Madrid

Aug 4th (5th stop)

We're nearing the end of a 2 hour flight from Stuttgart to Madrid and although the AC is on I can smell the heat. We each have a bottle of sunscreen, we have 2 litres of water carrying capacity and we've paid 10 extra euros for AC in the hostel but I am still terrified that we won't make it to Lisbon in 3 days. Looking out the window the landscape has gradually gone from snowy mountains tops to dead brown desert. Sure it's been 40 degrees C in Ottawa before but that happens every day in this wasteland. The chances of us 3 cold blooded Canadians making it through this are slim. If I do survive that's the last time I let Jamie book our trip.

Jamie: Spain is comparable to me (Jamie), as it is extremely hot.
Richard: The plane just landed, I have heat stroke just thinking about this place.
J: I have sunburns all over my body.
R: Tonight I rinsed my mouth with uncomfortably hot water and the faucet was on the coldest setting. Only in Madrid.
J: It's 42 C outside right now (day 2). Enough said.
R:
But enough of that. For all except Jamie or "Iceman", who doesn't take heat that well, it wasn't that bad. We found that as long as you play it smart and don't mess around you'll survive spain or at least central Madrid where there's lots of shade. As for language this was the first time in 4 countries that none of us spoke the national language. I had the most background with 2 spanish courses taken in the last 4 years and I failed both midterms in the 2nd one. "Banos" was one of the words I remembered and they aren't even called that here. But that's alright, europeans in major cities always speak some english right? Wrong.
But at least things will be labeled in english too....wrong again. Spain for those of you who haven't been (and thanks for the heads up to everyone else) is very spanish. I think the only times english was helpful in 3 days was at the hostel and at tourist information. The rest of the time at meals, asking for directions or buying tickets we relied on sign language, intuition and Richard's spanish. It definitely added to the experience though and made even the duller parts of the day more exciting. Madrid I thought was a great city, stange, but nice. We walked around the Plaza Mayor which was right nearby, the beautiful Almudena Cathedral and the aligned Royal Palace. The royal gardens were worth walking around and we encountered a live peacock, just strolling around, not in a zoo.

One thing that made the local Spaniards less foreign is the fact that they too walk on the sidewalk on the shaded side of the road, leaving many sidewalks deserted. Walking around at night there are lots of street performers such as the statue people, the robot, the silver man who drops his suit case and slips for laughs. And some good ones like the man playing spanish guitar with his lady partner doing a flamenco dance or the man who played some stringed xylophone creating sweet melodies in the main square. One of the strange phenonmenon we encountered were the popular 'ham bars' in Madrid. Picture butcher shop and bar in one; large sections of meat on display and hanging from the ceiling with a bartender werving drinks from a bar in the middle.
We also met up with 2 of Jamie's friends and the 5 of us saw the great el retiro park while sharing stories of our journey's before finding a restaurant and tasting some 'tapas' consisting of assorted meats and cheeses served on bread. And of course like every other eurocity we ate delicious donair kebab. The last day we saw a transported egyption temple, the Del Prado art museum with the most christian art I've ever seen and we took a nice long swim in a public pool.
In case the language barrier wasn't clear enough before, we ordered a sandwich and burger after the swim from a bar without a printed menu and they didn't know any of the numbers between 0 and 10 in english. Luckily 'sandwich' is the same, and just as glorious, in both languages.

Home

So after 6 weeks of traveling at the beginning through 10 countries, 3-4 week farm stays in England, Southern Norway and Normandy and a final 2 weeks of traveling through Switzerland, Italy and France I'm back home in Ottawa as of 3 hours ago. Obviously I was pretty bad about it during the trip, but posts about the adventure should follow. During the next few weeks I'll figure out where I'll be living during the winter, see friends and family, walk Davey and hopefully look for some work. It's good to be home though, I had a lot of fun in Europe and I'm now looking forward to this next step.

Brussels

July 25-27th (2nd stop)


Alex, Sarah and I only had 2 and a half days in Brussels but luckily I knew a lot about it and the rest of the country before arriving by train from Paris. I knew it was the capital and that the Belgian people made great chocolate and waffles, they could speak France's language and had pretty well the same flag as Germany. There weren't any free tours so we would have to discover it as the new world explorers did, by looking around. And since none of us knew a word of flemish we stuck with french. The most impressive thing I found about this city is that everyone knew multiple languages. The man at the info booth who found us a good hotel when we arrived was fluent in 5 languages, our waiter who told us the water wasn't potable (it was) and served us bottled water instead also knew 5 languages and the manager of the chocolate shop we visited 3 times spoke 10. Yes, as in 9+1. This made me feel quite inadequate with my native english and decent french and inspired me to take on a third language seriously. Living in North America, spanish would be the obvious choice if I could only roll my "r"s....


