Merry Christmas!

More than anything, I like to use this blog to upload pictures - so here are some of my favorites from the Shott/Snyder Christmas:

I'll miss the view

One week?!

I have one week left in Canada. Actually, seeing as I stayed up late working on a paper and it has already changed until Thursday, I am down to less than one week. In someways it seems as if I've been here forever, and in other ways I can't believe how quickly my time has flown by.

Between the stress of midterms and the bitter cold (the wind chill is zero degrees, fahrenheit, right now), and wanting to see my family I am counting down the hours until I get home - but I keep getting caught at unexpected moments with things I know I'll greatly miss.

This morning as Hannah and I were laying in our beds discussing how we'd much rather sleep in than get up and face the loads of studying and papers we have, I realized that Hannah and I only have three mornings of routine chats - most likely only two as we both have finals on Saturday. And as Teal and Kyra barged into my room announcing dinner, I didn't let myself think about how few more times that would happen.

Kyra leaves tomorrow morning, Emily heads out Saturday, Hannah is setting off for Quebec early Sunday, and Rachel, Teal, and I will take a taxi to the airport together next Wednesday. Next semester I'll be in Scotland and Emily will have transferred to school in Wyoming. Then Kyra goes abroad, Teal graduates, Rachel and Hannah go abroad, etc.

Although the things I'll miss here are in no way limited to the people - they are what I'll miss the most. So this post is for Hannah, Kyra, Emily, Rachel, and Teal - and all the ridiculous times we've had this semester:

I'll be home for Christmas

Life North of the 45th Parallel

This is the first picture I look in Nova Scotia on August 27th:

And this was last week:

I let my roommate cut my hair ...

It seems like that sentence should end with: and she gave me this horrible mullet! But in my case, thankfully, it ends with: and I love it!

I always, always have to cut my hair on impulse or I'd never do it. I constantly want long, long hair but am faced with the fact that my hair is just too thin to pull it off. So when my hair gets more than six inches below my shoulders and I'm sick of trying to blow dry it into something that doesn't look like a blonde rat's nest, I go get it cut. Today was that day, but my friends yelled at me wanting to do it today because it's "Buy Nothing Day" which is, as far as I can figure out, the Canadian and International response to Black Friday. I knew that if I didn't cut it today I wouldn't make myself cut it for another few months and I'd be heading back home and off to Scotland with too-long hair. So when Hannah offered to cut my hair, with Teal's help and Rachel's guidance, I nervously took them up on the offer. I freaked out, well, a lot. I yelled at Hannah a bit and, according to the pictures, I actually looked like I was going to be sick. But, low and behold, the three of them pulled off one of the best haircuts I've had in years.

The before I quickly snapped when they we were headed to the bathroom for the cut:

Hannah looks a bit too excited to cut my hair:

I do not look happy:

So it isn't anything special, but I really like it:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Sure roast turkey and potato filling both rank in my top ten foods, but I also love it because it always meant large amounts of family. Growing up we often had Christmas brunch with the Snyders and Christmas dinner with the Shotts, or vise versa, but Thanksgiving dinner always meant both sides of the family. My favorite Thanksgivings were always the ones held at our house - the smell of turkey filling the house while we listened to Alice's Restaurant, running up from the Macy's Day parade to tear bread for potato filling our stuffing, setting the table with the best china, and getting to help my parents cook.

This was the first Thanksgiving I've been away for, and to be honest, I've been dreading this day all semester. Maybe it's the days you dread the most that never hurt as much as you expect them to. I missed my family terribly and would have given anything for Alice's restaurant and the whole family at home - but today was actually a lot of fun and I'm sure I'll always remember my American Thanksgiving in Canada.

I was planning to sleep in today, but when I was woken up with "Happy Thanksgivings!" from Teal and Kyra knocking on our door, I went to breakfast with Hannah, Rachel, Teal, and Kyra. Americans are a sizable minority here, and every time one American saw another "Happy Thanksgiving!" was yelled out. I'm sure some Canadians shook their heads at us, but it made me happy. I watched some of the Macy's Day parade before heading to class. I've never been to class on Thanksgiving before, obviously, but I found it highly amusing that when I was I had to sit through Pre-Confederation Canada and Politics in Maritime Canada. Teal and I went to down after my last class to pick up the rest of the supplies for our dinner.

