Thursday, January 13, 2011
Marmot Basin I Jasper Alberta
Marmot Basin is in Jasper National Park in Alberta, my home province and was our last stop on our first loop of Ski mountains. Unfortunately our timing turned out to be rather poor as we dropped into town in the middle of a cold snap. We skied 2 days, with a high of -18, the wind chill dropped that temperature another 10 degrees. The second day was so cold that we only completed 5 runs before abandoning the hill and retreating to the car to head home. My toes were so cold that even with 3 pairs of wool socks I nearly froze them off. The hostel we stayed at was nice though. It is the main HI hostel in Jasper and had an igloo, toboggan hill and most wonderfully a wood fire place that I parked myself in front of after the first day on the mountain. I do have this comment about marmot Basin, it was the most expensive hill to ski at ($77) and probably the smallest, and most boring. Even with only completing 5 runs the second day I felt bored as I had already hit most of the runs, as there is no variety between them. Overall Jasper got good marks, Marmot basin scored low 5/10.
Sun Peaks Resort
Unlike most hills we hit Sun Peaks only got 1 day's worth of skiing, for one main reason, I was tired. After 6 strait days of skiing I was running on empty. So this evaluation is based on 1 day.
We arrived on the mountain after driving from Big White, about a 3 hour drive, through a rainstorm that developed near kamloops, which turned into a skating rink half way up the mountain which turned into snow at the base of the hill. We stayed at the hostel which was on the mountain and in the old ski club lodge. The next morning we hit the hill and right off the bat we found the cherry on the cake. We dropped into the area serviced by the west side t-bar, which is only open on the weekends. This meant that all the snow the hill got over the last 5 days lay beneath my feet untouched and ungroomed. It brought back memories of Silver Star. 35cm of untouched snow. I was in a wonderland, or at least until the t-bar broke and we had to return to the main part of the hill. The rest of the hill (the mountain is the second largest ski resort in North America) is quite big and can be a challenging run. There are A Lot of chair lifts and the hill is really well designed. The hill has enough ski runs to cater to every ski level and was really fun. Overall the hill rated the second best on the trip, 9/10.
We arrived on the mountain after driving from Big White, about a 3 hour drive, through a rainstorm that developed near kamloops, which turned into a skating rink half way up the mountain which turned into snow at the base of the hill. We stayed at the hostel which was on the mountain and in the old ski club lodge. The next morning we hit the hill and right off the bat we found the cherry on the cake. We dropped into the area serviced by the west side t-bar, which is only open on the weekends. This meant that all the snow the hill got over the last 5 days lay beneath my feet untouched and ungroomed. It brought back memories of Silver Star. 35cm of untouched snow. I was in a wonderland, or at least until the t-bar broke and we had to return to the main part of the hill. The rest of the hill (the mountain is the second largest ski resort in North America) is quite big and can be a challenging run. There are A Lot of chair lifts and the hill is really well designed. The hill has enough ski runs to cater to every ski level and was really fun. Overall the hill rated the second best on the trip, 9/10.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Dissapoitment at Big White
Big White
Big White is a huge ski resort, with a big village. The night I arrived I went out to the bar and discovered that the night life is much better than Silver star's, mostly because there are more people and more bars. The skiing on the other hand kind of fell apart. Big white is known for it's constant white out conditions, and it didn't disappoint. The hill always seems to be fogged out, light snow, or in our case, raining. The rain got you wet, then you skied and it froze to your glasses and when you combined it with the fog led to a long day of whiteouts, pulled mussels and an urge to curse in several different languages. We skied there 2 days and I have some comments about it, first for a hill that is well known for having lack of visibility (the hill is known by the locals as Big Whiteout) the marking of the runs is horrible as I missed many of the runs when I had good visibility the first day, the connecting runs between the lifts is horrible, a lot of hill climbing to get to many of the runs that on any other hill you would glide to. Another unfortunate fact, several of the runs were closed due to lack of snow, about 24 of the 118, and the ones that were closed were the best runs. The skiing was just hard, the snow was heavy, sticky, and the complete opposite of the conditions on Silver Star. The problem with the snow was that it built up on your skies and made them incredibly heavy and hard to handle. The conditions were bad enough that even the ski patrol guys crashed. On one run I decided to follow a ski patrol because I couldn't see anything and I figured that they at least would know where they were going. Well about 3 minutes later I see the ski patrol guy crash and violently eject his poles and skies high into the air and then rain down around him. I was impressed to say the least, and decided not to take it personally if I followed suit. All in all the ski hill scored rather low because of poor hill design, bad conditions, and poorly marking the runs.
