So another funny thing

I'm kind of amused at how little imagination I had when it came to travel when I first went on the road. Central America has turned out to be a million times more interesting, and cheaper than the USA and Canada (not that money is the main thing, but damn it's nice to be able to dick around for a while and not worry about spending all my money). The fusion of the Spanish language and indigenous culture and food is absolutely fascinating. Despite the problems I've had it's been a much more rewarding and interesting experience.

In Guatemala

Well It's been an interesting few weeks.
I've just made it to Antigua, Guatemala to learn Spanish, a necessary skill for travel in South America.
Prior to getting here I had a great few weeks in Mexico City seeing the cultural sights, Dias de Muertos and crazy nights out on Mezcal in Oaxaca, A cruisy birthday week drinking beer , being nude and getting high on the beach in Zipolite followed by a stressful touchdown in a bad part of town in Guatemala City and being stranded there for a few days after having my card stolen in Zipolite.
As it stands now I'll be spending the next 6-8 months in Central and South America followed by hopefully a month in South East Asia if I still have enough cash. There will be more woofing in more expensive countries like Chile and Argentina but fortunately due to the relatively low cost of South America I'll be able to have more fun rather than be a farm boy the whole time.

On the road

I talked to a guy the other day in Antigua who told me he liked the idea of liking on the road than the actual book itself, which I found quite sad.
Obviously it is not a conventional book and as such does not follow a standard narrative structure, and I think this is why some people find it hard to read. The stream of consciousness style that Kerouac would use is in my opinion quite innovative for it's day (even for these days) as well as suitable for for content of the book, that being travel.
Life isn't broken up into chapters, it's a constant flow and I think the book accurately portrays that, my thoughts on it anyway. The themes resonated with me a lot as I spent time on farms in North America and really felt many of the same things Kerouac did, I think every solo traveller does.

It's funny

The things that infuriated me when I first arrived don't bother me as much now, in a scary way they even seem normal. I guess I accept things for what they are now rather than fight the unwinnable battle, this can only be a good thing and is actually a really good life skill.

At the end of the day I see the positives of this experience and don't worry as much about the small stuff. I think shovelling shit and working on a farm has humbled me a bit and adjusted my attitude to what it needed to be to survive here. It still does frustrates me that no matter how hard I try the chance of getting design job will still be incredibly slim. I think if anything I wished I knew what I know now so I wouldn't have wasted so much time and money.

I guess this is the problem with undertaking a working holiday when you are in your late twenties and a bit more establised in your career, it becomes harder to go back to the jobs you did when you were 20 as you feel you've been there, done that and moved beyond on to bigger and better things. I never wanted to be the 27 year old guy waiting tables or working in a retail store.

To put things in perspective though you are not your job, your clothes, etc (insert fight club reference). I'm here to experience this beautiful continent, expand my horizons and meet new people. If I have to shovel a bit of shit in order to do that it's a small price to pay.

Feeling a bit worn out

Woofing is tiring. It'd be really nice to get some paid work, at least something indoors. Getting a place to live and a job would allow me to build up a social life here which is the only thing I really feel I lack at the moment. Woofing means my status is always somewhat transient, it's a bit like backpacking but you meet fewer people.

I think mentally I wasn't in a good place when I first got here, I didn't adjust very well to life on the road at first, and I definitely had to eat some humble pie and face the reality of what my employment situation would be like. I knew this before I came but I think the reality took a while to sink in.

I think at the moment my attitude is I really don't give a fuck if I get work here or not, I've done almost everything I wanted to do in BC and if I get a job that's great, but I don't want to piss away the rest of my money trying to find work here. The time spent not earning money is the only thing that concerns me, only because of the cost of living is so high here.

I'd much rather spend it seeing California and Mexico. That's how I feel about the whole thing now anyway. I think I care less and less about having to go back to Australia, if I did I'm sure I'd have enough money left over to move to Melbourne and I know enough people there I'm sure I could get design work (would actually have a chance at finding work instead of battling against this Canadians before foreigners headache).

The way I see it now is woofing allows me to stretch my money further and gives me the flexibility to move around, and that's good enough for me at this stage.

