not just saying that!! My handcrafted samosas were okay. Throw in a few veggies and a cider or two and you have a pretty nifty vegan-friendly Christmas feast!!

December 26th - BOXING DAY

The next day was no doubt going to be very exciting! Daniela and I were meeting up with Voula and Paul, two friends I made back when I worked at Vision Personal Training in Australia. We got up early, and attempted to make our way downtown before we realised we were heading the wrong way on the train towards the Bronx, or Queens.

Going by the portrait I think this was Biggies hood? Hmmm...

It was mid morning, and I noticed how it was prime time for a nap on the train.

We finally figured out how to get to Grand Central station, which is where we were meeting Paul and Voula. For a moment, it was like being back in Australia. For months I had met other Australians, in different parts of North America, some even from the same area. Now though, I was surrounded by THREE familiar faces, and it was, for lack of a better word, nice.

Grand Central - Spot the tourist?

We wandered around downtown with them, catching up, exchanging stories. It was great to hear of news back home. These were two seasoned New Yorkians and we really appreciated them showing us around, taking us through Times Square, and pointing out hot-spot shopping areas. After a little shopping here and there, we decided to grab lunch. We found a nifty Mexican joint around Times Square and tuckered into some burritos, salsa and corn chips.

Paul, Voula, Daniela and myself enjoying our Mexican lunch

Mid way through our scrumptious lunch it started to snow! Not the nice, fluffy white snow, more then mushy, wet stuff. But snow nonetheless! The snow was only a day late for our ideal white Christmas, but better late than never, right?! Paul and Voula decided to go back to their hotel and prepare for seeing Jersey Boys on Broadway that evening. Daniela and I had planned to see a show on Broadway, but we didn't know when, or what?! We then proceeded to stumble around Times Square, attempting to locate "BROADWAY", going around in circles, not exactly to sure what it was we were looking for. We asked numerous people "where is Broadway??" but it was cold, and we were absolutely clueless! We did eventually figure it out. The Broadway district features a few big theatres, with other theatres scattered around the place. We checked out tickets for Lion King, Wicked and Spiderman. The first two only had select tickets left, each costing $250 +, Spiderman didn't come across as anything special. We were DOOMED!! Until… The glowing red stairs decided to lend us a helping hand. We sought out TKTS and the expertise of one of it's young, Broadway enthused sales staff and he gave us some no-bull advice into what was hot, and what was not. We went with his recommendation and saw:

Peter and the Starcatchers. HIGHLY recommended if you are in the area, and if it is still playing.

The prequel story to Peter Pan! It was marvellous! I had the best time in the cozy theatre. It wasn't at all what I expected, but I don't really know what I expected!! It was just so cool to be in the second row watching this "LIVE" movie. I think Daniela dozed off mid-way, but to be fair, she was tired. I walked out of the theatre so sad that the story was over. For 2 hours, I felt apart of the Peter Pan world, and didn't want to leave! I don't want to grow up..

Photos were not permitted in the theatre, but Daniela and I sneaked one in! :)

December 27th

It was Daniela's turn the next day. We had met up with my friends from Australia, and now we were to meet up with her future brother in-law, Emiliano. He was a very pleasant and kind-hearted Italian/American with the accent too! We wandered around with him, through Central Park, searching for a suitable veg-friendly restaurant for lunch. He told us stories of the hurricane that had just passed and the work he was doing to help repair the areas that were still devastated. To conclude our day with Emiliano, we each had a coffee to resemble our personalities. Mine was bitter and Daniela had something sweet!

Emiliano, top fella!

We parted ways and then D and I decided to check our the Harry Potter expo. It was pretty neat to see all the props and costumes they actually used on set. Whilst it wasn't as cool as Peter and the Starcatchers, its was still magical!

Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw!

Once we were Harry Potter gurus, it was time to bite the bullet, and do some shopping. Yay! We checked out a few of the big ones such as Maceys and Century 21. I'm probably the worst person to shop with, so I let Daniela go and do her own thing while I quietly sat and twiddled my thumbs.

Putting my foot down on shoe shopping. Photo time!

December 28th

December 28th was a significant day for me. I learned something about myself. I don't like museums. Mainly those featuring obscured art that is way to abstract for me to comprehend. I just don't get it, therefore, I really do not appreciate it. It was cool to see some things, but I think I got more of a kick out of trying to make these abstract pieces of art look even more odd with the settings on my camera.

This artpiece evokes the emotion of confusion within me.

I thought someone had melted a GI. Joe doll here.

I knew I had seen this one before! It looks like my sister!

I think we were made to paint this in primary school..

This one should be a feature in MoMa. BEAUTIFUL!

To me, this was legitimately the most interesting thing featured in MoMa, the history of the @ symbol. I like that sort of stuff.

The same day, we also decided to venture up the Empire State building, a whole two floors! I was in desperate need for a toilet, and we did have a pass to go to the top, but were hoping to save it for New Years Eve. After much joking around with the security about my little pocket knife, they let us through, I let the waterfall flow, and we inquired about our tickets. In hindsight, we should have just gone up then and there, because the lines were minimal and we wouldn't have another opportunity to go up again, unless we waited in the 4 hour lines. No thanks!

We retreated back to Brooklyn for our first bar experience. Which was actually quite fun. We got talking with other locals who recommended things to see and do in the area.

You can see our 2012 vegan pocket guide to NYC. It was a lifesaver and highly recommend it to not just vegans/vegetarians, but those who would like to seek out food that is different in taste, preperation and presentation.

December 29th - A cold, cold day

The following day was probably the coldest and gloomiest. What better day for a cruise around the harbour!? Before stepping onto the boat though, I decided to stop in to the Pokemon convention and catch em' all!

"How do you catch Pikachu???"

The cruise was part of out New York sightseeing booklet that we had purchased, so naturally we wanted to get the most out of it. It was ridiculously cold on the little boat, and visibility was poor. I tried to get as many tourist shots as possible before my fingers froze. We got somewhat close to the Statue of Liberty, but it was closed off due to repairs still being done as a result of Hurricane Sandy.

Close... but not close enough!

I almost sufferent frostbite trying to take these photos!

Even with all the clouds and fog it still looked amazing! The cruise was pleasent. It would have no doubt been beautiful on a clear day, but we made the most of it and still had fun!

What's next? If you guessed food, then bingo! This was probably my favourite little restaurant we visited. A small Vietnamese restaurant named "Lan Cafe". Very cozy, very intimate and small. The owners were traditional Vietnamese buddhists, thus the restaurant refraining from using animal meats and by-products. I got a hearty pho-soup and Daniela had something to do with lemongrass, I don't remember exactly. I do recall though being very satisfied and we actually ordered more to go!

Us and our warm, delicious dishes

December 30th - New Years Eve, Eve

Museums, museums! We had purchased a booklet, as I had mentioned that allowed us to "sightsee" 6 common tourist attractions; THREE definite museums (MoMa, American Museum of Natural History and The Metropolitan Museum of Art). One of the admissions was to either Top of the Rock (Viewing deck on the Rockefeller Centre) OR the Guggenheim Museum.

With so many things to do, and not so much time left, we made an effort to use up the passes that we had already paid for. Next on our list; American Museum of Natural History.

I was excited for this museum, and so was Daniela, I think. There were long lines to get in, even on our VIP quick admission side. The first thing we did upon entering the museums was head a few floors up to a dome-shaped room where everybody was ushered in and seated under the big, semi-circular roof and a video on space and planets (I think) was put on. Yes, it would have been interesting, but there was something about the room that put me to sleep… Whoops!

We were then set free and able to wander the many floors of history. Fun! We checked out a floor on anthropology and made some observations.

Daniels present skull shape has not changed since the dawn of time. Kidding!

I was transported back to Australia momentarily..

Specifically West of Sydney, according to the featured display.

I discovered my birthday gem stone:

Notice that I colour-coordinate with my birthstone! Fashion sense = Through the roof!

Finally, Daniela was impressed with the restored Dinosaur exhibition.

Or not.

Our interest in the museum had peaked too soon. We arrived early in the morning, when it first opened. However, then every tourist in New York decided they wanted to check out the museum and it got crowded, very stinky and hot and quite frankly, boring. Yes, it's cool to see all that stuff, but I think our patience and tourist-tolerance levels had depleted, so we quickly made for the exit.

Daniela and I weren't keen to wait in another line to see another attraction, so we skipped the lines and dived right into the sea of people at some of the department stores around town. Yay for shopping! I don't remember exactly where or what we bought (probably Century 21 and I probably bought nothing) but the madness of shopping in New York, post-Christmas, still haunts me.

That evening, we made plans to meet up with Paul and Voula and take them to one of our favourite vegan-friendly restaurants; Wild Ginger back in Brooklyn. They met us there at 7:30pm and we had a lot of great food, drinks and embraced each others company one more time!

December 31st - New Years Eve

What better way to start New Years Eve than going out, separately. Up to this point, Daniela and I had been living and traveling with each other for almost a month. We had been doing everything together, so we decided to go and explore by ourselves. I wouldn't have to tolerate her hours of shopping, and she wouldn't have to listen to my lectures on lettuce and carrots. So it was for the good. I know she had a good day, after speaking to her, so what did my day entail? Well…

First I went back to the Rockefeller Centre and waited my turn in line to head up to the top and see all of New York (Daniela chose the alternative, which was to visit the Guggenheim). Unfortunately, it wasn't as straightforward as waiting in line and up you go. You wait in a few lengthy lines and then a security check. The security fellas were not to impressed with my pee-wee pocket knife and told me I had to dispose of it if I wanted to proceed. No thanks. So I returned downstairs and hid it in a bush within the Plaza… He he he. I went back to the line, and the lovely, bubbly, singing lady let me right through and up and away I went! I was pretty excited to see all of New York from this perspective, and it didn't disappoint!

With no Daniela, I had to enlist the help of another tourist (A Pommy, who kept making jokes about NZ/Australians relationship) to take my photo.

Quite a view, eh?

I don't know if you know this, or if you haven't noticed from my pictures, but New York is a BIG city!

Next stop? I went to explore some of the other districts. Using my MetroCard (Daniela and I purchased TWO during our time in New York - you can hop on/hop off as many times as you want within a week for $28. The alternative is to pay $2.25 every time you hop on) I hopped on a train and went somewhere we hadn't been yet.

I am not sure if this photo was in the "Cast Iron District" or "Flat Iron District", regardless, I loved the buildings and streets! I even made my first shopping purchase around here, I bought a pair of shoes! I explored China town and Little Italy, just browsing. I did like this one, and it's for you, Dad..

The perfect fusion of both my parents!

The fire stations are very much hidden, and blend in with the buildings. Not to say they go unnoticed, but they are not as welcoming as other fire stations I have visited.

After my retail therapy session was complete and I was tired of smelling dead fish in China town, I took a hike to The High Line which was pretty super cool! The High Line is a essentially a public park build on and over an former freight train line, which is elevated above the streets and side walks, which is the cool part! Although, I don't think my description is giving it enough justice. It's not just a park, but a park along a historic rail line above the street. Ahh, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

The train tracks were neat, but what was also neat was the buildings!

Fancy schmacny! What was even cooler than the tracks, and the buildings was the... Yep. Art! Ha ha. This coming from the guy who has more fun playing Pokemon than discovering MoMa!

Lost zebras?

We've all seen this one!

I don't get this last one, but I like it!

It turned out that Daniela had also taken to the sky and walked along the High Line that same day, we probably missed each other by 30 minutes, which is a bummer because it would have been nice to do together. We also got home within 20 minutes of each other.

New Years Eve in New York? What on earth were we going to do?! Go watch the ball drop in Times Square? No. We had been advised against it by all the locals. The way they put it was that you have to line up to secure a spot, wait hours and hours in an enclosed area with no toilets, and if you do need to pee and leave the designated area, you are not allowed to be admitted in. It's freezing cold, overcrowded and the ball drop lasts… how many seconds? No thanks! So we took to the streets of Brooklyn, hit up two pubs, came back at midnight to our yoga studio and climbed up on the roof with the other Japanese girls who were staying there. It was a sweet view! You couldn't so much see ALL the fireworks, but you could see the city, which was pretty.

Danielas favourite...

I like this one!

New Years Day - Final full day in New York

I never thought this day would come, so fast. We took things slowly when we first arrived, not wanting to rush anything, and with the last day upon us, there were so many things that we still wanted to do. It would have been nice to see the City from the Empire State Building, but the lines were ridiculous. We attempted to go and check out MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art) but unfortunately it was closed. I had look it up and was sure it would be open, despite New Years Day, and so did many others rocking up only to be disappointed.

Danieals Gossip Girl photo shot. Or something like that... ??

I think Daniela was more upset than I was. Although, I did want to check it out.

We then decided to go for a stroll through Central Park, because we hadn't fully embraced it yet. It's hard to grasp how big the park actually is, and to cover ALL of it would take quite some time. Instead we entered around 78th St, where MET is located and casually took our time to wander through.

Daniela in Wonderland.

There were some pretty cool bronzed statues in Central Park; Alice in Wonderland was my favourite!

I dared Daniela to go for a dip…

And we bid Central Park farewell.

Lunch time! Oh how I love to eat… We sought out a Yum Cha, Dim Sum house in China Town, which was all completely Vegan. I think Daniela agreed, it was a bit to vegan. The mock meats and such were a bit to real. Obviously very tasty, but a bit much.

After our very heavy lunch (wait til you hear about dinner!) we went and stopped in a local fire station for my sake. Not the friendliest bunch, Irish and Italians… Daniela smoothly and sneakily squeezed in a happy snap when they weren't looking!

Fire truck in Little Italy

We moved on to Times Square, hoping to possibly get tickets to another cheap Broadway show, but unfortunately the lines were bonkers, so that idea went down the drain. BUT, we took a selfie! :)

Our selfie in Times Square. Ciao for now!

By this point, it was home time. We were out of groceries, didn't want to cook and we STILL hadn't had an oversized pizza in New York. More than enough pretzels, but no pizzas!

Cha ching! We could have put it all away in one sitting but decided to leave a slice or two for the plane ride back tomorrow.

What happened next? There was a mild food coma, some packing involved, a bit of sleep and up at 5:30am to eat as much as I could before our cab arrived at 6:30am to take us to the airport. Our first and last cab ride in New York.

Final Thoughts

My long and overdue entry of New York - done! I wouldn't have done it any other way! Wait, that's a lie. Yes I would have! The inner-failure-to-plan me would have perhaps planned a few things to maybe accommodate more, but at the end of the day, I had a magical time doing what we did and there is no doubt it wouldn't have been the same (obviously) without Daniela. I am so glad we did it together. The memories will stay with me forever...

… but if I do happen to forget, I can always refer back to here! Oh, and I actually uploaded SEVENTY FIVE photos! What can I say? I'm a visual guy!

Final, final thoughts

Cause if you don't…

You may end up looking like this! A self-inflicted food coma. And I will be there you take your photo, and put it up.

Deuces!!

Photos: New York

jamesshanks — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 11:39:00 GMT

Christmas and New Years with Daniela, 2012/2013

What the heck am I still doing in Canada as Winter approaches??

jamesshanks — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 12:56:00 GMT

What on earth is going on? Where am I? What am I doing? Why haven't I written anything for quite some time?

Blah, blah, blah, blah, BLAH!

Truthfully, I'm feeling pretty apathetic about my travel journal. Why is that? (another darn question!) I think it's because I'm technically not travelling anymore. Furthermore, I really do not feel like writing down about my daily activities and such in Victoria. Actually, that's a lie because it's always on the back of my mind and sometimes I think about fantastic and interesting things to write down, but I just never get around to it, so ultimately, it comes down to priorities and my travel journal has not been one of them.

Now, you might be asking yourself, what are my priorities? I often ask myself the same question. Presently, I am not to sure!

Health is an obvious one. For example, I went to Stacies birthday party on the just passed weekend. Knowing that she was getting a keg and that it probably wouldn't be the most vegan friendly environment, I packed an abundance of fruits, two smoothies full of more fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, two meals (I always cook in large quantities so there are ALWAYS leftovers for lunch the next day or dinner) and finally, my daily breakfast of steel-cut oats with an assortment of seeds for the following morning so I would could jump right back on the healthy bandwagon!

If you think that the two photos above are beautiful, it's because they are. Victoria was beautiful almost two months ago when I snapped those. It's a rarity to wake up and see the sun shining now. Instead, the leaves are brown (which is still very beautiful) the skies are mostly grey (not as pretty) and the roads are pretty slick - rain, rain go away! Apparently though, I can expect this cold, wet, miserable weather to be quite regular over the upcoming months.

Fortunately though the very same people that tell me about how chilly it's going to be also tell me that I am in the best part of Canada for a Winter, with minimal snow on the island and in Victoria. So yippee for that!

Truly though, I love Victoria! That is why I have decided to settle down for a bit here. I love the community of friends I have made, the place itself is wonderful, it's not a big city, nor is it to small. I very much enjoy the work that I am doing, so why not keep the good times rollin'??

This is my vehicle. Up until recently, I had enjoyed riding to get around. I still do, but like I said, there is a cool breeze in the air! It's uncommon for me to leave the house without at least a shirt on, maybe a light hoodie on above that, then another jumper on top of that and then a waterproof windbreaker, and finally a scarf is the dairy-free icing on my cake.

Anyhow, this morning I found out that "ANYHOW" is not actually proper English! Thursdays are my favourite!! For the past 3 weeks I have been attending a Toastmasters club in Victoria. They meet at 6:55am each Thursday and have welcomed me into their club. This morning, I was informed that "anyhow" is actually slang, I did not know that. That is why I go, to learn! After my Thursday morning Toastmasters meetings I go to the Camosun College Landsdowne campus to use the gym. Do I pay to use it? No way! I haven't had to pay to use a single gym since I left Australia!

Maybe I should start paying to use the gym? In almost the 8 months since departing I have gained somewhere between 4-5kgs! Whoopsie..

Getting up early is one of a few things that is starting to become quite difficult. Gone are the days where getting up at 4:15am was a cinch! Doing pull ups is proving to be a bit more of a challenge. Banging out 20 straight reps was something I used to be quite proud of, but now getting through 3 sets of 10 reps is quite the task. And don't even get me started on running! Boy oh boy, Jack aint so nimble or quick anymore!

What else do I need to highlight, hmmmm… ?

When I moved into this temporary (I'll tell you why it's temporary in a second) home on the 1st of October, I was just coming down with what was to be a mean cold/flu. I got a bit better, then the next day would feel considerably worse. Towards the end of the sickness we decided to get a cat, which after going through many names, we agreed upon "Coco". Coco is quite the smart cat, very lazy, but quite a personality. She'll lounge around for most of the day, but as soon as a door or window opens, she'll sneakily try for her great escape. When she wants your attention she'll make all the noise in the world, if she wants nothing to do with you, you'll know about it. ANYWAYS, so we got Coco and I started coughing heavily and had these intense headaches. It probably lasted 2 days, but I was convinced that I was allergic to cats, like father, like son. Thanks dad!

Good news though, turns out I am not allergic. So my room which I declared a "cat-free zone" now welcomes Coco.

http://www.usedvictoria.com/classified-ad/Odd-jobs_18295043?fb_action_ids=10151101970076022&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582

I put an ad out on a local website asking for odd jobs. Monday to Friday, I work no less than 3 hours a day, so obviously I am very busy and don't have much time for anything else. Regardless, I thought I could use a bit of extra work to fill up my days, there were a few interests, but nothing concrete. I thought it was funny nonetheless!

Working for Community Living Victoria has so far been an absolute blast! Being apart of the Teen Community Connections team is a tonne of fun and post camp, it's exactly what I want to be apart of. For example, last Friday after we picked the teens up we visited a pumpkin patch before going off to play some capture the flag. I have never been to a pumpkin patch before, it was such a cool experience!

It was HUGE!

Over on this side of the world they celebrate something called "Halloween" and apparently carving pumpkins are a big deal. "WHAT?? YOU'VE NEVER CARVED A PUMPKIN BEFORE?!?"

My room mates and I are throwing a Halloween party on Halloween, which falls on a Wednesday, so we are expecting quite the attendance.

Unfortunately though, the good times at 2537 Cedar Hill Rd are coming to an end. Just two weeks after moving in I found out that I have to move out! The land lady wants to move back in with her son after a failed relationship or something. So we have 6 weeks to ship on out! Come the first of December I am pretty sure I have found a place to sub-let until the 1st of May next year. It's a really cool place, again shared with 3 room mates, it's not in the ideal location and it's a bit more expensive, but I think it will be cozy for 6 months before I head back to camp… Only 230 days to go. Ha!

Now I believe that is it! I mean there are many things that I haven't gone into detail about, but you get the gist of where I am at. I got a little bit of a routine which I like very much. Toastmasters and the gym on Thursday mornings, I play indoor soccer on Tuesday evenings at UVIC. Chloe and I joined an intramural team and we've lost the last 3 games… but it's fun so that's irrelevant! ;)

Oh! I almost got away with it again. I never wrote anything for all of September. That was a fun month as I didn't pay a cent in rent, although my grocery bill was through the roof! I was fortunate enough to stay with Stacie and Jen. In return for allowing me into their home I attempted to cook as frequently as possible, but I owe them so much more than that.

From what I can remember during September there was an abundance of two things:

1. Great food

Scrumptious pad-thai.

Fresh pizza night was always a favourite.

A combination of dips and Catan was deadly..

2. Numerous games of Settlers of Catan

Naturally, I would typically win ;)

And another win, online this time with Jim, Stace and Luke. Watch out cool kids!

If I wasn't cooking, I would be playing Catan. If I wasn't playing Catan I would be cooking. More often than not it was a combination of the two.

Now folks, that's all for today. I'd like to say that I will get around to another entry before the end of the year, but no promises!

My new home

jamesshanks — Wed, 3 Oct 2012 12:33:00 GMT

A week doesn't go by when I don't get asked if I am from Australia/where I am from or the plain silly; New Zealand, England? Somewhere in between right?

People are much more interested when they discover a foreigner. They'll want to know where I am from, what I am doing, if they've been to Australia they'll reminisce over their experiences or find some connection to babble on about like their aunties sister who lives in Geelong who hasn't visited in so long because they absolutely love Australia. I can't help but feel a wee bit patriotic. After 7 months, I STILL LOVE IT!

It would be super cliche to say that time has flown and I have been incredibly busy, but the reality is I just haven't been bothered to sit down and write about whatever the hell it is I have been doing! I usually write my entries going by the pictures I have taken over the past week, or weeks, but I don't really have any to go off! I don't even think I charged my camera once during the month of September!

So what's the dealio then? Am I still traveling? Hardly! Backpacking? Barely! I don't consider myself to be traveling/backpacking anymore. Post camp I had three priorities, get a job, get a bike and find a place to live! The job came easy enough, I think I was very lucky. The bike too came easy enough, I wasn't fussy and just wanted a "vehicle" to get around. The place however took a while longer, but after about 3 weeks of searching (not very hard mind you) I found the perfect one!

Let's go on a mini tour, shall we?

As you enter my humble abode you will notice stairs going up and down, down is to the washing/drying machines and where Nico, Mr. Uruguay lives. As you walk up the stairs you will see the...

Kitchen angle 1

Kitchen angle 2

One angle does not do it justice!

Then if you need to hit the head, the bathroom is pretty funky with it's big bowl of a sink!

