Life After India

I returned home from India a week and a half ago now, and have quickly been thrown back into normal life. Back to work, a job interview, got the job (senior position, same office), presenting my masters project in a week. Phew!

I have been putting off writing a post about India because there is so much to say, most of it I'm not sure how to put into words, and I don't know where to start. We spent about half of the time travelling like regular tourists, Christine and I, and the rest of the time with our friends' families and at their wedding. I think that the most memorable, and most impactful times were those with the family. We were welcomed with open arms, and everyone was so generous to us from lending a mobile phone to have when travelling on our own, to arranging accommodation, driving us around, taking us shopping, and generally treating us like one of the family and making us feel very welcome and loved. Below is a picture of us with the bride, and our friend from Victoria, Pratibha in the middle, and her cousins Sanchita and Vrinda.


Now that I'm back to my quiet little house on my quiet little island I have plenty of time to contemplate India, all that I learned about it when I was there, and what it all means. I feel like it's kind of a parallel universe. At least, that's how I put it into words. Things are so different there, yet also so the same. Well, not really the same, but the same very superficially. Like, there are roads and hospitals and shops and people have jobs and families and many speak English. I guess a microcosm of my parallel universe idea might be Bollywood. What other country has developed such a distinctly different tradition of film making? Well I'm not a film expert, maybe there is one, but am I making sense?

What else? Religion, and traditions. We were mostly exposed to Hinduism since that's the religion of our friends and their wedding was a Hindu wedding, of course. So totally different. And so fascinating to me. I wish I had learned more about it before going there. A lot of things might have made more sense.

Hm, it feels good to write this all down. I will write more posts about India, I promise.

For now, for your entertainment, some photos of our adventures: The wedding, and highlights from our other travels.

A Weekend in Gibsons

A few weekends ago, I took a much needed break from Vancouver and a busy schedule to visit Sheena and Matt on the Sunshine Coast. It's a good thing I got some fun times in then, because I've been insanely busy since (AND came down with the flu, which I am still battling).

Sheena and her mom picked me up from the ferry Saturday evening and we went straight to a potluck to celebrate a citizen group's victory over "the [evil] developers". Go citizens! This is what gets me excited about planning; grassroots struggles over top-down planning. Yeah! Someone had actually cooked an entire turkey for the potluck, and it was then we realized this was "grown ups" potluck, which is quite different from the university potlucks we're used to.

Sunday morning was rainy, but we decided to go exploring around town anyway. The chickens didn't seem to be too happy about the rain and sought shelter under a bench.

At the marina we spotted this great blue heron in bright breeding plumage.

At the beach where Sheena learned to drive stick (not on the beach itself, but the steep road down TO the beach), we communed with the sea and basked in the sunshine that decided to arrive.

They're cute!

Returning to town, we walked passed the site of the [evil] development that was stopped by valiant citizen action (below).

The development was to look something like this, and be built on a wetland.

Not too far away is the museum where Matt works, humbly answering emails, vacuuming the floor and aspiring to greater things, if only the museum had more money to actually improve its exhibits. Sigh. Maybe they could get the developer make a donation to the museum...

Believe it or not, we did all of this after a delicious pancake breakfast and before a scrumptuous lunch of oysters at Gibsons' newest, and perhaps poshest, restaurant right on the water.

Back at home Matt baked bread while Sheena and I knit.

And we bottled beer...

...making sure to get every last drop.

What a super day! Thanks for the fun times.

This time last year: Christmas in Nicaragua

It's hard for me to believe that this time last year I was in Nicaragua. I spent Christmas Eve of 2006 playing in the waves at Las Penitas, a beach that reminds me of Tofino but with warm water and tropical shells. I was with a nice group of travellers from England, Israel, France and Canada. I bought a shell from a local girl for the equivalent of 20 cents, and she said it was alright when I asked if I could take a photo of her.

In the evening I was back in the colonial city of Leon and went to the Parque Central (town square) that was buzzing with activity. A massive market had set up around the cathedral which had grown over the past several days that I had been staying in Leon. The market sold mostly toys, jewelry, and other novelties. Many stalls were also selling apples imported from Washington state and grapes, which are apparently a Christmas treat in Nicaragua.

