Charlotte Thomson

Charthomson

Charlotte Thomson

Looking for a purpose. I am 18 years old, without a clue on what to do. I am travelling the world for a year, staying with relatives, until I have to go to University next September. The little town of Burford just isn't cutting it, and I am search for some sort of motivation I cannot find in Ontario. I hope this year I will discover, explore and experience more than I can imagine. Hopefully I will find some sort of passion or drive in either Edmonton, Calgary, Seattle, Portland, California, Australia, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Germany, France, Spain, England, New York, or Philadelphia. Hope my family won't miss me too much because who knows if I'll ever come home! 😊



Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Blue Mountains January 29th 2014

After ten days of complete silence, and over 100 hours of meditation, I can now say I have successfully completed the vipassana meditation course in black health, blue mountains. I can honestly say I have never experienced something so moving and deep within myself. By far the most challenging thing I have ever taken part in. One would think that basically doing nothing all day would be quite easy. By being limited to doing nothing but meditate, eat and sleep without having any contact with others what so ever, it pushed me to explore my own thoughts and mind. What a shocking realization of how ignorant I have been for most of my life. Most of you are probably unaware of what the idea behind vipassana is, and I'm still wrapping my head around the idea ... read more
The meditation hall
Quite beautiful scenery
My wonderful friend Urmila

Oceania » Vanuatu » Santo January 12th 2014

Vanuatu is a collection of 82 little islands located west of Fiji. Sheryn's first son Matt inherited the families coconut plantation on Aore island and lives there with his fun loving wife Illington and six year old son Sean. The tropical island is in poverty, but happy poverty if that makes sense. The people are all so willing to give you what they have, when that really consists of the bare minimum. The stores along the streets are comparable to a dirty half empty dollar store. There was a main market where fruits, vegetables and goods were sold. The only things that were sold were produce grown on the island, even packed in woven palm leave bags! Transportation was so different as well. Trucks and vehicles would roll by with 10 people hanging off the back ... read more
SS President Coolidge back in the day
Diagram of the ship wreck
I found Nemo!

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney December 16th 2013

G'day Mate! Wow, Australia is absolutely beautiful. The land is actually a lot different than I had imagined, but that isn't a bad thing at all! The beautiful summer weather has fully won my vote. This is a place I could see myself living. I fully understand why my Mom's cousin Bengt, moved here from Canada. The palm trees and tropical vegetation give the city a wonderful relaxed vibe, as well as the sound of the cicadas, lorikeets, and multiple other strange birds. Since most of the cities are on the coast, a beach is usually only a few minutes drive away! The von Schwerins live in the Northern Beaches in Sydney, Dee Why to be exact, and are a simple 15 minute walk from the beach. Their house is in a pleasant court with incredible ... read more
Australia
Sheryn and Bengt
Max

North America » United States » California » Redlands December 3rd 2013

The flight from Portland to Ontario, California was only a couple harmless hours. The weather change was wonderful. Although it's winter in California, it's still extremely beautiful and contrary to the chilly thoughts of locals the weather is perfect. It's probably around 10-15 degrees, but when you lay in the sun it feels like a nice summer day. I for one, cannot complain. Funny how for us Canadians it's sandal weather but sweater weather for them. I love the look of palm trees lining the streets and the sun dominating the cloudless sky. My moms cousin, Friederike, her husband Jeff, and son Joey live 1.5 hours from Los Angeles in a town called Redlands. Redlands looks somewhat like a desert, very dry, but has character to it as well. (There is a huge R in one ... read more
Mountains!
Soaking up the sun
Out for lunch with Friederike!

