User:Orvalt

Orval James Thompson Jr. was born on November 9th 1971 in Etobicoke, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is the son of Sharron Eileen O'Brien and Orval James Thompson Sr. At the age of 6 months Orval Jr. moved, with his family, to Collingwood, Ontario-his father's hometown.

As a youth he attended Cameron St. Public School from kindergarten to Grade 8. Upon completion, he moved down the street to Collingwood Colegiate Institute. At C.C.I. he studied many different subjects but eventually settled on the sciences, specifically Biology. He was a member of the football teams for 6 years and track and field for 4 years where he specialized in the 1500m but also competed in sprints and relays.

In 1992 he accepted an invitation to attend Carleton University in Ottawa. Majoring in Biology, the program proved to be more difficult than anticipated and after first year found himself on academic probation. During his second year Orval realized he was out of his depth with respect to the amount of math involved in the other core credits of his program (physics, calculus, etc.) and was given notice that he was no longer accepted at CU.

After leaving Carleton, Orval hitch-hiked west with a friend going as far Campbell River on Vancouver Island. He ended up putting down some temporary roots in Banff, Alberta, staying there for almost 3 years. It was here that he first took up snowboarding which became a life-long passion. His exposure to travelling and to the large contingent of Australians in Banff led directly to the idea of travel overseas. In March of 1997 Orval boarded a plane heading for his first ever overseas destination: South Korea.

After several weeks in SK, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, Orval landed in Melbourne, Australia on a working holiday scheme visa. He immediately went to work on a farm picking tobacco near Whitfield, Victoria. During his one year stay, he spent almost half his time in Airlie Beach, Queensland. The other half was spent traveling, going completely around the country almost one and a half times.

Then came a 2 yr. working holiday visa in the U.K. Upon arrival in London, Orval moved in with friends in Edinburgh, Scotland and stayed there for the next 18 months. In the process growing quite fond of all things Scottish. During his time there he had many forays onto the continent going to Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Prague to name a few. After 6 more months living in Brighton, England it was time to leave. After a few months travel through Spain and France, he landed in Dublin, Ireland and spent the next 7 months living in North Dublin where he managed a backpackers hostel.

After some time at home, in 2001 Orval embarked on his final working holiday visa, landing in New Zealand in March. After a couple weeks travel he settled in Queenstown for the winter, spending many fun-filled days on the slopes of the Remarkables ski resort. It was during this trip that his travels took him to Hong Kong, Japan and China.

He spent more time at home in Collingwood, completing his Level 1 course as a snowboard instructor, until the summer of '03 werein he departed for Santiago, Chile to teach English. It was here that he first started to learn Spanish. While in the region his travels took him to Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.

After a winter at home he returned for another winter of teaching in Santiago, travelling around Chile and Venezuela.

In the late fall of '04 he embarked on his last overseas teaching assignment... Budapest, Hungary. During his time there he explored throughout Hungary, the Balkans and the Baltics. The final place being Estonia.

Orval retired from full-time travelling upon his return from Central Europe in September of '05 to be closer to his family and friends.

Today you can find Orval playing soccer in the summer months and snowboarding during the winter along with hiking, snoeshoeing and shooting home videos.