Saturday, December 3, 2011

Almost a year gone by...

Almost a year has gone by and it is just crazy to think about the past year:

1. We got married
2. We surfed in Bali
3. Volunteered in Nepal
4. Went on a 9 day kayaking trip in Nepal
5. Climbed to Base Camp Mount Everest
6. Lived in the Eriksson Basement
7. Lived in the Mang Basement
8. Moved to Vancouver
9. Started a PHD
10. Started teaching full time

Wow... It is quite amazing the things you can do in one year. Currently Cam and I finally feel settled in Vancouver. We are currently working on trying to sell 200 calendars for the organization we volunteered at and are finding it to be a daunting task. They are running at 10$ each and all the proceeds go to the organization.

Anyways we have decided to keep our blog up and running once again.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Everest Trek

Everest is the smaller one between the mountains but really is the highest one!

Everest is the biggest one! WOW!

Us at the top of Kala Pathar!

Us at the top of Kala Pathar with Everest in the Background!

Jumping with Everest in the Background...

Cam at the top of Kala Pathar with a cliff to the side of him... EEK!

We reached Everest Base Camp!

Us with some Spanish guys that are planning to Summit Mount Everest

Walking away from Everest.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Namche Bazaar to Everest Base Camp (5 days)

Namche to Tengboche to Dingboche to Lobuche (2 nights.. one for acclimitization) to Gorak Shep where we went on to Summit Kala Pathar (5550 meters high) and finally EVEREST BASE CAMP (5364 meters high)

It's been an amazing week for us here in the Himalayas. We still have 4 more days before we fly back to Kathmandu. We feel that words cannot describe how the experience has been for us so we are going to say a few points and then show pictures. The pictures will come at a later date when the internet is not so expensive and works alot faster!

Some highlights:
1. Having to stay on the side of the trail closest to the mountain so you do not get knocked over a cliff when 6 yaks come barreling by.
2. Visiting the Tengboche Buddhist Monastery which is surrounded by mountains
3. Huddling around a yak dung fueled stove to stay warm as temperatures dropped.
4. Playing cards for a full day because we had nothing else to do while we acclimatized!
5. Having a hard time breathing as you go up the mountain
6. Having two cloudless beautiful days when we reached our highest elevations of the trip
7. Meeting a Spanish team preparing to summit mount Everest
8. Hiking to the highest point in the world that we both have ever summited which was Kala Pathar
9. BASE CAMP EVEREST!!!
10. BASECAMP EVEREST!!!!!!!!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

On our way to Everest!

6-months to the day ince the wedding and we celebrated with a trip to Lukla Nepal where we started out on our trek to Basecamp Mount Everest. We are well on our way to Basecamp now in Namche Bazaar at the end of Day 2 of our trek. We flew into the Lukla airport yesterday and it was quite the experience, surrounded by mountains, and probably the weirdest thing was the lack of a descent to reach the landing pad. We actually flew UP to the landing strip.

Day 1 was tough because we were tired from our early morning flight and everything, but day 2 was definitely harder with an 800 metre ascent. Pretty much 2.5 hrs of walking straight up with our packs. Annika was not sure what she had gotten herself into at that point. We now spend an acclimatization day in Namche Bazaar and are feeling quite happy that we don't have to strap on the packs tomorrow. Our elevation right now is somewhere around 3500 metres. Basecamp is 5300 or so, so still a ways to go. The scenery is gorgeous and the mountains around us are HUGE and very rugged looking. The villages we pass through are beautiful and the people all seem very friendy (And strong--you should see some of the loads going up the mountain).

We'll let you know how it goes the rest of the way...
View from our Second Tea house - Khumbu lodge

Us in our first lodge-Bengkar Guest house

Along the way

Right before our 2.5 hr ascent

Sunday, April 3, 2011

A quarter of a century!

Happy Birthday Cam!

Last night we went to a wonderful restaurant called OR2K with friends to celebrate Cam's 25th Birthday. It is a middle eastern restaurant. Annika got the falafel that comes with 8 falafel balls, green salade and hummous and babaganoush for a dipping sauce. Cam got the Pad Thai. After having eaten supper we ate some yummy cake.

Annika brought out a beautiful chocolate cake she ordered from a nearby restaurant. Everyone sang happy birthday. The candles that were put on the cake were half made up of candles that keep re-lighting themselves. It took Cam about 10 minutes to finally blow out all of the candles.Anyways here are some fun pictures.
The Birthday Party Crew!

Shrimati and Shrimaan

The AWESOME Chocolate Cake!

Cam blowing out the candles again and again....

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Back to the Orphanage!

Cam and I decided to go back to the Orphanage we visited a couple of weeks ago. The main reason was because we promised the boys that we would go to the park with them and play sports. Well you do not make a promise to those kids that you are not willing to keep.



