Oh Christmas Tree!

It was quickly approaching that wonderful time of year, Christmas, and yet despite the cheer this thought was bringing to our otherwise stressful lives (assessments were happening and/or approaching) it felt like something was missing in our lives. After a small amount of contemplation, the realisation hit that we hadn't got a tree and we hadn't decorated a tree. This may, when you think about it seem like a small inconsequential habit that we carry out yearly but actually we found in its absence it meant a lot more to all of us (I use us to indicate my exchange family: to see exchange family see previous posts).

For me the Christmas tree is a family event. Dad goes to get the tree, Kat and I then proceed to put it into our base and try to get it upright with input from both parents. Then Kat and I proceed to put lights and some of the decorations, that mum has previously organised, onto the tree. I then decide it looks lovely and minimal (basically I get bored :P) and then Mum and Kat continue to add the rest of the decorations while I direct from afar, finally we all gather to put the Angel on top.

Back to this year (well last now), Monique between classes, revision and generally having fun went to the superstore and got us a tree and decorations. After much hacking with various tools later it was standing 'reasonably' straight in its base. It stayed like this for a while until people had finished class and could gather in Monique's room for the great decorating. It was at this point Monique and I almost had our first argument. We were casually discussing the tree and what would go on top. Monique thought Santa should be on top of the tree. I on the other hand am used to an Angel but was also willing to have a star atop the tree. There was an intense moment, time might have stopped I'm not sure, where we just stared at one another, trying to gage if the other would fold. The moment passed and we came up with a compromise, Santa would hold a star, and we congratulated ourselves on embracing part of the spirit of Christmas: give and take, we forgot though that other people might have opinions.

A while later we all gathered to decorate the tree and the 'what's going on top of the tree issue' returned. Other people also were used to an Angel and wanted to see and Angel and I had to agree it would be odd to have to Angel, and the Santa people wanted a Santa, and the Star people a star. So, a new compromise needed to be reached, and it was. We had one of each. The top of our tree was very full.

We then proceeded to get all the baubles ready, except that the pack we had gotten didn't have any hook in it so we improvised by using my small elastic hair bands. Once they were all prepared we were just about to start putting them on the tree when I came up with an idea. The idea:  to write on one bauble each a word/ a couple of words about what Christmas means to us and then to put our name on the other side . Everyone agreed this was a good idea so the silver sharpie was passed around. My word was Love.  We the put these 'special' baubles on the tree first, then attacked the tree with the rest of them until there were none left. A few minor adjustments, to even it up, later and our tree was complete and our Christmas sprit back on track.     

(I going to add photos of the tree but I'm still waiting for them to be sent to me, I will add them when I have them)

Downtown Adventure!

Not so long ago. A few weeks before classes broke up for Christmas many of us exchange students realised we seemed to have done everything  except go into Downtown Toronto and explore. Thus we started planning a weekend adventure The Saturday was going to consisted of free things, except for a meal in little Italy. The Sunday would then be full of the thing which cost money and that way people could pick and choose what they wanted to do depending on their budget. I decided to go in for the Saturday but then use Sunday to study (I had a lot of exams and essay's to do plus I can do the costly stuff over the next few months). On the predetermined Saturday we: Tanya (our lovely guide, the only one who had previously explored), Monique, Jesse, Lauren, Andrew, Andrew, Preeti, Angel and I (if someone has been forgotten I apologise).  We started by going to look at Casa Loma. A Castle in Toronto. Built in the early 1900's (?) absolutely stunning on the outside. We didn't go inside because it was extortionate but we got many a photo of the outside.  Next we headed to St Lawrence market where we held a competition splitting of into pairs to see who could find and take a picture of the weirdest thing which was a lot of fun. We also picked up a couple of souvenirs and Christmas presents while there. After this we headed to the distillery district, which is the old part of town, and to our surprise (shows how much research we had done) there was a Christmas market on. So we wondered that for a while. Next we headed over to Kensington Market where Monique found the amazing mighty ducks ice hockey jersey and I picked up my secret Santa present for the secret Santa we had set up with residence friends.  At this point there were only two things left on the day's to do list; eat in Little Italy and visit the Bay Christmas videos.  Everyone was hungry so off we went to Little Italy and found a cafe/bar type place to eat at. Then right into the heart of downtown to the Bay videos, which were pretty cool and a sweet classic story. By this time we were all exhausted so we headed back to campus to rest up for the next day, for some ready to head out for more exploring and for the rest so as to get a lot of study done.   

Cavalcade of Lights

Straight after getting our Christmas photo taken we all headed into downtown for another Toronto Christmas must. The Cavalcade of Lights. This is a huge evening for the city, held in Nathan Phillips square they set up stage for live music acts and then there is a fantastic fireworks display (video of which can be found on my facebook). Also they have an outdoor skating rink for which you can either just bring your own skates and hope on and off, or you hire skates at $10 for 2 hours. Which is what Monique, Andrew and I did while listening to the music and watching the fireworks. It took a while to get into the skating since I haven't done it for a couple of years but it was a laugh.  The best bit though had to be right at the beginning when I was still not quite into the skating so looking quite ridiculous all dressed up from the photo barely making it round the rink, when this young girl skated pass me and said "you're pretty". I had a huge smile plastered on my face after that, even when I kept almost falling over. I would recommend the Cavalcade of Lights to anyone in the vicinity at the right time, especially a Brit who may have been upset about the lack of fireworks on Nov 5th.  

