Old friends.

One of my old friends is in town for a visit! I met Jilly in my first year of undergrad. She lived at the end of the hall and shared a room with Megan. It feels a little crazy to talk about people I met in University as old friends. I mean, I've only been finished with university for a week, but I suppose my university years have composed a little over a quarter of my entire life.

Emily picked Jill up at Pearson Airport on her way through Toronto from Belleville. They arrived at the house a little after 5:00 with a tonne of food. To say the least, dinner was fantastic. I made turkey burgers and coleslaw. The girls picked up buns at the Hasty Mart (only real option on the long weekend without going too far out of the way) and Jill had purchased two fancy burger toppings somewhere during her travels. I cut up tomatoes and red onion and Em brought corn on the cob. We had appetizers too, my feta chili pepper spread, smoked salmon from the West Coast, and crackers. I had brewed up some lemon iced tea and we just sat in the side yard, enjoyed the lovely evening, and Andrew (the man) BBQ-ed. Dessert turned out to be an event on its own. Em had baked blueberry shortbread crumble squares, Andrew provided the fully loaded ice cream, Jill brought stroopwafels, and I had made a fresh Ontario fruit salad with peaches, plums, and cherries.

After dinner we came inside and sat around on camping chairs and the two livingroom chairs. Everyone helped me make some wardrobe choices for my trip. I think we made good decisions. Jill says I'm ruthless when it comes to packing. It's true, my pack is probably only 3/4 of the way full including boots, work clothes, sleeping bag, and everything else required for four months on the road. Good thing because I'm sure I'll have a few treats to bring back at Christmas time :)

Now that Jill is here, the fact that I'm heading to the other side of the world is sort of sinking in a little more. I'm stopping to spend a few days at her house on Vancouver Island first. This will help with the jet lag too. And, I'll have seen both sides of this huge country in only one summer. In the next few days I definitely need to give a recap of my time in Kingston and Halifax at the conferences too.