In layman’s terms (or for those of you living in Rio Linda), Ottawa is Canada’s equivalent of America’s Washington D.C. – different system of politics but the same level of waste and corruption still exists…but I digress. This trip was not, as some of you may think, a diplomatic mission where the US sent me to better understand Canadian culture and why, for instance, they color code their money to be strangely similar to Monopoly currency.
No, no – I ventured to Ottawa for two main reasons...firstly as an invite from my good friend Jelena, secondly because I wouldn’t have to drive in the snow thanks to another good friend Angela and thirdly (ok apparently more than two reasons) I had nothing else going on for the weekend and thought “what the heck?”
During this time of year Ottawa hosts an annual winter festival titled Winterlude where people – believe it or not – celebrate winter (add that to the list of cultural understandings) with musical guests, ceremonies, ice sculpture contests and my new favorite part of Canada, skating on the Rideau Canal.
After a late arrival Friday evening and battling some pretty intense traffic through Ontario our 5 hour car ride turned to 8 hour car ride delivered us safely to the house of Matt and Rebecca Cragg, host and hostess extrordinaires who graciously opened up their home to us to stay for the weekend. Rebecca, a native Canadian, lived for a number of years in Japan and as such has an incredible knack and flair for Japanese culture. Following a true career passion, Rebecca now runs Camellia Teas of Ottawa in which she hosts official Japanese tea ceremonies and trains people to be tea hosts/hostesses . Over the course of the weekend Rebecca prepare for us what can only be described as the most incredible tea I’ve ever had. Much like wine growing and making in California, there is a very intricate process to growing, harvesting, processing, distributing, making and even pouring tea…who knew! A very BIG thanks to Matt and Rebecca for opening up their home.
On Saturday Jelena and I ventured downtown to explore the Winterlude festivities including touring the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Art (I witnessed my fist Picasso painting), ice sculptures, pulled pork poutine (delicious) and then was able to participate in an official Japanese tea ceremony hosted by non other than Rebecca. After spending Saturday evening with a friend of Jelena’s currently in law school we woke up early Sunday morning to attend church with Angela’s family (her brother-in-law Michael works for Parliament in Ottawa) and then lunched with the family back at their home. Michael and Brenda (Angela’s sister) have a little boy Levi who quite possibly ranks as one of the cutest kids in Canada.
Later in the afternoon the three of us, Jelena, Angela and myself, headed back downtown to participate in the most coveted of all Winterlude celebrations – skating the Rideau Canal. The canal runs through the middle of Ottawa and in part separates Ontario from Quebec. This man made structure was built long ago to allow for better Canadian access in case of a war with the United States (I guess they didn’t think we were going to be so friendly!) During the winter the canal freezes and provides an 11km long ice rink free of charge. So in -20C weather we laced up our skates and set off down the canal for an afternoon stroll. Along the way we stopped for some delicious Beaver Tail pastries (yes, they actually have food stands, skate rentals and bathrooms on the canal – so convenient) and after 2 km of skating we called it a good afternoon.
To cap off the weekend we met a friend of Jelena’s on Monday afternoon for lunch. The friend, Daniel, just happens to work for Canadian Parliament and as such was able to take us into the Library of Parliament on a “VIP” tour not normally extended to standard tours – thanks Daniel!
On Monday afternoon as Jelena, Angela and I were making the long trek home I received a phone call that I’d been waiting for more than a week and that has now changed the course of my time in the Great White North. Fellow blog readers, The California Canuck is going home. The call was from a company who I had been interviewing with over the past couple of weeks and decided to extend me an offer to join their Sacramento team. The company, AdFarm, is a full service public relations/marketing firm with offices in the US and Canada. My new official role will be Account Executive and I am very excited to be joining an incredibly well established, innovative and forward thinking organization. Although bittersweet to leave my new Canadian friends I am ready to be back in the California sunshine – I arrive back on March 12th.
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| Ice Sculpture |
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| Building of Parliament |
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| Jelena loves on some poutine! |
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| We survived Angela's driving |
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| Rideau Canal |
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| The skating Canadians |
