Blizzard

Saturday saw a slightly lazy getting up. When we had originally found out that we would be having brunch at 10:30 rather than breakfast and lunch at 8 & 12:30 respectively we thought we would all be starving by then and never manage. However when you stay up till 2:30 in the morning listening to people talk about angels and exciting stuff like that, 10:30 became a very reasonable time.
It was gently snowing when we (Sophie, Candice, Lizzie and I) called our cab to take us to the shopping centre. It had snowed overnight- about 10cm, which made walking rather tricky. So despite the fact that the Woodbine mall is only 20 mins walk away, we shared a cab there. Despite the fact that Woodbine is smaller and much more downmarket that the Eaton Centre where we went before, I have to say that I liked it much better. We had so much fun and everyone was so friendly. The cab driver was chatting to us on the way there, the people in the first shop we went into dragged us over to join them for cake, and then combined our bills to give us the ‘$10 off when you spend $50’ deal “just because your English”, and the lady kept us there chatting for ages! We found other shops where the cashiers were only too happy to just chat to us and recommend places to visit and clothes to buy. Admittedly the shopping centre was really quite empty (snow has that effect on places I guess), but even so I was pleasantly surprised by people’s general attitude. But then we found Woodbine’s crowning glory – Dollarama! It is basically like poundland, but half the price and about 50 times better. We found so much good quality craft material, and little nicknacks that we were in heaven. I got coloured paper, fabric leaves (they don’t look quite as tacky as they sound) ribbon, paper flower things, scissors, pens and pencils, a coat hook that hands on the back of the door, plate and cutlery (I have finally got fed up of using disposable stuff every meal time) and all for just over a tenner! Bargin!
By the time we had finished though the weather had taken a turn for the worst. There was freezing rain (very fine) blowing all around taking visibility right down and caking the roads in ice and snow. We managed to get a taxi in about 5 mins which was impressive. He had been diverted on his way back from somewhere and had no idea where we needed to go, so we had to look it up. Trouble was the visibility was so low that even with the map we struggled to follow it. I have never been so scared in a car before. It was sliding all over the road and I was praying very hard. My lessons came in handy though and I was able to listen as he assured me that he had his angels round the car and we would stay on the road, stay safe. Eventually the normally two minute drive was over as we turned into the church drive. Then it was really over as the driver turned to Candice and said “See now the car’s stuck! It’s stuck, no forward, no backward! Stuck!” in a way that suggested it was all our idea to get stuck. The snow was now about 20 or 30 cm deep and he had hit a snow drift across the entrance to the church and the taxi was stuck. We ran inside, or rather waded inside and managed to get a few of the lads who with amazing willingness came out and gave the guy a push for us, getting him out of the snow drift in a flash. Another adventure for the books.
After that we just had a quiet night. Most people went to watch a couple of films in the main hall. I took advantage of the empty and quiet room to decorate my journal and start my assignment for this week.



Then bed.