Completed!
39, 484 words. That is 14,484 words longer than my thesis should be.
I am sooooo giddy it took sooo long!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
So a clown walks into a bar.
and sits down.
That's not funny.
And yet, it still involves a clown.
So here I find myself blogging for the second day in a row after something of a sabbatical. I am feeling much more upbeat today, maybe its the weather, maybe its because I finally didn't spend my day sick in bed. I still have bronchitis but I am healing.
Other:
So I bought a scarf in South Africa. A pashmina, red,gold and orange which I haven't gone a day without wearing since I returned from South Africa. Today I spontaneously swapped scarves with a friend for a week today. I plan to photo-document the adventures of said scarf and report back to you.
A Rant:
So. I was listening to one of my interviews today, the first one I have made an attempt toward transcribing in a while. I thought it was a relatively straight forward interview without an exceptional amount of sorrow. A good way to ease back into things. Unfortunately it was not quite so straightforward. The respondent, a young woman who is now 19 told me about when war reached her city, Kisangani, in 2000. She was 10. When the Rwandans and Ugandans started fighting in her city they cut off the power and water supply to the entire population. They went for an entire week without bathing or clean drinking water and survived off of the food her mother was able to collect at the beginning of the week. A day into the fighting her neighbour's house was struck by a bomb, killing to people. Their bodies lay exposed in the rubble for days until the stench became unbarable and her family had to seek shelter elsewhere. That, she told me, is when they became "displaced". She also told me about how a number of children in her class died when a bomb was dropped on the school and how she was unable to attend classes for 5 months after the week long conflict.She also explained unwaveringly that the exiting armies lay land mines around the border of her city which killed many children who picked them up, thinking they were toys.
For the first time today, I succumbed to tears today after listening to one of my interviews. We almost all know that such things occur but its hard to imagine until someone sits in front of you and tells you about it or worse yet it happens to you.
My distress has now subsided into ambivalence. How do we, as Canadians, as citizens of a peaceful developed countries, as youth, and most of all as people, how do we continue to allow these tragedies to continue to occur? Is it that we have become cynical and believe that in certain countries, in the heart of darkness, there is no hope? Is it because the media only reports on certain conflicts and when they do its largely inaccurate? Is it because its happening too far away and you don't know what you could do anyway?
No child should ever have to smell the rotting corpses of their neighbour.
The reason that we should care, and perhaps must care is that such events are in no one's interest in the long run. They only serve to divide us further, to breed hatred against the people who stood by and did nothing. Even if you are an ardent capitalist, it removes access to markets, reduces the amount of consumers for your capital. It could just as easily be your town or city which is bombed to pieces or left riddled with bullets. How would you feel if the world looked on and did nothing. Sighed when they heard that more than 5 million people have died after a decade long war.
If we are ever interested in seeing long lasting, sustainable peace in the world we have to start acting. We have to abandon the us versus them mentality that sees people living these realities as others, glad we're not them. We have to start looking out for one another. Its not that hard. Get informed. Write a letter. Stop supporting companies which contribute to arms proliferation or the continuation of war. Better yet, demand that our governments also stop. Donate to a charity that is doing something if you must. Spread the word.
I have a friend with whom I debate such matters. Recently we were talking about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He insisted that there were more civilian casualties caused by insurgents and the Taliban than by coalition forces. When he forwarded me a report showing this and asserting that the insurgents and Taliban were intentionally targeting civilians while those who died as a result of coalition activities were unfortunate but unavoidable collateral damage, I asked him whether he really thought it mattered to the family and friends of the people who died whether they were killed intentionally by militants or accidentally by soldiers. It doesn't. Loved ones are still lost. Bodies still rot in the streets.
Stop war.
That's not funny.
And yet, it still involves a clown.
So here I find myself blogging for the second day in a row after something of a sabbatical. I am feeling much more upbeat today, maybe its the weather, maybe its because I finally didn't spend my day sick in bed. I still have bronchitis but I am healing.
