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ZOMGZZZZZ HIII LONG LOST FRIENDZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!! ZOOOOOOO0000mMMMGGggzzzZ!

Ahem. Deep breaths, Lexy. Channel your inner-civilized citizen. Please. PLEASE.

Ahem. So.

I've got a SURPRISE FOR YOU! How exciting! I wanted it to be a surprise, but I'm afraid I've potentially already given it away. "Why?" you ask, "What could you have possibly given away?"

Well, long lost friends, I'll give you a second to think about that. Dig into your inner Nancy Drew-abilities.  Dig deep.

Ho. Hum. Tick. Tock.

Hum. Ho. Tock. Tick.

Tick. Tock. Ho Hum.

BAM!

You got it! (Maybe.) My surprise is, "I AM BACK!" (This is the awkward moment when nobody even reads this post and I'm talking to long, lost, imaginary friends, and I'll end up just wallowing in the sadness of my interwebz lonerdome and eating copious amounts of cheetos and chocolate chips to compensate for my lack of real or virtual friendzzz. Or something. If you're reading this, please! Do show your existence so I can prevent obesity and heart attacks and stuff.)  (Pff, who am I kidding? I'm still going to eat copious amounts of cheetos and chocolate chips and become obese and have a heart attack. #goyoungandhavinggoodmetabilismfornowdundundun)

But yes. It is true. I am home. After five and a half months. I am home. And it feels good. Real good. But also weird. Real, real weird.

In fact, I foresaw this post being miles and miles long because, hey! I've been gone for over five months! Seeing the world! I should be glabbering and jabbering and chitting and chatting! But, the thing is, it's all very weird. How do you summarize five months of adventures? Of experiences? Where do you even start?

I guess I'll try.

Over the past five and a half months, I've been taking major advantage my hard-earned minimum wage money (holllaaaa, forever 21!!!) and wandering the earth. The original plan was to be away for four months. But I just loved the world so much, I stayed an extra month and a half. (I'm really into the "going with my heart" thing.) I spent four months in the glorious country of Morocco - I spent three months volunteering with disabled kids and another month living in a village. Met amazing people and traveled around the beautiful country a lot (in fact, I experienced 17 out of 18 of Lonely Planet's (note: the best guidebook EVER) "Top 18 Experiences." Bam! I rock!) I spent another 6 weeks in Europe (Spain, France, Scotland, England, Ireland), via this amazing thing called couchsurfing (despite my love for fashion blogs, I must say that this site triumphs in awesomeness and earns the title of "the coolest thing about the internet, EVER." If you're into culture and the beauty of humans and life and things, check it out.)

I've basically been seeing beautiful sites. Meeting amazing people. Living incredible experiences. I've watched the sunset over a forest of palm trees on the border of Algeria and Morocco. I've met a 72 year old man who, in his youth, hitch hiked from Egypt to South Africa. I've slept under a party of falling stars amongst an endless sea of 300 meter sand dunes. And so much more. It's amazing. I've been so lucky. So, so lucky.

As I come home, it's time for me to reflect - to let the blur of the past 5 months sink in and maybe translate into something meaningful, something I can carry with me in the pockets of my heart strings. What have I experienced? What have I learned? How have I grown? What life lessons can I pass on to my hypothetical grandchildren?

Prior to leaving, I had no idea what to expect. None. In fact, I was even quite doubtful. In my first few days in Morocco - wandering on the streets in a country totally foreign to my own, hearing voices I couldn't even begin to comprehend, just being totally by myself in a foreign country - I thought to myself, "Why did you come here, Lexy?! Why didn't you just stay in Canada? With your families, your friends, your lovely job? WHY?" But then... that is the beauty. The amazing thing about traveling is the doubt, the unknown. You never know what is to come! Who you might meet! What beautiful things you might stumble upon! It's frightening, but amazing!

I had no idea of what I might encounter, experience. How I might change. I actually had this vision of me stumbling home with dreads and nose piercings and preachings about the world and epiphanies and life direction changes and "THIS is what we need to do, PEOPLE" speeches. And all that jazz. But no. No major epiphanies, no changes in my grand life scheme (whatever that is). Sorry, y'allz!

Rather, I'm coming home with a new collection of stories and memories and little lessons. I'm trying to find ways to articulate them, to translate them into my daily life. Lessons from the importance of saying 'yes,' to the fleeting nature of human connections and the need to cherish them, to the utter deliciousness of tea (who knew?). But I guess the main one is this: LIVE YOUR LIFE. If I'm going to be a person that walks around with dreads and nose piercings and preaching life philosophies (maybe next time!), this would be my mantra. Just live. Yo.

I think the most valuable thing I've gained from the past five months is perspective. Seeing the world is so important because you become exposed to such a diversity of things - so many different people and cultures and experiences and sites... and then you realize that BAM! This - all this diversity - is just a SMIDGEN of the world. Just a wee lil' dot in the ginormous of the world. THERE IS SO MUCH OUT THERE. So much. And we are so LITTLE. So little. And when you equate that - the bigness of the world and the smallness of us - the conclusion is just like, "Well, gee. We're nothings."

