Well hellooo and now it is time for the update of my Christmas (and pre-Christmas) break. Our "Christmas dinner" in the flat was on Nov. 30...because that was the only time we could all get together before the break. I made a video of it...but one site I uploaded it to is being dumb and keeps putting it in some weird file...and then google videos just takes a long time, so I'll let you know (as always) when it's finally up.

It was a good dinner though. We got a pre-stuffed, pre-cooked turkey...well part of a turkey...it didn't have the wings or legs on it. But it was good. It only took about an hour in the oven and it's not like I knew how to cook a turkey. And then we had veggies and stuff...pretty much the same as they have at home. The thing that was the most different was the "pigs in a blanket" which you'll see in the video. At home, it's like tiny sausages in a pastry, but here it's tiny sausages wrapped in bacon. I don't know which I like better...both very tasty! Nov.30 was also Katherine's 21st birthday so we were going to The HiFi for Motown night with some of her friends from class and stuff. It was quite amusing cuz with that kind of music no one really cares what they're dancing like...and I was the official picture-taker so that was lots of fun. I had to be up super early the next morning though to go to "Germany" so I left before most other people.

Now skip a week or so...cuz I've already explained the whole "Germany" trip...class finished on Friday the 9th and I flew home on the 13th. That weekend I basically spent researching for my stupid Anglo-Saxon Cultures essay that was due when I came back in January. The original plan was to have the essay done before I left, but with my procrastination techniques that was never gonna happen. I actually didn't even finish it over the break...I waited until the day before to do it after I came back to England...it's so bad. I really have to stop doing that, but I swear I do my best work right before it's due!

On the 13th I had to get up at some ridiculous hour...5am I think. I had to catch a train to Manchester Airport at 6:30 and I'm sure I could've slept in an extra 15 min. or so but after "Germany" I just wanted to get there early so I had no problems. There was no way I was gonna miss my flight home...cuz by this time I was ready to go home. You know, you start missing people, missing Tim Hortons, Dairy Queen, snow, hockey games...
So then I had to get a flight from Manchester to Heathrow and Heathrow to Toronto. Thank goodness my luggage just got sent through on to the next flight because four pieces of luggage is pretty exhausting when the terminal you want is on the other side of the airport. My flight from Manchester to Heathrow was possible the loudest flight I've ever been on. Do me a favour....put your lips together and vibrate them. Yeah, that's what it sounded like. But it was only like a half hour flight. Oh and we flew right over that big gas explosion or whatever it was outside of London, all you could see was this huge plume of black smoke. Heathrow to Toronto was alright cuz I got to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but I hardly had any leg room...and I can never sleep on planes so I was so tired. By the time I got home in my house it was about 3am England time...and I'd been up since 5am, so I was tired, but when I got home all I wanted to do was talk and visit so I was up for another couple hours after that.

The whole Christmas break was a blur though...I went to Hamilton a couple times to see the "family", I went shopping...for Christmas presents and for myself, oh yeah...and I got my wisdom teeth out. That was a joy, I'll tell ya! I had to get all 4 out and they were still in my gums...they weren't even causing me problems, but the dentist's been wanting me to get them out since before university started, so I figured I should get it done cuz the last thing I want is to have to get teeth pulled here in England. So I had to get anaethestics but when they intubated me they had problems so they rubbed against my throat a bit...and it was actually the sore throat that hurt the most. My teeth were fine after about 3-4 days really but my throat hurt all the way up to Christmas. Turkey and stuffing were pretty much the only things that didn't burn on the way down.

You have to check out this picture of me and my brother though...I got him an England Rugby jersey (yes Chris, the same one I got you) and I got this whole olympic get-up from my family for when I see the hockey game...and Mom was taking pictures of us in our new clothes but Robert was being stupid so this picture was the result:
Oh yeah, and you have to see our massive Christmas tree! The day we were gonna get our tree it seemed like they were sold out everywhere, which sucked cuz I made my family wait til I went home...but then one of the centres said they were getting about 40 trees in the next day...so we went back and they were all huge! Like the diameter of this tree was bigger than my arm span...biggest fattest tree we've ever had!!

New Years was good, eh girls? Me, Mel and Sher went up to Sudbury cuz Sher goes to school there and their house was having a party. We got to watch the Canadians beat the US at the World Juniors...so that was an added bonus.

Speaking of the Juniors, I flew back on Jan.5th, which was the night of the Gold Medal game against Russia. And I was so mad because my plane was supposed to leave at 8:15pm which meant that I would miss the whole game, and chances were pretty good that they weren't gonna show it on the plane. But, my flight got delayed until 11pm which meant that I got to watch the whole game at the airport! It was great! The thing that sucked about the delay was that when I arrived in Heathrow I was originally supposed to have a 3hr layover before my flight left for Manchester. Except now my layover time was 15min! And I had to switch terminals! So there was this other lady who was on my flight so we were rushing around together...and it turned out that she used to live in Stratford...and then when she moved from Stratford she moved to Burlington or something and worked at Mac! And then we ended up sitting together. Hey guys...do we sense one of those weird coincidence things again? It always happens to me! So anyway we made our plane thank goodness...just as they were saying "Final called for flight yadda-yadda to Manchester". Then when we got to Manchester, we found out that our luggage didn't get transferred because there wasn't enough time in between flights. And as much as that sucked, it meant that I could get my luggage delivered to me instead of lugging everything through the train stations like I did on the way home. So, all these bad things that happened ended up being for the best I guess!

So I'm here now. For the next 6 months. I brought back 12 packages of Tim Horton's Coffee, 500mL of 100% maple syrup, and a package of Oreos (although it's down to half a package now). Hopefully it'll tie me over til I get home again.
Oh man and I can't believe I forgot about my snow! In my stocking for Christmas "Santa" gave me this white powder stuff that if you add water it looks just like snow, just not cold. I say that's the best snow ever! So it's in a tin in my room now. And all I have to do is rewater it every once in a while and I can have snow forever!