Will be interesting to see where I end up in 3 months time. I think in retrospect a job placement would have been really good when I arrived. It would have given me the stability and peace of mind I needed when I first arrived, it also would have saved me some cash even if it cost an extra $500 through the agency.

5 Things I learned from Commando (1985)

1. If you are Arnie bullets bounce off/miraculously miss you
2. Jumping shirtless through glass windows or smashing them with bare fists never results in any cuts or gashes
3. All bad guys have handlebar moustaches and have terrible aim
4. Machine guns have infinite bullets, handguns run out of ammo just in time for fistycuffs
5.The most effective way not to be seen is to run around with no shirt on wearing body paint firing a machine gun wildly

Things I've done so far

1. Worked on an organic vineyard
2. Went to a Canadian rodeo
3. Stayed in a log cabin near a lake, saw mounted animals
4. Drove a tractor, lawn mower, and ATV
5. Saw Banff, Jasper, Lake Louise, Kelowna
6. Saw a bear in the wild
7. Went to a bar where you throw the peanut shells on the ground
8. Hitch hiked to San Francisco
more to come later

Currently woofing on a vineyard

Interesting and good experience, but I need to figure out what I'm doing next :)

6 Annoying things about Canada

1. Probably the only continent that doesn't use the far superior metric system. Oh and measurements vary too (US vs Canadian gallon) and they sometimes decide to use metric just for kicks. There are also 2 differnt kinds of pints. Make up your fucking mind Canada, either use metric or don't.
2. Many people here don't 'get' dry/sarcastic humor or irony.
3. They have their own 'special' paper system (I think the people who came up with it were a bit special). Hey let's ignore the beautiful ISO 216 based on the fibonnaci sequence the rest of the world uses and implement parochial archaic measurement systems.
4. The hidden cost of everything, no wonder people hate advertisers. Coffee is 1.60 + gst + pst + tip = 2.10 = Fucking bullshit.
5. Tipping, it's bullshit plain and simple. Tipping means more attractive employees (particularly attractive females) will get earn more money, additionally it also means employers can weasel out of paying people a proper wage and results in passive aggressive behaviour when you don't tip (or don't tip much). Personally I think it's kind of retarded to let customers evaluate wait staff on their service and pay them accordingly.
6. High cost of living, comically low wages. Minimum wage in Vancouver (one of the most expensive cities in the world) is 8.00 an hour. How the fuck does the government and more importantly the people allow this to be so?

Feeling a bit foolish

well well well...
Not really getting any response to my job applications, pretty disheartening given I've applied for so many. I've tried varying my application and targeting it more specifically to each advertisement, so we'll see if that brings any results.
Anyway Canadian clothing stores have a pretty shitty range and I'm finding it hard to buy interview clothes that don't look completely ridiculous, let's just say the clothes here tend to be ill fitting, baggy and conservative. Might try another mall tomorrow to get a decent shirt and a pair of pants, belt and shoes.
Once I get that sorted I really need to start canvassing for jobs to get some money coming in, the other alternative at least for the short term is wwoofing.
To be honest it's a bit frustrating just how retarded the job situation and recruitment process is here, there have definitely been moments where I felt like chucking it all in and going home to Australia.

Rockies

Just got back from the rockies, it may in fact be the most beautiful place in the world, at least what I have seen.
Currently at the Samesun on Granville st, it's kind of shit but was cheap after the moose tour. Think I might check into something quieter in a day or two, maybe after I get my SIN number and Canadian Sim card in town I might go to the HI in Jericho Beach for a bit of quiet and apply for share houses and jobs.
All in all having a good time, weird moving around so much though.

Got there in one piece

Arrived in Vancouver and everything went well. Had the stopover in Seoul that was interesting, good food and bad english, was fun though.

The hostel I checked into is a bit of a ghost town, not very social and a tad depressing to be honest. The only good thing about it will be the quiet and the wireless internet, good for job hunting.

Leaving tomorrow

Nearly packed, just washing some of my clothes then packing away the rest of my stuff. Have to get to airport at 6:30 (eek).

Well that was a load of bullshit

Apparently the "free stopover" wasn't "available" so it will now cost me an extra $101 (for hotel and transfers) on top of my fare in South Korea, not a huge amount of money but kind bullshit considering the price was quoted and I was told that was the deal I was getting. Apparently it is because of booking my flight at short notice and this "hasn't happened before" but honestly I am pretty shitted off mostly because I was led to believe that this was not something I would have to pay for and now I do. Kind of shitty, I feel deceived and will learn from this experience.

