In just over two months I will be returning to London, England for a short but fun trip.
I was debating over my travel options a few months ago, but I finally made a decision when I realized how to knock another item off my to-do-in-life list. More on that later.
Picture taken during my last trip - on the eve of New Year's Eve 2008
I found out this week that I have more vacation days than I thought and I have to use them by the end of the year. Suddenly, I’m dreaming of all the places in the world that I want to go to and remembering all the wonderful places that I’ve already been (and would like to return to).
I’m leaning towards one or many of the following for this year: New York City, San Francisco, Dallas, Tuscany, London and Nice (really, anywhere in the South of France).
I guess being unsure about where and when to travel is a great problem to have. It could be worse.
Image of Nice, France by NirmalH – (CC: by-nc-nd)
In about two weeks I head back to London, Ontario to go back to school.
I can’t believe that my internship is almost over and that 16 months can go by so quickly. I did a lot over these months and grew quite a bit. I can definitely say that my life is different today compared to how it was a year ago, and I’m happy about that.
Expect more blog posts from me once I return to school. I’m living alone this year and will be focusing on so many different things, I’m sure I’ll be sharing my random thoughts.
But in the not-so-distant future, expect a blog about my cruise experience. I’m heading on a Carnival cruise from Miami to the Bahamas soon and I can’t wait 
I’m back from Japan and really out of it.
I traveled for 24 hours and didn’t sleep for 30+. I spent my time on the plane talking to a fast-talking, unable-to-sleep, 9-year-old-girl while everyone else could sleep. Then when I got home, my parents rushed me out the door to go to my cousin’s wedding reception.
And thus, I am really out of it right now.
I just found out that I just barely missed a massive earthquake in Japan that measured in at 7.1 (read the article here). That’s scary because I actually woke up in Kanazawa, which is in the Ishikawa prefecture, and it’s from there that we traveled to Tokyo for our flight home.
It’s also troubling to see all the pictures of destruction because I was just there and it’s such a great place.
It’s also scary to think that I could have been there at that time too…
I’m sitting in a tiny hotel room in Hiroshima, stealing borrowing wi-fi from some other building because the hotel’s is acting up.
I have so many stories to tell you all but I can’t get into them now. I’m just amazed because I still have a week to go.
Last night we were in Koyasan (or Mt. Koya, if you’re not Japanese). Atop Koyasan is a village full of temples and shrines. It was a very quiet and beautiful place. We stayed in a temple overnight and got up early to attend the prayers.
It was a wonderful experience and the only downside was that it was freezing and us Canadians (who, as we were told by some Australians we ran into, should be used to the cold) did not have any warm clothes with us, so we spent a lot of time shivering. Haha, but every experience is one to remember.
Today, we were in Hiroshima and we visited the Peace Memorial Park and the Museum. The museum talks about Hiroshima before the bomb, during the bomb and after. I was struggling with my emotions the entire time. I decided that instead of being angry I should probably think of some way of putting my energy into more positive things. More on that later.
Anyway, that’s all I have to say for now. I’ll blog more about my adventures (including Tokyo, the contest, Mt. Takao, etc) soon.