Travel Log

This morning I committed an act that definitely renders me a child of the digital age - I was being a good big sister by letting my brother know about the TTC strike, but I was also being a lazy bum by lying in bed and not wanting to get up, so I reached over, grabbed the phone and communicated with him in the next best way - I called my brother on his cell phone when he was just next door in his bedroom. Let's say I was inspired to do so, shall we?

So the public transit peoples are on strike over here and that breaks my heart because I'm one of the few who doesn't have access to a vehicle, nor do I have a license to drive even if I were to have a car within reach. I was supposed to have a company meeting in Toronto (alas, only accessible via TTC for me), but that's been cancelled, so what to do with myself today (other than bake in the 33+ degree(!!!) weather we're getting)?

First: Tell you that my most recent tour to Chicago was the best trip ever and remind y'all that I'm a lucky, lucky biatch to do what I do and get paid for it.

Sure, I have to do lots of stressful organizational things like make confirmation calls, handle paperwork, deal with annoying suppliers, teach kids about the city's history, say things like, "On the left is Tribune Tower, to the right you'll see the Wrigley Building and now we're driving over the Chicago River...", photocopy and highlight thirty-seven copies of a map of The Loop and ride on a coach bus for double-digit numbers of hours every week, but seeing as I like those sorts of things it can hardly be seen as bad or difficult. In addition to hanging out with a good group of high school students, staying at a fantastic hotel with fantastic staff, making everyone in the group sit on one side of the coach so that we could drive back to the hotel with a flat tire in the rear, here's what I got to do in the Windy City:

See an improv show at Second City, tour Frank Lloyd Wright's Home & Studio, visit the Museum of Science & Industry, see a Cubs game (again!), have dinner at Andy's Jazz Club (again!), go on an Untouchables gangster coach tour (during which I saw Oprah's studio and the theater where the first talkie ever was played!), BE THE FIRST CANADIAN GROUP TO SEE THE KING TUT EXHIBIT AT THE FIELD MUSEUM ON THE SECOND DAY THAT IT'S BEEN OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AND OMG WAS IT EVER FRICKIN' AWESOME*, take a lovely walk along the lakeshore, show the group the world's largest fountain and Millennium Park, visit the Art Institute, eat authentic deep dish pizza and end the tour with a visit to the Sears Tower Skydeck. AND I even got hours of free time to watch the Memorial Day parade, shop along Madison and State, and take my sweet ass time exploring Michigan Avenue and then some, and get to know the city like the back of my hand.

Suffice to say, this tour was much better than my last trip to Chicago and I'm sad that it was my last US tour for the season. Dear People of Chicago: You live in an awesome city. Oh well, Ottawa and Quebec City will be good to me and I get to do lots of neat stuff there too. Lucky, lucky me.

Second: PLAN SHIT

I really do enjoy living on the edge of my seat, ready to fly off anywhere and everywhere, but even spontaneity requires some idea of what you're doing. For example, I have no idea what city I'm going to be in next Monday; I could be here, in the Loo, in Welland or Niagara Falls or even gosh-forsaken Hamilton. Who knows? I sure don't. But I'm going to have to figure it out soon because my GPA is seriously riding on my travels and the fact that I'm never near a computer for long enough to do my work. Funny how these things are called distance education courses, when they're really not catered to people who take them from a distance at all. For example, when I'm in Asia, I really don't want to be worrying about the next internet cafe around because I need to submit an assignment on the sociology of health, illness and medicine. To drop the course or not to drop? Sigh.

Oh, speaking of which, I'm going to Asia. So yeah, I told you I'd give details later about the fact that I'm leaving the country for five weeks, so here we go:

The fam and I are starting off by flying across Canada, over the Bering Strait, stopping in Taipei for a bit, then landing in Ho Chi Minh/Saigon, Vietnam. After a few days with relatives and maybe in Vung Tau, we'll pop over to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a week or so. Next, we might head to Hong Kong and Macau, then see mainland China where we'll spend about/at least two weeks touring Beijing, Xian, Suzhou, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Canton. If there's time, we might hit up Taiwan as well.

On the way home, I'm going to stop off in Vancouver (while my family goes home to Toronto) for a week or two to visit and snuggle with my best bud who is smart and amazing enough to have gotten a job working for the government over in BC. We're also totally road-tripping it to Calgary too. So. I fly out in less than three weeks and I won't be back until early to mid-August. Sweet. I know, I KNOW. My photo is sooo listed under the Lucky Shit Ass Ho Mothafacker Biatch entry in the dictionary.

Though I keep poring over travel magazines and adding to the mental list of all the things we're going to see and do, I'm still not totally prepped for Operation See The World just yet. Maybe because (back to the original point) I'm trying to figure out how to do my school work while all this suitcase living, plane riding and country hopping is going on, and I'm still in the midst of travelling from city to city every week. It's a tricky one, this DE course, because if I don't take it now and get the credit, then I'll have to take an extra course or two in the Fall term OR stay for an extra semester after I'm supposed to graduate to catch up because I totally won't have the time, energy or will power to take extra courses while I'm in Spain.

What?


*I am the hugest museum dork ever and I just happen to love ancient Egypt almost as much as I love ancient Rome and Greece.
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