well hey.... My 2 weeks with no computer access...
so....ok
hows everyones life? hopefully packed with excitement, danger, passions,
and topped off with many moments of tranquility.
well, on my end, things are moving along so smoothly i am looking over
my shoulder for the mack truck thats supposed to counteract all these
good vibrations. call it karma, luck, fate, destiny, dentistry, whatever.
but all i know is this coaster is a rollin.
it all started in china. after my month there, im becomiong a little
overstimulated and stressed (parents...shhhhhh).
Ok, so i leave china, and begin my trip across the world. i get on a bus
in Suzhou (where i was living) and took it to shangai. Me and my dad go
to a hotel desk in the airport. The pic looks good (ps never be that
foolish..) so we head off for a last night in china. We get to nowhere
and our hotel is a mouldy rank shithole. so we go to find a place to eat.
the street is devoid of any western influence, skin and blood.
we keep walking. 'oh look shawn, over there! thats the red light
district' i look across the streeet at a run down building with red
rooms all upstairs and chinese gilrs/women hanging out the doors. 'Thanks
for showing me dad, I've always wanted to see a red light district'.
we keep walking, get to a restaurant and order all the wierdest shit
from a buffet table thats set out for us (we choose what we want and
they make another one. ) we ate octopus, fried maggots, fried wontons,
seafood gumbo....yum.... etc etc.....we got close to 20 dishes..
anyways, im flying over the ocean, and realizing how frickin huge it is.....('oh
really shawn?') yes really, smart ass...
and down the aisle (i was flying japan air) walks this 8 foot japanese
woman who looks like frankenstein. literally. i did a double take and
was shocked and amazed. Man she was scary. maybe she was a hiroshima
baby... anyways..
so after a 14 hr flight, a 6 hr layover in tokyo, a 2 hr wait in customs
in vancouver, i get picked up by my uncle to head back to thier place,
where all my material posessions are. i am beginning to crack. so you'd
think 'well, time to rest up before your cross canada trip then eh shawn'
oh no. i have to get to calgary the next morning to catch my ride back
to ottawa. I find out my hemp plant got weed whacked cause it was hidden
in the grass...shitty....So i re pack all my summer shit to take to
ottawa (including my busted ass bike i need to get welded which i had to
completely disassemble to fit it in a duffel bag because they don't let
bikes on the greyhound and charge you 40$ extra....) and i move the
rest of it across vancouver to burnaby where i can store my winter gear
and the rest of my crap. then i get drunk with my uncle and get on an
all night bus to calgary. The crack widens. Now im starting to succumb
to reverse culture shock, which is in a lot of ways worse than the plain
ol regular culture shock. Good thing im spending the entire bus ride
with a american trucker who thinnks hes king shit. (......shut up.)
at least i shit like a king.
ok so i get to lake louise at 8 am. I call to let them know ill be in
calgary in an hour or so. 'Oh shit man, i couldn't get a hold of you...theres
no more room. sorry man.' .....shit.
so i go to calgary. im sitting in the bus station with all my stuff not
too sure of my next move but not worried, when a big black man comes up
to me. I suspect hes a preacher just becuase they're the only people i've
ever seen approach strangers and not ask them for anything. So I decide
to entertain him (turns out he entertained me)......man you perverts....get
a life..
anyways, he tells me that he used to live in niceraugua...sp...and he
tells me that he used to steal peoples shoes at knife point. He shows me
his scars from knife fights he was in. He told me about the man whose
arm he cut off. He tells me how he found jesus and now he owns a church
in saskatoon, has a wife and kids, and has found purpose. He never
mentioned the bible or god, until I did. After 4 hours of talking, he
says he can pay my plane ticket home to ottawa. I decline, because im
looking forward to my adventure across canada. He knows I like to do it
my way, so he says since god pays his bills (he shows me his credit
cards, like 10 nof them) he has the ability to make my life goal become
a reality (tree houses in the rainforest). He said come learn at my
church, I will pay all your bills, and you can live with the 5 other
people who live with me. One of them is building houses. After 2 years,
I will help you build your houses.
So I keep his #. Im still findong god my own way, but thanks for
offering to help with my search, I just have a big problem accepting a
church that slaughters thousands in the name of god and which is tainted
and basically has nothing to do with god.
he understood.
So. Back to the story.
I check my inventory:
- Suitcase full of chinese scrolls.
