....but what if we get attacked by a bear??

One mention of Algonquin National Park by Shauna a few days before the weekend and we were off on a spontaneous road trip to the outskirts of Ontario. Kudos to Jess for being 21 and driving on the wrong side of the road for 5 plus hours!

It’s basically a nature park in the middle of nowhere that people head to to see the fall colours. We couldn’t leave food out or in the tents or anything because of bears!!! :o

It was freezing, we camped, we built a bonfire (well, the boys did anyways), we ate cold food, it rained, it was pretty, we didn’t see a moose, we didn’t see a bear. Pretty much sums up the whole trip. We went there to see the fall colours. It was amazing. Much time was spent bonding in the tents and around the fire.

Highlights include: cranking the Biebs through the park to make our presence known, Jess unknowingly running into the boys toilets because she was so busting to pee and taking a random detour to a country fair and finding a field of pumpkins!!

Hola Mexico!

So Thursday night we didn’t sleep as we had to be up at 2am for a flight to Mexico! (via North Carolina) We got to the airport at some crazy hour, then were told that our flight had been delayed by 2 hours. The first thing to go wrong for the trip. Had to go through US customs in Toronto, so we spent 3 hours of our lives that we’ll never get back lining up for line after line to get through customs. We made it eventually and slept on the trip to NC.

North Carolina was...interesting. We flew into Charlotte and the southern drawl was so bad. Think ‘Hey yaaaaaa’ll wanna get some fooood?’ At that airport I invested in a travel pillow and a blanket. Best. Decision. Ever.

Our flight to Cancun was cruisey. Jess slept most of the way, I was too excited. We got in and it was HOT. So nice. Although we felt out of place in our jeans and cardis.

We got through Mexican customs with ease and then found our shuttle and were headed to our resort with some loud Americans. 

Our resort was amazing. We met up with 7 other Australian girls, had a few drinks, went to the beach and had some sushi for dinner. LUXURY. Our deal was all inclusive so everything was free. Amazing.

On day 2 we had a tour planned to do adventure stuff and see some ruins, so we planned to get up at 6am. Plan fail. My alarm went off an hour early (time difference), so I turned it off thinking Jess’ would go off. Turns out her phone had gone dead. So we woke up to a phone call from the front desk at 7.25am telling us our tour was there. We were supposed to leave at 7.15am. Whoops. We ran around pulling on any clothes we could find and flew down the stairs. We made it in time regardless. Just weren’t winning any friends that day.

Despite that mishap, the tour was so awesome. We drove about 3 hours to the jungle and went abseiling. We then hiked for a bit and went zip-lining through all the trees. After that we headed to a river and did some kayaking, then hiked again through the jungle. We were told to look out for cougars and tarantulas. WHAT!! We arrived at an underwater cave where we were blessed by an old Mexican man, then headed underground. The water was beautiful and not that cold, surprisingly. Apparently it is some people’s drinking water though. Gross. After that we headed off to have a traditional Mexican lunch. The food was beautiful and made by cute little Mexican women.

We then headed off to see some ruins, which were amazing. They’ve been standing for thousands of years and there was a human sacrifice bench and everything. We saw where they used to play ball games and our tour guide explained how the loser of the game was fed to the lions. We walked through the jungle to see a famous ruin (or could catch a bike taxi for $10) but we got lost and so had to turn around and walk back.

We headed back to the hotel and had our first dinner with the girls, then showered and headed back down to have our second dinner. Lol. We were hungry okay!! That night we had a few drinks at the resort bar, which had an acrobat spinning around in the air. Was quite cool. We ordered room service that night just for fun as well. We asked for everything on the menu but they said ‘No no! That too much!’ Damn.

The next day we spent lazing around at the beach (BEAUTIFUL!) and in the pool. Which had a swim up bar! We met a few Americans there and one guy from Toronto. Crazy! Then one American came up to us and said he could tell we were from Adelaide by our accents. Now THAT was weird.

