The title of this post is pretty much the only sentence I can say in French. It’s probably wrong, but I say it all the time just to prove that all my time in French classes was not for nothing. I took French until grade three, on and off between grades 4 and 9, and all through high school. I came out of high school with an alright understanding and the desire to take it further, but I hit a roadblock in my first year of university. Sitting in my first day of class, the professor spoke nothing but French and everyone in the class seemed to be already fluent. I dropped it after the first day because I literally had no idea what was going on or what the expectations would be (beyond already speaking French…).

Being the giant lazy sloth that I am, I just stopped. Well, that’s a lie, I attempted, poorly, to take an independent class through Athabasca University, but that was a complete wash and a waste of money. Now, I have decided to finally get back on tackling #6 on my life list to become fluent in French. I have been fairly dedicated so far, listening to podcasts everyday, reviewing old French textbooks, listening to French news stories to get an ear for the spoken rhythm of the language. I’m hopeful. I also will be enrolling in J’explore a French learning program offered at various locations across Canada, care of the Canadian government. The program is 5 weeks long and I hope to be able to do it in either Montreal or New Brunswick. The goal is conversational French fluency, but of course they have varying levels of classes. My personal goal is to not end up in the beginner’s class!

So far, my absolute favourite tool has been Coffee Break French, produced by the Radio Lingua Network. Radio Lingua has several different French podcasts, including One Minute French and the video-based Walk, Talk and Learn French, but so far, Mark and Anna at Coffee Break French have been the absolute best at helping me get a new lease on the French language. I highly recommend you check them out if you are also trying to learn or relearn Francais, either at their website or on Itunes!

After all this hubadoo (yes I made that word up) about Iceland, I might not be going. It turns out even in a recession Iceland is insanely expensive when compared to other countries. Who does Iceland think it is exactly? Flights might be cheap, but not really that much cheaper than most other countries. Then you get there and you basically have to give them your arm in order to pay for stuff. YOUR ARM.

Adam was, in my mind, pooing all over my dream of going to Iceland about a week ago and it made me sad. But then he said the magic words to win my heart: “Rio de Janeiro” and “cheaper”. We began to discuss other options and Adam said the third magic word to win my heart: “spreadsheets.” As of right now we are entertaining a bunch of options, including Aruba, Athens, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona, Mumbai, Tokyo, and Rio. All of these places are CHEAPER than Iceland. Fantastic!

It is rather nice not knowing where I will be going in August, just knowing that it will be somewhere foreign and fun.

The weather has decided to get back to be snowy and cold, which is just what it does in April when you live in Calgary, Alberta. I’ve literally spent the entire day I should have been studying staring out the window thinking about Iceland, because you know…snow…outside…Ice…land. Yeah. August I will be heading the Iceland way, I’ve been perusing flights and hostels but until my mom and I make definite plans to see my grandparents in Toronto I can’t do too much (I should probably also get a job to pay for it, since Visa does not currently accept sexual favours, but you know…less important…)

Iceland makes an appearance several times on my list, testament to my desire to go and enjoy everything the country has to enjoy. It is literally at the moment my number one destination, with Morocco falling into second place. Yeah I know, snowy and cold to hot deserts, my brain doesn’t follow rhyme or reason. Only four months and I’ll be hanging out in Reykjavik! Here is what is on my list…

#317. Go to the Icelandic Phallological Museum
#356. See the Northern Lights in Iceland
#377. Travel to all of the European countries (it totally counts!)

I thought I had more on there! And now I’m wondering if I could even see the Northern Lights in August…Anywho! I’ve been looking at Iceland’s tourism websites and trying to work out some sort of rough plan. I’m also trying to find someone willing to go with me since Adam will be both working and broke and my mom has this weird vendetta against doing anything fun. I guess if it comes down to it I will go on my own, which is scary, but something I know I can do. Any good ideas of things to do in Iceland, particularly in Reykjavik?

When I finally gave in and paid for my long overdue tropical vacation to the Dominican, I figured something would go wrong. Rarely does anything ever go as planned in my life, it is an actual curse on my family name (or so the story that I made up goes). This is especially true when it comes to travelling. Occasionally things work out properly, but it’s usually when I am with Adam and his uncanny amount of good luck manages to over ride my cursedness.
So of course when I come home yesterday to find a message from Maria, our lovely Flight Centre travel agent, I was not surprised at all. “Chelsea, please call me back immediately, your resort stay has been cancelled, but don’t worry, it’s a good thing”. Pessimist that I am, I assumed I had been placed on the no fly list or that Adam’s habit of looking like an extremist terrorist had caught up with him. As it turns out, I wasn’t right, but we all saw that coming. Actually, our original resort had been shut down due to health reasons, which they were refusing to communicate to Sunquest about. I guess Sunquest decided for the sake of safety not to send any clients there until it was fully resolved. Fair enough, I’d rather not go somewhere on vacation and die. The awesome part is we got upgraded to a different (and much nicer) resort, still in Punta Cana, for free!
While I don’t doubt that many other things will go awry in the next two weeks before we leave, I’m happy to have gotten past the first inevitable change in plans. These things are to be expected and at least I came out ahead this time, ending up with a better hotel for the price of the apparent death trap I was headed to.

Chelsea: Did you already register or whatever how many bags we are checking?
Adam: No it didn’t ask.
Chelsea: Oh, can you check a bag for me maybe? I would like to bring an extra one to bring our shopping home.
Adam: Yeah we can do it at the counter. And we have priority status at the counter.
Chelsea: Why do we have priority status?
Adam: Because we’re flying first class, bitches. Coach can’t hold our awesomeness.

