Just a quick location update: I arrived yesterday in NYC, and will be here, house-sitting and posing as a West Village resident (I wish!), for three weeks. Then it’s back to Eastern Ontario for three weeks of packing and preparation before I finally make the trans-Canada road trip to Whitehorse. I plan on putting down a few roots in the Yukon and hopefully staying for a full year. I’m really looking forward to exploring the north, and to having a home base again for awhile. Stay tuned!
Yup. Finally got my “Stories” page back up to speed. Most of the additions have been noted in links here on the main page over the last few months, but there are two notable exceptions: a couple of road trip guides I wrote for AOL Travel Canada, The Best of Eastern Ontario and The Canadian Shield. Check ’em out.
And hey, if I can’t find any Law and Order re-runs on TV later, I may even update my blogroll! It’s a glamourous life.
Posted in Updates | Tagged Road Trips | Leave a Comment »
It’s been four years today since Hurricane Katrina had her way with New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. We’ve got a raft of anniversary-related content over at World Hum, and though I didn’t write any of it myself I thought it was worth highlighting here.
First up, Yeah You Right, a wonderful essay by Adam Karlin that seems to take a number of never-quite-articulated thoughts right out of my head. (See especially the last couple paragraphs about the visitors who feel compelled to make a home for themselves in NOLA.)
There’s also Kevin Fay’s essay about a voluntourism stint in St. Bernard Parish — Do Not Demolish — and a slideshow and interview from photographer Allison Chipak.
As you might already know, I spent a good chunk of last summer in New Orleans. I’d been intending to cover the third anniversary of Katrina when Hurricane Gustav broke up the party and forced the evacuation of the city. The blog post I wrote about it is here: Remembering Katrina, Waiting for Gustav.
New Orleans: Soul is Waterproof
Posted in Tangents | Tagged Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, World Hum | 2 Comments »
I try not to get into politics on here, but this needs to be said:
Working, studying, living or traveling abroad, even for years at a time, does not make you less Canadian.
Prime Minister Harper and his cronies might think they’re only attacking the Liberal leader with their IGNATIEFF: JUST VISITING campaign, but they’re actually insulting and dismissing any of us who’ve made being abroad an important part of our lives. ESL teachers? Diplomats? Foreign correspondents? Members of the military? Doctors without Borders volunteers? PhD students on Rhodes Scholarships?
By the logic of “Just Visiting,” all those people have somehow reneged on or forfeited their essential Canadian-ness. And that kind of attitude is plain ignorant.
This isn’t about party or personal loyalties. I don’t have much use for Michael Ignatieff – let’s start with his writings on torture and go from there – and I’m certainly not a card-carrying member of the LPC. I’d even be fine with a more nuanced argument: Maybe Ignatieff is out of touch with the issues that matter to Canadians after his years overseas, right? Or maybe politicians should have deeper roots in their constituencies? (Tell that to any number of parachuted-in MPs.) Sure. Maybe.
But the Harperite equation isn’t that complicated. As far as I can tell from the ads and flyers, it’s simply this:
Living overseas = No true commitment to Canada.
And that, pardon my language, is bullshit.
If all goes as planned, I’ll spend good chunks of the next few decades out of the country. As I’ve done for the last few seasons, I’ll watch bits and pieces of the Stanley Cup playoffs on obscure cable channels in foreign countries, plead with bartenders in sports bars to change the channel away from basketball and soccer, or watch a shaky CBC feed on the web. I’ll keep up with the news back home on globeandmail.com. I’ll have my parents mail me my tax forms and file them from wherever I find myself, and I’ll request an absentee ballot at election time.
At no time do I expect to stop thinking of myself as Canadian.
And when I come home, whether for a week or a year? I sure as hell won’t be just visiting.
Posted in Tangents | 4 Comments »
I’m nearly two weeks into my Yukon visit, and so far I am loving it. (“Come back in winter,” people keep telling me when I say that. Maybe I just will.) I’ve already spent weekends in both Haines and Skagway, Alaska, and this weekend I’ll be headed into Kluane National Park for some serious hiking. Here’s a picture I took (with the auto timer – a major tech victory!) on the road from Haines Junction, Yukon, to Haines, Alaska:
On the road to Haines
On the work front, there’s been a shake-up at World Hum and the end result, for me, is a lot more writing on the blog. Here are a few of my more notable posts from the last while:
Quesadillas in the Sub-Arctic
In Defense of British Food
See This Now: ‘Give Peace a Chance’ (The first post from my Woodstock visit)
Travel Movie Endings, Good and Bad
Canadian Road Trip Candy: ‘One Week’ on DVD
Over at Brave New Traveler, a photo essay I put together showcasing some of the world’s most spectacular houses of worship has also just been published.
Posted in Photos, Stories | Tagged Blogging, Churches, World Hum, Yukon | 2 Comments »
Not travel- or work-related, but I just came across this news item about a New Hampshire high school that has pulled short stories by David Sedaris, Stephen King and Ernest Hemingway from an upper-year English lit class because parents objected to the content.
Here’s the scariest sentence from the article:
Also, a committee of teachers, parents and residents will be formed in the fall to “help prevent undesirable experiences for our students,” Cutler said. [Emphasis mine.]
In related news, they’ll also be setting up a committee to figure out how to catch and burn those darn witches.
Posted in Tangents | 1 Comment »
Eva Holland 