Other:
So I bought a scarf in South Africa. A pashmina, red,gold and orange which I haven't gone a day without wearing since I returned from South Africa. Today I spontaneously swapped scarves with a friend for a week today. I plan to photo-document the adventures of said scarf and report back to you.
A Rant:
So. I was listening to one of my interviews today, the first one I have made an attempt toward transcribing in a while. I thought it was a relatively straight forward interview without an exceptional amount of sorrow. A good way to ease back into things. Unfortunately it was not quite so straightforward. The respondent, a young woman who is now 19 told me about when war reached her city, Kisangani, in 2000. She was 10. When the Rwandans and Ugandans started fighting in her city they cut off the power and water supply to the entire population. They went for an entire week without bathing or clean drinking water and survived off of the food her mother was able to collect at the beginning of the week. A day into the fighting her neighbour's house was struck by a bomb, killing to people. Their bodies lay exposed in the rubble for days until the stench became unbarable and her family had to seek shelter elsewhere. That, she told me, is when they became "displaced". She also told me about how a number of children in her class died when a bomb was dropped on the school and how she was unable to attend classes for 5 months after the week long conflict.She also explained unwaveringly that the exiting armies lay land mines around the border of her city which killed many children who picked them up, thinking they were toys.
For the first time today, I succumbed to tears today after listening to one of my interviews. We almost all know that such things occur but its hard to imagine until someone sits in front of you and tells you about it or worse yet it happens to you.
My distress has now subsided into ambivalence. How do we, as Canadians, as citizens of a peaceful developed countries, as youth, and most of all as people, how do we continue to allow these tragedies to continue to occur? Is it that we have become cynical and believe that in certain countries, in the heart of darkness, there is no hope? Is it because the media only reports on certain conflicts and when they do its largely inaccurate? Is it because its happening too far away and you don't know what you could do anyway?
No child should ever have to smell the rotting corpses of their neighbour.
The reason that we should care, and perhaps must care is that such events are in no one's interest in the long run. They only serve to divide us further, to breed hatred against the people who stood by and did nothing. Even if you are an ardent capitalist, it removes access to markets, reduces the amount of consumers for your capital. It could just as easily be your town or city which is bombed to pieces or left riddled with bullets. How would you feel if the world looked on and did nothing. Sighed when they heard that more than 5 million people have died after a decade long war.
If we are ever interested in seeing long lasting, sustainable peace in the world we have to start acting. We have to abandon the us versus them mentality that sees people living these realities as others, glad we're not them. We have to start looking out for one another. Its not that hard. Get informed. Write a letter. Stop supporting companies which contribute to arms proliferation or the continuation of war. Better yet, demand that our governments also stop. Donate to a charity that is doing something if you must. Spread the word.
I have a friend with whom I debate such matters. Recently we were talking about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He insisted that there were more civilian casualties caused by insurgents and the Taliban than by coalition forces. When he forwarded me a report showing this and asserting that the insurgents and Taliban were intentionally targeting civilians while those who died as a result of coalition activities were unfortunate but unavoidable collateral damage, I asked him whether he really thought it mattered to the family and friends of the people who died whether they were killed intentionally by militants or accidentally by soldiers. It doesn't. Loved ones are still lost. Bodies still rot in the streets.
Stop war.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
A Comedy of Errors
For as long as I can remember I have hated making mistakes. The earliest example I can think of this was when I was 8 and was at a Birthday party where I was given pop. Pop was something of a luxury for me and reveled in being able to blow bubbles in it. Unfortunately blowing bubbles in my pop had the foreseeable result of the pop bubbling out of the can and ending up all over my good clothing. I was so upset that I cried for about an hour because I was sure my parents would be disappointed in me. They weren't.
