Long overdue...

Well I have been ultimately pathetic at keeping up with my blog during the last few months of my european travels. I have had an exceptional 2 and 1/2 months of backpacking through the many different and uniquely wonderful countries of Europe. Now that I am at the end, waiting in a London flat for Monday the 13th to arrive so I can jump on my flight home, I am able to reflect on my favorite, funniest, and weiredest moments of my Euro 2007 Trip.

Favorite country: Ireland, then Portugal, then France, then..... i loved them all who am I kidding!

Best Drink: Munich Beer... absolutely amazing,

Best Dinner: Naples pizza, so good it will change your life!

Best dessert: pain aux chocolat, I was completely addicted to these... very very dangerous

Best out door activity: cliff jumping with new buddy Gary on the south west coast of Ireland! Hiking along the north itlalian coast in Cinque Terre, white water rafting down the Swiss Rivers in Interlaken for my 23rd birthday!

funny moments: getting pooed on, trying to communicate with spanish train personel,

worst moments: running with a full bak pack trying to catch a swiss train! haha, not fun at all...

There is so much more, but these are the initial high lights! I fly home in a few days and cannot wait to give my family a huge hug! it has been a fantastic year so far... and an exciting fall awaits back in the UK!

Picutres to be posted soon!

pleasant portugal

well it has been far too long since I wrote on my blog, I guess with limited time and a ticking price tag on internet I havenºt had the chance to sit down for long enough to get to my blog!

many exiciting things have happend over the past few weeks. southern France was beautiful and I loved the opportunity to use my long lost second language. I was relieved to see that it came back rather quickly and the locals LOVED that I was able to communicate with them so well! Spain was something else, Barcelona I think was far to hyped up for me... and thus left me feeling dissapointed. Although we did stay at an amazing hostel (Kabul - highly recommend, free dinner!) the city had some highlights but not what I was expecting. Sevilla and Valencia were two smaller Spanish cities we stopped through that I really enjoyed... had a wonderfully spanish feel with beautiful architecture and great food! I have to say though, the Portuguese are by far the most friendly and by lingual bunch of the europeans Iºve meet thus far. The beaches in Lagos were spectacular, and Lisbon and Porto have been wonderful cities to wander, drink coffee and devour delicious pastries! Were heading back to northern spain tomorrow to visit San Sabastian, known for the beaches and party night life, so it should be really fun, but sadly our last beach destination!

Other news that came my way recently was my acceptance to the University of London - Kings College for the Masters in Public Health Program. After receiving the boot from SFU I was really discouraged, but for some reason felt the inclination to look into my own current backyard at uni of London and found a wonderful program and professor. After a stressful and quick application I was accepted and will be starting in the fall! It seems a strange twist of fate that SFU didntº accept although Kings College has a better program, as well jsut the simple fact that I found myself in that particular city in the first place. If I had not been a nanny in London the thought would have never crossed my mind to apply to the University of London. So wether it be fate, coincidence, or pure chance I dont care, Iºm just so excited to have the opportunity to study at such a great school in an area I am certain will be a life long interest.

As usual my time is running short on the computer and must bow out before Iºm cut off. But I miss home terribly and look forward to a now earlier return. As of this morning I will fly home August 13th and look forward to giving my whole family and all my friends a huge hug! As well Iºm really looking forward to days out on the boat wakeboarding and living the beach dream! until next time... cheers

travelling with testosterone

so its been over two weeks since we've been on the road - and its hard to believe how much ground we covered so far. We started in Palermo Sicily which now seems like ages ago and I ate the most delicious gilato ever. Naples was pretty dirty but tops the list for the best pizza I have ever eaten. Pompei was just incredible and I highly recommend going to Naples just to make the day trip there,

We continued our way up the coast and meet up with Terra in Naples then up to Rome. I loved Rome, although it was loud and crowded the sights were incredible. My personal favorite was the Trivi Fountain - I could have sat there for hours. Then we headed north to Venice which is amazing in person. I loved wandering the streets and canals, definitely a city to get lost in. Then we headed down to Florence to see the one and only David, which was well worth the wait. Florence over all wasn't anything spectacular though - we did climb to the top of the Duomo which gave us a great view of the city though.

