The Hardest Part

I'm depressed.

It's December which means the first wave of people to leave Toronto are leaving next Tuesday. I've mentioned this before but I'll say it again - I want everything to stay this way forever! I can't think of a life that isn't here with all the people I've met and the thought of having to live out of a suitcase (or in my case, backpack) is a thought that I don't much enjoy. I also know that this life and my current lifestyle is unsustainable considering my current financial situation (i.e. super poor with no money coming in and everything going out).

It makes me sadder that with everything ending like it is right now, there are a lot of Goodbye parties and whatnot going on in the next week or so. I've been trying to find time to hang out with specific people (more like, specific person) before I leave but I don't think that it'll happen before I leave for Cuba. The situation is out of my hands as well which I don't much enjoy either.

Also, the majority of my post- uni traveling hasn't been booked yet and I haven't sorted out this contract shit out either. I really can't be bothered doing any of it right now. Especially the latter.

It seems as if there isn't any time left to do anything. Everyone has exams this week and next (I've got one next Tuesday) so its not as if I can go anywhere fun or do anything while that's going on. Did I also mention that I'm running out of money? This whole trip has gone too fast. In no time I'll be back home, missing everyone that I've met here. I know it's going to be weird not seeing them on a daily basis and I mean, there's always Facebook and Skype and whatnot but it just doesn't compare to seeing them in real life. There's been talk of a reunion of sorts in Melbourne in June or July cos some of the guys are coming over which I'm looking forward to as far away as it is.

I guess we'll see on Tuesday if saying goodbye is the hardest part of the whole thing. It's not goodbye forever, I know, but for an indefinite period of time. On the plus side though, I have a reason to go traveling. I've met people from all over the world and made a lot of friends for life. I feel as if I've accomplished more in my few months away than I have in the majority of my 19 years on this planet. Its weird, I've changed and yet I'm still essentially the same, introverted sometimes extroverted person as I was when I started this thing. Sure, some of the things I say may have changed (what's the craic? etc) and my view of the world has changed but I'm still the same immaturely mature person that I've always been. I've also learned a lot about my priorities and what comes first.

I'm not gonna lie to you - I have no idea where I'm going with this. I guess what I'm trying to say, and this is connected to one of my previous posts, is that this trip has kind of been a catalyst for change. The changes that I've undergone here in Canada would have taken me a lot longer to achieve back in New Zealand if they happened at all. I guess it was because I'd voluntarily thrown myself into a completely different environment (well, not completely. If I really wanted that I would have gone to Austria or the like) and was forced to fend for myself. No parents, no help, no nothing. I think that's what I needed. I think that's what everyone needs at some point in their lives (sooner rather than later). I realised how strong I can be - making decisions on my own, living on my own, solving my problems on my own (well, most of them). I also appreciate a lot more what I do have back home - family, friends, a good support system.

Wow. This post did NOT turn out how I pictured it would. I didn't plan on writing most of this but I don't really like to stop myself once I get going. This whole post is kinda all over the place so you'll have to forgive me for that too.

Also, if you wanna hear about some good things, I went to an NBA game AND and Ice Hockey game recently. They were both pretty awesome. The latter because we were sitting right in front on the glass so when the players knocked into it we could feel the whole thing vibrating! It was actually kinda scary. Also, the game went into overtime AND there was a penalty shoot out which was really exciting. The NBA game was also cool. Even though the home team (Toronto Raptors) lost it was awesome cos we got a free slice of pizza if they scored more than 100 points. Which they did! 103 to be exact. I also went to see Chris Cornell live which was absolutely amazing. He played for about 2 and a half hours and I knew probably about 90% of all the songs he played (there were a few Soundgarden ones that I didn't know). I think that's all I've done actually. I've been taking things a bit more slowly because of the money situation mainly, but also because I want to pace myself. I keep forgetting that I still have 3 months of travelling left to do!

