England!

England is like walking by history!

Everywhere you turn is an ancient building, or a place where something significant took place!

Saxon kings were crowned on this coronation stone.

Even in the present, traditional rituals still occur.

On top of that, the people are very nice!  A stranger paid my bus ticket and I had no idea who he was.  My host family is ever so nice as well!  They are more than I could have ever hoped for.

Like normal, I take far more pictures of animals than sights when I travel.

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Unfortunately, London is so expensive.  Their pound is pretty much equal to two Canadian dollars.  So I wasn't able to go into alot of buildings. 

St. Paul's Cathedral

For example, it cost 22 pounds to go into Westminster Abbey.

Westminster Abbey

However, I got to enjoy the company of two friends while I was here.  Remember Rike?!?  She spent almost the whole week with me here, which was lovely.

Buckingham Palace

Tower of London

Then my other friend who is from England came to visit me.  It was his Uncle's family who I was staying with.  It was great to see him again, too!

Some highlights from the week include: a 3-hour hike to my hotel the first day (it turned out the bus I was supposed to take wasn't running), still I got a very good feel for the English countryside doing this.

I had very bad jet-lag for some reason, the worst I've ever had.

Seeing the sights, obviously.

Meeting up with friends.

Coming up close to lots of wildlife.

Eating incredible food.

I fly out today!  I'm starting to feel nervous jitters now.  I'm having a real hard time believing that I'm actually going to Africa.  I'm trying really hard not to think about it too much.  England has been a great distraction until now, but although I'm nervous, I'm still very excited to go!

Anyhow, the next post should be coming from Africa!  

Until then...!

20 years ago!

I can hardly believe I'm actually twenty! So much has happened in the last twenty years! Here is a little re-cap of my twenty years of life!

Jacinta Maria Secker was born January 12th 1998 during a snow storm in a hospital in Maple Ridge British Columbia. A year later, her little brother Christopher was born, and they moved to a new house. Two years later, Nancy was born, then Hannah. Within that time they moved two more times.

Five year old me, in my home made dress.

When Emma was born, Jacinta's family decided to move to a tourist town in the mountains near Hope BC.

Seventh birthday in British Columbia

 However, living there meant Dad had to be away from home a lot, since his work was several hours away. Mom however, wanted him to be home more often as she approached delivering child number six. Jacinta's family sold the house, and moved across the country to Ontario, where Daniel was born shortly after.

Nine years old, with the prettiest cake!

Cuddling my new little brother Daniel

10th birthday

 The house they were renting in Ontario got sold, so they moved once again to a large house in the nearby town of Barry's Bay. 

My eleventh birthday in Barry's Bay

Us kids building a snow man in Barry's Bay

 However, the cost of heating the house in Barry's Bay grew too large, so the family relocated half an hour away to the tiny town of Palmer Rapids. 

Our house in Palmer Rapids

My twelfth birthday

When Grandma came to visit.

Rehabilitating my first wild rabbit.

The first round of pets I got! (And there were many more to come!)

Chilling on my first stead ever, Duke

13th Birthday!

 However, the house in Palmer Rapids was rather small, and after Jacinta's Mom came down with lime disease, the family decided to move to Deacon Ontario which was much closer to the father's work.

Because of how sick Jacinta's Mom was feeling, Jacinta ended up going to school for the first time!

Cuddling my cat Garfield

First of many track and field meets

Writing in a tree. Fourteen was when I first got serious about my writing.

Confirmation with Christopher

 When she was sixteen, Jacinta got the opportunity to leave Canada for the first time in her life, going on a school trip to New York city!

 And no more then a year later, she made a trip across the ocean to do an equine internship in Germany!

Me on my stead in Germany.

Not long after that, she turned eighteen, the birthday she had waited her whole life for!

18th birthday

 Grade twelve was coming close to an end.....

I had a very good end to my basket ball season in grade twelve!

Stared in my school's play of Alice in Wonderland, as Tweedle Dee with my friend as Tweedle Dum!

She managed to graduate with good marks, winning two awards!

 Then went right into an internship in Wildlife rehab at Sandy Pines Wildlife Center!

 Not long after her internship ended, she turned nineteen!

Then worked for two months at a trail riding horse farm. 

After that she landed a job as a nanny for three adopted boys in Toronto....

And then did a student job on a horse farm near Toronto as well!

 Not long after those two jobs were over, she turned Twenty! 

And there you go! A little recap of my very eventful life! I was looking through my memory box and found all my journals. I started writing journals when I was eight, and now I have written eleven journals in that time!

Lots to look forward to as well! London in two days, Africa in a week, and potentially college in the fall! Very excited to see what my life as a twenty year old is going to be like!