http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/puppylover22/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from puppylover22 en-us Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:31:07 +0000 Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:31:07 +0000 I left camp this morning full of happiness and a contented peace. Unfortunately the Miami International Airport particularly the customs department took approximately 36.7 seconds to rip any joy from my soul. Just to rub things in I was forced to pass a banner proclaiming this godawful place to be the 2008 Best American Aiport according to the TSA. Good for them.But now FINALLY I am in t http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Cartago/blog-418040.html Hehehe. Today was one of those days that just left me gigglingmdashfull of random craziness where I have to look around me and laugh at the situation Irsquom in. The youth forum ended at lunch today and during the closing ceremonies they told us that they had a surprise everyone who was staying for the Scouts of the World Award Seminar would get a chance to be bussed in to San Jos for som http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Cartago/blog-417546.html So they seem to have abandoned even pretending they have wireless network set up. It looks like Im going to have to keep putting my entries on a USB drive and transfering to one of the publicuse computers here circa 1995 which means that I probably wont be able to upload any more pictures for a while. I wrote this entry yesterday morning but didnt get a chance to upload it until now. Wa http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/blog-416912.html Wireless internet has been down all day. I just couldn't take it so I snuck in to the administrative building found an unplugged ethernet cable and jammed that sucker into my laptop to get my fix. So many emailsAnyways I wrote a blog entry in Word earlier this morning which I'll throw up here quickly while I can. I'll try to write another entry tonight reflecting on the day's events but http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Cartago/blog-416007.html Wow. I am... seriously unprepared for this event. This has the potential to be a long 7 nights.Going in I hardly knew anything about these two conferences but I just thought I'd come out and figure things out as I went. The organizers only sent out two tiny one page info bulletins. Hmm. I definitely should have requested some more detailed information about accommodations. It's one thing t http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Cartago/blog-415564.html While yesterday's entry had slight undertones of loneliness and boredom today's entry should strongly convey just the oppositeif I can finish it all that is. I am exhausted Today was amazing. I took 156 pictures... and that says something because I'm normally terrible at taking my camera out.I've decided just to throw the whole batch up on flickr so you can take a look if you are intereste http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Isla-Tortuga/blog-415258.html I can't tell you how bizarre it feels to be fending my way through the familiar hostel life all by myself without Derek and Mark my travel companions from my big roundtheworld trip in 20067. Gingerly making my bed while checking for signs of bed bugs without Derek by my side just doesn't feel right and checking out a bathroom without Mark laughing at me just is not the same. I'm on my own http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/San-Jose/San-Jose/blog-414884.html It's come to my attention that my blog now pops up as 2 on Google if you search for Jessica Page scout and for some reason a lot of people actually have been reading it. The first little bit of this entry is a bit whiny and unflattering in terms of my opinion on the way youth involvement is going in Canada. Please don't read too much in to itthis entry was written after a long two weeks of http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/Vancouver-Island/Victoria/blog-224972.html Here I sit in the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston Texas. It will be my home for the next 9 hours as I wait for my flight to Vancouver so I can continue my recent Scout meeting binge with 3 more full days of national Scouts Canada meetings. I'm pretty pleased because I've got a table I've got access to a power outlet and I'm sneaking free access to the Continental President's http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Texas/Houston/blog-223495.html Irsquom on a bus right now driving back from the ldquomiddle of the worldrdquo as they call it. In other words I was at the equator I stood with one foot in the Northern Hemisphere and one foot in the Southern Hemisphere.That alone is pretty cool but the whole experience was made absolutely unforgettable thanks to the incredibly hard work and detailed planning by the Ecuador Scout Ass http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/North/Quito/blog-222712.html WARNING Ridiculously long blog entry. Please feel free to skimskip this one. Wow this is why itrsquos good to be limited to payperhour internet caf time and not have unlimited computer access. Gasp The internet is out Ohh horror of horrors. I can only hope itrsquos working again by the time I get back from todayrsquos sessions. In the meantime Irsquom writing this in http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/North/Quito/blog-222703.html If you'd have told me two years ago that by Nov. 2007 I would have visted all six populated continents of the world I NEVER would have believed you.Yet here I am just 13 months after Derek Mark and I first boarded the plane for Australia typing a blog entry from Quito Ecuador South America. I made the first half of it all happenmy world tour took me all over Australia SE Asia and Euro http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/North/Quito/blog-222260.html Wow. I just finished four of the most fun days of my life living waaaay above my general social class and income bracket thanks to the intense generosity of friends from highschool and their subsequent equally kind connections. I'm talking of course of my time in the ski resort village of Meribel. Not sure what Meribel is Let me give you an intro it's in the center of 3 interconnected skia http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Lower-Normandy/blog-140704.html We're in Paris now but I think it's important for me to report on the Juno Beach center where we spent two days after leaving the ski hill. If you don't know and you SHOULD if you are a Canadian citizen Juno Beach is the name for the 8km stretch of Normandy coast line where the Canadians landed during the Allied Forces DDay invasion. The Canadians did great and penetrated farther into occupi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-141551.html I have to say the two major Parisien monuments really let me down today. The Louvre and the Eiffel Tower just really didn't come through. Let me explain. We started our day off at the Louvre. After waiting in a pretty big line to get tickets and then fighting our way through crowded halls we finally made it to the Mona Lisa. Well there it is. was pretty much Derek and my responses. It's not http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-141883.html Well here it is my 75th I think and final entry maybe. It was 5 12 months ago that Derek Mark and I said goodbye to our loved ones boarded a BC Ferry and left the land of Tim Horton's Canadian Tire cold Pacific Ocean and sane traffic behind. Yah that was a random summary of Canada wasn't it Well it's what came to mind. I thought I would do one last entry to sum things up a bit. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Yukon/Whitehorse/blog-143621.html If you're just checking my blog be sure the you caught my last entry which I just published. I split this up into two because the last one was getting excessively long.So when we last spoke Derek and I had just arrived at Vicky's house in ErpsKwerps Belgium. OH I forgot a pivital moment of our first night there. We went and got some famous Belgian frites fries to take back to Vicky's h http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Switzerland/South-West/Geneva/blog-137958.html I'm not sure how much I'm going to get through here today because I have days and days and days to catch up on and I don't have unlimited time at the moment but we'll see how much I can do. I guess I'll start with Amsterdam first.When we got of the train a sense of calm immediately fell over me. Ahhhh the Netherlands. I really like that country a lot. After a bit of work to orient ourselve http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Flemish-Brabant/Erps-Kwerps/blog-136996.html For those of you wondering what has happened to me this email to my parents is the best I can do at this point. SorryHi guysI know it has been ages since I posted on the blog but there have been some problems. The internet in Amsterdam seemed unreasonably pricy so I opted to wait until we got to Brussels to just do a mammoth update then since we had a lot of time to kill until we could http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Flemish-Brabant/Erps-Kwerps/blog-136690.html With some much communication now easily possible due to the greatness that is The Internet sometimes it feels like I never left home. However all this communication takes time and more and more the poor blog seems to be getting neglected. Tonight is no exception. By the time I'd finished reading and responding to all my emails and the Scouting ones have picked up again now that the Christm http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-134635.html