Wow. Our days go by in the blink of an eye. Now that the sun stays up till later, I get disoriented about what time it is. I love sunlight and feel the most alive during the day. My way of reasoning this semester was that if the sun was out, I was out. I had no curtains in my bedroom and would wake up as soon as the light was shining in through my window. I spent a lot of time outdoors (cycling, climbing, running, hanging out) and enjoyed life. So now that the days last for so long, I am having a hard time adjusting to going to bed early.

It is already past midnight and I am ready to go to bed, but I figured I would quickly tell you about my day before calling it a night.

Today we all slept in until around 11am, when lights officially came back on. I had already been awake since 10am, but stayed inside my sleeping bag til 10:40 when I decided to go to the cafeteria for breakfast. Many of my teammates were already enjoying the first meal of the day. Chris, our host, was there this morning along with Jackie, who was in charge of getting the food for the team ready. Thank you so much for all the time and effort you put into making the sandwiches, the banana bread, and burgers. You are amazing!

After breakfast coffee, pastries and fruit we all just chilled for a while before the two tours for the day took off. I was in the Bike Shop Tour with Brian, Ben Baron, Jan, Emily, Susan Linn, Jeff, and Andrew. Our first stop was The Bike Shop, in downtown Calgary. The shop was sweet! They had lots of cool cycling gear and parts, plus really friendly staff. The next stop was to a outdoor gear store and the staff at The Bike Shop suggested that we walk a couple of blocks to Mountain Equipment Coop (MEC.) This store was huge and sort of reminded me of REI, except that it was bigger and everything was organized into sections. I was thrilled when I saw that the women’s apparel section had three full racks of climbing apparel. I know it sounds crazy, but I get excited anytime I go shopping to REI. I pretty much always have to hold back on not buying lots of cool thinks I really do not need. At the MEC was just the same, except that I am limited by the size of my already overstuffed bag so I only got some essentials. We ate lunch at a cute café downtown and then took a nap on the grassy area in a park. It felt great to just relax and lay down. We headed back to the Hunting offices for dinner at around 5pm.

I had a chance to chat with Jackie for a while; she is a really nice lady. I am moved by people’s generosity on this trip. I am learning from them to give without expecting anything in return. I am also learning to receive and to be thankful for everything. Life has its ways of working and I believe that everything happens for a reason. The key is to be grateful and try to see the positive side of things.

Dinner was fantastic: burgers, hotdogs and homemade dessert fruit pizza. We all ate together and joked around in the cafeteria. After dinner we all scattered around the office floor; people worked on bikes, others were reading and journaling, packing bags, watching The Emperor's New Groove, and eating treats from care packages. Thaison was on Skype and we had a chance to video chat with some of the folks from Sierras. I miss you all and am SO happy to hear that you are doing well. It really made me smile to see all of your faces and to hear your voices. Cannot wait to see you in Whitehorse. Ride strong.

Ok. It is now definitively time for bed. We probably will not have Internet access for a while since we are heading into the boonies. Tomorrow we cycle into Banff and will stay in that area for three days. They say that the best is yet to come, and will keep getting better all the way till Anchorage.