Quick Update

We're taking a break from our regularly scheduled broadcast of Canada updates to give you some UAE updates.

First off, in one week we are going to the Maldives!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See, the end of Ramadan is marked with a celebration called Eid, and we have 5 whole days to run down to the nearest beachy paradise and go scuba diving with hammerheads. Yay!

Ramadan has brought its fair share of boredom -- all the stores are closed during the day, or open at strange hours (like, the post office is open from 9-11am and 9-11pm. How convenient!) Well, that and the heat that is still ever present. Sure, I'm going to work every day (sometimes rather begrudgingly, as there are no teachers or students at school yet, and the whole building is being simultaneously demolished and rebuilt and rewired and repainted....), but long afternoons and evenings have prompted me to finally apply to do my MA in Applied Linguistics and English Language teaching through the online programme at the University of Nottingham. If I get accepted, I will start in January, at the same time as Ty starts his CELTA.

So, yeah, by this time next year, we'll both be smarter than we are now.

In other news, we got more furniture in the living room, so it's looking more like a real house and we're finally going ahead and painting our bedroom. We wanted a greeny sage kind of colour, and have ended up with avocado. It's still quite nice, and we will post photos once we get the furniture in and hang pictures and such.

Canada – The Whirlwind Tour – Part 2

July 18

Virginia’s mom had told us that we were going to be joining up with everybody at Andy’s for a family reunion. Boy, were we surprised.

When we got there tables and chairs had been set up in the lovely front garden, and Andy, Dominica and Mum Virginia in particular had put a huge amount of effort into making things look good (for example by putting flowers on every table), and into organising food and drinks and all.

As people started to arrive, we realised that something was up, as we kept on being handed cards that were full of money by people (some that we barely knew), which held greetings like “Congrats the newly weds.” We were so overwhelmed by the number of people there (upwards of 50), that we only properly clicked that Mum Virginia had organised this as a kind of late wedding reception, a fair bit into things… when a cake (which was heavenly) arrived with Virginia’s Grandparents’ wedding statuettes on top, as well as the tiara that was worn by her grandmother when she got married.

Having finally managed to herd us over to the cake, which was not an easy task as we had both chosen this opportune time to go to the bathroom, we stood there and grinned, feeling that perhaps a bit to much fuss was being made over us, and finally cut the cake, to the genial cries of a horseshoe of happy relatives.

The day turned out to be lovely and sunny, which was a huge relief to Mum Virginia, with wonderful food, and good people who all had a lot of fun.

I’d did get to meet one of V’s best friends Meron on the day (Kelly was there too), which was good, considering that we’d be spending the night and the rest of the day at her house.

July 19

We had a lovely chilled out day at Meron’s, just hanging out in the garden (should clarify that to yard for all the Canadians), and she and Dave prepared pork tenderloin kebabs for us… lip smacking goodness.

We needed a couple of these break days over the month and they always came at just the right time. Wonderful and relaxing.

July 20

We made an early start so we could catch the train to Toronto which would be our first trip away from the St. Catharine’s area. Wow did we fill that time.

We arrived in at Union Station, Toronto shortly before noon. The station is a huge old building, outside of which were plenty of modern buildings. Toronto is like this throughout, with old meeting new at every corner. One instance of this, and something that adds charm to Toronto, is the fact that there are bright red electric street cars (i.e. trams) still running all over the city.

It was onto one of these that we jumped, to make our way from the station to Karen and Tony’s apartment, where we would also meet up with Matt and Helen. All four are friends of Virginia’s, who she met in Korea.

Together we went touring the city by foot, and covered a great big part of it for one afternoon.

We headed through China Town on towards over to Kensington Market which is full of arty shops, selling fun crafts and clothes, and some blatantly using their fun locations to pawn off some uber-touristy things (so I bought, of course, some moose socks :D)

After an hour or two of wondering around, we made our way out towards the CN tower. The tower is certainly one of the prides of Canada and as the signs on the walls freely boast, is the tallest free-standing building in the world (553m), and has been for the last thirty years.

This begs the question “what happened to the Burj Dubai?” Well technically speaking the Burj now holds that title as it topped out at 818m just recently, and passed the height of the CN tower about 2 years ago. None the less, the CN is still the world’s tallest completed freestanding structure… for a bit longer… and thus one of the best views out there (except if you happen to have a job at the top of the Burj).

