Our trip to Canada was easy enough but our navigation through the immigration officer's questions was tortuous. I was fine, but they gave my wife a bit of a work over. She had onward tickets to Brazil but not a return ticket to anywhere since we had only booked tickets as far as the return to the USA. Where is she going after? Why are you in Canada? How long are you staying? I don't understand, why are you in Canada? When are you leaving Canada? Will you go back to Belgium? And so on. . . After about 15 minutes of this, we managed to convince the cranky woman that we were in fact getting married, going on a honeymoon and my wife would be coming back as a student as opposed to a leech on the welfare system. . . because Canada's is sooooo much better than Belgium's.
A couple of very slow hours in Montreal, then a dopey plane ride, and finally Winnipeg! Winnipeg, land of ice, snow, and generally understated people. That's what we chose for our wedding, in what is typically the coldest part of the year. . . early February. But more on that later.
Typical Winnipeg street in the heart of winter:
Greeted by the open arms of family my wife has never met, dazed and uncertain of the next chapter in our lives, we disembarked to Winnipeg “International” Airport. Our belongings arrived without incident and we quickly headed for the exits. We only had a sweatshirt each to face February in Winnipeg but fortunately my grandparents brought us both jackets. When you're away from that cold, you forget what it's really like. You vaguely remember the discomfort but you forget that when it's -30 you feel increasingly intense physical pain. Your nose loses feeling almost immediately and it hurts to breathe. We survived a short walk to the car (and its cozy heating) and headed for our pre-South America temporary home, my grandmother's house. After a few hours of catching up, talking about various pieces of news from both ends of the world, we headed for bed.
Our basic plan for the two weeks we had in Winnipeg was:
- buy a few key items for South America (backpack, mosquito net, swimsuit, malarone, etc)
- get traveller’s cheques
- organize our bank accounts
- print a bunch stuff out (e-tickets, travel insurance, passport copies, etc)
- visit relatives
- finish my wife’s university applications
- oh, and get married
We also spent some quality time watching the Olympics. A friend of ours was competing as a speed skater for New Zealand. He didn’t win, but we love him all the same.
A couple of very slow hours in Montreal, then a dopey plane ride, and finally Winnipeg! Winnipeg, land of ice, snow, and generally understated people. That's what we chose for our wedding, in what is typically the coldest part of the year. . . early February. But more on that later.
Typical Winnipeg street in the heart of winter:
Greeted by the open arms of family my wife has never met, dazed and uncertain of the next chapter in our lives, we disembarked to Winnipeg “International” Airport. Our belongings arrived without incident and we quickly headed for the exits. We only had a sweatshirt each to face February in Winnipeg but fortunately my grandparents brought us both jackets. When you're away from that cold, you forget what it's really like. You vaguely remember the discomfort but you forget that when it's -30 you feel increasingly intense physical pain. Your nose loses feeling almost immediately and it hurts to breathe. We survived a short walk to the car (and its cozy heating) and headed for our pre-South America temporary home, my grandmother's house. After a few hours of catching up, talking about various pieces of news from both ends of the world, we headed for bed.
Our basic plan for the two weeks we had in Winnipeg was:
- buy a few key items for South America (backpack, mosquito net, swimsuit, malarone, etc)
- get traveller’s cheques
- organize our bank accounts
- print a bunch stuff out (e-tickets, travel insurance, passport copies, etc)
- visit relatives
- finish my wife’s university applications
- oh, and get married
We also spent some quality time watching the Olympics. A friend of ours was competing as a speed skater for New Zealand. He didn’t win, but we love him all the same.
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