Paris

In June, I headed to Paris for my second Spartan Race. Coincidentally, my dad was playing a gig nearby and we got the chance to meet up and spend some time in Paris together. I hadn't seen him in about 11 months, and my mom in 8. It was so wonderful to be in such a beautiful city and be reunited with my parents! We spent most of our times being tourists, going back to sights we'd been to 12 years ago, most of which I barely remembered. Our first stop was Montmartre. This part of Paris is definitely the stereotypical and picturesque idea that most people have of the city of love. It is so beautiful, up there, and you have incredible views of the entire city. Then, we headed to the Arc de Triomphe, and walked to the Eiffel Tower. It has been so long since I've seen these places and they are just as impressive as I remember them. The Eiffel Tower is just such an amazing structure!

We then met up in the morning and headed to the Notre Dame de Paris and actually managed to go inside. It is a breath-taking cathedral from the outside, and even more so on the inside. After eating in the Latin Quarter, we headed towards the Musée d'Orsay, a museum made out of an old train station. It has a huge collection of art, some very famous Van Goghs and when I was there, an amazing exhibit on impressionism.

The first thing we did on our last day together was to head up the Notre Dame de Paris. We got up extra early and got to go inside the bell towers of the famous cathedral. It was so worth it! My parents had never done it, so it was cool to be able to do this together. The gargoyles are really great and well preserved and you can just imagine yourself up there with Quasimodo! It doesn't really feel that high when you're going up and don't realize it until you look out and see where you are in the cathedral. The hard part was actually going back down the stairs as its an endless spiral staircase until you suddenly end up on the ground and the door opens back up. It takes a minute to stabilize yourself before being able to walk away!
After this, we relaxed for a while in cafés, walked along the Seine, checked out the Love Locks and made our way to the meeting point of our tour.
I work at Fat Tire Tours Berlin, and we are also have tours in Paris, so it just made sense to go say hi and do a tour with them as well. We picked the Night Tours, since I heard that was the best one. It really was! We biked around the city (it's way safer and a lot less scary than it sounds!), we stopped for the best ice cream in the city, had a lovely boat ride on the Seine and watched the Eiffel Tower light up. It was the perfect way to end a great few days with my parents in Paris.

I had the next day to myself after that so I headed to the Catacombs. I had heard so many good things about it, and having a sort of morbid curiosity, decided it was something I needed to see. It was definitely something out of of this world. Millions of skulls and bones all lined up and organized like a sort of weird arts project makes for a very very creepy underground visit. It was definitely worth the two hour wait in the blazing sun, though! I learned a lot about the underground world of the city and I don't think I'll ever see anything quite like it anywhere else.

I somehow managed to convince my boyfriend to come meet me after and we spent quite a bit of time walking around and taking pictures around the city before and after my race, which I will write about in a post soon! We only had about 36 hours together in the city, but it was well worth it. We finally had a bit of rain and some incredible sunsets, which made for perfect photography and a stunning end to a fantastic trip to the City of Love.

Let's See How Far We've Come

I'm back!
I haven't written anything since July.... I tried, many many times, but I just didn't have the motivation anymore, then when I changed jobs, I just didn't have the time anymore. I did miss blogging, but couldn't bring myself to pick it up again. Then my sister messaged me yesterday asking me to write more and even giving me a list of ideas to write about! So I might as well write something for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, and after that, we will see what happens. I have a ton of stuff to catch everyone up on!
2016 has been a rollercoaster of a year. A ton of good and a whole lot of bad as well. Even though the bad is easy to remember and complain about, I will try to concentrate on the good. After all, the good parts of life is what keeps us living.

2016: A Year in Review

January

January was amazing. I left Winnipeg on January 5th to start my travels in Great Britain. I landed in lively but rainy Dublin, explored the overwhelming Cliffs of Moher, spent a few days in Belfast and took a tour of the breathtaking Giant's Causeway, then flew to Glasgow. This is where things changed for me. Walking through Glasgow and taking a trip to the Highlands up to Loch Ness is how I fell completely in love with Scotland. Even more so in Edinburgh. There's just something about the Highlands that stay with you, touch your soul somehow. Edinburgh, this beautiful, old city where you feel like you stepped through time as you walk down the Royal Mile, was incredible. After the short love affair with this incredible country and vowing to come back as soon as I could, I headed south to Liverpool, to follow the steps of The Beatles. Heading more south, I visited a friend in Bristol, and together we visited Stonehenge before I made my way to London.

