July Weather

We made it home to experience the "soggiest month on record". It's official. The Citizen said so.

In China, we're often asked to describe Canadians. We tell the students that we Canadians like to talk about the weather. Now we find ourselves checking the Weather Network daily and we have many conversations about what the weather is like at the moment and what the weather will be like later today and then we finish with what the weather will be like tomorrow. Sure, it's been very wet here but that just makes the sunny days extra special!

Enjoying Ottawa's "Summer". J&D

Hanging Out in Ottawa

We are sitting here at the Starbucks in the neighbourhood. It's great here. We've just learned that we get 2 hours of free Internet every day. We're enjoying coffee and free samples right now. I've just discovered how much I love the chocolate and caramel covered pretzels. Yummy! Keep those samples coming.

We finally accomplished something on our to do list today. We had been taking it easy and sleeping a lot. Today, we took the bus downtown to renew our passports. The bus took a very scenic route downtown and we both realized how much we took the natural beauty of Ottawa for granted. We went along the river and everything is just so green. It seems that you appreciate things more only when you haven't seen it for awhile. Don and I have only seen Ottawa in the winter these past couple of years so it's really really nice to see it in the summer... even with the cooler temps and rain. Hope we get to see some warmer temps soon.

Summer in Ottawa

After a weight gaining last few weeks in Jinan, we've said our goodbyes to our friends and students. We are now back in Ottawa for the summer.

After packing up a few belongs and shipping them ahead to Shantou, our new home in China, we made the long journey home. Our plans were to enjoy the summer in Ottawa before returning to teach for another year in the south of China, in the province of Guangdong. Sadly, the summer weather hasn't quite made it to Ottawa yet. After the 39 C and 40 C we were used to in Jinan, the low 20 C we're experiencing here might as well be winter. Brrrr! Hopefully summer will find us soon.

Still trying to get beyond the jet lag so will update more soon. I am happy to say that I didn't need a 2 hour nap today, for a change :) J xo