Show me the money!!

So, I checked my bank balance today. And of course I have no money. No seriously. Every time I go to the ATM, I'm filled with dread :D If I add up all the numbers in my head, it sounds atrocious, the amount of money I've spent. At first, when the guy who'd gone for the same exchange last year had told me the amount of money I should expect to spend, I'd laughed. I was so sure I could live in less than that. But now, I know what he meant :D

This post is more about how I've spent my money. Very happily I should tell you. Richmond Row, Loblaws and Starbucks stole all my money! Every time I go grocery shopping, I start thinking about recipes, and I end up buying more than my share of extra peppercorn goat cheese or Chorizo sausage! I thought I'd be a lazy cook and just cook dal rice or vegetables and sandwiches every day. As we all know, that is emphatically not the case! I'm taking full advantage of the fact that I get such different ingredients here, and Loblaws (my closest grocery store) is taking advantage of my debit card. But then, when I cook up some stuffed mushrooms or some chicken stir fry, I feel great! Cooking is indeed a joy!

Eating!! After a couple of months of Jack's and Ceeps overdose, it was time to explore good food in London (ON). And you know, it hasn't really disappointed me! Some excellent European food (I don't know if the Europeans agree with me :D ) exists in places like Garlics, