on the road again...

hello my friends! it's been a while since i've dusted off the ol' blogger login and written a post. i've been home for about 4.5 months now, working at a cafe, coming home and looking up random flights on skyscanner to see where i should go next. and finally, the research has paid off. my itchy feet are finally gonna get scratched! i'm off to central america! 

the first little while i was home, i was super bummed, not knowing what my next move was. i couldn't find a job, i had no money, and the mean visa man kept saying i owed them my first born child. so i finally got my current job, where i learned to make delicious lattes (today i had an eggnog latte and it seriously changed my life and appreciation for christmas :P) and i decided that when i had enough money saved up, i was going to go to new zealand for a year. 

hmmm... have you looked at the price of a flight to nz?! not cheap man. so i decided maybe not. meanwhile, my good pal sarah, you may remember her as one of my trailer park sistas from margs, was cooking up a plan to go do her divemaster training in utila, an island off the coast of honduras. i never really thought about travelling in central america before, but one google image search of utila, a mention of the massive whale shark population, and i was in. 

so i booked my flight! leaving ottawa on february 7th for san pedro sula, honduras. i will stay one night in this *ahem* ...fairly dangerous town from what i've read, and then take a bus to la ceiba and then a ferry to utila, which will be my island home for a month! i'm stoked to get my dive ticket, work on freediving, see wicked sea creatures, and obvssss to be reunited with my lovely mermaid! after that month, no plan really, but i definitely am going to head to the pacific side for some surfing. no return ticket yet, but upon googling, we found that it is around $200 to fly home from cancun, mexico.. so i'm thinking i will try to head up that way :)

if anyone has travelled in central before, hit me up with some suggestions. i am excited to have a really open plan, basically i'm just going to come home when i run out of money lol. so ya i'd love to hear anyone's advice, what they liked, what they didn't etc. etc. and maybe some tips on where i can buy pepper spray bahaha 

anyways, that's it for now! looking forward to updating my blog while on the road again :) 
¡Hasta luego!

soph xx

4 days!

just wanted to do a quick update! 3 more work shifts left and 4 more days! omgomgomg i'm freaking out! it sort of still doesn't feel real, i need to pinch myself every so often haha

i'm on track to get an unlocked iphone 4 (unfortunately, the iphone 3 that jess gave me was unlocked in this super ghetto way which wouldn't allow me to update the iOS to get any apps wah!) so make sure you all add me to iMessage which i will be using when i have a wifi connection in australia, and most likely on my massive layovers in LA and melbourne. even though you all will be sleeping bahaha. add me using my email sophie.i.hebert@gmail.com

i also jumped on the instagram bandwagon @sophhebert. literally no idea how to use this app, of course the one pic i have posted is one of daisy. classic. 

i also have a couchsurfing host lined up for the few days before i meet bryanna, who is arriving on the 20th! so i have a full week to explore aka get adjusted to the time difference lol so this is awesome, i'm really excited to meet some local peeps and get the low down of things to do in freo! 

part of my couchsurfing profile

i bought a ton of cliff bars and emergen-c for the plane ride, just in case the food sucks and/or my veg meal request didn't go through (fingers crossed it does!) 

this long weekend, i went up to ness' cottage and we had some fun playing around with my underwater camera :) we made a few videos, and when we took some of the pics, the flash even went off! this cam is intense i love it. it was really sad to say bye to her, just to know that i'm not a 5 hr greyhound bus ride away anymore... she'll just have to save up and come visit ;) 

i'm really not looking forward to saying the last of my goodbyes, but i know that the leaving part is all a part of travelling and the beginning of a new adventure. thanks to all the technology we have now, friends and family will only be a skype chat away <3

as for the rest of my time here, i'm having a star wars original trilogy marathon, doing a few more workouts (going to miss body pump so much!!!) packing with my mum on friday, and as a final celebration of my trip and the end of shark week (who watches shark week the week before they leave for Australia?!?!), a double feature on saturday night. JAWS and SHARKNADO. i mean, could that have been timed any better, really? #stoked

