We got more bounce in California than all yours combined

Sketchy, sketchy, sketchy was the initial impression of LA, and although they say your first impression is more often than not your lasting impression, I was determined to not let this be the case.  To be fair, choosing to arrive after dark via Greyhound, which is situated on the notorious Skid Row, was not our best idea.  We were all a little bit scared for life after a bus where we were the only white people on the bus, all being given death stares, followed by a subway ride ending in witnessing a girl stealing an attacked homeless man’s last $3.  Banana Bungalow Hostel was as much of a relief to see than if my mum had turned the corner at that point, and our moods were instantly lifted as we were given a cool private room, and we saw the bunches of people laughing and drinking in the open courtyard where all the rooms face on to.  Although we were being heavily persuaded to throw in $20 and join the party, we resisted and after catching up with some others we knew staying in the same hostel, decided to head for a full day at Universal Studios the next day.

This was probably my favourite tourist attraction to date, and upon realising the price was almost identical to that of Seaworld, I would say it is such incredible value for money and would absolutely recommend it to anyone in the LA area.  The studio tour was unbelievable, we toured the film sets and studios, experienced an 8.7 scale earthquake, a flash flood, a shark fly up out of the water inches from me, a simulation of King Kong attacking the car, car chase and explosion choreography plus so much more.  Basically, it was just fucking cool.  The rides were not your average rollercoasters and often included clever simulations and effects, my personal highlight unexpectedly being the Simpsons ride.

At this point we took three days out of LA to do a tour to Vegas and the Grand Canyon which I've written about on another blog post.

Our hostel put on a fantastic city tour of Hollywood for cheapy cheap, with a little excitable man in a diamonte Hollywood hat taking us round all the big touristy spots; Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Sunset Boulevard, the Hollywood sign, the Chinese and Dolby theaters, and finally along Hollywood Boulevard.  We all got far too excitable putting our hands and feet in the stars’ seeing who we fitted; mine fitted Emma Watson creepily perfectly whilst Steph’s fitted Rupert Grint (lol).  A couple of men were trying to grab our attention, but being sceptical as the majority of men who try and speak to you in Hollywood are wannabe rapstars trying to sell you ‘de best reggae tunes a white ass girl like you ever gon’ hear’, we tried to fob them off and run away.  Turns out they were giving out free tickets for the audience of TV shows being filmed that day.  The only one which fit with our schedule was the Late show, not that we’d ever watched it but we thought meh fuck it why not.

We were directed to the front row of the audience and given waiver forms to sign, unlike the rest of the 120 strong audience.  Turns out we were being filmed the entire time watching the show being filmed for our reactions, I’m yet to look it up on iPlayer but I’m sure my burnt shoulders, unbrushed hair and unsuitably short shorts will look fantastic on American TV.  However it was a surprising amount of fun, with a hilarious host, a very different experience from anything I’ve done before, and to top it off Ice-T gave us a free copy of his book.  Score.

Unfortunately that night we said goodbye to Banana Bungalow which was so sad, and began to drag our suitcases the four blocks to our bus to Santa Monica.  At a junction we hear someone in a car yell ‘STEPH!’… turns out Steph’s friend from back home spotted us, recognised her and pulled over.  Long story short, we squashed five cases, four backpacks and five people into the tiniest car in life, drove an hour to Santa Monica and ditched our cases to join the bar crawl leaving the hostel as we arrived.

The night out was sooo much fun, including climbing dinosaur-scale hedges, awkward karaoke and meeting Beth Ditto, and with a disgusting hangover and the sun shining we spent the day lounging on the beach and exploring the pier and town.  I took to Santa Monica instantly and loved the place, it had a similar vibe to San Diego, and our hostel had a sort of garden in the centre with sunlounger beds, palm trees and loads of beanbags, with a barbeque in the corner where everyone sunbathed and chatted.  That evening a free barbeque and free beers meant we were full, happy, and drunk yet again, we added Ned to our group to become a six, and got roped into attending the most horrific comedy show to exist in life.  Not willing to stretch our budgets to another night out, we played largely entertaining rounds of games and ended up not in bed until gone 3 yet again.

Our final day in LA consisted of brunch and bike rides along the California coast to Venice Beach.  Charlie rented rollerblades which made me unbelievably jealous, although ended up clinging onto the back of Ned’s bike half of the way; not easy to keep up with five cyclists!  Venice Beach is too cool and weird, with a mix of basketballers, quirky shops, street performers and freakshows (literally saw a turtle with two heads).  After picking up some souvenirs we grabbed the last bits of sunshine sunbathing on the gorgeous beach appreciating life, before leaving ourselves five minutes to get back to the store and pelting back down the coast.  I actually enjoyed going as fast as I could rather than being completely leisurely… not sure others who were a little stressed out felt the same though.

