Wow, it really has been ages since I last posted! So much has been happening it's been hard to know when to do it! SO, I guess I will start sometime after October 7!
Even though American Thanksgiving is only just happening now, Canadian Thanksgiving actually happened on the second Monday in October. That weekend, I had 2 turkey dinners and one potluck dinner, so I certainly got my share of thanksgiving meals! Our Friday night bible study group (which has a very high percentage of asian students, and which tends to switch between engish lessons and faith discussion) served a turkey dinner, which was great. Because it was mainly international students, they talked about the history behind thanksgiving and what current traditions are, and for probably 80% of the people there, it was their first time eating Turkey! The couple (and their team) who organise these sessions are great and really went all out on that night. On the Monday following (actually Thanksgiving day) the organised a hike in the country along with another Turkey dinner. A retired couple who lived about an hour out of Toronto, just near a park, had contacted the organisers and said that because all of their children had left home, they wanted to cook for us! So 40 international students who they'd never met showed up at their house and they took us for a walk through the limestone park, told us all about how everything worked, and cooked as a huge thanksgiving meal- including a 20 pound (about 9kg) Turkey. They were so amazingly welcoming and just really opened up their house to us. It turned out they had also lived in Australia about 30 years ago, so that also gave us something to talk about. I just thought that what they did was amazing- they did not even take any money for feeding all 40 of us.
The following Monday, as many of you know, my parents arrived, which was great. After a bit of confusion about where to meet them in the airport, we finally found each other and managed to make it back to my room at York for a quick cup of tea (and an attempt to wake them up) before they headed off to Donna and Jim Robinsons house, which is about an hour west of where I am. I had 2 exams the next day and so I didn't see them until Wednesday when I gave them a little tour of Toronto, including going up the CN tower, which is a big lookout tour in Toronto (147 stories high, or 447m). I then spend the weekend at the Robisons with them, spending time seeing a bit of the country and learning a little bit about the Menonites. They are similar to the Amish, christians who live very simply and avoid the use of technology which may interfere with their community. Some of the families near Waterloo have no electricity on their farms and it is quite common to see horses and buggies on the road. All of this is to try and be more focused on God and community, and live as simply as possible. I found it really entertaining that what many now call the emerging church- living simply in community and caring for neighbours, is what these people have been doing for hundreds of years.
Mum and Dad then left to go and see friends in Ohio, and two days later Kaye arrived, just in time for Halloween and pumpkin carving! We had a fun but very busy weekend in Toronto, but my argument was that I was just helping her adjust to Canadian time by keeping her awake during the days! One of the things that we did that weekend was go to an event called Heavens Rehearsal, which was a worship service put on by all the churches in Toronto. It is apparently an annual event, and was in the Baseball Stadium, and had about 25000 come. The name came from the idea of just getting all of the nations together to worship, and they did a really great job of incorporating a variety of cultures, largely through some awesome dances and songs. They even had a group of Maoris there! There seems to be a great connection between the churches in Toronto, and they seem to organise lots of events like this, together, which I think is awesome.
On the following Tuesday Mum and Dad arrived back (election day in the US) and we headed off doing a big curcuit through Ontario up to Algonquin Park (looking very different now that all the leaves were on the ground), over to Ottawa and down past the 1000 islands. It was really great to get out of the city a bit and see some more countryside!
We arrived back at Waterloo on the Saturday, just in time for Donna to have 32 people over on Sunday for a Turkey Dinner (a bit of a late thanksgiving). SO good to have a bit of a break from my takeout diet here at campus and get some homecooked meals! About this time, the teaching assistants at York decided that they were going to go on Strike, so York cancelled all classes. This worked really well because it meant that I could continue to spend time with family while they were here, rather than making trips back to York everytime I had class!We made a little expedition out the the Robinsons Maple farm (run by Jims brother) which was really fun to see how the make it, and we also got to play with some very cute barn kittens and got a decent amount of snow! That following week we travelled down to Niagara Falls, which were beautiful, although I don't think I could take living near them simply because it is always raining! We stayed in a great hotel with a view right over the falls, and between 4 cameras we managed to take 700 photos on those 2 days! A little scary, but it was just so pretty! We got back to York on Thursday night and I made a final attempt to show Kaye some Canadian wildlife on campus, but all we could find was a cat, so she had to be content with that! You can often find ground hogs and racoons on campus, but they seemed to be hiding that night! So she headed off the next morning and then we spent Mum and Dads final weekend here driving with Donna and Jim up to see some of the great lakes and lots of different kinds of power plants and farms, which Dad and Jim got very excited about! Then Mum and Dad headed over to England, and I came back to York! 4 weeks after the strike started, it is still continueing, although the university is actually meant to meet with the union today, which is a positive step! Until this point they have been communicating through a mediator, so we will see how it goes! If it continues much longer I will need to start doing alternative work because i won't be here for tests and exams at the end of semester! All the lecturers have been really helpful though, so hopefully I will be able to work something out!
So lifes pretty relaxed at the moment... no work, no class, very few obligations! It's giving us more time to see Toronto though, and possibly travel, as well as say goodbye to people as many are leaving now! It's snowing every few days, which we gegt excited about, but it only snowed enough to stay on the ground once, although we had some good snowball fights that night! Campus is very deserted and about 70% of the people who live here have actually gone home! It's a bit rough on the restaurant owners cause they're loosing so much money, and a lot of them are immigrants who have started a family restaurant, and they all work there. The most frustrating part is having no idea when the strike will end and hence what work I should be doing, and if I can leave and go somewhere! It's nice to have time to explore here though, and start on my scrapbooking!
Hard to believe I am leaving York in about 4 weeks and will be home in less than 2 months! Love to hear updates from you all!
Laura