Boston - where everybody knows your name

So this past weekend we kinda decided to spontaneously go away for the weekend. This happened after our PR class on Thursday night so as soon as we got back to the Primrose, instead of going out like regular people, we went back to my room to look for these flights right? The original plan was to fly to NYC but we couldn't find these mythical $79 flights that we'd been hearing about. Possibly cos we were booking last minute or on the wrong website or something? Possibly both. Anyways, we decided to look at other places seeing as we're going to NYC for Xmas and New Years anyways and the further we seemed to go from Toronto the more expensive it was. I mean, it cost like, about a grand to get to like, Chicago and it cost about the same to get from Toronto to Russia or even Greenland. Anyways, we settled on Boston because it wasn't super expensive and Boston Uni was our number 1 choice of exchange university before they dropped out. (To be honest though, I probably couldn't picture myself studying there - too much school spirit shit, and frat houses and sororities and whatever.)

Right, so we were up until like, 3.30 in the morning and still hadn't booked anything and hadn't got confirmation from the guy who's idea this actually was. I didn't get to sleep till about 4.30 though cos I had issues. Don't ask. So on Friday we went ahead and booked our flights to Boston but weren't able to find accommodation so decided to wing it. We actually managed to find a nice place to stay though, it was a little bit out from the CBD but was really nice. Just like your Grandma's place would look like, the lady who ran it was lovely too. We settled on this after being so determined to find something within the city but seriously, Boston seems to only have only like, 5 or 6 hostels in the ENTIRE CITY.

Our first flight was to Detroit, Michigan which left a 6.50 in the morning. My first trip to the US was going well. We spent a few hours at the airport just hangin out. Breakfast was kinda American. The bacon was like, deep fried and crispy. Yum. I also kinda hate 'hash browns' that are like this. They need to be in rectangular form dammit! Or even triangular! Circular even! Not this shit!

Anyways, the flight to Boston was pretty uneventful (not to mention short!). And, as mentioned before, we went looking for accommodation. We wrote down a few addresses while waiting at the airport in Detroit so had sort of an idea of were to go. Or so I thought. The first place we went was totally in the suburbs and looked kinda dodgy. Sort of like a crack house. A nice crack house though. And that's not even the worst bit. The cab alone from the airport cost us like $40! To get to the middle of suburban Boston! Not a good start. Not a good start at all. Luckily, another cab had just turned the corner. He was a lot more helpful, though he decided to drop us off at a place where we knew had no vacancies, at least for the Saturday night anyways but we thought we'd try our luck. As a last resort we decided we would check out the hotels around the city (which I kinda knew that we couldn't afford anyway). Half of them were fully booked for the Satureday and the other half were waaaay to expensive - almost as much as the flights! In the end we decided to go back to the place outside the city because we didn't want to waste any more of the daylight.

Turned out there wasn't much of the daylight left to waste anyway. It started to get dark around 4.30ish which was weird. Like, as if it were 7 or 8 pm.

This is Boston at 5pm.

Not having had anything to eat since our lovely Detroit breakfast, we decided to grab some lunch/ dinner and apparently there was some good ethnic food around where the hostel was. So we (by we I mean I) decided on Chinese, seeing as I hadn't had any for a while. It was an....interesting experience. We ordered the roast pork fried rice, sweet and sour chicken and broccoli with oyster sauce. The latter was absolutely fine besides the extra large sized pieces. The sweet and sour chicken was cold, 80% batter and had maraschino cherries in it! The rice was also soaked in soy sauce, so much so that it looked like they used brown rice instead of white! It was also served on this weird, silver platter thing. I don't have a photo of it but man, it was weird.

As you can imagine, we got out of there as soon as we could. We headed back into town to check out some of the city. We stumbled upon a massive food market which was in the middle of packing down for the day so they were trying to sell all there stuff for ridiculously cheap prices - (puts on a Bostonian accent) 'boxxa beans fer a buck!' (or something to that effect. I wasn't paying much attention).

We also found Qunicy Market and Faneuil (rhymes with 'manual') Hall which was a massive market with two long buildings filled with shops and one which was just a massive food court which was amazing. There were candy stores, oyster bars, bakeries, and a lot of ethnic and Bostonian foods. Which would have been a lot better than Chinese food. Ha. There was also replica of the bar from 'Cheers' which was pretty awesome. The real one though was only a few blocks away.

