Winner, winner, Thanksgiving Dinner!

Hi All!

Thanks for all the positive reactions!
I noticed more people started following my blog so I will definitely continue writing in English(Sorry Jolanda).
This site changed since my last blog: Bangkok to Sydney. and leaving a comment is a bit more complicated now. If you have any difficulties, just leave a comment on Facebook :)

I feel really bad that I did not keep you guys posted and that it has been over one month since I last wrote a story for my blog. With the ending of my study period and travel plans in the prospect, I would like to start writing more frequently. I will use my blog as a real blog now. It took so long because I wanted to post a finished story. But if you encounter more and more experiences, the story is never finished. This caused the major delay of any writing on my blog. From now on I'll post every week(maybe more! please remind me if I fail to do so). These stories might be a bit smaller, but it will be more fun for you and for me! I hope you guys are still my faithful followers and are able to read this, so this message will not only be read by the few supporters from back home like my mom. Haha.

Enough of the excuses, here will be a small but legendary story:

Traditional Canadian Thanksgiving
After the great trip to the Niagara Falls my step-dad  Jo came around to visit. His first days were spend around the Falls and after he came around to see where I'm spending most of my time. It was great to see him again and he brought some really helpful attributes from Holland that didn't fit in my regular luggage, like my basketball shoes! These shoes helped me playing in the Intramurals. This is a league for students of the University of Waterloo and can be compared with the: "maandag avond competitie" from TU Delft, but this is for every single sport. We subscribed with a team full of international students. We were a bit ambitious and subscribed for the "advanced" league since we all played basketball before. Eventually we ended up not winning a single game because most of the players were a foot taller or more muscular than any single one of our team.

Back to Jo.
After a short meeting we decided to meet again at the end of the week for a small trip during the weekend and to plan our big trip for the weekend after. We spent our first night in Stratford and had some nice dinner and a few beers in a typical Canadian pub. The next day we drove off to one of the coastal towns around Lake Huron(one of the big 3 lakes). The town was recommended by some friends but because it was out of season it was totally deserted. We found a provincial park nearby and slept in a so called "Yurt". This tent fits 6 people and comes with central heating, beds and is a great way to camp if you don't own a tent. When looking for a place to have dinner we had troubles finding a nice crowded place. When we were super desperate we bumped into this tiny little restaurant called: "Paddington". It had only 12 tables and was completely packed. We were lucky that we managed to get a table. All the food was super fresh and after a nice appetizer we waited for out main course. Just when the main course arrived, this young girl started to play live music. Covers from "Mumford and Sons" to "Coldplay" were played and the entire restaurant was amazed by here voice. After finishing the delicious meal we ended up staying for another hour, just to enjoy more of the great music and ambiance.

On Sunday we did a couple of small hikes through the park and drove back to Waterloo. We made some plans for the following weekend and decided to meet on Friday morning again to start are big road trip.

This week I was busy doing midterms and finishing projects and assignments. Studying here feels really different than what i'm used to back home. Here it feels more like middle school where the teacher basically does everything for you and you have a quiz or midterm every two weeks. I am not sure what I prefer. On one hand it maybe helps you dividing the work and make you study more as you go. On the other hand, I think that you should learn to plan yourself and be mature enough to take care of it yourself since you are studying on a University.

I made some great friends here in Waterloo and one of them was kind enough to invite me to his house for Thanksgiving. I felt very honored, but I wasn't sure if I would be able to accept this offer. It felt like a big burden to bring two hungry dutch men to a traditional thanksgiving dinner. On the other hand, I was really curious and wanted to learn more about the Canadian culture. After asking several times if it was absolutely no problem to join them, we decided to add their home address to our itinerary.

