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  • Tag: Canada

    • beautiful british columbia

      Posted at 9:19 am by jasminedesirees, on July 18, 2016

      A few months back, I was lucky enough to make a trip to northern B.C. to visit my best friend. Unfortunately, it was for sad family reasons, but I’m glad I could be there for her, and also see this amazing place for myself, since she has been trying to get me to visit for years.

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      It’s not an easy place to get to though. I flew from Phoenix to Seattle, Seattle to Bellingham, where I was picked up by her and her husband. We drove across the border into the GWN, and spent the night at her mom’s house in Fort Langley, B.C.

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      The next morning, we were up bright and early to walk around Fort Langley a little bit (it’s such a neat little town, their town hall is used in a lot of movies and TV shows, incuding Once Upon a Time and Supernatural), and eat amazing scones from Blacksmith Bakery.

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      Eventually we got ourselves in the car, stopped at Timmy’s for provisions, and then again at the grocery store to get Canadian necessities (read: Cheezies, Hickory Sticks, Ketchup Chips, Sour Soothers, Dill Pickle Dip, Pizza Pops, Dad’s Goodie Rings) to keep us alive through the weekend, and set off.

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      From Fort Langley, we drove into Vancouver, where we caught the first of two ferries. I was kind of nervous about the ferries because I got motion sickness on a ferry from Cozumel a few years back, but I was quickly distracted by the fact that they served Nanaimo bars at the restaurant. And also they had a White Spot, which is kind of a famous Canadian burger place, my mom has been telling me about it for years, but I had never been.

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      After the first ferry, it was about an hour and a half drive to the next ferry stop, another hour long ferry ride, and then about another hour until we finally arrived in Lund.

      I didn’t really mind the long journey though, because being with your best friend and a hydro-flask of craft beer and all the Canadian goodies you could eat against the backdrop of the ocean and the Rocky Mountains is kind of the best way to spend a Friday afternoon.

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      Lund is the cutest little town, right on the ocean, and the people there are very friendly. I would seriously move there tomorrow, if I could find a job.

      Actually, I kind of have a job scoped out, the morning before we left we stopped in at Nancy’s Bakery, which is a really cute little restaurant that has amazing food, and even more amazing baking. I had one of their butter tarts, and almost cried, it was that good. It’s right along the beach, and I think baking all day with that view would be kind of unbeatable.

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      It was a very quick trip, I flew out Thursday night, and back to PHX Monday morning (but not before making a stop at BP’s for their spicy pierogi pizza), but I was very glad I was able to make the trip.

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      It was really nice to travel with her and see a new place, and it kind of got us inspired to take a trip somewhere together, maybe to the East Coast of Canada, since I’ve never been further East than Toronto.

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      I would also like to add, after reading through this post again, that I wasn’t just there for the food. I really only get back to Canada once every year or two if I’m lucky, and ALL my favourite foods are there, so I don’t feel bad about eating all the things whenever I have the chance, since it happens so rarely.

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      Posted in B.C., beach, Canada, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged B.C., british columbia, Canada, ferries, Lund, travel, Vancouver
    • drifting

      Posted at 7:37 am by jasminedesirees, on July 2, 2015

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      First post in awhile, things have been so busy at work lately, and also in the last month I’ve spent 2 weeks in Hawaii, 3 weeks in San Francisco, a few days in North Dakota, a few days in Canada, and now I’m in Montana for the foreseeable future.

      I have quite a few good posts sitting in my draft folder, but finishing them doesn’t seem to be able to compete with a Twisted Tea on the dock these days. I’ll do it eventually, but everyone’s entitled to be a little lazy in the summer, right?

      Posted in travel | 0 Comments | Tagged Canada, Montana, travel
    • moving day

      Posted at 8:24 am by jasminedesirees, on December 22, 2014

      As I already mentioned in this post, we are moving to Arizona! Today actually, errrr.

      D will be finishing his degree at ASU, and is starting in January, so he flew out last week and found us a place to live near the university. Also, it has a pool, which is amazing. I was so spoiled to be able to go swimming almost every day when we were in Indonesia and I loved it, plus I’m starting to train for the Honolulu Triathlon again, so it’ll be super handy.