So, it was totally wet and kinda raining so we went to see 'The Dark Knight' at Imax which was pretty ridiculous. I mean, I've seen it before but seeing it on Imax was well, ok, it was exactly the same but on a bigger screen. But I think after taking Hollywood and Society and uni and learning about the history of cinema it kinda made me appreciate what like, widescreen and cinerama and stuff like that may have been like. Anyways, that's enough nerding for now. Oh, we also saw the Paramount theatre which first opened in 1932 and had enough seating for about 1700 people and was one of the first movie houses in Boston to play talking movies. Ok, THAT'S enough nerding.


Right, so after heading back to Grandma's place, we decided to plan our next day. Our only full day in Boston. We picked up a few pamphlets at the airport. One of which was for whale watching - 'whale sightings guaranteed!' it said. Why the hell not? Also, how can you guarantee a whale sighting? - which was at 8.30 and took about 3 hours so we thought we'd go do that and then check out Quincy Market by day cos apparently it was alive and kicking at about 11.30ish. Sounded like a plan. We rock up to the whale watching place at 8.30 am on the dot and ask whether we can still get tickets. (Lady behind glass with microphone) ' ...there is no 8.30 sailing (idiots). It's fall, so the earliest one is at 12.30'. Right. So, plan B. What the hell is plan B? We decided to buy the tickets and grab some breakfast from Quincy Market. We made it back just in time to join a tour of the city, which conveniently took about 2 hours - we'd make it back just in time to board the boat to watch some whales. Guaranteed whales!


The tour was actually pretty awesome. It was one of those hop on, hop off tours but no one in our trolley thing wanted to leave cos our guide was really funny. We learned a lot about the history of the area including Paul Revere, Sam Adams and the start of the American revolution. A lot of which I can't quite recall right now but it all started with the Boston Tea Pahty where John Hancock and Sam Adams dumped an equivalent of $1.2 million dollars of tea into the ocean. Party over. Anyways, they were wanted for high treason by the British. Long story short, Paul Revere, the legend that he is, rode his horse Brown Beauty to where Hancock and Adams were hiding to warn them that the British forces were coming. This was the start of the American Revolution. Ok, there's a LOT more to it than this - something about farmers using nails as bullets and overpowering the British or whatever. We also saw the balcony where the declaration of independence was first read and has been every Independence Day since. I'm pretty sure we saw a lot of other stuff which I don't quite remember (which is totally my fault for leaving this post so late after the fact).

Whales! It took like, about an hour to get to the sactuary and I was standing on the bow of the boat for the whole time, freezing my face off for no reason. The annoying thing was that 2 minutes after I finally caved and went inside the first whale was spotted. It was pretty slow to begin with, only one whale here and there but then it started to pick up with several pairs of mothers and calves and they even breached the water a few times which apparently doesn't happen very often. I took like, more than 100 photos cos I couldn't really tell what I was taking photos of...

WHALE!

WHALE SPLASH! aka too slow to get it coming fully out of the water!

This was a total fluke. It's also my favourite shot.

Right, so we got back at about 4ish and the sun was beginning to set on the way back to port. Having not eaten since breakfast we decided to grab some dinner. At about 5pm. Crazy. But anyways, its was super dark and we decided to go to a seafood restaurant seeing as Boston is kinda famous for it? I dunno. Anyways, I had the clam chowder which apparently has been served a seven presidential dinners as well as the tuna and Boston cream pie for dessert. Which, to be honest, tasted kinda like cheesecake. We also managed to get a bottle of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc (GASP! Underage drinking!) which was nice.

Boston Cream Pie

We called it a night after this I think. Back to Grandma's house we went. And after discovering our flight back was at 4pm instead of 2 we decided that in the morning we'd walk a bit of the Freedom Trail which we missed on the tour (the car went right around it and this part was best seen on foot) head over to Harvard University. So we went to see Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church which was one of the 3 beacon signals which was used to signal Revere to start his ride. From here we made our way to Harvard. Luckily there was like, a tour group close by which we kinda snuck into. I was all like 'sup, yeah, I'm thinking about going to Harvard'. But yeah, the grounds were amazing. The economics building looked kinda like the White House and the dining hall looked amazing too! Did you know, that Harvard University has the largest collection of secular stained glass windows in the world? Wow. Anyways, the dining hall looks a lot like the one from Harry Potter with the long wooden tables and the majestic interiors. The food must be amazing. Better than the Chinese food for sure. Ha. Speaking of Harry Potter, apparently Emma Watson was at Harvard looking at the campus a few weeks before we were there. Woah.

