Top Ten Moments In Canada

Oh!Gravity was created in July of 2007 in anticipation of my (then-upcoming) four year stay in Canada to complete a Bachelor’s degree in Geology. Having recently completed my degree and with my flight scheduled to depart in less than 48 hours, the time has come to give this blog the send-off it deserves.

Dear readers, I present to you – Top Ten Moments In Canada.

I think the title of this post is sufficiently revealing of its ultimate purpose. Enshrined herein are select memories of my time in Canada – more specifically, moments which I would broadly consider to be my fondest experiences in my host country of four years. Far be it from me to say that these are my most important memories though; instead, these are moments that truly connected with me and allowed me to bond, if you will, with my host nation on a level that is more metaphysical than anything else. I will be using the word “moments” very loosely – these are not singular points in time; rather, they are more accurately described as “snapshots” of a given period that can range anywhere in length from a single moment to an entire month.

I hope you have as much fun reading this post as I had preparing it =)

TOP TEN MOMENTS IN CANADA, 2007-2011:

10.) Convocation (June 2011)

The hardest-fought spot on this list is probably the “least important” one. Eventually, memories of my convocation beat out the International Student of the Year award, my cross-Canada trip with Prae, and a plethora of bands (read: U2, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Soundgarden, etc.) to seal a spot on the Top Ten Moments In Canada list. With my mother and Prae in attendance (both of whom had flown for over a day just to attend my convocation ceremony), I felt extremely happy and relieved – not just for me but also for the rest of my family who had been watching and waiting at home for the past four years for word of this day.

Graduating Magna Cum Laude was excellent, but my warmest memories of the day (aside from an extended photoshoot with the members of my graduating class) reside in my excellent conversation with Allan Rock onstage. What we talked about will remain sealed for evermore, but suffice to say that I was the graduate who spent the most time hanging out with the university’s Chancellor and President that day

In the presence of greatness.

I just love Egyptians – they’re so full of life =)

=)

=) – Part 2

Suffice to say it feels amazing to be finally done school (for now at least).

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9.) First snowshoeing experience (December 2007)

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, one of the best friends that I will ever make in this life is one Oscar Wasilik. If I didn’t know better, I’d say the man was a perfect being – blessed with good humour and a sparkling wit, Oscar was effectively the first real friend I made in Canada. We met for the first time at an EDS debate meeting early on in Fall 2007 and soon proceeded to pwn everyone else in the room in an epic debate on hijabs and burkhas (if I recall correctly). One thing led to another, and before long we became fast friends. I have many amazing memories of my time with Oscar, but the one that is the strongest is – interestingly – also one of the oldest: during the 2007 Christmas holidays, his family invited me over for dinner at his place. Before long, I found myself immersed knee-deep in traditional Polish Christmas culture, and the warmth and friendship which the Wasiliks extended to me is something I will remember forever.

Later in the day Oscar and his sister took this confused Malaysian out for a walk in the woods. Strapped to my ungainly feet were a pair of massive animal tendons – known amongst the locals as “snowshoes”. Never having encountered snow or a pair of snowshoes before, I walked about with all the grace of a botched execution.

J’ai tombe.

I remember walking about with all the awe and wonder befitting of a three year old who has just seen Santa for the first time. I was freezing to death in my sub-par winter gear (the coat that I was using was simply not designed for – 15 C temperatures), but by God I was having the time of my life. When we finally got to our destination (an old frozen lake), I remember staring across at the expanse of desolation laid out before me and feeling so utterly small in a world of pure white. It was magical, to say the least.

Oscar would eventually become my first real debate partner and we would end up going to a couple of tournaments together, slowly but surely honing our skills as we went. Ultimately, we never made it anywhere of repute as a team, but in the end, none of it matters. There was more to be had than the mere confines of recreational bickering, and eventually over the years the two of us ended up studying, playing squash, jogging, and enjoying meals together. And all this from a rather random jaunt in the snow.

What would I give for another walk with the Wasiliks.