February

I finished my incredible trip with 10 days in London where I stayed with a friend of mine. Admittedly, I spent most of my time on the Tube, trying to get to one end of the city to another in order to really see as much as possible, but I did explore a whole lot of what London had to offer, including the Harry Potter Studios, one of the highlights of the trip! After fast-paced London tired me out, I flew over to Germany to visit my host family in Kassel, who had hosted me during my student exchange in 2013. I visited for a few days, but soon enough, it was time to start my new life in Berlin, where I had decided to spend a year. I was living in a hostel in the mean time and had a job lined up at a museum, so everything seemed to be coming together nicely. I started my job at the museum, which ended up being an unimportant internship where we had maybe one task a day and the rest of the time we tried to keep ourselves busy with random things on the internet (or blogging, in my case). I finally found a temporary apartment when my hostel room was robbed clean... I lost all my valuables aside from my phone, laptop, passport and money, which I thankfully had on me. But that meant my GoPro, my brand-new Polaroid camera, all my charging cables (including my laptop cable), my backpack which they used to take everything, and heartbreakingly enough, my running shoes. I gave a statement to the police (all in German, I might add), and then called my mom, crying. She told me to wipe my tears, that things would turn out okay. And they did.

March

March was a good month. Though there wasn't anything incredible that happened, it was when life seemed to have finally stabilized itself. I joined and sometimes organized a running group, where I met my running friend Gaurav, and just simply enjoyed living in the wonderful city that is Berlin.

April

I started the month by running the Berlin Half Marathon, which didn't go quite as I had hoped, but it was still a great race. The weather was incredible and I was lucky to be in Berlin. A week later, I ran the Airport Night Run, another half marathon, this one taking place on the not-yet-finished airport just outside Berlin, where I beat my personal record by NINE seconds! At the end of April, I found a new job in a restaurant, which was full time and paid a great deal more than the internship salary of the museum. So I went from invisible intern to full-time waitress.

May

In May I found a new, more permanent place to live and spent a lot of time running around the neighbourhood, which bordered the great Tiergarten, the "Central Park" of Berlin. I got injured, of course, with a case of Achille's Tendonitis, but that wasn't going to stop me. I joined the gym across the street from my apartment and started working out instead of running.

June

For my 21st birthday, I flew to Scotland and ran a half marathon on the Isle of Skye, where I renewed my deep love for the country. I camped in a campground just outside the capital of Skye, Portree. The whole island seemed to be straight out of a Scottish legend. Every gust of wind, every rock, mountain, moor and river has a story and you can feel it surround you. I dream of going back to Skye just to see its beauty again. Once I got back to Berlin, my parents came to visit for two weeks and together we explored a bit of more Berlin together. We hadn't seen each other in six months, so you could imagine how good it was to see them!

July

I worked hard in July, barely taking a day off, slowly dying from the suffocating heat. It seemed to be the month of travelling for everyone else as I had a ton of visitors! There was a solid two-week period where I was constantly spending time with people from home that were in Berlin! Between that and the running, it was definitely not a boring month.

August

In August, I ran my 10th (yes, TENTH!) half-marathon! I ran it in Rostock, a small harbour town in Northern Germany. Though the terrain and route was clearly never meant to be ran as a marathon, it was still a beautiful area and nothing beat the feeling of hitting the double digits. Right after I got back to Berlin, it was now my sister's turn to come visit! We found each other at the airport, nearly in tears, and then made sure to see as much of the city as possible. My sister really did her research; she had a list of things she wanted to see and what others had recommended she saw. We topped off her visit with a quick day trip to Tropical Islands, this amazing indoor tropical world just outside Berlin. Right when she left, I found a new job at a new restaurant as the boss of the other place had decided to shut down the restaurant and gave me a week's warning, so miraculously, I managed to find something else very quickly.

September

I slowly started adjusting to the new job, with an insane schedule. We were so low-staffed that we were all working way too much. But they invited me to join them in a team run in the Olympic Stadium. These types of run are very popular in Berlin; teams from different companies get together to run a 5km race or something as a relay. We definitely weren't the fastest, but it was so nice to be part of the team! The rest of September was spent really training for the impeding marathon, though it was really tough as we had a crazy Indian Summer with temperatures of over 30 degrees Celsius...!

