Hey, J, no worries about the job coming through... I still totally appreciate your telling me about the possibility and looking out for me!! As for other possibilities, I'm following up on some leads, but so far nothing is seeming extremely appealing AND available to me in the near future; a bit of column A and a bit of B, but not a lot of crossover...

Meanwhile, the result of some major hassles with getting home resulted in my arriving in BC a couple days ago. See, long story short, I ended up having to buy a whole new ticket from Lima to Canada, and it turned out that I could stop in Toronto, period, or, for $20USD more, I could have a stop-over there and then go on to Vancouver a couple weeks later, which is what I ended up doing - one way.

Being back in Ontario was amazing, and I actually managed to see most of the people and manifest most of the situations I'd been fantasizing about for the last 5 months (e.g., surprising the heck out of my grandparents and friends by randomly showing up at their doors without warning, spending 5 days making yummy veggie food and music and community-building at Kimbercote farm, solo canoeing down a beautiful river nearby, hanging out with a bunch of people at Em's place passing around my guitarrita and laughing lots, sneaking into the pool at Christie Pitts in the middle of the night/morning and swimming Garden-of-Eden style, going to a drum circle on Cherry Beach, seeing my recently high-school-graduated baby brother before he heads off to university in the fall).

I'm totally without a plan of action out here, except to see Katie, my oldest friend from SFU, who recently got engaged, and Emma, my "fairy god-daughter" who is now almost two and a half and whom I haven't seen since she was an infant, and some other ideas I've got planted, many involving green.

Still applying for jobs, and looking out for other opportunities that may come my way (maybe even more school!), and trying to enjoy the last bit of summer. To be honest, I won't be too upset not to have work in the next month, but once it starts getting cold, it would be great to have something great lined up.

I hear you on the difficulty adjusting to the gringo world after Mehico. Getting back to Canada after almost 5 months away just now was NOTHING compared to when I came home from Mariachilandia. That was probably the hardest adjustment I've ever made - even harder than moving TO Mexico in the first place!

Hmm... I wish I had more exciting news, but nothing I have to say seems worth "writing home about" - just little quirky things that have become normal in my life. Okay, I'll give you a couple...

Yesterday I met up with Dawn and Davy, a couple of contact-juggling/fire-spinning friends from Toronto who are now living here and want to start a busking routine. They're great at what they do, but not so sure how to get the patter and more theatrical stuff started, so I took on the "stage manager" role and started playing around with different stories they could act out. Then we, and another friend, all started dressing up in silly outfits and, partly for the somewhat professional reason of getting them desensitized to "looking like idiots in public," as Dawn put it, and partly just for the heck of it, decided to go take a walk on Commercial Drive and go to dinner. As a frog/fly (Dawn), clown (Davy), jester (Dylan), and super-heroine/princess (me). And video tape the whole thing. So, we did. And it was very fun. And then we watched it. And it was very funny.

Today, I met up with Dharma for lunch, but I wasn't feeling any of the food court options, so he picked up a sandwich and some chili and we started walking towards the water to find a nice place to sit. When we hit the park-ish deal at the corner of Hastings, though, it was full of all sorts of corporate types, for some "tenant appreciation lunch." Rather than turn around, as Dharm started to do, I gave him a sneaky look and he reluctantly followed along, saying "you know, they have been known to ask for some ID at these sorts of functions..." just as some lady handed us shiny bead necklaces for the apparent "Mardi Gras" theme. Having been practically invited in, we followed the line to the catered meal and I picked up some veggie jambalaya and salad. We then sat down and witnessed a somewhat embarrassing parade of the chosen representatives from each of the offices in the building sporting shiny masks and marching beside the hired entertainment, who was wearing very little and shaking in a style quite out of place in downtown Vancouver...

Anyways, I'm exhausted, and Katie, with whom I've been staying so far, is leaving for Vegas in the morning for a wedding and I've gotta find out where I'm moving to when we get up, so with that I shall say good night!!

Buenas noches :) Tag, you're it!

Saludos,
Cara

P.S. I think this is the most detailed e-mail I've written in a very, very long time. In fact, if you don't mind, I think I will copy it into my online journal, which I have been shamefully neglecting of late...

Why is it that compliments by potential employers starting to come off as insults?!

Have I become the proverbial (career) girl with the great personality?? Is there still a chance I will find the job of my dreams, the love of my CV? Or will I keep hearing how much great-sounding employers just want to stay friends? :P

For example, an excerpt from today's in-box:

Thank you very much for your application...

In short, unfortunately, we are not able to offer you this position. You were a very strong candidate, but in the end we decided to go with someone else.

To be frank, this was a difficult decision--you were a strong candidate with a lovely personality and loads of potential. In the end, however, we decided to go with someone with a bit more experience and more African focus.

If you want to discuss this, please don't hesitate do contact me. Thank you, however, for your interest and please stay in touch--there could be room to work together in the future.

Or another recent addition:

Nous tenons à te remercier, sincèrement, pour ton intérêt... À la suite du processus de sélection auquel nous t'avons conviée, j'ai le regret de t'annoncer que ta candidature n'a pas été retenue pour les étapes finales. Cela n'enlève rien au fait que nous considérons que tu as un profil académique et des expériences professionnelles qui, nous en sommes certains, te permettront de trouver un emploi à la hauteur de tes aspirations.

N'hésites pas à me contacter lorsque tu seras de retour, il me fera plaisir de te rencontrer. En attendant, je te conseille de bien surveiller le site X pour de nouveaux poste à paraître dans les prochaines semaines.

Je te souhaite bonne chance dans tes recherches.

I got to the middle of the Kimbercote labyrinth and paused.

The words spiralling in my head silenced and I looked down at the stone in the middle, the one that with each step I'd been weaving towards, even as my direction seemed to head away, and felt I had arrived.

It had chipped in spots and I pocketed a couple of the resulting jaged rocks. Wanting to leave something of myself behind, I reached into my pocket. My change purse. A Canadian penny. So perfect. A maple leaf. The currency of my homeland.

I placed it in the centre, grounded myself, and spiralled back towards the outside.

I am officially back.

It feels good to be home.