wordpress... again.

okay okay, I know I've done this a million times, but I think I have finally achieved blog equilibrium. Audio and regular adventures can now be found in one place, and that place is natashaduchene.wordpress.com. seriously.

hitchhiking across Canada and new adventures

David and I have returned after hitchhiking from Vancouver to Montreal, and the trip was amazing. This country is so varied in culture and landscape, it's crazy. From the Gulf Islands, the desert in British Columbia, the Rocky Mountains and the prairies... it was just so incredible to watch this continent shift and change as we moved east.

We camped in the mountains on closed-off roads, next to the train tracks and truck stops, even in someone's backyard once by accident. For the most part people were kind and generous, one young guy working in the oil fields bought us a steak lunch, others offered to stop and let us take photos when we drove next to something especially beautiful, and we even got picked up by a family from Barcelona in their motor home! We got to see some old friends along the way, such as James, who took us to Drumheller and the dinosaur museum, and Alison, a girl I did an exchange program with in high school, and partied it up some old high school friends in Ottawa for a couple of nights on the way home.

Now that I am home my years of repressed wanderlust have blossomed into all-out recklessness, and I am saying goodbye to my beloved apartment in one month to go on a roadtrip through the deep south to the desert of southern California with a dear friend. When I return, well, we will see what happens.

Anyhoo, here are a bunch of photos from the trip. David took a lot of them. Mostly I got video though. Someday I am going to do something with it all and then I will post it here.



Ukelele in Whistler, BC



best fish and chips at Hungry Herbie's Drive In.



Setting up camp at Cache Creek, BC.



Plant life in the desert.



Leaving Cache Creek.



Weird water reserve thing just above our campsite in Sicamous. Our site was so awesome that we stayed two nights, roasted marshmallows and hot dogs on the fire, and got caught up with y'all at the local internet cafe.




Leaving Revelstoke for uh, Banff.



View from our campsite at Field, BC. It was kind of an undeveloped spot next to a road and the train tracks.



Field again.



Horseshoe Canyon just outside Drumheller, AB



Dinosaur Museum! can you believe they found most of those bones in the very place we were walking on? incredible.



near the legislature in Regina.



Salt flats.



Camping in Medicine Hat. we saw Dark Knight the night before a short walk away.



Camping in Sault St-Marie, outside Walmart. it was glamorous, let me tell you.



drunkenly singing along with the Streets of Fire soundtrack in Ottawa with Mark and Aubrey. someday the video of this will appear on youtube and we will become famous.

old friends and new adventures

I arrived at Robin's boat long after everyone else had left and found her asleep with the light on in a pile of maps. After tapping on the window a few times to no avail, I hopped aboard, bottle of wine in hand, and just as I reached to knock on the door it opened up and a bewildered head popped out, a little sleepy but full of smiles nonetheless.

Robin was my flatmate in first year, an adventurous spirit with an incredible sense of humor. She purchased a sailboat this summer and a few weeks ago bid apartment life farewell and has been living it up on the high seas ever since.

We polished up the wine below deck, telling stories and catching up after far too many years in our separate cities. I stumbled home at 1am wondering how I could be so lucky to have such wonderful people and experiences in my life.

Today David and I pack our bags and get ready for our grand adventure across the country. Tomorrow we are going to take the bus to Horseshoe Bay, hitchhike to either Pemberton or Whister depending, then camp out someplace beautiful. I am bringing my camera with me along the way, and hope to make a small mini-documentary about the trip upon returning to Montreal.

Vancouver

I'm in Vancouver for ten days, visiting friends, family, and the boy before we take off across the country. The city itself feels kind of like a new house - beautiful, but doesn't have the warmth of a city with a lot of history. The landscape, on the other hand, feels old and powerful. It's pretty incredible. I keep staring at the mountains in disbelief.

I've been reconnecting with old friends - people I have not seen in years but that it feels like we haven't skipped a beat, going for bike rides, and today I went to the aquarium with my brother and sister-in-law. It is great to be here, and I will have to come back again soon.

Multitasking

Time and time again I find myself with this feeling that there are all these people that expect so much from me, both socially and professionally, and I just say yes and yes and yes and then freak out, when probably a lot of those expectations were all in my head from the beginning.

Nova Scotia life

I'm in Nova Scotia, living a good life of music, theatre, friends, nature, family. In other words, there's pretty much everything I need to be happy here, though I do find myself missing the independence of living alone. Here are some photos of my recent adventures:

My first day here, Mom, Dad and I took the dog to Graves Island for a swim in the ocean.





The yard is very beautiful at this time of year.





Hiking with the dog near Castle Rock.





Canoing at Matt's Dad's place, there are baby ducks!



Life is quite lovely right now. Lots and lots of work to do though in between all the nature stuff though. Time to get practicing!

My hometown on a Tuesday night

Walking home in my hometown at 10pm, I'm taken aback by the sound of my own footsteps and breathing. I realize it's not the silence I'd missed so much as the quiet sounds I got used to not hearing.

Rainstorm

Sitting on the bus to Ottawa, listening to music while the people around me read or talk to friends, we drive through Ontario farmlands that stretch out for miles and as the light fades away a heavy mist starts to turn to rain. Suddenly the sky opens up, and fork lightning flashes ahead, and one by one we disengage - I take off my headphones and suddenly we are together in this small vehicle, sheltered and passing cars on the highway, the quiet murmur of people talking to one another and the rain pounding on us from overhead.

