4 days!

It's been a CRAZY two weeks! So crazy that I find myself sitting in bed hardly realizing that we will be on a plane, leaving the country, by the end of the week.

Two weeks ago, I graduated. I wouldn't say it was a life-changing day, but it also wasn't entirely anti-climactic either. The ceremony was short and sweet - it was great to see friends and classmates I hadn't seen for a while. The pre-ceremony bit (where we all got our gowns, hoods, and organized ourselves into the correct procession lines) was interesting because there were so many people in my program that I had NEVER met before...but I suppose that's a downfall of IR being an interdisciplinary program! I was in the second row once we got to the Chan Centre, so I crossed the stage fairly quickly. After I did the walk, I mostly zoned out for the rest of the ceremony. Once it was over and the new graduates were led out of the building, I managed to find my family in the swarms of people! We then walked further away from the hustle and bustle to find some of my friends who came to take pictures with me. It was a HOT day, so we tried to take as many pictures as possible before I melted into a puddle. To end the day, my family had dinner at the Boathouse at Kits beach and soon after, Meg and I took off to enjoy the sunset on the dog beach, surrounded by a bunch of pups that I wish were my own hahaha.

TWO days after my graduation, we moved! Since Meg and I are both going to grad school at SFU (I'll be at the downtown campus while Meg has to commute to Burnaby), it no longer made sense to live so close to UBC. Unfortunately, things didn't end so well with our last landlords, so now we are happier than ever to have moved. We have just settled in, for the most part, into a building right at West 2nd and Cambie, overlooking the bridge and with a pretty great view of False Creek and Yaletown. It's a bit cramped for now, as we still need to shuffle things around, but I think it'll be a great place to live while we tackle grad school. The only complaint I have is that TOO many entitled jerks with their loud as hell cars and motorcycles feel the need to rip up the onramp to the bridge, only to be slowed down once they actually get onto the bridge. Our room is RIGHT beside the bridge so we get the worst of it, I'm afraid. But with the windows closed, it's manageable.

Lastly, we are making our last minute preparations before we leave on June 5th for the next 2 months! This means calling our banks and credit cards to notify them of our travels, making sure we have EVERYTHING we need to survive in hostels and on minimal budgets, figuring out what we need to do for grad school while we're away, and ensuring all of the accommodations and transportation that we've booked are in order. It's been a whirlwind of a year, and I'm both relieved and nervous that our trip has finally arrived. Fingers crossed that we don't get too lost or get too frustrated haha. We'll be blogging as much as possible while we're away, and will definitely be writing in our journals every day, so if we miss a day or two of blogging, we'll be sure to recap (however briefly) what we've missed since the last post.

Until then!