The State of the Nation at 30

(Better late than never! I blame the birthday festivities and liquids for the lateness of this post!)

As I have just turned 30, I feel it is time to sit down and take stock of my life and where I am. A sort of "state of the nation" to consolidate where I've been and where I am going. The State of the Peter, if you will...

What better place to host such an indulgence is there than on this blog. Read it if you want, or skim through all the pictures. It allows me to put it all 'on paper' before jumping into my third decade. So, without further ado, let's begin...

Where I've been.

Vancouver:

I have had a privileged life growing up in Vancouver with loving parents and sister. I am what they, and my extended family, have made me. I am also shaped by my friends - from school, university, work - here and abroad. I owe these people everything!

After becoming obsessed with dinosaurs at the age of five, I pursued a career in palaeontology by taking classes in geology and biology at the University of British Columbia. Before graduating with a Geology degree, I realized that a life in science - researching and publishing - was not for me. So with the completion of my science degree and much soul (and career) searching, I decided to become a teacher - elementary and high school.

One year later, I was a qualified teacher and began teaching as a substitute teacher in North Van....

. . .

Hmm..... This is beginning to sound like a job interview. Boo!
Ok, so let's change this up a bit:


In the past 10 years, I have become:

• a teacher, primary and high school teacher in North Vancouver. Taught all grades, but spent 3 months as a High School Geology teacher.
  


• a geologist, qualified but never really practiced. Worked at several museums, including the Royal Tyrrell Museum.
  


• a world traveler, been to over 20 countries. Climbed an active volcano (Mt. Etna, Italy), got dirty at La Tomatina and the Mud Festival (Spain and Korea, respectively), been drunk with people from 50 nationalities, hiked through old-growth forest (the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island, among others), camped under the stars (many times, but in teepees in the Alberta Badlands), swam in 6 oceans/seas (Pacific, Atlantic, Mediterranean, Gulf of Mexico, Yellow Sea, East China Sea), found a mummified cat in Greece (gross!), drove around a country (France), didn't run with the bulls (that's only for crazy people! In Pamplona, Spain), experienced Oktoberfest (Munich, Germany), flew a lot (sorry Earth), ate some crazy food (live octopus in Korea, among others!), walked inside a meteor crater (Arizona), and crept through skull-filled catacombs (Paris).
  


• a film maker, Besides shorter travel videos, I wrote and directed two films - Bluebell Woods and its prequel, Tony's Empire. I also co-created a few other projects under the production company Prehistoric Insanity Productions - The Hardcore Apocalypse after Next Tuesday, Action Figure High, and the upcoming Delta Patrol!
  


• a tour guide, worked at the Vancouver Lookout and the Royal Tyrrell Museum doing my best to showcase their wonders...
  


• an artist, I love painting and drawing, and I'm slowly delving into digital manipulation of images. Created posters and other artwork for local theater productions and a mural for local museums. I also love making music and doing photography.
  

I love how self-indulgent this post has become. I feel great! Happy Birthday, Pete!

I have also pretended to be a:

• a palaeontologist, studying and creating art about the subject in my spare time, working at various museums, digging in Alberta!
  


• a film actor, worked as an extra in movies and TV - X-Men 3, I.Robot, Catwoman, 88 Minutes, Butterfly on a Wheel, Smallville, Tru Calling, Dead Zone, Killer Instinct...

• a talent agent, this is the role I play in the fictional blog Traumador: The Tyrannosaur Chronicles.
  

• travel writer, this blog!
  

Where I am now.

• I am currently teaching English to adults in Seoul, Korea. I am very happy here, but I also miss Vancouver and teaching children.
  

Where I am going.

• My contract with my Korean company (YBM) ends at the end of November, and I don't plan to re-sign. This is not because I don't like Korea or I hate the job - no! - In fact, I am having a ball, I just miss Vancouver and look forward to living there again.


• So after November, I'll be off to Thailand for almost three weeks with Steve and then I'll head home, arriving just before Christmas.


• My job with the North Vancouver School System is still waiting for me, so once I get back, I'll start subbing again with them. (You have to LOVE the NVSD for keeping my job - What other job lets you come back after two years traveling?)


• Finding a place to live will be more difficult. I am thinking about lower Lonsdale, but the prices down there are crazy! This will require a thorough search. Living alone or with roommates? Alone is preferred, but I may not be able to afford it - especially in North Van.

• The only other major set plan I have for the future is visiting England next summer. Another cousin is getting married and I will actually be able to go to this one (No Korean Contract! Teacher summers off! Yeah!) I also have many friends in the UK I need to catch up with...

• In the next 10 years, I want to:
• write, illustrate and publish kids books
• make another movie.
• get married and have children
• go shark cage diving (must be a Great White Shark)

Ahhh. Aren't lists great?!! They save the hassle of prose!

