The picture I’ve chosen is one that I took last spring while I was in Laos with International Travel Studies. It is located right outside of the village where our work project took place, and it remains one of my favorite pictures that I’ve taken. I enjoy it not only because it is nice to look at, but because of what it represents. When I took it, we had just arrived at the village on the first day of the work project. As we were the first group to arrive at the village (and since it was my first ITS trip), I will admit it was a little bit worrying how little I knew what was going on. However, the scenery and atmosphere of Laos was always so calming, it definitely helped me. If I tried to describe the country of Laos, it would be ‘beautifully simple’. There, the people are so kind and welcoming even though by western standards, a lot of them have very little, and to see people so happy despite tough circumstances, it is very humbling, and this photo serves as a reminder of the lessons that the Lao way of life taught me.

Blog #4

            I think that it’s amazing how wondrous ordinary things can seem in a child’s mind. One memory definitely stands out as the best time I’ve witnessed this. I was visiting my friend and her younger brother, and as it was a nice summer day, we decided to take a walk in her brother’s favorite park. It was easy to see why it was a young boy’s favorite park; it had a nice beach, as well as a beautiful trail through a forest. And of the course, the kicker in a young boy’s mind, a bridge over a busy railroad track. I know we’ve probably all seen a young child excited to see a train, but this was on a different level. You could see on his face how in awe he was. His eyes were completely fixed on the train speeding by below him. He wasn’t alone in the excitement either. I saw a few adults pretending not to be as excited by this as they were. We decided to let him wait for the train to completely go by before we started on the forest walk. Right when we got to the very top of the hill at the end of the pathway, we heard a train horn in the distance, but getting closer. Her brother paused, and them looked up with the happiest and most excited look on his face. He then took off running down the hill, past the playground and onto the bridge, as the train was getting close. My friend and I were laughing to each other as we walked after him.

Winter Memories

As most Canadians do, I definitely have some incredible winter memories. There’s just something so intoxicatingly calm about a fresh snowfall in the early days of winter that encourages great memories. However, one of the best is actually one of the most recent. It was only a little while ago that my friend from British Columbia was visiting town, and it felt like it had been forever since we had last seen each other. We had planned out our day three weeks in advance.  Everything was just going to be amazing. Unfortunately, it had to be postponed for a couple weeks, meaning that it ended up in the beginning of Calgary winter. Snow. Everywhere. I thought for sure that our plan was going to be ruined. From when we met up, it was definitely looking that way. It was taking forever to get anywhere, so I just decided to make something up on the spot, and we got off the bus and walked to my favorite little café and we just talked for a while. Afterwards, we walked to a record store where I bought a fantastic album, which I’m listening to as I write this.  I just think it’s amazing how the best memories can come from where they are least expected.

Blog #2

Isn’t laughter just the best? I mean, really, what’s better for cheering up than a good laugh? It’s also great for just passing the time in something that’s undesirable. There’s one instance that really stands out to me, which happened not too long ago in biology class. There are two friends in particular in that class that make me laugh more than anyone else, and we were working together on a really boring assignment. Almost immediately, the three of us were laughing with each other. It was one of those times where even the most nonsense statement could make us laugh, and we took full advantage of that. The only thing that made it better was the teacher and their increasingly less hopeful attempts to get us focused. None of us really got any of the assignment done, but it was definitely worth it. That class was one of the fastest I’ve had, because the three of us were just having so much fun, which is not something I can often say for that class.

Food Stealing Adventures

What a miserable little outing this was turning out to be for me. Ever since getting laid off from my job, I haven’t had the time or money to go out for dinner with my friends, something I used to do all the time. I truly missed it. I decided that I just needed a break from the constant job hunting and penny-pinching. I saved up enough to have a nice meal with some nice people. Unfortunately, everything on the menu seemed to be more than I was expecting, and I had to settle for a small appetizer. Now, I have quite a big appetite, so this was definitely not enough for anyone, but especially for me. To make matters worse, I was seated right next to the kitchen, so I was constantly taunted by the delicious aromas floating around. I was starving. My friends’ food looked incredible. I had to constantly make sure I was focused on the conversation, and not just on the food. Eventually one of my friends got up to move the car, and the other one went to the washroom. I saw my opportunity. I took at least a quarter of each person’s meal, and ate it. It was delicious. I made sure to re-arrange their plates to make sure it didn’t look like food was missing. Luckily, neither seemed to notice, or at least say anything about it. It was very difficult to not laugh as on the way home they talked about how their meals weren’t as big as they looked.