Tag Archives: adventure

Kim Horn – Adventure Awesome

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Who are You?

My name is Kimberley Rosanne Horn, I am a fairly excitable, opinionated gal (in a good way, I think) who was raised on Vancouver Island – currently living in Victoria.  I work in immigration policy for the Government of BC.  I like the outdoors, and I have freckles.  Also, my cat hates me.

What do you do for fun?

In my spare time, I  like to ride bikes, camp, hike, have picnics on the beach, cook new things in the kitchen, and, now that I have a BBQ, have garden parties.  I also like to drink wine, and am currently enjoying trying my hand at triathlon (which includes learning how to spell triathlon).  I’m getting married this summer to my fiancee, Ian, and so wedding planning is also fun (sort of).

What is your favourite community? Why?

I don’t think that I really have a favourite community, per se, but I have experienced many wonderful communities around the globe  (as well as some not so wonderful ones).  Allow me to explain – I really enjoy communities which have a few key traits:

1) a nucleas or gathering point of some kind, where people can come from all over to meet, eat, drink, play, chat, learn, do business, etc.etc.  I like being a part of a bustling little area, because it makes me realize that I’m connected to something much bigger than myself.

2) good, fair trade, organic coffee – because I am a little bit pretentious when it comes to my coffee, and I’m okay with that.

3) you don’t necessarily need a vehicle to live your life – you can get to work, school, the gym, grocery stores, etc. on foot or with a bike.

4) emphasis on the local – I don’t like the big boxy stores or franchises; rather, like to support local businesses by buying things that are grown or made locally – it’s more special and sustainable that way.

5) parks – there have to be parks, because in parks you find things like flowers, lovers, puppies, and children laughing…these things can always put the trials and troubles of life into perspective.  Parks also happen to be great places for picnics...which I happen to fancy.

7) friendly people – these days it seems folks would rather listed to their ipods or talk on their cellphones and wander down the street in their own little bubble, as opposed to engaging with those around them.

Favourite communities include - Copenhagen (maybe the coolest city ever), Fernwood, Cook St. Village, and James Bay in Victoria (minus the freezingness of James Bay), Commercial Drive, the uptown part of Amsterdam, Sorata (Bolivia), Korcula (Dalmatian coast in Croatia), la Condesa (Mexico City).

Least favourite communities include – Langford, Orleans, Kanata, basically anything suburbia, where everything and everyone are generic and there is no spice or sass to life (also, you can’t do anything fun without a car…which is just sad).

What is your superpower?

I feel that my superpower changes depending on where I’m at in my life.  Currently, I have two 1) making spreadsheets, and 2) finding tasty foods that are wheat and/or gluten-free!

How do you use it to build community?

I use my first superpower to organize things, which is important in any community, large or small.  I use my second superpower to make me feel better about having to reduce my wheat and gluten intake!

My Three Favourite Things About Kim Horn Are:

1. Brother-Sister-Connection. Those who know us will say that the Horn Children are super-connected-to-each-other, hilarious, talkative, performers, helpers, competitors, athletes, and good looking. Most of these traits come from Kimberley.This being said, like the Sedin Brothers, my sister and I have an unspoken, almost psychic, connection that allows us to seamlessly navigate conversations, events, dinners, and to know what the other is thinking and feeling at all time. We’re not even twins. Or Swedish. This supwerawesome connection has seen Kim and I deliver over a dozen high-quality, family-oriented skits, songs, roasts, speeches, and extended improvised toasts. Our performances have become a staple of Horn Family Celebrations – Mama Horn’s 60th Birthday is going to be epic. And being epic is always a possibility when you have talent like Kim Horn in the mix.

2. Sense of Adventure. Hiking through uncharted Bolivian mountains. Taking her allergic to the Sun brother on the Nootka Trail. Backcountry skiing in avalanche-riddled mountains. Marathon running. Iron Man racing. Possibly being slipped a Geoffrey at a music festival. Exchange and solo-traveling experiences through Downtown Europe. You name it, Kim Horn has done it and done it well. Her sense of adventure is the stuff of inspiration and the stories that she’s collected during her treks through the remote locales of BC’s West Coast as well as following her near-death-experiences on the salt flats of Bolivia are truly the stuff of legend.

3. Professional Awesomeness. “Kim is your older sister, yes?” This is the question that I am often ask after introducing Kim to my colleagues or after she presents to my students. And, fair enough. My younger sister has accumulated more professional currency than many other Canadian women her age – the responsibilities she’s been given and the projects and portfolios that she has managed reflect someone who is as intelligent as she is responsible as she is mature. Kim’s drive towards her vision of success is inspirational and impressive and really, really makes my heart smile. She will be a leader of positive change on the provincial and federal bureaucratic circuit for years to come.