The future of this blog is secure - it is a great way to throw my thoughts and photos out there! I am sometimes tempted (by surfing though all the linked blogs I read!) to alter Bond's Blog into something it isn't. It could become a specifically Palaeo-Blog or a Travel-Blog or an Art-Blog or a Teaching-Blog or a Film-making-Blog. But that's not the point of this blog. It is a way of sharing what I think is cool. And, at 30, I still think these things - palaeo/travel/art/teaching/films - are cool!

It is a blog about me, Bond. Bond's Blog.

The State of the blog is good...
And the State of Peter is good too.

Thank you for listening to this completely indulgent rant. Have a piece of cake and a goody bag!

Valencia to Barcelona to London

With the taste of tomatoes slowly leaving my mouth, Greg and I explored Valencia, survived Barcelona, and cooled down in London...

VALENCIA
After the tomatoes, Valencia was a clean and wonderful change. I really enjoyed the city with it's beaches and art galleries and ring of gardens around the city. We found an incredible food market where I took artistic and colourful photos while Greg bought Valencian Oranges. I also took photos of him buying the oranges.

A new and otherworldly place was the Center of Sciences, a collection of huge white futuristic looking buildings sitting in beautiful turquoise water. It housed the IMAX and some other museums, but it is the architecture that stunned me. I'll post pictures of them once I get home as it is the only way to appreciate them.

BARCELONA
Leaving Valencia by train, we arrived in Barcelona - our last stop in Spain. We see a bit of rain while the temperature soars. Because of a complication with the hostel bookings and the fact that we decided not to visit Ibiza, we had two extra nights in Barcelona. Luckily, we were sent to our hostel's sister hostel on the beach. On the beach. Nice. Good things come from mistakes.

So we end up with two nights on the beach and 3 in the city. Barcelona has a beautiful beach with dirty sand and water. We arrive in the morning to a clean beach, but leave in the afternoon to a beach littered with trash. It is the tourists and locals at fault here. Announcements about jellyfish fill the air in muffled tones.

Once in the city, it is all about Gaudi and his amazing architecture - la Pedrea (his apartment building with no right angles), Gaudi's Park (a rambling park on a hill with dripping caves and curvy walls), and la Sagrada Familla (his huge incomplete cathedral.) I had never seen his building before and loved the rooftop sculptures.

After some cheap and spectacular museums (esp. the Museum of Catalynian Art - WOW!), we made our way up Las Ramblas - the pedestrian street lined with living statues, gift shops, and animal stores (anyone wanna buy a chicken?) The idea of a Las Ramblas TV show seeded itself in my mind... Watch this space.

We caught the 10:30pm (which became the 12am) easyJet flight to London Gatwick, which arrived at 1am. It being after midnight, the underground trains were no longer working. Thus we resigned ourselves to sleeping on the cold hard floor of Gatwick's departures check-in area (beside the Virgin Atlantic stall).

Hours (two) later, we were awoke by the Virgin Stewardesses to a crowd of staring passengers, who needed our place to form a queue. Strange overtiredness sets in and somehow we arrive at my Uncle and Aunt's by 8am. We say hi and then crash.

LONDON to come...

La Tomatina

Alright Ladies and Gentlemen, I am alive and well and emailing you from Valencia an hour before taking the 2:08pm train to Barcelona.

What a crazy and fun experience the Tomatina was! Check out the recovered photos below...

My traveling alarm clock went off at 5:30am, and Greg and I suited up for battle. We donned our "Canadian Ketchup Team 2007" tshirts and grabbed our goggles and waterproof cameras. Off to the train station for 6am to buy our tickets to Brunol. Already, masses of like-minded people had congregated on the platform, waiting for the 7:08 train. The mood was tired excitement... coffee, tea and cheese bread helped.

Soon enough, our shirts had been noticed by other Canadians. Two Vancouver girls (wearing the red and white "Team Canada") invited us to join the Canada Team, which included several other Canadians (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Winnipeg!). The train arrived, and like cattle, we boarded on mass. Team Canada (now about 23ish people!) were squashed in beside the Batpeople and some English girls.

An hour later, we pull into Brunol and begin the mass walk down into the city center. Greg and I grabbed a huge beer for the walk, upholding the Canadian side. We pass many people who have driven to Brunol, parked, (drank) and were sleeping in their cars. More and more people joined the pilgrimage downslope.

Eventually, we hit the town center along with hundreds of others. In the middle of the square was a greased pole with a ham leg on top. The object of the pole is to get the ham! The tomato fight begins only when the ham has been obtained. Three hours of people trying individually and as a team to get the ham 40 ft in the air. A cheer would spread through the crowd whenever someone got high (Well done Guy Dressed as a Cow and Banana Man!); a boo would erupt whenever someone worked selfishly and pulled someone else off the pole (Big BOO to Guy with Erik on his Shirt, who climbed over one of the only girls to attempt and pushed her head back. Grrr.)

As people went for the ham, the crowds grew restless. Everyone is packed together like sardines, and the shirts began to fly. Not content to wait for the tomatoes, groups of (unfortunately) local Spaniards began grabbing guys and ripping their shirts off. They are they soaked and thrown into the crowds. Wet shirt (sometimes knotted) stings! I luckily managed to hold onto my shirt (for the time being).

