This trip was amazing, but it also marked the end of a friendship with three of my best friends and one of my old. It's weird, travel is always thought upon as something great, and unforgettable. But there are many downsides, as all you travelers know of. This being one of them. She was our best friend, and she was awesome, at times, ok she had her bad times too, but don't we all? But yea, after this trip, we never spoke to her the same again. I don't know if it was Italy that made us realize she's not actually our friend, or if it was a long time coming. But Italy changed everything, and I feel horrible saying this, but it was for the better.

There's not a day that has gone by since I returned from San Jose airport that I have not thought about my house family or the people of Santa Elena de Pital. I miss it so much. When we left, the ten of us who went from Nova Scotia vowed that we'd return in five years. And we better! I will for sure, hopefully by then I'll know Spanish and actually be able to talk to them in their native tongue. Every other week me and one of the group members reminisce about all the fun times, and unfortunate times we had while in Costa Rica. Just writing this blog makes me swell up in tears, no joke. I miss it; I miss it, I MISS IT! Take me back to COSTA RICA!!!! POUR FAVOR!!! PURA VIDA!

It snows last night, and I took beautiful pictures of it. Now in actuality I was hoping it wouldn't snow until after I left for Thailand, but realistically I never thought it would actually happen, ad I was right. But yes, last night's snow storm in Halifax was totally unexpected, at least the amount that came, and stayed on the ground. It's the talk of the province, along with the drugs wars, see I thought living in like one of the safest places in the world wouldn't mean drug wars, and then after reading the article about the drugs wars, I soon discovered that Halifax Nova Scotia is now as dangerous as many cities in the states, like big ones, oh woe is me. Anyways!!! Enjoy some of my snowy winter wonderland pictures of St. Margaret's Bay.

Yes, everything fell through. BUT this time I made sure I read the dates correctly and I found the EXACT same trip, just without the hill tribe trek, which I guess is ok. But it's weird because it starts on the day I thought the other one started on, maybe I saw that one first or something, god knows. But anyways, it also doesn't take me all the way back to Bangkok like the other one did. BUT this means it ends in Chiang Mai, and somehow, I don't know how, I forget that this was the ONE place I was going to die if I didn't see, and now since the tour ends here, I can spend up to another week there. And I'm so excited. White water rafting, zip lining and bungee jumping here I come!!!

It seems that every time I go and find something amazing, stuff gets horribly ruined, and I'm starting to get sick and tired of it to tell you the truth. I found an awesome trip that starts and ends between the time I'm finished my orphanage placement and when I go back home to Halifax. Unfortunately, I'm an imbecile and read the wrong dates and starting booking stuff around it... Ahhh, why am I so stupid? Maybe this was a "you should not plan anything" kind of warning ish thing. Ha-ha, if only, it's just my stupidity. Anyways, now I start to look again for more trips. Man I was really hoping to do that hill tribe trek; hopefully I’ll find something with that option!

Ok, so what my other post was saying is true. It sucks, I have no money so I don't get to do the tour I wanted, but I've started shopping around for other tours. And although I can't go a GAP tour, I kind of realized there is a silver lining. This allows me more free time to spend in cities that I would have only for a day or two to stay in. And although my main goal was just to see Vietnam, I realized that I just REALLY wanted to see Halong Bay. Like that was my dream. And this is going to come true. And if you haven't gathered, I'm a HUGE planner. I have to be, I can't wing it this time or my mother and father wouldn't allow me go. So yes, miss planneriffic Amy, that's me. But yes, it looks like Intrepid is going to win the tour battle now. I hear it's the best to do when in Asia, like best tour company, or atleast that's what my travel agent told me.:D

My plans are changing again. I don't have enough money to do the trip I really wanted to, so now I have to figure out how to see parts of south East Asia that I need to see with a tour and what I can just miss. I've decided to do a tour with intrepid instead of gap, which only covers Hanoi - Bangkok. Ahh, my life is coming to an end and I'm getting incredibly depressed about it. I WANT TO SEE IT ALL. But I’m a spending machine lately and I can't keep money. FUDGE! I want to see all of South East Asia. I'm going to go into a corner and cry now, later I'll explain everything and hopefully won't be too depressive...again.