Quitting School and Living in the Moment

Next Saturday I take off for Nova Scotia, where I will be music directing for a small children's music production. I still have a lot of music to learn, but I'm getting to a point where I at least know what songs to prioritize and that is really the most important thing anyway. Then I will drive back to Montreal with two close friends, stuck together on the bench of a U-Haul, get my braces tightened before I head to Toronto to catch my flight to Vancouver. There I will see some of my most favorite people, some of whom I have not seen in years, who I have no idea who they are anymore and who have no idea who I am, but who somehow we know we have lots to talk about still. David and I will be temporarily reunited, will pack up our bags with a few clothes, a tent, and some sleeping bags, and start thumbing it across the country. Oh glorious life.

I'm so much happier since I decided to quit school take some time off school. I feel like for years I've been focusing on the light at the end of the tunnel, pushing and pushing, keeping my eye on the goal, for better or for worse. I couldn't live in the moment because it was too painful. But then suddenly I met someone who was leaving and I didn't have the future anymore, only right now. And although I always kind of knew this was no way to be living, it kind of hit me hard then. And as I settled in to enjoying my life as it is now, the more obvious it became that I needed to make some changes if I really wanted to make the best of it. Now it feels like suddenly I've turned the light on and there was actually no tunnel at all, just a vast expanse of possibilities.

I said goodbye to David yesterday, as he walked through security to his flight to Vancouver. It's been a long time since I've been in any non-long-distance relationship and I've gotta say it's been quite the learning experience. Totally worth the effort though. It was a heartfelt goodbye and I miss him already.

I haven't had a computer at home for the past month or so, so I am vastly out of date with lots of things internet-related. That said, I'm kind of enjoying it, and I think I may go scrape my facebook list for every email address I might need in the next 20 years and then shut it down for good. I was kind of hanging on to it because every once in awhile I get in touch with someone I've been wanting to get back in touch with, but seriously, I have a hard enough time living in the present without getting messages for a million events I don't care to attend and already feel overwhelmed trying to make time for everyone in my very scattered network in Montreal (I should really have a big party so you can all become friends. ok? ok!). So yeah, Facebook's gonna go, in the name of living in the present and wanting to give more attention to the people that are most important to me.

Some of the things I've wanted to blog about during this time but haven't:

- hitchhiking to Gaspe. People were amazingly kind and we even got picked up by a guy who knows my uncle! We camped alongside the highway the first night and then beside the Fleuve at the Sea Shack in Ste-Anne des Monts. photos below.

- Wine and Keys with Wai-Yant. Yuval donated his loft for an evening and we had a small intimate show with our best friends. warm fuzzies all around and I love you all dearly.

- listening to lots of Wormwood. I decided awhile back I wanted to start podcasting so I went on a hunt for the best stuff out there. This is my best find so far. It's so good it's making me think twice about doing it myself... but come on, of course I will.

Photos from the trip to Gaspé!


taking the ferry to Levis from Quebec City


sunset a ways outside Quebec City


stopping for lunch alongside a river


more river




making friends along the way


camping spot outside Ste-Anne des Monts


wind energy along the peninsula. people actually complain about having these things in sight, if you can believe it.

Breakdancing, Introversion

I started taking breakdancing again in January, and it's been awesome. A couple of weeks ago I started Break 2, right after finals and while I tried to find time to get my bike fixed. In other words, I was OUT. OF. SHAPE.

So after missing the first class (again, finals) I went last week, and they worked us pretty damn hard. Then I saw the boy right after.

Me: Oh man, break 2 is AWESOME!!
David: OMG, you're walking with a limp!

haha yeah. So um, methinks it might not be a bad idea to start doing some stretches/strength training every day from now on.

Also, I suck at relationships. I have just been alone too long I think. It's been years that I've been doing all of my favorite things alone, and now I find that relaxing and lets me really let go. Sure, once in awhile I'll invite a friend along, but to really let someone in? frig, it sounds dumb but I have no idea how. Maybe this is okay? though I suspect it's less fulfilling in the long run.

first small adventure

David and I did our first traveling excursion together last weekend, just a hop, skip and a jump from Montreal to Toronto. We thought about thumbing it there, but it was raining and miserable and we got off to a late start, so we opted instead to take the bus.

We left on Monday morning, and it was a beautiful sunny day. In case you're ever thinking about doing the trip, the way to get out of town is to take the subway to Scarborough Center and go under McCowan to the 401 on-ramp. We tried a few spots around and it really was the best. We got two lifts and were home by the evening.



Well that's been the main thing in the last little while. Besides that life is pretty darned good. I finished my semester finally, and am just finishing up a contract for my dad. I am really looking forward to having some time to work on music for me, and am saving up for a ukulele before David and I go across Canada at the end of the summer. Maybe I'll even post some songs up here.

summer plans

I decided awhile back that instead of going back to school and being broke and unhealthily busy for another year that I would take next year off, travel and enjoy Montreal, and work on music projects that have nothing to do with school. Unfortunately life keeps throwing obstacles my way to make finishing this semester more and more difficult - things like strep throat and broken laptops and half my RAM suddenly not working. It's getting kind of ridiculous, and there is only a week left to get everything done.

Meanwhile, I just can't wait for it to be over. I have very little planned for the month of May, and I look forward to having some time for adventures, music, and lying in the sunshine. Full-time work starts in June, then head to Nova Scotia for a month to do some music directing. Finally, I have a one-way ticket to Vancouver at the end of the summer, culminating with a cross-country tour with my boyfriend before he moves to London in the fall.

It should be an interesting few months. Just gotta keep pushing and make this semester mean something.

hello again.

This used to be my audio blog, where I wrote about serious nerd things and talked about the creative process and music-making in general. That is now at natashaduchene.wordpress.com. Here is where I will write about what I'm actually doing in real life, plus maybe a little introspective commentary from time to time.