Volcanic panic

Over the last day or so, I have received many emails and messages from friends and family asking me if I am OK and whether or not the Volcano eruption has caused any difficulty for me.

The only problem is that I had no idea what everyone was talking about. I had not heard about the volcano eruption. I haven't been staying up to date on a lot of news, but I was sure that I would have heard about something so dire.

In checking into things this morning, I was alarmed to see headlines like "Volcano erupts near Tokyo raining ash down on city". I quickly read a few stories and then decided to check with the master source... my Japanese father, Funabashi-sama.

He confirmed there had been a small eruption, but couldn't understand why I was asking about it. It was completely expected and the area was evacuated before it all began. That is how the Japanese take care of things. When I explained the stories to him he was quite surprised at all the fuss.

I guess this is another lesson in perspective for me. What appears to be dire to some, is commonplace to others. Plus it is a good lesson in media awareness. Disasters sell better than good news stories. I appreciate all the concerned messages I received and want everyone to know that I am absolutely fine. Not even a sneeze from the ash.

What you may be interested in hearing is that since I arrived, I have experienced two small earthquakes. Again, these are pretty commonplace and nothing to get too excited about. Everyone here says that it is just Japan's way of welcoming me home!

Reunion

I worked in Japan for two years at an English conversation school called GEOS. At the time it was a good company for native English speaking teachers and afforded me the opportunity to make good money and fabulous friends. Yesterday I had a reunion with some of those friends. It has been 15 years since I worked with any of them. And they haven't changed a bit!!

They look the same - the Japanese have a remarkable way of staying youthful. They sound the same - we were laughing at old jokes and memories within minutes. And they all have the same generous hearts as before. I am really lucky to know them and still be connected to them.

I was here on vacation 10 years ago and we all came together for a reunion then too. For many of them, yesterday was the first time to see each since that last lunch. It is amazing how well we all fall back into our old patterns. There are the same jokes, the same targets for teasing and the same stories recounted from different perspectives. We all had very different experiences with GEOS. The native English teachers were definitely treated better and paid more than the local Japanese teachers. I knew this at the time, but more details always come out during these reunion sessions. As with any work experience, there are people who can work with the system and those that can't, or more likely don't see the need to compromise their time for a job they don't agree with. Yesterday we had people who had stayed with the company for 13 years, right down to someone that moved on after three months.

In reliving some of the stories and hearing about other successes after GEOS it was a good reminder for me that what I am doing this year is maybe unusual, but bound to leave a new appreciation for all the work I have done in the past. My resume has a lot of variety in it - from door-to-door encyclopedia sales person (I am not kidding - I did that in Australia for 6 weeks) to bartender to English teacher to Alliance Director. I haven't always appreciated every job I had - some were just a clock to be punched - but I have always had great people to work with. I am still in contact with many people whom I grinded out working hours with. They made the jobs we had to do more than just tolerable. But more importantly they added so much to my views of the world.

In leaving Rogers after 10 years, I was again struck by how little I missed the actual work but how deeply I miss the people that made the time there more enjoyable. I don't know the difference between colleague and friend. In my experience the first generally leads to the second.

So to Kimiko, Taeko, Tomoko, Kyoko, Yoko and Yasuko, I thank you for reminding me that it is not really the work you do, but the people who show up everyday along side you that make it worthwhile.

Nihongo wa chotto dake wakataru (I remember some Japanese)

I have landed in my second home. I always knew that coming back to Japan would be an easy way to kick off my world tour. Having lived here for two years made it an easy jumping off point. However I never expected to be so comfortable so soon. I was worried that my Japanese would fail me and my friends would spend all their time translating every word for me. Although I haven't been able to have a fully comprehensive discussion, I am quite astonished how quickly the vocabulary would come back. I am picking up way more in conversation than I would have guessed. Especially since I just came off a 17 hour flight schedule this afternoon.



Now I have to give me host family all the credit. We weren't talking about international affairs or discussing the finer points of Japan's economic policies, but we did make it through a couple of discussions about Canada and my family.



There is hope yet for the old brain of mine. Maybe after another week I will be back to my Grade 5 level like when I left 15 years ago.



Ja ne!



Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

What exactly is deicing fluid?

Still sitting here in Toronto! Feeling like my post from an hour ago was so full of expectation and hope. The reality is things like deicing get in the way and one's pure vision of escaping off into the early morning is slightly less romantic - but probably much safer.

Ah the orange goop flows across the wings and engines. Soon I will be sliding as effortlessly across the sky.

Ok - looks like my lack of sleep is making my writing a wee bit loopy. Time for a nap. Hopefully when I wake up the goop and tarmac will be a distant sight and the only thing ahead is blue (and warm) skies. I am not a fan of the deicing delays.

