Oh! Canada... (does anyone really know the rest of the song?)

Hey guys! This is probably my last chance to be on the Internet for at least a week.  Here are my adventures in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada!

Yesterday (the 25th), I departed at 5 a.m. in order to get to the airport on time.  We arrive and get into line at United Airways. Come to find out that we're on Air Canada. So we go wait in another line.  Then, as we go through airport security, they hold up my bag saying "who's is this?" I claim it and they tell me they have to re-check it because it is "too busy."  They take some of my stuff out and run it back through, only to tell me they have to check it again because the image got cut off.  (my record for being stopped by airport security every time I've flown is still going strong).  We get on the plane, and there are about 20 other people from SAS (semester as sea) on the flight.  I met a girl that is in my video journalism class.  According to her "we're gonna be best friends!" Oh, joy.  She seems nice though. So we get to Toronto to catch our connecting flight and we're happy because we know people.  Then, they announce some flight number and all my new friends get up to leave.  Turns out my flight is an hour later than everyone else's. 

We arrive in Halifax and take the "Airporter" to our hotel.  We walk in and my mom starts checking us in.. I look down at my duffel, and IT ISN'T MINE! The lady at the front desk starts calling all the hotels that the bus had stopped at beforehand and the bus returns.  The bus driver tells us that one of the boys had a duffel exactly like mine and he had taken it with him.  So I'm freaking out, the front desk lady is calling, mom is trying to stay calm, and this guy who was standing there is trying to calm me down.  We go upstairs and start calling the airport.  I noticed that there was a name tag on the duffel so I go down for the front desk to use that name and she tells me that a girl just walked in with mine. Disaster avoided, thank God.

Today, we walked around the port area, ate at this cute little mom and pop restaurant and took the bus up to the Walmart to get last minute stuff.  Mom had to go to a parent meeting, so I met up with a girl from CSULB, who is really nice.  We met a couple of other people and went to a bar with them.  Then her and I went to a pub with my mom and her grandparents.  We ordered some water and she was carded... FOR WATER!  Which I though was pretty funny because I definitely was not carded for water.

So I board the ship at 9 AM tomorrow, which is roughly 5 AM CA time... ugh. I'm still not on this time zone yet.

Some things I learned in Canada:

1. People are really nice

2. All (well most) public toilets and sinks are automatic

3. They don't seem to believe in toilet seat covers

4. They have needle disposal bins in bathrooms... um.. what?