Canada, Amsterdam, BBC
Wow. So much has happened in the past three months. I finished working at the BBC Technology for the summer - my contract was extended till my birthday (August 20th), I had an awesome time. I was lucky enough to get sponsored (yay! 
) and perhaps asked back next year when it'll be part of Siemens.
On the 21st I had to work all day, then I came home and got ready. I thought I'd celebrate my birthday with a house party, it turned out great - so many people who mean so much to me came, especially one girl 
. Only problem was I lost my credit card, which was a bit of a bummer, but hey, it was found the next day lying outside 
.
The following Monday I left for Amsterdam for 3 days with two good friends from uni - Murt ("you guys") and and Enio ("I'm only 20 minutes late"). Only problem was I didn't have a chance to rest and catch up on some sleep 
. Me and Murt met at London Bridge in the early morning and made our way to Paddington from where we'd take the train at 10am to the harbour. We were meant to meet Enio around 9:40 in Paddington - well within enough time to get on the train without the worry of missing it. Enio arrived 9:59, with 30 seconds before the train was due to leave 
We were soon well on our way to Holland. Most of the day was spent traveling, it took it's toll on Enio. Part of the way there on the ferry he curled up on one of the sofas into a strange foetal shape, earning himself the nickname of Enio the Embryo ever since, of course me and Murt took many pictures to entertain ourselves while he lay asleep...
On arrival in Holland my first comment was "It's so flat..." (I always had a habit of stating the obvious ). We hopped on a train and headed off into Amsterdam where we checked into a hostel with an R&B crazed owner before heading out to grab some all-you-can-eat pizza.
Unfortunately we didn't have enough time in Holland, but we did manage to check out the Heineken brewery (Yes, we had our priorities straight!) and visit a friend of mine from university, Dianna, who was a little surprised to see us. We also payed China town a small visit for some good old seemingly innocent Chinese food (I was yet to learn how addicted to China town I would become later in Canada...).
We then moved onto Rotterdam where we stayed on a houseboat hostel which proved interesting - every single one of us knocked our head when getting in or out of our bunk beds. Unfortunately we didn't have much time - we had a good meal and looked around a few shops before having to grab the train & ferry back to England.
A couple of days later me and my good friend Gordon left for Canada. By this point I was pretty darn tired, but hey, it's all good! Me and Gordon set out early to Gatwick airport where we hopped onto a plane to Montreal where we arrived around 9pm and realised we hadn't organised anywhere to sleep. One darn thing about Montreal is they don't really label their Metro system, well, least to unsuspecting foreigners - it took us 20 minutes alone to find the Metro station! We then found our way to a hostel, which seemed to be closed for the night - but got a lift from a helpful guy who dropped us off at another hostel - Hotel de Paris, a name that'll scar our minds forever. Sure, it seemed okay on first inspections, and it was full of friendly Irish folk, but when you get squeezed into small room jam packed with bunk beds for 12 people it gets a bit messy! We were too tired to care - we grabbed a kebab and promptly fell fast asleep.
Over the next few days we managed to visit quite a bit of Montreal - a ball game (Chicago Cubs versus Montreal Expos) - Gordon was mesmerised :-p, an Olympic swimming pool (Gordon did a full lap in just under 3 minutes), a biodome, old Montreal, Mount Royal (where Montreal was founded), L'Oratoire St-Joseph and, of course, a few bars. Although I usually don't like cities, I loved Montreal. It was relaxed, friendly, cheap and had everything you'd need, especially chocolate milk which me and Gordon got addicted to over the course of our trip...
I have to say I loved Montreal's China town... the food was gorgeous, the girls were beautiful, and it was like wondering around.. China... believe it or not
Then we moved onto Quebec City which was a lot more tourist orientated but still good fun. We went to the changing of the guard which sported an interesting goat as a mascot. We then got a tour round the fort where the changing of the guard took place and I was interested in two Japanese girls who insisted looking at me and giggling. It's funny - the one day I spend around Japanese girls is the time I wear a t-shirt with some strange unknown Japanese symbols on it. Eventually Gordon approached them, they went very red and explained my t-shirt was advertising some house moving company.. hmm! While in Quebec we also visited the largest waterfall in Quebec - It's meant to be taller than Niagara Falls.. it was *kinda* big.. . Also went out with a few Englishmen who enjoyed pole dancing, oh dear.
Next stop was Ottawa where we visited the Civilisation museum, the parliament houses and went to a bar till 2:30am where the night ended with a rather drunk Englishman (not again) collapsing. The next day we sprinted through the rain (actually the perimeter effects of one of the hurricanes that hit Florida) to the bus stop after Gordon was accused of being a spy by a conspiracy theory lady.
Niagara Falls. Half way there I realised I'd lost my travelers cheques - to this day I don't know where they went. Luckily I was able to get refunded the $300 they were worth in a Travelex, thank you Thomas Cook! We checked into a curiously inexpensive but luxurious hostel, concluded it must be haunted or the many Japanese guests must indeed be vampires and will try to suck our blood at night. During the night heard two strange men in same room talking about killing people who stole some software from them. Hmm, decided it would be best to forget the whole thing and go back to sleep. Woke up with neck in one piece and made our way to the falls. Gordon was in awe when he first saw them, we promptly made for the Maid (scuse the pun ) of the Mist and took a closer inspection. We also visited the Casino (HUGE!), Dairy Queen (mmm...) and of course the other touristy parts.
Time for Toronto where we met up with Ainslie, our local friendly Canadian. She introduced us to Lecy, a mad (:-p) friend of hers who introduced us to Bubble Tea and took us along to Canada's Wonderland where we visited as many rides as we could, one being a 21 story free fall drop. Yup. 21 stories . We then went out that night till 3am to a club where I promptly fell asleep on the drive home, along with Gordon... oops! The hostel had a good BBQ at the hostel and I talked to a Japanese girl who also started staring at my shirt...
"Do you know what your shirt says?"
"Yeah, House moving company..."
"You speak Japanese??"
Ah well. Our hostel was in China town, which was quite fun... . Ainslie and Lecy are quite mad with the Camera - the evening before we left we had a bit of a mad time with it... oops.
We then jetted back off to England where I've been since. The day after I got back I had to give a presentation back at the BBC which means I had very little sleep again. The day after, however, I slept for an extremely long time. The following week I had to enroll at university and started shortly after - well, life isn't perfect :-p. I'm now commuting which takes up to an hour and a half door-to-door which isn't too bad, but can be a bit irritating. The modules are a bit boring, but they'll be useful, I'm sure. Most of all it was really, really great to see my university friends again! It's also meant I visit London most days - I've also been getting close to a friend of mine who lives there. She's really great, but I just want to know we're right for each other before anything happens, we'll see...