Super stylish bathroom yo!

Deer crossing as you exit the toilet!

I'm sharing this place with 3 others. Nicholas from Uruguay, Alex from Poland and Rene from Mexico. The mean age of the three of them is 29. With me in the equation, I bring the average down to 25. In saying that though, I feel somewhat old too. I may be the youngest in this household, but at Teen Community Connections, which is where I work now, I feel somewhat older. I was in the van with the teens yesterday and my two co-buddy-counsellors who were with me are 19 and 20. I know that is not a huge difference, but coming from Vision in Australia where I was significantly younger, I feel like a wise bastard now! Ha ha, no, I just don't feel "as young".

I fell a bit sick on the past weekend, not cause I am some sort of wild party maniac, I think it must have something to do with working with some sick kids, a bit of snotty boogies here, a rough cough there. Otherwise, it must be the drop in temperature? It's not ridiculously cold, but there is a cooler chill in the air, which makes riding my bike a whole lot of fun!

My throat became a bit itchy and scratchy on Saturday and on Sunday I started to cough a fair bit and up came some delectable looking yellow stuff... Monday my nose started to run a bit, but fortunately I am quick, so I caught it, but I coughed all threw the night and didn't have a proper rest. Yesterday (Tuesday) I was sneezing, wiping, coughing every which way. But, I found please, and some pain in consuming copious amounts of ginger, garlic and lime tea. It was very soothing and finally today, I woke up feeling a lot stronger! My throat is not as sore and I am over that hill. Lot's of warm fluids. Massive amounts of fruits and veggies.

I will catch up on the month that I missed, it was fun. But for now, this will have to do, and I really wanted to brag about the awesome place that I am living in.

Viva la Victoria!

Can you spot what is wrong with this picture?

Upon closer inspection it is evident that the man in front of me has a serious dairy addiction!

Photos: Post Camp

jamesshanks — Wed, 3 Oct 2012 12:11:00 GMT

Everything that happens post camp!

Home is wherever I'm with you

jamesshanks — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 19:14:00 GMT

Week 3

Camper Alex: Does everyone in the world have a disability?
Me: Yes, everyone is the world has some exceptionality. Everyone is exceptional in their own way.
Camper Alex: Like you, you're weird?

This is definitely one of the most vivid memories from that week. At the 9:30am meeting I was paired up with Kat, I had never guessed this one in a million years, and I don't think she saw it coming either. There was no doubt that we were both ready for a challenge though! The theme for the week was "Under the Sea" and we agreed to call our mean team the PIRATE SHARKS!

I was excited because in our group was Jacob, who I had in the new camper camp and he was returning for a full week! The groups age range was from about 10-14, so quite a mix. Day 1 flew by as they all got settled in and we started to learn about our campers. I dressed up like a pirate for arrival of the campers and swore to maintain my outfit and swashbuckling sword for the whole week, but it became a bit much.

A lot of day 2 was spent outdoors attempting to make a boat out of cardboard and sticky tape which one of the counsellors would have to get into, Kat took one for the team and our boat quickly sunk. We had sack races, chugging contests and dancing contests to win things to aid us in constructing a boat, I was hopeless at the sack race.

I don't like sack races...

That evening was our groups turn to camp out, so Kat and I arranged for a scavenger hunt on the train tracks which the boys thoroughly enjoyed. I told a ghost story which they were mesmerised by, which led into an alien story, they freaked!

The following morning we all awoke, had our pancakes and stayed up there for a bit waiting for the big swing to open. I think most of the boys went up, all of which loved it. As we rolled back into camp that morning, we joined in for the pool party which is always a blast. Now if my memory serves me correctly, this would have been day 3 and this week was a shorter week, with the campers only stay for five days, leaving on the sixth. So that evening I had DORM DUTY!

I had been lucky enough to avoid doing dorm duty up until now, and even then, I hadn't been rostered on, but Chloe would have done her third consecutive week so I switched with her. I had been dreading doing dorm duty because the idea of staying up all night scares the bejeezus out of me. Surprisingly though, it was hell fun. I was put on with Suzy and we probably changed at least 8 kids out of their wet beds, so time flew! We scared the crap out of each other with talk of horror movies as we sat in the hall way, ate munchies all night and just had fun.

Suzy made a playdo me to keep herself occupied. Picasso!

Big Suze attempting to stay awake by stretching.

The day after dorm duty is when you get to sleep all day. You basically stay up from 9pm until 7:20am when the counsellors rock up to relieve you. So off to bed I went at 7:20am and I crashed. I slept right through until 12:30pm when I got up for lunch. It was park day, so everything was outdoors. I went and hung out with Kat, Koop and our group for lunch. I had a work out and then jump backed into the group at 4pm. That evening was movie night, so a very easy day.

Best counsellors ever!

The next day was a big one. Kangaroo Kourt in which there was a double Australian gooing, unfair right?

Justice has been served!

After a dip in the lake to wash off, it was time for some intense personal programming. A camper noticed that I had hair under my armpits and conjured up the idea to shave them. In the end, he was convinced that shaving my legs would do - thanks Christel!

Best personal programming ever!

There was another rocking pool party and later that evening, the banquet and dance party, which Kat and I rocked togas to!

Team toga!

Some of the little dudes were a bit upset that it was the last night and that they would be leaving tomorrow, one in particular, thirteen year old Bohdi. He was a super kid who was super gifted at drawing and from what it sounded like, came from a rough home. A few of us hung out on the trampoline, bellowed some proud camp songs and watched a nice sunset.

Christel and I

Goodbyes the following morning weren't fun, but they're inevitable, so after all the superstars had left the staff went for a jump into the lake... but struggled with the locked gate.

Get to the lakeee!

That break was spent watching a lot of the Olympics, getting inspired and then going for a bike ride around the lake, running into town and then a quick swim. I felt pretty good about myself, and it justified the beers over the break.

Week 4

The fourth week of camp commenced on the 31st of July and I had a good feeling that I was going to be a float counsellor. The previous two weeks had been challenging being matched with counsellors who had very different personalities to me and in turn their counselling styles and mine weren't exactly aligned.

As a float, my role was primarily to assist other buddy groups when they required some extra support, which initially none was required, so it was hard to suppress that "useless" feeling.

Super volunteers before check-in

Team Aus floating!

A big plus to floating was that I was now able to hang out with female buddy groups and I quickly jumped into Colleen and Morgans, not because they needed a lot of support, but because their group of girls were SUPER!

The week flew by, I found myself bouncing between 3 or so groups and was really loving the fact that I got to know more than just my usual 6 campers.

Taylor all blue - legend!

Day 4 was park day, as per usual and I was filling in for Tony who had to do dorm duty the night before. Gabby and Tony had a group of six hilarious teenagers who were all so different, but all so similar. They had no interest in hanging outside during park day, but preferred to sit inside to play Yu-gi-oh cards, or something like that. They had no desire to play some sport with the girls who wanted to play with them. It was very humorous to observe their conversations and interactions with each other.

Sailing on park day

I was also on dorm duty this week and was unfortunately going to miss Kangaroo Kourt, but that was okay because I got to pretty much just hang out until the banquet. It was a slow dorm duty, there was not much action in the form of wet beds and sleepless kids. I rocked up to do my rest break duty at 4pm and was conned into getting my make up done by some girls for the banquet...

Kirsty from week 1 and I with my make up.

The following day was harder than most weeks to say goodbye. I think it's because I connected with a lot more kids than most weeks. Nevertheless we celebrated that evening by hitting up the Black Swan, or spending most of the time having a drink in the park next to the pub. And we were getting up at 9am to go camping the next day, yipee!

My manly man Michael, and Brit.

Camping the next day was fun, we all huddled into a few small cars and set off to some nice spot called China Beach I believe. It was a very nice spot and there was a fair few of us. Some were prepared more so than others and enjoyed the luxury of having a tent, where as some of us weren't so prepared and enjoyed the mosquitos and rocky ground as a mattress. Either way it was fun to get outside of camp with everyone.

Building a fort on China beach with Mike

Toughing it out without a tent!

Raiding Michael's tent in the morning

The next day I'd say 75% of those who went camping left and only a handful stayed behind for the second night. I left with Taylor, Erich and Brit. We all rolled back into camp and cleaned up, then decided we wanted to head down to Victoria to watch the new Batman. We met up with Christel and Justice and headed to the imax. Fortunately, it was a cheap Tuesday so we didn't pay a fortune for our second row seats. Yep, second row in imax for the new action packed Batman. Good one Dachwitz!

I think the remainder of the break was spent doing a 40km bike ride, 10km run and swim. Felt knackered afterwards, but justified the not so ideal food and bevvies!

Week 5

With a new week came a new buddy group and I was MEGA excited to work with Zoe. From what I had observed over the first four weeks was a steller counsellor! I do remember her filling in one week when my co-counsellor had to do dorm duty and she was so on the ball. And now I had the opportunity to work the whole week with her, excited much?!

Dreammmm team!

We were the Rowdy Rockers and had a mean team of 14-16 year olds. Our group consisted of Rhys who was a wrestling fanatic and absolutely loved to flaunt his muscles and flirt with the ladies. Tristan who was a camp veteran, but with his booming voice was hilarious. Montana was the group heartthrob with his guitar and black wifebeater. Justin was an absolute gem, didn't say much, but as the week went on he opened up and became quite cheeky. Nick came with his PSW Andrea and together were a great addition to the group. Finally there was Markus, who was 100% there for the ladies. It wasn't uncommon throughout the week to have at least half the group with female counsellors around there arms, demanding that I take a photo.

Our group went to camp out on day 2 and I have one distinct memory of when we were all around the camp fire and our boys were toasting their own marsh mellows next to us. There was a plate of chocolate and grammy crackers for the smores and Rhys kept eyeing them. He suddenly snatched up the whole plate of chocolate and shoved them in his mouth. I couldn't help but laugh as he smiled with his big chocolatey mouth.

The next day we went back to camp and Zoe had organised a canoe trip for our group to go across the lake to the provincial park and have lunch there. The backstory was that the kitchen had run out of food for us and we had to go find our own, which Coordinator Cole was going to drive around with.

Canoe trip with the Rowdy Rockers

The trip back was fun, I decided to let Montana go in the back of the canoe and failed to realise that I wouldn't be able to steer in the front, so we went round in circles for a while before Emily came back and rescued us.

When we got back to camp we were excited to see a rally involving all the campers with big signs to stop "the man" from shutting down camp (Part of the theme, although I never quite got it...)

After another dive in the lake and being pushed in countless times, it was rest break and time to eat! Breakfast after camp out isn't the most satisfying and the picnic lunch wasn't exactly fulfilling either, so you could say I was somewhat hungry.

At dinner it was announced there was a karaoke party in the camper lounge. Which was totally off the hook... I believe I now know all the lyrics to What Makes you Beautiful.

Park day was next, and again we got to spend all day outside. The boys loved sailing, seeing Rowen the beautiful assistance dog and hitting the slip 'n' slide...

Weeeeeeee!

Of course this was followed with another jump into the lake

Canon ball into the lake

Justice had to be served the next day and I was first up to get gooed for what other then expelling extremely smelly gas, apparently.

Always fun at KK!

But this Kangaroo Kourt was different, I got to goo the progs. Which I must add was very satisfying.

Gotcha!

Paybacks a b!7c#

The talent show was spectacular that week. A hot list of super singers, dancers and other various acts, including a big flex off with Rhys. We had a wicked pool party afterwards which involves nothing else but a big OH BANANA! and pushing your counsellors in.

Banquet was on that night, and all our little men scrubbed up. Zoe and I got our glorious picture taken and then we danced the night away in the basketball courts.

Team AWESOME

Morning came, and it was all soon to be over. The final full week at camp was done, and many of the counsellors were not staying on for YAC so adios amigos it was!

The next day and a half was to be spent cleaning the whole site super thoroughly so we could, for the first time over the Summer, have drinks on site and rock out at disorientation. Christel was leaving us, the day before disorientation which was sad, so we slept under the stars that night, which was mega uncomfortable, but witness some beautiful shooting stars.

Bye Christel - see you in Le-France!

Everyone dressed up that evening, for the last evening that we would all be together. We had a delicious meal and then had one, or two drinks.

Camp Shawnigan staff 2012

The next day was goodbye for the most part. It wasn't as sad as I thought it would be, nor was it fun for that matter. Lisa, Tony and I moved into the brown house where we would be staying for the next 5-6 days before Young Adult Camp started.

Tony and I kept ourselves occupied by shaving parts of our eyebrows in attempt to look badass.

Bad ass!

We also made a happy birthday video for Christel. Half way through the break we were going to head up and join Zoe, Sean and Jo for a camping trip at Zoes luxury camping site on Horne Lake.

https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10151031471966022&saved <--- Happy birthday Christel!

Tony couldn't come camping as he was looking for a place to live in Victoria, and sort out uni stuff. So Lisa and I picked up Jo and Sean and then drove out to Zoes hot camping spot.

Horne Lake

Swim to the other side.

Beautiful spot, cheers Zoe!

This is the furthest I got to standing up. 0.0000231 seconds later I landed flat on my face.

Those that went luxury camping!

Zoe took us tubing, I attempted to wakeboard, we swam across the lake, she fed us and we all enjoyed each others company for one final time. We were barely there for 24 hours, but it flew past and then it was goodbye Zoe! Back to camp it was and just in time for YAC...

YAC

Yac was volunteer based and it was a combination of a few staff from Shawnigan and a few from Camp Winfield which is in the Okanagan I believe. Team Winfield really bought it and it was a shame that YAC was only for 4 days and 3 nights.

I got paired with the counselling coordinator from Winfield; Kait Mooney. She was the bomb with 3 years experience at Easter Seals under her belt and together we had a very... chilled group of dudes. Fortunately, none of the campers were older than me, so that was lucky.

My co-counsellor from Winfield; Kait Mooney!

YAC flew by and before it even started, the campers were going home. Winfield bought with them a new angle to camp and I feel very fortunate to have been there to rock out with them.

It was then time to pack up and ship out! Campers were being picked up between 10am - 12pm as usual and we had to be out by 3pm.

It took me forever to get all my stuff in some bags, back to bag life... :)

Taylor, Lisa, James. Arnold and I rolled back into Victoria and went straight to Taylors new place where we all crashed that night. Jimbo came around with Justice and we rocked Catan for a few hours, I was victorious. I also discovered Taylors secret desire to become more Australian with her secret stash of "Aussie" shampoo.

Wannabe!

The days after camp...

The past few days have been a blur. I have been staying at Charlie's place which is close to downtown with Lisa. I've had a job interview in which was a success, and the past two days have had orientation. I'll be reunited with Thalia who was my co-counsellor in week 1. She also got the job at Teen Community Connections. Basically, we'll be driving around picking up kids after school and hanging with them for a few hours. It's a good start, and I know a lot of the kids from camp. Starts this Wednesday!

Otherwise, I need to start looking for my own place and I really want to buy a second hand bike to scoot around town.

Now, I think that is it. I probably left out a tonne, but I have been putting this catch up off for weeks. Actually, not done.. One thing that does deserve a mention is that I was crowned the manliest man at camp. No, it wasn't self-declared. A few of us competed in a few events for points, and I won overall. BAM! Still got it.

But, I did go to the gym with Saeed two days ago and weighed in at 78.1kgs... no wonder it is harder to run!

Only 285 days til' camp!!

Salad Days

jamesshanks — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 08:00:00 GMT

Oh the flies laying eggs in the ointment on the noses of the witches throwing hexes at the pages sowing patches on the dresses of the ladies of the court of king Eraticus, were just passing by!

Huh? Camp songs!

I haven't been lazy travel journal, I've just been busy! At least, that is what I will tell myself. I did have everything typed up and ready to publish LAST week, but then old mate Saeed popped in to use my laptop and the whole thing froze, so I lost what I had typed up and could not be bothered starting again. So in the round about 3 weeks since my last entry, a lot has happened, I think.

Two full weeks have come and gone, done and dusted! This means there is actually less than a month of camp left. I believe camp officially finishes on the 17th of August, and after that you can come back and volunteer for YAC (Young Adult Camp) which I believe I will do, seeing as I love this place and have no plans. Anyhow, on with the show...

Week 1

The theme was Seasons, I was paired with Chloe and our team name was THUNDER GODSSS!

My co-counsellor for the week Chloe with super volunteer Luke!

Our five boys ranging from ages 7-11 were super champions and got pumped over our team name. I would bellow it at the top of my lungs and they would rush to huddle in for a "team meeting". There was Alex who was totally into hanging out by himself and was more into making potions in the Arts and Crafts hut. Logan who will probably be the PM of Canada one day, fantastic kid who I have many videos of impersonating me, singing and just rocking out. Myles was the most demanding of the group, who probably required the most behaviour support because his attention span would last about 30 seconds and would kick the ground, and growl when he didn't get his way, but a great kid nonetheless. Jaden who was the a beautiful young boy with very early cerebral palsy, but it didn't stop him doing anything, he always had a big beaming smile on his face. Wally was the 5th member of the gang, another amazing kid who who we awarded the helping hand of the group because he would want to assist us in setting the table, cleaning up after everyone (including other peoples tables) and just a downright pleasure to have around.

It was a wicked week in which we celebrated Canada day which the 1st of July I believe and it was a bit awkward at breakfast when everyone stood up to sing the Canadian National Anthem. We camped out which was fun, I did get eaten by mosquitos, but it's okay because Canadian mozzies are tiny in comparison (Aussies have got good blood!). The highlight of the week though was a hike where Chloe and I teamed up with Tony and Zoes buddy group of older boys and climbed Mt. Baldy (the giant mountain behind camp which I hadn't been to the top of yet).

My cozy bed for the night...

Perched right outside my campers tent. There will be no escaped campers!

It's an offsite expedition, so we had to fill out a form and make sure we had a member of the Health Care Team accompany us. We did the risk analysis and in the end had a total of 4 counsellors, 2 volunteers and Brittany the nurse. So a pretty good ratio for the 8 campers we were bringing with us. It was a bloody warm day, I probably packed just enough water for my boys, although could and should have packed a bit more. Zoe barely had enough so we ended up having to share and attempt to convince the boys they weren't thirsty. The climb up took a lot longer than anticipated and only Chloe really knew where we were going because she had done a similar trip last year. It was a beautiful view from the top and the boys were pleased to have a break and take in the view.

From the top of mt. Baldy

It was already 3pm by the time we reached the top, and rest break was in an hour, so we were technically supposed to be back by 4pm. Chloe decided to take us down another way, which was supposed to be a bit quicker but turned into a view steep drop at times, almost a right angle! We had to slow right down in order to safely get the team down, some fell behind as a view campers difficulty walking, and Iattempted to keep our five boys in order. Myles was a bit of a handful, complaining most of the way up, and the whole way down. He was getting under a lot of peoples skin and for a lot of it we just had to ignore him. Myles would say certain things such as "We'll never get down, we are lost" etc... And it was cute to see Jaden come to my rescue and tell him to be quiet and trust me because I knew where we were going.

In the end, we did make it down nice and safely, the hike probably took the majority of us 3 hours and the boys were exhausted. They did fall asleep easy that night, win!

A few pool parties later and we found ourselves at the end of the week, time for KANGAROO KOURT! This is an opportunity for the campers to put their counsellors name in a box for whatever reason and witness them cop a few nasty punishments on the second last day of camp. Unfortunately, I got the most that week and was condemned to be gooed (corn starch and water) and do 25 push ups... booooooo!

Justice has been served!

The next day campers were off, time to go home :( It is definitely sad to see them go, with some of them hugging you and telling you that they'll miss you or asking whether you will be back next year. I think the most heart warming was when I was talking to young Myles father and he told me the hardest part was that every year as they drove out the gate Myles would cry his eyes out, and sure enough he did.

Week 2

A new week brought with it new campers, a new buddy group, a new theme and a new team name!
I was paired with Thalia, the theme was Robots and Space and our team name was GALACTIC CYBORGS! Mean huh? I don't know how I come up with these!

I remember feeling rather excitable when the buddy group was announced and that Thalia and I would be hanging out with teen boys that week, ages ranging from 14-17. Thalia pointed out that she felt a bit nervous due to the fact she was only 2 years older! Regardless, we were going to be the best counsellors we could and facilitate the best week possible for these boys!

It was also physical disability week, so we had a lot of kids in chairs and the guys from British Columbia Sportability were up for a few days with their hot-wheeled wheelchairs! Thalia and I had a group of six boys. Joe the beatboxer who had a moustache and more facial hair than I did, he was only 15! Chayse who was on crutches, but his preferred method to get around was a wheelchair but his mum wanted him to walk after having surgery, typical teenager questioning and demanding more. Max who was 17 and originating from Haiti so his English wasn't the best, but we got by. He loved to play basketball. Alex who was similar to the Alex last week in that he had different interests to the group, he really got into the theme of the week and would through all sorts of quirky facts at us about aliens and planes. Charlie came with his PSW (Personal Support Worker) because he required full time care. Beautiful kid whose exceptionality was autism/down syndrome so it was very hard to communicate with him. His PSW Kirtsy was amazing though, I believe she has been coming to camp for 7 years in a row! Finally, there was Trevor and his PSW Kyle, who was also his brother. Trev was a lot of fun, again he wasn't want to say much, but he always had a sly grin on his face.

The week went by rather fast. Like last week our group was to be camping out on the 2nd night. I really enjoy camp out, some kids have a go on the big swing which is fun to watch as we haul them up. There were talent shows throughout the week where anyone can get up and sing or dance, or whatever they fancy, some stand up from time to time. Joe, representing the Cyborgs did us proud when he dropped some phat beats. My boyyyy! Park day is on the 4th day of camp every week, and this week we were graced with beautiful weather. We spend all day outside, tie-dying for the kids, making badges, getting wet, eating outside, a local sailboat business takes the kids out. Good times! This week Kangaroo Kourt was on day 5 because we had an open house on day 6 so a tonne of staff got gooed and pies in the face, and so on. I slipped under the rader, ha! A few campers did protest though...

Performing OH BANANA in the pool!

Our programmers getting gooed!

The open house ran smoothly the following day. We had approximately 150 guests come to camp, walk around and see how it all runs. A lot of the people that come are members of the Lions club who I believe own and umbrella camp. They raise all the funds for camp and a lot of the people that come are the donors, so campers had to be on their best behaviour... But that didn't stop one of my boys and his temper. Joe was a great kid, but at times he would get frustrated and similar to Myles the week prior, he would stomp and have a little bit of a hissy fit. It was funny because earlier on in the week, I encouraged my boys to ask a girl to the end of week banquet/dance. Nothing suss... Well a little love interest developed between Joe and a girl he asked. I felt terrible when we had to stop them from holding hands, etc...

Anyhow, the day went smoothly, as expected, a bit of a tantrum here and there, but nothing us super counsellors can't handle! There was a big talent show that afternoon after lunch and the Cyborgs got up and did a last minute rap that we wrote, classic!

That evening was the banquet where all the campers get dressed up, we have a fancier dinner and there are speeches from graduating campers who have turned 18 and will not be returning next year. The dance is always fun, we play the same Justin Bieber songs and One Direction songs over and over again until everybody becomes nauseous. Good times!

The following morning is always sad, goodbyes are not fun and when the campers go you sort of feel a bit empty. It's not only a super week of fun and good times, but when the campers leave teary eyed you know that you've done an alright job.

