I'm home!

Hello from Toronto, where I sit amongst my luggage and the random boxes of my stuff that my parents have brought me from their basement that they thought might be useful. Hard to remember what I put in storage there a year and a half ago. And somehow unpacking seems less exciting that catching up with friends and family right now!

I'm staying with my sister Donna and her husband Lauren in their house in the High Park area of Toronto. It's a great location, right near the subway and the park. The house is very nice too, but right now they're in the depths of renovations - currently we don't have a kitchen - which adds challenge to life, and means I can help out with painting and such. It's great for me to have a place like this to stay while I begin to sort out my life in Canada again, and start to think about what comes next. My contact information here is listed on the right of my blog page.

It really is great to see family and friends again. And I was delighted to go to my church again on Sunday. They didn't know I was coming back that day, and it was fun to surprise them all. I felt so warmly welcomed, and it was a joy to worship there again, with the familiar liturgy and music in that beautiful space washing over me. It was aboriginal Sunday too, so I got the added bonus of prayers and ceremonies by our native Canadian associate priest - you don't get any more authentically Canadian than celebrating the people who lived here first.

It's interesting to be back in Toronto - I'm struck by the greenness of the city, and by the multicultural nature of the people living here. In Nepal, I was a white person in a sea of Nepalis. In most of the places I was in the UK, I was one of a vast majority of white people. But here there are people of all races and nationalities living together in a few blocks - with some women dressed in the lovely flowing costumes similar to what I saw in Nepal. I had forgotten how the multicultural feeling is a part of the essence of living in Toronto, and I'm enjoying the diversity of the people around me.

I had a lovely final couple of weeks in the UK. Sharon (my other sister), Jerome and Cayley and I went on a 10 day road trip to Scotland, and made it all the way up to the Orkney Islands to visit Iain, Fiona, Jenny and Peter. Iain was the Medical Superintendent of Green Pastures Hospital my first 6 months, and it was fun to see another family that had been a big part of my settling into life in Nepal. Despite all reports to the contrary, the weather up there was sunny, though cool, and we enjoyed wandering around many of the prehistoric stone rings, tombs and and ancient village. Not to mention learning about the role Orkney played in the world wars, as well as the last port of call for the Hudson Bay Company trading boats before they headed off to the interior of Canada to trade for furs.

The trip to Scotland had lots of other highlights as well. Walking along Hadrian's Wall near Durham on our way up, hiking up and among several lovely mountains include Ben Nevis on the day that half of the UK was doing the 3 peak challenge (it was busy, but still lovely), touring scotch distilleries, and driving along the beautiful lochs. We ended up staying the Glen Nevis area longer than intended when our car broke down there at 6pm on a Friday. The tow truck driver took us and all our stuff to a campsite (we had so much stuff - which is evident when you have to actually empty the car onto the campsite), and then the car to a garage, where it was fixed, first thing Monday when it opened. A bit inconvenient, but we couldn't have asked for a nicer place to be stranded - we had several lovely walks we could do right from the campsite. Jerome has kindly taken the time to sort and post some of the many pictures we took, if you're interested in seeing more of our trip.

Hiking at Hadrian's Wall ---- Lunch spot when hiking in the hills


Carol at the top of Ben Nevis ---- Playing with Cayley just before leaving (sigh - I miss her already)

My parents have posted pictures from our time together in Chitwan National Park. I never got around to putting mine up, so if you want to see more pics of us washing elephants, and other fun stuff, check them out here.

I will continue to post to my blog as I get settled back, and perhaps longer, we'll see. I have removed the requirement to login to read it, so those of you who wish can set up an RSS feed to receive notification about when I post to it (link at the very bottom of my blog page).