Sorry for the long delay!

So sorry to my American friends, and all of you others. I am still alive, and have been super busy in the last couple of weeks. I spent the month of September chilling and helping my mum with garage sales etc. September 24th Tyler and I left the Island for a little trip. We stayed in Vancouver the Thursday night at Jer's new flat. It is a pretty cool apartment in Richmond - nice balcony, big rooms, high ceilings etc. We left early the next day for a small road trip. We headed south at about 8am and drove for about 16 hours until we arrived in San Francisco. We seriously only stopped to get gas and switch drivers. It was pretty tiring and intense. But we made it eventually and I had to parallel park on a nice steep hill at midnight after all that and only had a few troubles doing it.
We explored San Francisco for a few days with Chris and Nicole. We walked to a market along by the ferry terminal, went up to Twin Peaks, drove around, saw all the cool parts of SF. Tyler and I did the touristy thing and saw Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardhelli Square, etc. It was a good time. When Nicole finally had some time off work we drove to Napa/Sonoma Valley for some wine tasting at a winery called Artesa that Chris belonged to. Some good wine - so good that Tyler even liked it and we bought some. It was some good times with good friends.
We left Tuesday and headed south on our way to Mojave. We took the 101 along the Northern California coast and got to see some magnificent views. But at some point we had to cut across the state to get to Mojave. We arrived in Lancaster around 6pm, just in time for the VIP party for the X Prize launch. And how convenient, we had VIP tickets. We enjoyed some free food and drinks thanks to the VIP tickets that Ollie and Nick got us. It was tres cool to hang out with important and rich people. But more importantly, we got to hang out with Ollie, Nick, David V., and Brooke. We slept on Ollie's floor at the hotel and got up at 4am to drive up to the Mojave airport. It was still quite chilly, but we filled ourselves up with the VIP breakfast, courtesy of Champ Cars. (sorry for so many VIP mentions, but it was super cool to be a VIP for once!). Other that the coolness of being a VIP, the launch was awesome. (oh ya, we ate breakfast beside James Cameron) It was great to be a part of such an important event - changing the world and witnessing history. It was totally worth it! I just wish we could have been there for the second launch as well but we had to get back to Vancouver by Thursday night and it was now Wednesday morning. We headed back on the road with a guy from the Space Generation Congress as he had to get to Vancouver as well. It took us about 20 hours but we spread it out over two days so it wasn't that bad. We arrived fairly late Thursday night by the time we got back to Jer's. Completely exhausted.
So then it was time for me to go to the Space Generation Congress downtown Vancouver. I was taking part in the Moon Mars Workshop and got to see some interesting lectures, most of whom I had already seen at ISU. But the best part was meeting some interesting people from all over the world. There were a couple of Mexcian delegates there whose goal was to start a Mexican Space Agency. I also met a fellow life science person from Calgary and a guy doing his PhD at MIT. Some smart people. It was informative, but exhausting, as I was trying to do other things at once, like hang out with friends and go out for my Aunt's birthday dinner. Actually we went out to this really good restaurant on West Broadway called Feenie's. The best food of my life and for reasonable prices. Highly recommended.
Monday was the start of the annual International Astronautical Congress held this year in Vancouver. I got to see Bhavini, Doug, Oliver T., Jeph, Mark and Ruey. We also met each other's friends so increased my circle of space friends. The technical sessions were interesting, especially those given by my friends. The plenary's were good as well and my Aunt came to some. I went out a few times with friends, but couldn't do too much as I had to get up early for a breakfast for Canadian students with Canadian space industry reps. Thursday afternoon I caught the ferry back to Victoria to go to my French class (aren't I a good little student?). But Tyler and I got up and caught the 7am ferry back on Friday so we could hang out with the ISU kids once more and go to IKEA. Ruey's parents nicely took us all out for Chinese food Friday night and then we went out to an Irish Pub afterwards. Saturday we spent the entire day trying to get back to Victoria. There were 3 sailing waits as it was Thanksgiving weekend. Ahh!!! But we knew it would be busy. But sucky.
The rest of the weekend was all good, we went to see the Egyptian exhibit at the Museum on Sunday and had a tasty dinner with Mark and Melissa. Monday Tina and I went to the gym and then shopping. I made my first LuLu Lemon purchase, as I have been trying to avoid it as I think the trend is ridiculous. But I caved. Comfy though.
Today I started work at the Plant Centre. I basically spent the morning filling out papers for the third time for the CPH. Ah government. But it is nice to be working again, and will be even nicer when I start getting paid.
OK that's too much writing. I must send some emails and get to the gym. I hope everyone is doing well - keep in touch!