Miette

Drifting from Ocean to Ocean(and Just Trying to Keep Busy)

That’s me! Super cute and super cool rocking that cabbage patch button like a champ. Born to two of the most wonderful people a girl could ask for with a big brother who always looked out for her (well, I mean, at least once we grew out of the young and full of anger stage).

My parents still live in the same house they did when I was born. They’re still married. They still love each other. I’m very, very, very lucky and extremely thankful for the life I was brought up in.

I left Canada the day of my final undergrad exam. I bought a three month greyhound bus pass and spent the summer exploring North America before getting on a plane and moving to Taiwan in 2004.

Taiwan is an amazing and beautiful country full of friendly people and amazing opportunities. It also involves enduring an extreme level of culture shock on arrival. Taiwanese people are ruled largely by the idea of guanxi. Live there for a year and this will be one of the biggest aspects of what it is about the country that hooks into the heart of so many people. Live there for six months and it will be what makes you want to run away as quickly as possible (or just cry into your pillow every night). I experienced both of these emotions HARD. But, I stuck it out for the six months, ended up staying for two years and moved back for another two years in 2011.

I LOVE Taiwan. I’d still be living there today if I hadn’t been deported but that’s a whole other story. It’s an amazing, unique country that fills my heart just thinking about.

Taiwan is also where I met this goof-ball. He was a friend of a friend I met at KTV on New Year’s Eve 2004 (going into 2005). The first time I met him, I thought he was the absolute worst. I ran into him again a few months later at a vegetarian stall in the night market and we sat together since there were no other empty chairs. We went for drinks afterwards and that was that.

He is the center of everything to me, the smartest (most annoying) person I know and my very best friend. I know what my life is like without him and even though he can make me angry in ways that shouldn’t be possible from the person you love, I wouldn’t have it any other way. He’s a keeper.

Painting / Sketching has always been the constant in my life. I paint the places we live. It’s important to me. And it’s something that helps me focus.

In 2013, we did our first long distance walk. We spent two months walking the Shikoku Henro Trail in Japan, a 1400km loop around the island that visits 88 temples. Sound far? It was. Sound painful? Holy moly, it was. Sound amazing? Beyond words. The sticky situation referenced on my first page had just happened at this point. How much did I love Taiwan? Enough that walking 1200km and beating out my aggressions on the road was the fuel that pushed me through it. The ceremony involved with the temples and the peace of falling asleep each night after a long day of walking were the therapy that got my emotions wrapped around a new reality. As much as it broke my heart to leave Taiwan, I wouldn’t change it. So many amazing things (this included) came out of it.

In 2015, we walked the first half of the Te Araroa, a 3000km trail that connects the most Northern point in New Zealand (Cape Reinga) with the most Southern point (Bluff). Due to time constraints, plus the realization that long distance walks are fueled much less efficiently on complete happiness, we only made it as far as Wellington (the end of the North Island section).

It was beautiful and amazing and I hope we make it back to finish the South Island sooner rather than later.

And that’s me.

Just trying to keep busy, drifting from ocean to ocean (and listening to a lot of Radiohead in the process).

In the last 13-ish years, I’ve lived in Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, Belize, Malaysia, and Singapore. The constant in my life has always been teaching. The rest has constantly been changing, sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes as complete and usually painful overhauls.

I started this program through Queen’s as a reaction to a horrific personal situation. I needed to keep busy and I needed something to focus on. I’ve come out on the other side from what started me on this path, and now I’m simply soaking everything up.

Enrolling at Queen’s awoke the lifelong learner in me and has been an amazing experience so far that I am excited to continue with this course.

As I type this, I’m sitting at a coffee shop in Ho Chi Minh city where I am for the month to complete a CELTA program. And now, I’m going to save this and go wander around the city some more.

Looking forward to working with you!

Miette