Whee

Well. I survived the bus ride. It didn't aggravate my back at all, but it really gave me a sore butt. Plus I think I slept for about just two of the 25 hours. I still didn't get to bed till ten last night, but I was so tired I overslept this morning and didn't get up till seven.

When I talked to the loml after getting here yesterday (4:35p), I told her that the five hours from Toronto to Ottawa were my favorite part of the trip; not only because the Canadian sights are so much more interesting than the American ones (at least the American ones I saw on the trip out), but also because my seatmate was a young woman who liked to talk as much as I do. The loml laughed and said "Yes. I know how much you like young women." Not the point I meant to make at all.

I wish I could explain why Canada feels so different from the US to me, but I can't quite put it into words. It's more than differences in architecture, colors, unfamiliar stores and brands and foreign sounding words. There's a ... quaintness? ... no that's not it. There's just a totally different feel to it. As I said, I can't really explain it beyond that.

My sister brought out a ton (Well, Okay. Maybe just half-a-ton) of poetry books (and books about poetry or poets) to show me and said that they'd all be on the night stand by my bed so I could read them. Whew! What an expectation I thought. No. She assured me; not an expectation, just a welcoming gesture. I felt better.

This morning she showed me a chikadee with a worm in it's beak entering a small bird house just off their front porch and had me listen to the insistent chirping of the babies inside. This afternoon we're going to an Indian restaurant for lunch and then this evening we're going to a Caribbean place for dinner; a double helping of spicy ethnic food. Yum! I'm going to like Canada.

She's rented a wheelchair for me, so we can go sightseeing comfortably while I'm here. She's just the perfect hostess.

Right now, while I'm blogging, she's frantically studying for the citizenship test she'll be taking on Monday (she just found out it would be Monday yesterday and she had assumed she'd be given at least a month's notice, so now she's cramming). She's seeking dual citizenship, a move necessitated by our last general election (She's no fonder of W (Sorry. that should be 'w.') than I am).

I think I'll go look at the coffee table book on graphic literature again.