I have to come up with 7000 dollars in 3 months, NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! Especially since I'm not working for one and a half of them. I'm screw I tell you, ultra, mega, screwed. Hopefully mom and dad will pull through and help me out. Anyways. I'm updating my itinerary. I have now booked a night stay in Pattaya on March 1st, and on March 2nd.... SKY DIVING! I'm going SKY DIVING, in little old Thailand! Can you believe it? I'm scared like no ones business, but I made a list of 100 things I must do before I die, and going sky diving is in the top ten. It MUST be done, and why not do it, during my first real trip, all by myself, in Thailand. Yes I really just want everyone to be jealous of me. But... I don't know if that will happen because most of my friends are not ones to through themselves out of a plane and hope to god the parachute will open. But hey, I'm a risk taker; it's not always such a bad thing. Except when it ends in mortality that is.

So last night I was lying in bed, trying to sleep because I had to get up at 6 to go to work this morning (yes I am currently writing this from my job). And just a mountainous amount of things started racing through my mind. Like, oh my god I'm leaving in four months, but the next two are going to fly by because of Christmas and then when I have time to breath it'll be January and it'll be my birthday and I'm turning 19 so Ill forget about Thailand for a little while longer when I drink my face off and then it'll be the 25th and I'll be in Dominican for my cousin's wedding still drinking my face off and then I'll come home and then have to leave for Ottawa and Toronto two days later and then Ill get back and it’ll be the 11th and the next day is my father's birthday so something special will have to be done and then its my grand fathers birthday so well have to go visit him and then it’ll be valentine's day and then it’ll be the 15th of February and  I leave in 10 days and Ill have to do so much stuff. SEE WHERE I'M COMING FROM!!! This is going to be the most stressful 4 months of my life. And don't forget within those four months I have to apply for countless scholarships, decide where I'm going to school for sure and find an apartment. Holy crap, when I have a mental breakdown, which will be very soon, I'll let you TBers know.

 Words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated!

I'm going to get right to the point; this place is cheap, cute, and great to eat at. I went for lunch and for 9.00 I got a can of ginger ale, steamed rice, salad, 6 pieces of california roll, chicken teriyaki and tempura. I managed to eat half of it before I was about to burst. I was so delighted about how cheap it was I called my friends from the restaurant to sing its praises, not even kidding! Also I met a man who traveled to Cambodia there, and I shared about my future travel plans. It was so much fun, such good food and such good company!

There are two of these resturants in Halifax and the one on Spring Garden is always packed to the brim for desert on the weekends. I have eaten there once for supper though, but it wasn't overly spectacular, but it was decent enough to go back a few times a year. I had the seafood linguine, and maybe it's because I'm partial to an authentic, al dante, experience when it comes to my pasta, and that's why I wasn't all that impressed. BUT! When I go for desert I am never let down. At 12 dollars for a piece of cake, It's understandable how it could turn people away. But once you take a bite of the daily made zuccotto your money worries are forgotten. It's to die for and so if their coffee. It appears that Il Mercato is doing justice for Italy.

The best part for me about living in Halifax is all the different type of restaurant's available to eat at. I find it weird, that I'm traveling to Thailand in a mere four months and yet I have never actually eaten real thai food. As soon as I walked in with my friend, who is originally from thailand, I was pleasently surprised to see that it must be a requirement to be thai to work there. We were shown to our seats and given plenty of time with the menu, not to rush us, which was refreashing on a friday night in Halifax. We decided on the freash spring rolls with taminard sauce, green curry, spicy seafood noodle and steamed rice. I had a thai sala to drink it down with. The spring rolls came within 5 minutes of them being ordered and they were to die for, definaly worth the 9 dollars. Then the main dishes followed and I loved the spicy seafood noodle with all my heart. The squid was the best part of it too, who would have known? The green cury on the other hand was not my favorite, but then again I have never tried thai curry before so I didn't know what to expect.(it appears I will not be eating curry in thailand... ever). I got my friend's opinion on the curry and she said, it was probably the best curry she's ever had, and let's face it folks, she's thai, and has been to thailand many times, and she finds the best curry in Halifax, then it must be good. Overall the ambiance of the place, the service, the food and the lack of rushing was a great experience and I'll definalty be back before my trip overseas.