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We ended up playing 1 hour of soccer with the boys. It was one of the funnest things we have done here and Cam's dream come true. To play soccer with children in Nepal. We are hoping to go back again but only have one more week until we hike Everest!

The Jungle Book

Wow!
We saw tons of animals that you do not find in Canada. In our 3 days at Chitwan National Park in Nepal we saw 5 rhinos, MANY elephants, crocodiles, deer, wild boar, baby wild boar and tons of different birds.

A couple of highlights are:
1. The Elephant Bath... So amazing to be so in touch with such a big magnificent animal
2. Sitting in a small canoe and looking down and seeing that underneath our canoe is a 6 feet crocodile.
3. Being so close to a rhino and being able to just sit and watch it.
4. Sleeping in the Jungle in a jungle tower.
5. Seeing the biggest spider in our lives
6. Eating the best pasta with tons of cheese... OH how I miss the cheese from Canada.


Monday, March 21, 2011

Happy Holi

The story of our Holi Day.

Cam and Annika get ready for their day. They walk out of their apartment onto the street and start walking around the neighborhood. SPLASH. Just missing Annika's ear a water balloon crashes to the ground. Cam looks up and yells... RUN... Cam and Annika run and narrowly are missed by a bucket of water coming from the top of an apartment building.

Cam and Annika decided they need amo and buy colored powder and water guns. After coloring and soaking some young children they decide to play Holi with the children and go after some other teenage kids. The
day was full of coloring other people, soaking other people and being the one colored and the one soaked.

Holi day is a Hindu festival dedicated to lord krishna and pretty much all of Nepal and India, young and old, participate. (Seriously hilarious when you look up and find that an old lady was the one that tried to hit you with a water balloon. Crazy!)
This is at Patan CBR when we celebrated the day before with the children and Staff

Again at Patan CBR

One of the staff's children at Patan CBR

Our didi's that look after our apartment on Holi Day

Cam after Holi Day

Annika after Holi Day looking down at kids between drenched in water by our Didi's

Cam's Shave

Cam's first time at the Barber. He asked to be clean shaven but they did not understand. However they did give him a really good trim, a nice face wash, face massage and even cracked his back for him! Please look at the last picture and how awesome Cam's hair is styled....
Cam getting his shave.

The shave continues

Outside the Nepal Hair Cutting Saloon for Ladies & Jents

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Long time away....

9 days in the wilderness. We had alot of fun kayaking the Sun Kosi River on class 2-3 rapids. The water was quite low and therefore between the fun rapid parts and some really big waves we had to do alot of paddling.

Some highlights of our trip besides the kayaking was...
- Kayaking beside a young 7 year old boy who was on a tube using a stick with plastic on either ends to paddle
- Talking Nepalese to some highschool aged village girls and then asked to come see the village of Nabugat.
- Dancing with the villagers of Nabugat
- Having village children come from 2 hours away just to meet us
- Annika talking to Cam from inside her tent and then opening the tent to find 3 young Nepalese children peering in
- Having 10 Nepalese children burst into acrobats when we started to take pictures of them
- Seeing boats carved out of a log
- Seeing visually how to rivers collide and run beside each other before mixing. One is blueish green and the other is sandy colored from the sediment from the mountain stone.

Kayaking beside a little boy!

Us with the people who took us on a tour of Nabugat

Nabugat

Nabugat School

The Canoe carved out of a Tree Trunk

The children who walked 2 hours to meet us playing on our kayaks

A nice waterfall that we had lunched beside!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Trisuli Kayaking!

Wow.... What a fun weekend. Kayaking between white sandy beaches, canyon walls and small Nepalese villages is amazing. This weekend gave us a taste of what kayaking for 9 days in Nepal next week will be like. It is so amazing how you can be amongst so many villagers and feel like you are still in the pristine wilderness because the people truly live with instead of against nature. 
Our sandy beach camp!

Hiking between local gardens to get to the river!

Finally at the beach!

Kayaking through small rapids.

There Annika goes through some rapids.

This is 'Upset' Rapid. This picture does not do the rapid justice.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Patan CBR

Volunteering at Patan CBR started two weeks ago. Definitely has at time been challenging but the staff are amazing and the children are so fun.

Cam with Anny. One of the little girls that he does Physio with.
Cam does lots of physio with the children. He uses alot of play techniques to get the children to work on strength, flexibility and function.
Helping Anny walk!















Blowing bubbles out of paper cups with Suzmita!













Annika has been teaching the students. She does alot of dancing, singing and playing with the children. She organized a bubble day with the rest of the volunteers that had the students coloring, making bubble makers and then going outside and playing with the bubbles.

One of the students making bubbles!























Cam and Annika have also been able to practice their phys ed teaching skills by playing basketball and soccer with the higher functioning children in the afternoons.No picture of that but here is a really cute one of Serena and Anny.
Serena and Anny playing with the ball!