The bilateral effects of individuals on their environment
I just received an invitation to watch a neat video from a friend I made while still active in our university Polish-Canadian cultural association during undergraduate years. I was initially wary of the lightsaber battle because that’s just been waaay overdone, but when I realized the metaphor behind it, it suddenly didn’t seem as bad. …
My Auberge Espagnole experience is rapidly coming to a close. This adventure has taken me through a big chunk of Europe and has taught me more than I ever thought possible. I’ve raved over this program before (as well as writing summary posts about many of our profs: Peter Schneider, Jean Côté, Anthony Watt, Martin …
Hm, where to begin. When I first finished Daniel Quinn’s philosophical novel, Ishmael (1992, 3.94, 4.2), as an older teen, I spent four days in agnostic turmoil. My faith in God shaken, I somehow found my way back in the end. However, my life certainly wasn’t the same, and I would often remember this novel …
I recently revisited CS Lewis’ The Great Divorce (1945, 4.27, 4.6), probably one of the founding blocks on which my moral values rest. I read it first close to a decade ago — I forget on what whim — but remember it filling a deep longing for moral truth I didn’t know I had. Studying …
People often ask me why I moved all the way to Europe for grad school (“But doesn’t Canada have any good programs?”) and my replies are never really sufficient, always boiling down to something of an, “I can’t possibly imagine myself doing anything else right now in the whole, wide world”… and no one likes …
Aaand another trip, this one to the lovely Isle up north. At the behest of a great friend I flew in to take part in the seventh annual Congress of Polish Student Societies in the UK. My main drive was to compare British Polonia to the Polish diaspora I had grown up with in my …
My plans of funding European grad school with Canadian employment continued this past Christmas season, where I returned home for 5 weeks to catch up financially and rest a bit before returning to school in Greece. My time in Canada was exceptionally busy: working three very intensive weeks in Vancouver and then spending the next …
One of the best things about living in Europe is the ease with which I can travel. Seriously, only $400 to fly from the bottom to right near the top of the continent, whaaa?! And that’s a return ticket?? Crazy. Europeans don’t know how good they have it. Last month a bunch of us from …
Wandering through my music, iTunes plucks Gordon Lightfoot from among the throng. Suddenly I am back on the bus from Burnaby to Ladner. If you’ve ever been, you know there’s something magical about the half-year when it doesn’t rain in Vancouver. The landscape whispers green and gold as everything exhales. It seems everyone is running …
After a year of working in beautiful BC it was time to head home to rest before starting grad school. I swore to myself that the next such trip would be by land for two reasons: one, I hadn’t been to Manitoba or Saskatchewan yet, and two… I don’t like turbulence. So when a chance …
Here’s a quick reference of the best sites I use for finding cheap flights, in order of preference: rome2rio: Hands down the best one. It not only shows you the cheapest flights between destinations, it also factors in everything else like buses/trains/taxis/ferries — and leaves you with a very solid budget for your complete trip. …
Hawaii done and still losing the race to join the Traveler’s Century Club I had challenged my sister to years back, I needed to step things up a notch. Plus, it had been a pretty busy season at the massage clinic and I needed a break. So I looked north for my next adventure: Alaska …