      I’m applying for jobs in Phoenix, and I’m also applying to ASU for the fall to finish my Master’s degree. I started in Hawaii a few years ago, and was accepted to SFSU to continue when we got to California, but apparently San Francisco is a pretty crowded city and it can take a really long time to get to the other side, even if Google maps says it’s only 5 miles. Who knew? (Anyone who has ever spent 10 minute here, probably).

      So I’m pretty excited for that, but mostly I’m excited to move to a new city and have a whole new place to explore. Arizona is so beautiful and sunny, and there are so many outdoor activities and hikes within driving distance, so that’s what I’m most looking forward to, especially the Grand Canyon, the Kartchner Caverns and the Supersition Mountains.

      I’m also excited to be away from the crazy traffic of the Bay. I love San Francisco, and will definitely be coming back to visit often, but working in the city and living in the East Bay means spending a lot of hours commuting, and I can absolutely think of better ways to spend my time.

      So now I just need to find some friends in Phoenix (if you know anyone who is looking). So far my plan has been to creep around for the first few weeks wearing only my Canada shirt/ other GWN paraphernalia, I always meet other expats that way, without fail, whether I’m in a grocery store in the tiniest town in California or riding a mid-island bus to Wahiawa.

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      Posted in Arizona, USA | 1 Comment | Tagged Arizona, ASU, Canada, grand canyon, moving, Phoenix
    • y-y’s wedding

      Posted at 7:10 pm by jasminedesirees, on April 14, 2014

      The reason we went to Toronto a few weeks ago was because my best friend Amanda was getting married. I don’t really believe in love at first site, but she is the closest thing to that I’ve ever experienced.

      The second we met, at a party in the penthouse of a Honolulu apartment building thrown by friends of Swedish boy she was dating, we loved each other immediately, and were inseparable from that moment on.

      She is one of those people who is really good at everything, her hand writing looks like calligraphy, and she is a former gymnast, and current model with a degree in Biology, she bakes amazing cakes, and she gets up at 4 am to watch Manchester United play soccer. You almost want to hate her, but you can’t because she is so kind, quirky and fun to be around.

      We don’t get to see each other that often anymore, since we live across the country from each other, but I was able to go to her wedding and be a bridesmaid, and it was so much fun. Weddings are always kind of bitter sweet because you get to see someone you love at their happiest, but it’s also a time of change, and being around so many family and friends that you don’t know reminds you that as much as you love that person, you are just a small part of each others lives.

      The good news is, even though we didn’t get to spend as much time together as I would have liked (which is true at ALL weddings) her family was so amazing and fun that I had a blast partying with them. They have another family wedding in October and I am considering crashing it, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.

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      Posted in friends, life, love, travel | 1 Comment | Tagged cake, Canada, friends, love, Toronto, travel, wedding
    • lord stanley

      Posted at 8:49 am by jasminedesirees, on April 2, 2014

      We weren’t in Toronto for long, and most of the time we had there was for wedding activities.

      Besides Niagara falls, and a feverish dash to a few different mini marts to stock up on my favourite Canadian snacks (mmmm Cheezies), we didn’t have time for much else, but I made sure we made time to check out the Hockey Hall of Fame.

      It’s located in downtown Toronto in a building filled with amazing stained glass windows. It has tons of memorabilia, facts about players and trophies, including the Stanley cup.

      I had my picture taken with the Stanley cup, and with some of Mario Lemieux’s jerseys. He was my first love, I remember watching a game with my dad when I was four or five and seeing him standing for the national anthem with his helmet off and thinking “That guy is beautiful”. He still is.

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      Posted in Canada, travel | 1 Comment | Tagged Canada, hockey, hockey hall of fame, Mario Lemieux, Stanley cup, Toronto
    • niagara

      Posted at 6:50 pm by jasminedesirees, on March 26, 2014

      The first thing we did when we arrived in Toronto, after a feverish race for the nearest Tim Horton’s (they didn’t have Nanaimo bars there, and I was very sad) was rent a car and head for Niagara Falls. We had no idea where we were going, our phones didn’t work, but we were just hoping for the best.