Back to the city. It was beautiful, had great food and felt much smaller next to Paris, with drivers who didn't aim for us. Predictably my favourite part was the square (Grand Place) which Victo Hugo called the most beautiful of its kind in europe. We fortunately walked into the large cobblestoned square just before some evening show where the town hall is light up in different colours while music plays and a narrator talks to all of the tourists in...flemish. Grand Place is lined by 4 old buildings, each full of statues, decorative carvings and gold higlights and the main focal point is the town hall's narrow white stone tower that kept us oriented during our stay.

We spent much of our remaining time discovering that the extensive prior knowledge I had of the place, was all true.

Capital. We gave up looking for the parliment buildings but after visiting the EU headquarters and finding out that NATO was based out of there as well, Brussels is very much a capital city.
Chocolate and waffles. We visited the Chocopolis chocolate shop 3 times in 2 days and after Sarah ate more than her half of our delicious waffle a fight ensued.
Like France. Not only do they share the language but they both have impressive Arc de Triomphes. The french one is much older and grander but the belgian arc's surroundings compliment it far more than a busy car-packed roundabout does.
Like Germany. They do have the same flag while the belgian Arc de Triomphe and german Bandenburg Gate have the same quadriga statue up top. (Same = just short of identical)



Other highlights:

-St-Michael and St-Gudula Cathedral: This church that I hadn't heard of was a great surprise. Just east of Grand Place, it had my favourite interior of any church I'd seen so far.
-Mannekin Pis: Europeans are strange. I didn't find this famous landmark of a boy urinating very interesting but because I was eating my undersized waffle half in the meantime, it wasn't a waste of time or money (its free). There's also a famous statue of a girl peeing which is unforturnately not next to a waffle shop.

-Tintin: I watched Tintin growing up and always figured it was a french thing. Turns out it's belgian and I payed 22 euro's for the only shirt I'll buy on this trip. I didn't used to but when dealing with a 22 euro shirt, I'll be seperating my white and black laundry.
-Palace of Justice: nice to walk past and behind it is a great view of the city.

Brussels is a great city to walk around, enjoy a musical flemish trio in a park or appreciate buildings built with care, plus tasty food is never far. On the 27th we flew to Berlin, and although Sarah was concerned about the regular plane noises, we landed safely :)

Paris

July 21st-25th (1st stop)

My first day in Europe kinda took me by surprise. I had finished working at camp for 5 weeks where I didn't have much time to think about anything else and then the day after I left Bowen island I ended up checking into a cheap french hotel and walking the streets of Paris. My first day in Paris was my only day alone in europe so far and it was a nice period to get acclimatized. Knowing that I would be seeing the traditional sites with Sarah and her friend Alex over the next few days I just walked around, past countless bakeries and sandwhich shops, listening to a language I hadn't heard in a while and to the constant hum of scooters and enjoying loads of monuments/church facades that date back to before my country was even a country. All this only 2 years after living in and learning about Calgary, a city of 1 million people that wasn't even discovered by pioneers until the 1870's. Let's just say I found it fitting when I walked past my first ever palm tree later that day and sat down in the Luxembourg gardens to listen to an ochestral play the Disney tune "A Whole New World". TV by the way does a really good job of portraying what palm trees look like, I wasn't even surprised when I saw one. Until I realized that Paris is farther north than Ottawa, aren't they a hot climate tree?

Over the next 4 days we, as predicted, saw most of the traditional sites, and took in everything in between. We enjoyed the outside, the inside and the view from the top of the Notre Dame cathedral all on seperate days. What it lacks in colour compared to the Notre Dame Bascilica in Montreal, it makes up for with history and its incredible detail. I won't bore you with any facts but one, it took 200 years to build. I'm talking years with 365 days each!

We also went on our first free tour, which we discovered isn't that strange of a thing in Europe. They toured us around the city, showed us loads of great sites and filled us with history and knowledge I may have been too lazy to look up myself. It was a great introduction of the city and also began an extensive World War lesson which was updated at nearly every european stop after Paris. The police department downtown still has bullet holes from WW2 which I found incredible.

Here are some of the other highlights:

-Ham and Cheese crepe: I had never even thought of a savoury crepe; I hope to try this with pancakes upon my return.
-Not the Louvre: if you spent 30 seconds on each piece in the Louvre it would take 68 days without pause to finish, so we surrendered in advance and didn't go.
-1900 World Exposition: Although I didn't attend, I wish that I had. Practically half of Paris was built for that exposition including the most beautiful bridge there, the equally impressive Grand and Petit palaces as well as Paris' metro system.
- Eiffel Tower: Oh! you've heard of it? well I liked it. We visited in the evening and its really nice up close and light up. Sitting there in front of it was also a strong reminder of how not in Canada I was.
-Staying dry: The weather was great and I was very tempted to jump in the Seine river since I travel in swimsuits until I discovered that still today, during especially heavy rainfall, city sludge is added to the mix.
- Signing the song "Champs Elysees" while walking down the same famous street and having someone close by join in.
-Tour story: Finding out that during the Germans' retreat, Hitler ordered a commander to have Paris decimated and the commander for whatever reason, staged it, saving pretty well the whole city.

