Hello (internet) friends!
One way or another, I've convinced you to click some link and arrive at my blog. I haven't tried maintaining one of these since I was thirteen, and that one quickly became a public venue for me to spew my vapid white girl problems. I vowed never to repeat my mistake again, unless I had a worthy cause. Seven years later (with a little more austerity in my emoticon use) I think I'm finally ready to try this again.
In five days, I'll be boarding a plane to Stockholm looking pretty fly with my giant backpacks (yes, two of them), rubber boots and an oh-so-secret passport holder. You know, the kind that you wear under your shirt or whatnot, as if that were somehow more convenient than the normal wallet in purse approach. To make matters worse, it sits just below the waistline of my comfy travel pants, thus assuring that I will look like a pervert at some point en-route to Sweden. "What's that? You need to see my passport? Well, just excuse me while I discretely reach into my pants to fetch it..."
I really don't understand the advantage of those passport-fanny-pack things. Are they supposed to somehow disguise my identity as a tourist? As if the locals in where ever-the-flip I will be just saunter about their daily business with such contraptions secured around their waists? Perhaps the passport-fannypack was in fact designed by pick-pocketers as a systematic way to identify North American tourists where ever they crop up in the world. I'm not one to entertain conspiracy theories, but I think there might be something to this one. Nothing screams affluent tourist like the passport fannypack.
I'll keep this post short, but here's the basic info on what I intend to do with this blog. As mentioned, I'll be in Stockholm real soon. I'll be spending two months in Sweden, doing a case study for the McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy on disability policy and equity in the labour market. After those two months, I'll be roaming around Europe trying to take a scenic detour to London (where my flight back to Montreal will be leaving). I've received some indication from friends and family that they might miss me during these three months, and that they might want to have updates on my travels. So, for the summer I will update this blog as regularly as possible on all my European adventures. My lovely Montreal roommate, Elise, has graciously lent me her camera for these purposes. As a result, she will be bestowed the best travel gift upon my arrival. Sorry to all other folks. It doesn't mean I love you less.
AND, since I will miss you all dearly, please post on this blog. We all know how expensive it is to call internationally, and the time difference will likely result in some communication delay. So feel free to give me a shout this way, or at my skype account (my skype account is my first and last name, and I'm the only one with my name based out of Montreal as far as I know).
P.S Kanadensiska is Canadian in Swedish if you haven't figured out the wonders of google translate yet!