There was one sad moment throughout the week. Old mate Saeed was asked to leave camp. For reasons unknown, my Bangladeshi bandit is no longer here. It's a shame, but I will no doubt catch him in Victoria.

The break that just passed, myself and Lisa decided to get off premises and go camping! For most of the breaks we've had here, I usually spend my 3 days off lounging around on the dock, and doing very little. So Lisa and I packed up our stuff and off we went. No real destination in mind, just drive and find a cool campsite and hang out for 2 days. The first day we drove for almost 5 hours I reckon and finally decided to just pay for a camp ground. Camping was fun, it was right next to a beautiful lake, we had to start our own fire (both amateur campers), put up our own tent, cook whatever we had, which was mainly leftovers from camp. A few mosquito bites here and there, a bit of malnourishment but it's all good! Lisa is pretty spectacular, she provides great insight and conversation on a lot of different topics and despite being very different, we get along pretty well.

Nice little spot for camping!

Local kids, who believe that they are going to be famous because I took their picture.

Lisa and I

The second night camping we moved on to another camp ground that someone recommended. Of course we got lost again but only drove for a few hours before reaching our destination. This was a bit smaller and not as much of a modern camp as the other one. We were supposed to boil our hot water before we cooked it, which didn't happen because we couldn't figure out how to get the borrowed kettle above the fire without burning the plastic handle... Ahh tough times don't last, but tough people do! We made it through the night, more mosquito bites, but full of zest for life thanks to our new experiences.

Yesterday was PRO-D day. I don't know what it means, but we have a casual mid Summer sit down with the co-ordinators and discuss our progress so far and areas for improvement, etc... We also have an opportunity to tie-dye our own stuff, and use some wicked screen prints that our beautiful Arts and Crafts programmer Tiffany has designed.

She's a mad woman!

Fundustrial Revolution alright!

LIVE. LOVE. CAMP.

AND I finally got a chance to go on the big swing, which wasn't that big because there were only 4 people heaving my butt up, but it was still fun! A nice part of yesterday was exchanging "warm fuzzies". These are just sheets with our names on it and everybody goes and writes a nice little message on everybody elses. This is similar to our "love note" system whereby you can at anytime write someone a special note, which is always nice to receive.

Finally got my go on the big swing. Hoorah!

My sacred space

Just that little bit more cosier.

Yay for love!

Week 3

Is about to kick off in under an hour. It is 7:30am presently and we meet at 8:30am at breakfast for instructions. What will follow will no doubt be exciting beyond exciting! BUDDY GROUPS! YESSSSS!!! So I'll let you know how it goes...

WE'RE FROM CAMP SHAWNIGAN, MIGHTY MIGHTY SHAWNIGAN! WE'RE FROM CAMP SHAWNIGAN AND WE COULDN'T BE PROUDER!!!!

Chilling out at camp

jamesshanks — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 10:55:00 GMT

The past week has been an epic roller coaster full of ups, downs and upside-downs!

A weekend of camp left us a bit tired. Nahhhh, still having fun!

Campers have come and gone. Friday the 22nd - Sunday the 24th was new camper weekend where those who have never been to camp before get an introduction and taste of camp. I didn't realise that until August the 17th, all those that are coming to camp have actually been before, they know this place better than I do, and have a lot more knowledge.. Oh well! It doesn't matter, I am still going to rock it!!!

On Friday, all the staff gathered into a big circle on the lawn and were assigned buddy groups. I was paired up with Siobhan and together we were going to hang out with five boys, ranging from ages 8 - 11 years old. The disabilities in the group comprised of autism, down syndrome, one boy was prone to epilepsy, FASD and ADHD. All of them were absolute superstars!

It was a rainy afternoon when they arrived (so much for "Summer" camp) and the very first camper to drive in the through the gates was one of our boys, Jakey. The excitement at this point was paramount! Admittedly, Jakob was quite the handful. Great kid, just everywhere at once. Fortunately, I am equipped with endless amounts of energy, so keeping up was no problem. We hung out, as we waited for the other campers to arrive. Siobhan and I had Jakob, Evan, Nick, Josh and Bennett.

The theme over the weekend was the Olympics, and during our opening ceremony that evening our Olympic torch was stolen by an evil bandit (one of the other counsellors dressed up) oh no! This created quite the frenzy amongst a few campers. After much singing, distress and a few wind me down games, it was bed time! The campers were given some watermelon and juice before bed (which I highly disagree with, and if it was up to me, I would have given them nothing but water!) but anyways, we got everyone to brush their teeth and get into bed. I read them a Cars story to continue the wind down, but full of sugar and excitement, it took a while to get them to sleep. We are required to stay in the room for 20 minutes after the last kid drifts off. Oh joy!

Up bright an early the next morning, I had a snack before I had to get upstairs to let "dorm duty" off. Dorm duty consists of two "float" counsellors who do not have any campers that week, so that stay up the whole night ensuring everything is run smoothly i.e. campers are soundly sleeping, changing any wet beds, etc... Kudos to these guys, I am nervous for my turn. I can barely stay up past midnight in a club! My boys were all awake and wide eyed when I pranced into the room at 7:20am. I started to get them ready, scrubbing teeth, getting changed and getting siked up for the day! Breakfast is 8:30am so we had time to kill. Our team, Pumping Iron (our carefully chosen team name) rolled into the costume room and picked out some badass costumes for the day.

The rest of the day was spent going between a few activities from the pool to the rock climbing wall to the low ropes course and arts and crafts. The rest hour for the counsellors between 4:15pm and 5:15pm was GOLD. I was feeling a bit run down, I think it's a combination of my super charged group and the flu that has been going round.

After dinner that evening there was to be a DANCE PARTY! Heck yeah!!! We all pranced into the gym in our super costumes. Siobhan and I went with a green theme, I didn't realise until after how ridiculous I looked, but that was okay. We danced around to some teeny bopper songs from J. Bieber and One Direction. It was definitely a lot of fun to just go wild and be care free.

Siobhan, Saeed and I at the dance.

That evening the boys feel asleep rather quickly, kudos to Tony who rocked the guitar in our room with some quiet, ambient chords. I nearly fell asleep! A report or two was filled out afterwards and then BED TIME. Absolutely pooped, but what an awesome day.

It was a shame that the weekend was so short. They were gone just as quick as they had come, but a few would be returning in a few weeks for the real deal.

Sunday and Monday consisted of the final two days of orientation which was more fire drills, learning how to lift and transfer in and out of a canoe and how to perform a T-rescue on a tipped over canoe in the water. We also had "Shabangabang" which was held on Sunday evening and was an opportunity for everyone to get up and do a 30 second - 10 minute presentation on themselves. Mine was a rap. I put together a little poem which summed me up in about a minute. It was a really cool evening, learned a lot about my fellow staff.

Monday evening we had a presentation evening. A few weeks ago we drew names out of a hat (similar to a secret santa) and we had to come up with an award for that person. I was given these;

Awwww yeahhhh!

I said a little speech in French for my secret santa person (Zoe) and gave her a funky bracelet which I had slaved over all day.

Now we are halfway through our 3 day break. Kids will be rocking up on Saturday for a FULL week of camp, so everyone is resting and doing some serious chilling out. Me? I've been watching a few TV shows online with Saeed and Lisa. Breaking Bad is AWESOME!

Saeed, Lisa and I at the Pier. Beautiful!

Out for a canoe with the Bangladeshi bad boy!

A lot of time has been spent in the lake, on the canoes and just hanging out. I love camp, I love these guys and I love my life!

Today? It's not that warm out, I will do some sort of workout. Most like a run, but I am in dire need of a muscle pump. My wrist however is still in pain from that little bicycle accident in Victoria. The nurses here believe it is just a bruised bone, ouch!

Oh how great it is to just chill out. And here is my first sighting of a bear since I've been here!

OH HEY THERE CAMP BEAR!

Note: I'm not actually allowed to publicly publish the photos I take of the kids. Bummer, it is what it is, so I suppose I will have to be super descriptive!

Photos: Summer Time Baby

jamesshanks — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 08:12:00 GMT

It's time... for Summer Camp!

Camp Shawnigan

jamesshanks — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 08:12:00 GMT

Summer camp is here! Well actually here I am, at Summer Camp!

Since arriving 9 days ago, lots and lots has happened. New surroundings, new people, new dorm room, new food, I love new!

And that is about it!

Ancient tree, HUGE!

This photo was taken the day before I left for Summer Camp, when I had my bicycle accident, which I am still healing from. Dan and I rode from downtown Victoria all the way to Goldstream Provincial Park. Great ride!

Dan and I on top of Goldstream.

Here is old mate Dan from Ontario. Dan and I rode from downtown Victoria all the way to Goldstream Provincial Park, hiked up the steep mini mountain which probably took about 40 minutes, and then rode back. My ideal day!

Camp Shawnigan

Here I am, after much anticipation, waiting and many, many troubles, I have finally arrived at camp.

The past week and a bit has been nothing short of AWESOME! We drove in and were greeted by Cole, Jim and Darby (technically our bosses, the coordinators) who gave us hugs and inquired about our dietary requirements (full blown vegan for me please!)

Cole, Jim and Darby - my bosses!

I rolled into camp with Katrina and Colleen and we were taken on a tour of the grounds. Admittedly upon arrival, my first thoughts were that this place kind of stunk. I mean the bedroom I am sharing is with two Canadian Germans and a Bangladeshi. The room has no windows. I must say now that the no windows and complete darkness is rather enjoyable to sleep in. HOWEVER, that is counteracted with my room mates. One snores very inconsistently and another talks in his sleep.

Since the 12th we had a week of orientation. This involved a scavenger hunt in which we got to dress up, lots of group reading of the staff manual which covers an array of topics from what do in a fire drill (and a rehearsal) how to respond to a Multi Coloured Phoenix (missing camper procedure) lots of behaviour support training, lifting and transferring campers and so on. Between much of the work stuff, a lot of time has been spent in Lake Shawnigan. Which is definitely the highlight of this place, in my opinion.

First swim in the lake for the Summer!

German Michael and I swimming to Goose poop Island.

Black and White sunset of the lake.

There is also a little mountain across the road from the camp. I have attempted to get to the top 3 times so far, all resulting in me becoming lost and distressed. The third time I went up with 3 friends, one of which is my roomie.

Zoe, Chloe and Michael on the mountain in the morning. We got up at 6:30am for it - legends! I am going to get to the top of the mountain this Summer!

Other than all that, it's been an intense week of training. I have loved every minute of it, we sing camp songs, play camp games and hanging out with the same people every day has been fun too. It beats meeting people, moving on and then meeting some more people, moving on again. I must reiterate how fantastic EVERYONE is. My new colleagues are more like a great bunch of goofy friends, who rock!

We finished orientation on the 18th and were granted 3 days rest break. That evening, a fair few of us we went to the pub down the road. It wasn't a rowdy night, but it was good to get out of the camp and relax over a cold beer in a relaxed environment, the orientation week was fun, but it was somewhat intense and there was a lot to take onboard.

Some of the gang at Black Swan - the local pub.

Celebratory shots!

The following day the majority of staff were leaving site to go home for a day or two, down to Victoria to shop (it's about 45 minutes away) and to just hang out elsewhere. I went down to Victoria with Thalia, Taylor and Erich. We met up with others that evening at a pub, and had a jolly night dancing away.

Erich, Saeed, Taylor, Thalia, Stacie and I - earlier in the night.

Tonne of fun with new friends.

All in all, we were probably in Victoria for less than 24 hours, the next morning we came back up to camp, and it was equally, if not more exciting to drive into the camp again (we did go shopping and achieve other things in Victoria) but it became apparent that the main reason we had gone down was to part-ay!

It was a beautiful day when we came back to camp (Wednesday the 20th) and I've been wanting to go for a wicked swim in the lake since arriving. Not just a muck around play swim, but swim to the other shore. So I pulled on my super-pink tights if anyone remembers those? I convinced Erich and Jamie to join me (Erich is this years aquatics programmer and Jamie was last years) so I was in good hands. Jamie took the canoe and stuck beside us until we reached the other side, which was a relief. Then Erich hopped in the canoe and Jamie swam back with me. I felt pretty hot to trot afterwards, it was a tough swim but we conquered it! Mind you, it's probably only about 1km there and back.

Photo from across the lake. There is that darn mountain.

Jamie, our guide across the lake. S-U-P-E-R STAR!

The rest of the day was spent lazying around in the water, pushing people in and having fun in the sun, with sunscreen of course!

Now for yesterday, which was awesome-super-fun! Standard. It was shaping up to be a somewhat warm day so about 7 of us got the canoes out and decided to paddel down to J.J. Coconuts restaurant for lunch. Canoeing is a tonne of fun, and it was enjoyable to sit and have a coffee with the gang.

Erich and I ready for our canoe.

Lunch time at J.J. Coconuts.

After the canoe right, it was time to hit the water and enjoy the last day before "work" commences. The camp received a steller donation in the form of a large water mat which is MEGA FUN!

Hanging on the water mat!

Something that I believe deserves a mention is that Tony forgot his shirt at the restaurant. To retrieve it we decided to run there and back as fast as we could. Oh gee wiz, I'm getting slack! I'd like to blame it on all the good food I am eating here; the cooks are legendary! My legs don't seem to want to move as fast as they used to.. I think I am getting old.

The rest of the day was spent hanging out in dorms, on the trampoline and mingling with the gang of awesome folk. Love it!

After a BBQ that evening, we played with a frisbee, volleyball and chatted amongst one another. A dance party was thrown in the staff kitchen room where whoever is unfortunate enough to be in the surrounding area gets roped in to shake it to terrible 90s music. Good times.

Finally, here we are. New Camper day. At approximately 4pm today, new campers will begin to arrive for the weekend. It's going to be a big clean up day, but it's also very exciting. Breakfast is in 18 minutes, and I haven't showered yet (after last nights dance party, I'm in dire need of one).

Au revoir!

Goodbye Victoria, hello Summer Camp!

jamesshanks — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 13:24:00 GMT

On a beautiful sunny day (or the past two!) what is the best way to fully experience what a city has to offer? Exercise!

I jogged 7.5kms along the water on Sunday arvo, it felt great! I was a bit tender afterwards (longest run in a while) but it felt good to properly run. Dinner was some home made tabbouleh, with asparagus. Yum, yum, yum!

Yesterday was technically my last full day in Victoria, I hope! I decided to hire a bike with a fella named Dan (from Ontario) who has just spent a year in Australia with his girlfriend. Dan and I decided to ride to Goldstream Provincial Park and then hike up the wee small mountain and ride back.

I had a minor stack riding back, bit fat downhill.

My wrist is definitely hurting, but I will survive! Time to head to Summer camp, I am being picked up, right about now! MOST RUSHED ENTRY EVER.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring! :)

Uncertainty

jamesshanks — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 14:45:00 GMT

I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't apprehensive about my position as a camp counsellor this Summer. Thinking about it, and now writing it creates an unpleasant sensation in my tummy. What has happened? I had better rewind and catch up on the past 6 days...

On Monday afternoon, I was invited to do a boot camp with Ahshad, who is also staying at the same hostel. He is studying at Royal Roads university and as we got chatting, he asked me to come along for a tough workout.

The university proudly boasts a large gymnasium, which was impressive and it felt really good to be back in a "gym environment" - dad maybe you are right, maybe I do have "gym muscles". Unfortunately the boot camp was to be held indoors due to the sporadic weather.

I got two shocks that afternoon. The first came in the form of a nasty number! 170lbs according the the scales at the uni gym. I might cut back on the PB & J.

The 40 something year old trainer, who is also a cop, came across as friendly and explained that today would be simple because he had to be at a meeting afterwords. Suicides, push ups, squats and tricep dips - easy huh? That's what I thought.

The group consisted of mainly men, older men. Actually, there was only one women. I didn't really pay much attention to the others around me. Come the end of the workout, well maybe half way through, I was huffing and puffing, I felt somewhat dizzy and was burning in places I haven't burned in months! It was a good wake up call though.

Ahshad and I post-workout.

I felt pretty masculine standing next to that guy in my pink sweater.

I'm going to blame my poor performance on the caffeine addiction I have picked up. I enjoyed another Americano that afternoon with Judith. Europeans really like to enjoy their coffee. It was noted the day before when I was out with the gay boys, that over here (and I am assuming Australia as well) people are in such a rush, they never get to enjoy their coffee, where as in Europe, people sit down and take their time with their cup of brew. I must say, it is rather enjoyable and I don't mind the Americano!

It was to be expected that I would wake up on Tuesday morning in pain, and I most certainly did! Good pain, if there is such a thing? I was to be left alone again and decided to switch over to the quieter HI hostel.

Beatrice, Judith and I

I got what I wanted and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with myself. Come evening though, I made friends with Paolo, an Italian from Manitoba, an English girl named Amy and a giant from Lithuania named Egle (who I had met in Nanaimo). We played a few poor games of pool and it was suggested we check out the "Sooke Pot holes" in the morning.

So the next morning, Paolo recruited another fella with a car named Jack (also from England) and he drove us up there. Going by the pictures I had seen on the internet, memories of Wattamolla in the Royal National Park came to mind and I was very excited to jump off some rocks into the water. Unfortunately, it was a bit chilly and I barely got my toes wet.

Pretty and peaceful.

Raging anger!!!!

Paolo taking getting his toes wet.

Chill.

After exploring the area and eating, we piled back into Jacks hire car and he dropped us off back in Victoria, as he and Paolo headed for Tofino.

Amy was only in town for that evening before she too (right too, huh?! BOO YAH) headed for Tofino. She wanted to check out a pub, so I rallied up the troops and we invaded Big Bad Johns. I think I had one beer and probably 3 buckets of nuts, yes I did wake up with a major tummy ache.

So much for getting away from people and chilling out.

The next morning I met a somewhat lovely girl from Melbourne named Felicia. She told me that she was going to take the 10am historical walking tour. I didn't have any intention in taking part, but somehow Egle and her convinced me.

A super old school lift which was built for some obese fella... Don't ask me the details!

This used to be a horse, pig and human drinking fountain!

It was definitely a nice change of pace. And after a beautiful Vege lunch (which of course I took a photo of) I was so pumped up on tour adrenaline and historical facts that I went and joined the 1:30pm Parliament building tour with Dave from Denmark, Western Australia (I had no idea there was such a place).

Dave, myself, Carla and Aymeric at Re-Bar.

Our tour guide with a Canadian coat of arms. I think...

Stain glassed windows.

Dave and I - Behind us it reads in Latin "splendour without diminishment". I believe they are referring to British Columbia.

The role playing got to be a bit much so Davo and I snuck out the back...

That evening was typical; pool and wine!

Where am I now? This week has been such a blur. Oh here comes the not so nice news. So on Friday morning, I woke up at 7am so I could call CIC at 8am and find out the status of my VISA application. In short, I had to apply for a new VISA because in order to work with children this Summer, I needed to get a medical exam done to ensure that I was not a risk to public health and so on and so forth (Blah blah blah). I submitted the new application and paid another fee online on the 15th of May. I was told it would take 15 working days to process, but where the hell is it?!

Apparently there has been some technical difficulties and what not at CIC and this is the new processing schedule:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/temp.asp

Ouch!

I've emailed the camp and told them the situation and basically I can not be on premises without a statement saying I can work with children. My future as a camp counsellor looks grim.

That's the reality, and I just have to accept it. I'm not much of a miracle believer, but I wouldn't mind one right about now? I am still going to head up on Tuesday with some others in a car pool and we'll see how it pans out.

If Summer Camp falls through, I think I will head over to Alberta, explore new land there and find some work in possibly Banff, or somewhere nice.

ANYWAYS, let's continue...

I went to the park and had a half assed workout, barely focusing or channelling any energy into what I was doing.

As the day went on, I started to feel better. Meditation definitely helps, along with some good food and great company. I hung out with Beatrice, who had left Victoria at the beginning of the week with Judith, heading to Tofino and had come back the day prior. We cooked up a Ratatouille (vegetables always make me feel better!) and I taught her to play chess. We also went shopping with Felia and I picked up a BRAND NEW HAT, wait til' you see this bad boy... Thift stores are the way to go. They are basically like St. Vinnies.

The evening followed with more pool and more wine. Ahhhhh the hostel life!

This brings us to yesterday. Everyone left me. So what to do?

I spent yesterday reading, meditating, playing chess against the computer, watching documentaries, reading more, meditating more, cooking, reading some more. I was in bed earlier, which was nice. I don't have any photos to show of yesterday, oh wait... yes I do! Ha ha ha, sitting up in Starbucks/Chapters this passed...

I hope they don't mind me taking their photo!

At least they are wearing helmets.

And a close up for the cold folk!

I asked the lady sitting next to me what was going on, she had no idea. A random day in downtown Victoria.

Finally, here we are today. I've checked out of HI Victoria, moving back to Ocean Island because I realised I can save a total of $5.12 over the next two evenings staying there, I'll have access to an oven where I can finally bake some yams and a chess board where I can challenge non-English speaking travellers.

I'm going to bury myself in a book shortly, go for a workout, maybe watch another documentary. Remember Vipassana? I'm still practicing, it is obviously a bit more of a challenge in the hostel environment, but I love it. If guys in a prison can do it, so can I.

Doing Time, Doing Vipassana - This doco goes inside an Indian prison to show how inmates who comes into contact with the meditation technique Vipassana are changed. Have a look for yourself.

Time to go and blow some pretty bubbles!

Backpacking; life as I know it

jamesshanks — Mon, 4 Jun 2012 21:40:00 GMT

Check in, check out. Unpack, repack. "Hey how are you? What's your name? Where are you from?"

Good bye! Lovely to meet you, see you when I see you!

Repeat.

Actually, on second thought. Introducing yourself and offering your name isn't anywhere near as important as where you are from. Regardless, it's a vicious cycle!

Over three months now. Did I think I would last? Of course! Have I thought about returning home? Of course! Am I still having fun? I think so.

When I think about it, a quarter of a year really strikes me as a long time. What do I have to show for the time I've had away? Well this journal for one. A few colourful snaps here and there, some emails and new contacts around the globe, and I will even be as bold to say, new skills in the kitchen!

I need some new growth! I need some new challenges. I am heading up to Shawnigan Lake in about one week, depending on when I can arrange a ride with the other counsellors. I AM SO FLIPPIN' EXCITED! If I could, I would hide myself away for the next week and speak with no one. Maybe Vipassana round 2? Living out of a bag, well a few, has been fun and interesting, but what's next? I feel like I am starting to flatline. Not in a bad way, but not entirely in a good way. I still love the opportunity to meet new people and develop new relationships, but it's starting to feel like a bit of a routine thing. I personally don't see this lifestyle as something that I could continue for ANOTHER 3 months. Although, perhaps I could, if I was to travel elsewhere. Even then, I still REALLY want to work and get some routine happening, give me some structure within my days!

I don't think backpacking is a sustainable lifestyle. Where I am now (Ocean Island) and have been many times before, there are numerous travellers who I have observed and noted to be stuck in that monotonus rip. They aren't unhappy with their lives, but they do not appear to be happy. They don't appear to be comfortable, nor are they uncomfortable to do anything about it.

Is this sounding terribly negative? Perhaps. It doesn't matter, because I still love my life and still enjoy every single day! I just want more...