Having a few days before meeting a friend in Berlin we picked up train tickets to Brussels for the next day and that was our visit to Paris in brief. We missed Versailles but I plan to see it before Canada happens again.

Europe prologue (July 20th)

-I'm already starting to feel like Tom Hanks in "the Terminal", only the soundtrack that follows me is self-sung and consists mostly of french rock that Ben and I have been introducing to our american camp friends. Last night I grabbed the bus around 9:30 from UBC to the airport. After having my ticket printed I found a nice spot in a corner behind an automated departures ticker on a quiet carpeted second floor. I fell asleep with my head on my backpack and my arm through my hiking bag and slept surprisingly well. At 6 am I repacked, brushed my teeth in the bathroom and walked to the check-in line. The big 7 lane plane took us to Montreal where I had a layover before our departure at 6 pm for Paris. I'm in for a long one, so very glad I decided to fly to europe instead of australia.



-We've flown past my homeland and I'm seeing Newfoundland for the first time. The sun behind us is a vibrant orange and the horizon is spectacular! Layers of bright red, then orange on top, yellow, a thin layer of wispy clouds and then a purple and blue sky. Wow! I'd definitely like to sleep on top of a mountain and enjoy a similar sight one day.



-I just looked over at the screen in front of the empty seat next to me and saw a line between Montreal and Paris and our plane halfway between the dots, this is exciting!



-We're just descending below the clouds now while "fix you" has come on in the Coldplay concert, good timing. Some rays of morning sunlight are piercing the clouds above the sea of roundabouts, this trip is going to be interesting.

Richard in Europe

A year ago my friend Jamie left for germany on a year exchange and I figured what a perfect excuse to visit my second continent. Didn't know who I'd go with or when, but I knew it would happen. It didn't seem too hard, it's just across the water and after university is a great time considering I have no rent/mortgage, cell phone contract or job holding me back. Also, after participating in Mustache March I realized that now is the best time to do outrageous things with my hair since looking somewhat professional is usually required when working full time. So I figured what's more european than wearing a speeder and having a pony-tail? so I bought a speedo and haven't cut my hair since Christmas. I also acquired a Norwegian working visa and took out a loan so that I could afford to stay in europe for a few months and go up to hammerfest (in the arctic circle) but figured even if that didn't work out I could just work on farms, meet some locals and spend minimal amounts of money until the trips end.

So,the way things unfolded I would spend the first 2 weeks with Sarah and her friend Alex, then Jamie would replace Alex for two weeks before Sarah and I ventured North. The only things that were booked in advance were the hotel in Paris and a flight to spain and lisbon in the 3rd week.

(Be warned, in order not to spoil the notes covering less than a 2 month span that will follow, the next little bit may lack some detail.)

so it began, Alex and Sarah joined me a day after I arrived in a strange french speaking land and we enjoyed all that is Paris (including spending lots of money) for the next 4 days. The 3 of us continued to explore the chocolaty options in Brussels, then Berlin where we stayed with Alex's friend for 5 days, flew to Frankfurt where Alex and Jamie swapped and where not much else happened besides planning an escape to a more interesting city. Hopped on a train through the German landscape to Munchen where we saw the Glockenspiel in all its glory, then to my first 2 incredible castles (in fussen) and Stuttgart to catch a flight to Madrid. In Spain we gained a new found gratitude for Air Conditioning and then flew to Portugal where we enjoyed the awesomeness of Lisbon, the first time surfing on the atlantic waves in the south and up to the royal palaces in the North. After stopping by Madrid for a tour of Real Madrid's stadium and some more "tapas", we said our goodbyes to Jamie and headed for Bohemia. We enjoyed the music in Kafka's home and flew to our final destination, Norway. This whole time we had been booking trips and hostels as we went, often waiting till the day of, and spending most of our time in each city searching for cheap bathrooms for the girls to use. However we had been unsuccessful in finding a reasonable place to stay in Norway and ended up signing up for couchsurfing.com hoping to find help. Unfortunately were arriving 3/4 of the of the way through the country's 2 month tourist season and the few affordable accommodations (including couches) seemed to be booked right up.


Unfazed we caught a later flight to Norway and enjoyed the sunset over it's beautiful landscape. We found a coke in the airport for around 32 Norwegian kroners ($6 CAD), which we did not purchase and bussed for 2 hours to Oslo. Late at night we asked at a hostel which was still full and a couple hotels with rooms upwards of $300 CAD before considering the cold weather and settling down to sleep on the floor of the heated bus station at 1:30 am. An hour later we were woken up by the security guard speaking norwegian who quickly converted to good english and asked us not to sleep in the station. So I spent the rest of the short night sitting, reading and thinking while Sarah switched between trying to sleep half lying on a bench next to a homeless man and sitting.

