Blindfolds and Ferris Wheels...

 January 30th is a special day in my world. Carly, my sweet blonde from California, was born this day. Last year, being not only her first birthday away from home, but also being spent in the foreign country, Christina and I toke it upon ourselves to make her 19th a birthday to remember.

Seeing as 19 is a major year for Canadians... Not only because it's the legal drinking age in the majority of our provinces and territories, but... Yeah, that's all I got...

We adopted Carly into the world of Canadian living for a day. Armed with the classic Vancouver 2010 mittens and warmly dressed we headed to our first top secret destination: Angelina's.

For those of you requiring it, Angelina's is a cafe outside of the Louvre that has been around and operating since 1907. They claim to serve the 'World's Best Hot Chocolate'. Whether or not it is the best is hard to contest, all I will say is that they entire $10 hot chocolate is an experience. It is served it a pitcher, with a bowl of fresh whipped cream and a large pitcher of ice water. All needed because it's so rich, but as a true chocoholic I will admit to wanting more when everyone else had had enough.

Greatest part of this adventure though? The trek there on the subway we all got to talking and Carly mentions that she would be so embarrassed if we blindfolded her and lead her on the streets of Paris. Of course, she wouldn't mind this, but she would DIE of humiliation. Ummm... Okay. So we blind fold her and make her look like a special person in the lineup (a longer wait than the Louvre...).

The giant Ferris wheel was still set up at the end of the Champs Elysees and it seemed like no better time would present itself to ride it. Carly wanted to really badly anyways and it was her birthday. By law we were required to make her day even if it required fondling statues and impromptu photo shoots across the city.

Fountains and street art are no stranger to find there as Mazda 3's here and we stumbled on a few notable things before our master jackpot: THE GREAT CANADIAN PUB!! That's right my friends! There is a pub in Paris dedicated to being 'Canadian'. Evidently to be 'Canadian' all that is requires is:

• Moosehead in bottles
• Poutine, made with grated cheese and shoestring fries... 
• And American waitress?

Still felt better about it though. For those of you visiting and interested, its on the same bank side as the Eiffel Tower but nearer Notre Dame... Yep. That's your map. 

The weekend brings snow

More snow for Ottawa. Always more snow. It is January after all. And I know that people stereotype Canadians as being weather-obsessed, but can you blame us?
Seriously... If you have lived through 5 Canadian winters I deem you a citizen because only real Canadians not only deal with this lovely weather, but some people also love it.

Personally, I'm just going to hibernate until April...

The forecast... If you wanted to prepare yourself for a weekend of skiing or fort building (or staying inside with wine and pj's...)

Day or Night?

Least favourite thing about this time of year? LONG NIGHTS. It's always dark! I mean thank you god I sleep till noon if I can, but I always wake up at 6am and can't seem to figure out what the hell is going on. I mean, reasonably it could be either evening or morning. Maybe I just dozed off in the afternoon. Maybe I slept all day. Maybe it's the morning. I wake up disoriented.
Then you expect me to work and it's pitch black when I either start of when I leave. Tell me of a job where I can go and leave in the sunlight and that pays well... With benefits. Any? Yeah. Thank you rotation of the earth around the sun making everything cold and slippery and dark. You have booby-trapped the Northern Hemisphere and I for one and unhappy about it. 

Ever Evolving Christmas Plans.

My grandpa is still in the hospital and it looks like we have two possible outcomes that are likely:
Option 1: He is released on Friday. Infection free and happy.
Option 2: Infection is still present and the doctors will operate and amputate from the knee down to stop the infection from spreading any further.
All I want for Christmas is to spend it with my grandpa... He's the one that wears the suspenders and plaid button down shirts and buys the hat with a solar panel fan in the bill. He grows the best tomatoes. He makes anyone laugh. So maybe Christmas will be spent in Ottawa with the entire family... Or potentially I will drive to the hospital and spend it in the country with my Gpa.
How are you spending the 25th? Are you even religious? Do you celebrate or go to the movies?
Merry Christmas soon all <3

I'll probably photograph my shopping escapades on Saturday too for you all to witness <3

A Year Ago vs. Current Day

So Considering how long it usually takes me to post... I figured I might as well retell some of the tales of my year abroad loosely around the time I did it... But for the Summer part... I may need to post here and there because there is a lot to write...

Hey Sam, Are those even pants??
Just kidding, You look cute...
BUT SERIOUSLY. We planned to be out all day... In the cold. 

I'm just sitting in the basement. "The Man Cave" as my dad is currently calling it... He is concerned about the increasing levels of estrogen creeping in to his "Spyder Web" or something. Love you daddy.
My laptop is broken... So it's just sitting there all pretty and not turning on. Awesome. I think I might have sent the Euro MadLibs to Christina's laptop at some point... I hope. Long train rides to write those... But that's okay because there seems to be a constant supply of pretzels on hand in the basement...
But I am waitress-ing again. Work. Distractions. Money. Cash tips. It's okay. Fun.

Sam on top of Christina and I... So cold.
And we don't care but we have tickets for this bus and it's the last one of the night. So we need to be on it to get home. 

Last year this time. I was watching kids choirs in a play ground in France. I was decorating a tree and cleaning my room for my sister's visit. I was packing for Barcelona and baking cookies and not dealing with wet cold. There was no snow for Christmas and New Years. We froze because we dressed like idiots and top an open air bus tour and didn't want to sit inside for some reason (Come to think of it... Maybe it wasn't an option? We FROZE.) We ate seafood and drank wine on Christmas Eve and opened gifts at midnight...

Christmas is a few days away and I still haven't gone shopping. I work Thursday and Friday too... When is CHRISTMAS... Sunday right?

OH THANK GOD. Checked. Sunday. So. 6 DAYS. Get your poop together.

Happy holidays all. Safe holidays. You have a teenager that owes you a favour and can babysit of dd you home... Just saying.


xo Jenelle