On the way up the CN you ride in a glass floored elevator, which is a thrill. And what a view it was when we finally got to the top.  360 degree  views of  Toronto, past the lakes; and on the day we were there it was clear enough to see the horizon, and just get an inkling of the curvature of the earth.

There are big glass panels in parts of the floor of the tower-top, and you can stare directly down to the ground over 500m below. (also you can lie down and pretend you are skydiving and afraid for your life).

 

Following our trip to the top of the tower, after a quick stop to a real North American hotdog stand, we met up with Karen who had been at work all day, did a bit more walking, then headed back to the apartment, and split up for a guys/girls night out. Matt, Tony and I headed out to watch a really brilliant band called The Datsuns, and could be seen making our way home (and chatting to homeless people) in the early hours of the morning.

July 21

We left Tony and Karen’s fairly early to meet up with another friend of Virginia’s, Kat, who went to university with her.

The Canadian weather had up until this point played right into our hands, providing sunny, warm days when we were doing anything outside, and rain on days when we were inside, and it didn’t matter, or was indeed a treat. This day was no exception.

We had seen that the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) had an exhibition of the Deadsea Scrolls on, and so the three of us headed up to the museum under a gloomy sky, which would turn to a heavy rain once we’d entered the museum.

Unfortunately I’d been fairly fluey since arriving in Canada, and started to feel deathly ill at the museum. That having been said, the museum was wonderful enough that I pulled my way through and still thoroughly enjoyed the day.

I loved the Scrolls exhibition, as apart from the scrolls they had plenty of artefacts - ancient roof tiles, jars, bone carvings, and cooking pots- that were in amazing condition. The scrolls on display were unfortunately not the larger, more complete scrolls that were found in some of the earlier discovered caves (the bulk of these major scrolls are on display in the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem, bar one which is in the National Archaeological Museum of Jordan). Rather we saw some of the tiny fragments (of which more than 100,000 were found) that were discovered outside of their shattered containers in other caves and took scientists decades to puzzle through and piece together. “The Deadsea Confetti” Virginia lovingly called them.

In the collection were various books of the Bible (fragments of all of the books of the Bible, except one, have been found in the so far discovered scrolls), many books that were not canonised into the Hebrew Bible, but none the less still religious works, and many others which contained anything, from the rules of war to a cure for leprosy.

The rest of the ROM was amazing too… and far too huge to complete in one day even though we only left at 6 in the evening. My favourite section was the was the Egyptian galley, which had, amongst tonnes of other things, an entire papyrus “Book of the Dead”, a cast of a huge wall full of hieroglyphic sculptures telling the story of a journey made by one of the queens of Egypt and the discovery of many never seen before animals and treasures, and an amazingly preserved mummy (looking at it made me feel truly creeped out for one of the first times since I was a young child – very cool).

I also saw my first real moose!! Although sadly, it was  stuffed.

July 22

After a nice night of “kuiering” at Kat and John’s and then splitting with them after breakfast we headed out towards the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario), where there was to be – alongside its mainstay exhibits – a surrealist exhibition. We both enjoy galleries as it is, but being someone who loves Dali, and any kind of slip-slidey, dream-like art, this was an absolute treat for me.

The AGO really is an impressive galley, housing a huge array of art from around the world. Definitely on a highlight of Toronto , it is one of the best, probably the best, gallery I’ve been to.

And again, we didn’t get to finish it all unfortunately, even though we spent the entire day there (it’s huge), before we had to make our way back to Union Station to catch our train back to St. Catharines on time.

Leaving Toronto we saw a news team (City TV) who were preparing to shoot. Presumably they were covering the story that the Via trains would not be runn   at surprised ing because of an impending strike. Luckily for us the strike only came a few days later, and seeing as we were to hire a car from hereon out, would not effect us.

July 23, 24

The next two days we ded icated to seeing and doing everything in and around Niagara Falls. Bridget, Virginia’s niece, works at the falls, and she was kind enough to give us of a book of tickets, so that we could do everything in the area… for FREE! Thanks again for that.

We started the day by picking up our rental car (which involved all kinds of needless hassles) we went to Strega, where Ann found us for lunch.

