Anyways, I realized the other day that I've been posting on this blog occasionally and writing on different stuff but that I've never really said too much about myself, so I thought it was about time I let all my non-existent readers in on the story of Andrew.
My name is Andrew William Salmon, my father's name is Keith, my mother's name is Janice, I have an older sister named Heather, and a younger sister named Emily. I was born at 11:25pm on May 22, 1988 in Saint John, New Brunswick. Saint John was my home until I was six years old, it is a city of around 200,000 people so probably not all that dissimilar from Liège except for the fact that it is right next to the Atlantic ocean. When I was six, shortly following the birth of my younger sister Emily, I moved to a village about a half an hour outside of Saint John called Grand Bay. I spent the next three years in Grand Bay growing and enjoying east coast life until, in 1997, my family and I moved across Canada (no small move as I will demonstrate later) to the town where I currently live, Fort St. John, British Columbia. So for the past nine years I've been here now, going to school, living my life, doing other activities, though it has become admittedly redundant and that is partly why I decided to do this exchange thing, for an adventure and a change of pace.
I suppose now that I've given you a short history I should get down to the real me as it is often missed by people I do not have the time to open up to. I'm a bit funny in that I'm sometimes self contradictory, that is, I say things and mean others, and I do this for various reasons, but mostly just to keep up a bit of a facade so I don't have to become too close to anyone or anything I don't choose to be close to. I like making people laugh, just being outright dumb sometimes but most of the time just with good situational humour, some people have told me I could make a name for myself in stand up comedy, but I don't really believe that. I love science, chemistry in particular, because everything about it fascinates me as it allows me to examine what it is that causes all the things happening around me everyday. I think without science we would still be nothing but primitives fighting overridiculouss religions and never making any cultural progress. That's not to say that we still don't do these things to some extent, but I think looking back we can see that on the whole western civilization has brought about a great era and holds the most promise for a peaceful and prosperous future. I'm definitely pro defense, no, I'm not a Bush lover, I just believe that you can't get the job done in the most violent places without showing that you have teeth of your own and aren't just there to be able to say you tried. Take Afghanistan for example, I cannot believe that people want to pull the Canadian forces out of Afghanistan. Yes, people are dieing and that's sad but our soldiers sign up because they are willing to take that risk to defend the interests of Canada, and you're absolutely stupid if you don't think that keeping a country from becoming a breeding ground for extremism and terrorism isn't defending the interests of Canada or the rest of the western world for that matter. I love music, I think it is the most scientific of the arts for sure because it takes a great deal of work and knowledge to produce beautiful music, that is, you can't just throw some paint at a canvas and call it modern art in music, well I suppose there are things like rap and death metal that would fall into that category but I don't even consider them to be music. I play the electric guitar and the euphonium (a low brass instrument) in different bands and for musicals, I'm not the greatest of musicians, but I try. I'm a capitalist, but I believe in equal rights, and by that I mean that everyone should start out the same, and in the end if one person decides to work harder than the rest to get ahead then good for him, and he shouldn't ever have to pay a dime to the guy who decided to just have fun instead. You can probably see that my thought processes go all over the place from reading this, and I have to say I realize I do that and that I think it's a good quality I possess, because I think it that connecting things like that all the time really helps me see the big picture which I think is one of the most important things a person can do. I haven't really decided exactly what I want to do with my life yet, I've thought about joining the army for a while, but I know I want to get my degree first and I know that I want to study science, from there I've thought about being a teacher or getting into the lucrative oil and gas industry which has made so many people around these parts rich beyond their wildest dreams, I've thought about becoming a doctor, I'm not sure though. I've also got to thinking about living somewhere totally new later on, maybe Quebec or France or even Belgium once I have French, pretty much it'll be all open to me so I'd like to at least try it at some point in my life. For sure I want to have kids and a house one day, which some people think is boring but for me it's just fine.
Well
I can't really think of too much to say right now, but chances are that if you're ever reading this then you're someone I'll be getting to know a bit anyways so this can just serve as a base for whatever else you learn about me by being around me.
Today is a pretty weird day because a couple of good exchange student friends left home. My good friend Ilenia is on her way back to Italy and my friend Herbert is heading back to Holland and so people are a bit sad. It's got me think about what it's going to be like when Marie-O leaves and also for me around this time next year. It also makes me realize just how much of a life changing experience these years we brave few undertake are as they really cause a lot of change and growth by causing us to adapt as we ride the emotional roller coaster from start to finish.
Today also marks 50 days until I'm on my way to Belgium, so I've made a couple of maps to give people an idea about the distances I've covered to come to the various places I've lived and will live. I hope you'll enjoy seeing just how many times I've crossed Belgium in my life, it's pretty impressive eh? (Canadianism)
(Click on images to see them more clearly)
Saint John, NB to Fort St. John, BC
Fort St. John to Vanvouver to London to Brussels then Liège