Say Rudolph!

One of the things that has been really great about my time so far in Canada has been the people who I've been sharing the experience with. My main group of friends is comprised mainly of exchange students with the odd Canadian thrown in. Living in residence means you all get really close really quickly because you're eating, sleeping (in the same building) and studying together pretty much constantly. Thus, at some point in the semester, we all stopped seeing ourselves as just friends and started viewing ourselves as more of a family, a dysfunctional messed up family but a family nonetheless. This meant that with Christmas fast approaching, and my fellow exchange students time in Canada coming to an end (they are all semester students) we wanted to  get something to remember our little family by and at the same time celebrate Christmas. Thus the idea to have the family Christmas photo was born. We planned ahead to make sure we were all free, and then found a mall close to us that was doing Christmas Santa Photos at that time. On the day we spent the afternoon getting ready, putting our Sunday best on so to speak and then headed to Yorkdale on mass. We queued up behind the young children 'patiently' (some more than others) waiting our turn. Then it was our turn and the elves organised us around Santa and then we had our photos taken, we got several done as we were just sharing the cost of one CD that we could pass around and download the pictures from. Here are a couple:

From the back left to right: Andrew, Andrew, Jessie,
                                                         Me,                            Monique,
                                                          Melinda, Lauren, Santa, Tanya 

Santa Claus is coming to Town!

Every year Toronto has a Christmas Parade and since this year I was in the vicinity I decided to go and check it out. If I'm to be honest, I was a little disappointed with the actual Parade. I thought it would be really festive and Christmassy but instead it was overly commercialised with the majority of the Parade having very little to do with Christmas. That's not to say I didn't have fun. In fact I had a great time it just wasn't really because of an amazing Parade. What was amazing was being out in the city with friends and having a break from studying, oh and getting our photo taken with an actual Mountie!! The best thing though was before the Parade (it was running very late do there was a lot of, before the Parade) when we sitting on the curb of the road guarding our great spot from which to view the Parade and watching all the children get excited about the parade. Now, normally when things are running late children get tired of waiting and become fidgety and start complaining. But not here. No here they were running around in the street playing games with each other. Many of the children had brought  chalk and were drawing and writing in the road. We saw many a wish list for Santa to read as he passed. It got the point where Tanya and I couldn't take it anymore, as children still at heart we wanted to draw on the road in chalk so we asked a girl if we could borrow her chalk (she kindly allowed us to) and drew our own message on a street in downtown Toronto.

Here are a selection on photos from the Parade:   

When In Canada!

Obviously it wouldn't be a trip to Canada if there wasn't some ice hockey involved. So one Friday (it may have been a Thursday) not to long ago we headed out to support York's varsity team in their game against Brock. It was a lot of fun. Obviously it wasn't as intense as a professional game would be but it was a lot of fun to watch. There were a couple of fights and one guy had to be escorted off the ice after he'd been slammed into.

The best bit though had to be the half time game. At York the half time game is always played by members of the audience and is a challenge of sorts. For the Ice Hockey game Lauren (my fellow exchange student from Keele) and I agreed to take part in the challenge. What we had to do was line up 10 pucks and see how many we could shoot into the goal, whoever got the most in won. Out of the first 10 both Lauren and I got three in to the goal so we went to sudden death and the first to get on in won. Sadly Lauren got one into the goal before me so she won. But it was ok because we both got a prize. Our prize was a pair of York Lion Boxers. We have both used them as pj bottoms. Overall the game was a lot of fun, and it was great to spend time with my friends who also went to watch, even if York did lose.

One Sunday afternoon of procrastination

A little while ago Jessie and Andrew went away for the weekend to Boston (mine an Monique's amazing stories made them jealous :P ). I had a friend coming for the night on Friday and Andrew kindly lent my his bedding  but in doing so left us with his key for the weekend. After having used the key to retrieve the bedding I gave the key to Monique (his neighbour) for her to look after until his return. I thought nothing more of it till Sunday morning when Monique  was telling me that she had decided late Saturday night that we couldn't let this opportunity escape us. I agreed (it was do something to Andrew's room or spend the day studying) so we got to brainstorming what to do. The plan we arrived at? We were going to cover his entire room in newspaper. And that is what we spent the next nine or so hours doing with lunch and dinner breaks. If I say so myself it turned out pretty amazing. In the surprised Andrew agreed it looked good and was a great idea.  Here are some of the pictures of what it ended up looking like after we were done.

Just another Sunday afternoon of procrastination when on exchange :)