Weekend Snaps

 Hey Homies! Hopefully everyone had a nice weekend. My weekend here was filled with activities and great people. Friday night me and Lauren supported our local hockey team Guelph Storm in a sold out season's second to last game. This time the Storm did not win but they still made it to the play-offs and there was a young Finnish guy in the other team so I didn't feel that bad for loosing to them. It always gives a good laugh when Annika almost 25-years old walks to buy a beer and gets one of those bracelets that they do not have to ask for me id every single time.

Saturday me and my friend Eniola had tickets to see the musical Once in Toronto. I was too late with buying my bus ticket and the perfect time was already sold out so I needed to leave 7 am and wait for her few hours in Toronto. I went to Starbucks and read my book while waiting and that was actually really nice. 

 The musical was great with Irish live music and dancing. We had the cheapest tickets possible but they ended up being just few rows from the stage and in a musical like this they were really good seats.

When I got back to Guelph from Toronto my roommates asked me go out with them. I was really tired from waking up that early but it was saturday night so why not? It ended up being a really good call because we had a lot of fun pre drinking at our house making fake tattoos and after we went to bar that became my new favorite.

On Sunday I met with the girls that I will go to Montreal with next weekend. We found yet another great and hip restaurant/pub from Guelph with great brunch. So exited for our trip! Laters!

Lucky Day

St. Patrick's day was one of the things I have been waiting for since I got here. Already in January everyone was talking about it. I met a young Irish guy few months ago and he said the St. Paddy celebrations in Guelph are even bigger than in Ireland. Well, haven't been in Ireland yet but at least here they knew how to have good time and celebrate all things green. 

 Some of our friends started drinking already ten in the morning. I needed to hand in a paper in my class so I couldn't start that early but joined the gang around two in the afternoon at a local Irish pub. The sun was shining, there was live music, great people and green beer. To me that sounds like a pretty good recipe for happy day drunk.

 I even made a new friend. Most of the people here don't even know how to pronounce my name but this girl had 3 different Annika's in her phone already. She said she hates them all. Hopefully she will still remember the greatest Annika she ever met tomorrow and we can catch a beer another time too.

Lets wrap it up with some semi random Irish love. It was a happy day here in Guelph, hopefully the good luck will stay with us for the rest of the semester.

Weekend in Barrie

Last weekend my roommate Becca asked me to go with her for a long weekend trip to her home town Barrie few hours from Guelph. We left already thursday night and did some very efficient shopping on the way. I noticed the weather is getting too warm for my winter jacket and gladly found a lighter spring jacket from the first store we walked into at the mall. 

Best part of the weekend was just a change from all the routines in Guelph. We went to the movies, walked through downtown, had some beers and drinks, saw her grandparents and just ate really really good during the whole weekend. Our house at Guelph is cool but it felt nice to be in a place that really felt like home for a change and get some love from her adorable dogs.

Only a little over two weeks and the semester classes are over and the final exams start. Before that there is at least theater weekend in Toronto and a long weekend in Montreal!

Spring Vibes

The weather has been absolutely beautiful for the past few days. Between Saturday and Sunday night we changed the clocks to the summer time here and since then feels like the nature also turned it's clocks to spring time. 

It's +5 degrees, sunny and it feels amazing to breath the spring air and walk outside without the air hurting your face. I'm just now discovering all these amazing nature trails that we have just a block away from our house. Went there last night just before the sunset for the first time and saw a deer!  Too bad it was too fast to capture for a picture.

Now that the temperature is decent I will try to come here as often as I can to load my batteries and just breath.

Vintage Treasures

 I'm in love with the vintage clothing stores they have here in Guelph. I could easily spend an hour in every single one of them and not get bored. All the pieces are selected carefully and the stores are decorated beautifully. We chatted with a girl who owns one of the stores and she told us what she does is she takes road trips and brings the treasures she finds with her to her store. I wouldn't mind having her job… Maybe some day.

This beauty went home with me this time and I already know it's gonna be my new favorite dress. 

Pictures taken from The Patch ( 31 Wyndham St N, Guelph) and Outpost ( 175 Woolwich St, Guelph)

Canadians are so Sorry…

Finnish people are known for not making a big noise about themselves and kind of acting like they're sorry to even be around. I need to say that Canadian take that to a whole new level. Don't get me wrong, Canadians are a lot more outgoing people than the Finns but they just like to apologize for everything, all the time.  Here are just few of the Sorries I have caught on camera.

Even the busses say Sorry when they are not in service. My least favorite Sorry is when I'm standing at the bus stop 8 in the morning and when the bus finally comes there is a sign that flashes: "Sorry, bus full! "

Apparently they also know how to joke about it…

Lights Out

The power went out today at our house. It has been raining  cats and dogs for few days (spring in Canada) so I guess it is no wonder that the icy rain was too much for the power lines. I was in the middle of a Skype conversation when that happened.  Being without the power for just an hour made me think of how thankful I am for the technology that we have today. Back home I could totally take some breaks from especially my iPhone but when you are this far from your loved ones it is just amazing that you can share your everyday life with them and talk to them almost every single day. Surely makes it feel like there even wasn't an ocean between us. 

 Other than that we actually had nice time waiting for the power to get back. We collected all our candles together and Sara and Jesse brought their guitars for a little jam. We didn't know how long it will last and I already made sure that if the power does not come back before the night I could have a sleepover with one of the girls. But it did and now it's a normal night again with everyone working on their own school things on their laptops.

Next good excuse for a candle night jam is the Earth Hour 28th of March all around the world at 8.30 to 9.30 local time. Last year I remember spending that with great friends in a candle light drinking sangria.