Finales and Farewells

Three months since I left the (still snowy) land of Canada, it feels strange to set my thoughts once more into a blogging mindset and cast myself back to remember the events and occasions that filled my life in the last months of my year abroad. 

The final quarter of my Canadian year saw me, rather than dashing around the country every weekend, actually remain to experience more of the Ottawa life.  Ski trips continued, dodgeballing was a weekly constant (second place – hear hear), hangovers took us to diners with beautiful breakfast poutine, quirky coffee houses and Mexican restaurants.  A slight kick-yourself-moment when you discover a part of town in your final weeks, the ‘happening’ part, the part where you should have spent a significant portion of your months exploring. Oh sigh.  Balls and galas were occasioned, any excuse to wear heels in the snow... St Patrick’s day in all its Canadian/Irish glory was experienced to the full.  Green beer, free leprechaun hats and t-shirts, everyone loving each other. You get it.  And then of course, the visit to the Canadian version of a safari park occurred: picture a car surrounded by deer and the such, feeding them carrots in return for their drool; every now and then a particularly brave chap thrusting his head through the window in his desire for that carrot.

And naturally the weather was a constant background and conversation topic.  The thing of having such a cold and intense winter made the arrival of spring during the semester that little bit more epic.  The closure of the ice-rink-canal due to melting ice, patches of mud appearing on the road side, the ratio of snow to slush reversing, the day the sun shed not only light but a hint of warmth, such warmth that a hat is no longer a necessity.  Despite all this hope, the snow put up an outrageous fight and was still there to send me off to warmer climates.

The final fortnight was quite the fortnight as the need to pass exams was coupled with the absolute necessity to do ‘everything-you-haven’t-yet-but-know-you-just-have-to-do-before-you-leave’. Exams are the least of your priorities as you say goodbye to people you have no idea when you’ll see again, if ever.  And yet you’re still meeting new people thinking ‘should have probably had this introductory conversation about six months ago’. Everything becomes ‘the last time’.

Since leaving Canada I haven’t quite stopped until this week.  The travel bug has well and truly bitten me deep.  Weeks spent having experiences of quite a different kind in Central America and Ecuador had me end my year abroad on a backpacking high. However, my sad farewell (slightly hazy due to the last few days of goodbye parties) in April to set off on a grand Southern adventure was alleviated by a week in June – a pit stop on my way back to the English homeland.  I saw what Ottawa in summer could truly be like with its sparkling (flowing rather than frozen) river and blue canal, people on bikes, having picnics, strolling their afternoon away, finishing their days sat on one of the numerous bar patios in the downtown area.  Thus I felt like I’d come full circle.  Ottawa was lived in throughout the seasons from autumn sunshine, through the hellish freeze, and finally back to having leaves on the trees and a shimmering canal. The fact my year is well and truly over is strange, but with already planning my future trips, many more flights across many more oceans don’t seem too far away.