Greg did not want to get fully into the mosh-pit of tomatoes, so he stayed close to the water cannons (that sprayed the inviting crowds) while I dived right in. The closest anyone got to getting the ham was a man who grabbed the bottom, swung on the ham and then fell back to earth.

A roar engulfed the crowd (now 40 000 strong, lining the narrow streets of Brunol) as the first of five dumptrucks full of tomatoes comes into view. Eight or nine volunteers stand in the trucks and pelt us helpless throng with the first of the (roma!) tomatoes. We have to squash against each other to let the trucks pass. Then they will stop and dump their entire load onto the ground and anyone crazy enough to stand in the way.

Chaos erupts. Tomatoes, tomato paste, seeds, peel, sweat, shirts, sandles fly. I loose my googles. Greg has long since disappeared. It is every man and woman to themselves. One truck after another roll by, adding fresh tomatoes to the mix. My feet (in cheap canvas shoes) slop through the tomato-water-shirt mix. Time stands still and flies by at the same time. Tomatoes hit me left right and center. I attempt to take photos without being singled out and destroyed. My shirt is ripped off and is lost in the mix. Bodies slip past as I try to get a shot off. A reporter with a microphone and no shirt yells at the camera on top of the building. We lift him onto our shoulders. Mouth full of tomato. Don´t know how girl´s bikini tops stay on. Some don´t. Fall, but am too squashed to move. Smell of tomato and sweat. Taste of ugh. Hair caked with tomato. People stained red everywhere...

After a time (one hour- felt like 10 min and 5 hours), the final bell tolls signaling the end of the fight. People are still squashed together and like a mass, begin to move down hill. I want to go uphill to the train, but the current is too great and am carried along. The streets run not red, but a sickly purple colour. Shirts litter the streets as a man picks up sandels and thongs, to sell later. The crowd begins to thin and I can begin to choose the direction of travel.

I turn right and begin the slop uphill to the train and see just how destroyed Greg was. My back still hurts from the burn of the sun/people... Locals are hosing down the tomatoed, and selling beer and shirts. I arrive and meet Greg, who was whiter now than he was before the fight! Apparently, he was caught behind the water jets and could not get to the main mosh. Amazing! I on the other hand, was caked everywhere with the fruit, and had to by an ill-fitting shirt before being let on the train.

Everyone had the air of happiness and accomplishment. We had survived La Tomatina! On the 1:08pm train ride back to Valencia (and out hotel´s shower), I wondered if Vancouver could host a ¨thing¨throwing festival...

Only snowballs came to mind.

I apologize for the length of this post, but the experience was once in a life time. I loved it and recommend it. Just don´t bring any clothes you would want to keep!

PHOTOGRAPHS from LA TOMATINA 2007:

Night before the Fight

Greg and I are preparing for battle.

Of the Tomato kind.

VALENCIA - After a long (12 hour with a transfer) overnight bus ride, we arrived in Valencia, third largest Spanish city on the southeast coast. I had book a hotel room in the city months ago, as this was to be our base for Wednesday´s festivities.

Tomorrow morning 6am, we are taking a train to Brunol, a small town outside Valencia. We will be joining 40,000 other (mad) people taking part in this year´s La Tomatina - an annual tomato fight festival! Little is know of the beginnings of the event, but legend has it that two diners were unsatisfied with their meal and decided to throw some food. They had so much fun that they reconviened the next year and invited their friends...

Years later, it has evolved into an all-out tomato fight! There is a rule though: one must squash the tomato before throwing it. No frozen fruits please! At 1pm, the church bell rings and the dump trucks spill their goods onto the ground and the fight begins...

Our battle gear consists of: one white t-shirt (with Canadian Ketchup Team 07 on the front and a big target on the back), one pair of shorts (to chuck after), one pair of socks and shoes (cheap to chuck after), one pair of goggles, and one waterproof camera. This last item will make me a target amougst the crowd...

If I survive, I will post the results of the battle.

In the meantime, Valencia has been good to us. Excellent accommodation, great food, beautiful city, and a hot beach. I have decided to stay another day here and forgo Ibiza for another time, due to the expense of booking flights or ferries at the last minute (it would be an extra 200 euro, plus the 50 euro club, plus drinks and food...) No worries, there is always next time!

Well, it is time to go and write our Team Logo on the white shirt with a Jiffy Marker!

Into the breach, my friends.

Wish me luck and I´ll see you on the flip side...

Flight Bought

Just a quick post today to let everyone - especially those in Vancouver - know that I am coming home for a two week visit at the end of May! I bought my ticket last night and am arriving on May 18th and leaving on June 1st. During my time home, I will be going to my cousin (Theresa's) wedding! I will also want to see all my friends and family and go out and catch up! It will be nice to have a dose of Vancouver then.

After which I will return and work until mid-late July. Then the fun starts, and I go-a-travellin'! Anyone up for La Tomatina in Spain?!