Oxford Bound (or is it bound to Oxford?)

Sitting here in the Vancouver airport waiting to board the plane for England. Describing my mood is similar to the beginning of every retirement announcement I've ever seen, "it is with mixed emotions that I announce the retirement of .....". My emotions are mixed because on the one hand I'm really excited to get to England and start school. On the other hand I'm really sad to leave beautiful Vancouver and all of my great family and all of my great friends. Spending two weeks here rekindled a lot of great friendships that I'm going to miss over the next year.



But by far the biggest reason I'm upset about leaving is that I haven't had a chance to meet my new niece/nephew. I hope to meet him/her soon.



So now I have to decide if I want to continue the blog during my time at Oxford. I'll see if I have enough time to squeeze in a post or two.

Home again, home again

It's hard to believe that my South American adventure is already over. In two very short months I managed to cover a lot of ground and use a lot of different modes of transport. I was transported around Brasil and Argentina by:

-car
-bus
- plane - I flew 33,869 kms ( I know, I should pay for some greenhouse gas tax emmision credits)
-kiteboard
-dune buggy
-ferry boat
-taxi
-foot
-sandboard
-hang-glider (sp?)
-skis
-shuttle bus
- more bus

You'll note that I wrote all of those modes of transport in the form of a list. I did that because
lists:

- are easy to write
- make it look like I've carefully chronicled my journey (when in fact I haven't)
- make it easy to create humour by simply repeating an item on the list
- are easy to write

I stole that joke from Will and Ian Ferguson's How to Be a Canadian so you can blame them if you think it was bad.

Anyway, now that I'm back I've had some time to reflect on my trip. The standard question is, "what part of the trip did I enjoy the most?" It's really hard to say. I saw some amazing places, had some amazing experiences and met really wonderful people. Most of you know that the year leading up to this trip was a really tough 0ne for me. The simple act of travelling by myself was, and I know this will sound sappy, good for my soul. Getting up every morning and doing exactly what I felt like doing was what I needed. It remineded me of the things that I like doing - the things that give me energy. This trip helped me take my heart's candle and relight it. (Bonus points for naming the song that generated the previous line)

Patagonia

I still can`t figure out why they decided to name an entire region of South America after an outdoor clothing brand. Oh well, either way it is really beautiful down here.



I`m in a ski town called Bariloche which is in the northern part of Patagonia on the Argentina side. Bariloche is know for its amazing beauty, great access to outdoor sports and chocolate. Yes, chocolate. There are about fifty chocolate stores in town that are all better and bigger than any chocolate store that I`ve ever seen. Who wants me to bring back some for them?

The mountains in the region area`t quite as high as the mountains in the Rockies or Coast ranges but the views in the are spectacular none the less. The weather was crystal clear for both of my ski days so the vies of the huge lake at the base of the ski hill - named called Cerro Catedral - were remarkable. I couldn`t stop taking pictures of the view. Here`s a self shot from one of the chairlifts:



Since I was renting equipment anyway, and they hadn`t had any snow in two weeks, I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to try skiing again. I haven`t skied in 12 years so the first couple of turns were pretty out of control. But, as the day went on, I was surprised by how quickly the skills came back. I had such a great time that I now want to buy skis and go back and forth between skiing and snowboarding.



Oh, a tip for those of you who have had their I-pod battery quit on them in cold weather. Placing the I-pod down the pants is surprisingly effective.

Eating my way through BA

In the early 1900s, the president of Argentina fell in love with Paris and decided to rebuild parts of Buenos Aires in the French style. This, combined with a large Italian and Spanish population gives BA a very European feel. So much so that I have to keep reminding myself that I`m in South America and not somewhere in Europe.



It seems that the major tourist attraction to Buenos Aires is the cheap food and drink. The Argentinean beef and Argentinean wine (particularly Malbec) are some of the best I`ve ever tasted and are ridiculously, ridiculously, ridiculously cheap (those of you that have seen Zoolander can insert the accent). Last night a group of us went to a really nice steak house called Siga La Vaca (Follow the Cow) where I completely gorged myself on some of the most tender meat I`ve ever had. The complete meal that included as much steak as you could eat (you literally walked up to the grill and pointed at which cut of meat you wanted and could go back as many times as you wanted), a huge salad bar, a nice desert, many bottles of champagne and wine cost only 40 pesos. That`s equivalent to just under $15.

My only complaint is that everything in this city starts really late. We went to the restaurant for dinner at 11:00pm (nobody dines before 10pm here). By the time we were finished desert it was 1:45 in the morning (the restaurant was still full). From there we went to a night club that was completely empty. We were told it was the most popular place in town so we waited around. Sure enough, between 2:30 and 3 am people started rolling in. By 4 am the place was jammed. When I left at 6 am it was still full. I know for a fact that I can`t keep up that kind of pace.