Yup. I'm currently enjoying free high-speed internet at the Hilton in Houston, Texas. As predicted, having two stops that are only half an hour each didn't work out as smoothly as my travel agent anticipated. It works out for me, I guess, to ease me into the warm temperatures (although this AC is ridiculous and I can't figure out how to turn it down) and have some time by myself before I leap into Guatemala.
My flight from Ottawa to Cleveland made it just on time for me to run across the airport with the sweetest couple of guys. They spoke in this jumble of English, Spanish and French that I completely understood. It was awesome. They were off to Mexico. I was totally unconscious for the flight to Houston, waking up now and again when the pilot would say things about not being able to land. We landed 15 minutes before my next flight was leaving and I had a seat at the back of the plane. As passed on by Andrew Rizk, the Houston Airport is freaking huge and I had to go really far to get to the flight from Houtson to Guatemala. Needless to say, the plane had left by the time I made it there. At least two other passengers from the Cleveland flight missed their transfer for the Guatemala City flight as well.
After a lot of haggling with 3 different tellers at the Continental Customer Service desk, I managed to get a hotel and food vouchers. One of the tellers wanted me to take the next flight to Guatemala City, which would mean an overnight stay in the Guatemala City airport. I bugged them to let me stay in Houston overnight instead since my Spanish is terrible and I would not be comfortable sleeping/trying to stay awake in the Guatemala City airport. "My mother would kill me."
So after a less-tearful-than-I-expected good-bye with my parents, Bren and Jeffrey, I spent most of my day sleeping and eating. Tonight? Emailing people, watching TV and more eating is the plan. I left my gym stuff and bathing suit in my checked luggage, so I don't have anything else to do, really. I think I'm pretty much in the middle of nowhere so there isn't really anywhere for me to go or anything to do.
Right now I feel very calm about the whole thing. A bit nervous, a bit sad, a bit excited. Generally, I'm not feeling too much of anything.
Showing posts with label Mom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mom. Show all posts
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Back in O-Town
This last month has been an absolute blur. Many duty shifts, working, studying here and there, hanging out with friends and trying to get everything done that needed to get done was exhausting. I still haven't recovered from all of that yet; hopefully by the weekend I'll feel rested.
After checking out over 60 students, with the help of Jeffrey, I packed up all of my belongings. Francis, Jaclyn, random friend of Francis, Tiana, Dave, Eric, Francis's parents, Adam and probably more people helped get all of my crap to Francis's place. My shoes went missing in the process, somehow, which really sucks. Still can't find them and I was going to be bringing those as my work shoes. Darn. I have a ton of stuff after living in a house last year with Tiana and a decent sized bachelor last summer. I didn't move back to Ottawa at all, so all of the things that filled those homes were stored somehow over the last school year. Needless to say, there's over 2 large van loads of stuff. The patience of everyone involved in moving, which included Ania, Brendan and Mom by Sunday, is much appreciated. Especially considering I was grumpy and drained, I can't believe how well everyone came together for me. Complete strangers and families of friends were so generous in helping me, a random girl with a ton of stuff who they don't even know. Francis's family and Ania's mom ROCK --thanks so much for letting me store some of my stuff until we can haul it back to O-Town!
We ended off our incredible 3 years pre-placement with an "Epic Party" at Francis's place on Saturday. People from first to fifth year, UofT staff to Ryerson students, parents and friends piled into the Massé residence. It was an unforgettable evening in so many ways. Throughout the night were tearful good-byes but I definitely smiled and laughed way more than I cried. There weren't many pictures of the night because everyone was having too good of a time to remember to document any of it, haha. I doubt many of us will be forgetting it, though.
Sunday night, Brendan and Mom -fresh from a hockey tournament- picked me and Jeffrey up from the Massé place. We were back in Ottawa by 11pm and it was off to bed before a long day on Monday.
Monday, May 5: dentist, waited 20 minutes at the police station for a police check and gave up, eye doctor, waited 2 hours at the police station for a police check and gave up. Mom got my malaria pills, which I started. They're dry pills and suck to take.