Yet another barbeque supplied our final supper, before Ned joined us on the hour long trip to the coach station like a proud parent waving his children goodbye.  On the bus I also made best friends with a Chinese lady wearing a medical mask who did nothing but smile and laugh at me as numerous passengers for some reason kept tripping over and falling right on to me.  For New Girl fans, think the scene where Nick meets the Chinese man in the park.  THAT EXACTLY.  She’s my favourite person in the world and shouted ‘YOU ALL MAKE ME VERY VERY HAPPY PEACE AND LOVE’ as she hobbled off the bus.  Love you Los Angeles you weird and wonderful place!

Palm trees, happy hours, bike rides and jumping out of planes

Our flight from East to West was one of the stranger journeys I’ve had, with Cirque du Soleil 3D featured on tiny box screens in the aisles being the only source of entertainment on both our three hour flights across the country.  A changeover and delay in Dallas meant I got to meet some real Texans, and discovered the most likely reason for US obesity; a McDonalds buggy driving people between the FOUR stores inside the terminal we were in.  Even the dogs were riding it.  No, I’m not joking.

First impressions of San Diego were YAY WE’RE ON HOLIDAY!  Palm trees lined every street driving along the harbour into downtown, and upon arriving at our hostel in the Gaslamp District we realised we’d chosen a perfect location for us.  The surrounding streets were packed with open-fronted bars, dozens of tiny restaurants, underground clubs and enough happy hours to turn even poor, grumpy, jetlagged trolls into Larry on Prozac.  USA hostel only continued on the buzzing and friendly atmosphere of the streets, with people drinking, playing games and singing to music in all the stairways, corridors and little rooms.

Ravenous from the flight and getting used to time differences by now, we found Ryan and the boys, wandered round the district to explore then treated ourselves with some incredible $1.50 tacos for dinner.  America = cheap.  An impromptu night out ended up messy but SO much fun, involving Jenny being molested by pretty much anyone and everyone, being fed noodles via the infamous aeroplane method, making new best friends with some black weed dealers Big Kev and Lil’ Dom, and ending our 24 hour day at 5am.

Hungover as hell the next day but determined to enjoy the sunshine, we ventured to Balboa Park, which basically is this unbelievably huge beautiful park featuring the zoo, and once you’re right inside it’s fair to say you’re basically just in Spain.  Hangovers banished thanks to free pancake breakfasts and one too many hot dogs, the afternoon’s itinerary was to bus over to Coronado Island opposite San Diego to get views of the skyline and see some neighbourhoods outside the immediate city.  Before arriving at the West Coast I think we all envisioned baking heat and glorious sunshine 24/7, and were a little disappointed when we weren’t burnt on the first day as clouds covered the skies by late afternoon.  We’d each bought a Subway for dinner/lunch due to being paupers, and sat on a bench on the water’s edge overlooking the skyline and complained about how the clouds were ruining our photos, whilst Jenny attacked cute birds who came to play as we ate(wah).

Watching groups of people riding past on those ridiculous surreys, where four people pedal to power the cart forward, we thought we’d stop being grumpy and go hire one to explore.  The man took one look at us and decided there was no way we’d be able to get a reasonable distance on one, and persuaded us to hire bikes for an hour to get around the island for just $7.  It turns out that was one of the greatest decisions we’d made, as the ride around the island was simply stunning, and it turns out we were just a 10 minute trip from the clouds into a beautiful sunset.  We both had one of those moments where we realise just how lucky we are, and I can honestly say it’s one of the best days of my year abroad so far.  It also made me want to throttle the people who have houses there out of pure jealousy/made me re-evaluate my life plan to involve marrying a billionaire so I can ride bikes round that island all year long.

The next morning was spent sweating and running to the toilet more times than was necessary in any way.  I did not have food poisoning or anything of the like; instead we were on a tram heading toward Mexico to skydive at the border!  The tram seemed to take 1000000 years, not only because of what was coming in the next hour or two but because we were also running half an hour late as per.  A delay whilst the clouds cleared actually calmed my nerves, the guys running the company were extremely friendly, yet enjoyed making actually pretty believable jokes about equipment keeping on coming loose or being put on wrong.  Far too many times someone would look at me all confused, come over, fiddle with a strap and shout; ‘Paul!  How many God damn times do I have to tell you to keep the buckle tight?!  We can’t be losing our license again!’, or just look up at me and go ‘Why did you touch this?  Don’t you ever touch this… unless you want to die that is.’

The skydive had cost such a small amount that the company had created a ‘no frills’ look to it, including a tiny plane with just a battered leather cover over the floor, whilst the rest of the inside was corrugated iron and not much else at all.  Jenny and me with our instructors were the only people up in the plane, with me sat next to the door after deciding I would jump first.  I can honestly say I wasn’t nervous the whole way up, especially as he pointed out the beaches and gorgeous views over San Diego and Mexico.  The one thing was that every so often, he would open the door the WHOLE WAY whilst I wasn’t even strapped in, and literally lean me toward it.  I was scrambling to grab the sides of the plane but he kept pushing them off, honestly the most terrifying thing ever, obviously hilarious for everyone else.  

