Welcome to the East Coast!

These houses line the streets of Halifax in all different colours. They're so pretty!
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My first flight ever was great! The plane from North Bay to Toronto was TINY! Seated 20 people and had the smallest seats EVER! I thought I might be a little nervous about the take off, but I was more amazed than anything. I kept staring out the window as I watched the wheels leave the ground, North Bay and my apartment get smaller and smaller and then the various sights en route to TO. I was actually amazed at the fact that I could see the ground very clearly. It was interesting to see the grid of most rural areas in Ontario. Made some of what we did in land use planning classes make sense.  I kept "oooo"ing and "ahhhh"ing and the woman behind me kept laughing.  When I saw the CN Tower for the FIRST TIME EVER I was like WOW! And broke out in a ridiculous grin. Toronto looks a lot smaller from above! My layover in TO was long. I spent the first bit finding my gate and getting my bearings and then spent another little bit trying to find food from a place I recognized. After walking past it several times (I was distracted by the horizontal escalator things that I was VERY amused by), I found Casey's. I also wandered a bit through the shops and stuff looking for a souvenir of my first time in TO airport, first time in TO in YEARS and a bunch of other firsts. The highlight of my layover was a suprise meet-up with Shauna, a good friend of mine who used to live two doors down from us in the Sault.  I was so happy to see a familiar face and it was great to see her when I so rarely get that chance. What a co-ink-ee-dink!

A crappy picture of the Atlantic Ocean from Halifax Harbour.
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The flight to Halifax was great. Toronto at night: BEAUTIFUL! Halifax (and the OCEAN!) at night: Breath-taking.  My dad met me in the Halifax airport and we drove a bit around downtown Halifax (around our hotel).

One thing I did notice though (and still do) is the fact that, because it took such little time to get here, it doesn't feel like I'm that far from home. It really feels like I'm in North Bay and everyone is just a couple hours away. It's true if you measure in flight time, but it was really interesting. Time-space convergence at it's best.

Coming up to Confederation Bridge--the longest free-standing bridge in the world!
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Saturday morning we got up bright and early (torturous, believe me!) to hit the road for our 4 hour drive to PEI. The drive to PEI was pretty standard (though I'd imagine it'd be absolutely gorgeous in the summer!). The scenery is blah cuz it's all leafless birch trees and mostly flat, but we did go through roundabouts (those circular roads in England!), which were...interesting to say the least. Still don't know why they exist in a ural area (I asked Bev and Graeme and they don't know either!). We crossed the longest free-standing bridge in the world when we came into PEI. I took some pics, but have to wait to upload them.

More confed bridge...
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PEI can be described simply as red. The road is lined on both sides with farmland for most of the drive and because the earth's just been tilled, it's not yet green and the soil is RED! It's kinda cool. I got some pictures of a few pretty lighthouses as well, so I'll post them too. When we got to Charlottetown we came immediately to Bev's place. As we were driving down the street, I noticed this cute blue house and was like "LOOK AT THAT HOUSE" (I'm obsessed with the houses out here!) and guess what? It ended up being MINE!!!! My hosts are wonderful and I know we'll get along great!  My place in the basement is simple, but quaint, and I've fixed it up pretty nicely. It's almost beginning to feel like home. :)  I can't even begin to describe how surreal it feels to be here, but I'm enjoying myself so far and things are looking good. I have learned a few fun things about the east coast already:

MORE confed bridge...
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- they only have Sobey's grocery stores (they have one other but we don't have it back home) becuase New Brunswickers own them and have a monopoly on the maritimes

- Newfies call everyone "buddy" and Islanders say "gah" at the end of every sentence (literally! like, "That house looks nice, gah" or "Here's your fish, gah"). I LOVE IT!

- pop doesn't come in cans here, only cool old-school bottles! I learned this when a girl in Sobey's said "welcome to PEI" Haha.

- few stores here are not open on Sundays because they don't believe in working on Sunday

A lighthouse from confed bridge.
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- Because I am from out of town, I am "from away" heehee