- Backpack
- 2 smaller back packs
- Bike in a duffel bag.
- 50$
- Bag of oakleys
So I call my friends. Go to Rob's house. Leave my gear in the lockers.
Get high...oh so high ?(i didn't smoke all month in china....excepth for
the first night when we smoked hash in the old british dudes bar while
we watched woodstock on dvd.)
SO i had to get a bus ticket to ottawa.
I look through my bag and pull out my ticket from van to calgary. It
hasn't been ripped. They didn't check it. Bingo.
I go to the counter, tell the cashier my story (i bought a ticket over
the phone, and then realized i wouldn't make my ride by bus, so i got a
ride. I still missed my ride in calgary, so i need a ticket to ottawa. I
have an unused ticket from van. Can you apply that to a ticket to
ottawa. I make some calls to higher authorities, and she gives me a 2
week advance ticket (saves me more $) and takes off the price of the van
ticket. I owe 50$. Ha.
so i have my way home. Time to play. I call kyle after staying with rob
for a few nights. we get high. really high. Then I called octavia in
banff and i head out there for a few days (4) and i biked around during
the day (the downhill on Norquay on an old kona hardtail with clipless
pedals in my sandals) and pick up some pot ( I sold some oakleys).
I pay my last 40$ .....thanks grandma.....to get a hour treatment
massage on my back.
This guy was good, he travells in an old accord with his kid and heals
people. He told me all the shit wrong with my body, and as he was
jiggling eack vertabrae, he goes 'whoop! that one moves 3/4 of an inch,
we fixed something' Did he ever. I feel good. ok....shit this is getting
long and i havent even started yet..... ok, i go back to calgary, wheel
all my gear from kyles to the bus station on a baggage cart, and hop on
the bus. Im travelling, nothing much is hapenning. We stop in regina. I
want a hoot. I need a light. I ask this dude who looks pretty rad. He's
like 'Yeah.....hey, you rock climb?' yeah. 'ever climb the states?'
yeah, Red rocks, nevada. 'In february?' Shit yeah. 'I remember you man,
we climbed together, you're the guy who put the hammock up in black
corridor right?' yeah man, thats me. I remember you too, fuckin eh.
so we ride. and he (A.J) had to leave his gf in canmore, and i got to
hear him talk about it non stop to multiple people on the bus. ahhh,
nothing like the endless agony of being in love. SO I tell him im
staying a night in winnipeg, i have some friends where we might be able
to crash in a bed. So we get off in w-peg. ahh, how history repeats
itself. as some of you may know, i was in winnipeg almost exactly a year
prior, where i got arrested for stealing an avacado and batteries. I
ran out of money. Hey, i ran out of money again, in the same city, a
year later, on the greyhound. heh. crack.
so i can't get a hold of any of my friends. Shitty. We're going to the
station to get the tent when we ask 2 girls walking where the hostel was
(we had no intention of going to the hostel). This girl, from germany,
says she can sneak us into her old res room cause the RA is gone. Sweet.
She gets in with a credit card (it is all mashed from countless other
sneak ins) and we look at the bed. It has spaceships on it. It looks
like it's for 2 yr olds. Shit, we have to share. ok.
So we want to make a gravity bong. Trouble is, this house is full of
japanese people who don't seem too friendly. As well,m the house is very
loud. you can't sneak anywhere. So we have to fill the garbage can with
water down the hall in the bathroom. it was a great mission. successful.
so we hang out and smoke, and play some chess. Then we crash. But this
bed creaks like an un-oiled tinman. everytime someone moved, the bed
creaked hella loud. I'daugh, and it would creak with my laughter.
Anyways, 5:30 am, we have banging on the door, a japanese guy telling us
it's time to leave. nazi.
so we get back on the bus and it's back on the road. Im in 2 pieces now.
i get to ottawa, and get picked up by john. the next day is the week
long canada day bash.
We go up to geoffs cottage. Load up a few 24's into the beer machine (an
old 7up machine) and we get drunk. jump on the trampoline, take the sea
doo speedster out for a rip (180 hp in an 8 foot boat) and play
volleyball. On saturday, a band shows up that was playing the jazzfest,
and they set up on the porch. There was 100 people there. for sure. it
was a music fest. The next morning we returned 670 beer bottles (we
broke 1000 before we left). So they have a section of land next to the
cottage that they own. They said i can build a tree city on it. I
started right away. I went to a house dopwn the road that had burned
down, gathered a lot of lumber, and started building. Wed. I get a call
from aric in ottawa telling me im supposed to be going on a 4 day
whiewater canoe trip in la veryendre park, que, near charlies cottage.