I caught a ride back to Victoria on Saturday morning with a quiet, but pleasant guy named Emir, from the French part of Switzerland (don't forget, country of origin is important!). He had hired himself a sporty looking Mazda mx 5 for his 29th birthday. He offered me a lift as I was about to leave the hostel, after noticing my fantastically decorated "VICTORIA" sign. Easy enough hey? We squeezed everything into his hire car, my large backpack sat between my legs as I dozed in and out of sleep. I think I am starting to become a bit car sick when I ride up front now. I don't know why, but every time I am in the passengers seat, I start to feel a little bit nauseous. Uh ohhhh!

We had a coffee upon arriving back in Victoria, talked for a bit and then I had to RUN! I did actually go for a run, I felt it was necessary. As I was running down Douglas street, I bumped into Baptiste from Tofino! He had caught a ride with Michel and Teun on the same day, and had come straight to Victoria, where as I had stopped over in Nanaimo for the evening. I was supposed to email him, but running took precedence.

He was planning to meet Michel and Teun (from Dutchland BTW, living in Germany though) at around 4pm in front of the Ocean Island. I told him I would meet them there, after eating and hopefully showering. I had my quickie workout, freshened up and met Baptiste. There were no plans, so I convinced him to have a game of chess.

Australia vs France!

I had been craving (and I still am RIGHT NOW) a game. Baptiste was a worthy opponent, but I won. He had to go back to his couch surfers place. So I was left alone. I raided the book pantry in the hostel, cleaned it up and found 5 books that I will read over the next week, or take with me.

What was for dinner? I had been swayed by the Frenchies so I went with the Ratatouille. DELICIOUS! I am really enjoying playing with food.

I even impressed myself, getting my basil and thyme on!

That evening, I bumped into Michel and Teun. These guys are great company! Super funny, friendly and gay. There was a large group of us (80% Europeans) who had all hung out in the sauna in Tofino. These two were including in that large, European group and it was good to see them again, and hang out with them more that evening. We had a beer, watched a bit of the live music in the hostel and shared a laugh.

Sunday morning, of course no plans. Michel and Teun told me that Baptiste was coming round to hang out at approximately 9am. He arrived, we played chess. Baptiste and Dr. Teun (yes, he is a doctor) against me. BAM! In the end, Europe fell as it does, and Australia was victorious. This time though, it was a much longer, more intense game. We decided to grab lunch, hopped around to the local grocery store and got some goodies. I convinced Baptiste to go with the tempah option and we made some veggie burgers with fresh guacamole. YUM!

Good food, somewhat good company (kidding!) and good times!

Lunch was very heavy, and it was a nice day, so the four of us left the hostel (only after Michel took 30 minutes to change his shorts, groom his hair and select an appropriate sweater) to go wander! I was in need of a new watch, new water bottle, along with some new shoes and thongs. I found myself a new hip water bottle, and we wandered through the Bay Centre, window shopping.

Michel demanded that it was cappuccino time, despite it almost being 4pm. Of course the trantrumatic (is that a word?) gay got his way and we went to a local coffee shop. Teun and Michel insisted on purchasing us something, so I grabbed an Americano (I think it's just a black coffee and I added cinnamon) and Baptiste had an ice cream. We enjoyed a lengthy conversation, mainly about what I did for work in Australia. They all listened intently, which was nice. We then moved the conversation to my favourite place; Parliament building!

I was bouncing off the walls after my Americano, thanks guys!

We hung out there for a while longer, talking about everything. Doctor Teun gave me some excellent advice, and so did Michel. Career opportunities, studying and travelling. It's fantastic to meet these kind of travellers (well, they were here on a business conference/vacation) who have so much more to share.

It was coming up 5pm and we headed back to the hostel. There we met Judith! My German travel buddy from a few weeks prior, actually just last week. She had gone to Banff with Madlen and didn't quite enjoy it there as much as Victoria, so she's back! I was getting hungry, and we were supposed to make lasagne (which I will hopefully do later today) but instead, because there were quite a few of us, we opted to make pizza. Flour, water, oil and salt for the dough. Topped with lots of colourful veggies, herbs and cheese. YUMM

Fresh, veggie and delicious!

Good company. Great people!

We had plenty, shared with some other surrounding seagulls (travellers watched eagerly) and enjoyed a good feast. Baptiste left us at around 7:30pm to go and couch surf. That evening, Judith and I shared another beer with the fellas.

Today, unfortunately here comes the teary part... It's goodbye, again! Oh the harshness of travelling. I met Baptiste downstairs at 8:30am, insisted on one final chess game whilst we waited for Michel and Teun to join us for breakfast. Unfortunately, they had to grab a bus/ferry back to Vancouver. I enjoyed learning off them, they offered a lot of valuable life experience, and tonnes of bragging about how Europe is superior to the rest of the world. Heard that one before!

Ciao Europe!

It is about noon now, and I am in my favourite place. Starbucks/Chapters on Douglas, downtown. Love this place. I don't buy any books here, nor do I buy any coffee. I come in, use the wifi, read through books, fill my water bottle. I love this place. I REALLY like Victoria.

Later today, I am going to meet with a new friend, Ahshad, to go to a boot camp with him. Should be exciting! Time to eat though, I am HUNGRY.

Peace, love and RESPECT to all!

Hitch hiking?

jamesshanks — Fri, 1 Jun 2012 21:15:00 GMT

As I count down the days until Summer camp, I'm looking for different way to fill my days. After hanging out in Nanaimo for a day, appreciating the time to myself. On Wednesday, I got myself up early, routinely packed up my bags and squeezed all the food I had into every nook and cranny.

Destination:

I decided to give hitchhiking a go. It's been drummed into me how safe and easy it is in Canada, more so on Vancouver Island. So how to would it take me to get a ride, or rides from Nanaimo to Tofino? I caught a bus with all my bags from the hostel in Nanaimo, to the beginning of the highway heading North. From here, I plopped my bags on the ground, not knowing how long it would take to get someone to pull over. I had chosen a spot right next to the traffic lights so I could stare all the commuters in the eyes as I flopped and waved my sign around in the air above my head and beamed a big, cheesy grin. I started at 10:06am and at 10:09am, my first ride. BAM! Doesn't get any better. A gardener in a beat up old red box pulled over and told me to hop in. She was only going 30kms or so in the direction that I was heading, but it was a start!

She dropped me off by the side of the road, I got myself set up at a nice little spot, easy to pull over and started waving my sign at every car that sped by. Within 3 minutes, BAM! A van pulled over. No, the lady behind the wheel didn't offer my any candy to get into the van, but asked if I needed a ride to Tofino. I threw my stuff in the back and away we went! Calli was pretty cool. Big on her cars and reggae, we made a few stops along the way and eventually we arrived in Tofino at approximately 2:30pm. She dropped me off at the hostel, and from there, things only got better!

My doppelganger - Pee Wee!

The hostel was fully booked, woopsie. BUT, the dude behind the desk told me I could sleep in the games room (where the pool table and foosball was) for only $22/night. The normal rate for a dorm is about $36/night. I booked two nights, games room that night and the dorm the next evening. I was bunking with a French fella named Baptiste who has hitch hiked all the way from Montreal to the island, super cool! We hung out for a bit, smashing the foosball table whilst the rain poured down.

I had come back to Tofino because last time I was here, things were to rushed due to some unforeseen Germans going crazy. I was surprised when the very same crazy German walked in about 30 minutes after I had checked in... Super! I can not escape! Half the hostel that was in Victoria the week earlier was in the same hostel in Tofino. It didn't matter though, I had made a handful of new pals and that evening we decided to head to the only pub in town. It also happened to be old mate Eike's birthday. I met Eike and Max two months ago in Victoria when I first started to hit up the hostels, and we've kept in contact since. These two wicked-cool Germans have been hanging in Tofino for the past two months, working as dishwashers and loving the beach life.

First time round in Victoria

Second time around in Tofino!

The pub was jam packed. It seems that everyone in the town swarms there to have a few drinks and take part in some awful karaoke. I hung around with some guys from the hostel, sung a few songs and then left rather early.

There were no plans on Thursday morning, I got up, had my super cereal breakfast and bumped into Baptiste. We had slept in the cold games room with Silvan, from Switzerland. Baptiste and I wanted to explore, and what better way than on a bike!

We met up with Silvan and another French fella named Tobine and together the four of us got our basic fixie bikes, I demanded the one with at least 3 gears, and rode out of town. Where to first? Of course the WW2 place crash.

Seeing things a second time round really isn't that bad. I've found that a lot my trip thus far has had repeated offences. I've been back and forth through many of the same cities, visited many of the same sites more than once and even met up with the same friends, again and again! The first time is always great, but usually the second time is better!

Climbing through the swamps

It was more of a challenge to get there this time, due to all the rain. Last time was a bit to rushed, and it was really great to take it all in this time.

Lunch on a WW2 bomber!

We continued on, down towards Long Beach and (unknowingly) locked our bikes up in a little Indian reserve, where I believe it is almost considered trespassing. Because after exploring Long Beach for a bit, we came back and one of the bikes had been nicked! This sucked, it turned out to be Silvans, but we stuck together and the hire company drove out another bike. Tobine continued on, while myself, Baptiste and Silvan rode back to town. We got back at about 4:30pm, 6 hours of riding and hiking. AWESOME!

Baptiste and I had agreed on having a chilled out evening, kicking ass on the foosball table, which we had both become quite addicted too. A cool gal named Sammy invited us to a bonfire that was happening on the beach at 6:30pm, we were going to pass, but then old mate Max swung by the hostel (he had told me the night prior, but I had kind of forgotten). So we ended up on the beach with half of the hostel (not really) but there was a few of us, with our pitiful fire.

Good bunch of folk, with delicious marshmellows, courtesy of team Holland!

Myself and Baptiste left at around 8:30pm, hit up the sauna in the hostel with half a dozen other folk and just relaxed there. It was a relaxing way to end an exhausting day.

A super cool scientist girl named Theraesa was heading towards Nanaimo today, and I ended up catching a ride with her. We stopped off for lunch in Port Alberni where she caught up with some more scientist friends, I felt like I was on set of the Big Bang Theory.

Alas, I am in Nanaimo, again. It's funny, 2 months ago I thought the place sucked, but now it is what I am looking for. Just time to chill out before camp. Also, when I caught a ride with Sammy from Victoria to Nanaimo a few days ago, I left my bag full of cables in her car (camera charger, etc..) so I am hoping to meet up with her tomorrow or Sunday and head back to Victoria with her. AND today I left my favourite bottle in Theresa's car. Oh what is happening to me!

It just past 7pm now, I think I will head back to the hostel now. The Starbucks lady just asked me if I've purchased anything, of course not!

Deutsche Freunde (Part 2)

jamesshanks — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:22:00 GMT

Let us continue!

Thursday 24th - Present time (Monday 28th)

The past few days have been very mellow and relaxing. The weather in Victoria has been superb, the sun glistening on the harbour is absolutely beautiful. I took full advantage of the sun and went to my new favourite spot in Victoria, the Parliament building front yard and lay there reading.

On Thursday morning I awoke and went for a lightish jog. Cruising 6kms, up and down some hills, burning off the dozen loaves of bread I had personally consumed over the past week. I still needed to attend to my CRC (Criminal Record Check) so I went to see Denise at the Victorian police station. I had dealt with her when I was first in Victoria around 2 months ago. She had gotten in contact with the camp and explained to them how pointless it was for her to do a background check on me, considering I have only been in the country for less than 3 months and that nothing will show up because in that time it isn't possible to have committed a crime and then have it processed by the court, or something like that. However, as it stands, the camp told her that I still need to get one so they can put it on file (CYA principle). Normally this would cost $50, but she told me she wouldn't charge me. YES! Oh how I love the police, well Criminal Record Specialists. Thanks Denise!

Later that day, there was more lounging around on the warm grass next to the harbour, and this time Madlen came with me. She dozed off in the sun and got burnt. Seeing snow was a first for me, seeing the sun is a first for a German... Ha ha ha! This time, we were celebrities though, large groups of Chinese tourists came up started snapping away right in front of us, then a few wanted a photo with us! So I got them to take a photo for my collection too.

Rear shot of the tourists. Tourists, pfft!

My number 1 fan!

Going by my super memory, the rest of that day evening was spent being incredibly lazy. I watched a movie called "Trouble is my Business". It's a wicked and insightful documentary that captures real life drama inside the South Aukland school, Aorere College. I believe I think watched the final two episodes of Summer Heights High. In the midst of it all, I probably consumed enough sugar (thanks to the chocolate macaroons) to fill the Grand Canyon.

The following day was again spent very lazily. The three of us (Judith, Madlen and I) strolled to the Parliament building, where I finished off the remainder of "It's not about the Bike" and the girls soaked in the sun, and fell asleep. Today however, we weren't the only celebrities in town. Apparently there big event revolving around a Mr. David Forster? I've never heard of the bloke, but apparently he is a big time Canadian. Anyways, he had some guests at his special function and they made an appearance on the main strip in front of The Empress. Pamela Anderson, Michael Buble and some other so called celebrities were in town, I tried to mingle with them...

Who are these folk??

I didn't know Pam was Canadian. Is there such thing as a Canadian celebrity??

We had a delicious slice of pizza for lunch, vege of course and strolled to the other side of the island, which I haven't visited yet. It's all apartments, but it's very pretty and it was nice to see Victoria from another angle, I like Victoria.

Saturday the 26th was a beautiful day, it's a pity I spent the whole day in doors doing my First AID and CPR. I don't actually mind learning, but considering I had renewed mine just before I left Australia, it's a bit of a frustration having to devote my entire sunny weekend to a costly course, but it's for the sake of the Summer Camp!!!!!

There was a wifi connection at the course, and I pulled out my laptop and had a message from Madlen explaining that we had been kicked out of the hostel. Actually, we hadn't been evicted, we just hadn't booked another night (because I told them not to worry and we'd do it in the morning). When Madlen had gone down to do it that morning, she was told there was no room. We ended up staying at a halfway house, disguised as the "Turtle Hostel". Fortunately the two diligent Germans threw all my stuff in my bags, packed everything up for me and got it all out of my room and put it in storage. I dumped my stuff at the Turtle Hostel and found them. They had made a friend of a friend, and had spent the day kayaking and on a boat, jealous!

Oh another sunset!

We got to go out on a little harbour tour that evening, very long and boring! I am grateful though, and again, it was nice to see Victoria from another perspective - on the water! We had a nice meal that evening, one beer and that was a wrap!

Water rats!

Cruising on Victoria harbour

I had to get up earlier the next morning because the girls were moving on, off to Banff. I didn't want to stay at the halfway house again, so I packed my stuff at 6am, said our goodbyes, checked out and moved down the road to HI Victoria. I didn't want to go back to the Ocean Island Hostel, because I feel to at home there, and I sort of know a lot of the backpackers there, also there is a ridiculous amount of Germans. HI Victoria was exactly what I was looking for, at first. Quieter, older crowd, big hostel and it was kind of cozy. HOWEVER, the large kitchen did not have an oven! How was I supposed to bake my yam?? I had to boil it... not the same!

Funny, I ran into a German guy I had met in Vancouver two months ago. He was traveling with his brother. I also made friends with two Australian girls, one from the North Shore, and the other from Melbourne. I also met up with another friend I had made 2 months ago in Victoria. Sammy and I met up yesterday arvo, she is looking for a place to rent in Victoria, so I went with her (after I entered part 1 of this entry in, which took all morning and a bit of the arvo. Phew!) and last night we ate at a vege BUFFET! Where you put whatever you want on a plate, they weigh it and then you pay. I got a bit carried away, packed on 1.6kg of delicious vege food and handed ove my $24. Woopsie... But I refrained and saved some for lunch today.

Sammy and I at vege buffet.

1.6kg, or $24 of deliciousness and nutritiousness!!

This morning, I caught a ride with Sammy up back to Nanaimo. She is going on to Comox to her brothers, so I hopped out here whereby I will meet up with two more Germans who I met 2 months ago, and randomly bumped into at the Ocean Island last week. Tomorrow I think I will make my way to Tofino somehow, potentially hitch-hike? Kidding mum!

Now though, I need to get out of here. I am in Starbucks, of course, and it's a beautiful day! I would like to run, but I think my shoes are wearing thin. I may have to purchase a new pair, or if you are feeling generous, you can post them to the Summer Camp where I will be in 2 weeks, SUPER EXCITED!

I'll leave you with another video. It was in Mt. Washington when we stay with Robert. His apartment was at the top of a hill. We had to park our hire car at the bottom, and drag our bags up by sled. The boys were sent to fetch, they grabbed the real sleds and I opted for the toboggan!

Time to spread my wings and FLY! :)

Life is such a bag.

Deutsche Freunde (Part 1)

jamesshanks — Mon, 28 May 2012 10:50:00 GMT

Boy oh boy, where do I start? Let's go with post-Vipassana...

After the event I was fortunate enough to hitch a ride with Sophie-Monique, a lovely Polish girl who was heading to Vancouver. From Vancouver I would carry on with Naomi who was also heading towards Victoria, so I was pretty much set! First she dropped Liddy in Seattle (it did feel somewhat odd to be back in all these places I had already visited, but it was good to see it from another perspective) and then we crossed the boarder back into Canada. That was an exciting feeling, to be back in Maple Syrup land. As we were cruising along in the car, certain topics of discussion arose, including family. Sophie half joked about how her Polish family always have food out and we should stop over and grab a bite before she dropped Naomi and myself off at the port. I don't joke about food, so off we went and boy were her family hospitable! They cooked up a special batch of food for the vege heads, despite it being mothers day and them having a big roast. Her family even got out the fresh wild salmon and insisted we eat some of that. My gosh it was bloody brilliant (sorry fishies!)

The Polish cooks!

Myself, Sophie-Monique and Naomi

It was a beautiful sunny mothers day and they were about to head out on their high-performance wakeboarding boat. Unfortunately, we had to pass on this opportunity because it was getting late and we still had a 90 minute ferry ride to catch. We did go for a walk around the lovely neighbourhood though, I was still in my happy and peaceful place after the meditation, we all were.

Beautiful people!

Cruising back into Victoria - keep the sunsets coming!

Naomi and I rolled into Victoria around 9pm that evening, we were both knackered but we had to trek it another hour and a bit to downtown Victoria, and then to her shared accommodation place where I would be crashing for the night (yes!). Her roomies were cool and super accommodating. I was just pleased to have a wifi connection!

The next morning I ate, got onto the phone with the CIC (Citizenship and Immigration Canada) and started to knuckle down on these VISA problems. Lots of time was spent on hold, but in the end I got through. As it turns out I need to get ANOTHER VISA if I want to work in childcare. Bastards! Admittedly, I was a tad angry and I did not want to sit cross-legged and remain equanimous, so I put my shorts and singlet on and ran. Oh what a feeling! I did seize every opportunity to stop at the crossing lights... I don't think I'll be running any marathons any time soon.

Naomi said I could stay another night if I wanted to, but I felt a bit bad considering there were like 6 people living there, so I went and booked myself into the Ocean Island Hostel, back here again! I think it had been almost 8 weeks since I had left and come back and it was a bit of a surprise to see some of the same people here.

Monday 14th - Thursday 17th

I spent these days on the phone to the CIC, at the police station looking to get my criminal record check finally done and booking my Canadian CPR and First Aid, because Australian CPR and First Aid don't count. So there really wasn't that much to do, but it dragged out and I took every advantage of the sun, lying on the grass in front of the beautiful parliament building next to the harbour reading Lance Armstrongs "It's not about the bike". I would easily spend at least an hour just lying there reading, observing the large crowds of Asian tourists snapping away and munching on my trail mix with chocolate buttons, yum!

Unfortunately I met some more Germans (surprise, surprise) and naturally we kicked it off. I was bunked in the same dorm as Marco and Rene, inevitably forced into introducing myself (kidding, great guys!) and somehow stumbled into a broken English conversation with Madlen and Judith in the kitch whilst baking my delicious yams.

So anyhow, between my trying to get in contact with the Canadian government and lazying around on the grass in front of Parliament building, we hung out a little bit. Observing a Victorian sunset, climbing Mt. Douglas (which turned out to be more of a hill - I had packed enough food for a whole day of climbing, but we reached the top in about an hour) and attempting to teach them the card game Bullshit. I attempted to upload and put a video in this entry, it's of the guys playing cards in German. It should be at the beginning of the entry. If not, click here:

Confused Germans

Climbing Mt. Douglas

I can't resist the sunsets!

Mt. Douglas hangout

There were no concrete plans as to what we were going to do, but we all agreed to leave on Friday the 18th and most likely come back on Monday the 21st. Madlen and I scoured all the local car rental places looking for a good deal. In the end, it wouldn't cost a crazy amount when divided by five. Unfortunately, we found out that it was the Victoria long weekend and due to the demand, there weren't a wide choice of cars left, nor were they cheap.

Whilst we were sitting at table Germany that evening, some back up showed up (more Germans arrived) and we got talking, a mixture of English/German. Linda, one of the girls expressed that she wanted to travel up to Tofino and as well (I don't know if I've mentioned that Tofino was our destination point for the weekend). Before you know it, our party had one more and we were now five Germans and one lonely Australian. Birds of a feather flock together!

Friday 18th - Wednesday 23rd

I instructed everyone the night before to meet downstairs at 8am (I had originally wanted to meet at 7am, but turns out Germans like to sleep). We didn't have a car, or a plan, so for all we knew, we could be spending ANOTHER night in Victoria.

After much careful quarrelling and German bickering, we got TWO cars. A small Toyota Yaris, which myself and Judith were down to drive and some Hyundai that Linda and Madlen would be driving. The guys didn't come to pick up the cars, so unfortunately we didn't put their names down as "extra drivers". The cars were hired out to Linda and Judith because they are over the age of 25, so we avoided some extra costs there. However, to put an additional driver on, one that is under the age of 25 is a bit costly. Funny: Germans don't drive automatic.

Unfortunately the cars were not ready until 5pm, so we spent the day at the hostel playing Bullshit, Jenga and listening to Australian hip-hop. Our

By the time we got the cars, it was to late to drive to Tofino that evening, and I made it clear I did not want to rush. So first stop... Wal-Mart. YES! Then Nanaimo, that boring little town I visited 2 months prior.

Rene, Madlen, Linda, Marco, Judith and I stocking up before we hit the road!

We got a cheap motel for four, smuggled two in and split the bill. I took the floor, which was rather comfy and got everyone up at 6:30am (Germans REALLY aren't happy in the morning).

That morning, I encouraged Judith to drive, but she wasn't ready, so I took the wheel again. The other car was not so diplomatic, and Linda took sole responsibility for the car, despite us all paying for the extra driver and insurance. This unfortunately created a bit of tension in the Hyundai, whilst the Toyota was having a super road trip!

Stopping off in Qualicum falls.

We stopped off a few times on the road from Nanaimo to Tofino. I drove first, got us lost a million times, but also did all the asking for directions. We pulled into Qualicum falls, explored a bit and carried on. At one point we pulled over to ask for directions and Madlen made the switch to jump in our car (which mind you was already filled with all our massive backpacks, and whatever else). Apparently things had gone a bit south in the Hyundai. Linda had a bit of a problem with Madlen driving her car, and so on... Oh well! We still stopped off and enjoyed some beautiful sights, but I think I speak for everyone when I say we all felt as if we were walking on thin ice.

Should of bathed in the water!

