bye bye USA!

Hello from the beautiful city of Vancouver!

Kerri, Christine, and I left from the Marriott Hotel in Charlotte at 4:30 a.m. to head to the airport for our 6:59 a.m. flight. After running on practically no sleep because of the busy weekend we had just had and the not-so pleasant news I received last night, we were surprisingly ECSTATIC! My excitement was partially because of Canada, but mostly because my INCREDIBLE friend P. Sawyer has been spoiling for my birthday month and I got to open up a goodie this morning! YAY! I. Love. Her. Period.

After a two hour flight to Chicago, a two hour layover to match, and a five hour flight to Vancouver, we finally arrived in this beautiful city. We checked into the hotel, got our money exchanged, and grabbed some lunch. It was only 2 o’clock, but our bodies hadn’t adjusted to the time change and, therefore, we were already pretty exhausted. After lunch, my roomies and I stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things, and then headed back to the hostel to unpack and reorganize our bags.

John, Chris, and Ashley mentioned going for a walk in Stanley Park, and I was definitely game for that! Our first stop: THE PACIFIC OCEAN!!!! I was totally pumped about this because it was my very first time seeing it and touching the water! It was FAH-REE-ZING, but totally worth the frostbite that my right hand may or may not have.

We continued walking, in a desperate search for the totem poles, when John asked two people sitting on a bench if they could direct us towards them. Immediately, they jumped up, introduced themselves, and offered to take us there themselves. Steve and Naline were SUCH a huge help and they were SO nice, too! They walked with us for about 45 minutes, giving us tidbits of information about the things we were passing along the way. At last, we found the totem poles! Three hours later, that is. All of our feet were about to kill over on us, but we kept on keeping on. It was all worth it when we spotted an otter on a dock in the marina-that was another “first” added to my list today.

We got back to our hostel around 7:30 p.m., a whopping four hours after we first left, and we had a quick class meeting at 8 o’clock, then Kerri, Christine, and I fixed ourselves some nice canned food in the kitchen of the hostel. High class, I’m tellin’ ya. Chef Boyardee for dinner: the story of my life.

I hopped in a quick shower and here I am now, snuggled up in bed in my onesie. At 10 o’clock. While most of the rest of the class is out exploring Vancouver’s night life. Maybe tomorrow we’ll venture out into the city, if my poor feet will be able to make it through the day. Since the drinking age in Canada is 19 and Kerri and Christine will knock me out if they don’t get to buy me a drink, I guess we have no choice but to get around to it. : )

Over and out. Sweet dreams!