All of a sudden it was ‘GOGGLES ON’ and before I knew it I was dangling out the side and we were thrown from the plane… it was AMAZING yet indescribable but I’ll give it a shot.  I expected the sickening drop of your stomach you get from rollercoasters but felt nothing of the sort, just… like you’re weightless and everything is so fast and exhilarating.  One of the oddest parts was once the parachute was up and I was floating through cloud – which by the way is just like normal air, if a little cooler – and realised I could hear nothing at all.  It was like being in a vacuum, to which he responded ‘well what is there to make noise up here expect me and you?’.  Good point.  Anyway it was a fantastic experience I’m desperate to do again but obviously can’t afford (first world problems).

La Jolla beach and cove was on the menu and we feebly attempted to make it over before sunset, underestimating distances in America as per and letting the clouds catch up with us.  We did however see about 5874367934 sealions just lounging around on the beach, they are potentially the most comical animal ever and are close to knocking off penguins to become my new fave.  Steph had arrived when we finally made it home after exploring more of the coves and grabbing ice cream, so after a quick catch up which turned into hour long chats, an early night was much needed ahead of Seaworld the next morning!

I’m not going to lie, I had little expectations or knowledge of Seaworld before going but as I found out, it is seriously cool.  How the hell they train animals like that I’ll never know, I guess I’ll have to dig out some Animal Psychology research to try and learn properly.  

We were all so sad to leave San Diego, I feel like this feeling is one which happens far too often when travelling and it makes me glad that we booked properly in advance and weren’t totally free in our plans, otherwise we’d end up staying in places too long and not making it to everywhere we want to go.  The West coast is already appealing to me much more than the East, people seem so much more laid back and lovely, with so much time to chat to you and hear stories.  Everywhere you go there is an eclectic mix of skateboarders, families, businessmen and bohemian types all getting along together, and as I write this on a scenic sunset coach into LA, I hope this atmosphere is one that carries on across California.

Final Frolicks in the East

**Before this post I had actually written a whole blog about Elora and Toronto, which we visited before Boston however my life and computer hate me and have turned the entry into creepy computer codes I cannot understand sooooo yeah half a week or so of my life is missing but you get the idea**

A 17 hour coach journey began our final stop for the year on the East coast; Boston.  Much to Jenny’s despair I slept like a baby the whole way and we arrived to yet more sunshine in the city.  Our hostel was unreal, basically a hotel, and I got far too settled to leave by the end of the three days we spent there.

Steph and Laura met us at the hostel where they’d stolen bagels for our breakfast – favourite thing ever about HI Hostels, dossers like us can eat everything in sight for breakfast then steal food for lunch yaaaay free food.  Boston Commons and Public Gardens was our spot of choice for a morning chill in the sun – I don’t know if it was the incredible weather or what but that place is beyond stunning.  The gardens were pristine with so many colourful trees and flowers and intricate paths and bridges , complete with a lake with swans and boats SO PRETTY.  We took a wander round Back Bay, a cool shopping district that runs from the rich to the poor; Chanel to Forever 21.  The shops were all like little converted terraced houses with two shops above each other, crammed with countless quirky cafes and eateries.  Laura had to catch a flight home so me and Jenny explored some more before meeting Steph for dinner.  Boston is cool, bustling and exciting with the most gorgeous architecture.  I feel like if Washington and NYC were to have a love child it would inevitably be Boston – Washington’s looks with NYC’s personality.

What was weird was to pass the actual bombing site from the marathon, you couldn’t actually see any structural damage apart from a couple of boarded up windows, and no sign something horrific had occurred so recently, save for a single bunch of flowers and ‘Happy Birthday’ written on the pavement in gltter.  Further along was a huge memorial site where hundreds of running shoes, countless caps and candles, bunches of flowers and signs emblazoned with ‘Boston Strong’ adorned the square in the centre of downtown.  The support from the people seems to be extraordinary and you can really tell how much it has affected the citizens of Boston.  Our dinner was a short but sweet panic visit to Cheesecake Factory (shock horror) to satisfy hunger from a lack of meals for over 24 hours.

Since the blue skies had stuck around, the plan for day 2 was the historic Freedom Trail, taking you all over the city learning about major historic events.  We are not in any way slightly into history or all that, but aside from actually learning some educational stuff it was a really nice way to actually see the city and its districts, especially on such a beautiful day and by foot.  It’s easy to miss a lot when taking buses and riding trains and for sure I enjoyed myself far more this way.  My favourite part was Faneuli Square and Quincy Market – basically Covent Garden in America.  And who should we bump into watching some street performers but Jess? WEIRD I am literally psychic these days, just half an hour before I kept saying we were gonna bump into someone we knew and we DID potench business venture after graduation.  We met again next morning at Harvard for a tour, where we stuck out like a sore thumb and felt distinctly inferior.  It was cool to see, especially after recently watching Good Will Hunting etc., and after seeing boys playing croquet in the sunshine rather than day drinking as we would in Leeds it’s fair to say it was good to be there for an hour and that was enough!