In high school and at the beginning of university I would often hold back from raising my hand to answer questions or if I did raise my hand by the time it was my turn to respond my heart would be raising and my face would be a lovely shade of red as I spat out my response to the question. This fear of making mistakes continues to persist in my life in the strangest of ways. For example I sometimes struggle with speaking french because I am very concerned with making a grammatical error. Francophones for the most part of course don't mind if you make mistakes, they are just glad that someone is trying to speak their languages.
Recently I have been making a ridiculous number of mistakes. It probably started when I returned from South Africa regretting that I had not told a certain individual how I felt about him. I found myself sitting up at night thinking about him and eventually sent him a letter telling him how I felt. This was not a mistake. It didn't change my feelings for the person one bit, but they were out there and known and sharing that load made things just a bit easier.
When I arrived back in Halifax I almost immediately started spending time with a new fellow who I had known before but not very well. I discovered that we shared a number of similar interests and dove head first into having the most ridiculous crush on him than perhaps I have ever experienced.
After about a month of this, I felt uncertain as to where I stood with him so I started to try to find ways to tell, asking friends advice, trying to engage in additional physical contact, but I couldn't tell how he felt, although it had become more clear that I was not the only woman after his affections.
With the added bit of stress I decided to step it up a notch and tried to find ways or opportunities to tell him how I felt. Some of these were missed others never materialized. So in a move of exasperation I prepared a straightforward hand written note which I handed to him last Sunday. The following week unfolded for me and involved a theatrical performance which was attended by said person and additional encounters in group settings. I also mistakenly sent a text message to him which was intended for a friend which read "He came to my performance last night and he was beaming at me the entire time. Still no word on the note" It took me 3 hours to realize this text had not gone to the right person and I was totally mortified.
As the week went on my nerves became more frayed and I began to try to push for an answer. Eventually I asked him over facebook whether he had read the note and he said he had and that we'd talk but all subsequent attempts to make plans have failed. (In fairness to him he has been really busy with school work and I may not be being sensitive enough to this).
So obviously I have made a number of errors throughout this saga, ranging from my almost hilarious text message to the more serious mistake of diving into a new crush to try to forget about something across the ocean.
Of course we all make mistakes. To me this feels like a pretty massive one.
This particular string of mistakes seems to point to the sentiment that if you ever expect to find true love, you have to put up with a lot of heart ache along the way.
More importantly it raises the question: how can one learn if they never make mistakes?
In high school and at the beginning of university I would often hold back from raising my hand to answer questions or if I did raise my hand by the time it was my turn to respond my heart would be raising and my face would be a lovely shade of red as I spat out my response to the question. This fear of making mistakes continues to persist in my life in the strangest of ways. For example I sometimes struggle with speaking french because I am very concerned with making a grammatical error. Francophones for the most part of course don't mind if you make mistakes, they are just glad that someone is trying to speak their languages.
Recently I have been making a ridiculous number of mistakes. It probably started when I returned from South Africa regretting that I had not told a certain individual how I felt about him. I found myself sitting up at night thinking about him and eventually sent him a letter telling him how I felt. This was not a mistake. It didn't change my feelings for the person one bit, but they were out there and known and sharing that load made things just a bit easier.
When I arrived back in Halifax I almost immediately started spending time with a new fellow who I had known before but not very well. I discovered that we shared a number of similar interests and dove head first into having the most ridiculous crush on him than perhaps I have ever experienced.
After about a month of this, I felt uncertain as to where I stood with him so I started to try to find ways to tell, asking friends advice, trying to engage in additional physical contact, but I couldn't tell how he felt, although it had become more clear that I was not the only woman after his affections.
With the added bit of stress I decided to step it up a notch and tried to find ways or opportunities to tell him how I felt. Some of these were missed others never materialized. So in a move of exasperation I prepared a straightforward hand written note which I handed to him last Sunday. The following week unfolded for me and involved a theatrical performance which was attended by said person and additional encounters in group settings. I also mistakenly sent a text message to him which was intended for a friend which read "He came to my performance last night and he was beaming at me the entire time. Still no word on the note" It took me 3 hours to realize this text had not gone to the right person and I was totally mortified.