And so the adventure really begins

I am sitting at gate 139 in terminal 1 in Toronto. It is 7:27 am and I haven't slept a wink. There were too many thoughts and ideas running through my head. What if I slept through my alarm, what if my aunt couldn't get through the snow to drive me to the airport, what if when I arrived at the airport they refused to check me in because I didn't have all the right paperwork.... Shish - with all this late night pondering and problem solving you'd think I could take a crack at solving world hunger or global warming. I work on that over the coming months.

Anyway, back to the airport.. I am literally on the edge of my seat waiting to get this adventure underway. All my months of planning, list making and checking off tasks has finally lead to this. I want to go NOW! Not in 20 mins when my flights boards, but NOW. The folks heading to Shanghai get to go now, maybe I should have gone there first.

As I sit here looking at everyone waiting patiently I am reminded that there was a lot of people responsible for this opportunity. My friends, family, colleagues and even perfect strangers have all done everything in their power to ensure my success. I am truly humbled.

Whoo Hoo! They just started boarding my flight. This is it. I am off! Bye!!

My round the world route

Well I have finally got a reasonably complete route to take me around the world and back home again this year. I have had to make some compromises, but I have also found a few extra add-ons that I had not originally anticipated.

I had hoped I would get a thick wad of airline tickets bound together into one stack that would be torn out one leg of the trip at a time. But apparently most airlines only issue e-tickets these days. As an online professional, I should appreciate the efficiency and convenience of the digital world, but it doesn't seem as romantic to have an email in my backpack.

So here is the rundown of my grand tour. All comments and suggestion are welcome.

Jan 28 - Feb 10: Japan - Visiting friends from my days teaching there
Feb 10 - 14: Hong Kong - A total indulgence from the past. I know it will all be different, but I couldn't pass up an opportunity to stop by
Feb 15 - Mar 12: Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia - I will be on a 26-day tour throughout the area staring in Vientaine and ending in Siem Reap
Mar 13 - 28: Thailand - Hopefully my brother Dean will come and join me for some down time on the beach. I want to get my SCUBA certificate
Mar 29 - Apr 12: Kenya - I would like to explore some areas of Kenya I didn't get to last year
Apr 13 - May 14: South Africa - I will be participating in a couple of volunteer programs outside of Capetown. I will be diving with Great White Sharks and working with a conservation team monitoring whales and dolphins. I also have some relatives nearby so hopefully I will be able to catch up with them too.
May 15 - Jun 3: Moving North through Africa - I am hoping to make a stop in Botswana, Tanzania and/or Rwanda. I am not really sure yet.
Jun 4 - 21: Egypt / Jordan - I will be on a 17-day GAP adventure tour through the region.
Jun 21 - July 5: England / France - I will meet up with my Mum and her side of the family in England and then travel south to France where we will have a few days on our own in Paris and then off to visit her sister in the south of France near Nice.
July 5 - Aug: Ireland, Scotland, England & Holland - There are no hard plans just yet, but I am hoping to spend time with family and friends along the way.
Sept: Spain & Morocco - My close friends Stuart, Manish and Celia will join me for a tour through Spain. Celia and I will also embark to Morocco. We are also hoping to entice our friend Katheryn to join us.
Oct & Nov: Greece & Turkey - I would like to tour the Greek Islands by sail boat and then make my way to Turkey for a fairly extensive final tour. I will likely also hit a few more places, but right now I am not sure where, could be Italy, Croatia, Germany, Austria, France. Before I leave Europe in early December I think I will swing through Holland and England again just for one last visit with the various family members.
Dec 4: Back to Toronto

I have repeated this list of dates and destinations many times in the past few weeks, and it never fails to impress my listeners. But every time I reel it off I get chills and there is a small twinge in the pit of my stomach. I find I ask myself, "Am I really going to do all of this?", "Is it really possible to take this all in, in one single trip?" and "What are you going to pack for all of these different locations?". These questions can't be answered yet, but hopefully you will check back throughout the year to see what I encounter along the way. Hopefully when I finally return home in December, I will have the answers to these questions and a whole lot more.

My brain won't stop spinning

It is 5:17am and I can't sleep. I have been awake since 3:47am. My brain has taken me through hundreds of scenarios from never seeing my passport again to how much cash to carry on me to how many pairs of pants to take. Ugh!

All my normal tactics to elivate my anxieties are not working. I have written down the questions so I can tackle then in the light of day. I have weighed out multiple pant options which included stumbling around in my closet to double checked that my kahkis from last summer still fit (miracle). I even made a rather frantic call to Fedex to ensure I filled out the waybill correctly for my passport's safe return. The nice lady (Louisa) kindly reassured me that I had done it right. None of these things has given me any relief from this crazy brain of mine.

Warm milk didn't do a damn thing except make me need to pee. Sleeping in the other room just turned out to be colder. And now I am sitting in bed tapping out this note on my blackberry in hopes of finally allowing my brain to get out all its worries and "to do" items.

Please brain - I am begging you - let me go back to sleep. I am going to be a wreak for the rest of the day. Oh great, something else to worry about now!!

Nightie night - I hope.