I'm heading to Montreal on Christmas day! Bus tickets booked and hotel booked. Don't know what I'm doing there yet and don't know if I'll have company but I've been given lots of recommendations of places to go and things to see. Should be fun!

I bought myself some figure skates and am teaching myself to skate! The tennis courts have been turned into outdoor skating rinks, so there is one right near my house. Unfortunately there is still no snow on the ground. I mightn't get a white Christmas after all. Oh well.

Well, I've had no internet for the last few days so I'm a little behind on photos, sorry. Today I took a road trip to Algonquin Provincial Park which was stunning despite the trees having already lost their leaves. The towns on the way there are already piled under snow. Snow really does make a place look like a picture book.

The first Toronto snow was a couple of small flurries earlier in the week. I was overly excited and ran all the way from the fourth floor of the hospital down the stairs to the ground level to try catching the snow on my tongue. I only just got there before the flurry finished.

Not quite a photo a day but I put up a few today to make up for it. I finally got around to taking the lift up the CN tower. The lift was fun but Toronto looks boring from above. It was a beautiful, clear day though. I also visited Casa Loma which is a Castle in the middle of Toronto that was build in the early 20th century in a medieval style. I think the guy must have realised Toronto had no history and decided to make up a history for it. He lived in the castle briefly before realising he was bankrupt and selling it off.

Sorry everyone for my lack of updates. I will now set myself a new challenge of uploading a photo a day onto my site so you get a bit more of a peek into what I'm up to.

Monday was Halloween, which is a huge deal here. You might have noticed in my photos the Death Star pumpkin I carved. I think that wins me major nerd points! I was also forced to dress up for the work party, which included a lot of candy, a costume parade, a pumpkin carving competition and other such usual "I'm at work" type of activities. I have done some other activities too, but I think I'll tell you more in a couple of days, otherwise if I put up all my photos at once, I'll have nothing to put up tomorrow, and my challenge will fail instantly.

I went to Calgary for 4 days to spend time with my Great Aunt and second cousins. It was lots of fun. Calgary is not as pretty as Toronto but it has amazing views of the mountains. We drove to Banff in the Rockies. The area is incredible (see photos). We also drove for 3 hours across the prairies to Brooks for a big Thanksgiving dinner and to see the Alberta Badlands. They were both stunning too. I wish I could have stayed longer but it was an excellent flying visit.

Sorry to people who check my blog. As you can see, I've got very lazy updating it. I went to Niagara Falls with a friend two weeks ago. It was a lovely day for walking along the gorge, sliding down into the gorge (away from the falls, where the drop is not as sheer - for those who were told that I jumped down the falls), and taking the Maid of the Mist boat into the spray of the falls. I got very wet and had a great time.

Last weekend there was a huge arts festival through the streets of downtown Toronto. The roads were closed to traffic and ridiculous exhibits and performances went right  through the night. The weather was freezing! Unsurprisingly, my favourite exhibit was the one where we got to participate in making large cannon-like tubes shoot fire. That was nice and warm.  

Yes, I'm thoroughly Canadianized now. I eventually got home from work yesterday and sat down to relax but a minute later, somehow found myself in a car full of hyped boys and loud music on the way to a hockey grand final. I went and cheered on the boys, with the rules being explained to me as the game progressed. I wish I could skate like that but the violence seems slightly excessive. The game ended with 4 goals to each side so our side lost. (I think it was something to do with having played the same team the night before and losing. I don't quite understand why they played the same team again in the grand final if they'd already lost to them . . . I'll put it down to Canadian logic, as I seem to do with anything I find strange here)

I did not much on the long weekend due to having an assignment due so I thought I'd better catch up on adventuring after work this evening. I missed the bus so I decided to walk the 1.5 hours home. About half way home I thought it would be fun to try getting lost so I caught a random bus running east and sat on it until almost no one was left on it. I did the true Laura thing of not registering what was going past the window, and the bus made enough turns that I didn't even know the direction I was facing when I got off on a random little back street over half an hour later. I walked in a random direction until I reached a major road, only to find that I was right near my work and had to begin the trip home all over again! That was quite a long trip home.

Some of my work colleagues took me to the Canadian National Exhibition yesterday. It was similar to the Adelaide show but with a huge food court, more sideshows and less farm stuff , shows, showbags and competitions. We had fun but I think Adelaide's Show is better. Every year the CNE has a new craze  in food. Last year's was deep fried butter, and this year's was Krispy Kreme donuts inside burgers! The deep fried coke was selling well too. I don't understand.