Exactly a week has gone by since we moved to Canada, so obviously a good amount of events have happened. but I guess it's always best if you start from the beginning, right?

Moving Day

After about 4 hours of sleep, we woke up on the day of the flight at about 7am to finish cleaning out the house. There were still last minute brushups we needed to finish, LOTS of trash to throw out, lots of people taking our furniture, lots of vacuuming, and we were still packing. Amazingly, and I swear this was by the grace of God because if someone came into our house that morning, they would never have guessed we were moving to a different country, we finished and we were out to the Philly airport.

our very empty room

the few outside my good ol' window

After checking in and all that jazz, we were aboard our first plane, from Philly to Chicago. We sat in this tiny plane for 4 hours until the pilot finally announced, "Folks, it looks like we're not taking off afterall due to inclement weather." During those four hours, I caught up on some sleep and finished Agatha Christie's And Then There were None, which I really enjoyed and recommend you read if you're just sitting around being bored.

So we got off the plane and we found out the next flight to Chicago was the next day at 6am. My siblings and I were like, "EFF MY LIFE." and I think my parents were pretty much thinking along the same lines. They figured there had to be another way out, so they found this ol' guy who looked experienced, and he ended up getting us tickets, first to Toronto, which was going to leave within that very hour, and then Vancouver. On the flight to Toronto, I sat with a very elegant, old, Canadian woman who had a slight British accent. We discussed all things being Canadian and eventually ended up with nothing else to talk about. To avoid those awkward glances and shifts of movement that you have after meeting strangers, I started reading Diary, by Chuck Palahniuk, which I found to be a rather sad book, full of emo ideas, and depressing statements on life. But it's a CRAZY read. and I recommend you read this book too. I promise you'll feel like someone slapped you when you weren't looking.

waiting four hours in a tiny plane + still in Philly = boooo

looking rather hopeless after we got out of that silly plane.

Just so you know, flying from Philly to Toronto only takes 55 minutes. The bag checker inner peoples were the first Canadians we encountered, and I immediately appreciated their way of life: my brother was rushing through the bag check, and telling me to hurry up, when the guy checking our bags stopped him and simply put his finger to his mouth, and told him, "Shhh. Hey--there's no need to rush. Take your time."

I knew I arrived in Canada :)

Take off from Philadelphia!

Hello, Toronto!

picking up our bags in Toronto

On the flight from Toronto to Vancouver, we had the lovely surprise of finding out that we had business class seats. 'Twas a great way to end an exhausting day. I enjoyed a decent meal, and watched "He's Just Not that into You" and "Duplicity," which were both lame. Don't bother watching those movies, if you haven't already. We finally landed in Vancouver at 12:45am,Pacific time. so for you Eastern time folks, that would be 3:45am. The Vancouver airport, by the way, is STUNNING. There are beautiful fountains with great, tall Eskimo art and sculptures. I wish I took pictures, but I was too tired to reach into my bag. A lot of it was in construction, in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Hello, Vancouver!

we happened to pass by this on our way to our new house

We were greeted by a crowd of adults from our new church who came to welcome us and escort us to our new home, which was really nice. We finally arrived at our new house at 2:30am.

In conclusion, after running through a hectic day on only 4 hours of sleep, three mountainous pimples invited themselves on the lower half of my face.

the end.

coming up next: canadian cuisine, the bizarre features of our new home, opinions about the place and the people!

if you have specific questions or requests about something Canadian, feel free to tell me! that way i have something to look for/think about.