Wow, I just found this blog in my archives and realized I have not written about my trip at all. To tell you the truth I've lost the urge to research, research and research about everything to do. It seems that the trip itself is not getting significantly closer, not yet anyways. If I think about it, I realize Remembrance Day, Christmas, New Year's, My 19th Birthday (big deal in Canada!!!), my cousin's wedding in Dominican Republic, going to Ottawa to visit schools, and then my father's birthday all has to pass before I'm even remotely close to Thailand, and even after all the is done I still have two weeks of waiting, without employment for my trip to come. I know as soon as December 14th hits, the time will fly by because everything happens within two months, but still I'm becoming very anxious.

I also took the liberty of reading my two previous journal entries in this, and I have to comment about how emo I was being in the first entry. I don't think I have stayed home on a Saturday night since I wrote that, and my best friends who left me for bigger and better things, well to tell you the truth, two are about a 15 minutes car ride away and the other two are just in the next province. Still it gets lonely!

Anywhoe, this blog is actually proving just to keep myself occupied and it's not really helping anyone that reads this. So I thought, since I have the time, why don't I paste a few pictures of my house and neighborhood (if you could call it that). Enjoy!:)

We docked in Halifax around 9:30am, so we had a chance to watch the entry.  Halifax is an industrial city without any remarkable buildings, but the ship docked close to the center of town.  We walked along a boardwalk from the ship and made our way to a maritime museum.

The museum featured an exhibit about the Titanic because this is where the survivors and recovered victims of the disaster were brought.  They had a 3D movie of an expedition to the wreckage site from 1998.

We walked up the hill to the citadel overlooking the city and toured that.  It's a functioning garrison with British soldiers in uniforms just like at Buckingham Palace.  We took a few pictures of the citadel and looked at some of their exhibits.  Then we walked back to the ship, stopping at any interesting shops we passed.

I found a free WiFi coffee shop near the ship and am having a good time with the free internet before getting back on the ship.  Tomorrow we arrive at Bar Harbor at 8am and go on an all day tour.  After that we have one more sea day and then we head for home.

I'm an eighteen year old female, freashly graduate from High School, stuck in a little suburb of Halifax waiting for February. My four bestest friends have left me for bigger, better, things and here I am, stuck, with nothing to do on a saturday night except mope and create a journal on travel buddy. Oh how I wish I could die.

Sure I have my chance to go to University. I have the grades for sure and the money is in the bank. But why would I rather work 40-50 hours a week, at a minimum wage paying job for six months, instead of getting sloshed every weekend and having to write a few papers here and there. This is the reason. I'm sick and tired of doing the same old same old. I don't want to look back at my young years and be like, I went to school when I could have traveled the world. Don't get me wrong, this time next year I'll be in University having the time of my life, but I thought I'd put off the inevitable atleast for a year.

In February I'm headed for Thailand and then onto Cambodia, back to Thailand in May with another trip into Cambodia, then onto Vietnam and then to Laos. Oh the planning I've done for this trip, that keeps getting changed and moved around. I wish it waws here already, but that is impossible because all I have enough money for is about a week in Thailand and the plane ride(return of course). As of right now I do have accomodation in Thailand for the first week, at Rikka Inn, thanks to a fellow TBer. But other than that, my gap year is a big black hole of unknown. I know when February finally breaks in Nova Scotia I won't be able to sit still, but until then, this blog with be what I do on my saturday nights.