I’m doing it! I’m doing it!

This past summer, I went on a 5 day beginner white water kayaking course. At some point during the week, I was paddling down a rapid and for once I was a) still in my boat and b) not upside-down. The instructor was watching off to the side and yelled “You’re doing it! You’re doing it!”.  Every once in a while since I’ve been here, when I’ve managed to pull something off with all the appearances of being a local, my kayak instructor’s voice pops in my head and I start grinning like an idiot.

I’ve found a place to live in Edinburgh for the next however long I’ll be here. It’s a room in a shared apartment so I have housemates for the first time since university. It was the easiest move I’ve ever done as I only have 2 suitcases of belongings with me – no boxes, minimal packing and an easy cab ride to my new digs. I was ecstatic to move in and be able to cook my own food again. Staying in a hotel and eating out all the time always sounds so much better than it actually is.

I’m hoping that having a place to call my own will help me feel more settled here. Last week I was pretty homesick. It didn’t even occur to me before I left, that I might get homesick. I decided to do the whole travelling thing to get out of a rut, get new experiences, and get away from same old “home”  but I sometimes find myself strangely longing for my life in Ottawa, where things were easy and everything wasn’t something new that had to be figured out. I’m feeling a lot better about things this week though, which is good. And when I got back from Falkirk and Stirling last weekend (see below), I flopped down on my bed and thought “oh, it’s so nice to be home”. So I guess I am adjusting and feeling more settled than I thought.