august 7-20, 2008: on the equator

2:09 a.m. nikki sp
this is gonna be really difficult to replicate the exact feelings and observations of the trip. a trip i went on with work in partnership with free the children.
me and i think 14/15 or 16 other kids. a couple of supervisors. and an mtv crew.

overall it did offer a lot of perspective. it's hard to disclose some of the little stuff cuz i don't think i'm actually allowed to do that according to contract. but these are notes i took for myself as a part of some exercises we did...


AUG 13/08

1) 5 personal goals
- practice spanish/learn new words
- become a more selfless, empathetic person
- be friends with the children and make them smile, give them hope
- appreciate what i have, keep remembering how fortunate i am
- learn about Ecuadorian culture and wholly immerse myself in it

2) What do I hope to gain?
After/from this trip, I'd like to maintain the level of caring and genuine compassion once i get home. I would like to think the best of people and hope that no one would doubt or question my intentions either. I hope I don't forget what I learned while in Ecuador and can share these sentiments with my friends back home who can be a little jaded sometimes.

3) Why are you here?
I am here because I love to travel and I got the chance not only to travel with work, but also use my skills to improve a community in a less fortunate part of the world. I wanted to prove to my friends that I'm not lazy and self-centred and that I am capable of doing something positive.

4) How will this experience change your life?
This is giving me a chance to see people who had less of a chance than I did, yet still being so happy with so little. It will hopefully have me consuming less on the whole and sharing what I already have.



in retrospect... how optimistic and bright eyed was i about this trip??!
very.

i have balanced since then. not so much with the need to prove to people that i'm a good person. but just being a good person.
does that make sense? i dunno, i am tired.


i guess what else i have to say about this trip is... i need to do something like this with a different group of people, not with a camera crew around or anything. i'm sure we got such special treatment and i am grateful... but i would really like to try something else.

what i've repeated to people was that:
this was one of the hardest trips to pack for because of the various climates we experienced in a short period of time.
the kids are beautiful people.
we take for granted such little things like being able to brush our teeth with tap water. and having drinkable tap water in general. same with being able to flush toilet paper without having it cause some plumbing damage.
a little soup goes a loooong way. cheese in soup is DELISH
poor guinea pigs...
OH YEAH - i got altitude sickness when i was over there. totally out for pretty much the whole day. water is supposed to be good. but too much water in a highly acidic stomach + being locked on a bus = gatorade smelling bus with sticky floors.

other highlights -
*hiking the rainforest
*horseback riding in the rainforest
*seeing a lot of cool buildings and churches
*rigo, our awesome bus driver
*being at 0 degrees of the world
*perspective
*achi, the coolest kid EVER. who knew playing with spit, and a tire could be SO MUCH FUN


lowlights-
*not being with friends
*being sick
*...other things/people i'm not at liberty to discuss
*wishing there was more work i could do outside of painting walls and sanding them down...


ok. i dunno. i am over this post. may revisit later. maybe not.
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not enough time

12:14 a.m. nikki sp
i wish i considered re-blogging earlier. i would've been wayyy more productive at work.
well maybe not more productive. but definitely less bored.

my intention with restarting this was to be able to catch up on the backlog of trips. i was pretty successful last night in recalling civic day weekend in montreal. there is still my ecuador trip. and then my short cali getaway. and then my xmas vacay in mejico.
and then i was hoping to start fresh and accurate back in cali where i am headed to tonight.

but i may just have to... maybe catch up tonight? when i am trying to adjust to the time difference. holy fuck, sleep will hate me. no matter how hard i try to love it.

i'll see how far i get post lunch.
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august 4, 2008: le dernier jour

5:05 a.m. nikki sp
this day wasn't terribly important. but i may as well finish off the mini saga.

long story short. or rather short story shorter --

when you need to get shots for travel, do them way ahead of your trip and not 3 days before.
also, eat a lot BEFORE you get shots.
and don't endure a loooong trip home after being shot up.

as much as i love needles (4! one in each limb!!!!!!) it was brutal. i couldn't even enjoy my reuben.
that's a lie, i totally enjoyed it. but not to the fullest.

and yeah, the trip home was brutal. me, es and l-ho. linds does not like driving and not only can esther and i not drive. we can't drive stick. and i wouldn't have been in any shape to drive either. i was sprawled all over that back seat. in a very unsexy way.
like in a date rape target way.
which, i guess, for all those drugs that were running in me, it was pretty accurate.

so yeah, it was a struggle to get home. and then we did. and then i had to work the next day. and then i went to ecuador shortly after.

the end!
of my mtl memoirs.

ecuador shall keep me preocupado for a while.
a bientot/hasta la vista.
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august 3, 2008 à montréal: jour deux - dimanche dommage

4:19 a.m. nikki sp
i'm on a roll. might as well finish this mini getaway. yeah yeah, it's just a city a few hours away from home. but it's culturally different... like they speak a different language.

it does help that i got my facebook albums to help me relive these experiences. otherwise, i would likely have no idea.

alright.

sunday.

it was the day of the pride parade.

but it was also the day we decided to shop along st laurent instead. the pic is totally unnecessary. just trying to buy some time till i remember other shit.


so yeah, a little hungover from the night before.
i can't believe we spent hours on this street. and a couple more looking for bagels. despite having been there a week earlier, es managed to get us lost again in our hunt for the holey bread.
zing.

while we were driving around, we ran into a dude that looked like kimmy gibbler.
of all the people dan decided to hail over, he had to pick the one we were obviously stifling laughs about in the back seat. it was brutal, and it was awesome. now i wish there was a pic to accompany that, but i am sure that would have been really obvi.

wow.

i am so glad i remembered that.

also.

we got are bagels. headed back to dan's where i took a well needed disco nap before...!!!
wait, not the band !!!
but i am excited so i went!!!
because i was excited for.... wait for it!!!
wolf parade.