Bargain hunters we are, and we’d already got $12 tickets to a Red Sox baseball game which was VERY EXCITING WAAAA so I decided to top off the ultimate tourist couples trip and get matching shirts for the game.  Since we’re stingy as hell we spent the best part of an hour hunting and haggling to get a couple, then spent the afternoon sunbathing and drinking half price frappucinos in the park and wandering round millionaire’s homes.  The game was everything I expected, if not more American than ever.  We sat in the bleachers, known for its rowdiness which did not disappoint.  Everyone basically gets drunk and lairy and fights and throws stuff around, getting way too excited over a sport which literally is just glorified rounders.  Watching a drunken fight between a couple of groups of lads sat a few rows apart was a welcome distraction from the game, and just as we were leaving the park we somehow walked right into the middle of them having an actual fist fight, glasses flying and ripped shirts and all.  And with that we said farewell to Boston, as I’m just waiting to board a flight to the West coast!  Califorrrniiaaaaaaaaaaaaa, here we cooooommmmmeeeee.

Au revoir Londres

As predicted, my final month in London was a whirlwind of rushed goodbyes, cramming for exams and trying to pack my life into one manageable suitcase.  I'm the kind of person who cannot work for anything in advance and need to be under serious pressure to be productive, and thrive off the stress that comes with it, but nothing quite prepared me for the stress that fell on me in the final weeks of my study abroad year.  With four exams to write, my days fell into a nice routine of getting up early, studying, meeting people for lunch, a little more studying, and a good couple of hours at the gym, followed by evenings out having fun, all whilst making plenty of 'to do' and 'to pack' lists with excellent intentions of starting them all 'tomorrow'.  When it came to five days to go, with three exams still left, and a very empty suitcase and a very full room, we started to panic.

I say 'we' as Jenny and me have now become some sort of joint being, affectionately known as 'Cenny'.  It turns out Cenny do not bring out the best in each other and tend to make terrible joint decisions about life, as if one of us doesn't want to do something, we simply won't do it.  For example, two weeks before we leave, I suggest that maybe we should spent $30 each and ship a box of stuff to Calgary so we can have light bags for travelling, Jenny responds 'NO I'm too poor to spend that I'm just throwing ANYTHING away until it all fits in my case I don't even care what I have to throw away it will fit in I am not paying to do that'.  Whilst on the way to go out for dinner and drinks (logical).

Case closed; Cenny cannot ship a suitcase if Jenny is not going to ship a suitcase.  So on the night before we leave London for good, after already throwing the majority of my stuff away, Jenny is wailing in her room because her case is 28kg or something ridiculous.  Literally it's at the point where we're pulling out packets of paracetamol because EVERY LITTLE HELPS TOTALLY GOING TO GET 8KG OUT THIS WAY fucking retards.  What do we end up doing?  Getting up at 6.30am the final day in London, the day of our last exam which we haven't started studying for, to ship a suitcase to Calgary.

Cenny are looking forward to having other people in their life, because frankly, it's getting a bit weird now.  We're currently sat in matching dressing gowns in twin beds, in silence on our laptops.  Help.  More Cenny updates as travelling continues (Jenny has also decided to stop writing her travel blog because everything that happens to me happens to her, so welcome Jenny readers).

ANYWAY the final weeks in London, whilst being stressful and flying past, were so sad.  I would like to give some personal shout outs to my favourite things about London and Western.  Shout out to:

• Campus Hi-Fi for providing amazing hangover breakfasts and catch ups
• The Spoke for doing THE BEST bagel in life (spinach swiss mushroom and roasted red pepper cream cheese - I miss you more and more as time goes by)
• Pino Mattheos for being a source of entertainment, stress-reliever and surprisingly effective sledge
• Jack's for being disgustingly cheap with dirty dancing
• Cobra for providing us with an escape from hip-hop and Bud Light
• Adele Knutt for being my hero and love of my life
• Cowboys for teaching me to two-step
• Ceeps Bingo for the free popcorn and sex toys
• Weldon Library for always providing me with someone to talk to and never a place to work
• Goodwill and Dollarama for just everything I own
• Anybody and everybody who has invited us to parties, nights out and just for general fun; we apologise for being the hideously embarrassing people we are
• Christina's Pub for providing us with terrible service and a halfway house
• Aleco for teaching me to make waffles
• The rabbits that like to make an appearance when I'm doing washing up looking into the garden, you are my fave things ever
• The boy who wanders round the gym who is the twin of Marius from Les Mis; myself and Lauren would like to apologise for the bursting into song and excessive staring
• Whoever wrote 'you are beautiful' in the cubicle in King's library bathroom; it's nice to have a little self-esteem boost when you're going to the loo
• The hot dog man for always being there when I just really want a hot dog (this one is heavily sarcastic, you fucker.)

