Just NB

• pull my roller suitcase carryon the wrong way (wheels fm facing up so I'm just dragging it). • walk around with my luggage zippers undone until someone (thankfully last time it was Louis) tells me • try to take as much fruit, soda water, and good stuff from the lounge • wear my travel pillow around my neck even when I'm walking through the airport • wear 12 sweaters/sweatshirts cause my body temperature drops thirty degrees on the plane • take up as much room with my water, iPhone, magazine, book, and sweatshirt as I possibly can without sitting on my neighbours lap • fight like hell to get "priority" stickers on my suitcases even though the stupid new Aeroplan rules don't allow my "class" to get them • sweat buckets as I go through customs. I'm never doing anything wrong...but they always make me feel like I am!! • pass out before the plane takes off so I miss out on any drinks/water/pretzels.  • drool while I sleep. (Seriously, it's a problem...

An acquaintance that I know warned me not to like North Carolina too much, or I'll end up buying a house here. While I think I'll purchase a house in Canada first...I can certainly see why he'd give me the half-joking warning. The weather here is awesome. Humid, hot, rarely any snow. The people here are down-to-earth (ok, let's forget the gun toters for a second) and everyone is RUDICULOUSLY nice & polite. Oh, and there's the southern drawl thing...love it. I haven't done as much touring this time. I swear I've spent most of the vacation shopping for FOOD!!! Every flavour of pretzels for Louis. Chocolate covered EVERYTHING for the girls. And all the natural or health products that I've read about but have never been able to find in Canada.  This afternoon, we walked the Historic Oakwood area,  made up of old homes dating back to the early 1900s.  Oh, and a conderate cemetary, which was a little surreal.  I'm scheduled to come back mid-October an...

I love North Carolina. I'm not sure I can officially call it the South, but it feels like what I think the South would be like. Hush puppies, sweet tea, fried green tomatoes, accents that I can't always understand, and TOTAL hospitality. Everyone is soooooo friendly. Both last time and this time I used the Airbnb website to find a place to stay and I love it. I've used this site in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Canada, and now the  US. I've had one negative experience in Turkey, and the website came to the rescue & refunded me extra money for my inconvenience.  Since I liked the general feel  of Chapel Hill, I decided to take a chance and stay in someone's house for 2 nights. It was super awkward at first (my flight was 7 hours late and I walked into their house in the middle of the night and accidentally went into their room instead of mine!!!) but it was still awesome. It was just like staying in a hotel room, except for a fraction of the price. My hosts we...

Major brain fart alert: my flight was at 11h00 to Toronto this morning so we showed up at the airport at 11h00. I have no clue what was going on in both our minds... $80 + a few panicked minutes later and I'm in the lounge...with a six hour wait ahead, arriving in Raleigh at 23h00 instead of late afternoon...having to drive myself in (my favorite) the dark. I've had a few naps...which kind of concerns me since I've been talking in my sleep lately.  Oh well. Things could be worse. The lounge could be our of cookies.... Or Baileys & decaf coffee.  Don't judge me by my reading materials please...

Urgh. The job market sucks right now. At least where I am in the world. Both Louis & I get cold calls to work in Africa...but nothing in Montreal (although Louis has barely just started looking).  I get told my CV is awesome and amazing & my French rocks...yet I'm still jobless, with only 1 interview under my belt...that for some weird reason (it still confuses me) I didn't get the job. I have 4 head hunters working for me...& nothing. It's kind of a discouraging day. They keep telling me it's just the market...but I've been looking for 5 months. Ok...so 3 of those were summer months (it's awesome, Montreal actually gets a distinctive summer season here!!! No parkas and toques in July! :P). But still...nothing.  On the plus side, I'm leaving for North Carolina on Wednesday morning for a week & my mom will be there Friday afternoon. We'll rip it up southern style with some pig, Dunkin Donuts gallons of decaf iced coffee, and 87% humidity. ...

I don't want to jinx myself...but life in Quebec has sort of started to feel like...home. It's still weird, I am still confused and often miss entire conversations, I still only fill up my tank every three weeks (even though it IS a Honda, I just really don't drive a lot, especially between 15h00-19h00). I still complain (I think people are just so much more mean here), I still haven't found a one-stop grocery store (we go to 3 every week and the organic produce is next to impossible). But, I kinda feel like home. Maybe it's because even though we don't yet have a job (although the market is starting to pick up!!!), we are getting into a routine. I think the biggest part of me feeling at home is my relationship with the girls. Although we've never really had any problems per se, I am living with a two girls - both still technically teenagers. I probably treat them too much like they are adults, I probably filter myself too much at times and not enough a...

It's 10h19. That's AM. I'm sitting on my luggage cart in Montreal. It's way too early to have flown from Raleigh.  I didn't sleep, which worked well with the rest of the trip cause I didn't sleep much either...but I'm too old to pull an all nighter. But I'm minutes away from seeing Louis. And the girls. And my happy, happy dog.  Sleepily yours. 

Yesterday was another good one in Research Triangle (also known as Chapel Hill, Durham, & Raleigh). I started the day off with some kind of power walk. I'm on a running hiatus (I think I've probably said that 12 times now) so it's awesome that I've taken a liking to power walking. Mainly I just skip, walk fast, punch the air, & try to keep the rythym of whatever I'm listening to on 8tracks (Google it, you'll thank me!) Somehow we ended up at Walmart (oh right, my favorite sandals broke...I nearly cried...) and we spotted this shirt.  And I think this Groupon confirms we're in a Republican state... My mom and I drove to Lafayette Village (that tried it's best to look Parisien complete with a mini Eiffel Tower). I found a dress for $23. Speaking of fashion...uh yeah.burlap and maps. Well, I've never had an eye for fashion anyway. It's Hawt here so we stopped for an iced Rooibos Rootbeer tea, with orange bobos. (Google bobos. They are kelp m...