Off To See The World

Well, I’ve made it to Wednesday…. yesterday was pretty uneventful… it started out sunny… and looked amazingly sunny all day while I was stuck on a retarded problem trying to create some tables. I figured, I’d just put up with it for the bulk of the day and enjoy a beautiful sunny evening. So, I worked my sleeping brain as hard as I could until quitting time… stepped outside… and it was like a scene from a movie…. the SECOND I stepped onto the sidewalk, I heard thunder and then BAM, it was raining on me. Luckily, I’ve learned not to go anywhere without the umbrella so all was good.

This morning was a different story, it was the clearest I’ve seen it since I got here… .I could see the mountains for miles… just breath-taking. So breath-taking that I stopped to look at them… and then missed my bus… haha. Luckily, I’ve been trying to catch the early bus so I still made it on time. So, every morning, I take a bus to the headquarters and from there I catch a shuttle to a different building… the driver of this shuttle is a really good lookin’ guy… and for some reason, I’m the only one who ever takes the shuttle. So, he’s been helping me with my french and stuff… I’ll have to say, it’s actually starting to come back! Mme. Chebry (My french teacher) would be so proud!

Anyway, I’ve been cooking tons of fresh food and feeling great… still haven’t gone on that jog but hopefully this weekend…. riiight.

Oh, here are a few things I’ve learned about myself:
1. I have not acquired a taste for cheese…. it still tastes a little bit like crusty socks to me but I’ve been doing my best trying all sorts of them.
2. I am a fashion faux pas… haha. I am surprised nobody has called Stacy and Clinton on me to be on what not to wear. In Edmonton, I may be seen as different, or unique… but here, I think I appear to be some kind of accident. Everyone here dresses so good… I’m going to make it a point to try and learn how to put together a wardrobe.
3. I am a boring person. I am not very outgoing… I don’t know why it is? Maybe I just don’t like going out because I am a walking fashion victim. I’m going to grow up to be one of those crazy cat ladies… but I’m allergic to cats… so I’m going to raise rocks.. yeah.

Sigh… on that note… I’m going to retreat into my hermit shell.

Not that anyone noticed… or in that case cared, I showed up at 9:30 today for my first day of work. It was pouring rain so the bus was late which made me miss the shuttle to the building where I work… so yeah… oops.

Anyway, the rest of the weekend was nice… learned my way around Ferney, France (the little town where I am living), which is only like a 15 minute drive from Geneva so the commute isn’t bad. Ferney is actually called Ferney-Voltaire because he played a big role in making the town what it is today… I’m staying pretty close to his residence… which is PIMPED. For some reason, they closed it to the public sometime between when I was here last and now. Maybe it will open up again later in the summer. There’s also an awesome little market on Saturdays the runs down the street in the town… they sell fresh veg/fruits, odds and ends, cheese, cheese, and bread… and cheese. They love their cheese here. I’m still trying to find the ones I can stand. Ummm, there’s also some great walking/running/biking trails nearby that my Uncle Jim showed me… they are stunning. Orderly grape vines, orchards with all sorts of fruits, grassy fields, dense forests, rolling hills… this area seems to have it all… not to mention the mountains in the distance. It might actually be enough to motivate me to go jogging…. we’ll see.

Anyway, today was my first day at work at the W.H.O… everyone there is really nice… and the atmosphere is really laid back so it’s perfect for me to ease my way back into work. I mainly work with a guy named Charlie from Sweden… he’s pretty fun to work with… he accidentally knocked a standing lamp down on my head today… haha… I still have a bump on my head. The bulk of today was spent going through their current system and learning my way around before I totally nerd out on them and pwn their database system. The day seemed to fly by and I was back “home” in no time… made myself a trough of salad… mmmm. It hasn’t stopped raining all day… so I guess I can’t go for that jog… hehe.

Humdidum… I’m homesick…. sigh. Anyone there?

Well, it’s been like 8 months since I’ve been in Switzerland and it looks quite different this time around. Instead of the beautiful colors of fall, summer is in full bloom here. I look forward to enjoying the background of the Swiss Alps and the disciplined lifestyle of the Swiss.

As for the past couple weeks, the have been kind of bitter-sweet. Sweet in the sense that it was awesome to be home and to visit people but bitter in the sense that my world tour came to an end… and also bitter in the sense that the stay was long enough to discover how much I missed home but too short to really relax and see everyone. After such a chaotic lifestyle of traveling, that feeling of “I’m home” really hit me when I saw my good friend Darren at the airport to pick me up… it was like a big bag of warm and fuzzies 🙂 . Seeing as how people were still living in my house, Darren was nice enough to take me all the way to my mom’s house (Thanks Darren!). Unfortunately, my mom was away on business so I didn’t get to see her… but I did get to see Fonzworth….. He got FAT!! Like realllly fat!! As I got settled in at home, my brother and his wife visited… and something dawned on me… I think absence does make the heart grow fonder. I realized how great it felt to see my family and friends when I normally take their presence for granted.

