BIG NEWS

It’s the talk of the town but I’ll say it again in case you haven't heard–YA GIRL IS LEGAL! That is to say, my application for Permanent Residence in Canada has been approved and I have the official card (complete with garbage-looking mugshot) to prove it. 

This means I can now leave the country without fear that they won’t let me back in…SO I’M MAKING A RUN FOR IT! I do have to be a little conservative in my travel for a bit–in order to maintain residence status (and qualify for health insurance) in my province, I cannot be out of BC for more than 30 days in the next six months. I’ll have less travel restrictions starting in September, which is about when the good climbing season starts in the southern and eastern US anyway (and there's also my birthday! Anyone keen on hauling me up 31 pitches this year??). I’m hoping for cheap plane tickets (possibly a pipe dream given the current state of things), good weather, and for all of you to spend your vacation days on trips with me (or to quit your jobs like I’ve been saying you should). 

I didn’t expect to receive my PR card for another few months, so both Jamie and I have made commitments that will keep us in Vancouver until the end of April; but, Lord willing, I will be making my rounds to see you all beginning in May–meaning you better make some room in your schedules because FLIGHTS ARE BOOKED. 

First stop: New York City, with a side trip to Rumney, NH for those sweet, sweet mountains. Look out for me May 4-14, and then again May 19-22 (booking flights is a complicated business)! I’m going to need to borrow someone’s (more like several someones’) crash pads because I am taking some revenge on The Polish Traverse this year. 

And then to the motherland–I’ll be in Florida from May 14-19 for some sun, the best Korean food in the Western Hemisphere (and maybe the Eastern one, too), and to finally introduce Jamie to some very important people (no pressure). 

I am beyond excited (to the point of stress) for this trip! I'll obviously be reaching out to everyone make plans, but also hit me up if you want to hang!

If I’m not coming by your corner of the world on this go, fret not! The year is young, and I have not forgotten you. 

Less Big News

Some highlights since my last post:

• Celebrated Lunar New Year with a rainy camp stove ramen-making party with my Girl Guides unit in the day and a dumpling-making party with some friends in the evening. May your Year of the Tiger be filled with the confidence and bravery to try new things and be the cool cats you already are.

• We’ve been blessed with TWO whole dry days and warm-enough temperatures to go climbing outdoors! I led my second-ever trad climb (a breezy 5.4 broken crack) and took my first whips of the season on a 10d. It was cold and I’m rusty but it made me realize just how much I’ve missed going out–like I've recovered something lost and I feel a little more whole again. It always seems dumb to talk about how much fuller and happier this inane sport has made my life, but then I think, how could it be any other way?

• Speaking of blessings, Jamie’s birthday was spent in the company of dear friends and deep snow in Montreal. Though I would not recommend flying in a mask (I wore an N95 (read: actually functional) mask for the first time and, not to justify the stupid protests and everything else, but I can kind of see why people were complaining about it), it was a small price to pay to be able to spend a week with the crew playing Bananagrams and charades in our cushy AirBnb, cooking and sharing meals, and feeling at home in a climbing gym. I hadn’t seen these folks in something like 8 months, and I had been worried that maybe something would have changed between us and things would be weird; but in the end, it felt like I had never left in the first place. Thank you for jumping through the many international hoops to make it happen.

• As of three days ago, we don’t have to wear masks at the gym (or in most public indoor spaces) anymore!(?!?!?) The lifting of the mandate happened really suddenly, so a part of me still feels a bit weird about it. Did that stop me from immediately going to the parkour gym? Obviously not. Despite the strangeness (nobody looks like I thought they did, so much so that I had a lot of trouble recognizing people I have been seeing weekly for half a year), I was surprised how happy it made me to see everyone’s face-bottoms (thank you, Nikhil, for the awful, yet perfectly descriptive, terminology). Also surprising was how many people have been hiding secret mustaches and facial piercings under their masks.

• Otherwise, it’s been the same old schedule of training/rehab, cooking, reading, learning, juggling, Girl Guides, and trying to roll the knots out of my leg muscles. I’ve also been trying to sort out the last details of immigration (why is it so complicated to get a driver’s license here), which includes…getting a job *bum bum bummmm*. More on that to come, but don’t worry, I'll still leave plenty of time for adventuring.

See you soon! 

XOXO