A Full Belly.

Today we went to my friend/coworker Nemo's house for an American Thanksgiving feast. We all arrived at around 1pm, ate at 2pm, then played games and hung out till late tonight. I couldn't believe we stayed there all afternoon and night, but that's what they do in the states on thanksgiving, it's an all day event.

There was about 18 of us for lunch, and then another 20-30 people came just for pudding ('dessert' to CDN's) later around 6pm ish...we had fireworks in the backyard (with the neighbor watching us cautiously out his window with his flashlight) and sparklers! It was so much fun, and the food was delicious. I was in charge of bringing pie and cranberry sauce...first time I have ever made cranberry sauce from scratch and I must say...it was great!

I ate so much today, seriously, I was feeling the turkey hangover.

I am thankful to have a chance to celebrate Thanksgiving, even if it was a month late :)

Random Thought

Random Thought: Some stereotypes are true...

While on our staff team we laugh and mock about all the silly British stereotypes that people actually believe which aren't true, there is one that is very true: British people love their tea. We drink tons of tea! I drink at least two cups a day if I have meetings or am over at friend's house.

Good thing I like tea, and good thing my mom got me into the habit of having tea in Canada...I have even stopped putting sugar in my tea, which means I am a real tea drinker (although some may argue with that!)

There are a few other stereotypes that are true and a few that are not true as in any culture, I guess.

Signage

I was pretty surprised at how many road signs I couldn't figure out or recognize especially when Tom and I went to Wales. We realized that we should have looked up some of these signs BEFORE we chose to drive across the country! But alas, it all ended well, and we managed despite not understanding several signs.

There is no shortage of signs here...there was even an article recently noting that in London there is 335 road signs in an eight mile stretch. That's pretty impressive!

But before you judge me for my lack of British road smarts...see for yourself, how many of these signs do you know?



This one stumped us most of all...cause we kept seeing it (and at the same time wondering, "what is the speed limit here?")



But before all my British friends laugh at me, I bet they don't know some Canadian road signs either! My question is, how many of my British mates, know what these mean?




Alright, I will save you time and give you the Answers:
British Signs:
1) Wait for counter traffic 2)No stopping 3)Stop 4)No parking 5)No overtaking (passing for us)
6)National Speed Limit applys (now wondering we couldn't figure out the speed limit!!)
Canadian signs:
1) Railroad ahead 2) lane ends 3)Hazard close to the edge of the road. The downward lines show the side on which you may safely pass. 4)Carpool lane - High Occupancy Vehicles only 5) No left turn on the red light

Our Trip to Wales...

Last weekend we took a trip to Wales for my birthday. Yes, we 'hired' a car and Tom drove on the other side of the road (and did really well, after the first day when, at times, I was a little afraid for my life). We travelled all over Northern Wales and spent most of our time in Snowdonia National Park. I can see why North Wales is a major tourist spot for the UK population (and the world for that matter!) It's a majestic place...full of mountainous fields of grazing sheep...and ocean, oh the ocean...I miss it! We stayed in a little sweet village called Conwy right on the ocean, with an amazing castle situated in the front of the village as a bold statement of beauty.

Welsh is a totally complicated language though...check out "rooms" for example in the hostel we stayed in.


They love there double consonants...

Check out this video of Wales it give you an idea of all that we saw...it was an amazing weekend, and we found great spots of visit again (without the crowds that are in the summer) and two amazing restaurants. One, called the Osbourne house was right in Llandudno on the coast. The other was an old Abbey in Snowdonia National Park.

http://www.canada.visitwales.com/server.php?show=nav.5210

Cheers!

Oh and here's a picture of Conwy, the village we stayed in.

Buskers in Oxford

While there are the average guitar playing buskers here, they also have some rather interesting buskers...my favorite is this guy who plays the bagpipes. It's so loud you can hear it all the way down the main street, but I like it cause I never get to hear the bagpipes, and somehow it makes me feel like I am in Scotland, or somewhere cool like that. The funny thing is, while I was enjoying his loud song walking down main street, and older woman (who totally reminded me of my grandma!) stop me and said, "Do you want to know the definition of a gentleman?". "Sure" I replied. Then she continued, "The definition of a gentleman is a man who knows how to play the bagpipes and doesn't."

I had to laugh.

Another thing that is kind of cool, is there is this girl who 'buskes' by drawing on the sidewalk creative and cool art with sidewalk chalk. I will have to try to get a picture of her in the future.

Best Phrase of the Day

"You just have to know it, deep down in your knower" (pointing to your gutt).

I never knew I had a knower. :)

When Old and New Collide...

This is one of my favorite pictures from London simply because the contrast between old and new architecture is so apparent. It's so cool to have a castle from the 1500's in the same space as a modern-day structural beauty (just wish I could photo shop the crane out of it...I guess I could...maybe one day when I am bored).