It's been over a month since I left the comforts of home in Vancouver, and backpacked my way through a number of countries: Turkey, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, UK, France, and Portugal.

Every country brings a new experience, new languages, new personalities, and new cultural nuances. If you've ever heard the saying

"I know who I am by who I am not", I think it that about sums up how Canadian I am realizing myself to be.

Every time I am corrected by a local for butchering their language, I cringe. When I see piles of empty plastic water bottles littering the streets of Turkey, I triple cringed. I'm slowly getting used to giving and receiving two kisses with each greeting, and I still insist on yelling "THANK YOU" to the bus driver.

Old habits die hard.