On our first day we were able to find free internet use at the small university of Oslo where we meant to look for an apartment in town and apply to jobs, but spent most of the time looking for a place to sleep that night, and finally found an expensive B&B. Not having any leads for the next night we arranged to sleep in the basement of the B&B that is not normally used. Our second full day we did meet up with a couch surfer who showed us and someone staying with him around the beautiful little city of Oslo and he even managed to pay for our dinner despite our attempts to get even. We talked about Norway, our plan, the numerous languages that he speaks and ended up walking by a huge crowd along the main strip where a cycling race had just finished and Lance Armstrong was up on the screen talking away! Our guide Daniel said although he had someone over he could host us the following night which was great and we figured things we coming together. The next day after visiting the local employment centre and the Canadian embassy we found that finding a job would be very hard, despite the assurance of 2 norwegians before our trip, because although they all speak English, computer systems for hotels, restaurants etc. were in Norwegian. And I'm as good at Norwegian as I am at family baseball (which is not good enough for those who haven't witnessed). Soon after that we were surprised to find that Daniel bailed on us and we were forced to look for another place to sleep that night.

This day made it clear that we would have to activate plan B. Getting desperate to avoid spending our money on pricey accommodations we emailed various people through help exchange (where you work in exchange for food and accommodation) and contacted friends who lived in Denmark in order to arrange an escape route. That night we bargained down for a still expensive hotel and once the $75 CAD was paid we made a couple emails, slept in the comfortable beds and ate their once in a lifetime buffet breakfast in the morning. Every kind of fruit, good cereals, the classic bacon/sausages/potatoes/eggs, different breads with 3 kinds of seasoned Salmon and great cheeses including this great norwegian brown cheese which is made from goats milk and some cow milk. At this point we had heard back from my friend Nico in Denmark who generously said anytime would work and we committed to spending just one more day in Oslo. So after making our way to town from the hotel on the outskirts we took the ferry across the fjord where we walked to the outdoor museum to see the funny houses that some norwegians still live in with the roof-lawns and one of their native stave churches, like no other Catholic church in Europe. Shortly after we made our way back to the sea and I fulfilled my goal of swimming off the coast of Norway with a speeder and pony-tail (I'll be nice and not attach a picture to this note :) . That night we showed up at a booked hostel at 6 PM and luckily managed to get a room since one of the reservations hadn't shown up.


The next morning we found a great spot on the north-south highway and tried to hitchhike for an hour and a half but our only offer was from a man only going an hour down the road. Instead we bussed back to the central station and bought tickets for Copenhagen, Denmark.

3 great days in Copenhagen staying with our saviours Nico and Kristen and 4 days in London passed before we ended up helping out at a hog roast for a british wedding celebration, the beginning of our 3 weeks at Treflach farm in Shropshire, 3 miles from Wales. We now have a place to sleep every night, tasty non-european sized meals to eat without going broke(big mac meal $16 CAD in Norway) and a friendly family to learn british lingo from. It's also my first time working on a farm period, so there's lots to learn, like the difference between hay and straw, the name for a female sheep looks like what you'd say when grossed out and fried-cured bacon is amazingly delicious. After two weeks on the farm, things are going better than I could have hoped for and at this pace I can afford to make this adventure last another 2.5 months.

Plans for the future: visiting Scotland next week, flying south to visit my cousins then flying back to Norway for a farm stay on island in the south. After that we might find something in France where I can practice my french and then 2 final weeks of just travelling. If you want to meet up before the end of the trip, let me know and we'll make something work, otherwise I'll see you all in no time. Shorter notes about my travels will follow :)

Camp Bow-Isle

My brother Ben has worked and lived at Camp Bow-Isle (a Christian Science Summer Camp off the coast of Vancouver) for the most part of the last two years and has raved about it as a fufulling experience. Having always wanted to be a counsellor for a summer before I find myself a long-term job I decided to give Bow-Isle a shot.