In good American tradition, we started off our celebration watching football. We ate French cheese on triscuts and a baguette, but we drank California wine out of plastic cups. We ordered Festive Specials from Swiss Chalet - chicken, stuffing, cranberry sauce, corn, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, and a role. It wasn't turkey, but it was quite tasty. Teal and I ate more cranberry sauce straight of the can, and we had a cake for Emily's 20th birthday which was yesterday. We popped Christmas crackers and wore the hats while playing scrabble and watching Family Guy. I'm sure it wasn't what the Pilgrims had in mind, but as four Americans in Canada we enjoyed our celebration.

A toast!

Part of my festive special:

In Thanksgiving tradition, we ate too much (you can also see me eating cranberry sauce straight out of the can in the bottom left corner):

Kyra and Teal in their cracker hats:

Emily's cake, E = XX:

And, of course, our scrabble board:

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas?

Last night when we were playing scrabble, which is all that we seem to do anymore, Rachel asked Emily and I if there were any major differences in the ways that Canadians and Americans celebrate Christmas? At first we jokingly asked, "Do Canadians sing carols? Have Christmas trees?" But when we thought about it for a minute, we realized that the Christmas season starts much, much earlier here. Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving the second Monday in October, so after Halloween it's a holiday straight-shot to Christmas. Sure, the Christmas advertisements seem to start earlier and earlier every year in the States, but people stick to the notion that the Christmas season shouldn't, and doesn't really, begin until after Thanksgiving. In my mind the Christmas season starts with Santa Claus at the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, black Friday, and, of course, advent. Here, though, the Christmas season is already in full swing. The Christmas lights are up in town, the Christmas carols are playing, and everybody is decorating their rooms. Maybe it's just because I love Thanksgiving so much, but I never want the Christmas season to start until after I've had my share of turkey and potato filling.

But, as they say, when in Rome ... so we got started on the Christmas season yesterday. We bought decorations while in New Minas and made gingerbread houses while listening to Christmas carols. I've even begun my yearly paper chain. I'm extremely sad that I'm missing Thanksgiving (and that I'll be in class when they play Alice's Restaurant), but gingerbread houses and the snow! we got yesterday cheered me up quite a bit:

Teal and Rachel's ginger-bread house:

My beautiful ginger-bread house:

Teal watching the snow fall:

Goofing around with Hannah in the snow:

And for the studying party of studying abroad - I've been a bit anxious about my classes this semester. Not because I don't love them, I do, but because I'm so used to all of my classes being somehow political in nature. Every class at American seems to be somehow related to politics, which I love - that's why I chose to go there, but here I'm only taking political science class and only one of my others is at all political in nature (environmental history) - so I've felt a bit out of my element. Not only do I love political science, but out of all the subjects I've studied it comes most naturally to me. I've never studied Ancient Greek texts before and I've always struggled with philosophy. But I was pleasantly surprised to receive As on both my Greek Civ and Aesthetics midterms, especially after I've only managed A-s on all of my Canadian History assignments. I still have four term papers and five finals ahead of me, but it's always good to have some reassurance.

I also cannot believe that I only have one month left here. One month! I can't lie, I have a mental countdown going for the days until I get home. I cannot wait to see my family, have a sleepover party with Alli and Amanda, sleep in my own bed, eat home-cooked food, listen to the Muppet's Christmas CD, decorate the Christmas tree, etc. but I'm really, really going to miss it here. I love the friends I've made, I love this town, I love my classes, I love looking out my window and seeing the Bay of Fundy. I have so much I'm looking forward to (home, Scotland, St. Patrick's Day in Dublin with Rachael and possibly Caroline and Sala), but I have so much I'm going to miss.

Back to School ...

The strike is over. Finally. And classes begin again on Thursday. Finally.

