Back to the Land of Moose, Mounties and Maple Syrup

Ladies and Gentlemen ... the curtain has come down, the ship has sailed, the fat lady has officially sung ... it's all been said and done and now we've been home for a month!! Time has flown by so quickly!

We flew out quite late on our last day, so we had all day to think about what loomed ahead and it was such an odd feeling to know that in 36 hours we'd be home. Emotions were all over the place. But in the words of Kai and Danielle (Team Gerdutch), "Once that plane is in the air, it's not like you can change your mind, so suck it up!" Our return flight home was non eventful, and we coped with that 11 hour layover in Seoul by checking into the airport hotel. It cost us about $80 for 8 hours, but because we'd been up all night on the flight from Bangkok, and would be up all night on the flight to Seattle, it was money well spent!

We had a bit of a scare in the Seattle Airport on the last leg of our journey. We proudly report that not once this year did we come close to losing our passports. However ... 30 minutes before our last flight boarded, they were no where to be found! It was awful!! We were running all over the airport panicking, one of us in tears (we'll let you guess which one). Our last effort was to check our boarding gate ... and poof! There they were!!! Buddha loves us.

First thing we noticed upon entering North America (Seattle): Everyone was FAT! Now, we know we aren't spring chickens either, but we're not talking about 10 or 15 extra pounds. We're talking about Big Bertha's, Fat Tony's and Mommasitas. It was jaw dropping. We passed time counting obese people (quietly to ourselves of course!). We know that bigger people exist in other parts of the world too, but it was the fact that so many were huge that amazed us. Another startling American discovery ... airport security is ridiculous! Throughout the entire year, we hadn't once encountered it at such an extreme. We also had not been treated with such hostility or arrogance as we were in Seattle. Understandably, there are reasons for all the precautions, but were beside ourselves at the way we were handled and talked to by airport personel. Also upsetting was that we noticed them talking down (quite disrespectfully, may we point out) to the majority of South Koreans who were on our flight. The Koreans aren't dumb, they just don't speak English well, and we felt angered to see them manhandled. We headed for Edmonton not thinking very good thoughts about America.

Side note on the big people thing ... we noticed right away, ironically perhaps, the whole issue with body image in our culture. It is amazing. We see it in magazines and on TV ... just the whole "this is how you should look" thing. What we really liked about travelling this year is that in most countries, there isn't the same obsession to be "perfect" that we have here. It was really nice to have a year long breather from being told who or what we should be, and we're not planning to succumb to all the B.S anytime soon!

So, other big things we noticed: SPACE. Streets and sidewalks don't moonlight as parking lots, picnic areas, eateries, shopping meccas, garbage dumps, toilets or beds. We looked up and down the streets and what would be covered by dozens in Asia, was bare here. That we liked! Homes have front lawns and streets have rules. There is no incessant honking (we're still haunted by Hanoi!!) and the air smells fresh (as opposed to like sewage or a dump). People don't trample over eachother, watch where they are going and say "Excuse me". That's a bit of a bitchy one, we know, but we were at our wits end the last month or so in Asia. Needless to say, that's one part of our trip we won't be missing!!! A few other things that spelled themselves out for us to appreciate right away: hot (consistent) showers, Tim Hortons, flushing toilets (with seats AND paper), comfortable beds (sans the bugs), and Kraft Dinner!! We had it for breakfast two mornings in a row (Trevors reasoning was that it was supper time in Thailand). We are loving cooking our own meals again and eating fresh vegetables (that aren't fried or battered or slathered).

The past 4 weeks have been a whirlwind. We spent the first week visiting and taking care of business (cars, cell phones, yadda yadda) in Alberta, the second week moving to British Columbia, the third week finding and setting up our apartment, and this past fourth finding jobs. Happy to report that we're no longer homeless or jobless bums! Moving to a new province is an adventure of sorts in itself. Things are "Same Same but Different" than Alberta and it sorta feels like our trip has just kept on going because we're still busy figuring things out and exploring new territory.

It is good to be home! Many have asked if we wish we were still travelling and the answer is no, but simply because we just missed being home. We missed HAVING a home. Of course we're nostalgic about the places we've been and the things we've seen, but we've both learned - very clearly - that Canada is where we want to be. We'll certainlly travel again (we're already talking about our next adventure in a few years!!), but for the time being we're completelly content to be home!! We've been asked if we could turn back time, would we do it all over again and the answer is ABSOLUTELY YES! Not so sure we'd do it for a full year, but we've experienced things that people live their entire lifetimes dreaming of, and for that we are filled with immense gratitude. We've had some highs (where we thought we'd never come home) and some lows (where we were ready to pack it all in), but without a doubt it was worth every minute!!!

To everyone who has sent us messages, thank you for following along this year! And to everyone who has helped us out this year ... your support and your love has really helped us make our dream come true and we really thank you for all you've done!!

We're working on a "best and worst and all that" for our final blog, stay tuned!

Mucho Lovo,
Deux Canadiens, Eh?

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