The One With uOttawa's Snow Festival

Happy Birthday Christina! I can't believe you didn't mention it was your birthday! Oh no wait, you mentioned it, a lot!

I address cards accurately.

Yes, it's Christina's 22nd birthday, and I'm honoured to have been allowed to steal her time for a few hours to insult her for being Canadian and also to tell her just how much I totally adore her for being wonderful and compassionate and hilarious. We can forgive her for being a colony-dweller. It is currently -40 here in Ottawa, thanks to that pesky windchill. My routine as soon as I step outside is to take a breath and immediately cough because it feels like my throat is being strangled by ice. I know that at some point I should probably stop talking about how cold it is, but the Canadians are just as obsessed with talking about the weather as us Brits are, and it's just so cold! Apparently the last few winters have been mild, and now it's back to normal and slightly colder than average. Hooray.

I have beautiful feet.

The University of Ottawa is holding its annual snow festival this week which means Tabaret lawn is now hosting maple taffy stalls, a beaver tails van and dog sled rides. The latter has nothing on the weekend's dog-sledding escapades as we're not driving, just sitting on the sled, we don't go fast and it's literally just going in one circle around half of the Tabaret lawn. But hey, it's still gloriously wintery and Canadian! I must confess that I'm not a huge fan of maple taffy; it's like a maple flavoured ice lolly, but after just a couple of weeks in Canada, I really couldn't stomach much more maple. But it's great how all-out uOttawa goes each year, and it's really great that basically every student participates in it.

I LOVE this girl!

The highlight, however, has to be the fact that sound sytem set up outside Tabaret is blasting out Justin Bieber. It is actually delightful. Now, as a closet Bieber-lover, I am loving having 'Boyfriend' thumping my eardrums. You've really gotta love Canada eh. It's just such an adorable country. And time spent with Christina, and then being joined by Jolene and Josh just makes me realise how many fantastic Canadians I have the fortune and privilege and joy to call friends. This study abroad malarky is a joy. 

Oh Justin...