Sleepy yet determined :)

.. to write about the next little installment of my trip preparations, that is. My travel money arrived today, look at it, it's rather pretty and makes me feel a whole lot richer than I actually am...

The Icelandic Krona in particular are very ornate and Norse looking, all wooden churches and men with long grey beards. Some of the Canadian dollars are plastic, weird! The American dollars (especially $1 Bill) are so familiar to me even though I've only seen them in person once before, I guess it must be all the music videos with guns and bitches and that stuff. In any case, I'm resisting (so far successfully..who knows how long this will last) the temptation to throw all the notes around the room whilst jumping on furniture / rolling around on the floor / shooting a mock pistol and drinking champagne. If only because it will be too irritating to tidy up again afterwards, still wanna...

2:30am logic, what else to say...

Oh! Insurance (yawn)  - I decided to buy a package with Insure and Go, after having a chat with some of the other assistants about possible policies. At one stage, I was looking at one with Bupa for over £600, so I'm glad I shopped around as my Insure and Go policy cost about £250 until August 2013, that covers for both work and travel worldwide.. just not for manual labour ie. machine-operating (....lololol as if) or if someone wants to sue me, which is something I'd be hoping to avoid in any case. (Famous last words. . ?)

Enough of dull things like financial services, another postal arrival today was the final travel book in my collection, to see me through the ten days or so before I get to orientation. This one is centred on Montreal and Quebec City, which is awesome although it centres more on Montreal. One thing that put me off was that they put a picture / biography of the author on the first page, and he looks like a massive wanker. However, it seems interesting and useful (not to mention bag-sized) so I guess it all works out in the end. I'll let you know how I get on with it!

Think I'll leave it at that, as I'm already feeling suitably groggy, and typing coherent sentences is proving difficult. The thing that always happens when I have no job, has of course happened again.. in that my sleep patterns are, shall we say, erratic. So goodbye from 3am, and see you again sometime you don't expect ;)

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Continuing..

A little something to distract me from what I'm supposed to be doing, why break the habit of a lifetime..

This weekend has seen me eBaying (almost) the last of my things away, as well as searching for a work/travel insurance that isn't tantamount to purse rape. As I'm writing this from the stance that perhaps this page might be helpful to someone embarking on the same trip next year, I'll take a little time to describe what seem to be the best deals right now (all non-future-assistants are welcome to skip to the next paragraph). After many nights sat typing away on Google/MoneySavingExpert/Bupa/Anywhere it looks like the best deals can be found through the AA or Endsleigh. Both come out at about £250 - £300 for the year, which works out around £25 per month and I don't think is half bad, especially after a year of over €100 per month in Germany. The only thing I have to check out now, is if the backpacking part of the title "AA Backpackers Insurance" actually covers people who will be living and working abroad, as opposed to just travelling through. I'll keep you posted as to what I find :)

With the mention of assistants, I suppose I should explain a little more about my trip and what I'll be doing over in Canada. There's this rather large organisation called the British Council, they're kind of a big deal...(get that reference and I shall love you forever)... in the world of strengthening UK and international ties. Basically, I shall be moving to Saint-Georges for a year, in order to:

a) help some of the cute little French-Canadian kiddies learn English
b) be the go-to person on all things UK (hopefully my last two years outside the country in question won't hinder me, woops)
c) learn a bit of the ole Francais, with a view to maybe going back to uni or something afterwards (very embryonic thought).

I guess that's it, apart from the fact that I'm rather too excited in my own, play-everything-down-don't-boast-ever way ;) I'm sure that goes without saying though..

So, in one week and four days everything gets going. I shall be making a little tour of getting to Quebec, because the last couple of months in Germany were stressful money / work wise and I managed to save up more than I thought I'd be able to.. so decided as a result it was time to be a little bit carefree and see some of this blue / green sphere we happen to live on. That means my journey will be a little bit like this : London - > Reykjavík - > New York - > Boston - > Montréal with a few days in each... I'm doing a little smile just thinking about it :)))

(OK... a big one)

I think it's time to go before I write too much, essays are never fun to read.. until next time... xo

PS. This just arrived for me via the house computer network, how nice..

Numéro un.

Goodness me internet, it's been a wee while. Although I dislike you in many ways, I kind of like the idea of documenting this next year... so here I am. Hello. :) How long this lasts is anyone's guess!

Some facts :

- I don't live in Germany anymore.
- I thought I would be sad about this, but actually I found other things to worry about, such is life, perhaps I'm just too busy to think about it yet?
- I am currently back in my childhood home.
- Whilst this has many positives, constantly taking food from the fridge and hanging around in one's house clothes all day are not two of them. #lazy
- Life is a bit : blah blah on the phone blah blah international health insurance blah guidebook blah blah ebay blah post stuff blah blah wake eat sleep do it again-y..
- It is 2.01428571428571429 weeks until I LEAVE! For a whole year argh! Typing that has just given me one of those jolts of scaredness you get, like when you forgot to do your homework in year ten or relive something drunkenly embarrassing you did once, you know the feeling.
- Finally, although I wanted to write a whole lot, it seems a few bullet points have covered the most of it, look at that, less is more. Perhaps real life me could learn a little something from typing me ;)

More on the history of things that happened (/will happen) when I don't have to be up early tomorrow to wash shoes, post packages, drink coffee and the like.

Overandout..