2011 - Or The Year I Stayed Out of My Comfort Zone

I remember being younger and thinking that in the year 2000 I would be sixteen, and how awesome and mature I would probably be. Then 2000 came and I was a 16 year old - you know, the kind who thinks they are awesome and mature (read: every 16 year old).

Fast forward 6 years to when I was 22 years old. In those 6 years I'd started working as a waitress, moved out of my parents house, in with a boyfriend, broken up with said boyfriend, moved in with a friend, got involved with another guy who I then moved in with, started working in the Oil & Gas industry and then broken up with that boyfriend and moved in by my lonesome.

Six years. 

Now, 6 years later, I've gone to school for Oil & Gas stuff, quit working for Oil & Gas, worked as a bartender/waitress (again), dated some interesting guys, dated some losers, met actual amazing fellow bloggers, gone to school for teaching English, traveled to 12 new countries - teaching English in 3 of them, been in the weddings of two of my sisters and seen the birth of two beautiful nieces.

Six years.

A lot can happen in 6 years. In fact, a lot can happen in one year. Case in point: I began 2011 in Costa Rica, and now here I am in the Republic of Georgia (don't feel bad if you have to Google it. I did too). 

Yeah, random. I know. My point is, you absolutely never know where life will take you. So with that, here's my year in review:

2010: I quit my job and went back to school for teaching English. I highly recommend this course: CELTA, expensive, but so worth it. After being in my beautiful sisters wedding in the summer, I moved to Vegas with my dad for a few months and then left on the first leg of my travels: Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. An amazing year where I stopped planning and started doing.

January 2011: New Years Eve found me in Costa Rica, I'd spent the last few months traveling through Central America - one of the best experiences of my life. I had never felt so happy and so free. I spent January traveling back through Central America, volunteered in an elementary school in Nicaragua and meeting new people.

Near the end of the month I got mugged with 3 friends and had pretty much everything of value stolen (thankfully not my passport). I had some tough decisions to make: could I last with what I had left? Would I find a job?

February 2011: After a week of panicking, looking for jobs, interviewing, living off my last savings before having to dip into RRSPs, I finally found a beautiful little eco-tourism centre looking for an EFL Coordinator. I interviewed over Skype and left the very next day for my new home. February was spent getting adjusted to life in a little town in the rainforest, teaching adult learners and getting to know my new host family.

March 2011: Finally beginning to speak Spanish, spending lots of quality time with my fellow volunteers, getting into the groove of teaching adults (so much fun), learning how to write exams, learning to salsa, eating way too much rice and beans and tortillas, swimming in the river, cold showers, many nights dancing in our local 'bar'. A great month.

April 2011: One of me besties came to visit and volunteer for a week, then we went to Panama for my birthday - secret island parties, turtles laying eggs, lots of snorkeling, relaxing, laughing and eating.

Volcan Arenal

May 2011: More teaching, relaxing, loving the rain-forest.

June 2011: Final preparation of exams, pizza nights with my students, dancing at the bar with co-workers, karaoke nights, weekend trips around the country.

July 2011: Sad to head home but excited to see my family and friends after almost a year of being away. I started working right away at the bar and spent as much time catching up with people as I could. The funny part of being away is that when you come home, so many things are exactly the way you left them. Comforting yet strange...

August 2011: Preparations for a new adventure - this time in Eastern Europe. They offer short contracts, a host family to stay with, co-teaching, and a small stipend. I spent a lot of time this month getting rid of things, spending time with family and friends and enjoying Canadian food and wine.

September 2011: I packed my bags yet again to head to the very unknown - The Republic of Georgia. I met 3 fun Canadian girls in the airport; all of us unsure of what to expect, but ready for anything. We spent a day in Warsaw, getting to know each other over perogies and photo ops. We started a week of intense orientation once we got to Georgia - learning the language, customs, idiosyncrasies and mannerisms, basically what to expect for the next few months.

October 2011: I moved into a very, VERY remote village in the Georgian countryside, close to Azerbaijan, on a farm, in a town where no one spoke English (not really even the English teachers at the school). This whole month was a huge learning curve. I had to adjust to some pretty weird situations, very quickly.

A common sight on my walk to school

November 2011: After a bad incident with my host family (more on this later) I switched homes, and cities. I found myself in Tbilisi with a wonderful new family who made me feel very welcome. The new school had 4 English teachers, all of whom spoke English relatively well. I felt less useful, but was content to settle in and enjoy city life for a change.

I also took a trip to Armenia - where I had a blast with 8 other English teachers.

December 2011: I spent this month enjoying my new surroundings, getting used to the Georgian way of life, learning new teaching methods, and spending lots of time with my new fellow EFL teacher friends. The Christmas plays at my school were hilarious (more so because I understood almost nothing they were saying so could only guess as to why red riding hood, a bride, an elf, Zorro and Aladdin all made it into the same play).

Just some of the intriguing costumes

Christmas was spent in Istanbul, Turkey with 2 of the funniest people I've met, having a blast couch-surfing, sight-seeing and playing card games. New Years Eve, 4 of us spent at a traditional Turkish party and then stayed in a cave hotel in Pamukkale.

Beautiful Hagia Sophia; Istanbul, Turkey

Now, back in Georgia, I have 3 days left to take in as much as I can before heading back to Canada. I had an amazing year with so many awesome people. My plans and resolution for 2012 is to start writing again. I have so many stories to tell, and am hoping 2012 will be just as amazing and eye-opening as 2011...

Hope everyone had a great year, and Happy New Year!! 

20 SB V-Log Day*

This video post is part of 20SB’s Vlog Day and the topic is “Introduce Yourself”…anyone can participate! Details are here.