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8.) Game #3, NHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinal – Pittsburgh Penguins vs Ottawa Senators (April 2010)

Coming in at eighth place is the sole NHL playoff game that I have ever experienced: the third game of the 2010 series between the Ottawa Senators and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Out of all the entries on this list, I think it is safe to say that the inclusion of this particular event was perhaps the most surprising. Only after reflecting at length did I realize how much immersing myself in Canada’s favourite pastime had helped me come one step closer towards understanding the people of my host nation.

I think part of its memorability has to do with the fact that I am a huge sports junkie. One news source that I read with alarming regularity is none other then ESPNSoccernet. More to that however, I am immensely fond of one of the main underlying precepts of competitive sport, the desire to push oneself even further. In other words, the human race explains the Human Race.

The atmosphere that night was simply electrifying. I had attended with my friend Daniela Marcoux and her cousin Carlo, and our being seated well within the nosebleeds afforded me a birds’ eye view of events as they unfolded. My heart first skipped a beat when I saw the thousands upon thousands of Senators fans decked in red for the occasion, many of them sporting war paint and/or other miscellaneous memorabilia. I then watched in awe as, just before the game, the entire contents of Scotiabank Place stood as one to greet the home team by waving the white towels placed at the back of each set (I still have mine). And the roar that ensued when Constable Lyndon Slewidge performed the national anthem was like nothing I had ever seen before. I won’t lie; I teared a little.

Unfortunately, the Senators lost the tie on the night (4-2) and would go on to lose the series in six games. They failed to make the playoffs in the subsequent year, leaving this one game my sole experience of one of the highest echelons of professional ice hockey.

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7.) Thesis-writing in the Cariboo Mountains (August 2010)

One of the requirements towards completing a Bachelors of Science in Geology at the University of Ottawa is the preparation of an undergraduate research paper (thesis project). For my research project, I had the privilege of working with Dr. Bill Arnott up at his study area in Castle Creek, British Columbia. I remember that I had absolutely no idea what to expect from the trip – all that I knew was that it would likely be rough, cold, and potentially tiring.

And I was right.

From the moment we helicoptered into the site and began unloading our stuff the work began. Camp took over half a day to establish – and just in time too, for a storm was looming on the horizon. In my haste I pitched my tent on an incline and was made to suffer the ignominy of having to sleep at an angle for the next two weeks (in my final week I swapped tents with one of the students who had completed his work and was returning to Ottawa). At Castle Creek, the day would begin at 6.30 am as we shivered out of our sleeping bags into the washing basin. We would then make breakfast and prepare a packed lunch from 7.00 am to 8.00 am, at which point we would hike of to our study areas which were scattered within a 2 km radius of base camp. In order to reach mine, I had to climb northwards for about half an hour – Isaac Channel 6 was located at the topmost section of the Castle Creek study area, which nearly always meant that I was the first to summit and the last to arrive home at the end of the day.

Helicoptering in.

Baths were rare, to say the least. I only bathed twice in the space of my three weeks there, and by the end of it all I was easily looking the scruffiest I had ever been in my life. But by God was the expedition fun. I looked forward to examining my study area every morning, and thoroughly enjoyed the company which folks like Viktor, Lilian, Lindsay, Dave, and even Bill brought to the scene. My final week alone with Bill was initially mildly intimidating as a prospect, but it soon became one of my fondest memories from the trip. It was nice to be able to have a sense of camaraderie with someone who is not only your superior in your field of expertise, but also in terms of seniority. Suffice to say I enjoyed my three weeks very much, and was almost sorry when the time came for us to pack up and descend to our first showers in almost a month.

Working hard up at Castle.

I also enjoyed my time alone in my tent very much. There’s something incredibly calming about being in the snug warmth of your sleeping bag in the middle of the night, as the rain pelts down on the outside. I had brought my iPod and a pair of speakers with me, and many a night was whiled away listening to Pink Floyd’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason and Iron Maiden’s A Matter of Life and Death. If you were to play me “Learning To Fly” or “For The Greater Good of God” at any point from now on, I will find my thoughts slowly flying back to that mountain top in northeastern British Columbia. The smell of the inside of the tent though, was another matter entirely.