As the week went on my nerves became more frayed and I began to try to push for an answer. Eventually I asked him over facebook whether he had read the note and he said he had and that we'd talk but all subsequent attempts to make plans have failed. (In fairness to him he has been really busy with school work and I may not be being sensitive enough to this).
So obviously I have made a number of errors throughout this saga, ranging from my almost hilarious text message to the more serious mistake of diving into a new crush to try to forget about something across the ocean.
Of course we all make mistakes. To me this feels like a pretty massive one.
This particular string of mistakes seems to point to the sentiment that if you ever expect to find true love, you have to put up with a lot of heart ache along the way.
More importantly it raises the question: how can one learn if they never make mistakes?
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Adventures
So if you are reading this post you may have noticed a change in the title of my blog from "Adventures in the travels and life of Kirsten" to "Adventures in the Life of Kirsten". As most of you know this blog was initially intended to keep friends and family abreast of my experiences in South Africa and Switzerland, and you also know that I have now been back in Canada for more than 2 months and while I miss South Africa terribly my adventures there have meant that I have even more friends all over the world who I need to keep in touch with. Also it would seem that my adventures are not travel dependent. In fact after some thought about it Adventures seem to be a major theme in my life. My love for adventure even goes as far as to explain a lot of the random things that I have experienced that previously seemed inexplicable. One example of this is the delightfully random people who I meet and tell me their stories, since meeting new people is often part of my adventures. So right now my adventures happen to be occurring in Halifax, and they will be for a little bit longer than I thought since my contract with the Halifax Refugee Clinic has been extended. And while the location of my adventures may be shifting well into the future, you can count on one thing, that I will keep writing about them in this blog.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
In memorial
Its been a while since I updated my blog.
I wish it was in happier circumstances that I wrote this.
I have been working at the Halifax Refugee Clinic now for 4 weeks. Today when I got into work I was informed that one of the refugees had disappeared after leaving a suicide note, that all of his things in his room and that they were continuing to search for him.
This refugee was from Eritrea where where he had been part of the army, which is known for having committed serious human rights abuses. After having tried to desert the army and being recaptured and forced into retraining, this man left the country leaving his life and his family behind. He was found inadmissible for refugee status in Canada as a result of his involvement in the army, despite the fact that there is documented evidence that if he returned to Eritrea he would be tortured and killed.
The law making people who are suspected of being involved of major human rights abuses makes a lot of sense on its surface, Canada probably doesn't want people to seek asylum here from legal repercussions resulting from actions which they perpetrated in their home countries. However, this line of logic assumes that the countries where these people are coming from have just non corrupt legal systems that don't inflict torture and death on their prisoners and returned refugees. Sending someone accused of human rights abuses to a country where they almost certainly will face torture and death seems to follow the same logic as the death penalty, which is flawed at best. In such cases arguably it would be better for Canada to exercise universal jurisdiction and detain and hear the case of the individual hear and in the case of a guilty verdict also detain them here to avoid such unthinkable situations.
The day that this refugee disappeared was the same day that he was supposed to have a meeting with Canadian Border Services Agency to begin the process of deportation (a flight risk assessment).
At 1:30 this afternoon the clinic got a call informing us that the refugee had hung himself in Clayton Park.
I wish it was in happier circumstances that I wrote this.
I have been working at the Halifax Refugee Clinic now for 4 weeks. Today when I got into work I was informed that one of the refugees had disappeared after leaving a suicide note, that all of his things in his room and that they were continuing to search for him.
This refugee was from Eritrea where where he had been part of the army, which is known for having committed serious human rights abuses. After having tried to desert the army and being recaptured and forced into retraining, this man left the country leaving his life and his family behind. He was found inadmissible for refugee status in Canada as a result of his involvement in the army, despite the fact that there is documented evidence that if he returned to Eritrea he would be tortured and killed.