:)


yeah my pics aren't great for this because i hate takin pics at shows. i prefer to enjoy the experience of being there. instead of planning on what i want to remember from the experience via photograph.

best.
show.
ever.

the venue was perfect. it was also awesome that i scored a free tick for es by being pretty. thanks security guard :)

but yeah, weird that there was a seating section upstairs... i don't get it. but the acoustics were perfect. they are such babes. and there was a babe in the crowd. i was secretly hoping he would mc me on cl. alas, i dunno how widely used craigs is in mtl. and, well, i would've been home by then.

nevertheless.

because it was sunday and a show, that entertainment was done pretty early. round 11ish? 10:30ish? but since we didn't have to get back to work the next day (only that weekend did i realize civic holiday was province specific, not national), we decided to kick it.



so we picked up some tequila beer from the depanneur and drank in the alley way. duh. what else.
luckily we hid our cans in time to evade suspicion from la police.

and moseyed onto the blue dog. ie like strangelove. but smaller. well it wasn;t the same music that they played for dlyf. but what i remember from the interior....
whatev.

this guy was awesome. but everyone else looked uncomf. and i wasn't getting drunk fast enough so i got over it pretty fast. not that many babes as i thought there would be either.
but it is a good thing we left in time. otherwise this would;ve never happened:
note dan in the background chatting with the cops. wearing jeans. who can take that seriously? amirite?!


so he got booked.



did they catch us drinking in public? did it have anything to do with us trying to light a pipe in the parking lot?

non.

dan and his new friends on the street (ie the douche bags posing for the cam) got written up for laughing too loudly.
they were so excited to run into each other, remembering a past comedy show, that they hugged and jumped up and down and laughed.

clearly, reason for charging $144 dollars.
"avait emis un bruit audible à ???? de cris"

i'm really glad their squad is less concerned about their money in their budget for wardrobe and more about these tough issues.
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à montréal - jour un

3:30 a.m. nikki sp
so this feels entirely inorganic. not that my previous entries were particularly insightful, they at least shared that idea of newness... even if i had experienced similar events previously. but i guess i will share what i remember thinking throughout my trip to montreal over the first weekend of august 2008.

(i don't really like looking at the past.
but i'm not into incomplete pictures either... tough call)

alright.

first memory remembered:
driving to montreal over a long weekend in the summer right after work in the height of rush hour is not conducive to arriving early.
unless, we're talking bout like 3am early. cuz that is eventually when we got there. me, l-ho, ramos and es: an illegal immigrant vehicle if i had ever seen one.

speaking of immigrants - arriving chez ramos, being met with the ramos parents.
first question (as is typical of any/all filipino families): did you eat?
no matter what the answer is, the elders will pile on the food.
as delicious as 5 cheese lasagne is, it is painful to eat so late in the eve/early in the morning after already ingesting drive thru food.
ditto for ice cream.
and wings.
needless to say: so. much. food.

this pretty much set the trend for the whole weekend avec la famille ramos.



now what did we do saturday...
wandered around the city. it was franco follies. actually the 3rd time i'd be in mtl over that weekend. i was wiped and could care less about the hoopla.
so we shopped st catherines, chilled at the marina. oh yeah... i was shopping for my pending trip to ecuador.
mtl - good shopping city. but like, not quite practical for the equator. i felt conflicted. cuz i probs could've bought all my 'roughing it' clothes from home. oh well.

witnessed storm clouds gather by the marina. pathetic fallacy? maybe.

enjoyed a well needed nap before indulging in a ramos 'bbq' (read: chicken wings charred in the oven with bbq sauce).
felt sick.
met up with rach!
and celebrated my hiring! and champagne gift from a lookalike (different work related story. may cross over into another blog)

and then headed down to the mcgill campus to hang out with some hipsters and attend a nautical themed party.
before we got there, it was a sinking ship.
we were ready to walk the plank.
man overboard.

but when we arrived... well i can't think of a witty nautical pun right now, but it was awesome. i guess likening it to pirates taking over. yeah that was us. everyone else was very subdued. dan brought magic tricks.
party got a lot better.

i totally stole that pink cup in the bottom right corner. and l-ho and ramos took the dauphin hostage. awesome.



then we ventured on our poutine hunt, inevitably ending up on at la belle provence on st. laurent.
mmmmm. poutine.



followed by more wandering at 3 or 4am till we decided to cab back to little jerusalem/chez ramos.

sleep was good. barring esther's ass in my business. no matter where i was on the bed, her bony posterior was invading. it brought me back to childhood.

(continued in next blog. wow. i can't believe how well i remember this shit. oui, il y a beaucoup que j'ai oublié. par choix, et par accident. but it was like i was just there. holy shit. merde)

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better late than never

2:54 a.m. nikki sp
[originally dated may 12, 2009... but placed before my montreal blogs... which were written in may 09, but dated retroactively. try to keep up]


i am revisiting my blog.

why now?

boredom is a good answer. a few friends recently started blogging. i guess i am jumping back on the bandwagon.

i'm planning to create one about random shit that i have to do to keep me preoccupied at work. but i felt bad neglecting this little baby.

so... might as well catch up on the goings on. i have a little travel adventure coming up. so i better get up to speed on previous adventures. for no reason in particular other than to keep me more preoccupied at work. because even when i was actively blogging during my time abroad. i didn't include every single adventure....

but... i guess i will do separate installations.

...i dunno how i feel about this actually, because i wanted to include montreal. but i never kept a hard copy log about that at the time. whereas in ecuador and mexico, i took notes along the way with the intention to inevitably publish to this baby.

guh. i am not feeling particularly inspired. just wanting to pass time.

let's see how this return goes...
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