Unfortunately though, it was amazing. During the week of staff camp we were challenged physically and spiritually and I got to know the rest of the staff who were a good mix of creative, welcoming, serious and crazy. The first night of staff camp we climbed up Mount Gardner, which the camp property backs onto, in the dark and slept at the summit under the stars. That set the tone for a job that was definitely not 9-5 and far from boring.
For junior boys, Colby and I had 6 great campers in tent 5. The program was great and included camp wide games such as 3 sticks ( essentially capture the flag), pirates and cargo (picture a sweet game) and Quidditch in the rain, yes a modified version of the sport played in Harry Potter (where players run around with pool noodles trying to throw volley-balls through ladder mounted hola-hoops). I got to play the snitch who is a person wearing a tinfoil covered helmet that one player from each team spends the game trying to tag. For the out-trip we went out to Cape Roger Curtis a beautiful penninsula from which you can see Vancouver Island and the lights from Nanaimo.
Senior boys was also incredible and I had 2 great co-counsellors and 6 campers again. With senior boys you can try more during camp wide games like 3 sticks and the Sword in the Stone which is like capture the flag with more offense, chaos and pool noodles. The camp played the first live action version of settlers of Catan which also had chaos and pool noodles making it too, an instant classic. There is much much more to tell but I must catch the bus to the airport in Vancouver where I shall spend the night before leaving for Paris in the morning. The 5 weeks of camp that ended yesterday were extremely rewarding and I look forward to carrying what I learned forward into my european trip which begins tomorrow. By the way, I'm catching up on emails at the university of british-columbia campus and it is a beautiful campus. That's me for now.

Sustainability

The world is making great improvements when is comes to sustainability in recent years but I feel like we are taking steps backwards when it comes to the family names.

They had it alright in the early days with simple last names like King, Vaughan and Jones. Then names like Richardson and Johnson appeared. Dosen't work very well if somewhere down the line, god forbid, there's a daughter now does it?

And it seems to me that in the past couple decades, now that society is breaking with tradition that there are hyphens showing up everywhere. Here's another perfect example of people being totally unconcerned with the future. Sure I get it, you both like your last names and don't want to trade in. But hyphenated names are something that should not be passed on the the next generations. What happens if a Cane-Phyllis and a Crosby-Scissorhands get married? That's the end of it right there unless they want to spend the rest of there lives dealing with the repercussions. For on thing, no one would add them on Facebook. "yeah, just look me up, my last name's Cane-Phyllis-Crosby-Scissorhands". Erin Brockovich couldn't even remember that name. Secondly, companies wanting to avoid excess paper work would definitely not hire such an unfortunately named person.

All I ask is that when deciding on last names for their children that parents ask for an outside opinion from a friend who's not afriad to give it to them straight; because in this sort of situation the sustainability of a name must be considered.

Rafting and Update

Rafting on the ottawa river is a good time. The combination of big waves and small boats make for an especially good time. 4 friends and I went on a 4.5 hour rafting trip that was real fun. The water was warmer that it had been in the Rockies but the air was not much warmer. We went rafting on may 31st and to give you an idea of how warm it was A) we could see our breaths, clearly and B) it snowed.
It was fun nevertheless and the lunch break with by the campfire was a nice half-time re-energizer. One of the interesting things they did on this trip was tie the boats up at an island, have us walk for a few minutes until we gathered in view of a huge wave called the Greyhound Bus Eater. They then explained to us how we would attempt to conquer the wave and gave the weak at heart an opportunity to pass this wave. I enjoy adventures but on our walk back to the boat I must admit, I was nervous. We re-entered our raft and before we had time to gather ourselves, we were off. All of us were quiet, paddling in unison when our raft guide began to humming the tune to "Amaxing grace". The rest of the boast soon joined in with words "that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost". It was a magical moment and just before me not knowing the words to the second verse becam a problem the guide gave some instructions as we approached the wave. The boat dipped down the top of the wave above all our heads but at the last minute the wave broke and we bounced over it.

I admit, a part of me wanted to flip but the result wasn't half bad either. We made our way over to the lunch area and warmed up by the fire while we watched the other boats take on the beast. in total the Greyhound bus eater consumed 2 of the 6 boats, one of which was a 12 person raft, but all members were recovered saftely by rescue boats.

Today was my last shift at Mermaid Pools. I was only there for 6 weeks but I learned a lot about pools and got to spend some time with my co-workers that I turned out to like a lot. It's too bad that I'm moving on so soon but after the following 3 busy days of planning I'll be at Camp Bow-Isle which will no doubt be a wonderful adventure in itself.

Graduation

Shortly after mustache march were my final set of exams, the last of which fell on April 13th. This was a particularly cold April so there was little studying done outside on the lawn or on picnic tables as in past years. We did manage to throw together a successful baseball game in one corner of the campus and I was reminded of how social a game it is. It made for a great afternoon with some friends I wouldn't see for a long while. I finished up my last exams and it all seemed too easy, assuming I passed my classes... The main reason for that is my fall semester had been the most trying one yet but I had only 4 courses in my final semester and marks from just 4 courses would not affect my academic standing, unless I failed. Although it was hard to stay focused I did get real excited about an ethics course I took, which was primarily philosophy and taught me a whole new way of approaching things.

With university behind me I started to look forward and sold off my furniture (a small dresser, desk, and foam mattress) to a friend. I wrote a song with the pole-vaulters for James, my coach of 5 years who had introduced many of us to the sport. I spent some time with roommates in our house and drove home to Ottawa in a rented car a few days after exams.

