Grizedale

Grizedale
Originally uploaded by Rob Rutherford.

This is my favorite photo taken of the guys on the Corridor.
From Left to Right:
Hannah, Lorn, Paul, Matt, Laurie, Dave, Ollie, and Ben

Am going to miss you guys.

It's Not Good-Bye, Just So Long

The past few days i have had to say good-bye to four great friends. Alex, Dave, Paul and Lorn.
This is the part i hate about doing things like this. you get settled in a place and meet some great people.but then you have to say goodbye and move on. but it is still really difficult when you realize the potential exists that you'll never see these people again.
Luckily, Canada seems to be a fairly popular travel destination amoungst the British, so i know i'll be seeing many of you guys again. on my home turf!
Cheers!

15 Days Until My Canadian Come-Back

So Much has happened since i Last updated this thing. best to start at the beginning.

I was adjusting to live at Sidsmums Hostel in Carcassonne. It looked like it was going to be a great opportunity. I'd be living in the south of France for two weeks. I'd get the chance to practice my french, improve on it before i returned to Canada to work the summer away. However life there took a change for the worse, which resulted in me deciding to return to England rather than stick out another week at Sidsmums.

Life there was great up until last Monday. On Sunday most of the guests at Sidsmums left to continue their travels. ALl the people who were left at the hostel were: myself, A dutch man named Harrow (the other volunteer), Jan, and a visiting English couple who were friends with Jan. This lack of new people made tlife at the hostel quite boring. After my 3 hours of work in the morning there was not much else to do other than sleep, read, or go for a hike. Carcassonne was too far away from where we were staying and the trips that jan makes there are for the guests and she generally went in the morning while there was work to be done. So this made for a borking atmosphere. As well, the other volunteer, Harrow, didn't help things as he was extrememly judgemental of me. He essentially made life at Sidsmums as awkward as possible. he had already been at the hostel for a month already, and very much thought of it has his home, his room (the volunteers were required to live together) On the Monday (13th June) we had a huge row about his dog. Apparently i had been interferring with the dogs training. Harrow accused me of comming to the hostel, making myself at home right away, being pushy, overbearing and essentially too "in-your-face". personally i didn't see myself being any of these things. I thought i was just being friendly and trying to fit in.
anyways, we had a huge row. I decided that i didn't need to put up with his shit. so i made up my mind to return to England. He wasn't the sole reason for returning earlier than i had anticipated.I was bored with Sidsmums and decided that i'd rather spend the last two weeks of my time in the UK with people i like, and like having me around rather than spend half that time with people who made it their mission to make sure i don't feel comfortable in my surroundings.
So i dished out the dough to return to England and hopped a plane the following Thursday.

I landed in Stanstead, spent a few hours there trying to plan my next move. I had texted Mark Steel the wednesday prior to my return and he was generous enough to let me crash at his flat until i had planned my next move. I spent all of Thursday afternoon in front of the television watching (trying to comprehend) a Cricket game.With the help of Mark's flatmate Greg, i managed to get a basic grasp of the game. it does seem interesting. It was England v. Bangladesh if anyone is interested.

On friday i caught a lift back to Lancaster with my friends Bryony and Ben. Their families live in London and luckily enough they were home for a visit the same time i was in London. So i caught a ride back to Lancaster with them. We were about halfway up the country before we realized that we had missed the junction from the M1 to the M6 (British Motorways). So we took the "scenic route" back to Lancaster. Passing by Nottingham, through Derby (pronounced Darby), and finally through Leek and Knutsford before we made our way to the M6 and made our way back to Lancaster.

So now i have been back at lancaster for almost a week and have been having the time of my life. But thats generally the way things go don't they? the end of the trip is always thepart you remember most. In any experience it is always the end you remember the most and look back upon most fondly. Practically every night this week i have been busy socializing, visiting with friends or getting drunk.

All good things must come to an end and i am prepared to say good-bye when the time comes. It will be hard for me, this i know, as i do tend to get too attached to people and places and experience really bad separation anxiety when everything is over and done with. But soon this life will end and i will resume my old one back in Canada, and improve on that one using the experience gained whilst abroad. I have changed, and I have stayed the same. I'm dreading going home, yet looking forward to it all the same. but this is not my good-bye post, not yet. so I will write no more,

Congratulations!

Jill
Originally uploaded by Rob Rutherford.

Congratulations are in order for my best friend Jill. She graduates from college on 22 June earning a diploma in business from Lakeland College in Sherwood Park.
I want her to know how proud i am of her. She worked her ass off to get this far. I'm sorry that i cannot be there at your graduation ceremony, but it will be an awesome day and an incredible feeling when you are handed that peice of paper that formally says, to everyone you show it to, that you are edumakated!
Love Rob.

P.S. To everyone else who reads this entry, Jill will kill me if i do not confess. This photo was taken at my house last december, right before i left for England. It is my star trek poster on the wall, not Jill's. but if i'm a huge nerd, she is guilty by association. bwa ha ha ha!