Shit. But of course, theres a ride leaving to ottawa right theen and
there. I hop in, leaving most of my stuff at the cottage. i get to
ottawa, and don't even have time to pee before im off to quebec. # hrs
north and im in a cottage entirely hand built from logs. Charlies uncle
built it when he was 16. We get ready for the canoe trip and head outthe
next morn. We're on a lake, one of many, when the heavens split wide
open. We canoe for 2 hrs in a huge circle in pouring rain. everything's
soaked. we camp, regroup, and continue the next morn. get to the
carbonga dam, which is open. get on the river, and start hitting the
rapids. The water flow is wide open, the water level 4 feet higher than
normal. The rapids are massive. Haystacks 14 feet high. hydraulics
everywhere waiting to pin you down and drown you. We hit about half the
rapids, flip a few times. I almost had a close call when my life jacket
got caught on the seat and held me under, i had to take a breath under
the canoe as we floated down the 500 meter long rapids, and i pulled the
life jacket off over my head. Now im half sinking hitting all the rocks.
i survived, grabbed a tree overhanging the river. Charlie went a bit
further. The canoe (thankfully) got caught at the top of the next set of
rapids. It was all dented. We played in the rapids the next day,
challenging the hardest and biggest. that was awesome. I have pics, you'll
see em one day if you want to.
so that went on for 4 days, and then i came back to ottawa. Played poker
last night, then slept in a bed after eating real food. now i have to
write this email so people know im alive, and i have to go back to
geoffs cottage to build my tree city. First i have to find my gst cheque....
ok guys, i know it was long, but shit.
had to be said.
Im outs, my fingers and back hurt.
peace all
and seriously, i send out over 200 emails to friends, and i get 5
responses, 2 from my dad.
Just hit me back with a hey if you're not too busy.....hahahahahahahaha
shhhiiiittttt
Love, chaos, life
Shawn
“Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit�
Activism without chaos? or Chaos without activism?
'The problem with today's youth is not that our fathers don't believe in us, but that we do not believe in our fathers.' - Me.
so....ok
hows everyones life? hopefully packed with excitement, danger, passions,
and topped off with many moments of tranquility.
well, on my end, things are moving along so smoothly i am looking over
my shoulder for the mack truck thats supposed to counteract all these
good vibrations. call it karma, luck, fate, destiny, dentistry, whatever.
but all i know is this coaster is a rollin.
it all started in china. after my month there, im becomiong a little
overstimulated and stressed (parents...shhhhhh).
Ok, so i leave china, and begin my trip across the world. i get on a bus
in Suzhou (where i was living) and took it to shangai. Me and my dad go
to a hotel desk in the airport. The pic looks good (ps never be that
foolish..) so we head off for a last night in china. We get to nowhere
and our hotel is a mouldy rank shithole. so we go to find a place to eat.
the street is devoid of any western influence, skin and blood.
we keep walking. 'oh look shawn, over there! thats the red light
district' i look across the streeet at a run down building with red
rooms all upstairs and chinese gilrs/women hanging out the doors. 'Thanks
for showing me dad, I've always wanted to see a red light district'.
we keep walking, get to a restaurant and order all the wierdest shit
from a buffet table thats set out for us (we choose what we want and
they make another one. ) we ate octopus, fried maggots, fried wontons,
seafood gumbo....yum.... etc etc.....we got close to 20 dishes..
anyways, im flying over the ocean, and realizing how frickin huge it is.....('oh
really shawn?') yes really, smart ass...
and down the aisle (i was flying japan air) walks this 8 foot japanese
woman who looks like frankenstein. literally. i did a double take and
was shocked and amazed. Man she was scary. maybe she was a hiroshima
baby... anyways..
