tree climbing

Today I spent most of the day in a tree. Now when most people think about me, they may picture me reading, or laughing or paragliding (!) but not hanging out in a tree. So why was I in this tree? I do it every year about this time. You see, in my parents yard there is a HUGE cherry tree. We get so many cherries every year that we sell some, give some away, eat lots and do lots of baking and by this time the next year we still have several bags of frozen cherries in our freezer. So I spent most of today up in the tree picking cherries. We never spray the tree with anything but our biggest pests are the birds. My dad has made an agreement with the birds that they can have the highest branches that we can't reach, but year after year the stupid creatures renag on the deal. In recent years squirrels have also gotten into the fray and the rukus that can be heard from the branches of the tree at any time of day or night is enough to make me wish for a bb gun! But the cherries are yummy so generally it is worth all the bother to pick them. Plus I have an excuse to spend the day in a tree!

Adventures in BC

I am in Vancouver with Steph White, staying with Diedre and Aaron. Vancouver is a fun city and we have had lots of fun!! Our trip down here was a bit of an adventure as it started with an inadvertent trek towards the Yukon. Anyone ever heard of Pink Mountain BC? No? that's because it is really far north. Two and a half hours north of Dawson Creek.... But we saw lots of beautiful things so all in all it was worth the detour. We camped outside of Quesnel our first night after leaving D.C. and it took us nearly 12 hours to get there!! :) Then we spent two nights at Nairn Falls between Pemberton and Whistler. We went hiking, made fires, slept and read and generally relaxed and had good times. We had lunch in Whistler on our way into Vancouver and then returned to Aaron and Diedre's apt. So far in Vancouver we have eaten lots of good food - yummy curry at Granville Island, Sushi and Gelato and now we are making a coconut chicken curry with ginger and eggplant. It has fun ingredients like palm sugar, galanga root and lime leaves. Lots of chopping! But it smells really good. Tomorrow Steph and I fly home to Ontario.

Oh, and Diedre found out her brother Tobin got engaged and was jumping up and down, skipping around the apartment chanting "what can we do what can we do what can we do what can we do!" We toasted to the happy couple with green tea during sushi and with our gelatos on the beach. Diedre is really excited and inserts random questions into conversations about where/when/how the wedding will be. It is funny and we are all poking fun at her a little :)

Overall it was a really great trip. Originally I had a comment here about how people need to comment on my blog, but it sounded a lot more bitter than it should, so instead I will just say "comment on my blog!!" But only if you are sane or not selling something. Jan and Paul are good friends. Vanessa is way ahead of anyone.
That is all.

Home again, Home again,

Wow. I'm home. It is such a crazy feeling to be back home and have so many things be the same. I am back living with my parents and my mom still bugs me about the same things, my room is the same, my friends are the same. It is like I never left. But I am not really the same, but I haven't yet figured out exactly what it is that is different.

To catch up a little, Rome was fun. We got lost a lot, spent lots of time in the sun and in line and in line in the sun. Florence was BEAUTIFUL and we met lots of really great people. It was perfect timing too since Mel and I were starting to really get on eachothers nerves. I LOVED Venice, but Mel didn't like it since we spent most of the time not knowing where we were or where we were going, but I thought that was part of the fun. Great shopping in Italy :) We also spent a day in Verona before going back to Paris. Mel's last night is Paris we went for a boat tour on the Seine and then had wine under the Eiffle Tower at 11:30 at night. It was great!

And now I am home. Doing house work, catching up with friends, writing a resume and looking over the classifieds. This is like a whole different world and I have to figure out what my place is in it. It seems impossible that only a month has passed since I left South Africa, six short weeks, but at the same time it seems so far away and so long ago. I feel a little like Alice dropped in an upsidedown world, but its a world I know. It is all just to wierd to explain or describe. Pictures of Europe to come.