My First and Overwhelmingly Overdue Update from the UK

Let me preface this post by saying, first and foremost, how sorry I am for not writing sooner. It’s safe to say that I have yet to instill a solid writing regime in myself when it comes to blogging. Or writing of any sort, lately. I kind of suck… but I’m working on it!

Sometimes you just need a little perspective when observing a situation and I guess that’s what I’ve been doing with the start of my journey here. Upon arriving here, I was overwhelmed from the start. Everything seems so simple in theory before you leave home but, once you get here, it hits you hard that you actually have to do all the stuff you’ve been talking about and planning for.

Despite the fact that I’ve already lived and studied in another country before, leaving home this time was so much harder. In fact, the first time wasn’t hard at all. Sweden was such a controlled situation with a pre-arranged environment just waiting for me to get there. Coming here felt so different and much scarier because everything was entirely up to me. I’ll never forget sitting at the departure gate in Toronto and fighting so hard not to cry in front of all the people. Weird, right? Anyone who knows me well or spent any time with me before I left should know that I could not wait to leave and get over here! 

This experience felt different in a way that I still have trouble defining. Tomorrow marks 3 months since I arrived in Edinburgh and, in some ways, it feels like I’ve been here a lifetime. I feel like I’ve known my amazing friends here all my life, which isn’t surprising when you consider we’re all on different and undetermined timelines. When you realize how fleeting your time together is, it brings you closer than you can imagine. At the same time, though, I get the feeling that this is only the beginning and there is still so much ahead of me (which I know that there is). Not only is this the first city I’ve settled in, but I know for a fact that this will not be the last time I live abroad. As one of the “young ones” here, I no longer feel as though I’m running out of travel time and being forced towards settling down. The only person who gets to determine when I’m ready for that is me and this is exactly what I want to be doing for a long, long time. I don’t think anyone could convince me otherwise.

Now, getting a job over here wasn’t necessarily difficult but it was certainly different than at home. Submitting my CV online got me one call for an interview. One. I dreaded pounding the pavement so I avoided it for as long as I could. It’s so much more daunting in a city that you’re barely familiar with and truly exhausting but it’s the most efficient way to be successful. I lucked out and didn’t have to pound very far as I walked downstairs to reception at the hostel to print out my resumes. One of the girls there noticed I was applying to the hostel and, after chatting a while, she went on to recommend me to management. It all happened really quickly but I couldn’t be happier that it did. Working here has brought me into this crazy, wild, and always amusing hostel world filled with incredible people and endless amounts of fun. It’s like boarding school for adults. We all hate it at times and resent the amount of drama and shenanigans, but at the end of the day, I wouldn’t change a thing. I could get a flat and live a normal working life at some pub, but where’s the fun in that? I could easily be doing that at home and I came here to have a unique experience.

Eventually I will move on and go somewhere else and that day will be really difficult because this place has been an amazing first home away from home. It has already given me countless beautiful friendships that I hope will stand the test of time and miles. It has given me a family for when I am missing my own and endless memories and laughs to last me a lifetime. I am sure there are people here who will be in my life forever and there are surely those who will be lost along the way. To quote John Green in the cheesiest of ways (don’t judge me), I will always be thankful for our little infinity in the numbered days we had here. There is still so much more fun to be had (festival time isn’t even here yet!) but I will never forget the summer I spent in Edinburgh. All the ups and downs were certainly worth it to get to where I am now.

Oh right, I also went on a 3 day tour with my BEST BUD who was so nice to come visit me and I went to Sterling with some of my closest friends and I crawled through our corridor drinking and spent every sunny day in the Meadows and watched the sun set on Calton Hill (my favourite place in Edinburgh). 

Here are some photos! 

The hills of Glencoe

Loch Nessie

Kyleakin Harbour on Isle of Skye

Kyleakin Castle

Calton Hill at midnight

Eilean Donan castle

Hiding on a hill in Skye

Isle of Skye

Sunset on Calton Hill

Hanging out in the Meadows

Diablo time

We adopted someone’s puppy…

City photo shoot with Kalin

Corridor Crawl in bathroom 13!

Ultimate Frisbee in the Meadows

An Interview with Whirlwind Travel

This month I had the honour of taking part in an interview series with Michelle over at Whirlwind Travel about what it means to be a Canadian abroad. This is a topic really close to my heart, simply because I have never been prouder to be a Canadian since moving abroad. Being away from home, as exciting as it is, tends to bring out the patriotism in you.

Considering I’m relatively new at this, it was a really great experience to reflect on my travels so far and put into words what I learnt and felt out on the road. I really hope you all go and check it out, as well as the rest of the incredible work Michelle has published on her blog.

I’m incredibly proud and happy to have been a part of a fellow Canadian’s portfolio of travel writing. Let’s hope this is only the beginning for me!

