7 long years

I've hit the 7 year mark. 7 years exactly since I completed the grandest adventure of my life: Katimavik. I remember it was today because my train was scheduled to leave on the 21st, 4 days after the program officially ended. Those 4 days were filled with mixed emotions: sadness at leaving a previous life and moving onto a new one; freedom of being able to choose what I wanted to do next.

After the initial tearfest at the airport, I hung out with K who also decided to cash in her plane ticket and who was waiting for a friend to arrive in Vancouver with the plan to hitchhike all the way back out east. In a way, it made it easier for me to transition out of the 9 month group living experience because there was still someone around. I lingered in the house for as long as I could, and then went out to Surrey for the last couple days to live with my wonderful billet family, since the lease on the house was over.

There wasn't much to do in a Surrey, so I ended up using what was left on my TransLink pass to head back into Vancouver and get one last look at the sprawling metropolis. I probably spent some time at café Deux Soleils, but as I was keen on wandering, I probably did that more. And then the train was ready, so I left.

I think I'm writing this down to remember. Not that I would ever forget, but it's easy to have all these memories fade to the distant past and lose some of their magic.

I met some alumni of the program last week. That definitely spurred some emotions, especially because two of them had lived in the very same Vancouver house barely a month after I had left. These quasi-strangers worked the same garden, slept in the same rooms, and cooked in the same kitchen as I did for 3 months. That's pretty remarkable, considering I met up with them at a College street café, thousands of kilometres away from Vancouver.

There are some people in the group that I haven't seen since the 17th of June, 2009. That kind of makes me sad. I think one day I'll see them again. I don't know when.

I took this picture on the 21st; I used a dolly cart to ferry my bags around Vancouver