Sorry no pictures, to foggy and not good enough to take pictures.
Total score 4/10
total runs 118, only 94 open
Largest elevation drop 777m
8 chair lifts and 1 t-bar
Lift ticket $71
Ski and stay package $73
Big White is a huge ski resort, with a big village. The night I arrived I went out to the bar and discovered that the night life is much better than Silver star's, mostly because there are more people and more bars. The skiing on the other hand kind of fell apart. Big white is known for it's constant white out conditions, and it didn't disappoint. The hill always seems to be fogged out, light snow, or in our case, raining. The rain got you wet, then you skied and it froze to your glasses and when you combined it with the fog led to a long day of whiteouts, pulled mussels and an urge to curse in several different languages. We skied there 2 days and I have some comments about it, first for a hill that is well known for having lack of visibility (the hill is known by the locals as Big Whiteout) the marking of the runs is horrible as I missed many of the runs when I had good visibility the first day, the connecting runs between the lifts is horrible, a lot of hill climbing to get to many of the runs that on any other hill you would glide to. Another unfortunate fact, several of the runs were closed due to lack of snow, about 24 of the 118, and the ones that were closed were the best runs. The skiing was just hard, the snow was heavy, sticky, and the complete opposite of the conditions on Silver Star. The problem with the snow was that it built up on your skies and made them incredibly heavy and hard to handle. The conditions were bad enough that even the ski patrol guys crashed. On one run I decided to follow a ski patrol because I couldn't see anything and I figured that they at least would know where they were going. Well about 3 minutes later I see the ski patrol guy crash and violently eject his poles and skies high into the air and then rain down around him. I was impressed to say the least, and decided not to take it personally if I followed suit. All in all the ski hill scored rather low because of poor hill design, bad conditions, and poorly marking the runs.
Sorry no pictures, to foggy and not good enough to take pictures.
Total score 4/10
total runs 118, only 94 open
Largest elevation drop 777m
8 chair lifts and 1 t-bar
Lift ticket $71
Ski and stay package $73
Friday, January 7, 2011
Skiing on a cloud, Silver Star Resort
Well today we left Silver Star and I have to admit the bar has been set pretty high. We arrived on the mountain on Tuesday night and checked into the hotel (we got a ski and stay package for 85 dollars a day) called the Bulldog. It is right in the heart of the village 
and included a hot tub (looking out into the village), free continental breakfast, and most impressively free thongs. 
The accommodation on the hill is great, it is soo nice to be close to the bars and hang around with all the lift workers and what seemed like endless Australians. The night life on the hill is pretty good, but it is a smaller ski village and there are not that many people hanging around but there is enough to have a good party. The village itself has a good feeling and I enjoyed walking around as a new layer of snow fell down around me. The first day of skiing was good, the hill layout is excellent, there are 115 runs and only 3 were closed. The snow base was 163cm when we arrived which made good skiing even though there hadn't been a good snow fall in a couple of days. The skiing was mostly on a hard base but it was well groomed. I was able to complete about 29 runs the first day, which is even a lot for me, no lift lines, just good skiing. That night back at the hotel started by relaxing in the hot tub and soaking the mussels, then a drink at the bar. But this is all the warm up for what was awaiting for me when I woke up the next morning. I walked out of the hotel the next morning and dropped my ski's into 15cm of, fresh, fluffy, beautiful snow. 
It was the best day of skiing I have ever had, it was like skiing on a cloud, carving back and fourth through untouched snow, it wasn't the wet and heavy, it was dry, light, and crisp. 
