rebecca

New life out west

The rest of the road tripping included a trip back to Ontario for some visits and collecting the rest of the stuff. It just barely fit. Successfully avoided shipping anything by giving things away. I only regretish giving one thing away: the standmixer. It’s in a nice home though with a friend.

After spending about three days wondering what to do next in the new BC apartment I started the drive back to Toronto. It was much less adventurous going back, but still very enjoyable. I slept in the car on the way, avoiding camping fees. Still brought the tent anyways, for the trip back.

Sleeping in the car was the ultimate freedom. To just drive around and look for a spot that permits parking overnight was a bit challenging at times but mostly advantageous. There were a few nights where I said “fuck it” and slept on an abandoned logging road or something. I had my little kitchen still in the back of the car, with anything I could need. I would definitely travel like this again. I would not, however, travel in an RV. Seeing them all summer made me dislike them even more. They’re gross in how excessive they can be. Van life is also too much. I’d rather cram myself in the back of a mazda3 and cook entirely outdoors.

By September 29th or something I was back in the apartment. It’s been about two months since I’ve ‘lived’ here now. My car is still Ontario plated, because of all the delays and dumb paperwork crap to get my licence, register and insure it. I’ve also heard insurance will be disgustingly expensive. The pandemic of course delays things more than normal. I’m not sad to be paying considerably less insurance while I wait.

I also have a job now, working with kids to learn how to code. It’s mostly Javascript with some Scratch to start. It’s certainly interesting attempting to get an eight year old to understand the syntax around functions or even ‘why’ they’re doing this. I’m not sure which was more ‘fun’: kids or adults. Probably kids. I feel like a kid myself when we battle robots together or draw flowers on the whiteboard. It’s also been great to have a bit of money instead of drain savings.

In January, I start fancy-pants pastry school! Didn’t think I’d be accepted to Northwest Culinary Academy but here we are. The imposter syndrome I already feel reminds me of entering the software industry. I’m planning on spending December making a bunch of stuff as practice so as to temper the feeling. Ha, temper: like chocolate! Apparently there will be some bean-to-bar action which I’m excited for. One of the graded projects is also potentially ‘high tea’. My dreams of tiny things on elaborate plate-structures can be realized.

Winter is already happening up in the mountains here and it looks super badass. The plan is also to get some xcountry skis to take advantage of the mountain just behind me that has a great nordic centre.

The next birthday is also a nerdy one: finally back to another power of 2. I’ll be 100000 years old in base 2!