Castle Creek also provided me with amazing opportunities for night-time photography.

I guess it’s worth mentioning that I also got an A+ for my thesis project. I guess it shows what having a good work environment can do to your quality of output =)

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6.) Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics (February 2010)

For many a Canadian, catching the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics on home soil was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. In my case however, the very idea of being excited by a Winter Games was in and of itself a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. When I discovered very early on in my Canadian journey that Vancouver would be hosting the XXI Winter Olympiad, my mind was instantaneously made up – I knew I wanted to go; I knew I had  to go.

I remember the feverish excitement of waiting for the local allocation tickets to go onsale on the Games’ official website (Canadian residents had access to the lion’s share of events). Heck, I even applied for a torchbearer position while waiting – so caught up was I in the mad fever that was the pre-Olympic Games euphoria. When the online ticketing system finally went online, I remember going absolutely bonkers. I splurged out on requests for Opening Ceremony tickets, a couple of hockey games, stuff on Whistler Mountain, and also short track speed skating. The volume of requests would be ridiculously high, and I didn’t want to be left out in the cold – disappointed and ticket-less. As it turned out, I was only successful in a couple of bids – I had only managed to nail down a ticket each to the Canada – Norway hockey game and the ladies’ 500 M short track speed skating.

When the time came for me to experience Vancouver during the peak of the Games, I was simply blown away by the feel of it all. The entire city was in a super-festive mood and decked out in red and white for the occasion. The best part of it all was that people seemed happy and were, in many ways, on their best behaviour – they were Canada’s de facto ambassadors to the world, after all. I also didn’t give up the chance to do a little of sightseeing in British Columbia – I managed a trip to several key locales around the downtown core, and even managed to traipse over to the neighbouring city of Victoria =)

But the keynote moments were none other than the actual sporting events themselves:

Getting into Canada Hockey Place for Canada vs Norway was an experience in and of itself. Thousands of Canadians were swarming up the sides of the edifice, with an odd pack of Norwegian fans popping up every now and then. For me, the most remarkable thing about it all was the pure diversity of the people present; for lack of a better description, it was not very white. I counted dozens upon dozens of Asians and Middle-Eastern-looking people – basically folks who you ordinarily would not find following an ice hockey game back in their home country. Another thing they had in common was how loud they all were. I felt completely at home, belting out random slogans that threatened, in various amusing ways, methods to overturn the Norwegian team.

Inside Canada Hockey Place itself, the intensity was at fever pitch. Being able to belt out the national anthem with over 20,000 other Canadians is something I will never forget. I could barely hear myself over the din. I also chuckled at the fact that I was the only one singing the bilingual version in my section of the crowd. Think about it. A native Malaysian, somehow finding himself in an ice hockey game, singing the Canadian national anthem in English and switching over to French when appropriate. I had no business doing any of those things at all. I guess nationhood is infectious

Canada blasted Norway 8 – 0. As if there could be any other result.

Later in the week I found myself at the ladies’ 500 M short track speed skating final. Unlike my hockey game, for this event I had prime seats; this resulted in significantly more epic photos.

The intensity at the Pacific Coliseum was a bit different – it is, after all, a bit harder to rage and yell about short track speed skating than it is about hockey. That being said, the cheers that erupted from the crowd upon Marianne St. Gelais’ claiming of the silver medal were nothing short of awesome =)

I won’t lie; I have quite a few regrets from my time at the Games. Part of me feels like I really should have done more and planned my trip slightly better – I did leave Vancouver with the sense that I had not exactly achieved everything which I had initially set out to do. Still, the memories from this one trip will still last me a lifetime; after all, how many Malaysians can say they have actually attended a Winter Olympics event? And had a real team to cheer for in the process?

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5.) Visiting Prince Edward Island with Farah Hanani (July 2010)

I don’t have many regrets with regards to how I spent my time in Canada, but failing to travel further – and more often – with one Farah Hanani Shamsudin will surely rank as one of them. Joining her on an adventure of Canada’s smallest province, Prince Edward Island, stands out as one of my finest vacation memories whilst in Canada. Our trip began with a twenty hour train ride across central Canada into the Maritimes. Once there, we had to lug it from Moncton to Prince Edward Island before spending the next hour or so traipsing around Charlottetown looking for our hostel. The journey may have been arduous – and made slightly more “out there” by my weird choice of movie to watch on the train (the Korean war flick “Silmido”) – but it set us up nicely for a week of pure awesomeness.

