Here is a link to my new blog posting: What a trip!   The essay invites us to consider the insights that might arise when we view our life as a journey. Please check it out, and let me know what you find!

I chose this essay because this afternoon I am leaving for a two week visit to Egypt. Wow, eh?!

Yes, after a few hours being cooped up inside an aluminum alloy tube ingesting recycled air, airplane food is the last thing you need. But next time you plan on leaving your breakfast (featuring the infamous green eggs and ham) untouched, consider the following...

Recycling aluminum cans is one of the easiest things to do (and best for our environment), but did you know every time your plane lands in Toronto Pearson Airport, none of the pop cans you consumed on the flight gets recycled? (so does all the other recyclable garbage) This is due to possible probability of cross-contamination of disease-carrying agent from one country to another.

Well, about eight months ago I set off on a trip to travel around the world, I still have another three months to go but I am trying to find the way to make the most of my time here.

A quick update: I used a carbon calculator from an offsets website to calculate the carbon footprint from my last trip (see my post - Running Away to Find Home). It turns out I personally emitted just under three tonnes of carbon.

I recently returned from a five week trip through Southeast and Central Europe. I flew to London, then to Crete, where I met some friends, and then I caught a bus (alone now) into Albania. I snaked my way through Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia, Austria, into the Czech Republic, and then flew back to London.

Being a so called "environmentalist," you may already be chastising me in your mind for erasing any positive carbon impacts from my relatively carbon mature life in Canada, and rightfully so. But it has been a long year, and I haven't had a holiday in two years, and I came back a better person for it; however, I am still a hypocrite. But I am a self-analytical hypocrite. And the question I asked myself many times while I was away was this: why do I need to run away from Canada in order to put my life into perspective? I've been doing it for years. I did two months in Europe in 2000. Eighteen months in Asia in 2003. Four months in Africa in 2005. And now two months in the Balkans in 2007.

Well, the gist of it is... since I graduated with a degree in Environmental Studies in 2002 (my focus was on the influences of responsible environmental behaviour) I haven't found my "dream job". I worked at a couple of non-profit orgs in Toronto and then decided to move to Vancouver in 2003. Still didn't find anything here in Vancouver that really made me excited. I volunteered at a bunch of enviro orgs but unfortunately.. its a tough field to break into and find a good job that fits - I guess its difficult to find a job that makes you happy in any field.