So, the bulk of the week was spent visiting family, friends, old flings, etc… Actually, I realized something else that was kind of cool while visiting people. I have friends from age 5 to like 80-something. I find it just as fun to hang out with my wrestling kids as it is to hang out with my friends’ parents…. does that mean I can be really mature and really immature? Who knows…. It just makes me smile knowing that I can share in the lives of so many different people. I feel like such a hippy… I love you all!!

I honestly don’t know what’s wrong with me though… it’s like I was beat down with a happy-zen stick and I can’t help but be content with whatever comes my way. I hope this feeling can survive once I start working… otherwise I’m going to have to figure out a way to avoid work for the rest of my life! Or learn how my friend Andy keeps the happy-zen feeling… he is the master. *Shout out to Andy*

So, yeah, I didn’t really do anything at all in Paris… spent the week catching up with family… sleeping… eating… facebooking 🙂 … Hopefully the WHO has a nice kooshy job to start so I can ease in without my head exploding. All I did today was hide in an office and learn how to get to and from work. I’m going to have to see if I can be like Kassam and work my slippers into my work attire… hehe. That’s all from me for now… will post about my first day of work on Monday… sigh.

Yeah, that`s right… I`m struggling with this darn French keyboard right now trying to put up this post. So yeah, for those of you who I didn`t get in contact with while I was back in Edmonton for a week, I`m sorry… I was pretty busy with packing and seeing family and playing with Fonzworth that I didn`t get around to seeing everyone. As for those who did see me, yay!! It was really nice to see some familiar faces… and thank you for taking the time to see me.

Anyway, so yeah, I`m now in Paris in transit to go to Geneva, Switzerland… If all goes as planned, I`ll be doing a three month internship thingy with the United Nations. I guess this isn`t really considered traveling anymore so I will be looking for a new home for my blogging… if I continue to do it, that is. I`ve had a few people ask whether I`d continue and I`ll have to admit it has been fun… so if you want the location of the continuing life stories of Ev, let me know and I`ll keep you in the loop… or you could join Facebook… I`m a little addicted to that.

Sorry, I haven’t posted anything for a long while! I will soon. As for those of you who have access to flickr. Most of the pics are up now. Check back soon for my wrap-up entry!

Well, I guess the overseas part of the trip is officially over. We made it to California yesterday afternoon, traveling back in time a little (we left Fiji at 10pm and got to L.A. at 1pm the same day). At the airport, we saw the chaos that America calls “security”. John and I both didn’t have an address for where we were staying but of course, only the Asian gets sent to the reject line… John got through… interesting….

Anyway, before I continue on with America, I’m going to write a bit about our last day in Australia. On our last day, we went on a tour with a company called “Wonderbus”. It was a good tour since it covered 4 places in one day! We got to go to the Blue Mountains, The Wildlife Park, A Winery, and then take a ride on the water to Sydney Harbor. It was Mother’s day so we headed to the Blue Mountains first, before the crowds got big. First stop, a lookout point (where I lost Fathead 🙁 )… then we went out to one of the main attractions there where we rode a cable car down part of a mountain, walked around the rain forest, and then came up the steepest rail car in the world (apparently)…. it was pretty darn steep. The whole area was beautiful… very lush and green with beautiful mountains and valleys. Next, we headed to echo point for lunch. We had packed lunches so we ended up having sort of a picnic on Echo Point. There, we had a perfect view of the “3 sisters”, the famous rock formation there. It was nice, but after going to Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain) in China, it didn’t seem as spectacular as everyone made it out to be. After lunch, we headed to a winery in the countryside. The drive was nice as we passed a few vineyards… and then we pulled into T-… Tr… I forget the name… it sounded Italian. Anyway, we stopped there for a while, tasting quite a selection of wines and munching on cheese and crackers. I was still moping about Fathead so I was being a downer. After we were done eating and drinking, we headed off to the Featherdale (not sure of that name) Wildlife Park, where we got to pet Wallabies, Kangaroos, and a Koala! Yeah, it was another one of those wildlife stops for us. It was a pretty fun zoo though… we got to see some of the Australia wildlife including the Tazmanian Devil, Wombats, Kangas, etc. It was a good time but the time flew and we were on our way again in no time. On the way to the pier, we passed through Olympic Village, which was pretty big. Made me realize what Vancouver is in for in 2010. We boarded a ferry that took us to Sydney Harbor, where we took some night pictures and then made our way back to the hostel. Phew, it was a long day but a good one (aside from losing Fathead that is).