Prince Edward Island is truly a province like no other. From its small-town, peace-loving inhabitants (“we know nothing about out west”), to the iron-oxide stained beaches, and to the spectacular natural environments, the island itself is like a microcosm in where several tiny worlds are hosted all at once. Little wonder the province has earned the nickname “Garden of the Gulf”.

Seen above is the rugged, weather-beaten terrain of the North Cape; here, dozens upon dozens of scything arms repeatedly swoop and cut into the cool, Atlantic air. All-in-all, about a fifth of the province is powered by these windmills.

Then there were the Dunes of Greenwich – mile after mile of carefully preserved marshland, serenely facing the Atlantic.

But my trip to PEI wasn’t just about the sights I saw – it was also about the people I met. PEI locals aside, I don’t think I will ever find a travel partner as excellent as Miss Peggy Shamsudin, whom I was able to barrage with a ton of David Gilmour music and rave to endlessly about the awesomeness of Pink Floyd. Throw in all our heavy gossip about basically everything that moved around us, and the ability to make light about sinking ourselves in the hole to the tune of $400 by damaging the rental car, and one ultimately has the recipe for a stack of memories that will last a lifetime. A stack of memories that is greatly deserving of fifth spot on this list.

I would also like to take this opportunity to tell Peggy that I wish her nothing but the best in her final year in the Great White North. May there always be ships in the harbour where you are concerned.

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4.) Trip to the Gaspe Peninsula (June 2011)

If you’ve been keeping track of my blogging in recent times, it should come as no real surprise that my trip to the Gaspe Peninsula managed to get itself included on this list. As my final voyage in Canada, the Gaspesie was simply all that I could have ever wished for. I got a healthy dosage of spectacular vistas, was privileged by the visit of various forms of wildlife that I would never be able to see whilst back home in Malaysia, was given the chance to immerse myself in the Quebec French culture, and even made a couple of solid friends. It will be very difficult to verbally single out the true highlights of the trip, but as they say, a picture says a thousand words, and I hope the following speak to you as loudly and clearly as I ever could:

And that’s just half the story. No picture can illustrate to you the exhilaration I felt at breathing in the cold, fresh mountain air of Forillon National Park, explain the beauty of witnessing a mother bear and her cub forage for food in the wilderness, or even depict the amusement of being tailed by an inquisitive seal for minutes on end. It’s little wonder the Gaspe was ranked as the third most desirable place to visit in the world by the National Geographic Society in 2010.

The memory of witnessing my first-ever Gaspesian sunrise, burnt into my retinas forever, will surely become one of my finest vacation memories of all time.

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3.) Breaking with Devon at CUSID BP Champs (November 2010)

There are many reasons why I applied to the University of Ottawa for my Bachelors, but chief among them was the reputation of the university’s debate team. Having heard, first-hand, of the university’s victory in the 2005 World Universities Debating Championship hosted by Multimedia University of Malaysia, I saw my application to the University of Ottawa as a chance to further develop my debate career and project it to an even-greater level.

Alas, I joined a club that was bereft of its strongest foundations, and well-ensconced within the depths of a rebuilding phase. The explosive varsity debate career that I had always dreamed of never really seemed like rearing its head in my first year in Canada, despite my managing to get on the university teams for both of the Canadian Nationals and the North American Championships. As my degree advanced over the years and my workload started to get progressively heavier, I gradually found myself being slowly pushed towards the fringes of debating, slowly being relegated to turning up at 5.30 pm on Wednesdays and Fridays only for recreational purposes. A far cry from the dreams of glory and success that I once harboured deep down. A disastrous Worlds 2008 campaign further served to diminish my morale, and I ended up going for a whole year without participating in a single debate tournament after that.

