toot toot!

British Columbia in a nutshell:

- beautiful. Seeing the mountains behind every building is something else, let me tell you. I hope I never take it for granted.

- traffic. The highways, although surrounded by the hugest trees I've seen, are CRAMMED at 1 pm, and just nuts. While the mom-unit and I were cruising a long Highway 1 towards Abbotsford, there was a massive accident from the opposite direction. The STARS were called, medical personnel were everywhere, and police cars where stationed at every intersection: the entire opposing highway was at a dead stop. And they must have been like that for at least an hour, as people were out of the cars just strolling around, walking their dogs, or entertaining children. Seriously, it was crazy to see. But once your stuck, there's no moving.

- friendly! Shout outs to all the friendly people I've meet thus far: the taxi driver, the waitress at OG, the photo tech at Shoppers Drug Mart, and the TWU bookstore lady. No joke - it seems like everywhere I am, 90% of all employees are pleasant beyond belief. It is such a stark contrast to Alberta. Kudos for customer service.

- wet. need i say more?

- and never a dull moment. Okay, though a tad cliche, it rings so true! Just yesterday as we were bombing up this hill by my home-to-be, a dude was flying past us, down this gargantuan hill, sans shirt, sporting a red do-rag to keep his flowing locks behind his back, atop a lovely long board. (For those of you who don't know, it is a long skateboard. ) It was the definition of mental. Look it up in the dictionary. You'll find it. ALSO, I discovered a place I affectionately call Hell. It is a place in between here and Vancouver, by IKEA, with NO COFFEE within a 100 mile radius. And believe me - boy, did I look for one! My mom and I were shrieking, actually yelling, in our Cobalt, as were tripping out on a caffeine withdrawal, in the midst of nutso traffic, getting sandwiched in between large semi-trucks with scary old male drivers. It was a Kodak moment, at 9 in the morning.

I've been a resident of this province for just over 24 hours, and so far I just love it. I've had a grand old time! I've spent the most I ever have on books before ($735, to be almost exact), and will be framing the receipt of my largest purchase to date: $1,000 towards my tuition. Goodbye quadruple digit bank balances: hello Mc Donald's! Just kidding - Timmie's is the cheapest I've resorted to... yet.

In case you happen to be a faithful reader of my rants and raves, here's the plan for tomorrow, seeing how if you've read up to here, you must be pretty interested.

My mother and I will be hitting Walmart for our final go at school supplies & necessities bright and early. For example: gum, Tide, soap, Purelle, makeup, and so forth. Then, we will toodle through our mid morning/afternoon around places like White Rock (the parent's old hometown), Bellingham, Fort Langely, and possibly Vancouver, just seeing what there is to see. Expect photos, all you Facebook Friends. Afterwards, we are meeting with Mom's old boss and wife at good ol' Swiss Chalet for a hearty meal and good reunion - Mr. Boss used to be the Dean of Academics at TWU, while I was still a kickin' in Mom's belly. BTW, that's WAY LONG ago, for those of you who are mathematically challenged.

That's about all for now - I will be blogging like a mad woman during my first few days living at res as the beginning week is all orientation for us shiny new students (aka, freshmen). Thereafter though, I will try to tear my brain away from 'Mosby's Medical Dictionary' long enough to throw out an update here and there. Meanwhile, stay tuned! Thanks for reading.

Cheers,

D.

ps - the 'toot toot!' title comes from my Mom's new found habit of honking the horn of our car twice whenever she feels compelled to so so. For example, a 'gangster' drove past us in his low-riding truck, with sub-woofers you could hear from Nova Scotia. After I groaned about his 'gangster-ness', she went 'toot toot' for gangsters! She proceeded to do so for the blue PT that passed us, my home-to-be building which you can see from the highway, and for fresh fruit. Oh dear. Plus, the horn sounds like a child's toy. It makes for large laughs, and even larger stares.