Bienvenue à Carcassonne

Hey so i made it to Carcassone in one peice! the last wednesday leaving lancaster was hard because it was kind of like a foreshadow of what is soon to come, when i actually do leave for good. but i will be back so best to enjoy my time in france whilst i am here et parler le français1 typing on a french keyboard is different because the q, a, w, and m are all in different places!

anyways, on wednesday after the lake district (by the way, the childhood drem was not to touch sheep, but to just set off in the direction of a mountain and climb it, which i did! it was pointed out, that there might be some confusion) i met up with my friend AJ for one last pint, it was the last time we were going to see each other in Europe, (might visit each other later on down the road, in a few years) then i hoped a train to London. I spen thte night at Mark Steels place, then caught my flight to Carcassonne on thursday morning.

I arrived in the afternoon and was met by Jan, the lady who runs the hostel. im volunteering here, working 3hrs a day in exchange for a free bed. is helpîng keep the costs down. i met a nice American pair who just graduated uni and are on a 5 week tour of Europe. so we hung out last night and this afternoon. Meg and Brent are their names.

The work here is helping to build a new cabin for the hostel. it is weird because the wood being used all fits together like leggo, so i dont have to look the fool by not being able to use any tool of any kind! im going to do some exploring of the town tomorrow and then maybe plan a day trip (when the work is finnished of course!) to the medeterrainian sea.

but am off to fix myself some food. ill update this again in a week to let you know how i am getting on!

Like anyone will read this anyways

Was in the Lakes yeesterday, heading to London tonight, flying to Carcassonne, France tomorrow. I lead a busy life.
Yesterday AJ and I decided to treat ourselves to a trip to the Lake District. We climbed some mountains and saw some lakes, more importantly, we saw a thousand year old stone circle called Castlerigg, touched sheep and managed to fullfill some childhood fantasies. It was a great day. the weather was beautiful, the company was great, and the scenery excellent.

But this entry is not about that, i'll write in more detail about that trip next entry. right now i am packing up my room as i am moving to france for 2 weeks. I am volunteering at a hostel for free accomidation in Carcassonne france. It is close to the mediterranian, spain, and other french cities. it has an ancient medievil walled city, and other interesting things to do!
but anyways i have to run and go do other things that are more important than writing in this journal that no one reads.

Rob

Psychopath with a Conscience

On June 1st I met with my Uncle John and his wife Juanita for the first time since comming over here to the UK. He is an interesting person, she is exactly how Mom, Gran, etc described her and then some. I enjoyed the visit with them, it was good to connect with family members, even if it is for the first time.

This past weekend my mother prompted me to return home early and resume working at the hospital where i have been working for the past four years. It is a great job, the hours are good, the work is not very fast paced and the pay is decent. yet i can't help think that i'm going to be fucked either way i go. I have this feeling that i'll return to Canada, maybe start working for 3 weeks and then all the hours will be gone and i'll be left with no work and no way to pay off my debt. Where as if i was to look into lodging in Lancaster for the summer and find a cheap job here getting 5 pounds an hour and saved as much as i could, in the long run, i'll come out ahead by staying in the UK. I know this is not true, but deep down it doesn't feel like the right time to leave.

But the decision has been made, i'm going to be returing to Canada On July 4th (a Monday). I've been wafling back and forth on this for a while, on whether or not i'm happy about it. and honestly i don't think i am. However as my mother put it, I have a duty to repay those who have given me this opportunity and repay them i will.

I'm going to make the best of the situation and try to enjoy myself in Europe as much as i can before home. I've booked myself two weeks in the south of France working at a hostel for free accomidation, and it is just a stones throw away from Toulouse, and Montpellier, as well as Barcelona in Spain. I'll at least have some time to work on my tan before i return to Canada.

6 months

yesterday, June 1st, was the six month anniversary of my arrival in England. I realized this as i was hanging out with my friend AJ planning a trip to the Lake District for this weekend. My time here really has flown by. At the same time it seems like my trip to the continent was ages ago.

I have been thinking a lot about financial costs and jobs and other such matters a lot recently. I have been looking for jobs in France for the summer. That is my ideal goal. I feel i really need the practice using my french so that i'll be able to do better in my french classed next september. however, actually finding the jobs is the hard part. Also, just living here in England is now becomming financially draining. I owe my parents a lot of money and that debt is costing them money on a monthly basis through interest, so i really want to start earning some cahs to be able to pay down my debts. If i return back to Canada and resume working at the hospital i could earn some money and begin paying off my parents and my line of credit, not to mention start saving up to pay for my fall tuition.

So the decision i have to make is; do i give up my goals, go against my personal philosophy of "never settle" (for anything less than what you want) and return to Alberta or should i go for it, try to remain in Europe unitl Aug 15th (my original return date) and try to find work where i will have the opportunity to bone up on my french.

So i think i am going to give myself until June 17th. if i have not been able to find any sort of lead, or employment opportunity in France, I will travel around a bit more, attend my friends' graduation ceremony in Lancaster around the 14th of july, and then return home around the 18th of July.

The only thing i fear about returning home early is resenting making that decision.