Christmas in North America

Hi, It's Paul again writing from Toronto !

As the snow storm rages outside my bedroom window, I sit at my desk blasted by a hyper-powered heater revising for final exams. Ok, so one thing that I didn't realise before I came here was that first semester exams are sat in December... Ridiculous I know, but then again less to contemplate over the holidays.

Anyway, enough about exams I just would like to boast about Christmas. Firstly, there was a 'Santa Parade' in Toronto on the 25th November. For some Brits this may seem premature, but for me it was already very late!!! Santa was on the 25th float, after 20 marching band, but he was SO worth waiting for 2 hours to see. (Also, 4 Mounties joined the parade and that's the only time you'll see them anywhere near Toronto - SO worth it) Following this lights were erected all over downtown, the CN tower (still an obsession of mine) adopted the colours of Christmas (green and red) and free sweets (sorry, Candies) are handed out everywhere!

Unfortunately I'm abandoning this beautiful country for the holidays, not for England but for the States. I'm meeting a fellow Notts student, who is currently frozen somewhere in Illinois State, in Washington DC on the 18th December. Then we'll be moving on to Philadelphia for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Finally we'll find ourselves somewhere in Boston for New Year's Eve. I cannot express how freaking excited I am about it! It will be amazing - guaranteed. And it's ridiculously cheap because we're already over this side of the pond.


I realise that not going home is a big deal, but I've already been here 3 months and it feels like 3 hours. Time runs out so quickly whilst you're here, that you really have to make the most of it. And at U of T you only get 2 and a half weeks off for Christmas, so going home would be pretty brief anyway.

One final note about the amazingness of Christmas over here - Megabus has a strange day (which was actually yesterday) where they offer free tickets to New York from Toronto, and guess who got return tickets for them and 6 friends.... Yes, me! I know, shocker eh? Last year I spent Christmas in NYC and believe me it was not free. All in all i'm paying 12 cents for the tickets - which is roughly 7 pence. Amaaaaaaaaazing!!!

So that's it for now, eh?

Be in touch soon. Merry Christmas!!!