Chronically Awkward

Currently writing this at a train station somewhere in Toronto...Burlington I think? Feeling misled quite a bit because I'm kind of getting good at navigating myself around all on my j's. 


Considering when my parents first started letting me get the bus alone to far places (when I was like 11-13) I would usually end up lost on the street crying and they'd have to come get me (first trip to Croydon wooo!). 

I'm the bad kind of stereotypical woman who usually can't read maps or give directions to save her life, or I was until recently. I've managed to get myself across the country, and now from one part of Toronto to another #BAWSY. Made reservations for accommodation, bus tickets, the lot. I'm usually so lastminute.com with these things and too chicken to go anywhere on my own (aside from leaving the country), only people that know me really well will see what a milestone this is lol.



*Niagara at night*

So this bit is a continuation from yesterday. I ended up crawling out of my bed with enough time and just enough energy to go see the fireworks at the falls. 

#SideNote

Canadians know NOTHING about walking. Nothing. So no info they give you on how long it takes to walk somewhere is accurate. Ever. The hostel lady was like oh, 10 minute walk up, follow the river to the falls....20 minutes later I got there. Luckily they hadn't started lighting up the sky yet. But they do light the falls up at night, in romantic pastel colours, which was really lovely although me and my digi can couldn't accurately capture a thing. Mental pictures all the way.




When the fireworks did pop off though, it was amazing. That's half due to them being over the falls, that I had never seen until this point, and that I hadn't seen fireworks in like, a year or more.

But see, the bad thing about fireworks on a rainy, cloudy day, over falls so big and powerful is that they spray and mist all over the fireworks so after a while you just end up with fire clouds and explosive sound effects...still glad I went though.


*Niagara in the morning*

Attempt number 2 at seeing the falls was much more fruitful.

Toronto had gotten itself together and gave me the sunshine yahoo weather had promised so it was shorts on, skin out and and shades down. 

I walked once again and rewarded myself with butter pecan and butterscotch ripple ice-cream, obviously.

Team Healthy Eating!!

#SideNote

Restraint was removed from my vocab this weekend. Salad next week....

So I decided to be extra brave and go on a solo blow out to Toronto so I can see Niagara before I come back home (and face everybody cussing me asking what on earth I was doing instead of seeing one of Canada's most famous features). To make sure I came I booked tickets to see one of my favourite singers - Kim Walker - in concert in another part of Toronto. Lord knows I'm not about to be wasting no money. I don't know how my wifi situation will be and I didn't bring my laptop so I'll be writing most of this on my phone as and when it happens. So here I am and here I go:

Ok. Obviously more explanation is needed. So first I'll do a recap of my week:

The temperatures have dropped. And when I say dropped. I mean dropped. This week we had the first snowfall, a charming calf high blanket that turned my hilly forest walk to a slip n' slide deathtrap climb in the woods. Yes I fell once. That is all.

Had my first taste of -16, followed by -20...never in all my life....have I been this cold! And it's only the beginning! What is my life becoming?! Canadian. That's what.

School has been a nightmare as the English teacher I work with is going off sick for 4/5 weeks so this week was a mad rush of plans, prep and briefings as well as getting ready for CHRISTMAS!!!

Oh sweet, sweet beautiful holy grail of all festive holidays! Birth of the Saviour, cookies, dinners, gift giving, family (waaaaa I miss mine already!), friends, love, peace, joy, SINGINGGGGG!! I could literally go on, forever! And plus - MY BDAY!!!! #Woiii

This is also an exciting development for me as it will be my first joint birthday ever spent without my usual bday twin - my cousin Jacob, born same date, 1 year apart, same time, 1am and 1pm [freaky, right?] - instead it will be with the lovely Leanne, another LBG member in La Chute (google if you wanna know her location) who I also share some funny similarities with at times (namely the day we discovered we were bday twins and craved the same foods at lunch and dinner etc lol). So that'll be fun!

To compensate for my teacher's absence and what I'm feeling might be a worrying lack of Christmas spirit, I'm hoping to transform the classroom into a grotto of joy - this word has taken on new meaning and significance in my life since the 1st of December lol - so fingers crossed all goes well!

To all you grinches out there, you can all just swerve out my way and out my face as I bring the joy!

 ANYWAY.

Supervised a school disco in St. Andre with Joe and Aimee and Dan this weekend. Tbh me and Dan begged for this opportunity because we wanted to get in on all the disco lols we heard about from the last one. I personally wanted to meet/see all of the secondary school kids I've heard so much about and catch some joke -jokes that I'm deprived of in my small-town, primary school assistant life lol, children are so uneventful. They played some very non-child disco tracks too, things that I would have danced to in my 18+ uni freshers days, lots of Pitbull (yes, Culo was played), Ke$ha and other house/pop/club tracks....it was weird seeing a bunch of 8-16 year olds tear up the floor to this. But it made me remember how fun it was to be that age, when you were old enough to likelike the opposite sex but not brave enough to do anything about it, and just danced with your friends in tight groups performing routines. And then there were those mavericks who managed to get a slowdance towards the end of the night - hilarious to see. Another thing that made me feel special was seeing one of my kids there! I know not his name -awkward - but he's not in my bilingual group so I haven't taught him and his class fully yet, but I'd know his face anywhere lol. I can't wait to chaperone [I love that word lol] another one (spying on kids and their party antics is hilarious!).


After that we ventured to Montreal the next day. Not really sure why. But we went lol. We had what me and Joe refer to (or what I call it when I talk to Joe lol) as an ethnic food day. FYI Joe is half Libyan and I'm 2nd/3rd gen. Jamaican so we like to have a little #ethnicpeopleproblems connection time every now and again, and generally discuss race etc. Oh life. But yea, after nothing but regular North American/Canadian/Quebecois food, which is more sugar and fat, rather than spice and flavour based, we had Vietnamese food (SO GOOD) for lunch and Indian for dinner(how I've missed korma so). It was just nice being united with all these aromas and flavours that are so readily available at home, but we're so deprived of here. London, you sweet, multicultural paradise you, for all your problems, you do alright with cultural integration and amalgamation when it comes to food.

We did do a fair bit of thrift shopping - the best pastime when in search of winter necessities! - and I left with a grandad cardigan and a bow tie I am convinced was calling my name. Now to create an occasion and outfit to wear it with/for.

The Spanish bookshop was another happy discovery, got to shake the dust of my espanglish and bought some holiday turrón! Just, chocolate/caramel/almond/hazelnut/buttery goodness really! Gotta try not to polish of my minis goody bag!




We went to Jean-Drapeau park and froze our toes off to get a riverside view of the city and snow. And went on walks all over. Walking up some steps towards a monument/in search of a bus stop. 3 guys dotted around in winter jackets start going:

Got that weed n****


[I'm not even gonna deal with this again, I was ready to blacklist Monty with QC right then and there, seriously, why are the big cities with actual diversity to their names the ones that wear racism on their sleeves?]. Obviously I thought, must have walked in on some kind of private joke between the three of them. Nope. Weed n****. Weed. Coke. Cocaine. Crack cocaine.





So yeah. That was Montreal. Today was spent at a Christmas market in La Chute where I ended up buying more for me than for family and friends - my excuse is that they're not really arts/crafts/herbal/natural/organic/preserves produce kinds of people. In the end I bought:

• Baklava (another #EthnicFoodDay hit from a previous trip to an Afghan restaurant)
• Cinnamon honey (this winter sickness needs to fall back, so Ima fight with tea!)
• Lamb sausages (the free samples convinced meeee)