My friends and I were growing very tired of Beijing, and a little closterphobic in the city that was anxiously awaiting the Olympics and god knows what else. We decided to leave for the Opening Ceremony, and have a little adventure in Inner Mongolia. We left on a very hot Thursday night from Beijing’s new Central West station. I must say that the appearance of the building is absolutely phenomenal; I think we were one of the first passengers to use the station. As you may know, lining up, or queuing, is something that really hasn’t caught on in China, even [View Full Entry]

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Probably the greatest paradox I’ve come across all summer, because Beijing has been anything but welcoming. The Olympics have begun to ever so gradually make me angry and frustrated. No doubt Olympic fervor has hit this city just more than a day before the grand opening. Yet everyone’s moves are restricted, security is excessive, and the Chinese government has demonstrated how apt they are at micro-managing everyone’s lives in Beijing. First, you are pretty much not allowed on to any type of property with out your respective identification. This includes university [View Full Entry]

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I’ve been in Beijing for about a week and a half now and it has been a bit of an adventure at times. When I got to Beijing from Japan it was pissing down with rain and it was an all around miserable night. The flight was late as well and I had no clue where I was going, I just hopped on the bus I thought I had to catch. I was completely exhausted in the bus, and was not looking forward to having to find a cab in the rain. Yet my heart lifted a little because in the [View Full Entry]

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My last couple days in Japan were certainly memorable. We were all pretty tired when we all got back to Tokyo. Most of the group wanted to go meet Stephen Harper at the Canadian Embassy, but I was too exhausted to care. I had met him last year and I got my picture taken with him then and that was good enough for me. I went out to a nice little sushi restaurant with a couple of other people, and then went to bed for about 12 hours. The next day I met up with my friend Hiroto, who was one [View Full Entry]

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The Hokkaido Summit is over, nothing much was achieved, for the leaders themselves, I’d rate them a C+ on performance, and maybe a B+ for following through with some of the commitments they said they would do, but altogether it was a rater unimpressive Summit on the part of the leaders. They really need to get their act together if they want to retain or regain any legitimacy as an international institution. That, of course, is not to say I didn’t have a good experience. Where to start? Well, I am well impressed with Hokkaido and the area that we stayed [View Full Entry]

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Oh, Tokyo! Yes, my travel stalkers, it has been a little while since you last saw an update from me. But I’m hoping to be a bit more frequent now that I have my laptop in hand. Apologies for those who have been trying to track my travels. So I flew into Tokyo with my friend Cliff last Tuesday. I only had one week in Toronto and it didn’t really seem like a long enough time to see my family, friends, and do everything I needed to do before I left, including my research paper for my course in Africa. There [View Full Entry]

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Back in Nairobi after two fantastic weeks in the Masai Mara region in KEnya. The Mara is south-west of Nairobi and straddles the border with Tanzania. It is also home to one of the best places to go safari, as well as the Masai people. We stayed in what could only be described as luxury palaces in a nice compound near a number of small villages. It was pretty ridiculous actually. For some reason, I thought I would be living in a small tent, flashlights for electricity, traditional African cuisine, cold showers. No such luck (though showers were sometimes cold). If [View Full Entry]

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So the end of my trip to Zanzibar was fantastic. I ended up meeting some locals in Stone Town who gave me a full tour of the markets, hospitals, and some mosques which was amazing. I also learned quite a bit about the political situation there....lots of animoisty towards mainland Tanzania. Here I am now, in Nairobi, Kenya with my PEace and Conflict class. There are about 11 students in the program, and the group dynamics are fantastic. U of T has partnered with an NGO called 'LEaders Today' which I'm still trying to figure out if I like...slightly patronizing and [View Full Entry]

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Well, I have to say, Noel and I debated about going to Zanzibar before Kenya, and we are glad we came! Although it is rainy season, the weather has been absolutely wonderful for us here in Zanzibar. We stayed in a little village on the East Coast of the Island called Jambiani. The villagers were all very nice people, and the children absolutely adorable. We stayed in nice little bungaloes on the beach, with kids playing in between them, cats coming to chill out, and goats eating our plants. Truly marvelous. On our first day we went down to the South [View Full Entry]

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Alright, so the bags are packed...counting down the hours before I jump on three separate flights. The worse part about traveling is the planes...at least for me. Hopefully I will have something a little more interesting when I get to Zanzibar! [View Full Entry]

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