      It was a freezing cold, extremely icy day, we’d had to sit on the runway for an hour after landing because it was too cold for the ground crews to come get us off the plane, and as we drove toward the Falls there were vehicles in the ditch left and right.

      I was pretty nervous and wasn’t sure if we were being stupid to try to get down there, there is something to be said for seizing the moment and taking advantage of your situation when traveling, but there is probably an argument to be made for not being unnecessarily reckless, which is one I’m still not usually able to win with myself. If I want to do something, I’m usually doing it, regardless of consequences or changes in circumstance, but we made it there without incident.

      I had to be back later that night for the bachelorette party, but we had a solid few hours to spend creeping around and checking out the Falls. I imagined us strolling around the walkway and taking in the view from all angles.

      Those plans evaporated almost immediately once we set foot outside the vehicle, even though it had been a few hours since our plane landed, and it was very sunny outside, it was still bitterly cold. We raced down to the overlook, took some pictures and enjoyed the gorgeous view for as long as we possibly could, which was all of 10 minutes.

      Still it was amazing to see Niagara Falls in person, it was especially neat to see parts of it frozen. I would have been sad if we’d been so close and wouldn’t have made the short journey, even if it was a bit treacherous.

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      Posted in Canada, exploring, travel | 1 Comment | Tagged adventures, Canada, frozen, Niagara falls, traveling, waterfall, winter
    • a house in the sky

      Posted at 8:46 pm by jasminedesirees, on February 25, 2014

      I recently finished reading A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout. The memoir describes her time traveling the world as a freelance journalist, and her eventual kidnapping by Muslim extremists in Somalia, where she was raped, beaten, and held for ransom for over a year.

      Amanda is a Canadian girl, she grew up only a few hours away from me, so this story hit home for me even more. She came from an unstable home, and moved out as soon as she was old enough. She spent time as a waitress in Calgary, and managed to save a lot of money. She had never left the country, or done any traveling, but she booked herself a ticket to South America, where she traveled around for months.

      She began returning to Calgary to earn enough money to travel, and then spending six months at a time away traveling the world, eventually making her way to the war torn countries of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, where she began working as a freelance journalist and photographer as a way to earn more traveling money, even though she had no experience or schooling.

      From there, she went on to Somalia, hoping for her “big break” as a journalist. After only 3 days in the country, she was taken.

      It was a really great read, I knew what the memoir was about before I started reading, but even though I knew where her story would eventually lead, I was still envious over her travels, and entranced with her descriptions of her adventures and all of the amazing places she was able to visit.

      It was difficult to read about her terrifying ordeal, every time it seemed like things were about to turn around for her, they would actually get worse, but she was very brave, and lived to tell her story.

      Amanda still travels the world, and she started a non-profit foundation to help provide education and aid in Kenya and Somalia.

      You can order A House in the Sky here.

      Posted in books, travel, Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged A House in the Sky, Amanda Lindhout, books, Canada, Journalist, memoir, reading, Somalia
    • birthday-ness

      Posted at 9:01 pm by jasminedesirees, on February 11, 2014

      One of my really good friends is getting married in Toronto on my birthday, which is really exciting. I get to go back to Canada, hopefully see some snow and also gorge myself on Canadian treats( I’ve already been Googling the Toronto airport to find out where the Tim Horton’s are located, I wish I was kidding) and also celebrate the marriage of one of my favourite people.

      I am also VERY excited, because the company I work for has an office in New York. Since we’re going to be on the East Coast anyways, we are going to be spending a week there, sight seeing, creeping around and visiting friends.

      I’ve wanted to go to NY for most of my life so I’ll pack as much into those few days as possible, but one of the things I would love to do while we’re there is go see a Broadway play, especially The Book of Mormon.

      Tickets for their shows in San Francisco were astronomical, I literally looked it up and started laughing, so hopefully it will be a little more reasonable there. Getting tickets to that show would be the best birthday present ever (hint, hint).

