Welcome to the US and A, y’all!
I love America.
I’m not even sure if I can correctly articulate how much I adore American culture, but I suspect it’s because the US is so different from Canada. Everything is so surreal. They’re all so “GOD BLESS AMERICA!”, “SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!” and “WE LOVE TACO BELL!” … Just like in the movies or on CNN. (The different between the two, by the way? Not much.)
I know most people either have no opinion or a very strong opinion on America and American things, but I can’t help but fuss and giggle over nearly everything American. Like their accents. And their restaurants. And their food. And George W. Bush. I may not agree with everything, but it’s America. And being Canadian, you can’t help but marvel at how oddly different everything is.
Sort of like yesterday, when I asked the gas station attendant how to get back on the highway. After using the word “highway” to refer to the freeway (or is it interstate?) at least ten times in the span of about two minutes, he finally snapped:
“It’s the FREEWAY, ma’am. FREEWAY.”
My apologies. Back at home they call them big roads HIGHWAYS.
What’s up Toronto, what’s up?
I am back from my weekend in Toronto. All in all, I must say that it was one of the best weekends I’ve had in a very long time; we met some great people at the International Conference on Integrative, Complementary & Alternative Medicine (ICAM) & Mental Health (the reason we were in Toronto in the first place) and ate some superb food at number of great restaurants on Queen street.
By the way—If you ever happen to be in Toronto, I highly recommend you go to Fressen and try their vegan and wheat free chocolate dessert made with pure chocolate and AVACADOES for richness. I know that sounds incredibly nasty, kind of like those obscure bubble tea flavors like pork and strawberries, but trust me: IT IS GOOD. VERY GOOD. (I can’t say the same for pork and strawberries, however.)
Originally I planned on writing a bit about my weekend, but I’ll spare you the tedious pain of surviving the dreaded “post-travel report” and show you a bit of Toronto in photos instead. Behold:
Another major city in Canada besides Vancouver? Really?
Tomorrow morning at some ungodly hour (read: anytime between the hours of 2AM and 12PM) I will be making my way across the country to visit Toronto for the very first time. This trip will also be the farthest east I’ve ever been past HELL ON EARTH, Canada.
I wish I could tell you I’m thrilled, but really, I’m just sad because my favorite blogger will be in MY city when I will be out of it. TIMING, I HATE YOU.
Chanel goes to Washington, meets Hillary Clinton
Impossible, you say? But I have picture proof!
As you can see, Hillary Clinton (along with other senators Barack Obama and John McCain, not pictured here) were at the Washington-Dulles Airport on Tuesday, promoting their new lines of presidential campaign clothing and paraphernalia. America Votes 2008!
(See: GROUP PHOTO)
Now I understand how some americans can think we still live in igloos.
More reasons why I hate Alberta and never wish to go back:
- Sub zero temperatures during the winter months: i.e., spending the greater part of the last 72 hour weekend in -45 degree temperatures with WINDCHILL. Do you know what that means? It means that no matter what you wear and no matter where you are, you’re still cold.
- Bodily complications related with sub zero temperatures: frozen noses after being outside for 10 seconds, fingers that don’t work after 1 minute, frostbitten toes after 10 minutes, death after 20 minutes. Oh, and dare I forget the breathing problem? The air is so cold that my windpipe refuses to let it pass to my lungs: “Hmm, I see that Chanel is unwittingly attempting to kill herself by disguising liquid nitrogen as oxygen and hoping it passes to her lungs. REJECTED.”
- Did you know that salt doesn’t work as a de-icer after a certain temperature? Did you know that there are large metropolitan cities that live below that temperature cut-off for several weeks or months? ME NEITHER. They can call it whatever they want to to fool unwitting tourists, but I’ll tell you how it is: HELL. These places on earth aren’t “great ski locations” with “beautiful powder” or “incredibly scenic” - It’s a ploy the city comes up with to lure people into their death trap. BE YE NOT FOOLED.
The XanGo Invasion
I’m back from Salt Lake City, 500+ pictures taken and all.
Going to this year’s anniversary convention (aptly named “XanGo Invasion”) really reaffirmed my love for this company. Besides the announcement that we hit 1 billion in sales (second fastest company to ever hit the 1 billion mark) in less than five years and the unveiling of XanGo TV, it really solidified the idea that XanGo isn’t just a company or a product; It’s a charitable lifestyle that extends all over the world.