October

I ran my first FULL marathon in October! It was most definitely not the time I had hoped for, but I finished it and I was damn proud. I had met my mom in Munich to then road trip together to Lindau, a beautiful city-island on the Lake Constance in Southern Germany, where the race would start. This marathon is quite special: it stretches over three countries over its 42km. During this run, I ran in Germany, Austria and Switzerland! It's an absolutely beautiful area of Europe and I'm so glad I got to see it. We even did a small detour to visit Liechtenstein, and Rothenburg ob der Tauber on our way back to Munich. All in all, it was a really, really great trip.

November

Complaining of stomach pains, I went to my doctor to try and see what was wrong, and was sent to a specialist, who told me it was appendicitis and that "I have time today if you want, we can have it out within the hour, or we can wait a couple of weeks to see if it gets worse." So, 2 hours later, I woke up post-surgery. Talk about Germany efficiency! I was in the hospital for two nights, and then within 5 days, was back on my feet as if nothing had happened. Of course, one of the incisions got infected and I had to get it re-opened and cleaned out, because life can never be that simple, but once that was done, all was well again! While I was recovering, I took an online TEFL course (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and got certified to teach English. After sending a few emails to different schools, I landed three different job interviews and got two of the jobs! On top of offers to hire me once I got my visa for next year!

December

Christmas time in Germany is like non other. Markets and beautiful lights everywhere... It's magical. My good friend Megan came to visit and we explored the Christmas Markets as well as all the rest of Berlin, as any good tourist should. The day after she left, there was an attack on a Christmas Market in Berlin. One of the ones I had been too a couples day prior. It was heartbreaking and terrifying, but the Berliners are a tough bunch and within a few days, life went back to normal. I, on the other hand, ended up on the news across Canada, radio, television and online, as I gave an interview about the events. I hadn't been there the night of, but as a Winnipegger/Canadian in Berlin, they had wanted to know what I thought. I got my fifteen minutes of fame!

Christmas rolled around and it was a good one. I spent a lot of time on Skype with my family, had dinner at my boyfriend's parents' place and worked quite a bit as well, but all in all, it was a good holiday season. Berlin has truly become home.

Now here we are, it's the end of the year, and I'm looking back on this incredible year. So much happened in 2016, and I cannot wait to see what 2017 has in store for me.

What are your best memories of 2016?

I've Been Replaced!

It's totally normal to repurpose your children's bedrooms once they leave the nest. When my sister moved out, we transformed her room into a sort of storage/crafts room. When I moved out, not only did I leave home, I left the country to go on this big adventure in Germany. So of course, my parents decided to repalce me.... with plants!

My room has a huge window and my mom had the brilliant idea of using my room as a greenhouse. She placed her "crops" on my shelf in front of the window, and from there, my dad joined in and now my room is overrun by plants of all sorts! The best part? It works. The plants are growing at record speed!

What did your parents do with your room when you moved out?

How My Grandparents Met Part 1

Is it just me or do our grandparents always have the sweetest stories of how they met? I definitely think my grandparents have an adorable story, the kind that inspires us, and makes us sigh, wondering "when will I meet my own prince charming and live happily ever after?"

(please note: this is what I've been told and what I remember, so some of the details may be a bit blurry.)

Lucien was a teacher, and a good one at that. He was respected and his students loved him... unless a student stepped out of line. Which is exactly what Gérald did. Though the details aren't important, he landed himself in detention. They lived in a very small town, which meant everyone knew each other, or almost. When Gérald got home that night, he told his parents about the detention his teacher had given him. His sister Lucille was very angry over this; her brother had received detention unjustly!
She did what any big sister would do and marched over to the school to give this Lucien a piece of her mind. When she finally saw him, she forgot everything she was supposed to tell him, all her anger vanished. She could barely speak! Her brother's detention forgotten, she let this charming teacher sweep her off her feet and they talked and talked.
Eventually, she introduced him to her family, and as you can imagine, her brother Gérald was not very happy....
The rest, as they say, is history.