It was a relief to arrive in Tofino at around 3pm on Saturday. It's not a massive drive, but I think everyone was glad to just be there. The weather wasn't on our side, and strangely moods seemed to be just as grey. The little issues of the day had now gotten under peoples skin, and problems started to arise. Well, not even problems, more disagreements, silly things!

All in all, Linda wanted to stay in a hostel to meet more people?? Madlen and Judith wanted another cheap motel, the guys wanted to camp and I just wanted to get in a kayak! In the end, the girls found a bed & breakfast and us dudes decided to camp on the beach that evening. A lot of time was wasted bickering in the car park.

I had heard in Victoria from others about a WW2 plane crash in the mountains near Tofino, sounded interesting but I didn't think much of it. Then at this bed & breakfast, while we were just chilling out a bit (by this point Linda had taken the car to do her own thing, the car that we had all chipped in for) another German fella (oh yay) popped in and mentioned the crashed plane and how AWESOME it was. So we set out at around 5pm looking for it. We pulled into a crappy fish & chips place, which was massively overpriced and I got massively ripped off.

After driving around for a while, hopelessly lost, we got some clear directions as to how to find the plane. We parked our little hire car (the 5 of us squeezed into one, good thing I was driving) 11km outside of the town at a place called Radar Hill, walked along the highway for a few hundred metres and found the off-road trail. We were immediately greeted with this sign..

Rene getting pumped up!

The girls absolutely shat themselves, and truthfully I was a bit scared too. They were shaking in their German made booties and decided to go wait in the car. We had no idea how far it was or how long we would be. It was by now about 7pm and the sun was setting, but adventure waits for no one! Armed with our big bad sticks that we found, Marco, Rene and I ventured out into the unknown.

Rene and Marco, lost!

We strolled through an abandoned house and then had to hike through treacherous swamps and bear infested territory. Forty-five minutes or so later, first sight of the rear end of the plane. How flippin' cool, right? I'll let the pictures do the talking.

A bit scary..

Woop woop!

It was bad timing on our behalf, the sun was setting. I would have loved to explore the plane a bit more, but we had to get back before it got back otherwise we'd be dinner. The hike back seemed to be a tonne quicker, lots of mud, fallen trees and overgrown grass, but we made it back in one piece. The girls had parked by the side of the road, hazard lights on and started screaming when they saw us. Apparently they were scared...

It was now about 9pm and us guys had nowhere to sleep, so that was next on the agenda... There was a little row boat for sale on one guys lawn and Marco suggested we purchase it, it was only $50, and row to an island and camp their for the night. Good idea right? There were signs everyone saying "NO CAMPING" or "NO OVERNIGHT PARKING" so we had to employ some backpacker stealth tactics. We eventually found a chilled out beach spot, where we set up the "10 minute tent" in about 25 minutes. It was a comfortable night.

Please don't rain!

Super comfy!

We all awoke at 6am the next morning, because we had agreed to meet the Judith and Madlen at approximately 6:45am (they took the car, and they were picking us up). I made it just in time to use the toilet at their bed & breakfast, I've had a pretty clean streak, so far... (I've only graciously used mother natures toilet once, in Yosemite). We had breakfast there, played a game of cards and decided we were all (the 5 of us) going to stay in the bed & breakfast next door that evening. Then the topic turned to the second car, which we had all paid for but got no use out of because Linda had claimed it as her own. We went Marco in to awake the dragon and the next minute, German swear words were being mixed with English swear words whilst I just sat there and offered my two cents every few minutes. When it was all said and done, we decided to go our own way, five of us in a Yaris and one in the Hyundai. Some people huh?

It was another rainy day, but that wasn't going to hold us back! We found out from some locals that one of the nearby islands was only open once a year, and apparently that weekend was the ONE time in the year. Free little boat to the island, where apparently there were wolves, cougars and bears... and a cave with maybe all three at once, we had to find this cave!!

Our personal dinghy!

We trekked around the island, through the island and found the cave, it was impressive, but we didn't make it that far in, it was dark! The girls swore they saw eyes in there, I am not convinced, but I didn't want to wander in to find out. We chilled for most of the day on this island, which was super cool. It was a incredibly damp and wet, but we all pushed through the overgrown vines and massive fallen trees. I was impressed by the trees, love em!

Maze of trees!

A scary hole in the tree.

Up, up and away!

We found the cave; see the eyes in the background?

Our personal playground for the day - Stubbs Island.

A beautiful, eerie looking tree!

We stayed until about 5pm, and shuttled back across the water. That night we cooked some simple bread, I made my own version which involved flour, water, oil and salt. Throw some onions and garlic in there, along with italian herbs and sha-bam! Masterchef in the house!! This went incredibly well with the home made guacamole. It was't a big night, we had a bit of wine and all agreed to return the car on Tuesday evening, giving us another full day together, not having to rush back to Victoria.

The next morning, we packed all our stuff up (I still woke everyone up at around 6:30am) and agreed to head towards Mt. Washington. It was pouring with rain, and we left the bed & breakfast inn at around 10am, lot's of arse-farting around. Now, I don't like to admit this, but by this point I had fallen a bit sick. Nothing but a cold and flu, Judith had infected us all and by then I think we all had sore throats and blocked noses. So I passed out in the back seat of the car, with all our bags and we arrived in Port Alberni 2 hours later. Whilst dozing in the back, I had a strange dream about NOT packing my passport. When I awoke, I had a gut wrenching feeling that I had left my passport back in Tofino (with a lot of cash and my personal documents)... woopsie! I didn't panic to much, was just a bit annoyed that now I had to go back and waste a day for these guys (which means we would end up returning the car on Wednesday evening). We found a McDonalds were I loaded up my laptop, got some free wifi and contacted the place we had stayed. Fortunately she had found my little leather wallet with my identity in it and I told her I would be there pronto. A local man by the name of James had overheard our situation and how we were looking for a hostel now, so he led the way to a cheap one and gave us his number instructing me to call him when we got back and he would bring over some smoked salmon and show us around.

Madlen and I left Port Alberni at approximately 2:25pm and got back a little after 6pm. Ouch! So that day was gone, and we had to stay in this little town of 23,000 people. I ended up phoning James and he came back to our motel in his HUGE GMC with some smoked salmon for us. He insisted on showing us around town, so we all piled into his truck and he proudly drove us around. We finished up searching for bears in a nearby forest, unfortunately we haven't had that much luck with the wildlife.

I think I am going to buy a boat and live at sea!

Rene, Madlen, Marco, James, myself and Judith - Great chaperone!

If you have kept up, you'll know that we're up to Tuesday. We still wanted to head to Mt. Washington and do one final big hike. We drove into the small town, searched around for a bed & breakfast (these places rock). Unfortunately we couldn't find one for the 5 of us, so Marco hopped on his laptop in a cafe and found one right at the base of the mountain, how cool right? Madlen attempted to phone up and make the reservation for us, but we got an answering machine so we thought we'd drive up anyways. Mt. Washington is approximately 50 minutes from the town of Courtenay, which is where we were at the time. Neglecting the quarter of a tank of petrol, we stocked up with some food for that evening (I wanted to cook to make up for the lost day yesterday) and set off, towards the mountain.

I was driving and following the signs towards Mt. Washington, but the others weren't sure I was going the right way. So we pulled over half way up some odd mountain and hailed down the next car. Fortunately, our good luck with meeting great people was still in check and a lovely young man named Robert decided to lead us into the town and show us where we intended to stay. Little did we realise was that the "town" is like that of Perisher or Threadbo, and it was between seasons. Winter was over, Summer was yet to begin. So it was EMPTY. Robert was just there because his parents owned an apartment and he was looking for some quiet time.

Somebody come save us!

Robert, being the guy that he is, offered that we crash at his place. The girls were naturally uncomfortable with this idea, but us guys were all over it. A little bit of persuasion and they were in! We trekked it up to his little, but cozy apartment. Robert got a fire going, I started to prepare dinner; baked potatoes with quinoa, spinach, onions, mushrooms in lemon juice. Yummy, yummy, yummy! There was barely enough for the 6 of us, I had only purchased enough for 5. But we made do, and enjoyed some wine + good company.

View from Roberts balcony - cold!

Rene, Robert, Madlen, Judith, myself and Marco in Roberts kitchen.

The next morning, I again woke up everyone at 6am to get a head start. It was Wednesday and we needed to have the car back in Victoria that evening before 5pm, to avoid MORE charges. I had already phoned up the previous days to extend the car. The petrol light was flashing, so we couldn't drive up any mountains. The 5 of us said goodbye to Robert, thanked him (he didn't want any money) and went our own ways. Robert was a top bloke, this was on his fridge in his apartment.

Thanks you Robert for your hospitality!

We didn't get a big hike in, it was pretty darn cold, so we literally rolled down the mountain. I drove us back into the town of Courtenay where we deliberated what the next plan was. Marco and Rene were getting out in the next town, they were planning on staying there for a bit to look for some work.

After a teary goodbye we left them in the tiny town. The rest of the trip was fun, we blasted my party tunes, I'm sexy and I know it, you know it too. Ate to much chocolate, I went into a sugar coma in the back seat and before we knew it, the road trip was over and we were back in Victoria at around 4pm. Back to the same hostel and guess who was there? Yes, you guessed it. Shhhh.

I acknowledged her with a "hey, how are you?" and was completely ignored. When we dropped the car off and made our way back to the hostel, we found out that the majority of the German clan there wasn't really responding to us either. The week before, everyone was loving everyone and it was good times. It now felt like a very cold place...

NAH! It wasn't that bad. Linda had obviously spoken to them and given her biased account of the events that unfolded. Oh well, brush it off. That evening we cooked a big vegetable stew, with a tonne of pepper. Delicious! That evening was again very mellow. Each day since we left last Friday we'd talk about how we'd go out, hit a karaoke bar, have a few beers, play some pool... But each night, we'd all exclaim together about how tired we were.

To be continued... :)

Where art thou?

jamesshanks — Sun, 20 May 2012 23:35:00 GMT

Tofino.

Somewhere on Vancouver Island. I've had the pleasure of meeting and traveling with 4 netten Deutschen.

I am due for a big entry, but until then...

A WW2 plane crash site. COOL MAN!

Photos: Return to Canada.

jamesshanks — Sun, 20 May 2012 23:23:00 GMT

Back into Canada - All photos from this point onwards are in here.

My Vipassana Experience

jamesshanks — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:13:00 GMT

Vipassana: To see things as they really are.

Where have I been for the past two weeks? Sitting cross legged for hours on end each day. My eyes were closed more than they were open, I was provided 2 and a half meals per day and the phrase "silence is golden" was applied for ten consecutive days.

There have been two separate occasions where someone has mentioned Vipassna to me over the past month, enough to spark some interest!

Me being me, it wasn't the 10 days of silence that intimidated me, it was more the 2 and a half meals provided between wake up at 4am to lights out at 10pm...

I had organised a ride out of Portland to the course via a ride share website put together by the Vipassana course. Jessica and Margaret arrived at the hostel 20 minutes earlier than expected, so I was caught off guard. I had just devoured a huge meal thinking that I wasn't going to be fed over the next week and a half. Driving to the event I dozed off as the two girls chatted away in the front. The drive went by surprisingly quickly and when I awoke they told me we were about 15 minutes away. I suddenly got very nervous and started questioning myself, "What the hell are you doing James???"

Hesitantly walking into the "slippers-off" registration building (which doubled as the mens dining area) I assured myself that I would complete the course no matter what. I was greeted by a little table where I had to fill out a pre-screening sort of form and a few standard questions about my health, background and so on. The direct, plump Indian man then instructed me that I would be in room 3A and that no shorts were allowed. This struck a chord with me and I was a little peeved off, but alas, I had no choice but to comply. We were instructed to hand in all our possessions, all our distractions. No phones, laptops, books - distractions! Again, I complied... for the most part. I kept my Blackberry which has not really served any purpose at all since being abroad, other than an alarm - which is what I fully intended to use it for (I didn't come to need it due to the 4am gong that was rung each morning).

A light dinner was provided (a beautiful basil and lemon lentil soup, complimented with a salad, vegetable condiments and delicious home made dressings). Honestly, I was a bit surprised. So I went to town on the hearty soup and whatever else was provided (I was told this was the last supper!) causing myself to be bloated, yet again.

We had an hour off to digest and settle into our little split rooms. My roomies name was Sage OfLight Thone and that is as far as we got. Everybody gathered into the Dhamma hall for our commencement of silence and first group meditation session. I don't have a big meditation background, playing around with it once or twice, but no foundation. Within about 4 deep breaths my mind started to wander... And oh how slowly that first hour went. And that was only day ZERO!

Day 1 - 3

These first 3 days proved to be great patience testers. We were instructed to simply be aware of our respiration and magnify our focus to the triangle area starting between the eyebrows running down to the corners of the mouth. Don't react to it, just observe it. The intention here was to simply sharpen our mind to observe and eventually pick up on the subtle sensations that arise around our body. Easy enough huh? Not one bit! No more blind reactions, just observation... Oh how we constantly reminded in the form of lectures that played through the loudspeakers in the hall by the head teacher, S. N. Goenka.

True to his word, on the third day I started to notice and observe the "sensations" around my nostrils. A sensation can by ANYTHING and this was drilled into our heads over and over again as Goenkas lecture plays through the speakers. To be honest, I was sick of hearing him repeat the same thing, reiterating what a sensation is (but I later started to question it and only wished that I listened more closely rather than get irritated. Basically a sensation can be the heat on your skin, coldness, tingling, vibrations, itching and so on. ANYTHING!

Day 4 - Vipassana Day

There were signs up all around the compound (yes, there were boundaries. Oh and I forgot to mention that there was gender segration. Men on one side of the establishment, women on the other. They have their own dining, so do we. The only time we really saw them was in the saw. And even then, most people have their head down and eyes closed. I tried to smile at one girl on the third day as we walked into the hall from our separate entrances and she just looked at me puzzledly. Oh well, I tried!) informing us that TODAY was the day we would be learning Vipassana. After the first 3 days of meditating my ass off, my sixth sense kicked in and I picked up everyone else's thoughts; what the hell had we been doing???

Like I said, the purpose of the first 3 days was simply to sharpen the mind to be able to focus on smaller areas to observe these sensations, without reacting.

The fourth day not only bought with it the continuous, ongoing patience and persistence but a new challenge. We were again, to continue objectively observing the sensations BUT starting from the top of our head, working our way down the body to the toes. Mr. Goenka goes on to explain how our sensations either derive from cravings or aversion. When we react to these sensations, on a subconscious level we are either multiplying our cravings or multiplying our aversion to these sensations. This is why so many people are miserable and are full of negativity in their lives; we blindly react to things people say, situations we are in, thoughts and we continue to build on and generate more and more misery. Mind you, this is just MY understanding of the technique at this point.

Day 4 also bought with it a new kind of discipline. Refrain from moving, opening your eyes/hands. Naturally the first 3 days, when I got distracted I'd check my watch "awwww, we've only been going for 15 minutes?" or I'd open my eyes and notice everyone else sitting upright, with their eyes closed - WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE IN PAIN?!?!?! (I later found out this is exactly why Goenka instructs us NOT to open our eyes. Everyone is in pain, everyone occasionally looks around to check out others. It's just how we REACT and get discouraged when we do).

Day 5

I got through my first group sitting today without opening my eyes. I may have changed my posture once in the hour sitting, but that was a significant improvement and I was very proud of myself.

I haven't mentioned yet how that when you start Vipassana, you instantly start dreaming incredibly vividly. Not only that, but odd dreams. Old memories start to resurface. Old friends come to mind for the first time in years. Things that are buried deep in the subconscious start to arise. It was very odd at first, and I didn't know how to respond. I thought it was pretty cool and as I became aware of it, I become excited to fall asleep and dream. On the 5th evening, I started to have a few "nightmares."

Nothing serious, just very odd dreams. On the 6th morning, I didn't even want to get out of bed at 4am to walk down the dark path to the meditation hall (the guys totally had a longer walk than the girls). I also haven't mentioned our daily timetable. One of the few pictures I took...

This is your IDEAL day. Not everyone, myself included stuck to it exactly. But the one thing I did adhere to was the morning wake up bell. I was always in the hall at 4:30am for my own meditation. That one day, I almost missed it. I nervously shuffled down the gravel path with my flashlight flailing everywhere, no joke thinking that I was going to be eaten by a bear or attacked by a ferocious wolf. It was strange...

Day 6

By this point in the course I had developed my own regime. I would always be in the hall for my own meditating at 4:30am. I would stay a minimum at 45 minutes (one day I did sit for the full 2 hours, again very proud) then usually stretch a bit after and then back to bed for another hour. A bell was again rung to indicate breakfast and I would jump out of bed and walk as fast I could to bed the first in line, I'd settle for second. Breakfast was generally the same every day; Oatmeal, stewed prunes, granola, yoghurt, soy and dairy milk, some fruit (bananas, oranges and apples - this doubled as 5pm tea), bread and condiments. I opted for the oatmeal with stewed prunes, maybe another bowl of granola and then a PB + J sandwich.. with a twist! I threw a sliced banana in the middle. BAZINGA! What a great addition to something already so perfect. So I have managed to keep up with having a peanut butter and jam sandwich EVERY SINGLE DAY since being away.

Enough rambling over breakfast (food just... excites me) because after breakfast, the first 3 days I would crawl back into bed and sleep for another 30 minutes. Not because I was tired, but the mere fact that I had eaten way to much (HUGE portions). Group meditation at 8am absolutely sucked the first few days simply because I was so bloated and lethargic after waking up again. From 9am to 11am I snuck in bit of exercise some days, I found the no exercise rule because it would serve as a distraction to others was a bit lame. So I started doing my own crunches and push ups in my part of the divided room, but this proved to be rather challenging so I got up went for a walk and found a nice little secluded spot within the male boundaries. Here I did what I could and felt a little bit better about myself.

We were allowed to walk, and walk they did! I got to know some people by their mannerisms, how they conducted themselves whilst they ate, sounds that were made while drinking tea, the way people walked past you, held their hands behind their back. Or my favourite; the Storm Troopers. These select few would move around the compound as briskly and quickly as possible. Good on them, seriously. But I just thought it was funny how they swung their arms, head down and powered away!

ANYHOW, side tracked yet again... Ahh, so between 9am-11am, for me it was anything goes. Rest assured, I did meditate for a minimum for 45 minutes and then maybe went for a stroll, took a nap or took to my own little exercise corner. However, this day I felt a bit homesick as I lay there, so I got my phone out and started to look over all my old photos. 500 of them from as far back as August 2010. This later proved to be more of a distraction rather than anything soothing. I started to miss and really CRAVE my old job, my girlfriend mostly, mums cooking, friends and whatever else. Fortunately, I came to my senses with the help of our latest teaching.

Day 7 - 9

Equanimity: Accepting your reality as it is, not as you want it to be.

It was the same simple instructions over and over again. Remain determined and disciplined, observe, don't react. Stay aware and equanimous. This word is new to me, but it's definitely got to be a new favourite. I had many meetings with the teacher (we were allowed to speak with the head teacher at selected times of the day for private interviews) over the second half of the course. I found it all pretty straightforward and simple in the beginning. The whole course is, the whole technique is, but like most things in life, we have a tendency to complicate that which does not need to be complicated. I would go on my little strolls within the designated boundaries and little questions and queries would come up, I'd ponder for a while and then eventually book myself in to ask the teacher. I was always provided with a simple and straightforward answer. I didn't feel stupid, just enlightened!

Over these days we continued to meditate intensely, for the most part. The distractions are always there, and will no doubt continue to be there (as I was told) it's how we react, or DON'T react. Be aware, draw your attention back to the task at hand. Don't get upset, don't get discouraged. Just continue on. I would say this is definitely one of the main reasons I never stuck with meditating.

The pain that I experienced during the early stages or the course didn't get better as time went on. My legs ached like nothing else I had every experienced. It's a different type of hurt. My back would stiffen up from attempting to maintain perfect posture. Some simple stretches went a long way...

I was truly enjoying the silence, the food was delicious. I learned to control my portion sizes and finally came to the realisation that I didn't need to consume 4 servings of lunch. Although, sometimes it was hard. The food was SENSATIONAL (Ha ha ha, I've been waiting to bust that one out!). Beautifully prepared vegetarian meals ranging from lasagna, to super soups, marinated tempeh, tofu and an abundance of fresh vegetables. My desire to cook has only intensified!

The next day...

Day 10

... we were allowed to speak! This was news. I was excited at first, but when we started talking, I must say that I preferred the silence. The Noble Silence ended after the group morning meditation and it was definitely harder to focus and concentrate after chatting to the guys you had been walking past and ignoring for 10 days. We were told it is to ease us back into society, which makes sense.

That night ice cream was served after dinner (and yes there was a dinner as well. This day rocked!) and I had 3 bowls. Woops. Come 6pm group meditation I was hunched over, a bloated balloon in a sugar coma.

We were allowed to speak that evening, and mingle with the opposite sex in the dining area until 10pm. I chose to go to bed at 8:30pm, after the discourse. Which I forgot to mention! The discourse was just a video of Mr. Goenka explaining what we had gone through that day, what was learned, helping break it all down and pretty much answering the burning questions running through our minds.

Day 11

The day prior there was a little meeting to dish out some tasks that were needed to be done before we left, organising ride shares (which worked out fabulously!) and making some donations. The course is solely run on donations. There is no advertising done and you can only donate once you have completed a 10 day sitting. If you only complete half of it and feel compelled to pay for at least your food and boarding, then no dice. AND people did drop off! Out of the men, FOUR dropped off throughout the course. I later found out that only one female left. That does not at all suggest that females are more resilient!

The rest is history! The days went by so slowly, but the 10 days feel so long ago now, but the experience is still fresh in my mind. I have kept up with my daily meditating, it is definitely a lot harder than in the perfect environment created by the volunteers at the course. I don't know if I will sustain it, but I don't think that it matters right now. It's the small things. Since arriving here in Victoria I have found myself a lot more content and happier being just by myself, doing my own thing.

That's a story for another day though...

The experience has definitely left a profound impact on me and I'm definitely flying the Vipassana flag.

This is my personal experience and completely my own perspective. I have only covered the very basics of my experience. I'd gladly answer any questions about the course.

http://www.dhamma.org/en/art.shtml

If you are interested at all, or skeptical. Please give that link a read.

Bhavatu Sabba Mangalam

Farewell Portland

jamesshanks — Wed, 2 May 2012 13:38:00 GMT

6:45am - Wake up. Ahhh, I got time.

Blink once.

7:30am - Second wake up. Shit!! Oh well, I still got time.

Ha ha ha!

------------

I am sure everybody has experienced this. My breakfast entailed a huge bowl of oats, a banana and a truck load of cinnamon. Immediately following this I decided to consume not one, but TWO large baguettes. I think the idea of only eating 2 smallish meals over the next ten days has me subconsciously panicing.

I just had another feast before I am picked up in half an hour...

I had already eaten the other half of the eggplant..

Yesterday I visited the worlds SMALLEST park. I don't know how to describe it, other than it being tiny. I was amused.

Other than that, the past 2-3 days have been very lazy. I haven't done much, but that is why I came to Portland. I do like it here, despite it being wet, a lot. It's cozy, small and a really chilled out place.

