Category: Uncategorized

I have been feeling very (I don’t know what the word is) the past few days. If I knew what sentimental meant, I would use it. Maybe ‘touchy-feely’ is the right phrase. Nope, that’s not it. How about the word ‘good’.. I have been feeling very ‘good’ the past few days. Sure, that is broad enough.

I realized the other night that I truly miss the land of the Curry. I miss the people, and everything else, a lot. I miss the slow and relaxed mindset that really went well with my mellow ‘I’m-so-cool-I-don’t-give-a-crap’ attitude. I haven’t had the opportunity to talk about my trip or anything, maybe because when people ask me questions I have nothing but snappy one liners and weak short answers. But, I do miss it. It is like an infectous fungus that has burrowed underneath my toenails and has taken over the majority of my left leg. Like, I could live without it, but it just wouldn’t be awesome.

Work is great. I advise that if you can, find a job that pays $16 an hour to do nothing but play broom hockey with a guy named Arlen. This job would also entail trying to translate the difficult language of Newfie into regular English, and sweeping dirt into piles, then spreading the piles around so you can sweep them again. I love it.

It sometimes feels like no time has passed since I was here last summer. I’m in the same futureless position as before, with the same plan of, ‘Yeah, I guess I’m going to school…ugh’ I’m the same dude as a year ago, with a bit more travel under my belt, a bit more understanding of the world, and a bit more appreciation for relationships, and a bit of a bigger gut. Yeah, I’m getting soft.

Whenever I was in India, I couldn’t understand why people didn’t write things on a regular basis. Now I understand.

It is not that things up here are boring. Or that they are extremely busy, but that they are kinda regular. And let’s be honest, I’m not good at making ordinary extraordinary, in real life, or in a blog. I’m, again let’s be honest, a fairly boring guy. I hang out, play some tennis, watch movies, go fishing, eat lots… and it just keeps going. In India new things happened to me every day, whether it was about the toilet or about people staring at me.

Yellowknife is like the mellow capital of Canada. People drive 10 km/h under the speed limit, which makes their speed about 8km/h and everyone is just waiting for the weekend where they can go to the lake and mellow out some more..

So, if not many things are said on this for a while, it is because I’m having fun and hanging out. Sorry, India is exciting, Canada isn’t. If you want to read about young people going exciting places read Katie‘s or Mel’s or Tyler’s blog.

Oh, and I got a job. I am a mover now. With Arlen. Oh yeah. Our motto is ‘Anything I can do, We can do better’. We are going to make shirts.

1. I’m searching for jobs. Everyone loves searching for jobs. Last summer my venture to the North yielded no real jobs, so a friend had to give me a job. If you ask her, it was a real job, if you ask me, I am awful at painting fences. Especially lattice. You know, the stuff that doesn’t paint well. And about as nice to decorate your house with as lettuce. Anyway, this time, the jobs are flowing in. So many jobs that I don’t even know which one to take. I guess my marketable skills have increased tenfold since last summer. Now I’m a real citizen instead of a loser just outta highschool. Now I’m a loser just out of India, and that seems to work better for me. I’ll let you know if I’m going to be a professional mover, woodsman, lumberjack or tennis player, real soon.

2. The new Rihanna album comes out on this day, and it will likely break the record for Best Album Ever Written by a Girl from Barbados with a Hit Single about Umbrellas. That, and Best Album Ever Written in the History of Album Writing. As well as New Breakout Singer! I recommend you check into that CD. Be a part of history.

3. The Hunger Project: Do you ever get hungry? Do you ever eat food? Do you occaisionally enjoy smiling? Then go to The Hunger Project website and check out the latest craze of myspace but not facebook. That thing sucks. But, check that site out. It is a collaboration of recipes on one site, for quick and easy reference, run by Nic and Big Ben.. Delicious and Hilarious. One may call it Hilicious. Or Delarious. But we know this for sure, it is Tasterrific.

4. Smelly Melly started a blog. Mel Kissick. She’s in Europe, drinking wine and getting fancy.

8. I don’t like Pronger. What a dirtbag.

I’m back to home number two on my list of homes. That is Yellowknife. My list of homes also includes Aizawl, Regina, Chile, my bed, and sometimes the Atlantic Ocean.

After a good twenty-two hours in a tin box with wheels rolling on the pink pavement, two walls of trees on either side, dodging deer, moose, polar bears and penguins, I arrived.

We went to the cabin, yeah the one with wolverines, played some backgammon and ate some steaks.

I’m tired. It is good to be back to home number two.

