I got up extremely early (5:30am) and left for Claire's . I felt quite bad because I didn't feel at all upset at leaving. I wondered whether it would hit me later. Left Mum at home and Dad drove me to Claire's. No tearful farewells at all.
When we reached the airport we met two other BUNACers - Paula and Andy - they were really nice. The flight wasn't bad although we weren't sitting with everyone as we were promised. We met the others, 8 of them, at immigration. There was Siony, Darren, Big Ben, Little Ben, Richard, Alex (from Portsmouth) and of course Paula and Andy.
We stayed at the Youth Hostel and we went out to see the Symphony of Fire Fireworks of which it was China's night. Claire and I made it to 26 hours without sleep which made the Fireworks strange as we were falling asleep standing up.
Thursday 31st July 1997
This was when we were effectively on our own. We were allowed to leave our backpacks at the YH so we just took our daysacs to the orientation not until we had breakfast though. After the orientation, at which Paul from my class turned up, we all went for a drink to exchange numbers and say goodbye to everyone. It was quite strange, we'd only known these people a few hours but it felt like saying goodbye to old friends. Many of them are staying in Vancouver, so if we're desperate for a roof over our heads at least we have someone. We spent the afternoon at Canada Place with Darren and even enquired about a job on a cruise ship, negative unfortunately.
Claire called her friend, Megan, who lives in West Van and we had arranged to go out for dinner and then stay at her house. Unfortunately we didn't consult the instructions until quite late and had to run, or rather Claire ran and I complained, about 4k in 10 minutes. We eventually found her and managed to find somewhere that suited her tastes, vegan and very fussy, to have dinner. By the time dinner had finished we were extremely tired and just went back to Megan's house and went to bed.
Friday 1st August
By far the most odd day. We left Megan's and departed to Vancouver Island. Our rucksacks are so heavy I really regretted bringing anymore than one pair of shorts and a tshirt. We had prepared ourselves for a tough day. Claire had warned that when she had previously hitchhiked they had waited 45mins for a lift. Anyway our fears were unfounded within 2 mins of waiting on the highway James came along. He's a kind of entrepreneur from the Comox Valley. He offered us jobs setting up a kind of management consultancy centre in Courtenay. Because he was chatting so much he missed our junction and so he dropped us on the main road and we hitched back down. The next bloke was very dodgy. The first question he asked us was "Do you do pot?" Luckily the ride was only for 5 minutes. Once we'd gone on to the trunk road for Tofino we again stuck our thumbs out. This time a red truck stopped way ahead and was reversing like mad on the hard shoulder. Two guys jumped out and were busy packing their trunk in order to fit us in. We did fit and thus we met Dave and Dan. They were going to a volleyball championship at Long Beach at the weekend and they even invited us to that. I don't know if they were really inviting us or just passing the time of day, but we went with them anyhow. After stopping at a liquor store and getting crisps we proceeded to Jacks Palace camp site.
By the way Dave is still at "school" in Waterloo, Ontario and Dan is a waiter at a hotel in Vancouver.
We spent the journey looking at the "bewdey" and saying "golf ball" as we enjoyed each other's accents.
After setting up camp we walked on the beach and climbed some rocks. For food we ate "weeners" rand drank blackberry and apple cider. We played cards, hearts, until late. Dan lost and then went to bed, Claire and I had acquired nick names, drunk spice and tidy spice. During the night our tent mysteriously fell down, an operation which was meticulously planned. It also poured with rain that night and the sight of Dave running around at 4am shutting the trucks window and chucking the firewood under the car is something I won't forget in a hurry.
<these are extracts from my diaries written whilst travelling and working in Canada and the US in '97-'98.>
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