North America » United States » Oregon » Portland November 24th 2013

Portland is the funkiest town I have ever set foot in. From the mix matched people to the chicken farm front lawns, Portland has it all. The city is so odd it even has it's own tv show, portlandia! Everyone bikes everywhere. And if it's not a bike, it's some sort of 2,3,4 wheeled contraption. The city is very ecofriendly and tried not to waste anything. They have a limit on how much garbage there can be and won't take it if they see anything that could have been recycled. The front yards are often decorated with flowers and plants rather than grass. I've collected a lot of awesome ideas from this town! Paul and I drove up (I slept the entire way) to portland from bainbridge island this morning. The couple hour drive went by ... read more
The city of Portland
Tramway Ride
Pauly


Nov 14- The hour long flight was a wonderful opportunity to finish my book and take some time to read up on some of Seattle sights. It was easy to spot Elaine in the airport although I had only ever seen her in photos! Her big smile was very welcoming :) we headed through Seattle to towards downtown to catch the ferry. Seattle is a major city and reminds me of a nicer Toronto. The weather is also very different. Rain rain and more rain, which brings lots of beautiful plants. It was quite a change in scenery from snowy Calgary, and to be honest I'm really not hating it! We boarded the ferry which took us from Seattle to Bainbridge Island where Paul and Elaine live (I've never been on a ferry that is used ... read more
Flying is one of my favourite things to do
The coffee group!
Seattle

North America » Canada » Alberta » Banff November 8th 2013

Calgary is such a huge city, what are the odds that I have 2 relatives from opposite sides of the family living 3 minutes away from each other. My cousin David and his wife Lucie just had an adorable happy little baby boy named Quinn. I have never really had much contact with babies and I have to say Quinn was a learning experience for me! A baby is a lot of work, hard work! Lucie is an amazing mother, cook and somehow even has time to hike mountains and make her own yogurt! David and Lucie are hydro geologists and are both extremely intelligent. The second day I was staying with them we went out to Banff and climbed Tunnel Mountain with little Quinn in the baby backpack, and Sam, their wonderful dog running around! ... read more
Hiking in Banff with Sam
Banff Springs staff
Banff Springs Hotel

North America » Canada » Alberta » Drumheller November 5th 2013

Drumheller is a wonderful little town full of dinosaurs. This little city in the middle of nowhere is one of Nane's favourite places to be and this made the trip extremely fascinating. We stopped on the way in at Horseshoe Glacier but because of the rare ice fog it was kind of hard to see how spectacular I bet it really is. Our first major stop was at the Tyrell museum which was beyond anything I had imagined it to be. The building was filled with fossils, dinosaur sculptures, more information then I knew what to do with, and even a real fossil recovery room. New major fossils are constantly being found and research is always being done to try and fit the ancient puzzle together. The prehistoric marine life exhibits would have caught my dads ... read more
Welcome to Drumheller!
Horseshoe glacier
Jurassic park!?

North America » Canada » Alberta » Calgary November 1st 2013

I applaud my friend Seamus for moving out to Calgary from Brantford for a year to work and earn money before school. Living in a major city far from family and friends can be quite scary! Nane dropped me off at Seamus' work around 8 o'clock because we had plans to go out and do something to celebrate Halloween which was the night before. Once he was off his shift we bused over to his little apartment which was quite nice, and bundled up to go to Screamfest held at the Calgary stampede grounds. Screamfest is a combination of haunted houses, ghoulish games, and other scary activities. We went in all 6 haunted houses which were actually quite well done (one was completely pitch black so I forced Seamus to go first and navigate our way ... read more
Jaise and I

North America » Canada » Alberta » Calgary October 27th 2013

I said a big fair well to Petra Chris and Preeti in Edmonton and boarded the greyhound bus to Calgary! It was snowing which was simultaneously beautiful and annoying. The trip was quite enjoyable and I had time to reevaluate my journey so far. Nane was waiting at the station for me and we loaded my heavy suitcase and backpack into her little car and headed to the north west end of Calgary! Nane's home reminds me a lot of her sisters, (my Oma's) house and had a German feel to it! Nane owns and rents out 7 other units in her building and since she is a flood victim since this past June, there was lots to do! Throughout the week and a half I stayed there I helped clear out the crawl space and ... read more
Stage West
Stage West dinner!
Massive head downtown




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