We then took a drive down to the Falls and used the first of our coupons to do the ‘Whirlpool’. This involves taking a cable car out over a sharp bend in the Niagara river, a fair bit down from the Falls while a bored 15 year old announces in her most glaze-eyed monotonous voice, the wonders and history of the Falls.  Hilarious, but hardly required as the view from the cable car is divine on its own . The currents in the bend cause a large whirlpool (and incidentally some of the more dangerous rapids around), between the steep walls of a canyon.

We followed this up with a drive down to the Falls actual and walked around at the top for a while. They really are incredible, powerful and majestic. One thing is that you can stand almost on the edge of the falls, while behind you, 20 or so meters, is a fairly busy road.

We used the second of our tickets to get down behind the falls. Given plastic raincoats, you are ushered down a long subterranean walkway, and pop out at a spot more than halfway down the falls and nearly underneath them. WOW is all I can say. They look so much bigger when you’re right under them like that.

That evening we headed to the Casino for a fun filled hour of low coin gambling.

The next morn we woke and headed back to the Falls again.. but our first stop was to sneak into the Department of  Transport(?) building to try surprise another university friend of Virginia’s, Tiffany, at work. This we finally did, after being sent from office to office, sneaking through secure doors as we went.

After visiting with her a bit we headed out to do “The Maid of the Mist” which is a ferry that takes a cruise along the river, and then stops in the mist of the Falls, right inside the horseshoe, so that you feel like you have waterfalls all around      , which you do. Once again, I felt speechless at the sheer power and majesty of the thing… it boomed.     

From there we took a walk up Clifton Hill, which is like walking through and open plan amusement park. There are lots of fun things, like haunted houses, the World Guinness Centre, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, and rides, right out in the street (this was definitely another of those “as seen on TV moments for me”. We stopped at an arcade for a while, and eventually won ourselves a tot glass.

In the evening we stopped by at Ann’s house again for supper (which I’m pretty sure was hamburgers, or included pork of some kind).

Mom yoys Ty at Strega

There's a marching band in my backyard...

... or to be more precise, the marching band was on the soccer field that's right behind our apartment... and it was 8:45 pm.

We watched the men, all in uniforms like you see on American TV, and decided that instead of buying paint for the bedroom, we'd head out to see what all the fuss was about.

[During Ramadan, quite a few stores are closed during the day, but open much later at night. This includes the post office, which has very convenient opening hours of 9pm - 11pm *sigh*]

We headed out, hit by the heat as we left our air conditioned cocoon. We were dressed pretty casually in jeans and shirts (mine long-sleeved), and weren't expecting to do more than take a quick look around, then leave.

We went up into the empty bleachers, noticing that there were a lot of gold chairs set out in one cordoned-off section, as well as a glassed-in spot right up top. Workers and security guard were wandering around, and the sound crew was attempting to get the sound system working. The field itself was full of balloons, some decorated with the Sheikhs' faces. The marching band sat off to one side, sweating in their heavy uniforms.

We stood and looked at what was going on. Emiratis in white dishdashas shouted orders at different people, pointing and yelling into their cellphones. After about 5 minutes, a large Emirati man approached us from the gold seat section and asked, "Are you happy?" before instructing us on how to get into the gold seat part! We'd stumbled on the opening ceremonies of a two-week long soccer tournament.

We sat on the ornate chairs, alone in the section of about 20 seats, and were surprised by steaming cups of sweet Arabic tea (and speaking of steaming, we were both sweating profusely by this point). We sipped the tea and watched as a young guy in a dishdasha handed out hats and shirts to various workers on the field. Another guy came by to give us coffee, and yet another guy brought out some sweet fried bread things.

We sat there, watching as the organizers ran about, getting everything in order. We still weren't quite sure what the etiquette was for us to be sitting there, but nobody seemed to mind our presence. In fact, another stately Emirati man with a perfectly trimmed beard came up to us with shirts and hats bearing an Abu Dhabi logo (funny thing, he also addressed us first with, "Are you happy?") and tickets for a draw to be held later in the evening.

At one point, the marching band started up again, and some kids in soccer uniforms carrying flags and framed pictures of the Sheikh walked through a balloon arch, followed a line up of men in matching shirts and hats carrying placards. With our limited Arabic skills, we managed to read a few of the signs, which all seemed to correspond to cities or companies from the area. The announcer explained nicely that this was "just practice".