So that’s what happened in Australia… in Fiji, we basically spent our time snorkeling and relaxing. We decided that we didn’t want to move our stuff around too much so we stayed at a hostel near Nadi but we made a few day trips. On our first day, we did a “Robinson Crusoe” tour thing that took us out to a small island. It wasn’t a great island but the day itself was fun. They had a lot of fun activities set up. First, was snorkeling… however, since this island wasn’t exactly in the best location, we took a boat out just beyond some smashing waves on the reef… for someone who doesn’t exactly know how to swim well, that was a little scary. To add to the freaky situation, the water was deeeep. It wasn’t like snorkeling right over the reefs where you could see everything… the water was probably 10 meters deep at some points! The water was crystal clear though so I could still see the bottom without swimming down. The currents there were pretty strong so I spent a majority of the time just concentrating on not drowning. When we got back to the island, we enjoyed a lesson about Lovo (like Fijian BBQ where they cook stuff using hot rocks under the ground), followed by a firewalk show (where they walked over the rocks that cooked our lunch). Impressive… as was the delicious lunch that we had. Surprisingly, there was quite a large selection for me (vegetarian) since it was buffet style. After lunch, we were treated to a series of traditional dances, some with knives and fire… then we got to go out to do some hand-fishing (however, we sucked and didn’t catch a thing)… followed by turtle viewing, and then a crab race (where we each got a number which corresponded to a crab). It was a packed day but really fun. The smiles here are sooo contagious and the people are soooo friendly and fun. Joe, our host for the day had the most amazing smile… not to mention his beautiful short red-flowery skirt and the hibiscus in over his ear… haha.

The next day, we did a day tour to South Sea Island, where we actually got to do some INCREDIBLE snorkeling. This time, the reef was so close that we had to be careful not to touch it. I actually brought my camera with me this time so I have about 100 pics and some video of the dive under water. I will put them up on Flickr as soon as I get home. We also got to take a ride on a cool glass-bottomed boat so we got to see some of the deeper reefs in the area… that was really cool. The afternoon was spent eating another DELICIOUS BBQ buffet lunch before boarding our ferry to go around and look at some of the other islands in the area. Another great day.

On the third day, we too a day trip to Mana Island… a BEAUTIFUL island. There is a big Japanese owned resort there… so for those of you who don’t like to rough it, I recommend the resort on Mana Island. It’s incredible there. We basically wanted to spend the day snorkeling so that’s pretty much all we did there. We would have gone Scuba diving but that is quite pricey in Fiji. I got another hundred pictures or so (will put up on Flickr). The buffet lunch on Mana Island was another GREAT one (It was prepared by the resort). I think in total, we were in the water 3 or so hours… our backs got a little sunburnt. By the time we got back to our hostel, we were famished. “Ma” at reception is awesome, she has been helping us order pizza for the past few days… the pizza we had there was addictive… soooo goood.

After 3 very busy days, we took it easy on the 4th day… only heading into Nadi town to get some souvenirs and check out the town itself. We had all day on the 5th day before catching our flight at night and we spent that mostly poolside or beach side. I already miss the laid back and happy culture of Fiji…. I hope I will get to return soon.

After a 10 hour flight, we made it to California. Now we are at my friend Jack’s house just maxin’ and relaxin’. Don’t think there will be much to report from now on since California isn’t much different than Alberta in terms of culture. We will probably enjoy as much of the beach as we can and what not. Will let y’all know when I get the pics up.

Well, I had a little bit of time so I thought I’d put up a quick post. I still have to write about the last day we had in Australia since that was the day that we did the most but I will do that when I get to California.

For now, I will write about Fiji cause that is really what I am feeling now. Fiji… wow… the Islands are beautiful, the reefs, are beautiful, the people are beautiful… isn’t anything about Fiji that isn’t beautiful. We’ve been here for only 4 days I think but we have both fallen in love with this country…. so much so, that John even went out an bought a Zulu today! I think that’s what they are called but to the outsider, we see them as skirts… haha. That’s right, John actually went out a bought a skirt today… but in all honesty, it looks great! I think we need to adopt more man-skirts into the Canadian culture.

Anyway, the past few days, we’ve just been doing day trips out to various islands and snorkelling and taking in the sun… it doesn’t sound like much but it was perfect. I think I might actually be able to swim ok now since I did it for like 3 hours yesterday in some wavey water. I guess I wasn’t really perfect since I did get bashed up against some sharp stuff but it was still awesome. I got lots of good pictures this time and I will put them up soon. I even got some video under water of some big schools of fish! I must say, my waterproof camera was probably one of the best things I brought on this trip and I recommend everyone who is going snorkelling to get one. I hear that Olympus even has a new one that goes up to 10meters!