The day ended and we returned to the car to pack up and drive to Big White near Kelowna, I wish I could have stayed but big White was calling but Silver Star so far has stolen the show.
Final stats for Silver Star
-Lift ticket $73
-Ski and Stay package $85 a day
-runs 115
-longest elevation drop 850m
-6 chair lifts and 1 t-bar
Run map can be found here http://www.skisilverstar.com/
Total score 10/10
and included a hot tub (looking out into the village), free continental breakfast, and most impressively free thongs. 
The accommodation on the hill is great, it is soo nice to be close to the bars and hang around with all the lift workers and what seemed like endless Australians. The night life on the hill is pretty good, but it is a smaller ski village and there are not that many people hanging around but there is enough to have a good party. The village itself has a good feeling and I enjoyed walking around as a new layer of snow fell down around me. The first day of skiing was good, the hill layout is excellent, there are 115 runs and only 3 were closed. The snow base was 163cm when we arrived which made good skiing even though there hadn't been a good snow fall in a couple of days. The skiing was mostly on a hard base but it was well groomed. I was able to complete about 29 runs the first day, which is even a lot for me, no lift lines, just good skiing. That night back at the hotel started by relaxing in the hot tub and soaking the mussels, then a drink at the bar. But this is all the warm up for what was awaiting for me when I woke up the next morning. I walked out of the hotel the next morning and dropped my ski's into 15cm of, fresh, fluffy, beautiful snow. 
It was the best day of skiing I have ever had, it was like skiing on a cloud, carving back and fourth through untouched snow, it wasn't the wet and heavy, it was dry, light, and crisp. 
The day ended and we returned to the car to pack up and drive to Big White near Kelowna, I wish I could have stayed but big White was calling but Silver Star so far has stolen the show.Final stats for Silver Star
-Lift ticket $73
-Ski and Stay package $85 a day
-runs 115
-longest elevation drop 850m
-6 chair lifts and 1 t-bar
Run map can be found here http://www.skisilverstar.com/
Total score 10/10
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Mountain 1 Revelstoke Resort
Ok so the first mountain was the Revelstoke Mountain Resort. 
We drove from my home in Wetaskiwin Alberta to Revelstoke British Columbia on December 2nd, we stayed at a hostel in Revelstoke costing $37 each, but the hostel was fun and nice as well as close to several bars on the main street. 
Now Revelstoke is a very unique town, they are known for getting a lot snow, there roofs are specially re-enforced roofs to withstand the extra weight of a ton of snow. 
I only mention this because for the last 2 years running they have had unusually low snow fall, making this hill hard to judge with only 1.3m of snow. 
This hill is a very tall hill, some of the biggest elevation drops I have ever seen, the one run is 1700m drop over 1 black diamond run. So anyway the mountain resort is still under construction with a future golf course planned, but here is my review of the mountain.
Lift ticket cost: 74
Accommodation: 37
Number of runs: 54
Chair lifts: 2, and 2 Gondola's
Current snow pack: 130cm's
The main issue I had was this hill was not enough snow, even on the groomed runs I continually hit rocks no matter what runs I was taking. For this main reason the hill got a poor score from me, but the hill just needed more of the white stuff. Final score from this visit 3/10. The town of Revelstoke and the hostel got good scores though as it is a very fun town. Next stop Silver star.
We drove from my home in Wetaskiwin Alberta to Revelstoke British Columbia on December 2nd, we stayed at a hostel in Revelstoke costing $37 each, but the hostel was fun and nice as well as close to several bars on the main street. 
Now Revelstoke is a very unique town, they are known for getting a lot snow, there roofs are specially re-enforced roofs to withstand the extra weight of a ton of snow. 
I only mention this because for the last 2 years running they have had unusually low snow fall, making this hill hard to judge with only 1.3m of snow. 
This hill is a very tall hill, some of the biggest elevation drops I have ever seen, the one run is 1700m drop over 1 black diamond run. So anyway the mountain resort is still under construction with a future golf course planned, but here is my review of the mountain.
