Guten Morgen, I hope all of you are doing well. I am trying to escape some of the rain this morning and not sure when I will get a chance to update next as I am meeting my group this afternoon. Yesterday went to have lunch in the Naschmarkt downtown and had a bratwurst sausage with salads. I know how Gladys loves the food descriptions. It was your typical austrian dish with beet salad, coleslaw, and potato salad too. The Naschmarkt has fish, many bakerei--bakeries, lots of stands with olives, nuts and fruit and vegetables of course. At the end there [View Full Entry]

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Guten Tag! from Vienna, I have just spent my second full day here and thought I would just send a little update to let you know that I have arrived and that things are going fine. I am quickly realizing how it might have been a good idea to have learned some German but I am getting by. The people at the hostel seem nice, but as most of them are travelling with others i have not really met any one. The guys who I met tonight who are in my mixed room are from Canada--Brampton and they are 3 brothers [View Full Entry]

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Guten Tag! Hope you are all doing well. After being home for 4 months and doing a life-changing volunteer position as a teacher outreach coordinator at Free the Children in Toronto, I am heading off on my next adventure to Eastern Europe. I have never been in this part of Europe before and I don't really speak any of the languages in the countries where I will be travelling to. I will be doing a tour with GAP again which should be fun. The tour starts in Vienna heads to Czesky Krumlov and Prague in the Czech Republic, continues to Krakow [View Full Entry]

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Hello everyone, I have actually been home for almost a week now but I thought I would tell you briefly about my final days in Curacao. I have to admit getting used to the incredible mounds of snow back here in Toronto after enjoying the sunshine in Curacao;however I have had the best time this week celebrating my 30th birthday-many of you in town came to my party hat party on Saturday and it was great to see you there. Any way... here are some final stories about Curacao. On Sunday I went with my friend Amarelys to sing at her [View Full Entry]

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Enjoy these photos! [View Full Entry]

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Happy Groundhog Day everyone! Not sure whether or not Wiarton Willie saw his shadow or not but hope you are all well in reading this blog. I hate to talk about the sunny days in Curacao but there have been many here when I know many of you have been digging yourselves out of your driveways filled with snow! Every day the sun shines here in Curacao and the skies are blue with white puffy clouds with only occasional rain! (that only really lasts for 10 minutes). Over this past week I have spent a lot of time reading, roaming around [View Full Entry]

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Bon tarde! Hello everyone, I hope that you have been receiving some of the sunshine I have been sending up north! Today the temperature was 29C and there was just a little rain shower in the afternoon. This past weekend I spent most of my time visiting with my friend Amarelys. We went on a drive out to Caracasbaai and saw all the very expensive homes right on the waterside. We climbed up into an old tower that was used as a fortification by the Dutch against the Spaniards. We wandered down town in Willemstad and checked out the sales in [View Full Entry]

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Hello everyone, Well I arrived here safe and sound last night and was welcomed by my three friends Elizabeth, Amarelys and Farida at the airport. The flight was uneventful and for the last leg I had my three seats to myself... I read mostly. Last night we chatted a fair amount here with everyone and caught up. Elizabeth's mom and sister speak little English so I am speaking spanish most of the time. Thank God I still remember a lot of it and I am getting better at remembering the tenses too... If I don't remember words I am asking for [View Full Entry]

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Hey everyone, Ok so the true is, I didn't eat a whole iguana but I did get to try some today. It tastes like chicken really with a whole lot of bones. As they say, you only live once! Today Elizabeth and I went on a fantastic bus trip all over the island. Of course, Elizabeth is from here but went to places she has never been to before. Here are some of the things I learned today! They are in no particular order 1) It is not a strange occurence to see a man walking down the street carrying 4 [View Full Entry]

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Kia Ora everyone, Here is my final blog about Auckland and my final days there. I feel it is important that the trip come full circle, so bear with me as I share the highlights of the times in the sunshine in Auckland with La'au and his family. I flew back to Auckland from Christchurch on Saturday afternoon after spending a great morning out at New Brighton with Paul and Alex and taking in the views of the Santa Claus parade. La'au was there to meet me at the airport and I was excited to tell him about all my stories [View Full Entry]

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