[You learn more about the company and its projects at the following sites: XanGo, XanGo’s philanthropic movement, XanGo Goodness, XanGo’s 5th Anniversary Convention, XanGo Invasion]
I’ve kept the pictures under the cut, mainly because anyone without high speed will probably faint at the size and quantity of the photos. So without further ado…
KFC in Looeyville
Over the breakfast table
Louisville, Kentucky
Mom, reading the city guide: (Surprised) “Hey, Kentucky Fried Chicken started here!”
For the past week I’ve been in Kentucky—Louisville, Kentucky to be exact. If you think visitors mispronounce your city’s name upon arrival, imagine what happens in a place where even the locals all pronounce it differently. Looval, Loouhval, Looeyville, Looville, and for those who haven’t yet learned that the ’s’ is generally regarded as silent, Louisville.
… And I thought I had a name easily screwed up.
The cookie got it right
As some of you know, I have been utterly overspread lately. Not that i’m complaining, but the last couple days have been non-stop 9 to 12 hours of my required active presence: Weddings, wedding parties, lunch invitations, family get-togethers, work meetings, order entries to be processed, a huge CMS transfer for our website (not this one) that is still in dire need of tweaking, emails to send out, calls to return, people wanting information, teachers needing to hear from me—all in all, just too much to do.
So when my father told me the family was going out to the lake with the boat for a couple days, I immediately said no. In fact, I believe my exact sleep-induced words were, “I have work to do”. But as the morning progressed and sleep departed me, I soon realized how much I needed a little getaway and at what perfect timing it did come.
Our first stop was Cultus Lake. This lake is located about 30-ish minutes off the Hwy 1, officially located in city of Chilliwack, British Columbia. For those of you who have no idea where Chilliwack is or what it is like, allow me to enlighten you: it smells like cows and looks like the country. Not exactly my kind of city.
Don’t get me wrong though—Cultus Lake is a cute place. There are ice cream shacks all over the place and people wander around in their swimsuits. It has a very relaxing atmosphere (I mean, where are they going to go anyway?) and since I have been told that the nature of a vacation is to relax, this was definitely the place for me to be.
So shortly upon arrival, we got in line (yes, in line—Have I mentioned how popular Cultus Lake is?) to launch our boat. Things are going great, lovely, peachy, and most importantly: normal. We launch. Things don’t go exactly according to plan at first (translation: the motor dies in the middle of the lake—there was a loose cord we later found) but everything is going well. We speed along the waters. Great. And then…
Dad kills the engine (on purpose this time) and walks to the back of the boat. He throws over the waketube we brought with us. He says we should try it out. The country air must have gotten to my head and dazed my perception of danger, death and being eaten by giant lakefish because I agree excitedly. Oh, Chanel.
I tried WAKETUBING. (Click for picture)
Need I say more? Those who know me should know how this is so uncharacteristically like me. Getting on a boat that doesn’t hold 500+ people and 300 cars was a step for me. Getting on a floation device that holds ONE, being pulled at high speeds and risking the change of flipping over and plunging to my sad, sad, death was a HUGE step for me.
[Just in case you’re wondering, I did survive waketubing. Somehow the device managed to stay right-side-up the entire time and I did not join my worse nightmares (also known as “big, ugly fish”) fifty million feet below.]
The rest of the trip was less ground breaking. My cell phone died somewhere between Harrison and Hope, and having no internet access besides brief five minutes in the hotel lobby to transfer money between accounts (something i’d forgotten to do before I had left), I was pretty much left without any way to contact the life i’d left behind in Vancouver. And you know what? It was fabulous. No calls. No texts. No emails. No things to do. No people needing things done, or needing to talk to me. No work. No school. No nothing, just me, my family, my dog, our boat, great food and lots of lakes.
Towards the closing of our trip we stopped to eat at chinese restaurant in Hope, B.C. The food was great, but the reason I even mention it is because of the fortune cookie I got after my meal. The cookie actually had two fortunes for me, and they said…
“Now is the time to try something new”
(waketubing)
“You deserve to have a good time after a hard day’s work”
(this mini trip)
Granted, I read my fortune after both had come true.. but fulfil my fortune? That I did!