Back in Ottawa for just under 2 months I searched for a company that would take me on temporarily. I found a job on Kijiji(online classifieds) and dismantled cubicles with a screwdriver for a couple days. In the meantime I acted on Rosilyn's brilliant idea and applied at the two pool companies nearby where May is their busiest month. Luckily I was hired on and I've been learning about pools, meeting interesting coworkers and getting some exercise biking to work since. On top of the job I have been volunteering twice a week at Ottawa Neighbourhood Services, taking over sales auditing, bank depositing and payroll duties for their long time accountant who resigned on short notice. It has been a fun experience working with the eccentric people there, organizing and figuring things out. In between work, volunteering and seeing old friends I've seen a lot of Ottawa I hadn't seen before and explored some of the countless bike paths that wind through parks and along the two rivers and canal, it's really a beautiful city.

As for the future, it's confirmed that I'll be a counselor at camp Bow-isle off the coast of Vancouver with my brother Ben for 5 weeks starting June 14th. After that I will take the ferry to Victoria for the first time to visit a friend from Calgary before flying to Paris the next day. That's when the Europe part of my life will happen for 3 to 5 months depending on if I find a job and how quickly I run out of money.

One step at a time though, today I work, tomorrow I'll continue to work on my "Ladybug" song and Sunday I go rafting on the Ottawa river with some friends. I'm very grateful for everything I've had the opportunity to experience so far and I look forward to everything I run into hereafter, it's going to be interesting.

Oh right, I received the letter in the mail the other day and I've officially graduated.

Mustache March

This year, my roommates and some friends of ours got interested in the idea of Mustache March. For those of you who haven’t heard of it before, it’s pretty simple; when it’s March you grow a mustache or rather, you don’t shave your upper lip and whatever happens, happens. Knowing that my fair facial hair grows at an exceptionally slow rate I shaved for the last time on February 14th. When the next month began the others followed suit and quickly caught up to me. Half way though the month competitors shared pictures from as far away as Germany to see how everyone was making out. As the end of the month neared I was considering alternatives including “Just for Men” that would help bring out my fair hair on the last day. Desperately wanting to avoid spending money on dye I resorted to, when pictures were due, borrowed mascara. Finally, after 6 weeks, my glorious mustache could be seen from farther then 3 feet away. Appreciating my efforts the other contenders awarded me the first, and maybe the last, mustache March trophy for which I am very grateful. One of the reasons people got excited about the idea is because we are all graduating and not shaving seems to be less acceptable in the working world. It is also for that reason that I am currently preparing for pony-tail Europe and, depending on the day, speedo and pony-tail Europe. Coming soon to a Europe near you.

Thumbs

So apparently I have thumbs that are overly flexible. I’m practically done my degree and I find this out now! Better now than never though I suppose. I would NOT want to be going out into the workforce naively thinking that my thumbs were average. Especially if it were to come up in an interview question, imagine?
Interviewer: So Richard, we’d like to just make sure that your perspective jive’s with our own. So to start off, how would you rate your thumbs, a) normal b) abnormal or c) all thumbs are pretty much the same.
Me: well I think they’re all pretty similar but that’s a wishy-washy answer, I’ll go with A.
Interviewer: Honestly?
Me, self-consciously: uh, yeah.
Interviewer: Wow - chuckle – that was meant to be a give-away answer but you somehow failed it miserably. I’m going to have to ask you to take your resume and those freak thumbs of yours and leave.
I’m sure glad I’ll be able to avoid that sort of situation now.

University Track Nationals

March 14th

So in this, my last year of university, nationals were held in Windsor, Ontario. Because most of the meets throughout the years have been either in Toronto or Windsor it didn’t feel like nationals until I’d look at the corner full of Calgarian athletes or Dalhousie students. The feeling for me this time around was especially different. Since I hadn’t competed in pole-vault since before Christmas, and hadn’t started jogging till the week after provincials, I was more worried about not embarrassing myself then living up to any expectations. The day of I started warming up an hour and 45 minutes early in order to find my long approach mark and get comfortable but ended up just jumping twice from the short approach since my foot was bothering me. After spending some time with “the message” and hearing the rules from the official the meet began. My teammate Vuk pulled out of the meet in warm up because of an injury but I still had coach James, Guelph athletes, my mom and Sarah there supporting. The first height was 4m35 and I made it over on my first attempt. I swung back too fast on my next jump and hit the crossbar off at 4m50 but made it on my second attempt. That was my last successful height and tied me for 7th place, one up from my ranking and good for 1.5 points. Guelph had another great year overall as the men got bronze, just 1.5 points ahead of Manitoba and the women missed first place by a single point.
I am extremely grateful that I was able to compete this weekend and enjoy the thrill of pole vaulting and the pleasure of travelling with the team one more time before I graduate. Vuk, although unable to jump this time, will recover soon and may compete at the Pan American games this summer.