This year has simply flown by and I have met the most incredible people who have really made it a year of my life which is going to be pretty much impossible to top.  Western is such a good university where I've actually learnt to love my course and have real interest in it, something I'd written off ever happening.  So much love and appreciation for everyone who has been a part of my time here, and I very nearly almost cried sat in the Spoke for the final time when Oasis 'Champagne Supernova' came on and I felt all emosh.  Until Jenny thought it was Wonderwall (help, please).  But we're off on our travels for six whole weeks and I could not be more excited about what's to come, apart from trying not to think about how fast I'm going to be on the plane back to little England and back to reality.  More on that when I get the chance, but for now; thanks London, it's been a blast!

Expectations vs. Reality

Today marks exactly one month until my time on study abroad comes to a close, and with panicked feelings of what the hell will life be once this is all over, and sad feelings of how fast time has gone yet how much I've done, I feel it's fitting to write this blog post.  Especially before these final four weeks of packing up my life, sitting finals and trying to have final blowouts with all the best people in the world just escalates into total mayhem.

It's fair to say that 2012, although difficult, was the greatest year of my life.  Despite at the start of 2012 feeling like that could not be further from the truth.  After losing someone important in my life and everything I'd known for a long time being turned on its head, my decision to come to Canada felt extremely pressured.  I knew sacrifices I was making and how much I was going to have to change and learn to depend on myself to make my moving away the best decision of my life.

Although I'd been dreaming of study abroad since I even considered coming to university, I found myself telling people 'I might be going to Canada next year!' and 'I think I'm doing study abroad, how exciting!'.  I had my place, but I told myself 'You still not might get the grades.'  I worked my absolute arse off and got the grades.  Then came housing.  After ignoring the deadline for residence telling myself 'You can get a house when you get there' still nothing was tying me to this year.  Then came booking the flight, exactly 10 weeks before I was due to leave.  And that was when everything changed.  I have NEVER freaked out as much as I did that night, and I can remember it so well.  The months of saving had a meaning and now I had to tell people 'I'm moving to Canada in September' and suddenly everything was very scary and real and I just sat in my room silently going 'WAAAAAA' and flapping my hands.  I say silently, I tell a lie.

10 weeks of, surprisingly, one of the best summers flew by, and before I knew it it was one week to go and the goodbyes were coming in thick and fast.  It rained on the last day in England (obviously), and I remember one of the saddest parts was on the final day being in the pub with my friends (obviously) drinking and eating burgers (obviously) when I had to say goodbye and I walked home bawling my eyes out in the pouring rain.  I wish I could say I had a sad song in my head but all I could think of was the lesbians in the Tatu video when they're in the rain all soaking and lesbian-y, but all this did was make me sadder because I knew my friends would understand why that made me sadder.  Because I was REALLY scared of having to start all over and make new friends, something you don't expect to have to do in your third year of university.  And I'm a bit weird.

But we made it, and we got here, and I fell in love with this country.  And it was terrifying but exciting and incredible.  We made it to little London, found a house, found furniture, bought our pots and pans and food, found our way and found friends.  And let me tell you - moving into a house and finding friends is hard.  You take residence for granted, at least 40 people are your neighbours just waiting to be your friends! I put the friendships I've made this year down to Canadians and their culture.  They truly are the most friendly, wonderful and selfless people, with genuine interest in what people have to say whilst being genuinely interesting themselves.  Many of my friendships have been made from somebody just starting chatting to me in the street, or at a bar, or in a toilet, and it's this kind of friendliness I feel I've learnt a lot from this year and want to change when I return.

I can't remember exactly what I thought Canada would be like, but I did write a note to myself before I left, as a sort of bucket list, but also to remind myself what I thought this year was going to be and what I should make it.  So without further ado, here are my expectations and the reality that has come with them;

EXPECTATION: Canada is basically just England
REALITY: You'd think because two countries speak the same language, have the same Queen and are part of the British Empire, they'd be basically the same.  Another expectation down to my ignorance, and I got the culture shock of my life thanks to this.  From the money and the tax to the classes and the etiquette, so many things are so different from the UK, some I prefer and some I don't, but everything has helped open my eyes and view everything very differently, leading to...