You can find my interview here.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy! Happy travels 🙂

My Next Move…

As much as I never believed it would come, my graduation is just around the corner. Only three weeks left in my final semester of undergrad – whaaatttttt?! Craziness.

When it comes to making a decision about a post-grad plan, let’s just say I’ve been indecisive. Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m terrible at making decisions, so it’s only natural that one this momentous is completely weighing me down. For the longest time now I’ve planned to attend UBC’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing but I’m somewhat on the fence now. Author Andrew Westoll spoke in my class a little while back and he himself attended the program, having geared his entire life towards primatology up until that point. He said that the writing program wasn’t for everybody and that, in fact, it was the people who had been “writing their whole lives” that seemed to need it the least. I probably should’ve gone and discussed it with him further but I’m also not a person to initiate an academic conversation with, well… anyone. I’m slowly regretting this more and more. I’m not entirely sure if I fit into that category or if I’m truly one of those people he spoke of but I do know that his comment made me reconsider my entire future. Hence, my decision for at least a two-year hiatus from academia.

I understand that many people warn of taking “too much” time away from school and then returning, but I’d like to think that school as I’ve known it thus far is nothing like what I would be doing in a Fine Arts degree or creative equivalent. Considering my other option is interior design, I think it’s safe to say that I won’t have to worry about struggling through another theoretical essay post-April. Or, at least, let’s hope…

I’m sure countless people are wondering why I would possibly want to postpone getting “a real job” until I’m thirty in order to live as a wandering traveller, but considering that my main career aspiration isn’t really a legitimate career at all, I would probably still be in the same place at the 3-decade mark anyways, even if I remained on Canadian soil in between. I hate to think of being a writer as a “career” at all, anyways. It seems a bit presumptuous to assume that getting published is a sort of guaranteed thing that you simply work towards and achieve. Half of it is probably the luck of your manuscript landing in the right hands at the right time. I suppose my writing aspirations begin and end with the fact that I simply enjoy doing it. If my enjoyment could potentially be profitable, then, heck yeah – I’m in. But I hate to put it out there assuming that I can complete a Master’s and suddenly, voila! I’m a writer. Clearly my English professor, who has been addressing this issue since Day One in my “Canadian Writer” course, is having an adverse affect on me. Can one really call one’s self a Writer? What does this mean? Blah blah blah… Actually that is my favourite class. It just made me question my future, is all.

Naturally, all this means I’ve been mulling over my next big trip for some time now. Getting on the road again has been on my brain since I landed in Toronto last August and anyone who has me on Facebook probably knows that (perhaps more than you’d like to. Sorry…). I’m incredibly overwhelmed with all the amazing options out there and it’s been difficult choosing just one place to go. There are so many!

Many of you also probably know that Australia has been on my agenda since I first saw Our Lips Are Sealed back in ’03 and, yes, I’m talking about the Mary-Kate and Ashley film where they venture down unda’. Cute surfies? Pet kangaroos? Groovy boat cruises with rich friends? What’s not to love! Now I would apologize to all my Aussie friends for just insulting their country with this disgrace of a film but it truly is where I got my itch to travel, specifically to Australia. Not to mention, all the people I’ve met from there have been nothing short of amazing so I’m sure I’d love it.

Next big move is to Australia?

Nope, sorry. I’m heading to Scotland! I think. While there is no doubt that I’ll be heading to the other hemisphere in the next few years, unfortunately it won’t be up first. I just can’t shake the European bug out of my system. There is so much more to see and I’ve been longing to experience the continent from another cultural perspective. Sweden was lovely and now it’s time to live abroad somewhere else. I fell in love with Edinburgh while backpacking this summer so I’ve made it my unofficial first-stop for my return.

The general plan is to jet off around November, though I may wait until the new year in order to secure enough funds (and I might also be a little hesitant to miss a family Christmas for the first time). I was inspired last summer by all the travellers residing in the hostels, working there during the day to pay for their beds and then holding a part-time job at a pub to have a little extra cash flow. While I struggled to fit in all the sights and experiences in each city, they were taking things as they came and staying places for months at a time.

This is my goal. We’ll see how much it morphs and changes over the coming months, but this is my initial idea. I’m hoping that I can get into the hostel of my choice, Castle Rock, since I’ll be arriving during the low season. Living at the base of the Edinburgh Castle for a few months? Not too shabby… My other destination for a little taste of hostel-living is Austria, hands down. I absolutely fell in love with the country. I’m not entirely sure which city yet but I’m leaning towards Innsbruck or Vienna. We’ll see!

That’s enough procrastination for now. Stay tuned for future travel updates! Canadian road trip with the besties this summer? I think so.

I just can’t get enough!