Busy, hectic month

Yikes! It's already been a month since I last updated everyone (or those that actually read this!) regarding my crazy busy life! This month has been an emotional rollercoaster, but I wouldn't change it for anything.

Most excitingly, my boyfriend, Georg, came for a 3 week visit from Germany. We've only been dating since February, but long distance relationship aren't for the weak of heart. Luckily, technology has provided us with Skype, so we are able to talk for free over the internet using a web cam. It sure was nice to actually touch and kiss the man that I stare at on the computer monitor almost every day. :)

I moved home at the end of May. Boy, did I ever accumulate a LOT of stuff over the last year! Luckily, Georg is an excellent packer, having helped his sister move 13 times throughout her university career. So now, all of my life is sitting in boxes in my Grandma's basement. I have a lot of boxes to unpack or tidy and store. What helps is that I heading to Europe in 3 months, so there is no need to unpack everything...just make it look clean.

Once I moved, Georg and I went on a 2 week trip to Western Canada. We drove over 7000 km on our trip to British Columbia and back, sleeping on a mattress in the back of Georg's van. I have so many pictures for the trip, that I'm having a hard time choosing a few to post on here...it will have to wait for another day, I think. We headed to Fort St. John (in Northern BC) to visit Georg's relatives (by-passing Saskatchewan, of course), toured down through the Peace River Valley and the 99 Hwy to Vancouver, caught the ferry to Nanaimo and toured the south portion of Vancouver Island, including Sooke National Park. We walked on average about 10 kms a day through beautiful forests and got to see lots of wildlife: bald eagles, raccoons, blue herons, tiny crabs, even a bear by Whistler! We slept on the side of a remote lake in the mountains, with nothing but the stars to keep us company. From Vancouver Island, we stopped in White Rock (essentially, a suburb of Vancouver City) to visit my friend and her husband, toured Vancouver and then headed back up to central BC and checked out Jasper and Banff National Parks. The mountains are incredible! Pictures can not do it justice... Here, we were generic tourists, taking pictures of the numerous waterfalls and canyons in the area, climbing up the toe of the Columbia ice field and eating over-priced food from the local stores. We spent one night with my Dad's family in Alberta before heading home (again, by-passing Saskatchewan). I would definitely recommend to people to check out BC as a vacation. If anyone is into kayaking or canoeing, there are tons of rivers in Northern BC that are wide and shallow with beautiful scenery to check out.
I will post pictures soon.

I was able to relax with Georg for a few days in Manitoba before he headed home on Sunday and I drove to Saskatoon for a conference for the Canadian Soil Science Society. I presented a talk on Monday about my thesis data. I always find it exciting to share information about my research with other academics, who get excited about it as well. We head home on Thursday, and from then on, I will be a writing machine, holed up in my Grandma's basement, losing what little tan I have and getting bags under my eyes from lack of sleep...I'm really looking forward to it. Really.