EXPECTATION: I would love Canada and want to live here
REALITY: I love Canada and want to live here.. but can England come too?  There's nothing like leaving your home country for a year to make you appreciate how much home is really home.  England is actually one of the coolest places - you can fit the UK into one of Canada's lakes (they're more like oceans) and twice as many people live in England than do Canada.  This means you can travel for 40 minutes and be in a totally different region, with different accents, rules and cultures.  The tiny little country has so much crammed into it, something I didn't realise until I came over here.  Also, there are just things about England you love and don't realise until you leave, and I feel like fellow study-abroaders and long term travellers may be the only ones who can see that, as it's hard to explain.  However, Canada is the most beautiful country with the most amazing people and lifestyle, and I'd like to say I'll be brave enough to fly the nest for good and make it over here.  But we'll see.

EXPECTATION: I would make a few Canadian friends
REALITY: I made so many friends!  As mentioned earlier, this is mainly down to Canadians and their nature.  But what I didn't expect is to make some amazing English friends, something of even more value than I would have thought before I came here, as I can easily continue these friendships once I leave.  Now I'll go back to Leeds with a whole new group of friends as well as my old favourites which is an amazing concept which I just didn't think about before I came.

EXPECTATION: I would learn to ski
REALITY: I LEARNT TO SKI!  Well, if you can call it skiing.  I call it being able to get myself down a mountain without falling and/or dying, but apparently this is skiing!  And it's so much fun, and I wish I'd had the money and time to get myself more runs at Boler and improve, but with a trip to Whistler in the pipeline for travelling I'm praying there will be snow there to get on the slopes one more time.

EXPECTATION: I would travel
REALITY: I have most definitely travelled.  In fact, we thought we'd fit in a bit of the East coast of the USA once school was over and that would be it, but I have been to more places I'd have been able to imagine back in August. I've made it to two national parks, Montreal, Mont-Tremblant, Toronto countless times, New York City, Chicago, Washington DC, the friendly towns of Hamilton and Kitchener, to Canada's Wonderland, to Niagara Falls, and so much more I can't even remember now, all whilst sitting a running total of 20 exams and many classes.  And with our final leg of travelling being booked this week, let's just say the West coast of the USA and Canada will be having many a visit.  I think I can tick off travelling!

EXPECTATION: I would change
REALITY:  I have changed, yet I haven't changed.  I didn't expect to 'find myself' this year, because what does that even mean?  But I have realised from the past year and a bit that I'm very independent and actually am very capable of looking after myself, no matter how difficult the situation.  I have obtained a new outlook on life that makes you appreciative of things you never considered before.  I appreciate home, my family, my friends more than ever.  I also appreciate I'm lucky enough to have got this opportunity.  But I'm proud of myself because in the end I did get myself here, because I applied and worked hard and saved money and organised everything myself with little to no help.  I didn't ask for help, but it was nice to know it was there if I wanted it.  I did pierce my ears, and I now weirdly love Psychology, and I have got a horrific case of the travelling bug, but they're the biggest changes anyone will see.  I am still the exact same person, literally the same, if anything I have become more hideously embarrassing and awkward than ever.  Yay.

EXPECTATION: I would get an accent
REALITY: I have the exact same accent as before.  Still people can't understand me.  Wah.

EXPECTATION: I would get fit and healthy because I would have no money to spend on burgers.
REALITY: Meeehhhhhhh... nobody gets fitter on study abroad right?  And there are too many burgers here. And bagels.  And beer.  ALLLLL the B's.

EXPECTATION: I would grow up and stop drinking so much
REALITY: Keggers, whilst being in my top 5 favourite things about Canada, ruin lives and this weekend I removed some of my more essential clothes at the front door and slept on the couch with the see-through curtain draped over my head whilst throwing Jenny's food all over the kitchen and drunk calling anyone and everyone. WHYYYYYYYYY

EXPECTATION: This year will be the best ever ever  (word-for-word quote from my note)
REALITY: This year has been the best ever ever and I don't want to go home and go back to real reality.  I want to go back to August and do it all again the exact same and I am SO JEALOUS of anyone going to do this next year.  I would maybe change one tiny little thing about my year though, leading onto my final expectation...

EXPECTATION: I would see a moose
REALITY: WHERE ARE ALL THE FUCKING MOOSE/MOOSI/MOOSES/MOOSAYS/WHAT IS THE PLURAL OF MOOSE

30 days left, let's make it incred.

MY NAME IS CAIT AND I'M GOING HOME

Much has happened in the last month, the biggest event of all being a surprise visit back to ENGLAND!!  I only booked my flight a couple of weeks before; I was supposed to be going for a week away skiing, but plans changed when I realised the mountain of destination was the mountain I’d be going to the week after anyway.  I let Tom know and my Mum – my Dad and sister never ever get surprised so I thought it would be nice to do that for a change.  Also my Mum would 100% have a breakdown if I turned up on the doorstep. And I wanted her to get me in lots of nice food and tidy my room. Selfish behaviour.