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      Speaking of birthday things, I found these bracelets on a random website a few months ago, and almost ordered a couple for myself because they are so pretty, but decided to hold off because I think they’d be a great birthday present, for when people ask me every year what I want, and every year I still can’t think of anything.

      81ogWNMvn5L._SL1500_Also, this backpack would come in very handy in the next couple of months. Hopefully it’s like Mary Poppins’ bag and I can fit everything I’ll ever need in here, but somehow I doubt it.

      And, as usual, almost anything from Brandy Melville. Merci beaucoup.

      Posted in life, travel, Uncategorized | 3 Comments | Tagged birthday, Book of Mormon, Brandy Melville, Canada, New York, Toronto, travel, wishlist
    • shark

      Posted at 11:47 pm by jasminedesirees, on November 7, 2013

      I’m off to my first Sharks game of the season. This is about to be me:

      Luckily I look amazing in Kelly green spandex

      Nothing takes me back home as fast as the smell of a hockey rink, the snap of the cold and the sound of a blade cutting into the ice. The second I walk in the door I’m five years old again, and I’m eating old rink burgers (a truer delicacy has never been found) and fries with salt and vinegar, with gummy cobras for dessert, and then running around through the entire rink, under the bleachers and back to the zamboni playing tag with my friends.

      I don’t think I went on a single date that wasn’t to a hockey game until I was 18, and let’s be honest, why would you want to go anywhere else? Plus they serve Canadian at the Shark Tank, and to be honest I’m not much of a beer girl, but I’ll take my Canada where I can get it, and I haven’t found anywhere else in California that serves it.

      Plus he plays for the Sharks. Enough said.

      Dibs.
      Posted in Canada, life | 0 Comments | Tagged Canada, hockey, san jose, sharks
    • giving thanks

      Posted at 9:19 pm by jasminedesirees, on October 16, 2013

      Monday was Thanksgiving (I try not to call it Canadian Thanksgiving even though I’m sure some people think I just can’t read a calendar because it kind of feels weird and dis-associative. It’s MY Thanksgiving so I feel like I shouldn’t qualify it, as though I’m saying it’s not REALLY Thanksgiving).

      I haven’t been able to be home for Thanksgiving in a very long time, but it’s become a tradition to celebrate it with friends, food and lots of booze, and it’s far enough away from American Thanksgiving (ha) that I’m not interfering with anyone’s plans with their family.

      I’ve had some very memorable celebrations, the time at our Sheridan St apartment or “the ghetto” as it was less than affectionately referred to by our friends, when we didn’t have any furniture except for a tiny, musty futon and ended up eating and cooking most of our meal sitting on the living room carpet.

      There was the year that my sister made electric purple sweet potato casserole that was way too nasty looking to eat. The year my friends in North Dakota surprised me with a Thanksgiving celebration of fries and gravy (poutine’s cheeseless counterpart), ketchup chips and perogies even though in their opinion, and this is a direct quote “Canadians don’t even believe in pilgrims.”

      And one of my fondest orphaned Thanksgiving stories, my first year living in Honolulu when my room mates who I’d only known for a couple of months surprised me with a KFC picnic in our new dorm room to celebrate. It was my first holiday so far from home and to this day I think it was the nicest thing that anyone’s ever done for me.

      This year was no exception, Derek and I had a turkey cook off (I’m pretty sure I won, ahem) and a bunch of our favourites came over to help us eat it (even though there were 10 of us, we didn’t put a dent in that turkey, in case you were wondering what I’ll be eating for the next two weeks). We had perogies, mashed potatoes, stuffing and some amazing mac and cheese, way too many desserts, and some very intense beer pong matches.

      There was the small matter of a puppy almost getting ran over by a car, but it’s pretty likely that it’s not even possible for horrifying catastrophes to occur on Thanksgiving, and everyone walked away unscathed.

      So as a status update, today I am feeling fat and happy because of all the delicious things I’ve had to eat lately, and also lucky that I’ve had the opportunity to make so many good friends, all over the place.

      Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

      Posted in food, friends, holidays, life | 0 Comments | Tagged Canada, food, friends, holidays, life, Thanksgiving
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