About Snakes (& Lattes), Brown Dogs and a Tarantula called Timmie!

There is a sunrise and sunset every day and you can choose to be there for it. 

You can put yourself in the way of beauty ~ Cheryl Strayed

Hi peeps,

Another week has passed and I'm about to leave this amazing city to go on my crazy adventure out West. Scary as shit, but I choose to put myself in the way of beauty. 

The past week has been filled with some more renovations, (dinner-)parties and lots of "wildlife-encounters"! Let me give you a "quick" update.

Well actually... you'd better sit down, because this might take a while.. ;). As I started writing I treated myself to a nice big cookie: Tim Hortons' new!! "Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Filling"-Cookie so to say. Basically a heart attack in a cookie, but good..very good. #sorrynotsosorry

Kait and I decided we would take turns in painting the doors. I'd do the first coat and Kait the second. So when I  finished my share on Wednesday night, while Kait was at the Leafs game in Toronto, Kait got to do hers on Thursday, while I sat on my bum and watched season 4 of Gilmore Girls (update 20-01-2015: just starting episode 1 of season 5. Gosh.. didn't know there were so many episodes in this series!). On Saturday we started doing the floors in the bedroom. While working Zach, Steve, Bryan, Kait and I each wrote a surprise message, to whomever will take out this floor in the future, on the underlay. Hopefully they will not get scared by the big arrow pointing to the vent saying "Timmie lives here. Be careful!" and the message on the other side of the vent saying "Timmie the Tarantula". Haha. Renovation-humor kicked in!  

 On Friday night Kait and I drove to Toronto together, but we each had separate plans for the evening. I dropped Kait of at Bryan's work and they went for dinner + drinks with their friends. I took Kait's car and drove into the city to meet Nate, Emma, Brianne and Denis at La Carnita for taaacoooossss! So I got to drive in Toronto.. in DOWNTOWN TORONTO! *in serious need of a stressed-out emoticon* Driving in downtown Toronto is a serious business. Read: cars everywhere, innumerable one-way streets, bikers and street cars passing left and right. But driving in downtown Toronto on a Friday night, in the dark, while it's raining, is a nightmare! But I made it AND I got free parking (Thanks Nate!). So..the food was amazing and definitely worth the wait. Big shout-out to Nate for taking me there and forever ruining me for other taco-restaurants. After dinner we made our way to Snakes & Lattes, a board game cafe. We managed to get a table and were introduced to the game 'Cash'N Guns' by one of the gurus: "In an abandoned warehouse a gangster band is splitting its loot, but they can’t get an agreement on the split! It’s time to let the guns talk and soon everyone is aiming at everyone. The richest surviving gangster wins the game!". At first it felt a bit awkward to be pointing a gun (a plastic-foam gun, but still..) at each other, but soon the greediness takes over and "Click!"'s and "Bang!"'s start flying around. A game of 'Loonacy' never hurt anyone either, so we played a few rounds before heading home. #lovinglife <3

After we finished the floors on Saturday we went over to the Hammel-house for a little 'goodbye'-party, since it was my last weekend in Hamilton. The party was held at the "Dragon's End", a bar in the basement of Kait's parent's house. Steve, Kait's dad, made this bar himself and did an amazing job. An real piece of art, decorated with a dragon's tail on the bottom of the staircase. The party was so much fun! Steve made us an Irish Ginger cocktail, because it was orange thus Dutch, the place was decorated with an orange flag and clogs, and on the bar was a bowl of muntdrop and autodrop. I'm so grateful for having met these amazing people. <3 Kait and I improvised on 'Appeltaart'-shots and I think we nailed it. Steve, Elisabeth, Zach, Jamie, Caleb and Brooke, thanks a million for having me at this party. You are one crazy family (in the best possible way!). <3

After a very welcome sleep-in on Sunday I headed for the climbing gym, where I was going to meet my friend Julia for my first Canadian climbing sesh! Ieeekkkssss.... After a short belay-test we were good to go(@Tos, hier is het gekke knoopje verplicht ;)). Allez-up! The grading system for climbing is different in Canada compared to the one we use in the Netherlands and it confused me at first. This resulted in me doing my warm-up at my top-comfort climbing grade (5b for you climbers out there ;)). Uh-ooh! The set-up in the gym is somewhat different to what I'm used to as well. Every rope in this gym has only 1 route. The boundaries of the route are tapped with black duct tape and you are allowed to use every grip and step within those boundaries.. thus no 'purple'-route or 'blue'-route. Also there are no clips to keep you from swinging all the way through the gym when resting or falling out of a route in overhang.. very unfortunate to say the least ;). Jules and I had an amazing time trying out routes and getting frustrated with our climbing abilities. In the end I managed to climb a grueling 5.9 (5c French grading), but it wasn't pretty. I was however very pleased with the vibe in the gym and the super friendly and supportive people I got to meet there. If the gym in Canmore is anything like this one, it is going to be a blast. Thanks Jules for the fun afternoon!! <3

I also got to hang out with my fav Aussie-Canadian, Audra! I met this cutie six years ago in the McMaster lab and am so glad we got to meet again during this visit. Audra has been working her ass of the past four years at vet-school in Melbourne, Australia and recently graduated. I'm so so proud of her. She'll be practicing as a vet in Vietnam and Thailand for the next 5 months. So exciting. Looks like we both set a huge challenge for ourselves. Last Tuesday we watched the movie 'Wild' together, to boost our confidence and get inspired by a power-woman, and treated ourselves to a yummy salad (much needed after donuts, mexican food and drinks ;)).. You'll do great, Audge! Just be your amazing self! <3

The yummy salad! (Recipe by Lisette Kreitscher (Plant Power))

Last, but certainly not least, I would like to give a big shout-out to Brown Dog Coffee Shoppe on Locke Street South. If you ever find yourself in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada you should definitely stop by for a Latte and one (or more) of their apple fritters. LEGEN..wait for it.. DARY! A big plus is their super friendly staff and gorgeous venue. Thanks Nicole & Joey for teaching me some skills!!! #Hotspot #Mustvisit 

Photo-creds Brown Dog Facebook-page

 I'm heading out now. Packing my bags for my flight to Calgary tomorrow. 

Talk soon <3!