A whole bunch of bloggers are posting videos today introducing themselves, I thought it would be fun to join the party, so here you have it:



*I say V-Log, you say Vlog, we can still be friends.

PS - I have a site set up at www.connectingtheblackdots.com however, I couldn't figure out how to embed this video in Wordpress. Wordpress confuses my poor brain.

Why I'll Never be A Hairdresser

I didn't realize that here in Vegas you can buy professional hair dye just as easily as box dye if you just try a little harder than googling “beauty supplies” and giving up after a few minutes to walk to the nearest CVS because that store is EVERYWHERE. And also you are impatient and need to dye it like now.

And by you I mean me.

So after I unsuccessfully tried to put two boxes of “light brown” dye over my previously blonde locks, my hair turned a weird shade of dark red, brownish green. I don't think the green tinge is overly apparent but in the light you could see it.

Also, the first thing the hairdresser I went to for a cut said was: “it's green” so I am not delusional. Luckily she was super amazing and told me not only where to buy professional dye but what color to get to take the green out and prevent it from fading into “ashy greenish blonde” which incidentally sounds like the color of something I might throw up.

After purchasing the aforementioned dye, I went home to discover the main pipe to the house had sprung a leak meaning we had to shut the water off, meaning no showering, no dying of hair, no nothing. For three days.

On the third night my dad rose again (just kidding, that was Jesus) no, he told me he would turn the water on so we could do the dishes, have showers and fill up the emergency teeth brushing water receptacles in our respective bathrooms. So up I went to mix my dye using a paintbrush and plastic container I'd bought at the dollar store for this very occasion and slathered the mixture on my head.

Which was precisely when I realized that no where on the dye or developer did it say anything about how long to leave it in. 25 minutes later I shouted down to my dad to turn the water on. Turns out someone (from the water company?) had put a lock on the turn thing. So there was no way to turn the water on:

I managed to rinse my hair under the boiling hot drizzle in the bathtub while my dad filled up bowls of water from the drizzle in the sink downstairs. It was a disaster. I'd be lying if I said I didn't throw a major conniption hissy-fit complete with deep ugly-cry  gasp-sobs but thankfully my hair didn't fall out.

Note to self: check water source before dying hair.

Why I'll Never be A Concert Pianist

Perfectionist. Overachiever. Organized.

These are all things I’ve never been accused of being, though my resume may say differently. Then again my resume also says “plays the piano” and if you all want to know how that turned out:

Click for full effect

Yes, I’m sobbing while practicing. I loved me some piano playing. I’m also pretty sure my braces even match my stripes there.

As I’ve matured (luckily so has my fashion sense) I’ve realized that though I’m not any of those things outwardly, it’s because I’m really good at hiding them. Take my plans for traveling for example.

Here’s how my “plan” started: “Hey, after I get my English teaching certificate I’m gonna pack some stuff, go traveling for a while and try to find a job in Central America teaching English”.

So I packed some stuff and here I am in Vegas with a flight booked for Mexico in two weeks. That was basically the extent of my plan. Meanwhile, in Vegas, I’ve been researching Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica day in and day out.

It’s like I hurry to get started, then I go back and fastidiously fill in the blanks.

I even made a spreadsheet. (Okay fine, I made 3 spreadsheets).

So while I have activities listed, hotels and costs, where to be when, resume printed, backpack sort of organized (clothes, books, flashlight, first aid kit, sewing kit, nail kit); it’s basically all pretense. I know once I get there my highly organized plans will go out the window. My beautiful spreadsheets will probably serve as timber when I end up on a beach somewhere because all the hotels are booked over Christmas and I haven’t had the foresight to book anything.

I guess I like the idea of being organized, the feeling I’m prepared for anything, and the thought of being one of those people for whom nothing goes wrong and the days unfold as tidily as a road map.

On second thought I think my days do unfold like a road map – it seems to be coming along nicely when all of a sudden I find myself upside-down and backwards with no hope in hell of getting the folds right, or of getting back on the right track.

So I just fold it back up as best I can and pretend that’s where I was going in the first place.

Why I'll Never Be A True Las Vegas-anite (Las Vegan?)

Vegas is a confusing, overwhelming, daunting, looming kind of place. As soon as you step off the plane you're assaulted by dinging machines, smoky air, flashing lights, and throngs of tired, hungover people. Your eyes glaze over practically instantaneously and the sounds make you want to reach for an aspirin. Which is conveniently sold in machines lining the huge hallways. 

Luckily my dad and I drove down here – essentially avoiding all the parts of Vegas that make you want to stab yourself. 

The first time I came to Vegas I was 8, so let's ignore that for a minute because to me Vegas = stuffed animals, watching movies and ordering pizza with my older sister and cousin. Don't worry we also got to go to Disneyland on that trip. 

So the REAL first time I went to Vegas was 2 and a half years ago. I came down with one of my good friends when our original trip (to Mexico) was canceled because of the swine flu. We spent pretty much the whole time lying on the “beach” at Mandalay and dancing at the clubs. 

The next time I came down, a year later, was to visit my dad. My younger sister and I spent the week exploring the area around Vegas, the “local” hang-outs and of course, a few casinos. 

Eight days in Vegas was actually very palatable when most of it was spent away from the strip. 

Then there was BiSC (for those who don't know – rainbow amazing) but the problem lay in the fact that I stayed too long. Most people arrived Thursday or Friday and left Sunday. I arrived Wednesday and left late Monday night. 

When you spend time in Vegas, on the strip, having an amazing time and then all of a sudden you're alone and your hotel room has too much oxygen and the finale of LOST is on but all you want to do is curl in a ball and rock yourself to sleep, weeping – well let's just say the thought of spending any more time in Vegas makes you want to punch small animals. 

So naturally here I am – in Vegas. Again. 

Nobody's ever accused me of being rational.