Yukon part 2

The Yukon has a way of making you feel like you can do anything.  I climbed my first mountain there under the midnight sun.  We laughed the whole way.  We started our trek around 8pm laughing about how the warnings always say you should head back from mountain climbing before dark.  When we did head back down at about 11pm the sun was still shinning on us.

The constant daylight became one of my favourite things.  I got so accustomed to taking naps in the full sun like a cat.   Everyone told me it was going to be a struggle to adjust to the light but I had the opposit problem.  We went down to Skagway, Alaska for a couple of days and found the town surrounded on all sides by mountains.  I experienced full darkness at night again and became so disoriented that I had to fall asleep with a light on or I felt like I was falling out of bed.

Back on the farm, after about 4 days, the woman we were working for asked me to stay on as the farm intern and help her run things for the rest of the summer.  The pay would just about cover my flight home!  I accepted.  I fixed eavestroughs and a few other things around the house, I did some weeding and harvesting of the gardens and helping out wherever I was needed, but mostly it was tending animals (lots of chickens and 2 small pigs).

We went to weekly farmers markets where I met more organic farmers from the area and was invited to see some of their operations.  I went out a couple of days to a goat farm that made their own cheese.  Learned to milk some goats which was a lot of fun after I got over my initial feelings of unease at having those alien goat eyes watching me. Went to another farm that focused on turkeys and some 400 pound pigs.  Everyone really cared about their animals and shared stories of how they protect their farms from the grizzly bears in the area.

I took some time to go to Dawson City during the Dawson City Music Festival.  By this time Estelle was wwoofing elsewhere but we met up with all the thousands of people who had come for the big party.  With my first impression of the place being so packed with people it was intriguing to watch the numbers trickle away back to the regular population.  After the crowds had left I went on several tours of the famous town and for one I happened to be in the same tour group as Audrey McLaughlin.  It was a huge thrill to meet her.  She was humble and charming.  At one point our guide left us in Mrs McLaughlin's care who promised to not let the power go to her head.

On that same tour I met a gold prospector and inventor, from Northern Ontario.  We chatted a good while and it felt like I had met a kindred spirit.  I felt like he would have been my uncle had my family been from Ontario.  It worked out that after getting back from my run to Chicken, Alaska (on the Top of the World Highway) I met up with him again.  We went panning for gold together.  I now have a small speck of gold to call my own.  The Saskatchewan northern lakes trained me well for wadding into the icey creek water to dig up dirt to pan.  I gave him a ride back to Whitehorse, we talked about his inventions and swapped crazy stories the whole way.  

He gave me some of the best advice for how to deal with the little black flies! Skin so soft lotion from Avon.  Use it. Love it.  Flies will avoid you and you'll have soft skin, best of both worlds.

I went back to work on the farm.  When I got back there was a new addition to the farm.  Another wwoofer, this time from Germany.  The hay was harvested, the chickens were slaughtered and I watched as the Fireweeds slowly opened all the way, signaling the end of summer.  I loved my time there. I got to meet so many wonderful people, learned so much, and really left feeling like my 12 year old self could very happily put a check mark next to that dream.  

I am really looking forward to going North again.  Next time I am definitely going to make it all the way to Inuvik!

How you should not meet people

I had been heading home the other night from dropping off a friend Pat at his home. We live just a few blocks from each other so I had maybe 5 minutes in the car. Suddenly there was this teenager walking into the street with his arms up. No shoes on. I stopped and rolled down my window. "Please help me."

I talked to him a bit, he was drunk and scared. From what I gathered he had been at a house party and someone had been pushing drugs. He got scared and ran out the door. At first I thought he meant they had forced him to take something. I asked if he wanted to go to the hospital but he just wanted to get home and away from these people.

I let him in. He was Ty, a first year at the university and had moved to the city just recently from South Africa... hell of a change there. He didn't know anyone in the city and had met these people who took him to a party. He was upset about it all happening and just wanted to get home as soon as possible. He was also pretty embarrassed about having to ask a stranger for help.

I called Pat to let him know that I was giving a kid a ride to the other end of town... just in case. Turns out I had nothing to worry about. The most the kid did was slowly pass out but I kept waking him up before he slipped too low in his seat. I drove him all the way to his garage. Thankfully he had a code to get in and not a key because he left his jacket at the house party too.

Called Pat back and he was relieved to hear it went well and declared that I've won for strangest experience between our homes.

Hang out time.

