Remember when I used to do a roundup every month? Yeah, that was cute.
So 2016 has kind of been all over the place for me. Wait, kind of been? No, fuck that. It’s been crazy as shit. From January until July I have taken: four flights to and from Roatan, ten flights to and from Vancouver, the train to and from Portland, and five road trips to Saskatoon. This might sound fun to my travel buddies, but I have accepted the fact that I am not the best traveler – I am much happier as an expat. I like to settle in. And I’ve been moving around somewhere almost every week for six months.
The last six months have brought some huge life changes my way. I first came back to Canada in January because my grandpa was terminally ill, and he passed away just a few days after I got here. After that, I interviewed for my job in Japan in February. Then I went back to Roatan in March. While there, I found out that I got the Japan job, so I packed up my life and came back to Canada in late April save money before going to Japan. Since then, I’ve been living back at my parents house in Saskatchewan (boomerang kids, hollaaaaaaaaa) helping a family member who had a hip replacement, taking a few little trips for work and play, and working on some exciting stuff online that I hope to be sharing in the next few months. So there you go – that’s the update of the last six months six sentences!
I am beyond excited that the next roundup post will be coming to you from Japan. I’m looking forward to bringing some fresh content to my site about expat life in Japan, and about working for the JET Programme. I’m planning to start creating videos, so I hope you guys will enjoy that. I am also hopeful that I’ll be in a much better place financially than I have been in Honduras, so I’ll be doing quite a bit more traveling in my downtime. I have so many places I’d like to visit (and dive at!) in SE Asia and already being in that corner of the world should reduce travel costs. I will also have my own country to explore – Japan has SO MANY amazing places to see and a variety of geographical areas/climates, and I’m planning to go all the way from the tropical southern islands to the northern tip up by Russia.
So, here’s the roundup for the last six months. The ‘gratuitous underwater photo’ section is gonna change to the ‘my most popular Instagram photo’ section for now, until I figure out what I want it to be in Japan. The ‘in case you missed it’ and ‘my favorite thing on the internet’ sections will stay the same! Here we go….
1. My most popular Instagram photo:
This is actually a video – it’s been the most liked thing on my Instagram ever! – but I can’t figure out how to get the video from my phone onto here because technology, so here is a photo the tattoo artist took instead. Check out my Instagram for the video!
Quick backstory: I had a ridiculous kanji tattoo on my ankle that said something stupid (on purpose people, I’m not that dumb!) that I decided I better cover up before I go to Japan. When I was traveling in Japan in 2009, people were perplexed by it and I just don’t want to deal with that for the next year(s?) of my life there.
My friend from way back in the day has become a highly successful tattoo artist (go see Alana at Bloodline Tattoo Company in Moose Jaw, SK if you want some amazing ink), so I got her to cover it up with my favorite fish of all time – a queen triggerfish. If you’ve ever gone diving with me in Roatan, you know I 100% lose my shit when I see these fish. They are my FAVORITE. I decided to have this tattoo be a tribute to my era on Roatan… if you look really, really closely, the top light blue mouth marking on my trigger is actually a full outline of the island of Roatan. Now the island and its underwater world are always with me wherever I go.
Obviously, I fucking love it and it’s fabulous. My mom named her Lucy 🙂
2. In case you missed it:
Yeah, so there wasn’t much to miss. But here’s a recap of my posts since the last roundup in early January!
- Public Service Announcement: Kayaking in Roatan
- So I’m Moving to Japan…WTF
- Giving Back: How You Can Help Roatan
- Partnership with AirTransat – I’m a Roatan Expat Expert!
- The Comedown: Tales from an Ex-Expat
- The End of An Era
- A Canadian Winter
I still have a lot of Roatan content to get through, so it will be mixed in here and there in upcoming posts. That island is always going to be in my heart, and I also still get a ton of readers contacting me about it so it’s worth it for me to continue with that content for now.
3. My favorite thing on the internet right now:
Canada Day was yesterday, and I’m really loving this video. Living and working with Americans on Roatan taught me quickly about what things were Canadian (did you guys know it’s called ‘Kraft Dinner’ in Canada but ‘Kraft Mac & Cheese’ in the States? I had to Google image search the box to prove it to my roommate from Colorado…) and how funny our accents can sound. This video is for all the people I met on Roatan who thought I was faking my prairie accent when I demonstrated it for them! Just fuckin giv’r, bud!
I LOVE that tattoo! I think Japan has a more progressive view on them these days so I think you’ll be fine.
Thanks Charlotte!! You can see why I got it covered up though, right 🙂 The last time I was in Japan, when I was in Osaka I had a girl march right up to me at Osaka-jo with a Sharpie and try to ‘fix’ my kanji! And the obachans at the sentos could not stop giggling (that might have partially been my nigiri sushi tattoos as well, though…) It was funny for a visit, but for full-time living I didn’t want that on my leg. And I think my fish is way prettier anyway 🙂 🙂
On a more serious note, it sounds like things are not quite headed in the right direction yet on the tattoo front there. I recently read an article about civil servants in a city being fired for HAVING tattoos…not for showing them at work, but just for having them, full stop. Onsen and gyms are still mostly a no-go with tattoos. I understand the yakuza stuff, but I fail to see how a 21 year old girl with a butterfly on her wrist could honestly be connected to that. I hope Japan starts moving in a better direction on this if they want to continue hosting gaijin-heavy events like the Olympics! Then again, I’d be happier if they let the “shoulders can’t be bare” and “cool biz no AC” thing go first haha. I’d rather cover my tattoos than be sweating to death.