I've been for a hike, had a big workout and cooked and cooked and cooked. I have also spent a fair bit of time in Powells book store, where I have now added to the load of my bag. It's all okay though because the dryer has shrunk my clothing (unintentionally) which has made room for the new books. AND it also means that my shirts and jumpers are no longer hanging off me. They have shrunk with my physical body - all is square.

It's time to put my laptop away and go focus on the inner me.

See you in 10 days!

First timers.

jamesshanks — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:57:00 GMT

I've begun my Sunday morning in Starbucks. I love coming here to write in my journal! Their carefully chosen jazzy songs keep us patrons here long enough to purchase a beverage, and possibly a bite to eat. Yet not too long to overcrowd the place. LOVE IT!

Since Friday I haven't had a bed, nor have I had a dedicated toilet or somewhere to properly brush my teeth, prepare food or even... Wifi! But you know what? I love it!

I just had to go to the potty and needed to ask someone to mind my laptop/bag. So I turned to the man in the wheel chair with an eye patch and asked if he wouldn't mind "watching my stuff." Hehehe, whoops!

So that all happened this morning at approximately 8am. I woke up to the sun pouring in through the windows of our Nissan Versa hire car. This morning was the second consecutive night that myself and Felix had slept in the car.

It is currently Sunday evening and since picking up our hire car on Friday morning, I have had a blast... for the most part.

Felix and I picked our 2011 model Nissan Versa at 7:30am Friday. It's a compact, swifty little thing; suitable for two guys to drive around in. The car was packed to the brim with all our bags, PB & J sandwiches (remember free bread!) and a tonne of enthusiasm. First stop was Cannon Beach...

It's a lonely planet.

I've heard many things about this place, so we drove West from Portland to check it out. Mind you we had no GPS or even a map. All we had was Felix's German Lonely Planet guide, and I only speak 4 words of German. NEIN, JA JA JA, SHIZZA and VASS KIDDD!

Cannon Beach was cool, literally. It was actually really chilly, so no chance of a dip. Oh! And I just found out today that apparently one of the final scenes in "The Goonies" was shot on the beach? ANDDD, the school in the movie "Kindergaten Cop" is in the area... missed it!

Our destination point was Crater Lake, and we had a rough idea of where to go, but Felix wanted to drive down highway 101, which I was more than willing to do again. Last time with Kevein, Ev and Simon we sort of just zoomed down and missed a lot. So we stopped off everywhere and anywhere. I am a big fan of taking as many photos as possible; every possible perspective, vantage point and lighting angle. Felix on the other hand has one of those old school 80's cameras that use rolls of film. It's cool, but he is big on only taking ONE photo. Even if it's my camera, although I did still get some great snaps of the coast.

Raging Pacific Ocean.

It doesn't take that much to excite me.

Shit was going down.

LOVE IT!

Getting artsy.

Despite all the great scenery and beautiful observations on Friday. I must say that out of my MANY highlights, my favourite was my visit to...

New favourite hangout spot.

As you can see I had a ball. Absolutely love it! I purchased a $3.36 cap, best buy ever! There we numerous visits to Walmart on Friday and Saturday, not only to purchase some groceries, but to make use of their facilities... You'll see ahead.

Whilst driving on the road, there is very little to do when confined in such a little space. Fortunately, and unfortunately I ALWAYS pack enough food for a small army. So basically when I not driving, I am eating anything and everything I can get my hands on... Perhaps that is why I am starting to produce a little belly?

I almost forgot! The reason for the title of this journal entry... Being away from home has brought with it so many different first time opportunities. For example, the first time I did my washing. My first car accident. And nowwwww... Drum rolllllll... Here it is

First time speeding ticket. 50 miles in a 30 miles zone. Not impressive. But what is, is the fact I don't have to pay! :)

Notice how it says "VOID" through it? Using my gift of the gab, and borderline tears... I talked myself out of it. Yipee!! Although, I must admit, as he was explaining it to me and informing me that he could in fact tow the car and put in my jail, I nearly died. Now that I reflect upon it, he was just trying to scare the jeebus out of me... it worked!

First stop on Saturday morning was... The bathroom of Walmart!

Good stuff huh? I washed my bowl from my oats in that same bathroom, and dropped the kids off in that same bathroom as well! Oh how great it Walmart...

Like sleeping in the car wasn't enough, we were restricted to the Nissans uncomfortable seating positions for a while longer. Driving Eastward towards Crater Lake was nice, but tiring. More eating, Walmarting and driving. We stopped in a shifty little town for directions. It resembled something out of "The Hills Have Eyes" and everyone looked at us oddly.

Odd town.

Taking a pit stop. Felix and I.

Almost there. Pondering the mysteries of the universe.

Finally, we arrived in Crater Lake and truthfully, I had no idea what to expect. I had only wanted to explore, drive and see cool stuff. This was just a recommendation and boy oh boy was it spectacular!

WHAT'S UP CRATER LAKE!

One without me interrupting the shot.

I did inquire about going for a swim.

That's got to deserve a big FML.

Playing in the snow is fun, and it was cool the first time, but I must say I am rather over it. Especially when it gets in my shoes, but that's probably because I keep wearing shorts. Speaking of shorts, my formerly pristine white shorts are now disgusting! But that is okay, I will just go to Walmart and pick up a new pair.

Crater Lake was beautiful, I actually sat in the snow for a good 20 minutes whilst my butt froze and absorbed a few gallons of water. It was hard to leave, I didn't want to take my eyes off the big hole filled with glistening water.

Found this spot on the way back.

It was called "Rocky Point"

We left at approximately at 3pm and drove all the way back up to Portland where Felix wanted to sleep in the hostel that night. That was not the case, it was full so we ended up sleeping by the side of the road, which was fine with me considering the $$$ saved.

Felix insisted on grabbing some Wendy's for dinner because he felt that he MUST try it. What size do you think this drink is?

It's a medium. I cringed.

This brings me to this morning. We turned the lights out (in the car) at midnight after each consuming half a bottle of wine. I awoke twice throughout the night, which was a significant improvement on the previous night.

I woke up at 6:50am. Once awake, I don't want to roll over and snooze more, ESPECIALLY in a little car. Plus, I am a man on a mission in the morning. My stomach is in need of nurturing, my bowels have been hard at work over the night and with the amount of fluids I consume, my bladder is borderline bursting! So I tried to quietly start the car up and drive to the nearest McDonalds... but in a 2011 Nissan, there are gadgets and lights and beeping things that I've never seen before in my prehistoric automobiles.

Felix very grumpily awoke, my bad. I think it's rather funny how grumpy some people can, or WANT to be in the morning. For example, in Hollywood I was speaking with a lovely girl who worked at the hostel one evening. The next morning, I saw her having breakfast at a table by herself. I gave a half smile and went to join her. She basically told me not to talk to her in the morning and to F-off. Wowwwww. Talk about sleeping beauty hey? I think Felix was upset with me because he did not want to carry on to Mount. St. Helens today. He says he is a bit sick and what not. Hmmmmm.

Bed time. It's almost 12:30am and I am knackered. Will finish tomorrow :)

Gee wizz! This entry has taken over 24 hours. I suppose I need to catch up, and I won't be online from the 2nd of May - 12th of May.

After I dropped Felix back at the hostel yesterday, I packed my bag full of sandwiches and fruit. I had some "fake meat" in my avocado, tomato and bread sambo.. Gross!

Off I set, by myself. Quite honestly, I was a bit nervous and timid when I first set out. I had no map, no one to help me find my way, and I had gotten lost straight away! Weaving around the tight one way streets of Portland, quite fun. I eventually found i-5 and headed North. I got lost numerous times, but that didn't matter. I was having a blast! Asking locals, strangers and whoever for directions to Mt. St. Helens was great. It's amazing how many people WANT to help. Taking 20 minutes to explain and write down where I need to go. Telling my to follow them and they'll take me the right way. Even offering to let me have a shower in their house (that one was a bit weird, but it was obvious I hadn't showered in 2 days).

Pumping my own music as loud as I could and singing at the top of my voice was super fun. Driving along the highway on cruise control was epic. I've never used this "cruise control" before, but boy did it make driving... senseless! I was having a great time on this solo-man road trip, so it was all hunky dorey.

Eventually I found the first visitor centre. I was quickly informed that the Mt. St. Helens was closed for another two weeks due to the Winter and whatever else... Blah blah. Whatever. So I asked how close I could get and she said there was one more visitor centre 76kms a bit further down and from there I could do a little 2.5 mile hike. Yipee! Drove from Portland (approximate 3 hours) for a 2.5 mile hike. Nah, the drive itself was worth it.

Up and down the winding roads I went. Singing my heart out and stopping off every 10 minutes for a happy snap. Loved it! I really was my own boss, no one else to please, no one else to entertain. I was in a sense, on top of the world! (The mountain wasn't that high..)

Once I got as far as I could go, I jumped out of the car with a little bottle of water and went and got myself lost in the woods. It is so immensely gratifying to have NO IDEA where you are, no idea of your surroundings. LOVE IT!

I explored, took a few photos and bailed. Wasn't as impressive as Crater Lake the day before, but it was still marvellous to BE THERE. Just be there, where 32 years ago a volcano erupted.

I was happy being there, by myself.

Good times.

The cruising journey back was a bit tiring. So what do you do when you are tired? Take a nap. I pulled into Burger King and had a little sleep for 45 minutes. I think that nap in the car sealed the deal for me. There was no way I was sleeping in the car for the third night in a row. I said a quick prayer that there was room left in the hostel and zipped my way back. I got back to Portland Hostel at around 6:30pm and bounded into the reception area to secure a room for the evening.

Whilst in the kitchen making a cup of tea I met a super cool principle from New Zealand by the name of Luke. Typical Kiwi fella, but very down to earth and chilled out. He has two terms off from work and is just "inspecting" other schools around the globe, specifically the states and Australia. He is a total computer wiz, loves all technology and gave me a tonne of hip hop/reggae/r 'n' b. As well as about 20 movies. Top bloke!

It was a late evening, but it was fun. It was hard to doze off last night I had money on my mind and my mind on my money. No, but my mind was racing and this has been recurring a fair bit lately. Not just a busy mind, but the fact that I DON'T want to sleep. I put my head down and just can't wait to get back out of bed in the morning. I don't want to lose time sleeping, but I understand that I have to and need to. So I sleep... enough to get by. I don't feel tired now, nor do I feel tired in the evening. I'm just having a blast and don't want to miss a thing!

This morning I got up at 6:50am again. I was to meet Felix and Luke in the kitchen so we could drop the car off and give Luke a ride to the Enterprise rental company so he could hire a car to go inspect some schools. I might try to tag along with him tomorrow... Hmmm.

Funny, Kiwi Luke ended up getting the same car we returned. I did one final fart in the car for him and we left. Since getting back to the hostel at around 8am this morning. I have devoured about two loaves of bread to myself, well close enough. I am bloated yet again, but that is okay. I'll go for a run in the rain later. It is now 10:30am and since this morning I have accomplished quite a fair bit, done my dirty washing for one. It's such an accomplishing feeling knowing that all my clothing is (reasonably) clean. Check out my shorts.... NOT THAT CLEAN!!!

I am going to take a little group tour of the city at 1pm. It sounds promising, so who knows what'll happen after that. I am very excited for this Wednesday. I am heading to Onalaska for a 10 day silent meditation seminar. Get up at 4am and mediate for 10 hours of the day, I believe. It is called Vipassana. Check it out. ME SILENT FOR 10 DAYS?? Yep.

BAZINGA!

Patriotic yeah?

Done. I believe I am up to date. Everything over the past 4 days has been accounted for, I think. Time to get off my ass and DO SOMETHING.

P.S. Happy birthday mum. You are still beautiful despite being over half a century old. All those vegetables you eat, which is all I eat now - you've instilled some colourful habits in me!

Better (or a bigger plate) lighting would revel that there is brocoli, carrots, cauliflower, red onions, shiitake mushrooms, yellow capsicum, a big juicy yam and brown rice. OH and who can forget the tofu!

Thanks mum.

Athlete's Foot

jamesshanks — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:53:00 GMT

My ithchy, peeling, blistered feet and toes have been diagnosed. The lady at Walgreens instructed me this morning that I have "Athlete's Foot". I was rather proud at first, but quickly reaslised she wasn't paying me a compliment.

Since spending those wickedly cold and damp days in the Yosemite National Park, my feet have not been the same.

Sunday was spent doing very minimal, I think all the big nights had finally caught up with me and I vowed no drinking or eating out. This was obviously in conflict with English Simons plans (he arrived back at the hostel at 7am on Sunday morning). Sunday arvo was spent walking down Hollywood boulevard with Simon and our new German companian, Sarah. It really isn't that much different to Parramatta Road, maybe a few little palm trees. But eh?

Half the road was closed off due to Lady Gaga being in town, apparently? Even that didn't impress me, so we bailed, went home and cooked up a bowl of veggies with some beans. Yum!

Monday started off rather exciting, I passed out like a log the previous night. Recharged and refreshed, I pulled my battered shoes onto my battered feet and went for a happy jog. Mannnnn it hurt! Every red light, or any other opportunity to stop I seized and caught my breath. It felt terrible, but oh so good afterwards. I ran to "Runyon Canyon Park" and ran all the way up this rather steep hill. It hurt like hell, but felt good at the top. The view was amazing..

Half way up

From the top.

Apparently this is the area where all the celebrities come and train? I asked a couple to take my picture, they asked me if I wanted to take theirs? Pfft, no!

In the end I ran for an hour and twenty minutes, I was knackered! A warm shower and some good food picked me right up. Sarah and I met up at half noon and went for a wander down to the Farmers Markets and I purchased my first pair of socks. Sarah and I spent a bit of time weaving in and out of all the stalls, window shopping in the fancy stores (beyond a backpackers budget) and then making our way back to the Bungalow! By this time it was around 3:30pm and Simon was just waking up (I found him passed out in the basement at 11am that morning). We had a few intense rallies of table tennis and then I started to think about... where next?

I've had a blast in California, but enough is enough. Quite honestly, I wasn't that impressed with Hollywood, and I've had enough partying. So whilst enjoying a free dinner provided by the hostel (cheeseburgers, or a vege patty option!) I very boldly booked a 22 hour bus ride back to Portland, Oregon. The reason for this is because on May the 2nd I am have been accepted to take part in a 10 day meditation seminar called Vipassana. I'm totally excited for this, so I want to use this week to just wind down and sort out other stuff, including VISA and work related things for the upcoming Summer Camp in mid June.

That night we sat through some very unfunny stand up comedy and then I went off to bed so I could get up earlier and pack my bags. My sleep was interrupted when Simon rocked into the room at 7am telling me that I had better wake him up to say goodbye. I woke him up every half an hour after 8am and it wasn't until we were about to leave at 10:45am that he rolled out of bed and walked us to the bus station.

Tuesday was literally spent on a bus. I don't even know where my Tuesday went. From our Banana Bungalow hostel in West Hollywood, Sarah and I caught a bus down the street. Then we had to transfer to another bus which would take us to downtown LA. From there we were advised that we needed ANOTHER bus to get us to the bus depot, otherwise we had to walk through "East LA", which apparently with all our bags, we did not want to do.

The next bus revealed that all of Dutchland was heading to Santa Barbara (which is were Sarah was heading as well).. Turns out I should of caught the 3 hours bus ride to Santa Barbara. After saying goodbye, my painful journey began. I recall whining about how exhausting the 14 hour flight from Sydney to LA was... man I had seen nothing yet! The one thing that I consciously did not bring with me overseas was a pair of headphones. If there was ever a time where I wanted to drown out my surroundings, it was now.

"Baby mamma, Home boyzzz and ma gurlll". It was painful to listen to, but I really had no other choice. We pulled into Sacramento for dinner and whilst everyone settled for the McDonalds next door, I went wandering. I found a Steak House and thought I would try my luck. I asked the server what "Vege options" they had. She gave me a choice between a pasta or thai stir fry. I opted for the thai and devoured it within about 8 minutes.

When we left Sacramento at around 9:40pm, I dozed in and out of sleep. I caught part of the conversation between the two white boys behind me. "Crib this, home boys that, my baby mamma" blah blah blah. We pulled over for a half an hour stop at some servo at 4am and I went and got me a foot long vege sub. It was deliciously disgusting, but I was very hungry so was not to concerned. The remaining 6 hours on the bus I pretty much just slept in some awkward postion. I had the two seats to myself and curled up in a fat little ball.

I awoke in rainy Portland and from there, walked the 15 blocks (with my overloaded bags) to the hostel. This is the same hostel that I stayed at last time. Part of the reason I chose this one again is because of the free bread they offer. There is something incredibly comforting about eating loads of bread. From there, yesterday was spent doing as little as possible. I went for a quick run, very quick work out, finished my book/movie (Girl Who Kicked the Hortnets Nest), ate more bread, cooked more food and more bread before I went to bed at approximately 10pm. I woke up at 7am feeling refreshed and started the day off with some bread... I have probably eaten 2 loaves to myself, so what?? From there I went to Walgreens to get some cream for my overly itchy feet, went and looked at hiring a car for the weekend, I want to explore Oregon and Washington.

Not much has been happening on the adventure and expedition front, so it's time to get that adrenaline pumping again!

Wild wild West.... Hollywood!

jamesshanks — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:10:00 GMT

The Gayborhood. If I had known that prior to making the hostel reservation I probably would still have gone ahead and made the booking. This place is... different? I am staying at a groovy hostel called Banana Bungalow on Fairfax and Melrose Ave. Yep, walked down Melrose yesterday. So what?

Anywho! Let's get on with it. After Thursday we stayed yet another night. Friday came with a surprise! No hangover. Well, it's not that I usually get any hangovers but I did not drink the night before. Win! I woke up rather early, went for a dip and then decided to go and check out the Farmers Market with German Simon. It was small, but cozy and I tried a new fruit (you can only guess how excited I was). My new favourite fruit...

German Simon and I.

Love it! Deliciously sweet. Is it visible what I am eating? Ah, I will tell you anyways.. Cherimoya!

The brief, but exhilarating visit to the market was followed with a walk down the Venice boardwalk with Simon and Eunice. I don't think I have mentioned Eunice before. I striked up a conversation with her on Monday (the day we rolled into Venice) and found out she was going to go study Nutrition. This obviously excited me... Could it be? A fellow backpacking health enthusiast? Well regardless, since Monday the three of us (Simon, Eunice and I) have been hitting the beach every day (Simon turned into a big red tomato, Eunice went golden and I don't know how much more bronzed I can get? ;)

Beach bumming.

So that is Eunice. She is a beautiful Argentinian with a big heart! I think the 2 guys and 1 girl ratio works well. We seem to always replace the lady when they get fed up with us. No, it's just so that Simon and I don't get mistaken for a couple (and it has happened!).

We had a hearty Mexican lunch down in Venice (eating out daily, and eating a tonne of Mexican food has become a bit of a routine, a costly routine). Some Mexican eateries give you free refills of salsa and corn chips. I clearly take advantage of this...

King of the salsa!

Feast!

The heavy shuffle back down the boardwalk to the hostel was strenuously draining. We had a little kip and thennnnnnnn... DUN DUN DUN. Wait for it.. Simon and I did our laundry!!!!!! I don't exactly recall the last time I had washed my clothing, I believe it was the day before I left San Fran. You can only turn your undies inside out and back to front so many times.

With some clean undies and odourless socks, I was ready to rock! Last night in Venice had to be big. A fresh group of about 8 hostellers (staff included) went out and we had a gay ol' time!

Saturday morning was not as forgiving and I rolled out of bed ridiculously early considering the previous nights shenanigans. But who wants to sleep when you're traveling? Not I! It was time to leave Venice. I must say though, Venice Beach really grew on me. Sure it's kind of dirty, there is way to much marijuana around and everyone wants your money (we did get hustled by some black rappers, I don't know if I mentioned that. Cost me $20 - bastards). All in all though, it's a really chilled area and I enjoyed hitting the beach.

I asked one of the staff members at the hostel where I should go and he suggested Hollywood. So off to Hollywood with English-Simon it was! I made a booking for us in West Hollywood, because I was recommended this hostel over the one in downtown Hollywood and off we set. I think we left a bit after noon and German-Simon accompanied us all the way here (which was very nice, and he carried my bags for the trip). After arriving at our groovy hostel, we all went and had a bite (falafal wrap... yum! More eating out though) and Germam-Simon had to say goodbye.

English-Simon and I then decided to go for a wander and see if we could catch any celebrities in the act! We didn't quite meet any A-list celebs, although we did meet a lovely Mississippi gal who says "y'all" way to much, but she is very pleasant. We rocked with her for a bit, went and grabbed a burger in a little "diner" (VEGE BURGER FOR ME!) And then decided to go party with the famous folk.

Vege burger in 50's diner

In the end, we hit up "Key Club" which was kind of okay. I danced like it was the last night of my life (I have some gnarly blisters on my feet. I think it's a combination of having wet, soggy feet in Yosemite and to much dancing. Either way, I have not run in a while). I didn't spot a celebrity, but I did spot a lot of gay boys checking me out. I got told I was a pretty boy... which made me feel pretty flash! Ha ha ha.

In da clubbb!

I did sleep in this morning, I got up at quarter to 10 and since then have just taken it really easy. No eating out today and no drinking. I am going to skip to Whole Foods, whip up something nutritious and possibly run in the arvo. Let's get some routine back!

OH AND... Man oh man, this was a bit of a shock. Last time I weighed myself was in Vancouver whilst I was using the free gym membership. I came in at 160lbs on their scales. That was after an intense run, so fluid loss has to be considered. Last night before we went out, I hopped on some other scales and came in at 168.4lbs. S-H-I-T!!

I think I am going to go hire myself a celebrity personal trainer.

Coachella

jamesshanks — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:02:00 GMT

When the 3 Toronto girls asked me this morning where I was from, I barely mumbled a hardly audible "Australia".

I've found myself back in Venice Beach, staying at this pretty hip hostel on the beach. I am not at all ashamed to be an Australian, however, being at this hostel makes me feel as if I am back in Sydney. I would say that at least 75% of the occupants in the hostel are from Australia, tonnes from Sydney (I was hanging out with some peeps from Cronulla and Baulkham Hills yesterday). When I left over 6 weeks ago I was expecting to have the hunky Australian card in my arsenal, but in this hostel I just blend in... sort of.

This leads me to the title of this post; Coachella? I know I am not the hippest, partiest coolest dude around but apparently I must have been sleeping under a rock. When I first heard "Coachella" the other day I asked "Where is that?". As it turns out, it's a HUGE 4 day festival where you camp out and probably smoke, pop and crackle everything in sight.

Happiest tourist in San Fran.

Simon, my new travel bestie is keen to go (they had the first gig last weekend and another this weekend, or something like that?) 90,000 people - majority Australians, apparently. I considered it. We can purchase rather cheapish tickets on Craigslist for a few hundred dollars, but I am not that keen, so no thank you.

PLUS the reason for me being so inactive with my entries is because I have been hibernating in the woods with bears, snow and a bag full of dirty, dirty sock & undies. Lets go over the past week of extraordinary events, shall we?

Last Thursday I set out with Victoria, Simon and a lady named Maxine from Melbourne (She basically lost all her stuff, drivers licence included and needed a ride - she is 47, from Melbourne - Go away Australia!). Victoria and I went to pick up our little camper van from Fisherman's Wharf at around noon whilst Simon sorted out a temporary passport because it was stolen two nights before, remember? Our van was beautiful... until I crashed it. Yep, I had my first car crash and man did I shit a brick! I can't imagine how everyone else felt, but it wasn't pretty.

