We had lots to do today; washing clothes, packing the van, buying valentines cards and going to Seattle. Bruce finished his lessons at 2pm so we packed our stuff, dried our clothes and left. The first bit of driving was fine and we reached the freeway just as it was getting dark and then I drove. This is where, as always, the weather turned shitty. Loads of snow and very poor visibility. After about an hour I gave up and let Bruce drive. It was incredibly hairy for a while and then really beautiful and serene. We eventually reached Seattle at 9:30pm and crashed in on Bruce's friends; Kelly and April. They wanted to go out but we were just knackered so we went to bed.
Saturday 24th January
We got up extremely late in our terms and then went into town. April gave us a lift down to the market and we just spent all day milling around there and down to Pioneer Square. We had Russian Piroshskis and coffee and went back to Kelly's. This evening we went to a very dodgy club called "The Vogue". Everyone was in leather gear and there were a lot of men dressed as women. Not only was our age checked but also our Green Cards!
Sunday 25th January
We didn't end up leaving until 4pm today. After going to Th'Ave for Teriyaki and then to Bellevue to pick up Katya's car. We drove up to Bellingham about 20 mile from the border. They had a cinema so we went to try and see "Spice World" but they didn't take credit cards so we just spent most of the evening in K-Mart buying groceries.
Monday 26th January
Back into Canada. We filled up our gas and we then were in Canada. We parked downtown and didn't pay risking fines and towing. We picked up our mail; 2 for me, 10 for Claire and then changed our flights and then up to Whistler. We were greeted by Rob and Chris who were visiting from Swansea. We had a bit of a problem with the van as there was about 3 feet of snow in Katy's drive way. We attempted shovelling with half a snow shovel, then went next door to get another shovel but he wouldn't give it to us. We made do with the party bucket and Chris went up and down the street waving at all the neighbours so we could get another shovel. The French bloke from next door just said that we should drive the van really fast into the snow, because it'll take forever to dig the drive out. Claire was a bit nervous about driving Calvin in that aggressive way, so the French bloke did it - and now it's in and it's not moving until the thaw. After sorting the van our we went in and joined in with the social life of the house again. There is just as many people living here as there was in October and now we've joined the ranks a bit more permanently than before. Tonight was Australia day so Ben and Richard decided to Peroxide their hair to look like Aussies? They went completely blonde and made surf-boards out of cardboard and then we went to Tommy's.
<these are extracts from my diaries written whilst travelling and working in Canada and the US in '97-'98>
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