Toonie to be Day 1 & 2

EDIT: I meant to post this a long time ago....the beginning of summer 2012, but didn't feel like it....and allowed this post to sit in the draft folder for another 6 months before letting it see the light of day.


What better way to remember my second summer away from home than to blog about it? So begins my saga in Saskatoon.

It started at 5:30am on April 30th, 2012. My "Dream High" alarm on my phone rang and I stumbled drowsily to the bathroom. The day was just beginning as I noted the picturesque sunrise happening outside the window. In just a few hours I would be pushing against time and into a different time zone. Reality was setting in. In all honesty I wasn't ready to leave home after a mere week of lounging and relaxation. I wasn't ready to start work in a new place with hardly a recognizable friend. I hadn't even stepped out of my house and I was already missing home.

After washing up I woke my sister up, she had told me to do so the night before. I cracked one last joke and said my last goodbye to her. Then I went to do the same to my grandma. I had known that starting another four years of school meant hardly seeing my family for those next four years, but the actual process of growing apart is really tough. I guess that is the sort of compromise people make to chase their dreams and happiness. But there are times when I wonder what all this hard work is for and want to just crawl back under my covers at home. I was never one who easily accepted change.

On the car ride to the airport I remembered a past conversation with a friend about how life seemed to have plateaued after high school. Later I had told her that you had to seek out excitement in life to not let it plateau,  and here I was doing exactly that. And that's precisely how I think we should live, especially now at the peak of our youth. We should always be headed to the airport, and ready to take off and soar! There are so many opportunities out there. It's bound to be challenging, but you really have to seize those opportunities when they come knocking.

At the gate, I bade farewell to my parents and navigated my way to boarding the plane. It was a tiny plane, so I was actually surprised to see that there were individual television screens for each seat. Either I hadn't been on a plane in a long time, or this was a surprise perk. The flight would be almost 4 hours long. I resisted the urge to watch television and movies for the first 2 hours because I had work to do. Just some readings to prepare myself for my research project. I'd just like to add here that take off was pretty amazing. I always feel like Charlie as he was in that glass elevator and flying over his hometown. The miniature houses and ploughed fields up in the suburbs look like a model town. It also reminds me of just how small we really are. It's also inconceivable to know that I was going at 724km/h in the air when I'm already squimish at going 100km/h on the highway.

When I landed in Saskatoon it was around 10am, but I was ready to call it a day. I hitched a taxi to see my new place. Saskatoon's city look wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but of course, I hadn't thought too much about the city beyond the university grounds, where I would be spending most of my time. What did surprise me somewhat was the extensive highways, or just really long roads that look like highway with scarce traffic lights.

I was shown around the house and then left to my own devices. I had two house mates and one of them was currently at work. I found out that we would both be starting work together tomorrow.

Also for the record, Saskatoon is not entirely flat. There, the myth is broken. There are in fact some hills.