We had another free lunch and then headed to the shops to find some souvies. It was a cool little outdoor mall with a river running through it. We then headed to dinner with two of the other girls, we planned to go out into the city but chicken out so stayed at the resort bar. It was so dead but we made friends with the bar tenders so it ended up being fun.

Got up early to have a huge brekky then say goodbye L. It was so hard to leave the beautiful, warm beach. But we go to our shuttle right on time (thought it was later than it actually was) and our flight out of Mexico was all good. UNTIL. We flew into North Carolina needing to connect to Philedelphia before heading back to Toronto and because the US is crap at life, we had to go through customs (even though we were in transit). That took FOREVER. Heaps of flights came in at once so we were waiting for the good part of 2 hours. Anyways, it took so long that we missed our connecting flight and the only one we could get put on was for 9am the next morning. This was at 2 in the after noon. SO we were told we wouldn’t get accommodation because the delay wasn’t the airlines fault, but because we are poor we couldn’t afford anything ourselves, so night at the airport it was! We were starving and so ordered pizza to the airport, then bundled up (thankgod for the travel pillow and blanket) and camped out.

Our flight out the next day was one time, thankfully. And we finally got into Toronto and home. We missed classes and lost marks for not handing up assignments though, so thankyou US Airways. I will not be flying with you again.

2 months in and it feels like 2 weeks..

26^th Sept - 2^nd October

ANOTHER WEEK GONE! Crazy.

Monday – Nothing of quality. Mondays are boring in Toronto. I have my photojournalism class. Again, I sat in the wrong seat and was picked to be the model for the day. Good times. I had a DSLR right up in my grill for half the class while my T.A (teacher) took pictures to blow up on the big screen. Awesome.

Tuesday – Feature writing day! For this class I have to do an assignment on a place and interview people etc. I had SO much trouble getting the rights to access a homeless shelter so ended up changing my idea last minute. We have assignments due every week for it, so that was slightly stressful. I feel like they have more of an idea how to make sure students don’t leave assignments to the last minute here. Like, they have progress reports. I think it’s really effective. Met Shauna for lunch today because she was a bum and missed the lecture. It’s a good thing she came to keep me company otherwise I would’ve been a loooooooner.

Kickboxing was tonight as well! We paired up and used the hand things that you punch. My knuckles were a bit bruised after, but it was fun.

Wednesday – Critical Issues day. We formed groups for an assignment that’s due soon. We have to plan a documentary for an issue in journalism. Too much work for my liking but fun all the same.

Thursday – Thursday is usually the day we go out but this week it just wasn’t meant to be. After class we bummed around in Camellia and Jon’s room watching 16 and pregnant. It made us sleepy and hungry so we stayed in haha.

Friday – At night Zach made the trek over and the five of us pre-drank in Jess’ room, played kings and bantered. Around 11ish we headed over to Shoeless Joe’s (a sports bar) – IT WAS FREEZING! There we met the other exchangers and a million other Aussies to watch the grand final! It was so weird having so many Australian accents around, made me definitely not want to come home – I just love the Canadian accent too much! We bailed before the end of the match, got some poutine and went home. Clearly we are not true Australians.

Saturday – I spent the morning tracking people down for interviews for my feature story. I got a few and only got rejected once. Success! At night we prepared for an event called Nuit Blanche, which is an art festival where a whole section of the city gets shut down and various art pieces are displayed. It literally runs from 7pm until dawn and the art pieces are big walk through things. The coolest thing I saw was a pre-recorded 90’s sitcom thing was being shown on a wall outside and inside they were filming and one person was playing the part of the dad and it really looked like they were actually part of the show. It was freezing and by 1.30am we headed home just to de-frost. BUT it was amazing to see.

Sunday – Laaaaaazy day. Spent the majority of the day at the gym and shopping lol. The weather is SO COLD. Feels strange to think that under two months ago I was in 45C heat. Miss it.

Oh and! Happy 20^th  for today (Sunday) Evie! xxx