i just had a pretty stunning two days for the heart.
simple, as most things of the heart are, but stunning.
went out walking for what turned into an epic three hour doozy, through la marais, ended up by the louvre, and then back home again...
and walked into my bedroom to see this huuuuuge pile of letters and packages. everything came at once! (except for the boxes from my mom and sister..tracking numbers anyone?)
letters and cards and gifts, and bank statements! apart from acutually having the card in my wallet, i now have a french bank account! which can be a whole other story. who has to go the bank five times to finish things up for a bank account? thats right, french people. or english people, who don't know how to work the french system. me.
but ya, it was so great to suit there and rifle through all the handwritten, handmade, handwrapped wonder.
thank you's to shona (and jord!), britt, trish, lisa and stephen, adam and elyse..wait for your official gushy thank you email.

and today was wonderful and simple because i baked, had tea with my roomates girlfriend, and laaaauugghed, and then talked to those three little people in vancouver who are the same shape as my hole. for over an hour. ohhhh. its good.

merry christmas!
currently sitting in cozy central london flat, quiet for the moment as 6 of 8 have gone off for a blustery day walk and last minute grocery shop for tomorrows epic christmas day breakfast (the cinnamon buns are currently proofing behind me next to the radiator).

this paragraph here is a massive, gratitude filled, overwhelmed emotional shout out to robin cicansky. my partner in skipping the country for year crime, she's studying up in northern england, and thus i have someone to regularily chat with on the same time zone, which in itself is a wonderful gift.
however, upon arriving here in london, a couple hours into conversation, my hosts casually mentioned that packages had arrived for me, and continued on to tell the story about going to pick up the packages from the post, only to be disapointed that they were for me. it took me a second to process this, but then finally.. "hold on, hold on..what???! there are packages HERE?? for ME???" i can't even tell you the level of excitment and joy i felt upon seeing that it was true. my hosts thought it was no big deal beacause they just figured i'd been giving out there address to everyone so that such a thing might occur. they didn't count on the surprise element. and neither did i. only later upon checking facebook did i see that ms. robin cicansky confessed to the jig. oh man. that everyone should have people like this in life. i can't believe the thought and generosity. robin. thanks.

tonight is the midnight christmas mass at paul and louanne's church, which i'm stoked about, followed by chistmas day service tomorrow, and then the whole christmas day to chill out and eat and read and play games.
we've already broken out the skip bo, which playing last night felt so right amongst the music, and conversation and coffees..louanne even said that she might be able to get her hands on a box of settlers of catan, which i admit i over reacted to. settlers? on christmas day?? can christmas day possibly get any better?

sufficed to say,
things are really, really good on this little island (that has cheerios!).
so merry christmas.
i miss you all.

well my dear folks, i am thrilled, and relieved, and overwhelmed with gratitude that i can say,
i'm going to london for christmas!
for those of you that know them,
paul and louanne enns graciously opened up their life in london for this lonely canadian paris dweller.
two nights ago i went and bought my ticket aboard the eurostar train, which i'm excited about in it own right. a two hour train that goes underneath the english channel.

and this pesky lonliness thing.
i sat thinking about it the other day,
and in coming here, leaving my huge life in canada,
i was risking it.
and come what may,
choosing to embrace that experience is paramount.
so right now i'm embracing the lonliness. and it's good.

alright i'm going short again come hell or high water.
here are my inspirations.
imput appreciated.

bad news folks.
last night my computer finally crashed for good.
it's been on the skitz for a couple months now,
so not a huge surprise, no.

just really sad.
i've still access to internet and the like through work,
but so much for the grand uploading of daily photos.

i'm still trying to figure out, budget wise, when a new computer is feesible,
it's looking like january at the soonest, probably febuary.

sigh.