this is the 4m35 jump:

Ottawa-Guelph trip

Feb 16th, 09

so on Monday the 16th I was in Ottawa for my third day thinking I'd leave the next morning by bus or train. Before going out with friends I looked into transportation. After finding that the bus would take 8 hours to get me to Guelph and the train was over $100 I looked into rideshares. I found one on the University of Ottawa site to Toronto for just $30 that left in under 3 hours and I took it. 2 of my remaining hours were spent with 3 high school friends making a music video to the tune of a Sum 41 song. Little thought was put into it but it was good fun gathering random footage and a great way to finish my stay.
I hoped in the rideshare car with what turned out to be 2 guys who also attend Guelph and some U Ottawa girl. I ended up in the front with leg room, they were all friendly and talkative, without being too talkative, and we were listening to a funny mix CD with everything from "What is love?" to "bad boys" to some Ace of Base song. Not music that I'd listen to on my own but it was entertaining and brought some smiles. Certain that things were going far too well I figured we'd be late for the last bus leaving for Guelph at 9:30 but we arrived in time for Ben(one of the passengers) and I to buy tickets and make a call. Ben is a philosophy major and on the way to Guelph we ended up discussing ideas like creativity and what it means to "create" something. The type of conversation not often had around the TV at my house. Overall it was a refreshingly enjoyable trip from Ottawa.
Two days later I had the pleasure of watching the music video one of my friends had edited and posted on facebook. Especially after having experienced good footage go to waste in the past I was pleasantly surprised by the motivation.

Winterlude

Feb 15th, 09

Friday night I made a last minute decision to visit Ottawa for a couple days so I grabbed the bus at 7 the next morning through Toronto and back home. On a cold-but-I’ve-seen-colder Sunday morning my mom, brother Alan and I drove downtown to see Winterlude, the capital’s winter festival. We walked around, ate some Beavertails (deep-fried pastry goodness), toured some great ice sculptures and witnessed the last 25 minutes of a pretty neat competition on what turned out to be a beautiful day. 8 ice sculptors stationed around a fountain had 2 hours to sculpt something out of their own 300 lbs block of ice. They used drills, chisels, hot irons and real live chainsaws to carve, shape and finish their creations. As the countdown was going, snow was flying into the crowd who looked on in awe…..or mild interest depending on the person. In the end there stood, amongst others, a swan, Pegasus the flying horse, a ballerina, and a fish eating a fish eating a smaller fish. As we walked briskly back to the car I was more impressed than my toes were cold.

3:55 am review

Nov 21st, 08

It’s hard to believe that I’m finally here. Months ago I would look at my calendar and see the 21st box under November and wonder how I would make it there, past all the other boxes in between filled with meetings and due dates, interviews and classes. It’s the busiest I’ve ever been for 3 consecutive months, the toughest semester I’ve ever fought through, just as I expected. I had heard stories about the operations HTM 4190 class and dreaded it before hand. Long gone are the days of a midterm and final. This semester was all class participation, assignments and projects, group projects. The two final projects due earlier this week went fairly smoothly while this Regatta case was more challenging. This group had more work to do and a lower average GPA but it’s all done. It’s been my first semester as a nerd and I’m ready to end it. I liked being busy but school work is not for me, nor are weekends and thanksgiving in the library. Although it could be a little overwhelming at times I think I did a good job of enjoying the breaks in between. It was nice to have track 6 times a week, gave me a rest from academics.

Intramural soccer was entertaining as always; we made the quarterfinals for the second time where I got speared in the box and scored on the related penalty. Ed missed and I hit another in shootouts to win after a 2-2 tie, great team game. When in the semis for the first time ever I managed to get a goal in against the #1 team. Then in the last minute of play I touched it past a couple players and, with Ed waiting off to the side, I wired a shot that curled just above the crossbar as all 22 players, ref and fan (Latham) sighed.

We went first in the shootout, Ed wanting to redeem himself missed unfortunately and I scored the 5th to tie. Debus dove on their last one but only got enough to deflect the ball just behind the post. If only he had cleats, if only Ed had scored, if only I had passed, if only… Probably for the best as both Sarah (who started to enjoy soccer by the end of it) and I would have missed the final for our trip to NY. Unfortunately the telling of that particular glorious story will have to wait till another time. Now I sleep, in the morning I will hand in this 4th year paper, the night after hearing the dreadful 2am library alarm for the first time and tomorrow afternoon at Guelph’s first ever field meet I shall dominate…with God’s strength of course.