also, if you have not done so, please inbox me your addresses on facebook. i'm going to try and send out some postcards when i reach the land down unda'. who knows how long the mail will take, so it may end up being a christmas card haha we shall see! and add me on iMessage and SKYPE please! my photo is the same one on my blog profile :)

missing everyone already <3 

love Soph

ps... shout outs to my cousin cindy and her husband dave who had their baby, Tyler Evan Rempel on saturday! can't wait to meet the little guy :) hope everyone is doing well! and hello aunt annette who is in cali with them for a few weeks. love you guys! xoxoxo

birthday/bon voyage!

this saturday (the 20th) was my going away and birthday combo bbq! it was perfect. the weather, all my friends and family, the food, and my AMAZING beautiful cake! and my floating remote control shark... WHAAAAt. i had seriously the best time ever and i am so so thankful to everyone who came and those who couldn't come but i knew were thinking of me that day. i also had an amazing birthday day which was sunday the 21st. my friends from TO and i all went downtown and sat on a patio and had some apps and a cider. we just walked around the market enjoying each other's company and the sunshine. after a while, amy, alex and victoria decided to start the drive home to beat the traffic, so we said goodbye which made me sad because it is the last time i'll see them for a while! alex is planning a trip to se asia in the wintertime, so hopefully we will be able to meet up, and amy is thinking of coming to australia in the new year so that would be ideal! so they hit the road after a lot of epic hugs <3 

my flying remote controlled shark, frank!

me and my birthday cake

all of my beautiful friends

my lovely family!

cake closeup - tasted as good as it looked!

tilley hat my mom got me and everyone signed :)

amy, myself and ness downtown for lunch on my birthday

then it was russell, ness and i left just walking down the street when we saw a sign in a local tattoo shop window. friendship infinity tattoos $50 per person, minimum 3 people. we just looked at each other and were like, yup thats happening! me and russ were super down for it, but ness was a bit nervous because her mum had basically told her that if she gets a tattoo that she is in big trouble.. so we went next door to urban outfitters to walk around and contemplate the decision and this happened: 

this is actually the coolest photo booth i've been in because after it prints out (three sheets so we each got one!), you get a code to go on the website and then you can share it on all the social media channels! it is really smart thinking on urban outfitters' part, and the ad geek in me got super stoked when i saw it :P it also records a video of you in the booth.. so funny!

so ness decided that she was gonna do it, and i was sooo pumped! we were talking about different places that we should get the tattoo done, and after some consultation with our artist dave, we decided on the back of our elbows. she got it on her right and i got it on my left so when we stand beside each other they are on the same side :) russ got his on his ankle and it looks RAD everyone go to Ink City next time you're looking for some new ink. dave is an amazing artist and a really cool guy. #tinytats 

two elbows and a foot! finished product

nessie's first tat!

russ doesn't look so impressed

wicked

besties 

all in all, it was an amazing birthday, and i feel so lucky to have shared the weekend with so many of my family and friends! i had an amazing time, and got lots of great pics that i'm going to print and bring with me so i can look at them when i get sad! 

speaking of pictures actually, on tuesday this week, mckenzie and jess from my work took me to the photo studio to get portraits done for my birthday! we pretty much didn't plan poses or anything, but they turned out so amazing! the one where we were all stacked was a  joke because we saw one with a dad, mum and child posed like that and thought it would be hilarious, but it actually turned out to be one of my faves! excuse the fuzziness, i just took photos of photos on my webcam haha

 ... i love my friends hahahaa

ok so i have enough for about 5 more posts but i won't continue blabbing haha i will write again on the weekend maybe. theme: surfing. 

i'll leave it at that for now :) thanks again to everyone for an amazing birthday weekend, i love you allllll!!!!!

soph xo