I must say that my boyfriend and I travel in two separate worlds sometimes. I stay on friend’s couches and in cockroach filled hostels. He books the best suites he can and upgrades to first class on flights. I’m not going to complain, not for a second, because he always takes me to “travel in style” with him and I generally get a free trip out of his vacations. I just find it funny that we manage to travel together and not kill each other. Granted, I do prefer nice hotels and rental cars over non-air-conditioned subways and shared bathrooms. We’ve been talking about going to Europe together next summer and while I estimate we need 2-3 grand each, he seems to think he’ll need $10,000 CND to keep us in hotels as opposed to hostels (though with fuel prices we may need $10,000 just to get across the pond).
Regardless of our travel differences, we manage to have fun when we go away together. And he does help me cross things off of my list. This little surprise is going to fulfill #172 which is to fly somewhere first class. I can’t think of a better place to go first class than Las Vegas! Less than 20 hours until take off!

So I leave in 5 days for the land of bright lights, late nights, and never ending deserts. We fly out next Saturday morning bright and insanely early to arrive in Vegas at 8:30 am. We’re staying at a hotel on the strip and have decided to equip ourselves with a rental car so we can haul ass over to the Grand Canyon, Barringer Meteor, and Death Valley. I am incredibly excited for the line up of activities we have planned during our stay, which include a magic show with Penn and Teller, drag show with dinner, and Cirque de Soleil show. I should be able to cross about 12 things off of my list between all of the things we are doing. I’m happy to be leaving, mostly because until I leave I’m working straight 8 hour shifts and when I come back I have to re-enter the world of academia. I am a bit concerned since I have been dealing with some random, yet at times debilitating pain, in a rather sensitive lady-area for the past few days. I’m hitting the doctor up tomorrow morning to see if I can get it taken care of and ease my mind a little. I sure don’t want to have to write a piece about what it’s like to travel with horrible pain that hits when you sit/stand/walk/move/sleep/laugh. I guess I have 5 days for it to be cured or clear itself up.

It’s officially booked. Different than originally planned, but that’s what I get when planning things with Adam. As opposed to a road trip or a trip to California, were just doing Las Vegas and we are flying down. We have several “activities” and outings planned and I think I should be able to cross a few things off of my list. I am incredibly excited for my third vacation of the summer and my second one with Adam. I’ve been working my butt off lately, which should explain the sincere lack of anything interesting. I also owe my mom some money for my last adventure to the east. I should eventually be posting up some more about the trip, since the later half of NYC is missing.

Off to bed so I can be alert for the next two days of my lovely customer service life.

Alright, after much consideration, Adam and I have decided on a whirlwind road trip to Las Vegas, Nevada from our home base in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Almost 19 hours of driving on either side, so I am quite happy we have almost 11 days to get it all done. With the help of google maps we made up an itinerary and we seem pretty good to go at this point.

Here’s a run down of our trip…

Day One: Drive to Great Falls Montana.
Day Two: Drive to Salt Lake City (wooo Mormons)
Day Three: Spend the day in Salt Lake City
Day Four: Drive to Las Vegas
Day Five: In Vegas
Day Six: In Vegas
Day Seven: Day trip to Bad Water, Death Valley
Day Eight: In Vegas
Day Nine: Drive to Salt Lake City
Day Ten: Drive to Great Falls
Day Eleven: Drive to Calgary and see Margaret Cho!

I’ll get to cross a few things off of my list with this plan.
187. Gamble in Vegas
542. Walk down the Las Vegas Strip
378. Go to Bad Water, Death Valley, the lowest point in North America
403. Go to Salt Lake City and do Mormon things
543. Go to the Joseph Smith Memorial Centre

I really want to try to get to the Grand Canyon as well, but that is up to Adam who is the lone driver for this excursion. We’ll have to see how it goes, I might try excluding the whole day in Salt Lake City if it would give us time for a day trip to the giant gorge in Arizona. Options, options, options. I’m still sort of heart broken we’re not going full force into California to see Los Angeles as well. I really want to see the Hollywood sign and I have no idea why.

Well, it is time to head back home to Calgary. My flight leaves this afternoon, I’m flying with Air Canada instead of my favourite Westjet. The only reason for this is because Air Canada flies out of Kingston, saving me a train ride and cab fare into Toronto. I’m happy to be heading home today, I’ve been away a whole month and I have been homesick for the better part of two weeks. I don’t mind being away from my own bed and room, it’s the people. My boyfriend, my cat, my mom I miss them all TONS! I think I could survive quite happily in a cave provided I got to see them all regularly.

Anyways. I am happy to be heading home. In the next few days I’ll blog about my trip to NYC with Irma and my time with my grandparents in Kingston. Lots of things to be crossed off of my list.

In September I have another trip coming up with Adam that should last 10 days. We have no idea where we are going to go! Any suggestions in the mean time?

I’m leaving tonight to head off to New York City on the Greyhound with my friend Irma. We’ll be there for three nights, not including our overnight haul to the city on the bus.
I’ve scheduled up some posts to publish themselves, so there won’t be any lack of reading or pictures from the last few weeks of my traveling while I’m without internet. I won’t have access to a proper computer until July 19th when I land in Calgary once again. After New York I’ll be bound for Kingston, ON to see my grandparents.
In the coming days, there will be some posts about my trip up the CN tower, Niagara Falls, and my short road trip to Lake Huron. Be sure to check my twitter for quick snippets of my time in New York.
There are several things on my list for NYC, so be sure to check it out to see what I’ll be up to whilst in the Big Apple.
For now I’ll leave you with a video of tamarins at the Bio Dome in Montreal