Meet "Diana & James"

Another great people I met through my cousins in Ottawa, during the Winterlude Festival, where we met Diana and James at the Ice park, we had a freezing dance, on the snow, we tried our best to handle the cold, and Diana kept telling me to move my toes while dancing.. It was tough for me but we had a good laugh and the music was nice so it kept us going for an hour..

And after that we decided to go for a bite and few drinks, so we went to The 3 Brewers where I had the famous Poutine and a nice beer..

Diana was upset cause she couldn't make me"Get Nipped" , where u should have a whiskey shot, you toast in the direction of the parliament, you drink it then you kiss a beaver.. And this way you become an Ottawan, so this wasn't possible at the 3B, but we still had our shots.. And the rest was laughs, jokes, Olympics, and weather.. I like how people always start their conversation with me by asking how I am handling the cold and if I miss the Sun in Dubai.. Which honestly I do, big time, but heyyy.. There is so many other great things other than the cold weather, like that fun night and meeting nice people like Diana and James..  

We did a long walk to reach my cousin's car, said good bye to my new friends and wished to see soon in my next visit to Ottawa and of course invited them to visit Toronto for a weekend where I can take care of them the way they did with me during my lovely Ottawa weekend.

Meet "Snowman"

When I started planning a trip to Ottawa to see my uncle and my cousins, they recommended that I book for the first weekend of February as it's the time for the Winterlude festival and all Ottawa celebrates the snow, the ice and all the beautiful side of the winter..

So once in Ottawa, I was excited to see what it's all about, and we agreed to go evening time to the Winterlude outdoor party, check the ice sculptures, dance, and taste the famous beavertail..

It took us more than 25 minutes to find a place to park, but at the end we manage to find a spot really far and do a long walk, where we met couple of my cousins friends and started our tour by checking the wonderful ice sculptures, and hearing the story of how complicated is the process of creating each ice block to make sure it has no air bubbles for the esthetic and to avoid cracks.. Each sculpture was better than the other.. And I thought how bold it is from an artist to put lots of efforts behind a piece of art knowing that eventually it will melt and disappear after couple of weeks, but it's a good lesson as well to know how to let go and don't get attached to material things..

And then it was the time for the beavertail.. We were lucky that the queue wasn't long and managed to get ours quickly.. I got one with chocolate & hazelnut even though everyone recommended to try the original one with powder sugar, but I was happy with my choice and indulged with every bite.

Then it was time to dance and have some fun.. But it was so cold and dancing on the snow for an hour was a bit too much for me.. My whole body was fine except my toes.. So I kept jumping, and moving them maybe they will get warmer but that didn't help much..

I met my friend the snowman, he seemed like the happiest person at the party, dancing and making sounds.. I took a picture with him and we left to go grab couple of drinks to get us warm..

Sometimes, it's nice to meet people without really meeting them but you still feel they make you smile and they spread some positive energy..

Regardless the freezing cold, I enjoyed a lot my first Winterlude experience and promised my cousins to repeat it again next year.

Meet "Pedro"

I think Pedro is the youngest friend I met in a while, he's 19 years old.. He's the cousin of my cousin and he moved to Toronto a week ago from Brazil for 8 months to study English, so for a change I felt I know in Toronto a bit more than someone else and this time I can help or give couple of advises especially how to fight the crazy cold.. We both come from much warmer weather and it s our first freezing winter..

So to keep us warm, my cousin, her husband Fouad, and I decided to take Perdro for few drinks, especially that he was very stressed as it was his first time going away from home for few months, so we went to Earls, but one drink wasn’t enough, so we had second round then a third one and ended with shots where Pedro decided to share with us the tradition in Brazil on how you would toast before drinking a shot, so u start with “A cima”(up) then “A bajo”(down), then “A fuera”(outside) and you end it with “A dentro”(inside) and you drink..

It was tough after a warm nice time at Earls to run outside to catch a cab, but it was a very short ride for me and left the cousins going back to Stouffville after dropping Pedro by his place.

Time with cousins is always fun, and I’m sure we’ll be taking Pedro for more drinks in the coming few month during his stay in Toronto especially that after few drinks, his English becomes fluent. J