Falling in love with Kingston!

So I thought I would just do a post on how beautiful and fun Kingston and Queen's is. The houses here are so pretty! And they all have a porch, excellent for porch-drinking in the evening, as hordes of Queen's students do. As soon as I befriend someone with a share house, I am definitely doing it!

Also there are signs like this all over the place:

Today we went to an American football game. Even though I knew nothing about the rules, the energy was just amazing! There is so much going on, there's dance music and cheerleaders doing crazy flips and the students kitting out in crazy Queen's gear. Everyone wears the Queen's tricolor

Cheerleaders doing their thing

Also, ok, this is amazing - you know the empty bits in the middle of a donut? Tim Horton's (coffee chain) do a thing called TimBits which are the inside bits of donuts! They are $1.99 for 10 pieces - I am loving this place.

Aaand I had a 'poutine' today! I didn't even know what it was, except that it is Canadian. It's basically chips with cheese curds and gravy - and a lot of it. I ordered Delhi-licious which is poutine with chicken strips in butter chicken gravy. It's heart problem in a bowl - except it came in like a bucket, and I could only finish about 10% of it.

Alsooo just thought I'd post a pic of a Canadian Subway napkin, it's in French!:

More later, I'm about to drop dead on my feet now of exhaustion. Au revoir folks!

A very smelly update

So the airline I was flying with LOST MY LUGGAGE. It's hard to describe the feeling of complete hopelessness when you land in a foreign country by yourself, minus one vitally important part of your life back home. And, you know, minus your clothes. I have been living in two T shirts (alternating) and one pair of jeans for the last 3 days and ugh, it's gross.

Also, move-in day was today, but tomorrow is a bank holiday, which means none of the shops are open! I haven't had any time to buy anything today so I will be living in my stinky clothes for another whole day.

On a more positive note, I just checked my baggage status and it says "Forwarding to airport". I'm guessing this means they sent it onwards to a connecting flight. Can I just mention how f*cking incompetent Air Canada have been. When it was clear my suitcase was not going to appear on the carousel, I went to wait in a line with about 20 other people who had also had their luggage misplaced. After 45 minutes of waiting (they were seriously understaffed), I was told to fill a form. I asked if my suitcase had come off the airplane at all. The guy said, "Well, it would be nice if we could tell you that, but unfortunately we have no way of knowing." I said, well, what about when you scan the baggage code that they stick on the handles? Turns out, the airline doesn't really do that. Ummmmmm.

Anyway, baggage dramas aside, I'm finding it really nice here. We took a Coach Canada bus here and reached at about 6pm. I moved my meagre possessions into my residence room. The people in Res are really lovely and helpful. The shower situation (I haven't shared a bathroom before) isn't looking so daunting after all.

I have no bedding for now, but borrowed a duvet cover from the basement, which I am currently using as a bedspread! And my neck pillow as an actual pillow. It's quite bohemian. Also, quick note here. ALWAYS LET YOUR MOTHER PACK YOUR HAND LUGGAGE.
I was carrying my laptop and phone with me, but had put the chargers in the suitcase because they are heavy and cumbersome and the cords get everywhere. Thankfully, my mum packed chargers 'just in case' and also an extra pair of socks and toiletries. Bless.

The currency here is confusing me. There are just so many coins! And they are all tiny so you have to squint to read what value they are. And if something is $4.12 here, they actually give you change for the 12 cents instead of rounding it up like in Australia.

My 12-hour jetlag is not as bad as I feared it would be. Mostly because I've been so tired that I fall asleep pretty easily. The only sucky part is this weird hangover-y feeling I get whenever it's bedtime back home. But I've been really good with only sleeping at night so I'm hoping by the end of this week it will be all good. Speaking of which, bedtime for me now. Hopefully, by the next update, I will either have my luggage back, or have some new clothes! Adieu.