The stands on either side of our gold VIP section started to fill up, kids ran around with confetti-explosives, we got more coffee (the cup is filled while the coffee guy stands there and waits for you to finish, and he keeps refilling the little cup until you tell him to stop), and finally... it seemed things were starting.

The marching band came out in formation onto the field, the real procession of kids and men with placards went through the balloon arch. Behind almost each placard was either a full soccer team, or 3 people, or nobody at all - think of a quasi-Olympic parade, I guess. The band played the national anthem, and a little boy sang a verse of the Koran from behind a podium. Sheikh Hamdan, the ruler of the Western Zone (his palace is in Liwa, across the valley from the hotel we lived in) gave a speech, and everything was cleared away for a small laser light show (on the soccer field, crossing over the marching band that was still standing there). The funny thing about the laser show was that it was rather random: It started with words like "Happy Birthday" and "Happy New Year" flashing, followed by the alphabet, and then a few random shapes. We think it might have just been the demo program from the laser machine.

Finally, the soccer players arrived.

Two teams, one in red and one in white, but all with the number 90 on their jerseys (???) came onto the field, posed for photos and started playing. They were not exactly, um, the most athletic looking people. The older men sitting behind us were actually giggling once the game started.

As each team scored in turn, everyone applauded politely. I leaned over to Ty and asked, "Which team are we supposed to be pulling for?". He just shrugged. During all this, there was a very loud play-by-play (and how the announcer could do that while every person was wearing the same number is beyond me....). Happily, this game only lasted about 20 minutes.

Having sat and sweated there for about 2 hours, we took this as our cue to make a graceful exit. As we walked past the sound engineers, one of them ran up to us and asked us why we were leaving so early. We explained that we had to get up early and needed to get to sleep. He asked us to stay, explaining that the prize draw was coming up soon (he is also the one who explained to us that the match we'd just seen was the UAE World Cup team from 1990, which is why the players were all a bit older than your average soccer player, and that this was the start of a Ramadan soccer tournament, organized by Sheikh Hamdan). Finally, he took Ty's phone number and our tickets and said that he would call us if we won anything.

We returned home, our jeans damp from the heat of the evening, and were relaxing in the living room with a cocktail when... yes, Ty's phone rang! His ticket had been drawn, but we had to come to the field NOW. We both ran out the door, across the parking lot (where a group of teenage boys laughed and clapped for us) and into the stadium again. Ty was handed a bag with a wrapped gift inside, then photographed by a veritable paparazzi, then gently shooed away.

And his prize? A new cellphone -- which is amazing, since his phone is literally falling apart. And it's a nice one too: full colour, camera, video and a million other things that we haven't figured out yet.

We might head back over the next two weeks to see other games.... or just look out our living room windows.

Canada – The Whirlwind Tour- Part 1

Having arrived back in Madinat Zayed after a cram packed holiday in the land of Canuckistan, we began our first few days by swapping out the previous tenant’s furniture (stove, fridge and bed being the most important), and have spent the last week shopping, and installing, repairing and reinstalling. I think we have settled in enough to begin the Canada trip blog in earnest (though we still don’t have a proper bed yet, but are sleeping on a lovely fold down couch that we bought for the spare room for when you all come to visit).

There is a whole lot to write about and it’s going to have to be done in stages.

For all those who have not been there, Canada is a fantastically scenic country, full of character, a distinct culture that is most definitely very Canadian (the stereotypes are more or less true… in that you see them everywhere, if not in each individual Canadian), and cities, towns and hamlets, each boasting a different personality.

I’ll start with the whirlwind tour giving an overall of people and places, and we can make a few specific stops along the way in the next couple days/blogs.  You realise that for each day I could write an entire long entry, including historical facts, scenery, personalities etc… But that might take a year or more so to write. Here is a photo a day(ish)  glance  through the last month and a bit… with some random expanded descriptions here and there.

July 14

We arrived at Toronto airport after a 14 hour flight, and were greeted by the smiling family, Mum Virginia and Al, Virginia’s (Ruth’s) brother. Mum Virginia had donned an African shirt and was waving both South African and Canadian flags. 

