Snowpocalypse

A week ago I returned from a fortnight in Canada (another place where they don't have the word 'fortnight'). I can finally tell the difference between an American and a Canadian accent, and I now have Canadian Winter Olympic mittens, a Canadian Beaver Canoe t-shirt, a Beaver Canoe hat and a Canada hoodie with another beaver on it.

Aside from getting lots of clothes as presents, I had a really great Christmas. I thought it would be weird to be away from home, but I was with family and recieved a recorded birthday message from my grandmother. The first night I arrived, Toronto was hit by an ice storm which damaged the power lines, cutting off electricity. I spent a few days pretty much in one room because it was the only one with a gas fire. Fortunately my Kindle battery lasted.

Once the power was back, I went to a cottage that my cousins own, which is by a lake. I had been there in the summer before but never the winter, and it was completely different. The snow was so thick that walking to the cottage from the car was difficult, and because the pipes were frozen there was no running water. The highlight was walking to a nearby island across the frozen lake, which was eighteen inches thick. I then played ice hockey (I say 'played ice hockey', I ran around with a stick for a bit) on a pitch that the people at the neighbouring cottage had made by clearing an area of snow. I was playing with an eleven-year-old and a ten-year-old who were both significantly better at hockey than me, and with a mischevious dog who kept stealing the ball. There was also another dog there that my relatives were looking after, who was blind and kept bumping into things and crying. I spent a fair amount of time in a sauna with a seven-year-old pouring orange juice on snow and then eating. I'm not sure if I really like saunas that much, but it's great to be able to walk back through the snow in shorts and a t-shirt afterwards.

My flight back to Indianapolis was delayed by a day because of the polar vortex, which is an amazing name. On the day I left Canada the polar vortex shifted east, so that it was -23 in Canada and -12 in Bloomington. It was nonetheless so cold in Bloomington that I was panting after dragging my bag the two minute journey to my building from the point when the bus stopped. Yesterday it was a freakishly warm 10 degrees. 

It's good to be back in Bloomington. The two new professors I have had so far are extremely eccentric, and I have once again rented textbooks from someone called 'Chandler', and resisted the urge to say 'Could I BE buying any more books ?' or doing an impression of Janice from Friends every time I see him.

Recent Questions From Americans:

1. Do you watch Sherlock? Have you been to the places where it's filmed? Like...London? 

2. Alan? (In response to me saying my name. I personally preferred 'Adam.')