But a couple of encouraging performances alongside Carissa at Winter Carnival 2010 and Lucky at Dorchester 2010 went a long way towards helping me regain my footing. I decided that I didn’t want to go out with a whimper and that deep down, I wanted to keep debating. Even if I were doomed to never be successful in any capacity, I at least wanted to go out with my head held high – safe in the knowledge that I had tried.

And then, out of nowhere, Devon came in. Hauled out of an early retirement by Alex, her exploits at Nationals of 2009 alongside him (the pair came within two spots of making the quarterfinals) was the stuff of myth and legend within the club’s circles. I had always respected and admired her greatly, and saw her as being way out of my league debate-wise. I don’t know what she saw in me (particularly as she had only seen me debate a couple of times), but whatever it was, it convinced her to ask if I would like to partner her at Canada’s premier British Parliamentary debating competition – BP Champs. I was incredibly humbled to be given the opportunity to partner the EDS’ best debater at the time, and jumped at the chance. The rest, as they say, is history.

I would like to think that Devon and I hit it off from the start. We quickly became very comfortable with each other’s speaking styles, strengths, and weaknesses. This allowed us to form a particularly effective combination where the final total was much greater than the sum of its parts. I found myself in a more constructive/defensive role and was surprised to find that I was very comfortable with it. Elsewhere, Devon’s awesome rebuttal firepower frequently had enough verve in it to allow us to outclass or simply outfight our opponents. There was a quiet confidence in the team as we started our BP Champs campaign; against all odds, we found ourselves competitive as soon as the tournament began. Day 1 was marked by two seconds, granting us four hard-earned points. We then sealed a narrow win in our third round to advance to the tournament’s second-highest room. Despite losing in round 4, and eventually finding ourselves in 12th place and eight speaker points off the pace of the team occupying the final qualification spot at the start of the fifth round, Devon and I somehow lucked out and did just enough to seal a win in our final round. With this victory came passage into none other than the national semifinals.

The feeling was comparable to when I won my first ever debate tournament in 2003 at the age of 14. I won’t lie – I actually teared a bit when it was announced that we had made it to the knockout rounds. The next fifteen minutes were a blur, but I remember that I was happy – so very happy.

Unfortunately, our semifinal didn’t go all too well the next day. Blindsided by a tricky topic, Devon and I found ourselves unable to impose ourselves on the round, and ended up bowing out a tad too meekly for my liking.

But frankly, I didn’t care.

And by the looks of it, neither did Devon. What mattered was simply surpassing our expectations and managing to come away with something to show for it.

As a fine post-script, Devon and I would also make the quarterfinals of the Central Canadian Championships three months later, finishing in 7th place. In addition, we also had a decent run at Nationals (finishing 13th overall) – in one fell swoop we had provided the EDS a year with much to be proud of. Most importantly, at the end of the day, I find myself able to reflect on my final year of varsity debate and afford myself a smile. I am proud of what I have achieved in CUSID; it may not have been a stellar debate career by any stretch of the imagination, but I got a couple of trophies and was able to pad my resume. And this all while forming an eternal bond with one of the most intelligent and beautiful women that I have ever had the opportunity to work with.

Thank you Devon. You have given me my dream.

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2.) Digging for bones in Dinosaur Provincial Park (May 2011)

I remember, with distinct clarity, that one of my biggest disappointments with Malaysia whilst growing up was that the country was remarkably devoid of dinosaurs. Having spent much of my early youth poring over massive tomes that so excitedly detailed these remarkable lizards, I thought it was absolutely criminal that my patch of the earth had not a single dinosaur tooth embedded within it. I remember wanting nothing better than to move to North America at the time.

So imagine the excitement I felt when I was selected for a two week long field trip with the Canadian oil and gas industry, featuring nothing less than a day long trek throughout the badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park. The trek would then be rounded up by a complimentary visit to the Royal Tyrell Museum and a behind-the-scenes tour with one of the museum’s curators. To say that I felt like an eight year old kid again would be putting it extremely lightly – I was absolutely thrilled.

Hiking through the badlands.

The badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by the forces of wind and water. They form  form in semi-arid or arid regions with infrequent but intense rain-showers, sparse vegetation, and soft sediments (excellent conditions for local erosion). Dinosaur Provincial Park protects a very complex ecosystem which includes the prairie grasslands, badlands, and riverside cottonwoods. The park is itself a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is famous for featuring over forty dinosaur species, over 500 of which have been removed and exhibited in museums across the globe.

My favourite example of some extremely cool natural erosion: look for the camel and the pyramid!

At this point I was barely able to withhold my excitement any longer.

For successfully satiating my fifteen-year-old thirst for giant reptiles and feeding my DSLR with some absolutely breathtaking vistas, my trip to Dinosaur Provincial Park as part of SIFT 2011 earns second place on my “Top Ten Moments In Canada” list.

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At this point, you guys are probably wondering (at least I hope you are lol) which experience of mine managed to claim top spot in the list. To be honest with you, the eventual champion was a bit bizarre. In a sense, it isn’t even a “moment” at all. Moreover, it was never blogged about (unlike most of my Canadian experiences), and frankly just seemed to pass in a haze of wondrous dappled skies and occasional shades of grey. A ship passing in the night. But I cannot in all honesty think of any other memory, souvenir, or photographs which might be able to top the experience enshrined in this list’s overall champion.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you:

1.) The First Week (September 2007)

The above is literally the first picture I took of Canada. I think it’s from somewhere in Quebec, near the Sacre-Coeur Boulevard, where I stayed for my first couple of days in the country. I remember feeling like I was in a dream – this new land was so utterly strange and novel to me. There were times where I felt like I was walking around in a bit of a haze (the jet lag may have contributed somewhat to this) and everything I encountered was a new experience. I remember taking pictures of lamp posts (which I will not include here for fear of embarrassment), random buildings, and even people – basically anything that I could set my sights on. Even the most mundane things carried a hint of the unknown to me, and the strangest part of it all is that I can remember the immediacy of it all as it was only yesterday.

As the days wore on, other things began to appear to me. The internet was blindingly fast, for one. I remember downloading Skype one morning and wandering off to the toilet to take a leak; imagine my surprise when I came back and found it ready for installation (in Malaysia you’d have been lucky to load a YouTube video in that same period of time). When I discovered my first French-speaking Asian (it was at a Loblaws) I nearly exclaimed out loud in shock. Your face…does not fit the language that you are speaking, my extremely limited head seemed to say. Canadian currency took me for a bit of a wild goose chase too – it took me about a month to get used to the fact that quarters existed (Malaysia uses the 20 cent coin) and that nickles were bigger than dimes. Then there were the sports that folks watched on TV. American football lost me completely (still does). I also found (still do) baseball to be a bizarre thing with rather limited dosages of excitement in it. And then there was the hockey – for the love of God where the hell was the rubber thing you folks called “the puck”. And you allow FIGHTING?! And what’s this about no red cards?!

Lots of pictures exist still from those days; here:

Checking into Brooks Residence for the first time.

The inaugural unpacking.

(And this is how my room looks now)

Hahahaha I look so serious in this pic.

My photography skills were also significantly weaker. As evidenced by my inability to include all of this signboard within the frame.

There’s really nothing else that can match the experience and general sense of awe that I obtained in my first week in Canada. What’s more, I doubt if there’ll be anything else like it – I’ll never again be 18 years old and superbly naive with regards to the ways of the world. They say you can only imprint yourself to a new place once, and in my case, that one-off honour goes to Ottawa and the rest of Canada.

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Thanks for keeping Oh!Gravity alive for the past four years. This was a journey that took almost four years to complete and thousands upon thousands of words to chronicle. In that same time, I’ve earned a Bachelor’s degree, learned a new language, and paid a visit to each and every province in Canada (the original dream was to visit all the Territories as well – but I’ll forgive myself for not having $8,000 dollars to fork out on several trips up north). Most importantly however, I think I’ve formed a bond to a nation and its people – one that I feel will never diminish.

I daresay I’ll see some of you again someday. But for now, this is farewell.

-

/end log

Total time elapsed in Canada: 1290 days