Lift ticket cost: 74
Accommodation: 37
Number of runs: 54
Chair lifts: 2, and 2 Gondola's
Current snow pack: 130cm's
The main issue I had was this hill was not enough snow, even on the groomed runs I continually hit rocks no matter what runs I was taking. For this main reason the hill got a poor score from me, but the hill just needed more of the white stuff. Final score from this visit 3/10. The town of Revelstoke and the hostel got good scores though as it is a very fun town. Next stop Silver star.
Skication because January is Cheap Skiing Month
Well since I am unemployed, bored, and still have money in the bank, I have decided to head over to the mighty rocky mountains and start skiing. I started circling mountains thinking that I would hit every mountain in British Columbia. I started planning my first loop of about 14 days (as I have a wedding to go to on the 15 of January) involving 6 mountains, 2000km's, and a lot of energy. I found some specials online and I quickly sent my credit card number flying across the province snatching up those deals I couldn't pass up. I found a lot of deal in January for ski and stay for the price of the lift ticket. My current list for the first 2 weeks are:
-Revelstoke Mountain Resort, 1 day
-Silverstar Mountain, 2 days
-Big White Resort, 2 days
-Sun Peaks, 2 days
-Whistler (maybe)
-Marmot Basin, 2 days
I am also working on second trip starting the 17 of January running to the 28 (which is when I need to be back in Edmonton for a concert) involving Panarama, Fernie, Kicking Horse, Castle Mountain, lake Louise and Apex Mountains. I will update this blog every time I finish skiing a mountain, so keep an eye on this blog.
I will put up a blog about each mountain after I ski it.
-Revelstoke Mountain Resort, 1 day
-Silverstar Mountain, 2 days
-Big White Resort, 2 days
-Sun Peaks, 2 days
-Whistler (maybe)
-Marmot Basin, 2 days
I am also working on second trip starting the 17 of January running to the 28 (which is when I need to be back in Edmonton for a concert) involving Panarama, Fernie, Kicking Horse, Castle Mountain, lake Louise and Apex Mountains. I will update this blog every time I finish skiing a mountain, so keep an eye on this blog.
I will put up a blog about each mountain after I ski it.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
And Most Importantly WHY
Well you all just learned about the WHO, the WHEN, the WHERE but I never fully broke out and said WHY. Why would I drop everything, leave my job and go to some far off land for a 6 month travel. Well, you are about to learn why.
You know when I was sitting in my office almost 10 months ago hating my job I made a decision that I wasn't going to go look for another job right away. I was seriously contemplating if I really wanted to be a surveyor. I was in a rut, and all I could see was mud. I decided I needed time, time to think, time to evaluate, time to change. I looked and saw that starting November 1 I was free from my job and I had everything from November to the end of April all to myself, which is when I saw that Australia was warm in the winter months and that I could get a year working visa for it, and I said "Well looks like I am going to Australia".
That was the start of it. I didn't really tell anyone until my sister announced that she was planning a trip down under. I also announced I was thinking about doing a trip to Aussie as well. I never mentioned my timeline of 6 months though, It wasn't until about 2 weeks later when she wanted to book plane tickets and schedules together that I dropped that bombshell. I asked how long she wanted to go for. Sarina (my sister for those of you who don't know her) replied "5 weeks" which is when I mentioned I was thinking about going down for 6 months. At which she completely flew off the handle for a few minutes as that wasn't quite what she was expecting. She was still cursing in disbelief when I walked out of her apartment 1 hour later. In the end she planned her own trip and even hopped over to New Zealand for a couple of weeks, something I won't be able to claim. At about the same time that my sister was re-laying the news that I was planning on being away from home for Christmas to my parents another significant event struck. During the July long weekend I had the first stage of a falling out with some of my high school friends. 2 weeks later I dropped by their house and they never left their computer games the whole time I was there, which was 3 hours. That in the end was a final straw, I decided to simply cut ties with them, as I had grown to far from their computer filled lives. I wanted to do things beyond my computer screen. I haven't talked to any of them since, in fact I don't even think they know I went to Australia as I never told them. If you are one of my friends back home and you are reading this, don't worry, you never pissed me off like this. With this sudden shortening of several friends from an already short list I could feel my rut deepening, and I felt I desperately needed a change of scenery. I felt that I was alone in my world with only my family as anchor, but I knew that I was holding onto that anchor to tightly. I was relying to much on my parents and I felt that I had created this little comfortable box, and that only I could get out of it. I knew I had to take some drastic measures, I had to get way beyond my comfort zone, out of my box, and I needed to let go of the anchor so that I could drive my own boat. When in a storm, you either anchor yourself down, or you point your bow into the wind and start paddling. I love my parents to death, appreciate them for everything they have done, and I want them to know that they have done nothing wrong for me to say this, as I built this box I put myself in, not them. I came down here to change, to develop as myself, to think in new surroundings, to grow, and to break moulds, my moulds. Which is what I am getting at in this blog, breaking moulds.