We met up at Mum Virginia’s place (after the drive from Toronto to St. Catharine’s during which I discovered the Great Lakes, or one of, skyways – amazing bridges soaring over the lakes – and what Toronto looks like from across the lake… and what Toronto looks like from across the lake where :D ). I tried pierogies for the first time, met V’s sister Ann and her kids (waving from the balcony, “hello uncle Ty”), and this was where we slept for the next 4 nights. Oh and Kelly, one of Virginia’s best friends stopped by for a bit too.

To me Virginia’s family was actually one of the highlights of the trip. The family is a lot of fun to be around… really a great bunch and a laugh a minute if not more… And Mum Virginia is the sweetest person ever.

July 15

I had a happy morning of bacon and egg breakfast. Visited and met more of the family. The plan for the day was to recover from jetlag and eat Macaroni and Cheese, so…

We went to Al’s house where I met Sheila, and three of their four kids.

From there it was on to meet V’s uncle Andy and his wife Dominica at their grand house which overlooks some of the loveliest vineyards in the region.

This was followed by a visit to Ann’s house where I met her husband Dave and learned all about micro-brewed beers and wines in Canada. We also grabbed bikes for the following day.

Of course everyone wanted to feed us at each stop, so we obliged…and then collapsed into bed at Mum Virginia’s that evening.

July 16

We woke early and took a long bicycle ride along the Welland Canal which joins Lake Eerie and Lake Ontario. To understate the size of the great lakes, would be, I believe, to understate Canada (as it would to understate the amount of fresh water everywhere, the sheer size of the country, and the people’s undying love for anything maple, anything beer and anything well remotely Canadian… any shape, size or form… Canadians love being Canadian). The lakes are massive, and a visit to their shores feels like a visit to a rather quiet oceanic beach. But I digress.

The Canal was built as a shipping lane between the lakes as it was felt that the trip down the Niagara river – which also  runs betweens the lakes – and ultimately over the top of Niagara falls was counterproductive to say the least.

We spent the entire day whizzing along on the bikes, stopping to pick raspberries as we went, or to watch as massive cargo ships sank or rose, as they moved through a series of locks (there are eight… we saw three) which cover the 10o or so metre difference in heights between the two lakes. Oh to be cool enough to be outside for hours on end… it was heavenly.

Later that evening we went through to the Strega Cafe (the restaurant that Kelly owns) to enjoy an open mic night and meet up with some of Virginia’s friends from way back when she used to work there.

July 17

This was a day I’d been nervous about and looking forward to as well. Virginia left me with her mum so she could catch up/drink Mojitos with Kelly for the day and so I could really get to know Mum Virginia, and she could get to know me a bit better. A fearsome thing when 3 days into meeting one’s in laws. I think Mum Virginia was as nervous as I was though.

So having rid myself of V (;-p) , we went for a gorgeous drive where I got to see just how beautiful the neighbourhoods in Canada can be, and also just how green (which we found almost overwhelming, but most welcome after so much brown and sand in the UAE). First we headed out to a lovely marina, then to a tree lined 9/11 memorial, which had been supported by one of Mum Virginia’s friends.

This was on the way to Happy Rolph’s which is a petting zoo. Calling it a petting zoo underplays the place quite a bit. The walk there is a walk through thick forest with birds flying everywhere(of course including the famed Canada Geese), with a bright wide open vast lake - Lake Ontario - on one side, and earthy, tree crowded, dark little ponds teeming with life just a little way to the left. The petting zoo is just the full-stop before leaving. They did have llamas which made me very happy.

 

Mum Virginia then drove us through Niagara on the Lake which is probably the prettiest residential area in the world… really. I found the style the houses are built in all over Canada to be lovely. We stopped at one point where a couple were getting married at the Niagara River, to check out Fort Niagara on the American side (which is a massive stone fortress), and Fort George on the Canadian side (which never got much bigger than a courtyard surrounded by sharpened sticks).

We then headed out towards Andy’s house again and stopped to look at the Brock Monument on the way. Again, a lot of history here but I’ll leave you to look that up if you want.

Having lunched at Andy and Dominica’s for a while, I was dropped back in St. Catharines at Kelly’s place with V, where we visited a bit longer and then headed home for the night…

I loved the post boxes in Canada… One of many “as seen on TV” moments for me".

… to be continued.