For me, one of the things I was most excited about coming on exchange to Canada for was the prospect of snow.
Ottawa gets a lot of snow. After all of last Winter's snow, for example, there was about 2metres worth of the white stuff piled up around the place (so my Canadian friends tell me, anyway - I do hope it's not their version of our Aussie "drop-bear" tales). Not only that, but temperatures drop to around -30celsius when windchill is taken into consideration!
Never again will I complain about Sydney Winters!!
I got to see the first snow for Ottawa just before Halloween, but now the sky has been snowflaking a little more regularly, I am lucky enough to be living in a Winter wonderland!! Just yesterday, I had my first walking-through-snow-with-christmas-carols-playing experience : it was pretty cool!
The Rideau Canal, which I can see from my bedroom window (and you can see in the pics below and above), is a world heritage sight. Over the past week I have seen it become icier and icier and by January, it will be opened to the public for ice skating!!
I'm not going to spend a lot of words telling you about the snow when I understand that really, it kind of speaks for itself.
So, I have put together a small tape of cheesy but wonderful Christmas carols (I realise it's still a month away, but what does it hurt to start getting cheery now?), so if you click play, you can get in the spirit whilst perusing some of the pictures I took on my walk through Ottawa yesterday..
Hopefully it channels some of the White Christmas feelings I'm having towards you!
The beautiful Parliament Buildings of Canada
The changes that I have been able to watch as the Rideau Canal experiences all seasons have been amazing. Have a look at how pretty (and different!) it appeared during those sunny days of September...
On campus at the University of Ottawa
Isn't it beautiful?