Talking to people
I used to hate talking to new people. This is an old thing that dates back to grade 5. In grade 5 I moved from Rosebrier (A country school with 10 people in my grade) to Clear Vista (a city school with 60 people in my grade). These were way different schools, and probably the most difficult issue I faced was the class I was put in. I was placed in a special class of only 6 students who were considered by the education board to be "Not fulfilling their potential" as our grades were way lower than what we could achieve. My marks immediately soared, but my social standing collapsed. The new school culture didn't fit me, and most significantly my class was seen by my fellow students as "Near retarded" where we all became instant targets to be teased. I was trying to fight what felt like a whole school worth of bullies, who threw insult after insult, and my new knowledge was useless, and I didn't have the wit to fight them. In the end I tried to ignore them, and was mostly successfull, but after a while even the strongest walls start to chip and crack if enough stones were thrown at them. It was 5 long years in which I was essentially alone except for that small group of friends I made, I never tried to make any others in those years, as I was to used to getting burned every time I reached my hand out to anyone else. I held onto the only thing that never burned me, my family, they were the anchor that never moved. In grade 10 I went to high school, and came into the regular curriculum, I was a normal student in a new school like all the other new grade 10'ers, with one small difference I was still afraid to reach out my hand, I could still feel the cracks in the walls from the stones that had been hurled at it over the last 5 years, I had no confidence. So once again I went through most of high school with the small group of friends who I have just given the boot to. In college I was in a small class of only 27 people and we all got along well enough, but when it was over 2 years later everyone went off to their own corner or the province and that was the end of that. In my job I worked essentially on my own, and didn't need to communicate with many people, which didn't really help much. This is when I decided I had to push myself I needed to go some place where I had to talk to people, where I had to communicate, where I couldn't hide in that part of the box. I came to break this mould, and I think that I have, will I find it again when I get home, who knows.
Confidence
This is something I sorely lacked, and something I cannot claim full freedom of. My confidence has really been low since that grade 5 school change. It is something that I just have a hard time kicking out of my phykee. Some things need more than just a coat of paint, some things need all new foundations, and I will have to admit, they may have been laid, but are not yet completed. A good start, but goal not yet completed.
New Ideas
Like anyone who stays in one box to long, you stop looking at the paint on the walls. Things you never thought about, only assumed, and took for face value, suddenly come to you via a different point of view. The things that look real from your window change when you get up close, they take on new understanding, character and meaning. I have re-thought many things since I got down under, and contemplated things I have never really thought about before. It is amazing how looking at a sculpture from another angle changes your view not just of the sculpture, but of the world on which it revolves. The biggest one lately is that I have completely re-evaluated vegetarianism. 3 months ago I wondered how vegetarianism was even possible, how it was possible to to even live your whole life without eating meat? Or more importantly was it even possible to even eat one good tasting and filling meal without using meat. Then again lightning struck and suddenly I experienced the same thing I thought impossible only months before.
Making new friends
Well as mentioned before with the absence of old friends I came to Australia looking to find people who had interests that reached beyond World Of Warcraft. I can safely say Mould Broken.