Back to the lovely Prescott International Hotel and Hostel we went. Picked up our stuff and headed off to the airport. We tried to hail a cab from the street which was simple enough, funny this was though was that this particular cab was actually there to pick up his son from school (at 2 o'clock!?) but we got in as well. Funny. Fast forward to airport security (cos lets be honest now, this post is just getting ridiculous. I apologise). I totally had to get pat down by the security guard and I have no idea why. He then proceeded to ask me about how New Zealand is. Ok. Also, what was kinda unfair is that the other person I was with got bumped up to first class cos some guy wanted to sit next to some woman who he hadn't seen in a while. Loser. So I was kinda sad about that but that gave me time to work on my presentation which I had to do on Wednesday. Blah blah blah, fastforward to when we got back to the Primrose. Weekend over.

And thus (kind of) began my American odyssey. Kinda prematurely but whatever.

Right, just one more par. about other stuff. The day after we got back I had to pay for October's rent cos apparently I hadn't. I assumed I had seeing as they hadn't called me about it or anything. I also payed for this month's rent too which made me super poor. Also, I found out that my contract at the Primrose doesn't expire until April which obviously a massive problem. I was kinda freaking out about it for a while just trying to find a way out of it but I may have found someone to sublet my room after I leave. Only thing is, is that I would have to pay some of the rent to make it worth their while. Lame. It's a hotel policy thing about filling vacant rooms first. Don't ask. Also, my camera is pretty much a write off which is also lame.

Oh, wow. I think this is the end! Thanks for sticking with me. This was as much of an effort to write as I'm sure it was to read. Hopefully the photos made it somewhat bearable though.

Progress....of sorts.

Five weeks from today I wont have a job. I handed in my letter of resignation but I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. I've been there for about 4 years now and don't get me wrong, I'll miss all the people there but I've probably progressed as far as I can at this point in time. Plus hospitality isn't really my thing. I've always maintained that hospo was alright as a job/ to get money but I don't think I could ever make it a career. It's just the dealing with people all day everyday which I suppose you can't really get away from unless you're a hermit, but thats not really a job now is it?. I dunno, I guess its just that people can be so demanding sometimes, also you don't really get time to yourself. I guess you either love it or you don't, I'm somewhere in the middle.


But anyway, now that that is crossed off my to-do list I've been looking at the procedure s for getting a student/ temporary resident visa and it's kinda confusing. I've also been looking at flights but I'm don't know where exactly I'm gonna go but its looking like I'll be going from Auckland to Vancouver and then make my way along the border to Toronto by train.

Also on my places to go list is Alaska! Ever since I was reminded of it's existence a few days ago I've wanted to go pretty bad. It just looks amazing, largely untouched by man and oozing with native wildlife that most people can only see in a zoo or wildlife park. I dunno, everything is semi planned at the moment. My planning has been kinda half-assed which is something I guess I can't do with something like this.

But yeah, I dunno, it seems like in the coming month or so I'm gonna have to fork out a crap-load of cash for stuff: plane tickets, travel insurance, warm clothes (for my first white Christmas!), a backpack, fees for various stuff etc etc..... So the plan is to keep spending to a minimum i guess. Easier said than done.

*edit: If there's one thing that I've learned in my time doing hospo it's that you can't say 'no'. Ever. Except drunk people. You can always say no to them. Always. But anyway, I've figured out a couple of ways to get around doing things that you don't really wanna do for whatever reason. One of the phrases that I've found comes in handy is: 'I'll see what I can do". That way, if you actually can do what your customer wants/asks then you look awesome, if you can't/don't want to it looks like you've at least tried to do something. Either way you're good. I know this sounds kinda bad but there are just some things that people ask you to do that just make no sense/ you know you can't possibly do. So yeah, I just hope I'm not the only one who does this. The thought of other people doing this is the only way I can live with myself ahahahahaha