Well I'm back from my 6 day vacation in Canada. My vacations to Canada are always weird because when I leave S.F., I really don't want to go, and that was the case this year. I really liked going to Math Camp and hanging out with the teachers and kids. But it was probably a good time to leave for a while as you could tell from the last post I wrote before I left. It's been a very eventful 6 days and here's a summary of the things I learned and experienced:

1. It's been 2 years since I've been to Canada, and I really wasn't looking forward to the trip as much as I had hoped I would. However, as soon as I got there, I started hanging out with my cousins and their kids, and that really made me feel happy for a change.

2. I did some shopping at the West Edmonton Mall, which at one point was the largest mall in the world (I think the new one in Minnesota beat it out). I picked up a few things. All you girls with your shopping habits would've loved this mall. It basically has every store, from Gap-BR-AE-Old Navy, etc. There's even a store called San Francisco. I didn't go in though.

3. Saturday was my cousin's wedding. It was really fun. It was raining in the morning much like it did for my brother's wedding, but it died down during the picture time, which was lucky. My cousin is a huge U2 fan like Wayne, so there were two U2 songs played. I think it was Beautiful Day when they entered and something else during the slideshow. Wayne would say that my cousin has "good taste", but I prefer to call it "not John Mayer."





The most fun part of the night was the dancing part. My little cousin was trying to breakdance on the floor, but he’s only 3 so he looked like an upsidedown ladybug trying to get back up. I can’t dance, so I had all the kids teach me how to do the YMCA dance, Macarena, and Chicken Dance. They know it much better than I do. I also danced with my aunt and she tried to teach me the Waltz. Since I have no moves, I had to bust out The Robot that I learned from watching Kenny. Kenford Ko has been doing the robot pretty much everywhere before I left to Canada, including Math Camp and CCU Volleyball. The people were so impressed with my robotics that they even started cheering “Go Allan, Go Allan.” That was my 10 seconds of fame in Canada thanks to Kenny. I need to go brush up on my moves for future weddings. It was the first time I had danced in public since Senior Prom. How sad.



4. Canadians use “Eh” instead of “huh.” For example, they’d say “You like John Mayer, eh?” instead of “You like John Mayer, huh?” Also, severe winters really kill the cars in Canada, so almost every car has a cracked windshield. The only cracked windshield I’ve seen in the U.S. belongs to Cal, whose blog site is now U.S. and Canada friendly.

5. I know I don’t have to admit any of the following, but I think I should. Canada’s drinking and gambling age is only 18 there. My cousin’s wedding had an open bar so I could’ve gotten any alcoholic beverage there I wanted. To be honest, I don’t even think my dad would care if I got a beer. I just stuck with Coke and Cranberry juice, but I did give in and took a sip of my dad’s Coke and Rum drink. My goal was to not drink or gamble at all this trip, but I can’t say I lived up to that goal. I took a sip of my dad’s drink with his permission of course, but the good thing was that I absolutely hated it. Taking that sip only made me want to not drink alcohol anymore because that curiosity is gone, so I guess that’s a good thing. By the way, I’m only 20. My cousin who is 21 also took advantage of the open bar with 2 beers and 2 or 3 other drinks throughout the night and was pretty messed up during the dancing part of the wedding.

I did go to 2 casinos while in Canada. I guess I was curious as to what a casino was like. I am an amateur at gambling and mostly just hung out with my dad at the casinos, which turned out to be really cool. He wasn’t there to make money either, so I’m glad he hung out with me. We lost about $15 combined the first time on blackjack and video poker. Then we lost about $7 the second night. I guess losing $22 Canadian money isn’t too bad. I think I would’ve been more reluctant to gamble money if it was American dollars, or as I refer to it, “Real Money.”

6. Monday night was spent celebrating the retirement of my Aunt and Uncle. There was lots of food again and a slideshow. They also celebrated my dad’s retirement, which is happening later this month.

I was really sad to leave Canada today. I grew close to a lot of people I hadn’t really talked to in a long time. The funny thing is that many of my little second cousins knew my name by the end of the trip even though I never said my name or anything. I also discovered that my cousins are huge John Mayer and Kate Hudson fans too. In fact, my cousin has 3 John Mayer CD's, and three of my cousins list How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days as their favorite movie. I really wish I could stay in Canada because I really love that family atmosphere. I wish I could see everyone in Canada grow up. Everyone in my family is so close and they all go on camping trips and BBQ's together. It just makes me wish I could be part of it.

Canada has actually become like a second home for me. I guess I wouldn’t rule out an extended stay in Canada in the future if things don’t work out in S.F. But S.F. is my home for now, and I thought about it many times during my trip. I thought about Math Camp, and church, and Bible Study, and Berkeley. Coming back always takes some time to get used to because like I said, everything around you is the same except you when you return. It was a good trip. Thanks for reading.