Back in the USSR!

I am back in Canada for 11 days and it has been pretty insane. I can't lie.

First, the idea of flying across the Atlantic was exhausting. Since I obviously had to go, I got pretty excited [although mind you, a little later on in my journey] and now I'm drawing all these links between life in Canada and life in Finland.

For one, it is so crowded here! Toronto gets progressively more crowded and traffic gets worse and worse each year. Any local will notice. But it's a little different once you leave and don't see the progression take place. It can be rather overwhelming for anyone, any way.

The amount of time spent in a car is astronomical... I had to go down to the Chinese Consulate to get my visa for China. THANK GOD I went last Friday. The drive took me over an hour because it's in an area that is unaccessible by highway [not that the highways actually go at highway speeds during rush hour]. And it's open from 9-11:30am in the mornings so I just figured that would be better than going in the afternoons. I finally got there, lined up for an hour, dropped off my application and asked that it be rushed so I could pick it up on Monday. When I went back on Monday, the line for Visa applications was, quite literally, out the door. And the line for MONEY ORDER payments of visas was... well, I didn't have to wait at all!

The sad thing is, no matter which direction you're going these days, there is likely to be at least one traffic jam on the way. And no, you can't really walk anywhere worth going here... or at least I can't. I have to walk 15 minutes to the bus, take the bus for 30 minutes before getting to the subway and taking that for 30 minutes to get downtown... so that's not very ideal. And from this respect, I miss Finland.

That being said, I've been visiting people left and right since getting here and I am so overwhelmed. I meet up with someone for a few hours and then I have to say good bye again and I really wish I could see them more often.

And the moral of the story is... I either need to be in two places at once or everyone should move to Finland. [Both of which sound rather unlikely.] In any case, I'm definitely really grateful to get to see at least a few people every couple of months. And to know that friendships stretch out far beyond geographic borders.

... and that was my morning of individual reflection. Now I have to go meet Eric! And then this afternoon, it's off to Montreal for less than 24 hours, as per usual.