Ottawa then London

Wow, it’s been almost 3 months since I got here, and I’m still talking about events leading up to me getting here. This will be the last one of those.

Eliott took some time off work to spend some time with me and take me back to London. Before leaving Montreal, I made sure to pick up some bagels for Crisia, who discovered the awesomeness of Montreal bagels when Eliott brought some to Kananaskis, and some authentic Montreal smoked meat for Nikhil.

Eliott and I decided to leave a day early so that we could visit Sarah and Brandon in Ottawa. For those of you who may not know Brandon and Sarah, Brandon has been Eliott’s friend since elementary school, and Sarah met them at Dawson. Brandon and Sarah got engaged last summer on their trip to Europe and now live in Ottawa as Sarah works on her PhD at the University of Ottawa.

Since both Brandon and Sarah were busy during the day, Eliott and I spent the afternoon in Ottawa walking around the market. I think all I bought was some maple sugar for Crisia who had no idea what maple sugar was. I will have to organize a trip to the cabane à sucre for these poor deprived Ontarians.

We had a very nice supper with Brandon and Sarah, complete with homemade pasta and ice wine. Brandon was very proud of his pasta maker; I don’t think I could ever go to that much trouble for pasta, but it certainly was good. Ice wine is awesome; I wish it wasn’t so expensive.

Brandon and Sarah revealed that they would be getting married this coming summer in early June. Sarah showed me a picture of her dress, which is beautiful; I can’t wait to see it on her. Brandon also asked Eliott to be his best man. I’m sure that we will have a very exciting time planning in the weeks leading up to June. I’m very excited for this wedding since this is the first time I get to attend a wedding for people I am friends with rather than for older relatives as a kid.

We left early in the morning the next day since I wanted to get to London for orientation, which was occurring in the early afternoon. I managed to get there just a little bit late, to the amusement of Nikhil. After orientation, Nikhil and Crisia had to take off since they had stuff to take care of for their new apartment.

Eliott and I spent my first real couple days in London getting me set up with some groceries, getting my cell number changed and putting together my new IKEA microwave and TV stands. We made many trips to Walmart to buy random useful things for my apartment and then to return/exchange other things later. At some point we did find time to walk around downtown. Eliott and I went to the Covent Garden Market, where they refused to give us hot tea because they ran out of cups. Apparently they only wash them once a day. We also perused a couple used music stores and went for coffee at Starbuck’s.

On the Saturday evening, which was the second day, we picked up Crisia at her and Nikhil’s new apartment. Nikhil was in Mississauga, so he was unable to join us. It isn’t that far to drive there from my place, but it looked like it might be difficult to get there by bus. We went for Hungarian food for supper and then to an Irish pub for drinks after. It took the bar almost half an hour to check our Quebec ID’s, and I’m not even sure they figured it out in the end. I wondered whether this would foreshadow what things would be like whenever I wanted to go out.

The next day I said goodbye to Eliott and was left alone in my new apartment in my new life here in London, Ontario.

For those of you who didn't see it the last time I posted it, here is the album from the end of April when I moved in to the apartment. Now there are a few new additions like a TV and microwave stand and my boxes are unpacked and my books in shelves.