No one was hurt!

I had just put a full tank of gas in and I was driving through downtown San Fran, going to pick Simon up so we could get out of the city and in touch with nature! (By the way, our destination was Yosemite National Park). But within 45 minutes of receiving the swanky new hire van, I ended up side swiping another van... great!

So that was an interesting start to our little road trip. Fortunately Victoria and I mutually agreed when we paid for it that we would also take out the full comprehensive insurance package. There was no excess and I had to pay another $40 for some more insurance on our new van.

After waiting in horrendous traffic for about an hour we (Victoria) drove over the Bay bridge and we were off! I think got out of San Fran at approximately 5:30pm. My bad.

The following four days were some of the most amazing in my life. In particular on the Saturday. Simon, Vic and I did a 6 and a half hour hike up one of the mountains and it was friggan... COLD! But amazing. Truthfully I was expecting to rock up, swim in beautiful rivers and do some hiking in great conditions but in the end it was just an abundance of snow, rain, fires, getting lost, marshmellows and other little tid bits. I bellowed "I LOVE MY LIFE" numerous times on the mountain.

Another highlight of the trip to Yosemite was driving in. Because we were arriving so late, darkness eventually consumed our bubbly van and it started to snow, heavy! We had to pull over because we did not have snow chains at that point and it was to dangerous. We were going to camp by the side of the road, but in the end a snow plow cleared the road and we rolled down to a very small motel and slept in the parking lot (The manager was not impressed or happy the following morning!)

Shifty looking drive... No exaggeration.

B-E-A-UTIFUL!

6.5 hour mammoth hike. Nearly at the top!

Great view from the top...

There are some photos from the park. We left on Sunday (the van had to be returned Monday morning at 10am in LA). We dropped Maxine off in a little city, she had to carry on to Vegas. The three musketeers then headed west... You want to know why? This is why...

Yep, we cruised down highway 1. It was beautifully ravishing! I am such a sucker for all this natural scenery and I must say that I am immensely impressed with parts of America.

In the end, we dropped the van off at about 5:30pm on Monday arvo. The trip was done without a GPS, just maps and intuition. Getting lost is seriously fun, and besides, how else are you supposed to find yourself if you never get lost?

We were not charged anything extra for the late drop off. $1 got us on a bus where we were pretty much celebrities and it was back to the hostel for a free dinner (black beans, rice and veggies - I like!)

Did I mention where I currently am? Well right now I am actually sitting outside a starbucks, mooching their wifi. I came to the realisation that I don't write my best, or at all when I am distracted by other travels, or in a noisy environment (derr, good one dickhead). Oh I did state where I was. Nice.

Round 2 in Venice Beach is proving to be immense fun. I must give a special mention to my new brother, from another mother. Simon is from Cornwall, England. He is 21 as well. He smokes like a chimney and drinks more beer (or any alcohol) than water. He hates exercise, thinks I am "hippe-ass vegetarian douche". We met in Portland, Oregon and since then have had some super-phun times. It is great to have a dude friend, who despite the surface differences, is very similar to you. Last night we got back home at about 4am. I rolled out of bed at 8am, love it! He is still in bed now, I think (it is 11:15am). Like I said in my last, brief post... I am really enjoying this young, wild and free thing.

Anyhow, I am incredibly tired, lacking essential vitamins and minerals and a tad dehydrated. I already jumped in the chilly pacific this morning freshen up and now I am going to go purchase some very expensive, but fulfilling vegetables and whip up a big plate of colour! Then it is laundry time (I have no clean socks, undies or... pretty much anything). Simon and I will then probably decide on where we are going tomorrow (check out!). Possibly the Grand Canyon, then onto Austin, Texas? Who knows what tomorrow will bring...

I haven't been to worried about much lately. I even forgot about important papers that need to be attended too before I commence Summer Camp. I should probably head back to Canada soon. For now though, I believe that is everything up to date.

All in all, life as I know it right now, is a beach. I am loving the California weather.

How can I love my life more than I do right now?

Young, wild and free

jamesshanks — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:51:00 GMT

That is pretty much how I feel at the moment. I'm not wild in the sense that all I do is party and get drunk, but I am constantly reminded of how "different" I am.

I don't actually feel young anymore... In my previous job at Vision I did, hanging around an older crowd, but traveling I am meeting people who range from 18 upwards. I now feel especially young because a lot of the people I am surrounded by are into partying and other activities that I am uninterested in. A question which has been proposed to me numerous times is why I eat so well (which isn't compared to what I ate at home, mums cooking), why I still exercise and what not when I am supposed to be on "vacation". I value my health, it is my priority!

Finally, I am as free as a bird. I am absolutely loving having nothing to tie my down, I do as I please, when I please.

I didn't want it to be a full week without an entry, but it has been an incredibly adventurous week and I will do an update soon. For now, I am going to go be young, wild and free.

Stolen goods

jamesshanks — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:45:00 GMT

Wednesday 11/04/2012: Today, I was supposed to be checking out of the hostel with Simon and Victoria. In that ideal world that we all live in, we would be picking up our hippie camper van and be en route to the Yosemite.

BUT, and here comes the big BUT... Things NEVER, EVER go according to plan. So let's rewind and play catch up.

Saturday: After fuelling my body with the nutritious breakfast provided by the hostel, I bounced over to the reception desk and inquired how I would go about getting over to "The Rock". Going by past experiences though, I have now learned not to expect, but more just "deal with".

I was informed that you are required to book WAYYYY in advance if you want to visit Alcatraz, bummer! It was a beautiful day, so I had to get out. I left the hostel with Kevin and Evelien. We had no plans, just a desire to explore. Walking down the big city streets with all the shops, navigating through china town, diving into Fisherman's Wharf and eventually ending up at a bicycle rental store... YES! We got our "Blazing Saddles" for $22/day and set out up some big hills.

First stop was the Painted Ladies

Next stop was riding through Golden Gate Park, which was a spectacular. A thought that entered my mind as we were riding was how many beautiful parks I have ridden through. There are awesome parks EVERYWHERE across North America. Are there many in Sydney? I suppose there are... Anyways, let's continue.

We stopped off many times to take a happy snap in the park

Kevin, myself and Evelien.

Next stop was lunch, initiated by me, of course.

No animals harmed here!

The Vegan lunch was followed up by a lot more cycling, up hills, more hills and even hillier hills...

... it was worth it!

The top of the hill led to the Golden Gate Bridge and that is where we headed. I was not at all fussed about riding across for the second time in 6 weeks, if anything I was more excited this time around. We approached the bridge from a different angle, it was another beautiful day and I was just stoked to be back in this beautiful city.

The ride from the bridge back to the bicycle hire place proved to be rather difficult. We were all tired and feeling THE BURN, but we cycled along the water, through another cool park, past a finished marathon (I was severely disappointed that I did not know it was on) and back to Fisherman's Wharf, where we hired the bikes. Dinner that night was my simple tomato soup, loaded with veggies. It wasn't a late night, but it was a long day.

Sunday: I'm not to great with this thinking back thing, I suppose that is why I take photos of everything. According to the order of my photographs I explored San Fran by foot with a cool hippie-ish skater girl from Calgary. Victoria, myself, Simon and Kev set out to absorb more of this rockin' city. We rocked, we rolled and we... ate pizza for lunch.

Apart from briefly hanging in "City Lights Bookstore" and probing the Scientologists about their beliefs, it was just a fun day hanging out with similarly cool (although not as cool) kids.

What was more fun was the evening shenanigans. We all poured into a cool retro-ish bar with a tonne of different beers on tap. We probably only stay until 9:45pm, but it was just fun to hang out.

Coolest kids around.

Monday: The start of the week bought with it... NO PLANS. So I got up, had my breakfast with my new pal Raymond. D. Sweet (who technically works at the hostel, but really just hangs out with us). I conned him into showing Kevin, Simon and I around the city, so off we set!

The first stop was City Hall, which is this extremely elaborate building right next to a handful of hobos. The building itself is beautiful, there were no less than 3 couples taking wedding photos in the building, none of the brides wanted a photo with me.

After the visit to City Hall, we went down to an awesome supermarket called "Rainbow". They stocked all organic, fresh produce. I don't think they sold ANY meat and it AMAZING. Despite the obesity rates over here, there is an alternate healthy option for those who want it.

Rainbow was followed up with a gruelling hike to dolores park where we had a nice little hour long nap under the sun. Every so often there would be a wiff of ganja, and the occasional salesman passing by.

Refreshed and rejuvenated (We needed to be for the next part of the adventure!) we casually strolled through Castro... This place is rather, different? It's my understanding that this is the gay area of San Fran, and boy was it gay. Dicks-out dudes wandering around, colourful flags on every window, lots of bears preying on me and very odd posters for even more odd looking clubs. It was an experience...

The bus from Castro took us to hippy town, Haight. This area sports some cool and funky stores, along with some odd folk. Everyone seems to be either smoking weed or selling it. Kevin and I got separated from Raymond and Simon, so we purchased some groceries and caught the packed out bus back to our hostel.

That night I threw together some veggies, tofu and Japanese yams for a wicked stir-fry. I'll say it again, I am seriously enjoying cooking. I love purchasing food to cook, I love reading recipes, I love being in the kitchen and I LOVEEEE to eat! (Burritos are my new favourite).

Tuesday: Yesterday was a very chilled out, relaxing, but overall enjoyable day. Again, there were no plans in the morning. I am generally rolling out of bed at 8am, no matter what time I doze off in the evening. I had my granola, banana, almonds and lactose-free breakfast. Maybe myself some sandwiches (I ran out of Jam, so I've been having peanut butter and NUTELLA!)... Yummmmm. In fact, I had one 20 minutes ago.

I've been talking and chatting to a few staff here (Raymond for one) and that morning I was talking to the breakfast serving dude; Rico. Rico is a lovely guy from Minnesota. I asked him to go hang out, so Rico, myself and Victoria went to Westfield San Francisco! We stayed there for a while just chatting away, window shopped a little bit and then it was lunch time! I think one of the hardest decisions for a backpacker is WHAT TO EAT! I love it. In the end we went back to the hostel, and I wanted to try make my own burritos.

Vicious, delicious and nutritious!

The big, heavy lunch left us with a nasty food coma, so for the rest of the afternoon we just chilled out, watched some Jamie Oliver (Food Revolution)... Oh yeah, that's what I have been doing, convincing my roomies and new friends that vege is the way to go. I forgot to mention that Monday evening was spent in our room watching a 90 minute documentary on animal rights and Veganism. So the guys and girls I have been hanging around have been enjoying a few meatless days. Win!

Evelien has left out hostel to go to another one, she is going to stay in San Francisco a bit longer than all of us. Everyone ate my dinner last night so she opted to cook last night. We trekked for about an hour over hills, down mountains and across fields of razor grass. Evelien cooked up a beautiful batch of kidney beans, onions, tomatos and other healthy goodness stuff. The last supper was very enjoyable, but it was time to go. Kevin, Raymond, Victoria and I said our goodbyes to Evelien and stormed out into the rain.

The first few days in San Fran have been very warm and enjoyable, but last night was wet. Wet, wet and wet! Running through the rain was not much fun, but we grabbed a bus back to the hostel

It was... fun... UP UNTIL THIS POINT.

Caution: Hazardous words ahead -

We arrived back at the hostel at 11:15pm, there abouts and at the front desk was Simon. He did not accompany us to dinner because he would rather eat McDonalds than our enthusiastic vege dishes.

Basically, someone asshole has pranced into our room whilst we were gone and rummaged through our stuff. Simon has lost his iPad, iPod, money and passport. Kevin's laptop and camera were taken. All my stuff is in place, except my toothbrush is broken?? My bag had been looked through, but I had all my personal, expensive items either on me or in the locker. Simon claims that his lockers was broken off, because all his stuff was in a locker as well.

This has caused a major inconvenience for all of us and the frustration last night was high. Simon, Victoria and I were supposed to be driving down to the Yosemites this morning, but that has been postponed.

I will still go tomorrow, but we have to hang around another day. So far, not much has happened. It is past lunch time now, I've been writing on and off. We went down to the useless police station, they have come up to the hostel and Simon and Kevin will contact their insurance companies. Not much can happen now, their stuff is long gone. I think the biggest loss has been Kevin's computer, he has been travelling for over 8 months and has lost all his photos now... I got to get a USB to back mine up!

Okay, so we are up to date, I believe. It's time to go for a wander and get some seriously healthy food.

Guess what? I love my life!!

Return to San Francisco

jamesshanks — Sat, 7 Apr 2012 10:03:00 GMT

When I came down this morning for the free breakfast, provided by the hostel, I was greeted with an abundance of white. No it wasn't snowing, but the four white devils appear to be core ingredients in a healthy American breakfast. White sugar, white salt, white flour and pasteurised milk, ughhhh!

I don't need to slam down 2 cups of coffee after my sugar loaded breakfast. Nor do I require another 4 throughout the day. I do feel a sense of achievement in knowing that my body won't be under the stress of having to rid itself of those toxins that come in the form of fluffy white bread, smeared with a combination of sugary and salty spreads and downed with a glass of liquid white nothingness.

Okay, rant over!

I have managed to find my way back to San Francisco! I left Portland on Wednesday morning with Evelien, Kevin and Simon. I met Kevin in Victoria, then again in Seattle and then AGAIN in Portland. So I think it was about time I hitched a ride with him.

From left; Dutch Evelien, German Kevin, Pommy Simon and me!

The drive from Portland along highway 101 was absolutely spectacular! The road was divided by two colours. To the left of the road were massive green trees of all sorts, the right side was filled with blue. Beautiful blue skies, complimented with more blue from the somewhat calm Pacific ocean.

Pulling over and absorbing the beautiful coast. No swimming though :(

After the first day of driving, we stopped off in Crescent city (more of a town). We picked the dodgiest, cheapest looking motel and all of us slept with one eye open in case our road trip became one of those horror films involving the ignorant tourists and slasher truck drives.

I went for a run yesterday morning, the sun was rising and it really lit up the little town. The day prior was spent confined in a little car with 3 other stinky backpackers and the day ahead didn't look much different. I breathed in as much fresh air as I could and then went back to set out for the second part of the trip.

I've been told by my fellow travel companions that my day involves four things; reading, sleeping, eating and toilet. It's a vicious cycle, but sadly it's true. So after many cycles of reading, sleeping, eating and running off to a hygienic petrol station toilet we came across, we finally entered San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge. I had ridden across it just over a month ago, but driving across it was just as awesome. I was just as excited, if not MORE excited than my previous trip to here.

I suggested we drive down Lombard street before checking into the hostel and the guys eagerly agreed. Again it was just as exciting as the previous time. This time I got out of the car and ran down, walked around and fully took in the view of the city.

The events that followed weren't at all that exciting. We checked into our hostel, went and searched from a grocery store in downtown San Fran (which provided to be rather challenging) and then cooked up a feast. I prepared my jalapeño, tomoato, mushroom, rice and bean mix and it was... HOT. I got some jalapeño bits in my eye and I cried a river.

And that my friends, is the way the cookie crumbles. Here I am now in this white food environment. I think I want to check our Alcatraz today, I didn't go last time. Time to fill in those missy gaps.

All or nothing

jamesshanks — Thu, 5 Apr 2012 00:44:00 GMT

Dear Diary,

How are you? It's sure feels like it's been a while, eh? I miss how close you and I used to be. You know how I'd share everything with you every day, you would just absorb it all, not judging or commenting.

It feels as if we are growing distant, maybe I am becoming slack? I don't think so. I had good intentions in the beginning and I still think and strive to talk with you every day, but whilst my heart is in one place, my head is elsewhere. For example, I didn't want to drink this evening, but when a glass of wine was placed in front of me, I told myself it was fine, enjoy it, don't worry. It is similar with you, I went all guns blazing in the beginning, but now I can't help but feel slack.

Where to start? Here we go...

Monday: Stretching my memory back that far is rather difficult, considering all the days pretty much blur into one (again, hard life right?). I set out with Evelien and Sara to spend a full day exploring Seattle. Our first stop was the "Underground Tour" of Seattle. Sounds interesting right? Rick, our tour guide, did a great job educating us on Seattle's history (I remember the date 1851, I think that is relevant to it's history?). It wasn't quite as exciting as we had been lead to believe (tourists trapped!) but, it was rather nifty to walk through the old, underground streets of Seattle.

This was followed up with a visit to Columbia Tower, which is rather impressive just to look at from ground level. I imagine it would of provided a spectacular view from the 73rd floor viewing deck, but we didn't quite make it that far. The three of us did however make it to the 72nd floor, which I have no doubt provided an equally, if not more satisfying view. The 72nd floor is occupied by a nifty little business law firm and one of the nine lawyers jumped at the opportunity to show off his office when we asked.

Columbia Tower was followed up with Seattles version of China Town, which isn't more than a few Asian grocery stores and some Peking Duck restaurants. I then decided to leave Sara and Evelien, they wanted to eat sushi and I had this strong desire to cook (plus it was the cost effective option). So I went and prepped my new favourite dish:

My big hot pot.. It tastes spicy!

The rest of the afternoon I spent by myself exploring downtown Seattle. Mainly walking around the big stores and just window shopping. It was the first time in a while since I had been by myself. I think I enjoy my own company the most. :P

The night finished with a few glasses of wine and Saras butternut-squash risotto. Mmmmmmm

Tuesday: I started my morning tip-toeing around my room, trying not to wake my other roomies. Our trio (Sara, Evelien and I) had decided to catch the 8am Greyhound from Seattle to Portland. I didn't pack the majority of my bag before I had left Australia til the morning of the flight, the same goes with traveling to another state in America. I got myself up at 6am, made a few sandwiches and as quietly as I could, stuffed and squeezed everything into my three bags (yes, I have picked up another bag. This is my permanent food bag which consists of food that are pretty much essentials; cereals, long life almond milk, fruits, breads, spreads, etc...) Sara and I set off and met Evelien at the bus shelter (she stayed at the Green Tortoise). The ticket cost $35 and four hours of my time. It was a slow, dull, stinky bus ride. There was not much of a view and I must comment on the size of a few of the passengers. Obesity appears to be so much more prevalent, or at least noticeable in the states. On this bus there were no less than 5 people who did not just look like the needed to lose a few pounds, but looked miserably sick! It did still shock me when we had arrived in Portland and I noticed one of the obese passengers waddling across the depo with TWO HUMONGOUS sodas (a coke, and orange looking fanta). Sure, they could have been diet, sugar free; but I just felt sad for him.

Anyways, after hauling our excessively heavy luggage many blocks to our new cozy hostel, we ate (a lot). I refuse to take responsibility for the FREE bread provided by the hostel (it's actually provided by the bakery down the road, to the travellers at the hostel) and boy oh boy, it's darn good bread!

Leaving the warm, cozy hostel we ventured into the wet streets of Portland. It's always super exciting to explore a new city. We found ourselves at Voodoo doughnuts, where I devoured the oreo/peanut-butter sugary toroidal. The next place of visit was the largest independent new and used bookstore (yes, I was incredibly excited) in the world!

Powells bookstore is MASSIVE! It is literally a city of books. Our little trio immediately separated and lost one another (which was fine by me) and from there, it was sheer bliss! After an hour, I thought I had better get back to the hostel. It was now about 5pm, I was still feeling a tad guilty about my overblown sugar consumption for the day, so I hit the wet pavement. I enjoy running, and I am really enjoying running in unknown territory. I went for about 45 minutes and found myself in a little park doing some bodyweight exercises. Go the ghetto workouts!

It was my turn to cook that evening, and they demanded an omelete. I enthusiastically delivered! Two of the biggest, meanest pizza-looking omeletes I have ever made in my life. It wasn't a late night, but we finished up playing a German card game, which is kind of, sort of like uno, but not really.

Today: I can pretty much sum up today with one word, and I think that is what I will do; Cycling.

I think I expressed how a few of my favourite days have been when I have hired a bike and explored a city? Today was no exception. It was just the three of us and we rode through rain, hail and shine. No joke.

We pretty much rode for about 5 hours in every direction. I love it!

Tonight was Evs turn to cook, and boy did she cook!

I don't think much more needs to be said.

Tomorrow, I am heading back to... San Fran! Yep, met a cool German fella who is driving down the West Coast. Evelien and I will join him, whilst Sara heads back up to Canada.

That is enough for tonight, it is now 12:42am and I gonskies!

Ohhhhh happy days!

Yes, I did get incredibly excited after sighting a squirrel!

Sleepy in Seattle

jamesshanks — Mon, 2 Apr 2012 10:38:00 GMT

Friday nights shenanigans left me with about 3 hours of sleep. I hit the sack at around 3am, by far my latest night so far. I was leaving the "party hostel" though, and my roomies and I had some wine, which was a nice change of alcoholic pace.

I rolled out of bed Saturday morning, went downstairs for my routine warm lemon water + hearty breakfast of super cereal. Two days prior I had struck up a conversation with a girl named Evelien from the Netherlands. She was reading a book and I got excited... I <3 books! Anyways, turns out she was heading off to Seattle on the same ferry I was going on. So I had a travel buddy, yay!

Sailing the high seas.

After crossing the ocean for 90 minutes (85 of which I slept) we hopped on a bus which went for almost 3 hours. Another quick 23 minute ride across another little ocean (the bus went on the ferry) and then another 30 minute drive to downtown Seattle! I found my way to the City Hostel Seattle and Evelien went to hers at the Green Tortoise. I had originally wanted to book with hers, but so far is seems mine is better!! :)

I've now met up with Sara from Santa Monica, and so far the three of us have explored a lot of Seattle. Yesterday we...

Discovered Spidermans lair

Visited the first ever Starbucks (the line there was out on the streets... it's just coffee!)

Found the cleanest part of Seattle (A massive wall consisting of chewing gum, bubble gum and false gums)

Visited the Olympic Sculpture Park

And this is where my battery died

At the EMP museum.

The EMP museum was definitely very cool. I am not much of a Nirvana fan, or Hendrix fan, but it was definitely interesting to check out their history and actually see the instruments they played, original lyrics they wrote and how they came to be. The museum also hosted other cool expos such as a section dedicated to the movie Avatar and a really cool (non-scary) horror section.

The rest of the day involved eating a burrito the size of my head (unfortunately my battery died), walking to a far away REI and then going to Eveliens hostel down the road for a free dinner (Which wasn't to bad).

This morning I rolled out of bed and forced myself to run. I think this has become my favourite way to explore a new city. Running through and around an unknown city is highly enjoyable. I must have a lot of fans considering the amount of stares I accumulate (or maybe it's because I am the only idiot in shorts and a singlet).

Tomorrow I think the three of us will be heading down to Portland, Oregon and then Sara is off to Whistler and Evelein is going to continue to head down the coast through San Francisco. I don't know what I will do, I might look around America a bit more.. We'll see!

So just a quickie of an update, but rest assured loyal fans, I am alive and well.

Up, up and away!

Photos: Cross the border, back to America!

jamesshanks — Mon, 2 Apr 2012 02:37:00 GMT

TGIF!

jamesshanks — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:03:00 GMT

When you wake up as you please, stay out with no worries of work tomorrow and have a total of ZERO commitments each day, it does not matter whether it is Friday or Monday.