Then we had to do the classic euro stop in pisa to get all of our cheezy holding/pushing/licking/kicking... etc pictures with the tower, and then arrived in Cinque Terre that evening. Cinque terre was incredible, one of the most beautiful spots I have ever visited. Although we didn't have great weather we still made the most of 2 full day hikes, one in which we severly got off the trail and were making our way through bushesfor about 20 minutes... i have the scars to prove it, haha. We left on a beautiful afternoon and it was hard to say goodbye. We also ran into some fellow Western kids, some being my frosh from years back and it was great to see them and enjoy some classy boxed wine together.

We headed west to the land of the French and have spent the last few days soaking up the cote dazure sunshine and eating pasties gallore. pain au chocolat... incredible. we walked about monaco looking very poor in the rain, and then strolled the beaches of Cannes, with luckly much better weather.

And lastly I have to say I never thought I'd say this, but i very much miss hanging out with girls. haha. the boys are great, but between the following girls like puppies down the beach and constant poo and fart jokes... i miss a feminine touch. haha, Luckly we have meet some other very nice girls in Nice so that was a good relief.

Were off to Avignon tomorrow to check out Pont du Gard, an old Roman Aquiduct which is a great spot for cliff jumping. Then continuing on to Spain - to the very highly recommended Barcelona. I'm really looking forward to checking out the city and enjoying the night life there too! cheers from the road

grafitti italy

so we landed in palermo sicily and ended up at the most beautiful spot. our hostel was right along the coast over looking the city and water... spectacular way to start a trip. i still cannot believe how delicious the ice cream, or as they say gillato is here... its simply amazing. the pizza blew my mind, and the beaches and water were wonderful.

after spending two quick days there we headed north to naples. taking a train that goes on a ferry of course.. no biggie. in naples we meet up with terra, ausie daves mit partner in crime and toured around pompei and naples. beautiful and stunning puts it mildly.. pompie was incredible. heading up north to rome today to meet up with pye and say hi to the pope.

if i had more time i would go into muh more detail and picutres, but gotta go catch a train!

but yes... grafitty everywhere here... kinda sad actually, all over monumnets as well,

back luck comes in packages...

so i've been slightly MIA the past few weeks - things are still busy in London, but slowing down as the last week of work comes to a close. I had a rough few days with bad news and unlucky events. First was the big one - didn't get into grad school. I put all my eggs into one SFU basket and lost, so if anything i've learnt never to do that again. At first I was really upset - what am going to do with my life?? i thought i was the perfect candidate?? then after a few days i realized, i'm only 22 - what am I so stressed out about?? So I have resolved to learn from this application experience and enjoy another year of academic freedom!

For those that know me well I am an obessive planner - and I didn't waist a minute once I found out the reshuffle of my fall lifestyle. I started looking into jobs - but I have to say, a health sci degree on its own doens't get you too far. I did manage to get my old prison job back though! So back behind the bars I will go in september! I was relieved and excited to work at ACCW again - there was never a dull moment and really puts things into perspective - life is never has hard as it may seem. I also decided that perhaps another volunteer abroad session was a good goal to work towards. I have decided to change organizations, purely for a cheaper and different perspective on volunteering. It has come down to a battle between Costa Rica and Peru. The programs in Costa Rica look fantastic, and the idea of spending my days off on the beach surfing?? not too rough,

Overall I had just had a rough week - and I think once you're in that mindset you let everything appear that way. Its a bit scary actually. But I'm happy to say that I'm looking forward to a change of pace. Ever since May 2006 I have been on the go constantly... lived on 3 continents in under 4 months, worked in 3 different countries, survived a tropical disease and come august will have probably set foot on about 15 countries... thats ridiculous.

I leave for Palermo Sicily in a week - viva italia!

the anticipation begins...

The past few weeks working and living in London have been fantastic. I have really enjoyed the family I'm staying with and have gotten to know the city very well... and I love it. After drifting around from country to city to place these past few months I can honestly say that London is one of the few places that could really feel like home to me. I enjoy the people, the places, and the general vibe in this city - I most definitly have strong british roots that make me feel at home here. It will be sad to say goodbye to the kids and tourist family life, but I have to edmit that running at a faster pace with people my age sounds very appealing these days. The anticipation for Euro 2007 is building!!

