We left early morning to take an Amtrak from Montreal to Albany, New York. We figured it be best to travel more "normally" accross the border to avoid getting hassled and questioned excessively. Even on the train, when the inspector saw my passport stamps, he asked on top of the regular questions "how do you afford to travel to all these places?" I calmly explained to him that after high school I had been boring and worked hard full-time to earn money and just saved it and lived simply. I was careful not to let him know that I also travel simply, as I'm sure that would lead to more questioning. Corporate hotel chains are handy when they ask you where you're going to be staying. "Uh, Holiday Inn" They're everywhere. Once we arrived in Albany, ... read more

I spent 2 weeks volunteering at Sanctuary church. "At Sanctuary, we are becoming a healthy, welcoming community where people who are poor or excluded are particularly valued. This community is an expression of the good news embodied in Jesus Christ" Sanctuary is NOT a soup kitchen, mission or service provider. It does not seek to evangelize the masses or bribe people with meals and beds to become Chrisitians. It is being the church and including the poor and addicted and excluded and neglected. Here was the schedule of my involvement for the first week. Monday - 3pm-5pm & 7pm-9pm outreach - all we do is walk down streets where our friends are squatting or panning, and see how they're doing. to those panning that we don't know, we let them know we'd love to see them ... read more

On Monday (June 01), I had an apple cinnamon instant oatmeal breakfast, packed my backs, and left with Al at 7:30AM. Scott had insisted he deliver us to the outskirts of Thunder Bay himself, so that we'd have a great place to start from. We walked from an outer intersection for at least an hour, possibly another half-hour. Things were looking pretty bleak, and the difficulties of getting out of Thunder Bay which we had heard about from others was an approaching reality. What we hadn't know of at the time, was that most of the time we had been walking on a stretch of highway where hitching was illegal. At that moment, a First Nations stopped to give us a ride. He must have been about 65, looking sort of weathered and retired. For the ... read more

I am in Steinbach. I have not yet packed, but am about to. At 7AM tomorrow, me and my pal will be hitching East in Canada, and down into the US. We've got an intinerary schedule, some minimal packings, friends in some places, some arrangements to volunteer. But we haven't got a clue on how it'll turn out. I'm not sure we care to think about that right now, or that it's important. I had written a better kick-off entry, but lost it due to finnicky Internet connection. I'm glad to get off the grid for more than a day at a time. I'm not entirely sure if I'm gonna have time or the amenities to push out another entry before I'm back, but here's to hoping.... read more

The first accommodation we found after deboarding the minibus in Phuket town was a decent deal; Downtown Hotel. Alan caught up on much needed sleep in the afternoon, and I wandered like a forlorn vagrant down streets in the dirty business district, passing by stores in vain transit; my attempt to be active instead of inactive; I called it "exercising willpower" in the face of my own fatigue. I stopped in at an Internet cafe for a few hours and came back to Alan tacking the last of his wet hotel room laundry onto my once-20 meter orange construction rope, which I have become inseparable with for it's innumerable uses. In the evening, we meandered through city central in search of another Internet cafe that could burn DVDs, which we found after about an hour and ... read more