These are the top phrases or questions I have heard since I have been home. If you have said one of them, don’t feel bad, so did two hundred other people.

How was India? Really, this is a lame-ass question. Firstly, it seems to me that it is bad grammar. Is India a person I just went and visited? Is it important for me to know how India is, when the real question that they want to know is how my time was in India, or how I was in India. When I left, India seemed pretty dirty and humid, if that is what you are asking. I don’t know.

Is it good to be home? Like, come on. Let’s get creative here. If I say no, it looks like I don’t care for my friends or family. If I say yes, it looks like I was struggling through my time in India and could barely wait to get home. That’s just not true. You know the answer anyways, so let’s just skip that one.

I read (past tense) your blog all the time. This is weird. I’m glad if you read it and enjoyed it, but I didn’t think anyone read it except Wilf and Laura. It is a touch embarrasing that people read it, because I put a lot of stupid useless crap in there… Anyway, your loss, I guess.

You’re going to Yellowknife….Why? Because I miss my big sister. I have got a lot of crap for this summer adventure, and I guess for good reason. I come home for 2 weeks and leave again for 3 months. Where’s the love? Yellowknife, I guess.

Your handsomeness has increased tenfold since you have left. No one has said that to me. That is an outright lie.

So, if I haven’t seen you yet since I have arrived home, come up with a mind blowing, face melting question for me. Someone asked me about the toilets right off the bat, and I thought that was nice. I’m ready for anything. Even the word panties.

I’ve been home for a few days now, and things are swell.

Some things I missed from home:

-doorknobs. they seriously don’t have these in India. I know, how the heck does that work? But somehow it does.
-internet and electricity.
-friends and the fam. but that is a given.
-tacos.. crap, those are good.
-Angel Sombrutski.
-Hockey. i can’t express that one with words, only a sound that goes like this, ‘Ahhhhoohhhhhhman…ahhhyeahbaby.’

Some things I miss from India:

-sleep. changing sleep schedules is awful. i feel like i was run over by a steamroller and the peed on by a cat with West Nile virus.
-rice. although there is rice in Canada, i know it will never be the same.
-that fact that it was not freezing cold Sasky
-the peeps

Some things I’m excited for:
-Pirates 3. i’m predicting an epic classic.
-The OC season 4 on dvd.. ohhh yeah.
-summer

Now if I only knew what I was doing in two weeks, or even in two days. I figured I’d start a bidding war for my summer destination. Yk, R-dot, Cowtown.. Where should I go? If you want me to come to your city, or avoid your city, let me know, it may help in the decision making process. Let the bidding war begin. I hear a wolverine infested cottage, do I hear a ‘live at home for free all summer’? Going once, going twice…

I’m home.
My adventure has ended, I am safe at home, and now I’m back to boring old me.

Special thanks to Heather, John, Tyler and Jordan for showing up in Calgary. The Blizzard was artistically created, and things will never be the same again between Heather and Tyler. That was the best Welcome to Canada present a guy could ask for.

Special thanks for Wilf and Laura and Lucas for the welcome back to Regina greeting. It was equally as warm and cuddly. Lucas looked supremely handsome.

In some ways it feels like I never left. But, in a more accurate way it feels like I was gone for 4 months. But still in another way, it feels like my eyes were sprayed with monkey pee, because they really hurt right now. By the way, I saw two monkeys chained up on the streets of Calcutta. They hissed at me, and surprised me. Then, I ate them for supper.

But right now, I’m ready for some hangouts. Let’s go swimming, go for tea, go for a walk. I will appreciate your company so much that you’ll think I actually care about you. That’s right, I said it. I’ve got like eight kilograms of tea, so come on out, we’ll drink 15 pots of tea and pee more than we visit.

It’s good to be back. It’s good to be black.

(I’ll try and post the rest of my pictures someday soon. Even the PG rated ones.)

Calcutta. Kolkata. The City of Joy. Whatever you want to call it, I’m there. Dirty, stinky, awkward, huge, cheap, tasty. It is no wonder why I like it here.

Right off the plane, instant sweat. The only appropriate simile I can think of is hot like hell.

I checked out a few places, got lost a few times, almost passed out a few times. It isn’t so bad here if you have a hotel room with AC to recharge in every now and then. But mine just broke not long ago…. so maybe I won’t make it home.

One and a half more days of this giant and I’m gone. This place would be way cooler if I had someone to share it with. Tyler B or Mr. T. For some reason, India keeps making me think of Tyler. I’m in love.

Jerms, I will try to get you some VIP Frenchies. Where did you get your swimming trunks?

and Wilf, the chilli fish was great.