Yet, as stressed as the strike has made me, and how glad I am to get back to class - in some ways I am glad the strike occurred. I know I can only say that because I am no longer worrying about losing my semester and that I will be cursing the strike when I'm trying to finish my papers and write my finals - but the strike did give me travel opportunities that I would have never had otherwise. I spent five amazing days back-packing around Prince Edwards Island, four exciting days exploring Montreal, and I just got back from six relaxing days in Hudson, Quebec. Yes the strike has been a huge burden, but I must acknowledge that has also been a blessing.

Now it's back to the grind-stone - I have five papers to finish in the next three weeks, and five finals to write in the three weeks after that. Plus I still don't know if I have to write the three midterms I missed during the strike. What I do know is that I only have six weeks left in Canada - how quickly this semester has gone! - and that I still have a lot I want to do, while trying to put as much as possible into my coursework.

In brief, my trip to Hudson was great thanks to the hospitality of my roommate's family. I got to eat home-cooked meals, sleep in a real bed, do some shopping downtown, visit museums, tour Hudson, etc.

I need to get back to my Politics in Maritime Canada paper, but I'll leave you with a photo of something that reminded me I am a thousand miles north of home on our drive back to Wolfville yesterday - snow!:

Montreat Recap

I should write an update about my trip to Montreal ... before I leave for Quebec tomorrow morning! Yes, I'm leaving Wolfville again. Talks broke down, and the AUFA refuses to negotiate until a provincial mediator is brought in - which means that the absolute earliest we can go back to class is at least next week - so my roommate and her sister are going home to Hudson, Quebec and I'm going along.

So before I go to Montreal for the second time this week, I should recap my first trip:

Thursday: We woke up at 6:20 to get ready and hike the four kilometers to catch our 7:45AM bus. After a transfer in Amherst I made it to the Halifax airport by 12:30PM. I tried to switch my ticket to an earlier flight, but it was going to cost me $150, so I napped and read in the airport until my 9:00PM flight. After arriving in Montreal, I taxied downtown to meet Mike. We stayed up until 4:30AM sitting outside on his apartment's ledge, splitting a bottle of wine, going through our page yearbook, and just generally discussing what has been going on in the lives of everyone in our page class.


Friday: After sleeping in extremely late we went out to explore the city. Mike being a religious studies major, and me being an art history geek, we toured through a lot of the cathedrals and basilicas in Montreal. Mike explained how the Catholic Church controlled nearly all aspects of life in Montreal until the 1960s and 1970s until The Quiet Revolution, which led to the secular Montreal of today. It was strange to see these huge cathedrals that just are barely getting enough people to keep them functioning. For dinner, we went to this fabulous sushi place and then went out with a lot of Mike's friends to see Rocky Horror.







Saturday: We started off the day with an amazing brunch - I had banana and chocolate-chip crepes. We set off to see the rest of the downtown Cathedrals - mainly those in old town. We also walked down to the river to see where the world exhibition was held. As we walked around the city, Mike attempted to give me French lessons. In addition to the seven words I knew before going to Montreal (yes, no, please, thank you, hello, good-bye, and library), I now know two ways to say excuse me, how to tell someone to shut up, how to tell someone that I don't speak French, and how to count to ten. Mike decided that we were going to go to a Roman Catholic mass - entirely in French. I was completely lost the entire service (between the Catholic service and the French), but it was still pretty cool. It was actually held in Cathedral where Celine Dion got married. Now I don't like Celine Dion, but it seems like a lot of American tourists do - the collection plate was filled with American dollars.

After the service we got dinner in China Town - and the climbed the Mountain! The view of Montreal and its suburbs from atop the mountain was beautiful. Finally Mike insisted that if I was in Montreal, he needed to take me out clubbing. After being in Wolfville, which only has bars, it was great to go dancing at a club. We ended the night with the essential Quebec eating experience: poutine at 4:00AM. For those that don't know what poutine is (like me, before moving to Canada) it is French Fries with beef gravy and cheese curds. Now I hate gravy and cheese curds, but somehow poutine was absolutely amazing. We finally made it back to Mike's a little after 5:00AM and crashed.




I flew out early Sunday afternoon and finally made it back to Wolfville in the early evening - after getting a flat tire (which we managed to change ourselves!). Yesterday I unpacked, cleaned my room, and got some school work done. Now I need to pack and get some studying done before we head off for Quebec at 4:30 tomorrow morning.