My roommate left for New York on Thursday so Jo was able to sleep in his bed so we could leave early the next morning. We drove up all the way up to Bruce Peninsula, where we would also find a place to camp. The weekend we chose to do our big trip was splendid. All the trees were changing color a magical phenomenon what they call: "Indian summer". This actually already started a week earlier and I was afraid that we would be too late. Fortunately our trip was during it's peak! A couple of trees already lost some of their leaves but this didn't spoil the beautiful scenery full of yellow, red and green. Every mile we drove north we could see the trees becoming more red and more beautiful. You don't have to guess where the national colors or icon comes from.

After spending a night camping and doing some nice hikes we decided to wake up early(6 a.m.!!!) to watch the sunrise. This wild idea reminded me to all those early morning surf sessions, where you feel very shit but also very exited because in the back of your head you know that there is something really nice waiting for you. As we walked to the point where we would see the sunrise we were afraid that we might be too late. It was getting lighter and lighter and fewer stars could be counted. The first bay we thought to be we good for sunrise spotting turned out to be too much north orientated. We walked to the next bay and this gave a wonderful view of the Georgian Bay with small peninsulas reaching from the mainland into the water. Our fear of being to late was really unnecessary since we had to wait for another 45 minutes before the first light beams hit our faces and the beautiful yellow sun could be seen on the horizon.

Before I came to Canada, my sister gave me her old camera. It's a great camera and much better than the one I used in my previous trips. I just started to use the camera and I am starting to figure out all the little tricks to make the most beautiful pictures. As I am practicing on this trip I took many pictures just to try on the first day. Not thinking about the battery life and the length of our trip. During this sunrise the battery indicator told me it was almost empty! It was only 1 day and already was the battery life finished. This is also a part of figuring out a camera, but it was a very unfortunate timing. We had 3 days to go and I was about to see Canada's nature on its best. This however turned into a funny result. Because I never knew when my battery was totally finished I tried to stretch it as long as possible. Only making pictures that I really wanted to and immediately shutting it off after taking the picture without looking at the result. This felt like one of the old school cameras where you are only able to see the result after the pictures are being processed. It definitely boosts the quality of the pictures and reduces the time spend on selecting after! I do have to say special thanks to my sister because the camera has been a real pleasure!!!

Back to our trip.
After sunrise we drove to Tobermori to book our place on the ferry to the Manatoulin Island. We quickly drove to a nice lighthouse before heading to the island. The lighthouse was really tiny but was maintained by a super friendly man who couldn't stop talking about how his family already owned the lighthouse for years. With only a little amount of time we were not able to enjoy all of his stories before heading back to the ferry. The boat was very nice and we had some traditional fish and chips. It was such a great weather, there was no wind and I could just walk around in shorts all day! This was already October!!

After arriving on the Island we drove to my friend's place. It was funny, because his address only existed with a lane name, no number. It turned out that there was only one house on this lane and all the land surrounding it was owned by them. haha. Driving down the lane we ended up on a beautiful house with a small boathouse located right on a lake. It looked beautiful and it would be the perfect setting to retreat for a couple of weeks to write a book or look for some inner peace. After a short meeting with the family we freshened up and prepared ourselves for the Thanksgiving dinner.

The amazing smell of fresh turkey was noticeable from outside of the house. The house was just as beautiful as the nature surrounding it. Tristan and his family gave us a real warm welcome and it definitely confirmed why Canadians are known for being the friendliest people in the world. We started with a nice beer and after a quick appetizer and introduction talk, the feast began. The dinner was including a huge turkey, mashed potatoes, some vegetables and as a finish we had a home made apple pie with ice wine, a Canadian specialty. The dinner was delicious and once again I was very happy that I wasn't a small eater. Every single cell in my body enjoyed being there and saying yes to his invitation was the best decision I made in years!
I tried the delicious ice wine before on the winery tour, but I never drank it as a real dessert wine. It was wonderful and tasted very well with the apple pie. A traditional Canadian night could not be without watching a game of Ice Hockey. The Toronto Maple Leafs where playing and as new fans we started cheering for every goal they made. The leafs won in overtime and gave a nice ending to a more than amazing night.


To be continued!!!