3rd annual pizza hut eating competition

November 28th, 08

There is a tradition that started 3 short years ago with my roommates at the time where we attend the pizza hut buffet and compete in pizza eating. We eat either until eating is no longer possible or until the others concede. The luncheon is traditionally followed by a long lasting feeling of disgust, an afternoon nap and most importantly, year long bragging rights for the winner. If anyone loses their lunch due to an upset stomach before midnight though, they are automatically disqualified.
The slices of the competitors are measured and compared and the standard pieces are counted. 4 Pizza Hut slices is generally 2.5 to 3 standard pieces. The first year I finished with 16 pieces, two ahead of Ed in second. In 2007 after returning from Calgary I defended my championship with another 16 piece performance just beating Ed who finished with an improved 15 and a half pieces.

This past year discussing the recent and upcoming pizza hut eating competitions was literally a daily occurrence. Ed was convinced he could take the title while Latham, who had finished with 11 pieces, was eager to redeem himself. Throughout the spring and summer friends would join these conversations, make predictions and form support groups. Although not contenders, our small roommates Sarah and Megan who get full off a bagel and yogurt both said they’d pass the 10 piece mark this year. In the fall, things really started to heat up as the date drew nearer and current eating habits as well as confidence levels were constantly being scrutinized. We all knew though, that this competition was a mental game.
So the day finally arrived, the last Friday before exams, with fans as far as Germany awaiting the results. I wore my “world champion” T-shirt for intimidation and everyone sported stretchy pants to the event. It was soon apparent that not Ed but Latham would be the major contender this year. At 8 standard pieces I wanted to stop, and at 11 pieces the pizza stopped tasting good altogether. Sarah surprised everyone by reaching her goal of 10 and collecting her $20 winning from me. Megan on the other hand finished up at a disappointing 7. On the men’s side Ed had a poor showing of 12 pieces while Latham and I had both eaten 16 at the buffet’s end, 75 minutes in. So we went to the tie breaking 17th piece of which I ate half and Latham had but a bite. This year certainly left the contestants feeling more disgusting than ever as they pushed themselves to the limit. However exciting, the future of this gluttonous event may be in jeopardy as none of the competitors are eager to relive the experience.

Guelph’s first ever Tenke Classic

November 21st

So at the University of Guelph the vaulters practice 6 times weekly in an un-insulated dome on the infield of a 185 metre long track, 15 metres shy of the standard indoor track. Usually the colder it is outside, the colder it is in the dome so in the winter we practice in 2 degrees Celsius, depending on the day. Because of this we wear sweatshirts and pants and tuques while jumping instead of shorts and pinnies.
My first year was also the first year of pole-vault at Guelph and without a proper trough(box) we would dig out a spot for a temporary trough in the long jump pit every practice. That small corner of the dome wasn’t particularly safe but it was all we had and our small mats did the trick. If the jumpers needed the pit, we placed the box on the ground up against the mats and attached weights to minimize movement. Later that year myself and another vaulter helped dig out a hole below the astroturf and finally installed the box when it was 20 below (inside the dome). Over the past few years we have acquired a strip of mondo for a runway, proper sized second hand mats and a few new poles. We’ve even sent 3 vaulters to the university nationals. To cap off our development as a team Guelph hosted its first ever sanctioned field meet this year (our track is too small to have any track events). So although few attended from other schools and it felt a lot like a busy practice, it was great to jump on home turf, in the freezing cold, and have it count for the rankings. Small crowds of people sporting their heaviest winter outfits came out and gathered by the long jump pit, throwing area, high jump mats and vault runway while we competed in our events. It was a wonderful first for the veterans (not the war kind) and I was thrilled to be part of it before I graduate.

New York

November 7th, 2008

I was in the middle of a my busiest semester so when Sarah asked me if I wanted to go to New York I told maybe but probably not. She asked me again on the last day for sign ups, so I checked my schedule and decided that a break from school would do me well.

We left after a busy day with two bus loads of Guelph students at midnightand arrived at our destination by 11am. We stayed at the central park hostel in an old New York building with the classic metal fire escape covering one side. The 100 some odd students pilled into the tall narrow building, dropped our bags off and hit the streets. We were within a couple blocks of 2 subway lines, central park and just a dozen from Harlem.

Unfortunately that's where my coverage of New York ended in my journal as I must have fallen asleep and not finished it off. Some interesting things about the city though:
- Servers in general are less friendly, all business, less small talk and smiling.
- It's beautiful, central park is gourgeous, so is Columbus square as well as much of the architecture in the city. Most everything except for times square. However unsightly the big advertisements are, it's interesting how people flock there like bugs to a lantern, I'm just glad no one got zapped.
-Harlem is not that scary. We went there for a genuine New York experience and attended a nearby gospel church. There we only 20 of us there, Sarah and I the only white people, and it was a great experience. A good amount of signing, clapping and emotion was part of the 2 hour service and the members were real friendly.

Feel free to ask me for more details, in the meantime, here are a few pictures.