It's a crazy thought. But rather than finding it scary, I find it very empowering. Seeing the world - all the different people, as well as just the HUGENESS of it all - makes me realize that I am really nothing and OF COURSE I just have to LIVE MY LIFE. We all do. We have to find the things that we love, the things that makes us illuminated, and do as much as we can to do it as much as we can! We have to try to connect with as many people as possible because life is about sharing and connecting and loving and inspiring! We have to live our lives because life is too damn short and we are just so damn small!

so... LIVE. Go with your gut, your heart. Become illuminated and spread that light, that passion, that joy. See and experience and absorb as much as you can. Open your eyes, your mind, your heart. Do it.

Anyways. I didn't mean to go all Oprah on you guys, but hey! There it is. A mini-essay on the past five and a half months of my life (or something). If you read all that... holla atchyaaaa boiiii! (I don't know what that means, but let's pretend it's a really cool reward and you rock.)

I didn't think I'd come back to this blog, to be honest, but... apparently I really do like you guys? Who knew? Hehe. Plus, now that I'm back in Canada, I've written a bunch of creative endeavors that I plan on endeavoring this summer to prevent boredom from lack-of-traveling/ the-only-thing-I-had-planned-at-home-was-to-get-my-license-and-find-a-job (argh!), and since I have no friends back here (kidding! kind of), I thought I might as well share my summer projects with creatures other than my mom and dog. So yeah! Stay tuned.

Live your life.

AND ENOUGH ABOUT ME. How have YOU been? What is the 411? What has everybody been up to? What is the hot gossip? Tell me everything! What are you guys listening to? What's the cool jams? (Mean Girls reference, wee.) But really. I'm mighty curious to know how all you beautiful people have been up to in 2012 thus far! I love hearing stories! :) What's new in 2012? What has been the most exciting thing? The most unexpected?  The lesson learned?

I really hope that you're all doing brilliantly. I really do! I hope you have a wonderful day! And, yay! I'll see you all soon!

Weee!

Lexy :)

P.S. I know I talked a lot. In case you forgot, or maybe you're just a curious george, this what I look like... 

You know, just casually frolicking amongst the sand dunes in the Sahara... as you do... Side note: I'll potentially post more pictures from this voyage. I'm just currently in the process of sifting through, ahem, 17 000+ photos and dwindling them down into Facebook albums is proving to be challenging enough. But, I'll get them on the blog eventually because, you know, the more of me on the internet, the better? um...

fckh8

1) IFCKNLOVETHIS. These 2 minutes and 19 seconds make me so happy. And they should make you happy too. YAY.

Kind of crazy. I saw this video (same video, different uploader, need to sign in to view, semi-time consuming) about two days after it was first uploaded and it had 12 000 views. Now it's at more than 1.5 million?! Ah, incredible. Spread the love, people!

2) Stumbled on this event on Facebook, and I think it's fantastic. R.I.P. ;; In memory of the recent suicides due to gay abuse, wear purple. Approximately everyone is doing it, so YOU SHOULD TOO. (Not that I'm encouraging peer pressure. I mean, no body is doing it so -- yeah, never mind.) Sadly, I'll be clad in my uniform that day, but maybe I can sneak some bright purple tights to spruce up my gray kilt? Okay, maybe not... In seriousness, I think that all the recent suicides is really tragic. The idea of rejecting different sexual orientations seems so archaic. It's also ridiculous that humans - particularly obnoxious, immature and egotistical high school males (not that I'm irritated or bitter...pfft...) - use terms such as "gay" and "fag" to describe their peers. Do you not know any more adjectives? Are you too incompetent to come up with something better? Or are you just plain ignorant? Yes, I'm trying to guilt trip you.

In conclusion,
DON'T HATE.

(appreciate!)

HAITI.

I know that my blog is usually intended to be fun-loving: a happy little indulgence in your busy day. I had some fruitless thoughts prepared, some edited pictures to share, but those will just wait for a few days.

In my life, I really only have two basic goals:
1) To be successful doing something I love and
2) To help change the world into a better place, at least by a little bit.

Unless your completely ignorant, you must have heard about the Haiti earthquake. This strikes me as a real tragedy. Having done volunteer work in the developing areas of Peru, I can only imagine the magnitude of the effect that a natural disaster could have on such a poor country.


I urge you to do something to help: my family is donating money through the Red Cross and I urge you to do the same. It doesn't have to be a lot. It can even be just $10. Even if you are not going to donate, at least keep these victims in your thoughts. Remember: they are just like you. They have a family to take care of. They require the same basic needs to survive. They just don't have the same privileges as you.


An injured carries his dead daughter after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, January 13, 2010. Source.

I think that it is incredible how the world is all working together to get as much relief as possible for this tragedy. Sometimes, it takes something horrible to bring the world together. We must hope for the best and do our part in trying to help these victims.

Please, take a moment from our materialistic and consumerism lives (I, too, am guilty as charged) to think about this world that seems so far away. Watch the news, make a donation. These are real people. They need help. Our help.

Regular posts will resume this weekend, but I think that it is important to recognize this tragedy in the world.

Share any of your thoughts below. Do not feel obligated to do so; only if you want to.

Is it just me, or do the members of the tech-savvy world (blogosphere, twitter, Facebook) seem as though they were more saddened by the news of Micheal Jackson's and Brittany Murphy's death? While their deaths were undoubtedly sad, this is tens of thousands lives we are talking about. Think about that.