Special bonus reasons! Kim Horn is a really, really good photographer. She’s also really, really stylish (we used to sit next to each other in English classes at Bishop’s and I’d be wearing pajamas and my toque while she’d be wearing Montreal’s finest universite-chique outfits, and it was a hilarious juxtaposition). Kim’s a really good cook, too, and her Thai Green Curries are delicious. Finally, her athletic prowess is outstanding. For example, during the 2010 Merville Cup Championship run of Team Horn, Lamb, Horn, it was impressive to see my sister, who doesn’t actually play soccer, take to the field and absolutely dominate the competition by running them down and, maybe, hip-checking them into the garden fence every now and then. Amazing.

- As told by John Horn…

Dance Together, Community Together: Feu Cul

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This totally works: takes the pee out of pissed-off.

The cat peed right where my head curls while sleeping in the fetal position on my single bed.  How did she know to do it there?  And what was she trying to say to me?  Wasn’t it I who scratched her ears when she came-a-purring?  I did not deserve this.

I spent the rest of the day learning French words for baking soda (bicarbonate de sodium) and peroxide (the more challenging translation peroxyde).  My mood darkened and frustration settled in.  I wanted to just sleep off the rest of the day – definitely not dress up in white and violet to visit a weird carnival in a little town 60km away.

This is not from Pezenas, but helps with the imagery.

Lucky for me I couldn’t reach Boris.  Boris is from Pézenas, France, on the ancient Roman road from Rodez to Saint-Thibéry; a small 8,000 person town that hugs a medieval centre with tiny wrapping streets and alleys.  The town is home to Boby Lapointe (pronounced dangerously close to “boobie” which got a giggle from me), a famous 1950/60s French singer.  It also housed the famous l’Illustre Théâtre, the influential troupe of Molière (France’s Shakespeare) in the mid-1600s.  This little town, like many around France, boasts a lively festival as well – a charivari.  And had I reached Boris that afternoon, hoping to cancel because I was a cranky wuss, I would have missed one helluva night.

The charvari, an Occidental version of a carnival, didn’t start until 9pm.  We sat in a small picturesque square waiting, every once in a while a group of buzzed teenagers passing through with plastic bottles full of spirits to take the edge off the cool night.  You were to dress in white and violet, Pézenas’ colours, with the understanding that these clothes weren’t finishing the night without flour/wine/shaving cream/blood on it.  Whatevs.

Yes, a man with a BabyBjorn squeezed my ass.

Yes, this post is sounding much like a travel piece, but I assure you that it is not.  I want to bring your attention now to the angle most interesting to Daily Gumbooters from around the world: sex.  I mean community.  Sure, it would be easy to compare charivaris to their boring Canadian counterparts, but that wouldn’t serve our purpose.  No, friends, Gumbooters, I’d like to talk more about the very nature of having a festival, a carnival, a celebration.  I asked a bunch of locals about the origins of the charivari and most of them told me it was something to do with the beginning of spring, but they were kind of vague. The origin ended up being a distant reasonunimportant.  In its place was the tradition and familiarity of it all.  Every year before Mardi Gras the town gets together, young and old, children and white haired perverts (I’ll tell you about that in a minute) and they romp in the street following the drum/flute/shaker band of Pagans dressed in horns and furs.  And remember how I said these streets were tiny?  This ended up being important for the mosh pit.  When I say mosh pit, I’m talking about rugby players and little girls smashing against each other in drunken revelry with their uncles and cousins as the music crescendoed to feverish pitch.  The origins of raves, I’m convinced.

Totally not Pezenas. Picture white and violet clothes and fire in asses.

I was pushed and punched by 60 year old women dressed in spastic dresses and painted faces, grabbed by teenybopper boys, surely drunk, and squeezed by young 30-something fathers with their populated BabyBjorns.  People fell.  People laughed.  Tempers would flicker but never burst.  It wasn’t about safety or the fear of being sued.  It was your neighbour and you in the street letting off some serious steam and being the better for it.  It did go far, but never too far.

One of the traditions, unbeknownst to the international travellers who joined Boris, was the feu cul.  Yes, French speakers out there, that does mean fire ass.  The mid-fervour dance featured a circle of townspeople with torches gesturing the flame in the other’s ass.  Why?  I never quite understood.  Unimportant!  So the seasoned charivari-goers carried vegetables and poke…ahem…your ass as you danced through the tiny streets.  Or just grabbed them in a very penetrating way.  Surely a lawsuit would follow in a Canadian context, but for the more lassez-faire peeps of Pézenas, this was just play.  Unabashed and uncensored.  This type of carefree partying is, well it’s human goddamn it!  More doing, less thinking.