Ummm, I know that doesn’t really describe much but I am enjoying Fiji way too much to be sitting indoors on the internet. When I get to the states or back home, I will do a recap of these beautiful Islands… and have pictures to go along with it. That’s all for now…. tomorrow, will officially end the overseas part of this trip :(. That’s right, we are flying to California tomorrow… man, this trip has really flown by!!

Can’t wait to show people all the pics and help everyone and anyone plan their next trips… I know some of you must want to go somewhere now?

Bula! Is hello in Fijian or something like that… or else they are all swearing at me. Anyway, sorry haven’t blogged in a while. There is very limited internet here so this post will be very short as well.

We are now in Fiji and it is SPECTACULAR. I love the islands and beaches. Oh, and the men here… HOT. If I were still on the prowl, I’d be all over that. They are pretty bulky but the greatest part is, they are tough guys that can get away with wearing flowery shirts, a flower behind their ear, and a skirt! They look soo good in their skirts. Not that I’m looking. haha.

Anyway, don’t have time to blog but I will definitely put up a post soon with all the pictures from snorkelling too!

Take care!

Check back in like 3 days.

Well, first of all, Happy Mother’s Day to all you mother’s out there… but I have failed in the task of being a mother. The UNTHINKABLE happened today…. UNTHINKABLE. I LOST FATHEAD!! :*(

I can’t even explain how bad I feel right now… I am so close to the end of the trip and I carelessly didn’t clip him onto my bag properly… and now, I have lost my best friends’ cat… Kent and Brooke, can you ever forgive me?? I feel sooo bad… I honestly wanted to cry after finding out he wasn’t on my backpack. I even bought a replacement to numb the pain… but Walter the Wombat has got nothing on Fathead.

I’ve asked the tour guide to keep and eye out for it but the chances of finding a 2″ cat in the blue mountains is probably slim to none. If there is ANYONE out there reading this who EVER comes accross Fathead, please comment here and I will give you a grand reward. Here is the very last picture I took of him. It’s on a lookout point in the Blue Mountains. We took a Wonderbus tour there today….

I’m so distraught about losing Fathead right now that I can’t even write about the big day that we had today… So, for anyone reading this in Sydney… one traveller to another, please keep an eye out for this little cat PLEASE!

PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE SEEN THIS CAT

Well, I know you’re all waiting to hear that I got drunk and laid so I can really take in the culture… sorry, can’t say that I did.

Instead, we actually made an effort to see some of the sights around Sydney. After sleeping in a little, we decided to head out to the harbor to see the bridge and the opera house. Navigating around the city hasn’t been that bad… the train was quick and efficient. It dropped us off in Circular Quay and we made the walk around to check out the scene. It was a little cloudy the day before but today was a beautiful sunny day. The Sydney Opera house is a lot cooler than what you see in the pictures and what not… it’s quite a work of art. We decided to go all out and take the tour of the inside as well which was well worth it… I guess it’s rare but all the theaters were open and we were able to get the full meal deal, going through all of them. Actually, we even got a bonus because the Sydney Ballet was practicing on one of the stages and we got to watch! (Not that John or I know anything about ballet). The tour was quite enjoyable though and maybe someday, I’ll even be able to afford an actual show at the Opera House.

Next we walked along the habour. We didn’t actually do that Harbour Bridge climb thing…. it costs $180!!! Yeah, Sydney is painful on the wallet. We’ve officially spent more here in the few days that we spent in like all of Southeast Asia. After we caught the train back to the hostel, we actually went to the Imax theater to watch a deep sea thing that is narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. I know, I just said we are broke and here we are going to the Imax theater to watch a show… but they claim to have the biggest Imax screen… and it was in 3D! Not to mention, it was pretty cool… and it gave us something to do. We returned back to the hostel at night to find everyone in our room getting ready for another night out… I don’t know how they do it.

Today, we were supposed to go on a thing to the Blue Mountains and all that… However, the girl at the front desk told us to take a seat because the bus was coming… and we found out that she thought we were waiting for some other bus so we missed ours!! Luckily, she was able to put us on tomorrow’s tour so we’ll be doing that all tomorrow. Since we were up so early to catch the bus today though, we ended up going to McD’s for breakfast and then coming back to the hostel to take a nap… haha. What a vacation. We woke up around noon and headed out to the famous Bondi Beach. It was quite nice… however, I don’t know what is wrong with John and I… it was sunny and about 19 degrees… yet, we were FREEZING. We couldn’t even enjoy laying on the beach in the sun because we were cold… haha. How are we ever going to move back to Edmonton!?!?

We shivered our way back to the hostel where everyone seems to be getting ready for a big night out (it’s Saturday night). I think I’ve turned into an old boring person because I think I’ll stay in tonight but I think John will go out and have fun. I’ll have to live vicariously through him. Anyway, I’m going to take my boring butt back to the room to catch up on my journal. Later!