28.08.16

Well LAST week was definitely busy and I suppose this week is no better since it took me all week to find time to write a blog post about last week.

One of the great things that happened last week is I finally visited Rachael, who lives in a town called Goderich, just east of Lake Huron. To put that into perspective, Goderich is about 224km away from Toronto on the highway. The town's claim to fame is that Queen Elizabeth II once commented that Goderich is "Canada's Prettiest Town" and it has since been the town's motto!

I took a Go Bus on a good Monday afternoon to head to Kitchener and from there got picked up by Rachael, who then drove us one and a half hours through numerous small towns of Ontario to finally get to Goderich. We got into town just in time for dinner and just had a chill night where we played the board game a Ticket to Ride and shared numerous scrapbooks with each other.

The next day, we had homemade muffins for breakfast, did I mention Rachael bakes? It was a rainy day but it rained when we were in the car (so oddly satisfying when the weather works WITH you). Rachael brought me to a neighbouring town called Bayfield, took me around the main street in town, showed me where she worked, and did a little shopping. We grabbed some delis and made ourselves a sandwich for lunch. This is where I found something I really loved, which is Rachael's parents both came home for lunch as well. I don't know if you can resonate with me on this, but living in the city all my life, my parents worked far enough that simply coming home for lunch wasn't realistic. I think this rings true for most people in the city, which is odd when we start questioning why people in the city are out of touch with their families and communities.

Anyhow, after lunch, we chilled a bit in front of the television (duh it is Olympic season after all) and then headed to the Goderich beach, home to the world's largest salt mine in the world and a great sunset! At this point the rain was all clear but gosh it was so windy and the waves were still pretty rough (definitely not beach weather). We also did the tour of Goderich itself, exploring the towns five point square, had dinner, and then went to the beach again and also walked through the Manesuting Bridge that on one side overlooks Lake Huron and the other overlooks the delta of the Maitland River.

Goderich Beach

Large ship being filled with salt

Delta of the Maitland River

We then went to Bayfield for ice cream (YUM) and tried to head back to the Goderich beach AGAIN to catch the sunset but as you can see in the following photo, we missed it by a good 10 to 15 minutes.

Next thing you know, it was Wednesday morning, when reality hits and you realize time really does fly. Breakfast flew by and some chat filled up the hours in between, then lunch, then we met with Ally, Rachael's best friend, and then just like that we were on the way back to Kitchener where I met Rachael's grandmother, and then took my bus back to Toronto. Going from chill small town to Union Station during rush hour was quite the transition and just like that, my mini vacation with Rachael was over and the hustle and bustle of Toronto took over. Aside from a ring, I also brought back some awesome cream puffs from Goderich's only bakery, Gilbert's Bakery, and yes they were delicious!

Thank you so much Rachael for sharing your home and your life at Goderich with me, it has been really fun and gosh do I miss you already. In hindsight, I think you made me miss the sunset on purpose so I need to go back to Goderich again just to see it! *dun dun dun*

On Thursday, I celebrated a fellow colleague's birthday. On Friday, some of my high school friends and I hung out after work and on Saturday, all but one of my high school friends and I did a in house gathering at Carrie's.

Saturday night at Carries was our down to earth getting to know each other night (plus some wine never hurt). It's amazing to realize that we have known each other for 9 years now, and yet through days like today when we are not distracted with movies or anything, we realize that there are so many subtle things we know about each other, and also so many sides that we learnt about each other just that night. I am so grateful to have high school friends that I am so close with after 5 years of university, I am so excited for what is ahead for us! Of course Samir finally met my high school ladies, which is GREAT! I think both parties got along fine.

It's been a while since I wrote such a long AND detailed post, hope you enjoyed it as much as I did~


Listening to "Lifted" by CL
Images by Samir and I