Re-reading that, it sounds like a pretty lazy, apathetic attitude. I am still an "early-riser" by the standards of other backpackers. I will usually wake up at 7:30am (plus 10 minutes for every beer consumed the night prior).

Yesterday I woke up with no plans, as I do most days and just went with it. I ended up on Salt Spring Island (1 hour bus, 35 minute ferry, 30 minute bus) with four German guys. How that came to be isn't a very interesting story, so we'll skip that. We left at 10am in the morning, and after waiting for buses/ferry + travel time, we arrived in the "city" area of the island at approximately 2pm. We stocked up on some m for fuel and set out looking for the highest point on the island. We were sad to hear that it would take us too long to get up the top, and we had to catch a ferry back to Victoria, so we settled for a nice hike up another mountain, which in the end, was more spectacular than what any of us originally anticipated.

Team Germany at the top!

It was a wet hike, but it was awesome fun. We reached the top, took our happy snaps, refuelled with some fruit and made our way down the slippery mountain.

After spending the majority of the day on our ass either waiting for public transport, or being on public transport, we all agreed that it was worth it... See?

There was a trivia night at the hostel that evening, so a lot of the guests took part in some silly categories of questions (McDonalds, human anatomy, 90s television, geography, etc...). I abandoned team Germany (which was flourishing! They had about 9 people, maybe more on their team) and I joined team America! It was me and two American girls. We came fourth in the end, but that didn't matter, I don't need to prove my intellect to a bunch of drunk travellers. After the quiz, the two American girls, Max my German roomie and I went down the road to the Crickety Wicket (where the AFL and Rugby League was on!)

Turns out the two girls both do not eat meat (one was full Vegan) and Max does not eat meat either, so it was a table of Vege heads discussing topics from modern day food to the war on terror. The night finished at approximately 2:30am, great!

I rolled out of bed at 8:30am this morning. I had planned to meet my friend Kim in the kitchen area at 10am, but I wanted to detoxify and have my breakfast first. I ended up chatting to a lady from Brisbane who was a graphic designer, now a farm worker (hated the corporate world!). In the end, the 3 of us went towards Beacon Hill Park, and then to "the beach". I had been on my first day in Victoria, but it was a sunny day and I wanted to head towards the beach, and Noeleen (the Aussie) wanted to head towards the park.

I had a blast exploring the park/rocky beach on my first day, by myself. But being there again to share the experience and have others to have fun with, made the second time round even more fun.

And this time I had someone to take my photos for me!

We (well I had a blast) playing next to the ocean, amongst the rocks. It was then lunch time and I made a big plate of veggies and beans, yummy. The rest of the arvo has been very rainy and I did some washing with Max and Eike. I also booked a nights accomodation in Seattle... Oh yeah, did I forget to mention I am going back to AMERICA!!! Tomorrow morning I am finally checking out of the hostel (although, I could stay there for another 6 weeks) and catching a ferry across the boarder to Seattle. Yippeeeee, the adventure continues...

"To venture is to risk death, not to venture is to have died already."

I'm in Starbucks right now, wanted to get out of all the noise and write an update. I am off to have dinner (I feel like an omelete) and then maybe a glass of red wine. I don't think it will be a late night, although it is Friday, the hostel is FULL and people are already starting to get drunk. No thanks.

Sayonara!

Have you passed your floss?

jamesshanks — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:31:00 GMT

Did you know that it is incredibly important to floss your gums at least once a day? That is what my new friend Kim-Haley from Montreal informed me. The build up of bacteria in your gums can be detrimental to your health! She was a dental hygienist and has made it her god sent mission to educate as many people as possible about the importance of the floss, for your gums (but she smokes????)

Kim-Haley the Canadian Frenchie, floss enthusiast!

I thought that was interesting. Did you? I don't know if you guys are aware, but I am absolutely loving Victoria! Well, I don't know if it is Victoria itself, or where I am specifically. What I mean is, the Ocean Island hostel is AWESOME! When I arrived on Sunday afternoon I was a bit "uhhhh, not sure if I'll like it here". BUT! Since then, I have looked past the dirty kitchen, tiny bedroom which stinks of marijuana and abundance of obnoxious Australians (the hostel consists of 50% Aussies, 47% Germans and 3% French). I have made some fantastic friends, I have explored the city, I have REALLY enjoyed cooking my own food, taking my time to prepare each meal and be constantly complimented on how healthy or interesting my dishes look.

Can you guess which section of the fridge I have claimed?

The hostel is close to my favourite store Chapters/Starbucks. I still come down here to immerse myself within the pages of the Millennium series. I have so much free time in the world. It's great!

Last night, after my unreal and flavoursome spinach salad with yams and falafel, which was totally envied by a few other backpackers and their microwave pepperoni pizzas, I went out with my Montreal friend Kim to...

This bar is super fun! They have Christmas lights hanging from the roof, along with bras they have collected over the years, apparently... ? Upon entering we noticed there was a lot of rubbish on the ground. I thought, what a dirty bar, BUT they were peanut shells! They give you a bucket of peanuts, and when you finish them, they give you another! I think I Had 3 buckets of nuts to myself. Woops! Big Bad Johns has a real Western feel and the owner is rather scary and somewhat resembles a Western version of Frankenstein:

He would constantly walk around the bar and ask if we required another drink. Even Kim, who is half my size drinks faster than I do. I can't keep up with anyone here, but that is something I pride myself in! We hung out there for a while and we were joined by another girl from the Hostel; Claire from Melbourne. She is a Ski Instructor and heading back to Aus tomorrow. The night ended rather early, which was good because I was incredibly tired after my ghetto workout that morning. We went back to the hostel, and I went up stairs to fall asleep, but I was the first one in there and my roomies came back soon after and woke me up, again and again.

I woke up about 7:30am this morning and had my warm lemon water to flush out those toxins from the previous night. I consumed a banana and mandarin and set out to "GoodLife Fitness". I had visited this gym the day before to "inquire about joining". Of course they gave me my trial day, not week... bastards! So I went and used that this morning. The branch itself is only a year and a half old and sports shiny new equipment which is pretty darn good. I stayed for 50 minutes, took my happy snap and bolted out the door, avoiding the sales sharks!

I had a POWER BAR after my workout, and it made my tummy feel a bit crook. After the gym, I came to where I am now and read for a bit, went back to the hostel and met up with Kim the dental hygienist (we had arranged to meet at 1pm). She has driven across the country to be here and learn English for 6 months. So we hopped in her dirty Hyundai and drove North on the Trans-Canada Highway. We were headed for the Goldstream Provincial Park.

There isn't enough rain to wash your car around here!

Goldstream, like the rest of Canada would be nice on a Sunny day. You got to use what you got though, and make the most of the moment, so I wasn't bothered. We explored... swimming across piranha infested waters (maybe they were salmon?), fought off carnivorous vultures (fed the local seagulls) and climbed over unstable boulders on the massive mountain (hopped across the rocks)! It was fun, but the rain soon got the better of us and we had to depart.

It was very similar to Newcastle Island, but I had company this time which was a lot more fun.

After we arrived back at the hostel at around 4pm, I cooked some eggs and had it with two slices of toast, olives, spinach and avocado. Now, here I am in Chapters letting the world that I am still alive!

I also booked myself in for another night. I had originally booked 3 nights (checkout was supposed to be today), but I have since booked another 2 nights. I am leaving on Friday and will most likely go back to Van Island then and maybe meet up with Sara from Switzerland to make our way to Alberta?

On a completely unrelated topic, if you have followed my entries, you would be aware that whilst I was a bit bored in Coquitlam, I went out and handed in a few resumes at the mall downtown. I think I handed out two resumes and spoke with a few other businesses, just inquiring about work. The local Sports Check sent me an email yesterday saying that I have an interview TODAY (Wednesday @ 4:30pm). Woopsie... I replied saying that I apoligise because I am in Victoria and won't be able to make it. I also heard back from Belwood lodge, near Toronto. They emailed offering a postion as a SENIOR camp counsellor... :( Unfortunately I had to decline that as well. It feels terrible to say no to so many great positions, oh well... I am living the good life!

It is now 5:30pm, dinner soon. I might go with the backpacker trends and purchase myself a microwave pizza pocket from 7/11?

F the police (kidding, cops are tops!)

jamesshanks — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:38:00 GMT

I've had a few run ins with the Victorian police over the past few days...

I don't know if you can tell, but I am a big fan of the Popo! There is also no doubt that they feel like celebrities when I ask to score a photo with them. But all the police I have spoken to since being abroad have been awesome!

Now, onto a more serious topic. It has technically been a whole month since I left Australia (it is only the 27th over here). So three cheers for me!!

I have been a bit lazy with my entries, but that is mostly because I have been doing stuff! I made my way from Nanaimo to Victoria on Sunday, and since then it has been a blast!! This city is very nice, it's quite exquisite and I personally feel that it has a very European (specifically English) touch to it. Although, I have never been to England, there are just small things here which whisper "pommy feeling". For example, Victoria sports double decker buses! In addition, the architecture here also comes across as very European influenced (That's what my German friends said!!)

Fun fact: These are the British Columbia Parliament Buildings which were constructed in 1896 (Source; Wikipedia!)

Since arriving in Victoria, I have taken the time to walk along the harbour, which is really pretty, on a nice day. It was a bit wet yesterday, but that can't dampen my spirits! I set our with barely two t-shirts on and got lost in Beacon Hill Park, which again would have been beautiful on a sunny day. I then made my way to "the beach", which wasn't really a beach, more just where the rocks meet the water. It was still very pretty, as you can see:

Well I thought it was.

I climbed over some rocks, which was a big adrenaline rush for me, and quite the workout. There are few self-timer shots in the Vancouver Island photo album.

I made my way to the Ogden Point Pier after I was done playing amongst the rocks. This is a HUGE pier, which at the end has a pretty little lighthouse. It was again, a big rush for me, but it was also quite pleasant to be out there by myself in the rain. No sarcasm.

I don't think you can grasp the full length of the pier in this picture, but trust me it was long! And trust me, I know a thing or two about long.

Being at the pier was great, a local told me that you can see Washington/Seattle on the other side of the water, which I thought was pretty cool. He then informed me that it is a 3 hour boat ride from Van Island to America.

Following the pier, I took the harbour walk back to downtown Victoria, which like everything else that I have so far experienced in this city, is spectacular. I then found myself back in my comfort zone; the bookstore Chapters. I read for about 2 hours (The Girl Who Played with Fire) and then made my way back to the hostel to cook a mean vege pasta. On another note, I am really enjoying cooking. Despite the costs of purchasing all my own food, I enjoy being in the kitchen and preparing my own dishes. Even the other backpackers look over and envy me. Bad ass mofo!

My German buddies and I ate our fantastically prepared dishes together and then decided to hang out. We went down to Chinatown together, and went looking for the smallest alley way in the Northern Hemisphere (according to the local tourist centre). Now, I don't know if she was talking out of her a$$ but this alley was large enough to for my pecs and guns.. Massive!

Fan Tan alley in Chinatown, Victoria.

Eike, Max (my German pals) and I were severely disappointed and let down by the false promise. We decided to go and lodge a formal complaint with the tourist office, but they were shut. So we wandered aimlessly for an hour or so, made our way back to the hostel and had a drink in the downstairs bar.

This then led to a few more drinks at the local pubs in the area. These Germans have been legally drinking since the age of 16, and I couldn't keep up! But all in all, it was a very fun night and it was great to hang out with some guys of the same age, in similar situations.

Last shot for the night with my new German pals.

Today I rolled out of bed at 7:30am, with quite a headache, accompanied with massive dehydration and a bad belly (to many Oreos from 7/11). I made two glasses of warm lemon water to push those toxins out of my suffering body. Then went for a ghetto workout!

I intended to only run, but came across a park where I use the equipment to work my upper body. It felt great, and was very different. Following my enjoyable workout, I chilled out at the hostel for a bit, had a lot of food to eat (all super healthy, for the most part) and then went to the book store to chillax some more.

Then it was off to sort out my minor VISA problems, which meant I had to pay a visit to my dear friends at the police station. I was helped out tremendously by a lovely lady named Denise who instructed me to email the camp and tell them to get in contact with her. She doesn't believe I need ANOTHER criminal record check and said it would be a waste of her time and my money. That is the reason for my introduction on how much I love the policia!

And that brings me to here, and you up to date with my shenanigans. This hostel that I am at is a massive bump up from the one in Nanaimo, mainly because there are actually people here and it's more of a chilled out, fun environment. I am really enjoying myself and will be leaving Victoria on Thursday.

Time to go cook a delicious falafel spinach salad.

Loving the good life!

J-dog over and out.

Nature rocks!

jamesshanks — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 10:58:00 GMT

I had good intentions on Friday evening. Get to bed early, rise before the sun and explore Newcastle Island. Unfortunately this wasn't to be, due to the worst roomie I have had to date. Darwin, from Canada decided that his bladder was so close to bursting that he would use the bin in our room as his toilet. Who does that??? I gave him an earful and dozed off again. I was woken up again because the room stunk heavily of tobacco (mind you, it was already fairly stinky due the smokers presence). The dude was smoking by the window, in our NO SMOKING hostel. I threw a few swear words at him and tried to get back asleep.

I very wearily rolled out of bed at 8:30am. I packed my bag and set out to find Newcastle Island. After catching a little ferry, I found myself alone on a little island, sounds pretty cool right?

The big sign was all the welcome I got, but that was okay, I was here to explore! It was slightly scary and intimidating at first, I had no map and had told the ferry dude to pick me up at 2:30pm (4 hours to explore would be enough). So I simply started walking and felt totally relaxed and at ease. There wasn't a single person around and I soon accepted that my best friend that day was going to be the rocks, forrest, beaches and distant mountains.

I set off into the woods and instantly got lost. Have no fear though, I reminded that in order to find yourself, you MUST get lost. There is something special about having unfamiliar surroundings and no one else to talk to or ask for directions. Despite the initial fear I carried on and found myself to quite enjoy my own company!

I put a few more photos in the Vancouver Island photo album, but I am not the worlds best photographer, nor do I understand half the settings on the camera. You can see the distant mountains in this photo, not only was it physically pleasing for the eyes, but they really do provide a sense of tranquility.

I don't feel as if I can describe the enormity of being alone on this provincial park, but I would highly encourage everybody to go out and discover nature.

Three hours had passed quickly and after hugging many trees (and also peeing on them!) I had to make my way back to the dock to catch the 2:30pm ferry. I used the rest of the arvo to explore Nanaimo and search for a Starbucks to plan what I would do today. I finally found one, opened my bag to pull out my laptop and charger and realised I had put my charger in my other bag, what a catastrophe! In the end, I settled for using the hostels wifi. I think that I am the youngest here by at least 10 years, but that's okay, mature people provide interesting enough conversation...

I baked a yam and some tofu for dinner, put together a quick salad and made a reservation for a hostel in Victoria. I've heard a few nasty stories about the Greyhound buses over here (apparently it's all the newly released prisoners and homeless people???) - I'll let you know how it goes when I arrive in Victoria.

To infinity... and beyond!

Vancouver Island: Nanaimo

jamesshanks — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 22:01:00 GMT

Waking up to the sound of an alarm this morning was somewhat foreign. It's been a few weeks of just rolling out of bed whenever I please, but today was different! At 6am I launched myself out of bed, ate my newly discovered super granola (YUMMM!) and squeezed everything I had into my two backpacks. It's been over two weeks since I've had to lug both of them around, and gee wiz.. they felt heavy. Mind you, I have done little shopping and most of the "excess weight" in my bag was food that I did not want to throw away.

I ended up leaving Coquitlam at 8:45am (Don't ask me why it took so long to get ready - I had to shave). Getting to the bus depot proved to be quite a challenge with my shrinking physique and overloaded bags, but with the help of a trusty trolly, I made it!

In the end I caught the 12:30pm ferry from Horseshoe Bay (West Vancouver) over to Nanaimo. The voyage over was quite splendid. I didn't see any whales or interesting marine life, but I did befriend a 32 year old father who has 6 children. He was interesting enough and through listening intently to his life story, I made it across!

Since arriving at approximately 2:30pm, I have probably seen a total of 17 people, this town is dead! The Painted Turtle, which is the hostel I am staying at for TWO nights, is funky and chilled out, but it lacks the presence of PEOPLE! It's absolutely dead here. I don't feel like going to the pub and having a lonely beer, so I'll stay here and pretty much have a conversation with myself.

Rocks are a fun way to enjoy what Nanaimo has to offer.

I'm just kidding! Nanaimo is a friendly little town, very quaint, but with the harbour it and distant mountains, it is quite scenic. Tomorrow I plan to wake up and pound the pavement along the waterfront and then hop on a little ferry to explore one of the islands, I believe it is called Newcastle Island and it is supposed to be a lovely provincial park.

Until then, I am going to go and delve into my favourite book series on the planet right now.... The Millenium series!

Photos: Vancouver Island

jamesshanks — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:55:00 GMT

Hopped on a ferry and landed on an island!

Thank you, thank you and THANK YOU!

jamesshanks — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 21:01:00 GMT

To everybody who is even remotely interested in how I am going. I appreciate you all taking the time to read through my rants and antics! When I first started writing this online journal, it was intended to be exactly that; a journal so my family could keep up with where I am and what I am doing. As it turns out, I have had over 1600 views in 3 weeks, so it kind of motivates me to write more and more.

I have been a bit boring the past week, or so. I haven't really been venturing out simply because I have not had access to my funds. HUGE thanks to my family for the support and help I received from them. Tomorrow I am on the move, I have sorted myself out (I think), got the job lined up, sorted out money and decided what clothing is just dead weight (Don't pack the morning of if you intend to travel for a while, really think about what you will need/not need).

Now I have to go and repack my bag and decide on what I don't need. I don't have many clothes as is, and now I will have less. YES! If you are a female and constantly confronted with: "Uhhh, I don't know what to wear????" - go traveling, you won't have so many choices!

Part of the reason as to why I have undertaken this journey is to find myself and the area that I would like to dedicate the rest of my life too. I think I have a future in writing, maybe I will study journalism??

What do you reckon?

This "story" is just to everybody out there who came onto this website, I could thank each and everyone of you personally (I do have the time! :P) but I will opt for the large group thanks. I appreciate everyone on here and it really does mean a lot when I log on and see that you guys have had a geeze. Thanks everybody.

Love your life, I love mine!

Excited yet?

jamesshanks — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:51:00 GMT

What does it take to get you excited? I am very excited right now! What sparked this? Well firstly, I put my first pair of shorts on in two weeks, which honestly feels so much more comfortable. I had a shower? Yes, that is exciting seeing as that I have been showering once every 48 hours (it started out as twice a day, then dropped off to one and now every second day). Second of all, did you know that Justin Bieber is 18 years old? I just found out. No, I didn't meet him, but I am watching his documentary. What a legend!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXOWt524IQM

I think JB is a superstar (that is obvious), but what a talented dude. I appreciate his music, you may not like it, but that doesn't make him a douchebag, does it? I might grow out my hair like his and start taking vocal lessons (although he is self-taught).

Yesterday I woke up, went and got my beef on, at the gym (no animals were harmed in the process). Which, by the way, I am not yet paying for.. Silly Canadian gym salesmen. Of coure, going to the gym got me excited. After the gym I ate (which always gets me in a fabulous mood) and decided to take go and hang out with my best friend; Diamond the dog. We went for an adventurous 100 minute walk, hung out with other dogs at the park and went to areas I haven't previously been. I think I am developing a newfound love for animals. Here weee gooooo! :)

http://www.amazon.com/Face-Your-Plate-Truth-About/dp/0393065952

This is the book that I was reading before (read it all in the bookstore/library). Anybody can read it! (vegetarians, vegans, omnivores and carnivores!)

After my lengthy walk with the white fluff ball, I had to regain energy (cause honestly, I was pooped) so made a quick sandwich and out the door I was! By now it was later afternoon, and as I was walking Diamond I had noticed an all Organic store (which had gone unnoticed up until this point). These all Organic stores rock! As unhealthy as Western culture is (especially North America) with all their fast food "restaurants" and caffeine hang out spots, they do have these all Organic stores in various places, I get VERY excited when I see one and never miss the opportunity to get my health-fix! I purchased the godly Cacao powder, similar to hot chocolate, but very good for you, apart from the bitter taste. It goes for $22.49 over here, for less than 500g. I handed the lady $22.50, expecting my 1c change, however it never came... Would you have arked up? I didn't, in hindsight, I should have!

After my purchase, I went and ALMOST finished TGWTDT, sat in Starbucks, booked a nights accommodation for Friday on Vancouver Island, which was VERY exciting. Time to get a move on. So this Friday, I am off to Vancouver Island to hang with killer whales and grizzly bears (kidding mum!).

Now, I am finishing the JB doco, then I'll be out to soak in some Vitamin D and until Friday, just relax. I must say, I am starting to enjoy all this relaxing, but what I really crave is some adventure.

So, adios amigos! Up, up and away!

All quiet on the Western front.

jamesshanks — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:49:00 GMT

Technically I am in West Canada, and the past few days have been rather quiet. I haven't done much moving around or exploring, more just reading and waiting. I am currently half way through "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" on my Kindle, which is fabulous. I am waiting for some money to come through which will give me a bit more confidence to go and explore.

I just had another phone interview with a camp near Toronto. All these camps sound so awesome, and I really want to have a little bit of me in each of them. I have three amazing opportunities, but can only take one. I am sure that wherever I end up, I will have a magical Summer.

After I had my phone interview, I was about to leave and go for a walk/read somewhere else but I was stopped by a friendly guy named Jim (Yes, people with the name James are a step above the rest). We had a brief chat, but I quickly dismissed him because I was in a hurry to read my book. I felt incredibly bad afterwards for being so rude, but what happened, happened. Nothing I could do.

I went for a lovely walk around Coquitlam and basically just went down streets that I hadn't been before. I ended up next to a beautiful lake with a wicked water fountain in the middle. There was a walking track, so I decided to follow it, it let to the top of this hill which provided a pleasant view. I sat up here and pulled out my Kindle and read for a bit. It started to get chilly, so I decided to go sit in the book store back in town. I packed up, started walking back.

As I was passing Starbucks, Jim (the guy I barely met before) was still there studying (mind you about 4-5 hours had passed). So I went back inside and tapped him on the shoulder. And from there, we just chatted about everything imaginable. In the end, we were both hungry so we hopped in his car and drove... around the block until we decided that pizza would suffice (despite him working at Dominos). He wanted to introduce me to Flying Wedge Pizza. Jim insisted on paying (what a top bloke, right?) for the half/half we ordered. It was a medium size, but came out looking like an extra small. Regardless, it was filling enough and we were both satisfied with our choices (I had the "Tuscan Garden" and he went with the "Bollywood")

Afterwards we parted ways, but I hope to catch Jimbo in the near future, amazing guy! I went back to Chapters and read some more... I am loving it. You would think that with all this reading I would have finished by now? No, I take my time.

Now it was time to head home (around 8pm). I stopped off, bought some groceries; fruits, trail mix, cereal, almond milk and some veggies. I don't buy crap food, but where I am staying, I discovered their pantry full of... rubbish! I have found a new love for Oreos!

It turned out to be a fantastic day! I woke up this morning with no real plans. I had thoughts or ideas; should I go to the gym? Should I head downtown? But I just went with it and in the end, I had a great day.

Sometimes you just have to go with it.