giddy up we're homework bound

well it's about 24 hours til we head to the airport. we've had a great year but are both very knackered and ready to come home. we're really looking forward to seeing everyone again. the other night i had a dream that conor, triona's nephew had grown an extra 3 feet while we were away and was towering over the both of us. i wonder if it was a premonition.

seattle was great, got to see barca beating man u. watched it in a packed irish pub at lunchtime. had a few pints, made fun of man utd fans and then moved from our hostel to a cheaper hotel just outside the city. the next day we visited the music and sci-fi museum beside the space needle. there was a jim henson exhibition that was on, it was a bit small but really good. in the music museum there was an interactive room with loads of studios with drums, mixing desks, samplers, guitars and other cool stuff. it was great fun. we spent the rest of our time in seattle walking around the city and sleeping alot.

we were picked up from our hotel 2 weeks ago on a sunday morning by david joy and trish and driven across the border to vancouver. life with dj is never dull, before we made it to canada we were stopped by a state trooper and recieved a ticket for speeding. on the second day dj and trish talked their way out of getting a parking ticket at the beach. on the third day we ran out of petrol on the freeway. i was very disappointed when nothing exciting happened on the fourth day. david junior and eva have started to lose their kerry accents (especially david, lot's of upward inflections at the end of sentences), they're both in the local school in white rock and know all the words to 'oh canada' which they sing at the start of classes every day. dj and trish were off work that week so we were taken all around vancouver. went up grouse mountain in a cable car, brilliant views from the top. there was a very cold and long winter this year so there's still snow on top of the mountain which is amazing, you go back down the mountain and it's scorching.

last weekend we all went on a camping trip about an hour and a half drive outside vancouver. as the crow flies it isn't that far but alot of the drive was along a bumpy logging road. saw a grizzly bear on the way, i read an article in the newspaper on what to do if a grizzly attacks you, lay on the ground and play dead, an attack will last less than 2 mins! we arrived at the campsite on thursday evening, it was on native american land, was much cheaper than the camping in the national parks and we were allowed to build fires. our tent was right beside the lake and we had a big stretch of the beach all to ourselves. we set up our camp, lit a big fire and had a few drinks. the next day one of dj's workmate arrived with her boyfriend who was possibly the most annoying person we met all year. he tended to talk at people at great volume and not really listen to what people were saying to him. after an hour of his company i was delighted to see our canadian friends we met in dublin 2 years ago had arrived. erika and lester are just back from living in japan and have been in vancouver for about a month now. beause the campsite was so hard to get to it was very empty for most of the weekend. on saturday alot more vancouverians arrived and everyone competed with each other for the best fire, i think we won. you don't have to try too hard to find firewood, giant logs kept washing up on the shore all through the weekend. we were well fed by the joys and the lesterikas who brought lots of meat, marshmellows and lots and lots of beer. on sunday morning we all went home to recover from the weekend. the bumpy logging road was less enjoyable this time. the next day dj dropped us to erika and lesters house just on the outskirts of the city. we've spent the past week going to the beach (there are so many beaches in the city, it's deadly), the pub, the cinema, walking round the city, lazing around their flat chatting and listening to music. vancouver seems like a really cool place to live but apparently the cost of living is very high here.

tonight trish and dj are calling round to the flat for some farewell drinks. we owe a huge debt to trish, dj, erika and lester who looked after us now we are at the end of our journey and have feck all money left. in america we were living off lots of bowls of cheerios, eating at subway restaurants every day and probably lost about a stone each. since we've come to canada we've probably put on an extra 2 stone each. they pretty much saved our lives.

our year away has been fantastic. there was never a boring moment. even when we were sitting around doing nothing, it was interesting coz we were doing nothing in a different country.

see you all very very very soon

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