Stay cool till after school

After San Fran we flew to right across continent to Canada...

Since it was daytime I sat with my nose pressed excitedly against the window not wanting to miss any of the free aerial tour of the US I thought I was about to get....

Unfortunately, we didn’t appear to fly over anywhere that was actually inhabited. It was just brown, brown, and more brown....no trees, no houses, not even a single rock… just desert.

After about 30 minutes of staring at the exact same scene I finally got tired of looking... but I needn’t have worried I’d missed anything. When I woke up and checked again three hours later it was still the same – brown dust as far as the eye could see.

I found out later it was the Rocky Mountains... I was told this by the two Islamic men who were sitting next to me in turbans and robes...i was the only one sitting next to them on the flight and at first I thought ‘oh just my luck’, but later thought it was probably the safest place to be.

So, ever optimistic, I tried to make amicable conversation and hoped for the best, while the cop sitting in front of us threw repetitive nervous glances over his shoulder......

First up: “So what brings you to San Francisco?”

Oh, you’ve just been to an Annual Islamic conference...oh that’s er, that’s um, that’s great…

(planning what I don't know - I guess they could have been working on ways to fundraise for world peace or save starving children or something, but one doesn't like to question these things so instead I changed the topic hoping to talk about something uncontroversial – thank god for the weather :)

Speaking of that, I arrived in Toronto to 30 degree heat - so much for it being cold in Canada!

Everyone back home had been telling me to pack warm, so I asked Craig (who was in Boston the week before I arrived and had mentioned it being warm) to check the weather in Toronto for me.

“30 degrees” he said.

“No, no, not Boston,” says I, “Check Toronto”

“I did,” he says “it’s 30 degrees.”

Thank god I’d checked with him, otherwise I would have spent the past month sweltering miserably in woolly jumpers and thermals.

Unless you’re from Jamaica of course…

Craig and I are staying with Kim (my flatmate from Japan) at her parents place in the well off suburbs... it's all very leafy and the houses are all two story with cute little porches (they put their garages underneath their houses rather than to the side like we do as space is sparse here).

Kim’s parents had a friend from Barbados to stay recently and I was surprised to find her arriving on a lovely sunny day dressed in wool jumper and jeans, a stark comparison to my skirt and singlet.

What’d I tell ya eh – life’s all about perspective :-)

And so far, I like Canada’s weather very much… ask me again in winter though and I may have a different opinion for ya!

Stay cool till after school kids,

Till next time, Leafy.