An Adventure of a Life Time

Cycling Throughout SouthEast Asia!

As I write my brother, Houston, and his fiancée, Johnny, are flying high in the skies!  They’re embarking on a trip of a lifetime.  Leaving their home in Vancouver, BC they will land in Singapore, open up the boxes containing their bicycles, assemble their bicycles, and start peddling.  So long as their money last, they will not be returning home for another eleven months!  Houston and Johnny will spend the next eleven months cycling throughout SouthEast Asia.  “On [their] loaded touring bikes [they’ll] be cycling throughout Asia past cities, beaches, jungles, deserts, and the highest mountain in the world..”  (www.hojobiking.com)  Their journey will begin in Singapore and finish in India.  If they hold true to their plans the two of them will each put over 15, 000 kilometers on their bikes travelling through nine countries.  I don’t know about you; but to me that is a concept I cannot comprehend.

It’s important for you to know, that when I say eleven months and that they will finish in India, that’s simply the current plan.  On Houston’s first cycling tour he had only intended on being gone half a year.  This was when he was cycling from the Southern-most tip in South America to the Northern-most point in South America.  Once reaching his initial “final destination” he had come to the conclusion that this ending would just be anti-climatic.  Instead he flew to the “0km” marker in Eastern Canada in St. John’s, Newfoundland to ride his way past home to the “0km” marker in Western Canada in Victoria, BC.  His finial “final destination” was now going to be Victoria, BC adding on another few months to the initial half a year.  So, you can see that with Houston plans do change. 

This trip will be a hard trip for me to sit through.  My brother is four years younger than I am, but over the past couple of decades we’ve come quite close.  Even though we don’t always agree or see eye-to-eye, we both respect each other and the lives we lead.  After I graduated from highschool, I was the one that would pick Houston up every day (or as often as I could) so he wouldn’t have to walk the long route home.  For a period of time, again when Houston was still in highschool, he and I would go out to dinner just the two of us once a week.  Houston is the one that first got me on a snowboard and taught me how to board.  Now with Johnny all the active things we used to do are done with the three of us.  We go snowshoeing, snowboarding, geocaching and every once and a while we just hang out.  Not to mention I’m still a chauffeur.  Since they don’t own a car, I’m the one that drives them out to our mom’s for family dinners.

Johnny, Houston, and I on New Years day this year.  Snowshoeing around Lost Lake in Whistler, BC.

I’m jealous and envious of them and their abilities to quit their jobs and simply travel.  Jealous of the fact that they both have jobs that they can quit and return to with very little difficulty.  Being a teacher, that’s not the case for me.  I’m envious of the destinations that they will be able to experience.  Many of the countries they will tour through are ones that I would like to make my way to in the upcoming years.  I’ve only been to a couple of them, Thailand and Vietnam, and that was over 12 years ago!  I’m envious of they way they live their lives in such a care free way.  Don’t get me wrong I don’t live a strict regimented live myself.  And I LOVE everything in my life!  But, I’m at a different point in my life with my career going in the direction I want it to.  And my family couldn’t be any better; I love my life with Jeremy (my boyfriend, partner, other-half, common-law husband, husband, what ever you want to call it) and our two boyz (cats), Sam and Gimli.  There’s not one thing I’d change about our life.  We get to travel every year 3-4 weeks at a time.

It’s just that it’s human nature to want what you don’t have.

I was so excited for their trip that I decided that Houston and Johnny needed a special gift.  I had customized t-shirts and hats made for both of them.  Hoping that they wear them throughout their trip, of course not when they’re peddling away, since it’s not technical gear.  I also thought that it migh be a way for them to spread the word about their blog.

Johnny and Houston sporting their new threads.

Johnny showing off his new HoJoBiking hat with Houston looking on.

The excitement grows, as I know Houston and Johnny only have another 60 minutes in the air before they land at 5:30 am in Singapore.  Over the next eleven months I will be following their adventures and watching their love for one and other grow as I read their blog, HoJo Biking: Bicycle Touring SouthEast Asia, and follow their tweets @HoustonMarsh and @hojobiking. 

If you, yourselves, have any interest in living vicariously through two adventurous people I suggest you follow along too.  And if you’re interested in the cycling tours, check out Houston’s blog from his trip across South America and Canada at Vagabonding around South America & Canada.  Houston will also be posting their current trip there.

Houston & Johnny, I wish you both all the best!  And can’t wait to hear about all of your adventures.  Johnny you better make sure that you both email us on a regular basis back home.   Love you both!!

Becoming a Teacher

As you are walking through the Scarfe building you take a minute to look around and you begin to realize that everyone you see is an individual. No two are alike, we all come from different backgrounds and we all have different social personalities and have had different experiences that have led to that “ah-hah” moment when we decided to become teachers. As we have all had different experiences that have lead us to become teacher candidates, it is only natural that those different experiences affect our teaching perspectives.

Even though I am Canadian born and raised in the Lower Mainland, I have a variety of different social personalities from other Canadians born and raised in the Lower Mainland. Growing up in Maple Ridge as a middle class family with both of my parents and my younger brother I felt that I was privileged in all the things I had and all the activities in which I participated; and continuously receiving support in all we did.  Through this support we were taught to believe that individual has the right to their own beliefs on the intricacies of the world surrounding us.  Within our family structure everyone’s opinions and beliefs were always accepted and supported.

Growing up in my family I would say was just as typical as any other. My passion for reading developed at a young age. Both of my parents read to me continuously when I was not yet able to. Part of my difficulty in reading, did not stem from a lack of intelligence, but a lack of opportunities in the classroom. I was a French Immersion student and was not provided the opportunity to learn to read English until I reached grade 3. Either way whether I was reading myself or not, I owe my parents for my passion. I do not recall a single night when they did not read to me, and read themselves before slipping into bed. The first novel I recall my father reading to me was written by Mark Twain, it was Huckleberry Finn. To this day it remains one of my favorite reads, amongst many other classic novels. If it were not for my parents exposing me to reading at such a young age, I do not believe I would love to read as much. However, as I grew older and proceeded through high school, I put up a rebellion front. I did not enjoy having to read what I was told to read. If it were my choice, I would have had a choice between novels. It is my belief with providing an array of selection, relating in themes, that students will chose a piece of literature that is intriguing to them. And they will not feel as rebellious, and refuse to read everything.

It was not until my first year in high school, Grade 8, that there was a drastic change in our family structure. No longer was it a household with two working parents; Dad was officially diagnosed with 100% Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of serving with the US Army during the Vietnam War, going onto permanent disability from his career as an Financial Assistant Worker. This had both positive and negative consequences; however, the positive far outweighed the negative. I was able to spend more time with him; and I had the opportunity to have him supporting me at every single game of volleyball, at every game and tournament of rugby, and at every dance competition I had. Always having that extra moral support on the sidelines was extraordinary. Not everyone was as lucky as me to be shown that kind of support from their parents 100% of the time.

It was not until after my dad passed away five years later that I began to realize the importance of that support. That year I began coaching girls rugby at the high school I graduated from and had that “ah-hah” moment. I came to the realization that I was to work with adolescents, to provide that extra support to adolescents who are not as fortunate as I was to have someone always cheering for me on my side. I could provide that positive environment for them to learn in, to grow in, and to develop in. Sharing in their accomplishments was as equally as rewarding if not more so than experiencing my own accomplishments. To have such a positive influence on someone’s life and to take pride in their abilities is a great experience. It was the difference within my family structure from all those children I heard my parents talk about and the positive support I received, that made me want to provide those opportunities to others.