It's Happening! Montreal - New York - Colombia

I don't know if it's a mark of getting older, or if I've just filled up all the available spaces in my friend roster, but meeting new people that you immediately click with and becoming instant friends seems to be a thing reserved for humans under thirty.

I spent five years living in Vancouver and working at a place that always had a constantly changing cohort of young, fun, artsy people coming and going. This meant that every year we would always be exposed to a whole new bunch of rad humans to get to know and do fun stuff with. I made some of the best friendships I will ever have living in Vancouver, and when we all decided to move to different parts of the country, I knew that it would be important to ensure that these friendships didn't fade away with the distance.

Before Vancouver, I went to school in Kamloops BC and had a similar experience - young, fun, people doing like-minded things (school) who were interesting and exciting to get to know. I met one of my absolute best friends going to school here which, when the cost of living in Vancouver became too much for me to bear, is why I decided to move back. I figured that if I couldn't afford to live in Vancouver anymore, I would go back to the other place where meeting amazing people seemed to happen effortlessly. 

Unfortunately, I hadn't really taken into account that getting older, for most people, means settling down, getting married, making babies, and going to bed by 9pm every night. Couple this with a new job where 98% of everyone is female with a young family, and lets just say that my social opportunities since moving back here haven't been as easy to come by as I had hoped. 

With one exception. 

My roommates and I were at a party and I met this random girl named Ashley who somehow I got embroiled in a fantastically nerdy conversation spiral about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She was wearing a Dr. Who t-shirt, had a filthy mouth, and I immediately felt like I had finally met another kindred spirit since moving back to Kamloops. 

We became fast friends and the more I got to know her the more it was clear that we were essentially the same person. We both took the same Political Science courses in university. We both traveled extensively - she even LIVED in Prague for a year! - and we both had a deep affinity for nerd culture. 

So, when she told me she had decided to move to Colombia for a year to teach english, I was both ecstatic for her (and the future visiting possibilities it offered), and sad because it would mean one less person I could hang out with here. 

So, it's been a year since she's left, I've been casually saving money for no particular reason since I got a decent paying job, and one day I came across an article talking about "multi-city flights". How have I never looked into this before! They are such a good deal sometimes! 

I set about trying to find the best way to hit as many "friend stops" as I could and finally found the winning combination. 

My friend Jenna has been living in Montreal and finishing up her Interior Design degree. She's also been miserable there and I promised I would try and fly out to see her this year. 

Stop number one: MONTREAL!

Jenna and I have always talked about going to New York and since its a reasonable drive from Montreal we figured we would make a long weekend of it while I was there. In a magically convenient turn of events, one of my best friends from High School just moved to New York City and offered to let us stay with her and her husband (and many animals) while we were there. 

Stop number two: NEW YORK CITY!

My best friend Siobhan is also going to make a trek from Toronto to Montreal for a day or two when we get back and I'll get to have some friend time with her. Killing all the birds with all the stones!

Finally, I am of course going to see Ashley.

Stop number three: COLOMBIA!

She lives in this little town in the mid-west of the country called Buga, that is tiny and charming, and is relatively close to a variety of fun things to do. It's also, apparently, a humid, hot, tropical nightmare for my pale, sun-allergic skin so I've been sussing out a wardrobe that wont make me want to kill myself while we're traipsing around in 30 degree humid weather.

So, it's finally happening. I'm going on another epic adventure! To...a rather odd combination of places, I'll give you that, but I could not be more excited to go!