Independence
This I think is one of the hardest moulds to break, as I have been holding onto the anchor chain rather hard. I needed to let it go, I needed to walk on my own, to prove that I can do it. Of course one part of independence I have really wanted to achieve is more openness when I am pissed off. I seem to have an odd tendency to let people walk over me, and I think it is time. Unfortunately the first unfortunate victim of this about face was probably Christian. Poor bastard.
Well everyone now you all know the why. This was the thing that I have only told 2 people about, not even my family knew. It has been nearly a month since I wrote this, and the reason why I waited so long to post it was to see if I truly did change or if I have fallen back into my old grove. I don't think that I have, but I will admit that I have kind of changed back to my old self a bit, but there are several parts of me that evolved in Australia that have been holding on strong, I am very proud of those parts of me.
I think this will be the last blog on this website at least for a while. When I go on my next trip I will send out another blast, but that may not be for another couple of months. I may start blogging about my new job over at my other blog, theofficeblog, but since I am incredibly busy, and I am no longer sitting around on my ass twiddling my thumbs I find that blogging is a whole lot harder. Anyway thank you all my loyal readers this is Adam, logging off for the last time, Australia fare well, I will see you again, and to the rest of the world, I am coming, be patient.
Love Adam
You know when I was sitting in my office almost 10 months ago hating my job I made a decision that I wasn't going to go look for another job right away. I was seriously contemplating if I really wanted to be a surveyor. I was in a rut, and all I could see was mud. I decided I needed time, time to think, time to evaluate, time to change. I looked and saw that starting November 1 I was free from my job and I had everything from November to the end of April all to myself, which is when I saw that Australia was warm in the winter months and that I could get a year working visa for it, and I said "Well looks like I am going to Australia".
That was the start of it. I didn't really tell anyone until my sister announced that she was planning a trip down under. I also announced I was thinking about doing a trip to Aussie as well. I never mentioned my timeline of 6 months though, It wasn't until about 2 weeks later when she wanted to book plane tickets and schedules together that I dropped that bombshell. I asked how long she wanted to go for. Sarina (my sister for those of you who don't know her) replied "5 weeks" which is when I mentioned I was thinking about going down for 6 months. At which she completely flew off the handle for a few minutes as that wasn't quite what she was expecting. She was still cursing in disbelief when I walked out of her apartment 1 hour later. In the end she planned her own trip and even hopped over to New Zealand for a couple of weeks, something I won't be able to claim. At about the same time that my sister was re-laying the news that I was planning on being away from home for Christmas to my parents another significant event struck. During the July long weekend I had the first stage of a falling out with some of my high school friends. 2 weeks later I dropped by their house and they never left their computer games the whole time I was there, which was 3 hours. That in the end was a final straw, I decided to simply cut ties with them, as I had grown to far from their computer filled lives. I wanted to do things beyond my computer screen. I haven't talked to any of them since, in fact I don't even think they know I went to Australia as I never told them. If you are one of my friends back home and you are reading this, don't worry, you never pissed me off like this. With this sudden shortening of several friends from an already short list I could feel my rut deepening, and I felt I desperately needed a change of scenery. I felt that I was alone in my world with only my family as anchor, but I knew that I was holding onto that anchor to tightly. I was relying to much on my parents and I felt that I had created this little comfortable box, and that only I could get out of it. I knew I had to take some drastic measures, I had to get way beyond my comfort zone, out of my box, and I needed to let go of the anchor so that I could drive my own boat. When in a storm, you either anchor yourself down, or you point your bow into the wind and start paddling. I love my parents to death, appreciate them for everything they have done, and I want them to know that they have done nothing wrong for me to say this, as I built this box I put myself in, not them. I came down here to change, to develop as myself, to think in new surroundings, to grow, and to break moulds, my moulds. Which is what I am getting at in this blog, breaking moulds.Talking to people