The law making people who are suspected of being involved of major human rights abuses makes a lot of sense on its surface, Canada probably doesn't want people to seek asylum here from legal repercussions resulting from actions which they perpetrated in their home countries. However, this line of logic assumes that the countries where these people are coming from have just non corrupt legal systems that don't inflict torture and death on their prisoners and returned refugees. Sending someone accused of human rights abuses to a country where they almost certainly will face torture and death seems to follow the same logic as the death penalty, which is flawed at best. In such cases arguably it would be better for Canada to exercise universal jurisdiction and detain and hear the case of the individual hear and in the case of a guilty verdict also detain them here to avoid such unthinkable situations.
The day that this refugee disappeared was the same day that he was supposed to have a meeting with Canadian Border Services Agency to begin the process of deportation (a flight risk assessment).
At 1:30 this afternoon the clinic got a call informing us that the refugee had hung himself in Clayton Park.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
There's a lot going on!
Wow. What a long way I have already come in 2010. I have a couple of pieces of news to report.
First, as most of you know I started to look for a job when I came back to Canada to at least hold me over until I finished my thesis. I am happy to say that I have been taken on as an intern at the Halifax Refugee Clinic for 10 hours a week and I am also up for a 5 hour a week job on campus. This should work out nicely with the continuation of my thesis as I will continue to have time to transcribe and read and since the position is in Halifax I will have access to the University library. Also I am taking some steps to make my stay in Halifax a bit nicer than the last time. I have found a beautiful apartment with three room mates who seem eager to make friends with me, I am developing some old connections and I will be taking both a theatre and swing dancing course (fun fact, I have always wanted to learn how to swing dance).
On the darker side of things I found out last week that my credit card was compromised while I was in Durban with the person who copied it trying to make over $7000.00 worth of transactions on it in a one month period. Fortunately my credit card company was quick to react after the first transaction was $3000.00 which is three times my credit limit. Ha. So I have to say that I am a little bit disappointed about this, feeling quite smug having escaped any crime in SA after being mugged at gun point in the Netherlands. Oh well, the fact of the matter is, they didn't succeed and really much worse things could have hapened. However, I would be curious to know which of the vendors I used my card at copied it as there weren't that many.
A Comment On Hati
With my life business out of the way I thought I would make a comment on the earthquake in Hati. Two weeks ago disaster struck Hati when a 7.0 earthquake flattened the city of Port au Prince, killing and injuring many more than most of us would care to think about. In the days following the earthquake we saw non-stop media coverage of the disaster which prompted many Canadians, including myself, to donate money to various agencies (I donated to Humanitarian Action which is an NGO comprised of Oxfam, Care and Save the Children, given my history with Care and knowing that one of their project managers is Hatian). Our donations have sent millions of dollars in relief to the country.
When we look at these donations at face value it seems to exhibit a high degree of compassion and generocity. Of course the media has played a major part in provoking this response by continually broadcasting images of the destruction (The CBC has been mainly focussing on how the earthquake has effected Canada which somehow seems to miss the point but never mind). However, I can't help but think that since 1998 Congo has experienced many of the same problems Haiti is experiencing now; a lack of access to food, water, shelter and security and while the Hatian death toll continues to climb into the hundred of thousands, in 2009 the death toll in the DRC surpassed 5 million. Yet there have been no benefit concerts or telethons to help the victims of the conflict in the Congo, there is very little media coverage and the Canadian government along with many others continues to support business and continue other practices which continue to feed the conflict (resource exploitation being the main problem). As a result there is a significant lack of awareness about the disaster in Congo and so very little is being done about it. To be honest if we had been meeting our milennium development goals and providing assistance to Haiti all along I can't help but think that the earthquake would not have had such disasterous consequences.
