I'm In!

So, finally Canada let me in to their country. It just took me from Sunday morning to Tuesday at 1 am. I think it took me the same amount of time to get to Korea. In this light, it makes London seem so much more exotic! I flew to Toronto and got in at 9. I called the shuttle company and they said if I wanted to catch the shuttle, I had better run, and get there now. So I ran like a mad cat to catch the shuttle. One man I passed on the way shouted out after me, "What are you, training for the Olympics or something?"

When I finally made it to the elevator in one last desparate sprint to get me to the shuttle that would whisk me to a bed, this older couple pokes on up. The husband gets in the elevator. The wife stands outside the elevator.

"Honey, I don't think this is the right way," she says.

"Yes, it is."

"No, it's not."

I'm sweating and trying not to scream at the nice old people. (Traveling for 2 days makes your reactions a bit blown out of proportion.)

"Yes, it is."

"No, it's not."

Finally, the doors close with the husband on the inside and the wife on the outside.

"Awesome!" I'm thinking. "I need to get going now. Didn't they just see my Olympic dash?"

Of course, the husband starts pushing every button to get the doors to open back up. "You've got to be kidding me," I think.

The doors open again.

"This isn't the right way, honey," the wife repeats.

"Yes, it is."

"Not, it's not."

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WOULD YOU JUST GET ON THE STUPID ELEVATOR?!" I scream at the women. But only in my head.

She finally steps on. "OK, but I don't think this is right, honey."

I'm manic at this point, and I - nonconfrontive, polite, sweet, accomodating me - say, "I'm about to miss my shuttle." This is pretty aggressive for me.

They just look over at me, uninterested, and don't comment. Humph.

Finally the elevator gets moving and spits us out on the ground floor. I start running again like a mad cat. Only the shuttle isn't there. I run about from post to post, desperate to find any way out. I ask around and finally realize that the shuttle is late and hasn't turned up yet...the shuttle they told me to run for.

So, after my outburst in the elevator, I'm left, sweating and standing lamely at the shuttle desk (which is vacant), just waiting, while the elderly couple slowly shuffles by me with their shuttle driver, who was waiting for them, escorting them to their nice lovely ride home. Humph.

Anywho, I finally made it home around 1 am. I was so excited to sleep in to 8 am! Oh, the glory! But the person who was in the hotel room before me had left the alarm set to 6:30 am.

Why, universe, why? Why do you hate me?

Once I'm woken up in the morning, I'm up. After so many inconveniences and delays, this was what almost finally broke me. But I was too tired to put any real effort into breaking and decided to just do my makeup instead.

Today was full of meetings and some Canadian moments, which I've decided to record:

• Our meeting started today and one person raised her hand and said, "I have an announcement to make before we get started. Today is Justin Bieber's birthday." I'm sure it was just a joke...but, still.
• I've noticed a new usage of "eh" that I'm unfamiliar with. People seem to be saying, "Eh?" at the end of a sentence like we would say, "What?" I'm not sure if I'm supposed to repeat myself, say "eh" back, or offer them a beer.
• Today, several people said, "Wow, what a beautiful day! The sun is out! I haven't seen it in days!" People, there was no sun today. I don't know what they were talking about. There was a vague yellowy thing that seemed to be showing through various layers of fog and cloud. In Colorado, we call this a "cloudy" day. Here, it is classified as a "sunny" day. (OK, maybe this last one will make me sound like a big meanie, but really, that sun was weak...Said purely out of my sadness for missing the 60 degree (real) sunny day in Colorado.

Those are all my Canadian moments for now. I'll try to keep track of them!