Looking for Redemption

I am a horrible person. With this whole "minimal blogging" regime I've been carrying on, I completely missed blogging about one of my favourite subjects: Canada in all its awesome glory. Canada Day has come and gone and I wasn't here to say a word about it.

Canada is the best country in the world to live in. I've been to a few other places around the globe and they are all pretty cool, but still haven't topped the true north, strong and free. Canada has got it all: free healthcare; gorgeous mountains; big lakes; Tim Horton's; and unlike the Americans, everyone loves us! If I had to list only 10 things that I love about Canada, here's what I would put (in no particular order):

1. We're bilingual. Your country automatically seems cooler if it has two official languages. Now if I could just get around to actually learning French...

2. Loonies and Toonies. For some reason, having 10 dollars in loonies and toonies makes you feel richer than if you just had a $10 bill. Plus, there's a loon on one and polar bears on the other. How cool is that??

3. Multicoloured money. I love it when Americans rip on our coloured money, and now their money is gaining some colour too. Ha! Our 5s are blue, 10s are purple, 20s green, 50s red and 100s a browny-gold.

4. Our national animal is the beaver. The Americans have the majestic eagle, the English have the fierce lion and the Canadians? The beaver. I love it. They're cute and build dams. I mean, daaaayaamm, that's legit!

5. Hockey. We've got the best national sport. Ever. Well - the Aussies picked a pretty good one too (rugby). But I could be the most patriotic, red-blooded American and you still couldn't make me sit through a game of NFL football, or - heaven forbid - baseball. I shudder at the thought of being forced to watch a baseball game. For the love of all that is good in this world, please, anything but baseball. And you know what Johnny Lingo's favourite sport is? Baseball. I nearly dumped him right then and there when I found out that lovely little tid bit.

6. Perogies. I've been pretty tight with the missionaries that have come through in our ward for the last 6 months and one thing that they all say is that they love the perogies here. Americans don't have perogies. That is a crime against humanity! No wonder they always seem so grumpy, Krispy Kremes can't satisfy like a tasty dumpling stuffed with potatoes and cheese dipped in sour cream can. Mmmmm ^-^

7. Canada's really big. The Americans one-up us on everything: Population, economy, athletics, crime... But they will never be a larger land mass than us. And with our smaller population, we've got even more room to move around. Boo yah.

8. Tim Horton's. When I came back from Australia, the first thing I saw in the airport was a Tim Horton's stand. I hadn't seen one in a month and it was like Canada was saying to me, "Welcome back, have a donut." I always feel a little swell of patriotism whenever I see a Timmy's.

9. Our flag. So simple. So distinctive. So freakin' awesome. Red, white and a maple leaf. Who'd have thought that would be the recipe for the universal symbol of cool?

10. EHHHHH!!! I actually feel proud to be a Canadian whenever I catch myself or someone else slipping that into a conversation. How do you feel about that, eh? Take off, eh! How does a Canadian spell Canada? C-EH-N-EH-D-EH.

So what would your top 10 favourite things about Canada be? Are there things on my list that you wouldn't have put? Will you forgive me for not blogging this on Canada Day?

He Shoots, He Scores!

As the 2010 Vancouver Olympics come to a close, I can say that I have never been more proud to be a Canadian than I am now.

I've watched the Olympics before and every year it has been the same story: Canada's athletes put in their best effort, but usually fall short. This year however, was different. We broke the record for the most gold medals ever to be won at the winter Olympics! The last gold medal we earned was the icing on the cake.

Ya'll should know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the men's hockey game against team USA. It was the most intense 3 hours of my life! Both sides played an amazing game and really, it could have gone either way, but naturally, Canada came out on top.

I've seen a lot of atricles lately that have discussed the increased levels of patriotism around the country. It's fantastic! Canadians are breaking the reserved image that we had before. We are letting our national colours show with pride and gusto.

I hope this feeling never dies. I love Canada! I. AM. CANADIAN.

Let's Pull it Together Boys

ARGHGHGRGGHHHGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!! D=

Canada lost the hockey game against the Americans. It's okay though. We can still get gold. This is just a minor setback. I watched the first half of the game, then had to leave to go to a fireside. I'm pretty sure that's why we lost. I wasn't watching!

McFLY kept me well updated on the game and when the Americans scored their fourth goal on us, it was hard not to cry out in frustration. The final score was 5-3 . . . And I was having such a good night too. And! To top it off, they didn't have refreshments after the fireside. How was I going to be comforted from the hockey game? Maybe I should have cried onto a boy's shoulder.

Geeze Louise. I did, however, get one good thing out of tonight: I learned a new phrase. "Suck a duck". Thank you Erin.