Monthly Update: August 2015

Another crazy month for me, what with travelling around a couple of places in Canada and the US and settling into life in Toronto. Lots of moving, lots of boxes and lots of purchases causing a strain on the purse. It’s kind of hard to believe we’ve done so much in August.

Brunching has increased rapidly since the Toronto move

Where I’ve Been:

Montreal – Canada
Boston – USA
Toronto – Canada

Highlights of the Month:

Spending time in Boston

Weirdly, it took me a while to love Boston, but now I’m always so excited to visit. It’s nice to have a place abroad that feels familiar and comfortable; I know what I’m getting with Boston and I’ve fully embraced the city. I was able to do some of my favourite things again, like kayaking on the Charles River and walking through Beacon Hill. I have noticed I haven’t got that many blog posts on the city though, so I’ll make sure to put together a few guides.

We got an apartment!

And it was our first choice! It’s a tiny one-bedroom, but has an incredible view over Toronto and partially the lake, just a couple minutes’ walk from St Lawrence Market, one of Toronto’s biggest attractions. It’s full of local produce and has a farmer’s market, so I’m excited to go shopping there each weekend.

Celebrating the new downtown abode

Street art tour in Toronto

This will be a full blog post, so keep your eyes peeled, but I wanted to mention how fun this tour was. Toronto is a very walkable city which doesn’t have many specific, obvious “landmarks”. It’s more of a vibe, a place where you just have to explore to find the fun things. Its street art is a great example of this, and Toronto has some great artists. See my Instagram pick below to get a taster.

Lowlights of the Month:

Living amongst boxes sucks

I’ve always known that my mood very much relies on the atmosphere around me, but this has been the bluntest reminder yet. First moving in to the new apartment, we were living out of suitcases, had no actual bed frame but IKEA packages everywhere, then my boyfriend’s stuff from Boston arrived in the truck… everything around me was brown paper, and I hated it. Wasn’t getting a new apartment meant to mean I could immediately decorate it how I wanted and feel at home in a nice tidy space?

It’s not actually that different now, apart from assembling all but two chairs from IKEA, and we still don’t have a sofa. But I’ve got used to it, and we have clothes in wardrobes and drawers, which makes me much happier.

Most Popular Instagram:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kirsten Powley (@kirstovertheworld)

My Instagram Pick:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kirsten Powley (@kirstovertheworld)

What I’ve Been Writing:

Even my dad noticed it’s been quiet on the blog front lately, but I guess that’s what furnishing an apartment and a full time job does… things will be a tad calmer soon!

Monthly Update: July 2015 – because reading August’s post will make more sense if you read July’s too.

Why I was disappointed with Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica – because you can’t fall in love with everywhere.

7 Things I learned on my first solo travel trip – because as cliche as it sounds, life is about learning lessons and what’s better than sharing those?

My love for Bocas del Toro – because when you do fall in love with a place, it’s something to shout about.

Instagramming Panama – because quite frankly, I’m an Instagram addict.

Photo Diary through Norway’s fjords – because yay! I finally started on the Norway posts, and it’s reminding me just how freakin’ beautiful this country is.

What I’ve Been Reading:

Jayne’s posts on Girl Tweets World about living abroad in Australia have been a bit of a stress/rant relief for me at the moment. I’ve only been living in Canada for just over a month now, but I think that’s the time you start to realise what’s different about your new adopted home to your original one without the rose-tinted glasses. It’s the moments where things like banking, shop and food availability and tv that you know will play an everyday part of your life start to set in as “oh, I actually have to get used to this” and “hey, this is inconveniently different from the UK…”.

Anyway, Jayne’s written 8 Things that Confuse me about Australia (something I will be taking inspiration from for an upcoming version for Canada) and 12 Things I Unexpectedly Miss about the UK.

I’ve been having a think about the things that influence my happiness lately, and this Huffington Post article is a nice read. It pinpoints things you can do to feel more peaceful, which in my new surroundings and sudden urge to get everything I want to achieve moving swiftly, I could do with remembering some of this.

I’ve also started on a book my sister lent me, called Untold Story. It’s a fictional story (or is it…?) imagining Princess Diana to have faked her death and her life elsewhere. I’m no obsessive about the royals, but I find the idea fascinating and interested to see what author Monica Ali comes up with.

What’s Next?

We’re finally starting to get more organised with the apartment (I say finally, but we only moved in within the last week or so!) and able to plan a few local trips around Toronto and Ontario. We can’t take any big ones at the moment as furnishing an apartment doesn’t come cheap so we’ve got to focus on saving – we definitely have ideas though. Probably an average of 2 or 3 times a day I text the boyfriend with a new destination that is so close to us. Still getting used to my new geographical status!

Otherwise, you’ll be seeing a lot of Toronto posts coming up as we essentially eat our way around the city. I would never call myself a foodie but there’s no denying that food (and a lot of it) makes me a very happy girl!