I strongly feel that more awareness does need to be created about the situation in Congo and other war and natural disaster affected countries. It shouldn't take a media storm for us to take action to end global sufferring.
First, as most of you know I started to look for a job when I came back to Canada to at least hold me over until I finished my thesis. I am happy to say that I have been taken on as an intern at the Halifax Refugee Clinic for 10 hours a week and I am also up for a 5 hour a week job on campus. This should work out nicely with the continuation of my thesis as I will continue to have time to transcribe and read and since the position is in Halifax I will have access to the University library. Also I am taking some steps to make my stay in Halifax a bit nicer than the last time. I have found a beautiful apartment with three room mates who seem eager to make friends with me, I am developing some old connections and I will be taking both a theatre and swing dancing course (fun fact, I have always wanted to learn how to swing dance).
On the darker side of things I found out last week that my credit card was compromised while I was in Durban with the person who copied it trying to make over $7000.00 worth of transactions on it in a one month period. Fortunately my credit card company was quick to react after the first transaction was $3000.00 which is three times my credit limit. Ha. So I have to say that I am a little bit disappointed about this, feeling quite smug having escaped any crime in SA after being mugged at gun point in the Netherlands. Oh well, the fact of the matter is, they didn't succeed and really much worse things could have hapened. However, I would be curious to know which of the vendors I used my card at copied it as there weren't that many.
A Comment On Hati
With my life business out of the way I thought I would make a comment on the earthquake in Hati. Two weeks ago disaster struck Hati when a 7.0 earthquake flattened the city of Port au Prince, killing and injuring many more than most of us would care to think about. In the days following the earthquake we saw non-stop media coverage of the disaster which prompted many Canadians, including myself, to donate money to various agencies (I donated to Humanitarian Action which is an NGO comprised of Oxfam, Care and Save the Children, given my history with Care and knowing that one of their project managers is Hatian). Our donations have sent millions of dollars in relief to the country.
When we look at these donations at face value it seems to exhibit a high degree of compassion and generocity. Of course the media has played a major part in provoking this response by continually broadcasting images of the destruction (The CBC has been mainly focussing on how the earthquake has effected Canada which somehow seems to miss the point but never mind). However, I can't help but think that since 1998 Congo has experienced many of the same problems Haiti is experiencing now; a lack of access to food, water, shelter and security and while the Hatian death toll continues to climb into the hundred of thousands, in 2009 the death toll in the DRC surpassed 5 million. Yet there have been no benefit concerts or telethons to help the victims of the conflict in the Congo, there is very little media coverage and the Canadian government along with many others continues to support business and continue other practices which continue to feed the conflict (resource exploitation being the main problem). As a result there is a significant lack of awareness about the disaster in Congo and so very little is being done about it. To be honest if we had been meeting our milennium development goals and providing assistance to Haiti all along I can't help but think that the earthquake would not have had such disasterous consequences.
I strongly feel that more awareness does need to be created about the situation in Congo and other war and natural disaster affected countries. It shouldn't take a media storm for us to take action to end global sufferring.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Trip Home
Howdy,
wt
Its been a while. You may be wondering where I have been. I guess the truth is trying to reaquaint myself with Canada and spending some time with Friends and Family in Mississauga and Ottawa. However, if this blog is to keep going I must at least occassionally write so I thought I might pick up where I left off which was the trip home.
My trip home was approximately 30 hours from Jo'burg to Toronto with a stop over in Zurich and Montreal. The first leg of my flight was over night. I was a bit concerned that I might not sleep as this tends to be a problem for me on most aircraft. Lucky for me (yeah right) my entertainment system did not work for the entirety of my 12 hour flight with Swiss International Airways and so it was quite easy to sleep (especially after a glas of wine) My favorite part of this flight was when we flew over the Mediterranean sea and reached the French alps where you could see the outline of the European continent lit up by city lights. It was stunning.