The cathedral had its doors flung open and the crowd was moving through it as if it was an extension of the public square. Despite the hot weather, there was a Santa in the crowd. I was there in a sleeveless shirt, and I can't imagine how hot he was in that costume! Santa seems to me such an incogruous theme for Christmas in Nicaragua.

Then there is the Gigantona, pictured in the crowd outside the cathedral, a unique Christmas season tradition in Nicaragua.

I would love to visit Nicaragua again. This year, I am so happy to be celebrating Christmas with my family.

Road Trip to Utah

This blog has been silent over the last month because I've been all over the place. As soon as I handed in my last assignments a month ago, I headed to Kelowna for a planning conference. It was fantastic and a good career move and all that, but I don't exactly have any blog worthy stories from it.

I do, however, have many bloggable tidbits from the road trip I went on with Melissa and Christine the day after I got back from the conference (things have been busy here for sure!)

We drove for two and a half days to Arches National Park in Utah. It may have only been two days if it hadn't been for the L-O-N-G wait to cross the border. FePo was getting bored, as many kids do on road trips, so we bought him a girlfriend (if only it was that easy for us humans).

I can't well enough describe in words how stunned we were by the beauty of the landscape in Arches National Park. After a couple of days we became more used to seeing all the red rocks and strange formations, but driving into it and gradually seeing the rocks appear and the trees disappear was a very memorable experience. We couldn't stop taking photos as it seemed there was an amazing sight around every corner.

Our group morale hit an all-time low the next morning when at 7:30am we were too late to get a spot in the campground in the park. A couple of hours later, however, we were high on rocks, arches and fins. After a full day of hiking and dodging hail pellets we kicked back in the Moab brewery and talked about how we didn't want to be in the stupid national park campsite anyway. It was probably full of huge trailers and boring people. That's what we told ourselves anyway.

Next stop, Zion National Park. Although I no longer had that awe of seeing something for the first time, the Zion Canyon is pretty darn amazing. We camped in the park this time, and for the rest of our stay there we didn't have to drive anywhere, just hopped on the shuttle to various trail heads and points of interest.

We hiked to Angel's Landing, which was not nearly as scary as it was made out to be. Sheer drop offs on either side of a three foot wide trail sounds scary. Well, it's wasn't that bad with the chain handrail and all. It was still a great hike with a fantastic view.

The highlight for me was the rainstorm we were caught in later that day on a hike to the Emerald Pools, and the subsequent waterfalls that sprouted up (or down?) in various places. Since I read about the risk of flash floods in the canyon I was secretly (well, actually quite openly) hoping for one. If everyone was okay, wouldn't that be cool to see? So when it began to rain/thunder/lighting/totally downpour, I was thinking this may be the time for a flash flood. We didn't see one, but did see some cool waterfalls after emerging from our sad little rocky covers from the rain.

We had many other great times and experiences including a visit to an old Mormon fort on our way back towards Salt Lake City, whacking some balls at the driving range at one of our campsites, cooking oysters over the campfire (back at the coast of course), and visiting Mt. St. Helens (a bit of a hidden gem I think).

I have lots more pictures to show (too many because I go crazy with digital) and will post just a few more on the blog here before saying goodbye.

End Parenthesis

I spent a month in Nicaragua between university semesters, and now I'm back. There is far too much to say about the trip to put it all down here. I'd love to show you my pictures next time I see you though. End parenthesis.

Buen viaje, Jenny!

Pictured here is Jenny on the bus from Antigua to El Salvador, I believe, eating melted chocolate with little cookies that look kind of like dog bones. Not only was she insistent that none be wasted, she was also sharing these "smores" with us. Just one example of what a great gal she is.

And this great gal is off on yet another latin adventure to hablar espanol, comer pollo y frijoles y las tortillas de maiz, and have a wonderful time! This time she's going to Equador and I wish her safe travels and amazing experiences!

Just a little close up on the chocolate... This is where hand sanitizer doesn't quite do the trick.