I called my Mum to let her know, and her reaction was a disappointing ‘right, ok’. In fact she even sounded a bit mad. I was like ‘Mum no I’m actually coming home in a few weeks, it’s a surprise for Dad!’ ‘So what happens about your year abroad now then?’ ‘It’s just a reading week…’ ‘So you’re going back?!’ ‘Yes I’m going back!’ ‘Oh good you aren’t pregnant then.’

SO MUCH FAITH.  Me and Jenny spent the week leading up to going home forcing ourself to the gym at 7am trying to prepare ourselves for jet lag – 10 days is very little time and we’d heard horror stories of feeling sick and lying wide awake at 4am for days.  I also tried my very hardest to get on the going home song on Greg James' show on Radio 1 but clearly coming home all the way from Canada wasn't enough to get me on JUST LET ME SING ON THE RADIO PLEASE.  My Dad kept calling every couple of days making it very difficult to hide the secret, and asked me every single question on the planet about my ski trip – every time I go skiing he thinks it’s to Whistler so I just let him believe that.  Because I live in Vancouver obviously.

Getting into England was WEIRD – everything seemed tiny and it was so lovely to not have people stare in shops every time I spoke.  My Mum was in floods of tears picking me up at the station – Tom told me she’d even started crying driving up the road so I believe my decision to not surprise her was definitely the right one.

Surprises were the best – I just sat in the living room and when my sister got in my Mum just said a weird shaped package had come for her. Hehehehee. She sort of stared at me until I spoke, and then cried a lil bit.  We pissed my dad off by leaving the key in the door meaning he couldn’t get in, and let him storm around the house angrily for a bit before finally coming in the living room – he completely looked round the room and missed me before doing a double take. So much fun!

The 10 days absolutely flew by – I don’t think I had a minute to myself!  I managed to cram in trips to Lancaster, Leeds and Manchester, a few days with the family and a few days seeing everyone at home, and before I knew it Sunday had come round again and I was off back to Canada.  Lancaster involved drunk bowling and FINALLY drinking cider and black, breaking lent promises and a 2 hour trip to find blueberries. Leeds involved SO MUCH LOVING AND REUNITING, stealing cats, 5am trips to Sainsbury's and beloved pub lunches.  Manchester involved CARL reunited, Just Dance, a horrendous Gangnam style that I hope never makes it onto Facebook, Alex’s embarrassing interpretation of Revs as ‘Revolution de Cuba’ (no it’s the same thing) and 100000 people in one bed. And home involved drinking so much Prosecco vomming occurred, snuggling with my favourites, piercings and bridesmaid dress shopping!

One big reason I wanted to go home was due to my attempting to get a job out here for summer – whilst I didn’t feel homesick then, and I still don't now, I would hate to go another couple of months and feel that way and have to come home early, or to feel like whilst I’m travelling I’m counting down the days.

I tried my hardest and managed to get my absolute dream job!  It’s at a summer camp in Vancouver for the summer, the money is amazing, the location is stunning and the timings are perfect.  But things are never quite that easy are they? Turns out visas for working in Canada are NOT easy to come by for exchange students, meaning that my last hope is clinging to some phone calls this week – and it’s looking like the job is going to have to be turned down.  I am beyond devastated but still proud I managed to beat off the competition, and there’s always next summer!

I have also now learnt a new meaning of the word poor after booking my travel plans for when school ends, but need to keep telling myself that the debt is worth it and opportunities like this don’t come around again!  Life in London has been crazy as usual with midterm after midterm, as well as surprising Tasha for her 21^st this weekend AND St Patrick’s Day yesterday.  It was potentially one of my favourite days at Western this year, we were blind drunk at an incredible kegger, it was sunny and the last thing I remember is eating sushi. I HATE SUSHI.

Today also marks 6 weeks until we leave London for good and I’m actually beginning to feel nostalgic and a little sad at the thought of leaving  the place – the town itself is nothing in comparison to Leeds but the people and the places have made it the most incredible year and I’ll be extreemelyyyyy sad to say goodbye to Western. Life stahp going fahhsstttt.

Ski virgin/Obama hunting!

I really need to manage my time better - every single blog post seems to start with an apology for belatedness but life really just doesn't seem to stop across the pond.  After a couple of weeks settling back into London life, a crash course in skiing was essential for WSF's biggest weekend of the year at Mont Tremblant, Quebec.