My sister and I with our grandparents, 1996

They married in 1953, Lucien eventually become principal of a school in a neighbouring town and had 4 children and 9 grandchildren, before moving to Winnipeg and started hosting an annual New Year's brunch. They were married for 58 years, before Lucille passed away in 2011. On top of Lucien's sense of humour and Lucille's feistiness, they are both incredibly kind people, and I can only hope to have as great a life as theirs.

My grandma Lucille's soup, by the way, is still to this day, the best soup I have ever tasted.

Christmas Potluck with the Beach Crew

Monday, almost all of the staff of the restaurant I work at got together to celebrate Christmas. I had only been working there since May and I can honestly say that this is one of the rare workplaces that makes you feel welcome instantly. I almost felt like family. The people made the job bearable, maybe even enjoyable.

Jello shots for everyone!

We decided to have a sort of formal potluck. Everyone dressed up, brought food, drinks and desserts. There was an endless amount of seriously delicious food! It was incredible. We also decided that instead of having a secret santa, which could get complicated with the amount of people there (we were over 20, I think), that we would do a liquor draw. Whoever was participating had a budget of about $25, and brought alcohol, then we drew numbers and you could either pick a mystery bottle, or steal from someone else.

Later, half of us played board games (and drank) and the rest ate some more and partied. To be honest, I'm not quite sure what the other half did... I was really into a solid game of Ticket to Ride!

I'm on the left... Just out of the frame

It was a really fun night! It was great to be with everyone one last time. I'm really going to miss the Beach Crew! It was an awesome summer with you guys and thank you for making me feel part of the family. <3

My Grandfather is a Knight

My grandfather, André Bordeleau went overseas at the age of 16 to fight during World War II. He took part in D-Day, drove a jeep, fought on the battlefield, and even helped liberate a concentration camp. After coming home, he met his wife Henriette. They had 4 kids, 6 grandchildren and 2 great-grand-children. He is an incredible man; he's hilarious, loving, a talented painter and loves his grandchildren to pieces.

He has had a wonderful life, and now, at the age of 90, he has been rewarded for all his efforts in the war. France has just awarded him a very special medal: the Medal of the Legion of Honour, (National Order of the Legion of Honour). This is the highest honour that can be given in France, which he helped liberate during the war.

I am so proud of my grandfather! Although he was only a soldier for 4 years during the war, he served his country with pride, like thousands of other soldiers. Without them, who knows what our world would look like now.

When receiving this medal, you are given the title of knight... so I guess you could say my grandfather is a real knight! A very honourable one at that!

Lola

Almost two years ago, we adopted a new cat, Lola at the Humane Society. She was adorable! Always running around, chasing the other cats, always cuddling with us and hiding her face when we tried to hold her. She was always a fierce little kitten, brave, and a little too curious. She was the kind of cat who could catch a bird, while on a leash, who would race down the stairs and almost trip on her way down.  She was the kind of kitten who would literally claw food out of the bowls of other cats so she could have more food, or try to climb the door to get in the house at supper time.

Friday night, we said goodbye to her.

Unlike our two other cats, she never quite understood boundaries or danger. She never understood how to cross the road safely. They are all outdoor cats, but she hadn't learned all that stuff yet. She loved to explore and run across the street to discover new things. Friday night, the curiosity got the best of her. It was raining, it was dark, and she had decided to cross the street. Just like a deer in the headlights, she froze when a car came into view and it hit her. At least that's what I assume happened.

She was two years old.

I have been having a much harder time dealing with her death than I would have expected. I have lost family members and pets before... but it's different this time. I was too young to understand the death of a pet when the last one passed away, and they were very old, so it was expected. This caught us all totally by surprise. One minute she is sitting by the window, cuddling the other cat, and the next, she's just gone.

What bothers me the most is imagining this driver, who undoubtedly heard of felt a "thunk"  or even a shriek and just shrugged and kept going like it was nothing. It's like we think that as drivers or humans, we are above everything and everyone else. We don't have any respect for other living beings. I bet that driver didn't even check to see what they hit.
Thankfully, a woman saw this and brought Lola to the side of the road so she wouldn't get hit even more, giving this poor creature a tiny shred of dignity. She then told our neighbour about what she saw and he came to tell us.

Our two other cats are now roaming the house, confused, trying to find Lola. Even her bowl has disappeared. I wonder if they know, if they understand what happened. I just hope it was quick and painless. I hope she's happy, looking down on the other two, wishing she could play with them.