back in the world of spring!

So we've finally re-entered the "southern" world - which in this case refers to everything south of the Arctic Circle. While our icy sojourn in the far north was filled with adventure, new friends, and wonderful experiences, I must say that it is nice to be back where spring is blooming.

After 4 months of non-stop, 24/7 quality time together, Jen and I are now on opposite ends of the country for the next three days - it's been about 12 hours now, and I'm already going into withdrawal! We were joking that it would be our first time really being apart for more than a few hours at a time since November!

Jen and Binda have headed home to Toronto, and I am in Vancouver for a couple of days visiting my dear friend Fahreen, whom I haven't seen in almost a year! She has been working with an NGO in Afghanistan as a doctor for the past year, and is only home in Vancouver for 2 weeks before heading back there for another year! It has been SO wonderful to see her again and to reconnect.

There are a few things that feel unsettling about returning back. ..after spending the past several months in parts of the world (and more recently in parts of Canada) where commerce is based more on necessities and less on luxury items, the biggest shock I find when coming back into "western" civilization is the rampant materialism of it all. It all seems so unnecessary and wasteful! We went past MEC today (the Canadian version of REI), and it seemed paradoxical to see a giant store full of technical outdoor gear with high price-tags which are only for occassional recreational use. After coming from a place where people live half the year at minus 50, and where alot of people spend alot of that time out on the land hunting, ice-fishing, trapping, etc. with their livelihood dependent upon their ability to remain outdoors in that weather - and after seeing how they use local items to make their own parkas, their own boots, gloves, snowpants, etc. - it really did seem a bit funny to then see all this synthetic, prefab stuff filling up a store that is purely for recreation. Don't get me wrong...I love MEC as much as the next outdoorsy gal..it just is a bit odd settling back into the materialism of our world...and this just happened to be the example that illustrated it for me today.

Despite this however, I must say it feels quite nice to be back in a world where everything feels familiar. I've hung up my parka for now and kicked off the big Sorel boots in exchange for sneakers and a fleece. The flowers are in bloom and trees have leaf buds on them. Not a grain of snow to be seen. Went out for dinner tonite and could read every word on the all-English menu. And in a couple days I'll be snuggled up at home in my own bed with my puppy at my feet...life really doesn't get much better than this!