Part of the CouchSurfing Community!

Our goal is to create a beloved community, and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.
~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
We envision a world where everyone can explore and create meaningful connections with the people and places we encounter. Building meaningful connections across cultures enables us to respond to diversity with curiosity, appreciation and respect. The appreciation of diversity spreads tolerance and creates a global community.
~ CouchSurfing vision statement

I’m psyched about couch surfing (couchsurfing.org). Because it provides a secure way for strangers to meet and stay in each other’s homes, it’s a great way to build community that transcends geographical boundaries. I was privileged to stay with some hospitable people in Canada, and Jim and I have begun to host people in our home, too. It’s already been enriching!
I love meeting people with an adventuresome spirit. I love the idea that people are willing to be open and available to each other, with no motive for personal gain. I love that the human community is simultaneously becoming larger and smaller. Above all, I love that humans can see ourselves as part of a worldwide community (I used to think it would take an attack from outer space for a global community to coalesce).
Here’s one more quote, from Desmond Tutu: We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.
Amen, brother.

Nova Scotia, Eh!

It turns out that the convenient, fast ferry from Bar Harbor Maine to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia is OUT OF SERVICE. So on Monday I took a little drive up the coast to St. John, New Brunswick. Natives tell me it's like Topeka, in that people who visit St. John are usually on their way to someplace more interesting.

Still, there was a cool City Market.






Here's another, more dismaying discovery I made: There is such a thing as the Atlantic Time Zone, and St. John is in it. So, when I rolled up to the ferry terminal after a leisurely drive, the ferry was just leaving. Instead of being 55 minutes early, I was 5 minutes late. Next ferry: 11 p.m., getting into Nova Scotia at 2 in the morning. Blarg.

I opted to stay the night in New Brunswick. But where? An expensive hotel? What a bite that would take out of my budget.

In an earlier attempt to find a couch surfing spot in St. John (see couchsurfing.org) I obtained a phone number for Debbie, a local who couldn't host me but offered to get together for coffee if I was ever in town at loose ends. Boy, was I ever at loose ends. I called Debbie, and she met me for a walk and talk. Soon she called up her sister, who agreed to let me stay on the futon in her basement. So, instead of a lonely and pricey hotel, I got to stay with a Canadian/German couple and their 10 year old son. They even welcomed me in for dinner and a family movie! I felt truly blessed by their hospitality to a wayfaring stranger.

Finally, with my watch set on Atlantic time, I made it onto the ferry today. The Princess of Acadia is big and brash and holds lots of people, cars, and cargo. Here's her bridge, from the upper deck.


















And below, where my trusty Corolla was safely stowed.


















And a shot of the lifeboats hanging above the lower deck. That's the Bay of Fundy we're sailing on.




















And here is the entrance to the Digby Gut, a protected cove along the coast of Nova Scotia.
















And the quaint little harbor at Digby Town, the Scallop Capital of the World. (Had 'em for dinner--yum.)








A few hours later the harbor starts to look like someone's pulled the drain plug! Where is the water going? It's the massive tide, on its way to a 30' drop (2 times each day). Some places around Fundy Bay have an 80' tide!