canada, eh!

So, here I am. In Canada. Today I went skating in Nathan Philips square, yesterday I went skating in Nathan Philips Square and at the Harborfront (which was amazing). Tomorrow I get to play hockey. Sweet. There are many reasons that I want to move to Canada, but one of the most superficial is that I have the chance to skate outside, for free, on a decent sized rink, everyday if I want to. I know that I wouldn't skate so much if I lived here, but even so, I'd take good advantage of it. Trust me, I don't miss a thing about the English winter...

I got here to discover that the banks don't open till tomorrow, and I need to change currency, because all I have is English money. The problem is that the currency exchange places rip you off big time - they were offering me 1.02 dollars for my pound. The usual is 2.24 dollars for the pound. Sucks, eh? So the banks don't rip you off like that, but they're closed. Good job that I have a loving girlfriend to help out...

In other news, on my first morning here, I got woken up by a phone call from a friend that I went to university with, telling me that another friend of ours that had been on our course, died of lukaemia last tuesday. I think I'm still in a bit of shock about it, because I prayed for her last time she had it, and it went into remission, then it came back. I meant to call a couple of weeks ago, but I forgot, and then I found out that she had died. It's hard to make sense of things like this, but it certainly puts my illness into perspective...

I don't intend to leave things on such a depressing note, so I will just tell you that I am drinking more root beer than is good for any one person to drink, and this evening Bethany and myself intend to eat our own bodyweight in krispy kreme donuts. More body fat will keep out the cold...