In 2 weeks my Ghanaian wing man Femke from Holland is coming to London to visit. She has never set foot on english soil and we jumped at the opportunity to explore yet another city together. I am really looking forward to seeing her and catching up - as well as receiving my long awaited kente pictures! (Kente is the traditional cloth from the Ashanti Region of Ghana, and we all had photo boot pictures taken in traditional outfits, hilarious and very very memorable!)

So the past 2 weeks have been extremely busy, with several visitors to the flat I worked a lot but also saw a lot. Nicole and I took off with the kids on Tuesday to visit Bath, home of the roman baths and Jane Austins old stomping grounds. To put it simply = I loved it. It was beautiful and very classic old english. We went on a walking tour and finished off the day in the bath museum. I loved the architecture and the history you could feel as we wandered through the streets and public squares. Its a great feeling that is scarce if even existant in Canada - we're young! Over all it was a great day but we we're all exhausted by the end.












With visitors over to mind the children once in bed Nicole and I jumped at the opportunity to go out for the evening together. I feel so lucky to have found such a compatible boss - especially through the internet and never having meet preivous to my arrival in London. We decided to check out the Maple Leaf Pub to catch up on hockey and canadian music. The pub was nice, but overall slightly dissapointing. As we left in search of a new location (as the leaf closed at 11:30? why so early?) we stumbled upon... Diago! He was a very friendly bike taxi driver who offered to take us to a great pub for a small charge. Now the reason this is so funny; Jenna is 3 and LOVES the very popular Dora Character from Dora the explorer cartoon series. But she isn't the only star of the show... she has a cousin = Diago! who is an animal rescuer! Now I hadn't had much exposure to recent childrens shows/movies in the last few years but I've now seen my fare share, so when Nicole and I heard Diago we both broke out into the theme song for Diago the animal rescuer. Quite possibly one of the funniest moments in London thus far! But I think its one of those moments that the true hilarity of it was captured in the moment... haha,



Later in the week we decided to check out the royal and well known Kew Gardens. It was pricy to get in, for well not much more than the average beautiful parks that you can visit for free. For any future London visitors this is something you can skip. It was beautiful, and a great way to spend a few hours with the kids as they had a really cool play ground - for the cost of entrace, there just wasn't enough bang for your buck.








After paying an entrace fee for a park we decided to check out the newly fixed up and free public park: Battersea Park. It was beautiful, had a great childrens zoo, and definitly worth while to visit when in London.




We made our regular visit to the Borough Market on friday: picked up the usual garlic stuffed olives (i am actually addicted to them), fresh bread, and some meat for supper. I love just walking through there and looking at all the wonderfully delicious foods! After we went to visit the Pirate Ship. This is another tourist trap that is not worth your time. It was cool to see but lacked info and activities to do on board, and over all a bit of a dissapointment. But the kids enjoyed what there was and definitly we're naturals with the pirate lingo... Arr maighty! We be pirates!


And an extra note I forgot to add in previous weeks - we went to the most incredible sushi restaurant ever. These kids eat sushi which is awesome in itself, but we went to a restaurant with a conveyor belt with all different plates of sushi just slowly passing by... very very delicious,

a sveedish easter

so this past easter weekend i took off to Stockholm Sweden to meet up with some other fellow europe bound university friends. To get a cheap flight I had to fly through Munich - making my travel much longer than needed, but it was so expensive there it was worth saving on the flight. We stayed in the Gustav af Klint - a hostel in the form of a boat! The first night, after being turned away because some of us were under 23?? haha, (some bars have restrictions and unfortunatly Chris and I we're the youngin's of the group). We finally found this techno dance club/bar and actually had a wicked time trying to keep up to the interesting locals.. Saturday we walked around the city which was beautiful and really clean. Checked out a zoo/museum of old sweden and finished off the night at a few different local bars for some swedish beer. The next day I had a quick breakfast and walked through old town to catch my train back to the airport... it was a very quick weekend, but a nice break from work and a great opportunity to see old friends and of course a small but significant piece of Sweden! And for some pictures...

the harbor



the hostel



The backstreets...



haha cheezy family photo??



I have no idea what this platform and poll was for in old Sweden...



friendliest moose i've ever seen!



creepy soother display?? after speaking to my boss she figured it was a place where all kids give up their soothers... still creepy though, it was basically a soother graveyard...



Ferry ride home...



Phil and his swedish Buddy



Chris rocking out... not quite as good as his moves on the dance floor the previous night! haha