For the past few days I've been getting back into the flow of visiting people. It has been really good to finally get my feet wet with different groups and to figure out where I am in terms of connection. Basically I'm relearning my friend dynamics and seeing who likes what/who now. Mostly just figuring out if I'm going to step on any toes and what subjects have become taboo with some.

Essentially I've been having the easiest time getting back together with people. Any confusions are cleared up within hours and all the drama that television and books say I'm supposed to have is nonexistent.

A fair few number of my hangouts have involved the game a question of scruples. (2nd edition as the first edition was just to full of random cards, hard to take it seriously in several cases). It is an older game from the 80s so there are a few cards that have been removed by us for just being far to offensive and out of date. No in fact you can't do that because a law has been passed and court cases have been fought over it. Very fun and gets conversations going in new and interesting directions. Like the question game but with less pressure.

I've been spending lots of time with friends from highschool. Joc and Meg who I hadn't really seen all that much in University, with Joc being away and Meg being busy. I've been going out with them for coffee, movies, and working out. Estelle I got the chance to talk with on the phone as she lives in another province. Now just to make sure that we connect again before the end of the year! We have these great long chats and then life snatches us up. And I'm keeping in contact with Sarah a great deal but not nearly enough with Emily, which makes me rather sad when I think about how I'd feel in her position.

Spending time with them has really made me feel happy in knowing them. All such great women who are absolutely fantastic.

But even with the old crowd I still have managed to meet a new person. Through Joc at a coffee shop on the 20th and then meeting him again last night as our server at a restaurant. This might be a good start to getting to know the city again and building up my status as "knowing everyone". This is a long term goal that I need to decide if I'm going to go after. If I do, I'll feel like I shouldn't leave the city and moving anywhere will seem harder and scarier. "But I won't know anyone!" Yeah a silly excuse not to move and one that my frightened self is really keen to pump up to unreasonable proportions.

As for my short term goals, today I'll be putting away clothes and seeing if there is anywhere to get raspberry canes and Saskatoon bushes in the city.

Well shoot

I'm in Aukland New Zealand at the moment and I hadn't anticipated how difficult it was going to be to keep a blog going. Internet being a premium and time of the essence.

13 hour flight, amazingly great flight because I was flighing first class (seriously if you can, do it!) the people who were just inbetween coach and first class must have hated sitting there. We had really cool chairs that converted into beds. Pod flight was fantastic. I read about Darwin and his theory of evolution on Audio book read by the author and started reading The Road. Creepy. I'll have to look for it while I'm here stopping in at the random libraries along our rout.

I had an interesting experience with some people in the Aukland Library - I heard one guy kidding another one and joined in. Had an good chat with a librarian named Chris who really liked my accent. "Very soft" and found it hilarious to hear me say Aukland as AWKland instead of Ookland.

There is too much to talk about at these sporatic intervals. I'll have to figure out a better system.

I was thrilled to see Emily in Vancouver before we left Canada and she'll be happy to make it into another post. Hugs dear!

Saying bye and hello... yeah I just went cliche on you

Well I've bought my pack and have named it Igor a la Young Frankenstein. It has a detachable day pack so it looks like my bag has a hunched back. I think I love it already. I spent a good portion of yesterday randomly hugging it, and essentially cuddling with it, as I was hanging out and saying goodbye to Emily. She is heading off for schooling in BC... she might be in the air at this moment... I'm not sure.

As for today I planned for my trip a bit and went bowling with a diverse group of friends of Chris one of my friends. I've met most of them before so it was really fun with a nice mix of familiar and new faces. I like how Chris and I know many many people and sort of have a meeting exchange. Eventually our game of "How many people do you know in the room" will be nothing but ties.

I got a chance to chat with the newly married Ric and Andrew which was essentially meeting Ric for the first time (a quick hi 6 years ago doesn't count as meeting someone even in my books) and having a longer conversation with Andrew where I got to know more about what he does in his life. A very interesting short chats, between our turns on the lanes, about the porn industry that I wish could have continued.

My hands have slight blisters on my fingers from whipping the ball. I'm sure it is poor form or something, but it was still lots of fun. The lanes have a way of tracking how fast the ball is thrown. I thought I did rather well with 22km/hr, then I glanced over and saw the blur of a ball, Ric had rocketed that mass at a rate of 44 km/hr. WOW... I questioned if it was physically possible... well obviously it is. But now I'm wondering at what speed a professional bowler would throw. I'm off to ask the internet.