This one actually is Pezenas, feels like Pezenas

My point: fun is tremendously important for community.  Brining generations together is important.  Dancing together is important.  Tradition is important. Sticking things in each other’s asses is important.

City Chase Training Guide – Get Prepared!

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This is the official Daily Gumboot, triple-tested, double-proof, training guide for the City Chase, the worlds largest urban adventure series. We’re really excited here at the Gumboot because we love adventure, and we love to play, and wouldn’t you know it City Chase brings together adventure in our western outpost of Vancouver, and supports Right to Play.

City Chase

Clue Sheet from Chicago 2010

Adventure is awesome, Vancouver is awesome, and Right to Play do awesome work in some of the most disadvantaged areas in the world. Mix it all together and you get City Chase.

If you want more background you’re best to jump over to the City Chase site and do some reading, then close that window and come right back here for your guide on how to best prepare to, uh, best the competition.

Urban

We’re rocking it at City Chase Vancouver, and like other City Chases, the City part is key. In this race you use only your feet, transit, a map, and if unlike me you actually don’t drop your cell down elevator shafts, a phone. This means you need to get used to navigating your city free of the cage that is a motorcar.

Bike – Getting out of a car and onto the streets by bicycle will help you discover shortcuts, hidden gems, and, unfortunately, some people who *ahem* cling to the notion that no underwear with short-shorts is cool. In all seriousness, you’ll learn more about your city, community, and how to get around it efficiently than you can ever hope to if you’re stuck in the car.

Plus, we can smile and say hello to each other on bikes, which is way cooler than cutting people other off racing for the next amber light.

Tourist – Pretend you’re from The Continent, and hit up your local tourism website. Make a little time in your day to vacation at home by checking out your local history, parks, and then find a good patio and people-watch.

Adventure

Right, so it’s an urban adventure series. That means you’ll need at least a little adventure gear. Here’s the Daily Gumboot recommended setup:

Adventure Shoes – To be worn on your feet, they’ll protect you from the elements, help you overcome the crazy challenges, and help gain you access to establishments with “no shoes, no shirt, no service” rules.

Adventure shirt – See adventure shoes, but this will be worn on your upper-body.

Adventure pants or Adventure pants-that-are-short – There’s a lot of debate going on out there about whether underwear are a necessity, I know this because I commute to work by bike and some dudes need to either wear underwear or longer pants-that-are-short. Regardless of your stance on skivvys, having something to cover you up is key to successful adventuring. They’re like shoes, but instead of protecting your feet they protect your dignity.

There you have it, you’ve touristed, biked, walked, sipped and supped at a great patio. You’re now healthier, happier, well-fed, perhaps just a little fuzzy thanks to the awesome local micro-brew you discovered at the great patio, and totally stoked to compete with the Daily Gumboot at the City Chase.

Oh yeah –  you’ve got a chance to win your registration too! Check out John’s post for the details, and we’ll see you out there adventuring!

The Community of South America – Chapter One

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Good day, good readers! In a matter of moments, a couple of The Gumboot‘s contributors – Michelle Burtnyk and, well, yours truly – will be heading way, way down South to the country of South America! Crap, I know better than that. After all, I am an historian. Michelle and I will be visiting our Latin America Correspondent, Martin Martin. He lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Funny story about Buenos Aires. The city’s mayor, Mauricio Macri, just declared a state of emergency in Argentina’s capital. Now, pessimists will tell you that traveling through a city and/or country during a state of emergency will doubtlessly present problems. But I beg to differ. There will be fewer tourists jamming the streets downtown area. The many rides in Buenos Aires will be free (I’ve been told/promised that there are several fun rides throughout the city). And here’s the biggest positive as I see it. Two words: discount pork.

In all seriousness for any of our friends and family who are seriously concerned, we’ll be fine. Michelle speaks fluent Portuguese and is a vegetarian (“Yo soy vegetariano!”). In 2004, she also, I kid you not, was teaching English in Guang Dong, the Chinese town that was where SARS started. She’s got street cred in spades, people. And, hey, even though I’m allergic to the Sun I went to Africa and survived – if not thrived – in the Dark Continent (which isn’t really dark at all, is it, misguided European colonial storytellers?!). And, much to my surprise, it turned out that I traveled through Northern Uganda during a civil war. Has Argentina been in a civil war since the early 1980s? I don’t think it has. But do you know what China, Uganda and Argentina do have? Adventure.

We will keep you abreast of our story-filled travels. Not swine flu nor revolution nor Sun nor emergency dental surgery will stop us from calling it as we see it and telling it like it is. We will collect stories from South America and use them to build community. At home, and abroad.

Happy travels!

- John and Michelle