Canada 2017

For the six years I've lived abroad, every visit back to Canada feels a bit different. It's as though I am experiencing snapshots of the lives of those close to me as well as snapshots of my life in relation to the Canadian perspective. Post-secondary education to new jobs turned established careers ... boyfriends to fiancés turned weddings and new homes ... It's an interesting experience and makes me continually cognizant of how I experience my life and the relationships that I have.

I digress.

Canada!

A trip that has somehow turned into an annual event. This year had a sole purpose: Meghan's wedding. Due to PH's working schedule, I headed toward the homeland on my own. The pain of the nearly 24-hour travel day is numbed by the anticipation and excitement! I departed Korea 10am on a Thursday morning, and arrived at 10am on that same Thursday morning in Canada.

The day after arrived, it was time to celebrate Meghan at her Harry Potter themed bachelorette. It was a thoroughly eventful day but all I seemed to get a picture of was my blank canvas at 'paint night'.

And finally PH was able to escape his job and arrive in Canada! Jetlag was particularly unkind to us during this trip, but as it goes we didn't have time to slow down. We spent a night in Toronto celebrating some birthdays and were surprised with a cake and a toast from our most thoughtful friends!

We were finally able to check out the judo situation in Ontario. We are very grateful to the gym for allowing us to visit for a few days and for being so incredibly welcoming. I've been to judo games before but it was the first time I had directly seen PH do judo!

I'm going to have to write a completely separate post about wedding planning in two different countries, but on this trip we did our best to nail down details of our Canadian wedding that we could (dress, venue, caterer). Did I mention it was a busy trip?

After a morning of wedding details we unwound at the local beach which may have been my favourite moment of the trip, despite the impending thunderstorm. All Korea has is salt water beaches, and maybe it's a "you want what you don't have" kind of situation, but when I was in Canada I only ever heard about peoples' yearning for the ocean and salt water and, well, it's overrated. I'll take this slightly discoloured, freshwater lake over the sticky, salty ocean any day.

Another weekday brought us down to Toronto for some more judo action. It happened to be near a Korean restaurant, so we couldn't pass it up. The biggest culture shock thus far has been the restaurant charging $18 for a bottle of soju (typically $3 in Korea).

On my short trips to Canada, I'm usually only able to share a meal or two with my friends, so I was elated to be able to steal my friends for a few days to escape into the forest.

After rejoining civilization, we had plans to see the Jays play the Yankees and had a bit of time to kill so we visited some fishes and jellies at the Ripley's Aquarium.

And then it was the big event

prep.

and execution.

No one could have asked for a better day ... the weather, the people, the fun. It was an amazing, amazing day and I am so thankful and honoured to have been a part of this day!

Our remaining days in Canada we winding down, so we tried to squish in all those last minute details. We decided to rent a car last minute, so we ended up with the most non-descript Korean car that could ever exist. It's literally a Korean taxi. Hyundai Sonata. PH was less than pleased. ㅋㅋ 정말 미안해 ... But the fried things made up for it all.

On the day before our huge trip back to Korea, why not continue the adventures? Despite growing up less than an hour away, I had never been to Casa Loma and didn't even know what it was. Seeing this old castle nestled amongst modern life, it paralleled feelings I had when I wandered around the palaces in Seoul.