so after a 14 hr flight, a 6 hr layover in tokyo, a 2 hr wait in customs
in vancouver, i get picked up by my uncle to head back to thier place,
where all my material posessions are. i am beginning to crack. so you'd
think 'well, time to rest up before your cross canada trip then eh shawn'
oh no. i have to get to calgary the next morning to catch my ride back
to ottawa. I find out my hemp plant got weed whacked cause it was hidden
in the grass...shitty....So i re pack all my summer shit to take to
ottawa (including my busted ass bike i need to get welded which i had to
completely disassemble to fit it in a duffel bag because they don't let
bikes on the greyhound and charge you 40$ extra....) and i move the
rest of it across vancouver to burnaby where i can store my winter gear
and the rest of my crap. then i get drunk with my uncle and get on an
all night bus to calgary. The crack widens. Now im starting to succumb
to reverse culture shock, which is in a lot of ways worse than the plain
ol regular culture shock. Good thing im spending the entire bus ride
with a american trucker who thinnks hes king shit. (......shut up.)
at least i shit like a king.
ok so i get to lake louise at 8 am. I call to let them know ill be in
calgary in an hour or so. 'Oh shit man, i couldn't get a hold of you...theres
no more room. sorry man.' .....shit.
so i go to calgary. im sitting in the bus station with all my stuff not
too sure of my next move but not worried, when a big black man comes up
to me. I suspect hes a preacher just becuase they're the only people i've
ever seen approach strangers and not ask them for anything. So I decide
to entertain him (turns out he entertained me)......man you perverts....get
a life..
anyways, he tells me that he used to live in niceraugua...sp...and he
tells me that he used to steal peoples shoes at knife point. He shows me
his scars from knife fights he was in. He told me about the man whose
arm he cut off. He tells me how he found jesus and now he owns a church
in saskatoon, has a wife and kids, and has found purpose. He never
mentioned the bible or god, until I did. After 4 hours of talking, he
says he can pay my plane ticket home to ottawa. I decline, because im
looking forward to my adventure across canada. He knows I like to do it
my way, so he says since god pays his bills (he shows me his credit
cards, like 10 nof them) he has the ability to make my life goal become
a reality (tree houses in the rainforest). He said come learn at my
church, I will pay all your bills, and you can live with the 5 other
people who live with me. One of them is building houses. After 2 years,
I will help you build your houses.
So I keep his #. Im still findong god my own way, but thanks for
offering to help with my search, I just have a big problem accepting a
church that slaughters thousands in the name of god and which is tainted
and basically has nothing to do with god.
he understood.
So. Back to the story.
I check my inventory:
- Suitcase full of chinese scrolls.
- Backpack
- 2 smaller back packs
- Bike in a duffel bag.
- 50$
- Bag of oakleys
So I call my friends. Go to Rob's house. Leave my gear in the lockers.
Get high...oh so high ?(i didn't smoke all month in china....excepth for
the first night when we smoked hash in the old british dudes bar while
we watched woodstock on dvd.)
SO i had to get a bus ticket to ottawa.
I look through my bag and pull out my ticket from van to calgary. It
hasn't been ripped. They didn't check it. Bingo.
I go to the counter, tell the cashier my story (i bought a ticket over
the phone, and then realized i wouldn't make my ride by bus, so i got a
ride. I still missed my ride in calgary, so i need a ticket to ottawa. I
have an unused ticket from van. Can you apply that to a ticket to
ottawa. I make some calls to higher authorities, and she gives me a 2
week advance ticket (saves me more $) and takes off the price of the van
ticket. I owe 50$. Ha.
so i have my way home. Time to play. I call kyle after staying with rob
for a few nights. we get high. really high. Then I called octavia in
banff and i head out there for a few days (4) and i biked around during
the day (the downhill on Norquay on an old kona hardtail with clipless
pedals in my sandals) and pick up some pot ( I sold some oakleys).
I pay my last 40$ .....thanks grandma.....to get a hour treatment
massage on my back.
This guy was good, he travells in an old accord with his kid and heals
people. He told me all the shit wrong with my body, and as he was
jiggling eack vertabrae, he goes 'whoop! that one moves 3/4 of an inch,
we fixed something' Did he ever. I feel good. ok....shit this is getting
long and i havent even started yet..... ok, i go back to calgary, wheel
all my gear from kyles to the bus station on a baggage cart, and hop on
the bus. Im travelling, nothing much is hapenning. We stop in regina. I
want a hoot. I need a light. I ask this dude who looks pretty rad. He's
like 'Yeah.....hey, you rock climb?' yeah. 'ever climb the states?'
yeah, Red rocks, nevada. 'In february?' Shit yeah. 'I remember you man,
we climbed together, you're the guy who put the hammock up in black
corridor right?' yeah man, thats me. I remember you too, fuckin eh.