The weekend was bizzare, unexpected and incredible.  First the mountain, views and weather were so beautiful and it couldn'r have been more different to the hill I'd skiied at Boler, which is the local place in London we can ski.  The cold was like nothing I've ever experienced - down to -50 at the top of the mountain!  Even walking to the bar at night, the insides of your nostrils froze which was suitably distressing when you can barely walk/see straight.  But thanks to Goodwill I was actually perfectly warm all weekend, as the length of the runs soon warmed me up! Being an absolute beginner and only having experienced runs lasting less than a minute, 45 minute long runs pushed my fitness and my legs killlllllllled.  Snow plowing most of the way oops.  So embarrassing seeing little 5 year olds ski right past me effortlessly, but practice makes perfect and I'm determined to improve my skiing to a much higher standard!  My girlfriend and fellow beginner Dalek Jessie and I did have a couple of horrific moments, still drunk and spending 25 minutes trying to get skis on, until we realised that sometimes skis like to pretend they still have a boot inside them.  First time we gave up and went to eat burgers with the girls.  Second time we were halfway down the mountain and had no option but to cling to each other and wail.  The first day also came complete with a dislocated shoulder, lost phone and wandering so far out of the village we were practically in Narnia, but I am proud to say our shit lives did not ruin our spirits once!

Western had occupied two floors of the gorgeous little lodge we were staying, with an open-door policy and a hot tub, which meant when we weren't skiing, everybody was running into random rooms or soaking in the hot tubs.  Mainly whilst drunk, occasionally sober, but the atmosphere all weekend was so so great, I must have spoken to over half the people on the trip, people were so laid back and friendly and basically just wanted to get pissed and make new friends.

Post-Tremblant blues hit harder than I thought, it's been a while since I've been somewhere and not wanted to leave as badly as I didn't want to leave there, and it's gutting I won't get to go again next year.. Snowriders will have to make up for it I guess.  I hope Leeds can compete!

Spontaneous booking during our Christmas travels led to this past weekend being spent in Washington, DC. Smack bang in the middle of midterms, perfect timing as always, but it's pass fail, so who really gives a shit?  After writing a 2 hour exam in just 45 minutes (interested to see how that one turns out) we were on our 17 hour journey to Obama's hometown.  Since I've started travelling, we've gradually started getting used to longer and longer coaches, and I have to say even 17 hours wasn't that bad!  When it's costing you $17 to casually nip to DC for the weekend, you can put up with anything.

The weekend meant we got to meet Steph's friends from Boston, which meant we had a solid group of 12 Brits!  We braved the freezing weather whilst the sun was still shining and wandered round the famous memorial walk.  Washington is absolutely beautiful, the architecture is stunning and everywhere is pristine.  The weirdest thing was how few people were there - despite the cold, I did expect to see a lot more people, but I'm not complaining - it was a stark contrast to NYC and Chicago, but a welcome one.  Despite our best efforts we didn't run into Obama, we hung around his front garden hoping he'd come play out, but he never did :(.  The Whitehouse is so much smaller than I expected!  Obama needs to up his game.

The Washington Monument, WW2, Vietnam War, Martin Luther King and Babe-raham Lincoln memorials completed our trek for the afternoon - I liked Martin Luther King because he had an excellent pose and Abe because he is a babe.  Also the word 'gaylord' was inscribed on the Vietnam statues - after a few minutes of going 'Omgggg that's so bad someone must have scratched it in really quickly before it dried' we realised the sculptor is called Gaylord (lol).  All the places were so so cool to see in real life, the countless pictures and films that feature them makes them seem surreal until you get to see them with your own eyes, photos just don't capture a place.

A cutie park ranger told us about the Old Post Office tower which gave us free 360 degree views of Washington, where I finally got to be shown where Beyonce sang at the Inauguration.. completely chose the wrong weekend to go to Washington but whatever.  After popping by a few Smithsonian museums, we got to see Beyonce's stage up close at the Capitol!  After exhausting our cameras of photographs we got a bus over to Georgetown to a cool little restaurant, where I ordered badly but everyone else did excellently!  The Americans had started drinking already with wine, but us Canadians decided to wait to go to a liquor store, and got the shock of our lives.  Vodka in Canada is $25 minimum for a 750ml bottle, no matter the brand, Smirnoff, Absolut, Vodkva, whatever.  Vodka in the US?  Two litres cost TWELVE DOLLARS.  And that wasn't even the cheapest!  But it was the nastiest - a big night out in the city to Madams Organ ended up extremely messy but hilarious.. with half the group vomming and feeling like ass the next day.

Our final day came with yet another free attraction, a ZOOOOO!!  We saw pandas and zebras and leopards and lions and loads of monkeys and other things, it definitely cured my hangover.  Washington was so good for students on a budget - all the attractions are totally free leaving more money for alcohol and food!  On the first night we stumbled across a Nando's and had to satisfy British cravings, but on the second night I made my second visit to the Cheesecake Factory.. and ordered my very first steak!  Apparently it was a fake steak but whatever.  Us being so clever hadn't taken advantage of the fact it was Superbowl Sunday and had booked an 8pm coach home, meaning we missed the game and more importantly, the Half-time show!  I have caught up though and have become even more obsessed with Beyonce, if that's even possible.  However the 'Mrs Carter' world tour typically has dates for the UK when I'm in Canada, dates for Europe whilst I'm travelling and dates for North America when I will most likely be home.  I will find a way!