Stopover in Seoul

Currently planning my movements for the stopover in Seoul. From what I can gather my best bet will be to go to sleep early in the hotel Korean Air puts me up in for the night (most likely the Hyatt at the airport) and take a Limousine bus to Insadong in Seoul fairly early the next day (about $30,000won return, which is roughly AUD$30) and check out the food etc and make sure I'm back at the airport at about 3:30 - 4:00 for check in. Realistically I only have about 6 hours there but so I'm just going to hit the tourist district as wandering around a non english speaking country can be confusing and disorienting and not a good idea when you have a plane to catch later in the day.
I am budgeting for about 100,000 won in Cash for the day and anything I may want to buy, food is fairly cheap at around 5,000 (but realistically I'm going to be disciplined about buying things this time around as I need to carry them around in a backpack) I can use credit for, that way I won't be left madly trying to spend excess cash.
Should be fun, I think I'll just end up spending my money eating lots of awesome Korean food.

Insurance

Just checking up on insurance policies, I read the policy for worldcare insurance which seems ok only for the fact it will cover the full cost of a laptop and a camera, many policies will only cover up to AUD$750 which is pretty useless if someone steals your AUD$3,000 macbook pro or AUD$1300 camera. They are the main expenses that will fuck things up if stolen as they will cost money I most likely will not have, otherwise the medical stuff is really important too especially if you require a medical extraction which can cost in excess of $100,000+. Kind of strange that Australia doesn't have a reciprocal agreement on healthcare with Canada, we do with the UK and a few other countries.
The only issue at the moment is whether or not I can cancel the policy as I'm not sure if I'll be in Canada for the full 2 years my Visa allows, they quote AUD$1132 for a year which seems pretty standard, not sure if that covers snowboarding though.

Finally bought the bag

I decided to buy the Osprey waypoint 85. It's a tad larger than the travel geeks recommend but if I stay disciplined in my packing and keep the weight down to under 15kg it should be fine, I've just had way too many bad experiences trying to stuff things into tiny bags before, and in winter even if using layering there will still be bulk.
Just have to book the flight now, which is expensive and I something I should have done earlier as it would have saved me about $400-500, will learn from this experience!

Shopping around

Went to the travel agent today, I lucked out and the guy I spoke to had done a working holiday there so I picked his brain on the subject, the most disconcerting thing I have found is the wages in British Columbia are worse than Australia, but not a dealbreaker by any means. I also found out that since I've hit the shoulder season and I'm trying to book close to my departure date the price has gone up, I could wait a month or so and save $400 but it's not really worth it for that kind of money. Going to try another travel agent and see what they can offer, but I'd say it'll be about the same, but yeah it was good to get a bit of information from someone who has done it before.
I also went to the library and browsed a few backpacking and travel books for tips on backpacking. Not that I'm an inexperienced traveller however it's the first time I'll be travelling internationally alone, so I need to be prepared and organised. I've also been reading all I can on Canada and familiarising myself with the geography of the place through Wikipedia and Google maps, but I've found using good old fashioned maps has been educational as well, overall I figure the more familiar I am with the region the better oriented I'll be.
So tomorrow I might head back to Brisbane and have a second look at bags (at the moment it's a tie between the Osprey waypoint 85 and the Karrimor Tropic 65) and maybe buy one, and speak to another travel agent and catch up with some friends.
Today was a good day!

About to book

It's taken a while to get things moving. there's been quite a bit of apprehension on my part in leaving everything I have in Brisbane and becoming transient. I guess I had mixed feelings on the matter, on the one hand I am excited about new possibilities and apprehensive about the unknown, however as a friend told me "you know the past exists because of your own sketchy memories, the future is unknown and not worth worrying about as it's impossible to know, so the only thing you can focus on is the present". Good advice I think.
Almost all the loose ends in my life are tied up now, I resigned from my job a few weeks ago, moved out of my apartment and back home and have been selling off my material possesions I no longer need or want.
All I really need to do is stop procrastinating and just buy my backpack, book the ticket and go, the rest is just details.