About a half an hour drive further East (yes, there is more land East of me, for those of you who haven't looked at a map of the Maritimes in a while) is Cape Breton. Surprising to many people is that I hadn't been there before today. Yesterday, Tim's parents called and said that they were heading out to his Aunt and Uncle's house in Cape Breton. They wanted us to drive up today and have lunch with all of them. Tim's cousin (Rod) also goes to StFX, so we picked him up and took him with us so he could have a couple of hours at home.
...I was too tired to finish this yesterday. So the thrilling tale is being continued today, Sunday!
This of course meant: road trip!! Yay! It was about an hour and a half drive to Rod's house, and I saw some fun stuff along the way, like a one-lane bridge. It didn't go over a river, though, it went over a canal. Like, an old-school 15 Miles on the Erie Canal canal. I thought that was pretty cool.
Rod's house is on what used to be an old army base. About three feet from his house there's an old armory that they use for storage. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of that. The hour and a half car ride felt surprisingly long, so I was happy when we arrived. Rod's mom, Betty (Tim's Dad's sister), hooked us up with bottled water, Triscuits, and some insanely good cheesy avocado dip. After eating far too many Triscuits, I found Tim and his cousin Michael playing Halo 2 in the basement (big surprise). The basement was really warm, and the couch was comfy...I think I dozed off at some point.For lunch, Betty made a huge production. A gigantic roast beef, mashed potatoes, roasted carrots, gravy, some sort of broccoli cheesy quiche type thing, and Yorkshire puddings. Needless to say, I ate too much. Then we had coffee, and she'd made a delicious lemon custard that I simply couldn't not eat, as well as some cookies that were really perfect for dipping.
Betty and her husband, Wilf, surprised me. On one hand, they seemed quite straight-laced proper, but on the other hand, they kept repeating Ali G jokes about euthanasia and stuff and giggling like middle school girls. All in all, they seemed really really nice. After dinner, we all went on a walk. Sadly, I'd only brought a coat, so I stole Tim's hat, Tim stole a hat from the closet, and we set off.
Wilf likes to build things. This is a little cottage he built for their oldest, a daughter named Jean who's now married. There's a double bed inside, some little cabinets, an itty bitty loft with cute stairs/ladder going up to it, and a little woodstove surrounded on three sides by brick. For some reason, while I was standing in it, it reminded me of the grounds keeper's cabin in Lady Chatterly's Lover, even though his was undoubtedly a full-fledged English cottage with stone and everything. In this cottage, there's even a cute little stained glass window that I guess was taken from a church when they were replacing their windows.
Here's a gazebo that Wilf's in the middle of building. This is going to be beyond perfect in the summer, looking out over the water:
At this point in the walk, I was quite content to go back to the house considering how cold I already was. But no, we hadn't gone down to the cove yet. So, away we went, and it was awesome. Near the shore, the water was an odd mix of partially frozen partially liquid. The waves still moved through it, but as you can see in the picture above, the texture of the waves changed to look really soft when it reached the partially icy section. Standing next to it and looking right down on it as the waves hit the shore, it looked like the water was a giant slushy machine. It was amazingly awesome, and amazingly cold.
Pretty much just after this, we left to come back to StFX. Rod, Tim, and I were all really tired. Probably from the awesome lunch/dinner + the cold. We played 20 questions to amuse ourselves, and I learned that I suck at thinking of revealing questions. I was stuck, and asked things like, "Is it useful??"So, that was my first trip to Cape Breton. It was as scenic and beautiful as so many touristy locations pretend to be.
Fun Canadian culturalism: When entering someone's house, always take your shoes off. When I first went over to Tim's house, it didn't occur to me. My shoes weren't dirty or anything, but as I was sitting on the couch, Tim would lean over to me and quietly point out that my shoes were still on. I looked at him, was like, "...okay...," went and took my shoes off. I tried to remember, but sometimes I forgot, and each time he'd remind me. I thought it was just his house. But this year in social psychology, my professor (who is an American in her second year teaching here in Canada) when discussing social norms, brought this up. She went over to a professor's house for a party over the summer, walked in the door, and saw everyone's shoes in a huge pile. "Okay," she thought, and took hers off as well. She asked some people here at StFX and back home if they would expect to take their shoes off. Her American friends said no, her Canadian friends said yes. So, mystery solved! It's a Canadian thing! I feel so Japanese.
