16

16

Photos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ijp22b9tud32wua/AAD2OrJ97Pw3rVfgbI9qqZEJa?dl=0

It's 5am. There was a spring forward last night. Waiting for our airport shuttle. Currently 8am in Victoria. Ok the shuttle is here. I'm still asleep.

They were going to make us box punches at the hostel but they forgot. So now we have juice boxes and a cardboard box of 15 hastily made sandwiches.

Sitting in Barcelona airport. Still very tired. Very aware that school starts in two days and that I am not prepared in any way for that.

We're on the plane from Barcelona to Frankfurt. Sammy just pulled out a magazine from the seat back and I thought it said "The Cabbage" in large letters as the title. It actually says "The Catalogue". I'm disappointed.

There's a guy sitting close behind me who is loudly coughing a lot and it's super annoying. My head hurts. The people sitting directly behind me have weird perfume or cologne and it smells like plastic and bad flavoured barbecue chips and cigarette smoke.  It's terrible and I will have to smell it for the entire flight. I think this flight is only an hour and a half. In Victoria time it's 11pm.

We're about half way through our flight to Calgary. I just filled out the Canadian customs declaration form, and I'm worried they're going to take away my macadamia nuts I bought at the market in Barcelona. They're so tasty. I thought about not saying I had them, because Ken said that once he was trying to bring some really nice salted meat back with him, and they took that. He's not allowed to explicitly advise me to not reveal the existence if my macadamia nuts. I also have some pumpkin seeds and almonds and dried corn, but I don't really care if they take those. Mostly it's about the fancy salted and caramelized macadamias. Well I declared them. We'll see if the officers have mercy on myself and macadamias from Barcelona.

Time in Victoria: 12:14pm. The windows on this plane have a cool feature: you can control the level of light they let in. They can be normal windows to completely black, with various shades of blue in between.

I made a list of my priorities in the week I get back. I also realized my birthday is coming up, and I would like to celebrate it somehow as well, although this April is a really busy time. I'll figure it out. Anyway, my list. It's full of things I need to do, and there are a lot of them; but you know your life is good and rich when they are mostly things like "practice viola", "practice musical theatre", "write and record that parody song you've been meaning to", "read Ling Lear", and "do calculus". I mean there are boring errands like emails and  driving tests, but on the whole it's all work to do for a group I want to be part of doing an activity I enjoy. Sometimes I need to remind myself that.

Looks like I've been given a Cajun Chicken wrap for (breakfast? Lunch?). It's mostly wheat tortilla. I still have all those nuts; I think I'm gonna opt for those.

We arrived 40 min early in Calgary, but now the unloading bridge has problems. So it might be awhile.

Well, two and a half hours later we're through security. That took much too long. I love Canada though (and they let me keep my macadamias). The airport workers here wear cowboy hats and say please and thank you. There was a lady in a big rush to get past Matteo at one point when we were walking down a long hallway, and he said lo siento, and then said oh yeah we're in Canada, sorry. And then she took the time to turn back from her rushing to smile and yell "eh!". That would never happen in Europe. Then I saw the security guy who let me through the customs on his break later, talking with a friend over Timmy's mugs. And the people in front of us in security apologized as they were talking a bit longer to get through, and were helpful at the end when stacking the security trays. Everyone is just that little bit more kind, and you don't realize it until you leave and come back, but it's definitely there.

Now I've got two hours to be here, and then to Victoria. Almost back. For the first time in forever, someone else will win Sheila's Easter brunch egg hunt. My legacy stops here because I cannot attend. I wish the victor much luck.

Well, I am home and very tired. I need sleep, which is what I shall get for one day. Then to school and everything back again, I need to sort out my university registration too…

Back to life. Spain was amazing, and thanks and kudos to anyone  who read every single post. See you next time (this summer!).