After landing in Zurich, with a 6.5 hour stopover ahead of me I had to make a decision. To stay in the airport or to spend some of my time exploring Zurich. Because I slept on the plane I chose the latter and headed through customs, which I am fortunate enough to be able to do with my Canadian Passport. I then took the train to Zurich Central and proceeded in a direction which looked like it might have a cafe which was open at 7 in the morning. At this point it was still quite dark out which was a bit unusual as I had become acustomed to the sun rising at 5 a.m. in South Africa and boy was I feeling the cold (this only got worse when I arrived in Canada). So I found a cafe/bar which was open and enjoyed a cappucino. I then informed my server of what I was doing in Zurich and asked whether she could recomend anything to do at such an early hour in Zurich with such a constrained time frame and she suggested that I head for "The Lake" and gave me directions. So I made my way to the lake, once again amazed by the beauty of Switzerland and found myself at a lake very similar to lake Geneva, with hills and mountains on both sides. I later learned from my Aunt that it was Germany which I saw on the other side of that lake. Wow! what a beautiful sight! At this point I decided to make my adventure a photographic one and then proceeded to walk around just looking at and photographing things until my camera battery died.
After my battery had enough I was feeling very cold so I decided to stop for a tea. I chose a store attached to a chocolate shop that was quite busy and I was quite delighted to be served organic earl grey tea and I bought a croissant filled with chocolate. While I have discovered that for some reason I only like swiss croissants anyway, this was the best croissant I had ever has as it was also filled with swiss chocolate (which as I am sure you remember if you have been reading from the beginning that I ranted and raved about and truly feel that its better than Belgian chocolate) (my mouth is waterring just thinking about it). After my tea I walked around Zurich some more, taking in more sights and buying some last minute Christmas gifts. Before I stop blathering about Switzerland I do have to say that the people of Zurich were incredibly nice and friendly. While I found that the people in Geneva could be a bit aloof at times the people in Zurich seemed eager to talk with me, very polite and in some cases wanting to help if they could. When it was time for me to get on the train back to the airport I was wandering around a bit dazed trying to find my platform which had some absurd number like 254 (I was seeing numbers like 18 and thinking back to the Bassel incident I was getting a bit nervous) so a nice (and cute) young man approached me and asked if I needed help. Not only did he give me directions but he also walked with me to a point where he was sure I was headed in the right direction. Very nice indeed!
So then I headed for my next flight, to Montreal, desparately hoping that my entertainment system would work and it did. So for the first half of my flight I read the magazine called Intelligent Life (Whose content overrides the pretentiousness of its name) and watched "The Ugly Truth" for the second half. That flight arrived early and finished with a container of Movenpick ice cream (which was as delectable as when I purchased it from that street vendor in Geneva) so I was much more satisfied than with my first flight.
In Montreal I had to retrieve my bag from customs before I could connect to my domestic flight. I thought I might be in trouble when the Canadian Border Services official gave me a hard time about making a mistake on my form, knowing I lied about not having any wood products in my luggage (they were carvings given to me as gifts), but when I responded that I was sorry and that I was just tired and had been travelling for nearly 30 hours, this was sufficient and he le me through.
The plane ride from Montreal to Toronto was interesting. It was with Air Canada on some kind of new airplane where the over head luggage compartments folded into the ceiling and lights which faded into different colours and went bright pink when we started to land (this really happened I wasn't delusional from lack of sleep). I enjoyed an episode of big bang theory and was greeted at the gate by my mom Adam and Kristen. I really appreciated that they took the time to come and meet me at the airport. (Adam came all the way from Ottawa and Kristen's presence was a surprise). We then continued with my tradition of after arriving back on Canadian soil heading to Swiss Chalet for a festive special. Then exhausted I went home and went to bed.
I plan to fill in some more blanks in later posts but for now please enjoy a selection of pictures from my photographic adventure in Zurich!
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