Golden and the Gold, or How I Spent My Spring Break

okay, so I flew out of Vancouver friday night. Seeing Vancouver from above was awesome. I could totally tell where each city was (Burnaby, Surrey, Richmond, etc) and I couldn't take my eyes away from the window until we were over Chilliwack. It was a clear night and the moon was almost full, so I could see the mountains quite well, which was a real treat. I knew almost exactly where we were the whole time. Over Kelowna, then Nakusp wth Revelstoke in the distance, then Kootenay Lake, and the Columbia Valley (not sure which towns though, surprisingly). Calgary was cold, windy and snowing, but other than that, the weather was great the whole trip. Didn't even get rained on.
Saturday was the competition and it was great. Definitely the biggest competition I've been too, and most liekly the best. There was some awesome black belt talent, especially the youngins. My division was Mens/Womens Green, Blue, and Purple belt, but for the sparring, we were segregated. I won gold in both events, so I'm quite pleased. That night, I briefly met up with Ravi as I waited for the bus, then took the greyhound back to Golden. I only paid for a ticket to Lake Lousie, and I said I was a student, so I saved 30 bucks on my ticket, and just stayed on the bus at Lake Louise with no problem. My visit in Golden was pretty good. I got to see everyone except Matt, without feeling too rushed. The mountains looked awesome and I spent much of Sunday outside. I smoked a fair share of the 1x Salvia, although it didn't do too much to me. Shawn sure liked it though. I got really stoned both nights and pretty drunk the second, and had a pretty good time. Any longer in GOlden and I woulda started to feel bored and weird. Actually, it was weird just being there to begin with. Such a strange feeling, hard to describe. I cram so much into these short trips and before I know it, I'm back on the island. Hitchhiking went pretty well. Took like an hour to get out of Golden, but other than that it was smooth sailing. I probably coulda made it all the way to the ferry in one day, but I stayed in Kamloops for the night and visited Craig and Jolene. I got a pretty cool ride with this trucker out of Kamloops to Abbotsford. We talked about all sorts of stuff, from the job market, to the way things 'used' to be, to hitchhiking and travelling. He definitely strengethened my urge to travel and gave me some good tips on places to go. From Abbotsofrd, I caught a ride to Ft Langley (the first and oldest settlement in BC I believe, and then another to Langley, and then finally a ride all the way to Horseshoe Bay.

I also started my new job at Quality Foods today. I'll report back once I've formed an opinion.