It’s such a joy to be with my friends in Olympia again. The last time I was here it was Spring and we played a lot outside. Now it’s winter and we spend the time inside. Eva, one of the children has the great idea to bake Christmas cookies. First we go to the store to do some groceries and then we go for a short walk in a park with a big waterfall. The weather here is about the same as in Vancouver, a bit of sunshine in between the rain showers. Angie, the mom of the family, explains me that the art is to imagine that it’s not raining. Apparently that’s what most people do here. Rain or no rain, they go out for hiking. Most of the time during our short walk by the river it’s dry and we enjoy some time outside before we go back home again.
Eva and I go to the kitchen to start making the dough, while the rest of the family is in the living room watching a movie. It’s a great Christmas Day, even though it’s not Christmas yet. In the afternoon the family has a surprise for me: they bought me Christmas gifts. I feel so spoiled and blessed. The children ask if I can’t stay longer, but my next flight is already booked and of course I’m also looking forward to see my grandparents again. If it wasn’t for them I probably would have stayed here longer. I think I’m very blessed to have great friends and family. The cookies are delicious and we eat a lot of them. We also watch the second Home Alone movie before we go to bed.
Monday morning Angie is already in the living room as I wake up, watching Downtown Abbey. I join her until she’s going to work. Then I FaceTime with a friend back home, it’s nice to catch up with each other. We talk about Vancouver and I realize that I don’t feel so much like going back there. If it wasn’t for a friend visiting me in January, I might have changed my plans. The other day I played with thoughts about going to California instead, because I’m so fed up with the rain and I heard it will keep raining almost daily in Vancouver until spring. That’s something I underestimated before I came here. The coming days I’ll think about what plans I’ll make for the the first months of the new year.
Today I don’t think about it anymore. I spend the whole day with the kids. We play a board game, watch some tv and go for a walk outside when the sun shines. One of their neighbours have Alpaca’s in their back yard. It’s fun to watch them. We play football in the front yard, do some groceries and play more games. Sooner than we like it, it’s the end of the afternoon and time to say goodbye. My friend Darin drives me to the train station and we say goodbye. When I go to the checkin counter, the guy tells me that the train is about two hours delayed and that I can better take a bus. That’s a bummer, but I’m happy that I planned to go to the airport already tonight instead of tomorrow morning, so I don’t need to worry about missing my flight. I have learned that public transport in Canada and America is not very reliable and I understand why almost everyone here owns a car. While waiting at the bus I’m a bit bummed that I could have spend more time with my friends, but I’m planning to visit them again on this trip. The last few days were amazing and I enjoyed every second of it. Now it’s time to travel further, even though I would have loved to stay here longer.