so we ride. and he (A.J) had to leave his gf in canmore, and i got to
hear him talk about it non stop to multiple people on the bus. ahhh,
nothing like the endless agony of being in love. SO I tell him im
staying a night in winnipeg, i have some friends where we might be able
to crash in a bed. So we get off in w-peg. ahh, how history repeats
itself. as some of you may know, i was in winnipeg almost exactly a year
prior, where i got arrested for stealing an avacado and batteries. I
ran out of money. Hey, i ran out of money again, in the same city, a
year later, on the greyhound. heh. crack.
so i can't get a hold of any of my friends. Shitty. We're going to the
station to get the tent when we ask 2 girls walking where the hostel was
(we had no intention of going to the hostel). This girl, from germany,
says she can sneak us into her old res room cause the RA is gone. Sweet.
She gets in with a credit card (it is all mashed from countless other
sneak ins) and we look at the bed. It has spaceships on it. It looks
like it's for 2 yr olds. Shit, we have to share. ok.
So we want to make a gravity bong. Trouble is, this house is full of
japanese people who don't seem too friendly. As well,m the house is very
loud. you can't sneak anywhere. So we have to fill the garbage can with
water down the hall in the bathroom. it was a great mission. successful.
so we hang out and smoke, and play some chess. Then we crash. But this
bed creaks like an un-oiled tinman. everytime someone moved, the bed
creaked hella loud. I'daugh, and it would creak with my laughter.
Anyways, 5:30 am, we have banging on the door, a japanese guy telling us
it's time to leave. nazi.
so we get back on the bus and it's back on the road. Im in 2 pieces now.
i get to ottawa, and get picked up by john. the next day is the week
long canada day bash.
We go up to geoffs cottage. Load up a few 24's into the beer machine (an
old 7up machine) and we get drunk. jump on the trampoline, take the sea
doo speedster out for a rip (180 hp in an 8 foot boat) and play
volleyball. On saturday, a band shows up that was playing the jazzfest,
and they set up on the porch. There was 100 people there. for sure. it
was a music fest. The next morning we returned 670 beer bottles (we
broke 1000 before we left). So they have a section of land next to the
cottage that they own. They said i can build a tree city on it. I
started right away. I went to a house dopwn the road that had burned
down, gathered a lot of lumber, and started building. Wed. I get a call
from aric in ottawa telling me im supposed to be going on a 4 day
whiewater canoe trip in la veryendre park, que, near charlies cottage.
Shit. But of course, theres a ride leaving to ottawa right theen and
there. I hop in, leaving most of my stuff at the cottage. i get to
ottawa, and don't even have time to pee before im off to quebec. # hrs
north and im in a cottage entirely hand built from logs. Charlies uncle
built it when he was 16. We get ready for the canoe trip and head outthe
next morn. We're on a lake, one of many, when the heavens split wide
open. We canoe for 2 hrs in a huge circle in pouring rain. everything's
soaked. we camp, regroup, and continue the next morn. get to the
carbonga dam, which is open. get on the river, and start hitting the
rapids. The water flow is wide open, the water level 4 feet higher than
normal. The rapids are massive. Haystacks 14 feet high. hydraulics
everywhere waiting to pin you down and drown you. We hit about half the
rapids, flip a few times. I almost had a close call when my life jacket
got caught on the seat and held me under, i had to take a breath under
the canoe as we floated down the 500 meter long rapids, and i pulled the
life jacket off over my head. Now im half sinking hitting all the rocks.
i survived, grabbed a tree overhanging the river. Charlie went a bit
further. The canoe (thankfully) got caught at the top of the next set of
rapids. It was all dented. We played in the rapids the next day,
challenging the hardest and biggest. that was awesome. I have pics, you'll
see em one day if you want to.
so that went on for 4 days, and then i came back to ottawa. Played poker
last night, then slept in a bed after eating real food. now i have to
write this email so people know im alive, and i have to go back to
geoffs cottage to build my tree city. First i have to find my gst cheque....
ok guys, i know it was long, but shit.
had to be said.
Im outs, my fingers and back hurt.
peace all
and seriously, i send out over 200 emails to friends, and i get 5
responses, 2 from my dad.
Just hit me back with a hey if you're not too busy.....hahahahahahahaha
shhhiiiittttt
Love, chaos, life
Shawn
“Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit�
Activism without chaos? or Chaos without activism?
'The problem with today's youth is not that our fathers don't believe in us, but that we do not believe in our fathers.' - Me.
.