I used to hate talking to new people. This is an old thing that dates back to grade 5. In grade 5 I moved from Rosebrier (A country school with 10 people in my grade) to Clear Vista (a city school with 60 people in my grade). These were way different schools, and probably the most difficult issue I faced was the class I was put in. I was placed in a special class of only 6 students who were considered by the education board to be "Not fulfilling their potential" as our grades were way lower than what we could achieve. My marks immediately soared, but my social standing collapsed. The new school culture didn't fit me, and most significantly my class was seen by my fellow students as "Near retarded" where we all became instant targets to be teased. I was trying to fight what felt like a whole school worth of bullies, who threw insult after insult, and my new knowledge was useless, and I didn't have the wit to fight them. In the end I tried to ignore them, and was mostly successfull, but after a while even the strongest walls start to chip and crack if enough stones were thrown at them. It was 5 long years in which I was essentially alone except for that small group of friends I made, I never tried to make any others in those years, as I was to used to getting burned every time I reached my hand out to anyone else. I held onto the only thing that never burned me, my family, they were the anchor that never moved. In grade 10 I went to high school, and came into the regular curriculum, I was a normal student in a new school like all the other new grade 10'ers, with one small difference I was still afraid to reach out my hand, I could still feel the cracks in the walls from the stones that had been hurled at it over the last 5 years, I had no confidence. So once again I went through most of high school with the small group of friends who I have just given the boot to. In college I was in a small class of only 27 people and we all got along well enough, but when it was over 2 years later everyone went off to their own corner or the province and that was the end of that. In my job I worked essentially on my own, and didn't need to communicate with many people, which didn't really help much. This is when I decided I had to push myself I needed to go some place where I had to talk to people, where I had to communicate, where I couldn't hide in that part of the box. I came to break this mould, and I think that I have, will I find it again when I get home, who knows.
Confidence
This is something I sorely lacked, and something I cannot claim full freedom of. My confidence has really been low since that grade 5 school change. It is something that I just have a hard time kicking out of my phykee. Some things need more than just a coat of paint, some things need all new foundations, and I will have to admit, they may have been laid, but are not yet completed. A good start, but goal not yet completed.
New Ideas
Like anyone who stays in one box to long, you stop looking at the paint on the walls. Things you never thought about, only assumed, and took for face value, suddenly come to you via a different point of view. The things that look real from your window change when you get up close, they take on new understanding, character and meaning. I have re-thought many things since I got down under, and contemplated things I have never really thought about before. It is amazing how looking at a sculpture from another angle changes your view not just of the sculpture, but of the world on which it revolves. The biggest one lately is that I have completely re-evaluated vegetarianism. 3 months ago I wondered how vegetarianism was even possible, how it was possible to to even live your whole life without eating meat? Or more importantly was it even possible to even eat one good tasting and filling meal without using meat. Then again lightning struck and suddenly I experienced the same thing I thought impossible only months before.
Making new friends
Well as mentioned before with the absence of old friends I came to Australia looking to find people who had interests that reached beyond World Of Warcraft. I can safely say Mould Broken.
Independence
This I think is one of the hardest moulds to break, as I have been holding onto the anchor chain rather hard. I needed to let it go, I needed to walk on my own, to prove that I can do it. Of course one part of independence I have really wanted to achieve is more openness when I am pissed off. I seem to have an odd tendency to let people walk over me, and I think it is time. Unfortunately the first unfortunate victim of this about face was probably Christian. Poor bastard.
Well everyone now you all know the why. This was the thing that I have only told 2 people about, not even my family knew. It has been nearly a month since I wrote this, and the reason why I waited so long to post it was to see if I truly did change or if I have fallen back into my old grove. I don't think that I have, but I will admit that I have kind of changed back to my old self a bit, but there are several parts of me that evolved in Australia that have been holding on strong, I am very proud of those parts of me.
I think this will be the last blog on this website at least for a while. When I go on my next trip I will send out another blast, but that may not be for another couple of months. I may start blogging about my new job over at my other blog, theofficeblog, but since I am incredibly busy, and I am no longer sitting around on my ass twiddling my thumbs I find that blogging is a whole lot harder. Anyway thank you all my loyal readers this is Adam, logging off for the last time, Australia fare well, I will see you again, and to the rest of the world, I am coming, be patient.
Love Adam
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