Tuesday, May 6: waited 10 minutes at the police station and got my police check!, scanned/photocopied/printed a million forms at Mom's office, told OHIP I'll be gone.
Tonight I'll be hanging out with Devon, my first friend in elementary school. We haven't seen each other in a couple of years and I can't wait!
Left to do? Mom and I are shopping til we drop at MEC tomorrow. Most of my shopping needs to be done at Shoppers and I'm still waiting on a few prescriptions. I need to mail some receipts in to Toronto and mail my police check to CUSO. Jeffrey's teaching me a bunch of accounting, Excel and SWOT analysis stuff. I'll be catching up with friends and family before I'm off. And I need to cram some Spanish while I'm at it. It's going to be a busy final 8-9 days!
After checking out over 60 students, with the help of Jeffrey, I packed up all of my belongings. Francis, Jaclyn, random friend of Francis, Tiana, Dave, Eric, Francis's parents, Adam and probably more people helped get all of my crap to Francis's place. My shoes went missing in the process, somehow, which really sucks. Still can't find them and I was going to be bringing those as my work shoes. Darn. I have a ton of stuff after living in a house last year with Tiana and a decent sized bachelor last summer. I didn't move back to Ottawa at all, so all of the things that filled those homes were stored somehow over the last school year. Needless to say, there's over 2 large van loads of stuff. The patience of everyone involved in moving, which included Ania, Brendan and Mom by Sunday, is much appreciated. Especially considering I was grumpy and drained, I can't believe how well everyone came together for me. Complete strangers and families of friends were so generous in helping me, a random girl with a ton of stuff who they don't even know. Francis's family and Ania's mom ROCK --thanks so much for letting me store some of my stuff until we can haul it back to O-Town!
We ended off our incredible 3 years pre-placement with an "Epic Party" at Francis's place on Saturday. People from first to fifth year, UofT staff to Ryerson students, parents and friends piled into the Massé residence. It was an unforgettable evening in so many ways. Throughout the night were tearful good-byes but I definitely smiled and laughed way more than I cried. There weren't many pictures of the night because everyone was having too good of a time to remember to document any of it, haha. I doubt many of us will be forgetting it, though.
Sunday night, Brendan and Mom -fresh from a hockey tournament- picked me and Jeffrey up from the Massé place. We were back in Ottawa by 11pm and it was off to bed before a long day on Monday.
Monday, May 5: dentist, waited 20 minutes at the police station for a police check and gave up, eye doctor, waited 2 hours at the police station for a police check and gave up. Mom got my malaria pills, which I started. They're dry pills and suck to take.
Tuesday, May 6: waited 10 minutes at the police station and got my police check!, scanned/photocopied/printed a million forms at Mom's office, told OHIP I'll be gone.
Tonight I'll be hanging out with Devon, my first friend in elementary school. We haven't seen each other in a couple of years and I can't wait!
Left to do? Mom and I are shopping til we drop at MEC tomorrow. Most of my shopping needs to be done at Shoppers and I'm still waiting on a few prescriptions. I need to mail some receipts in to Toronto and mail my police check to CUSO. Jeffrey's teaching me a bunch of accounting, Excel and SWOT analysis stuff. I'll be catching up with friends and family before I'm off. And I need to cram some Spanish while I'm at it. It's going to be a busy final 8-9 days!
Friday, March 28, 2008
Vegan hiking boots!
Mom brought up the good point a while ago that it was going to be hard for me to find leather-free hiking boots. (I don't eat meat except free range organic chicken and I think it would be totally hypocritical of me to wear fur, leather, suede, etc!)
Found some!
They got great reviews at http://www.backpacker.com/digital/article/0,1023,309,00.html. I keep hearing the hiking boots are absolutely necessary for where I am in the rainforest. Plus, I want to walk around all the Myan ruins and I'm sure I'll be hiking all over the place during my travels.
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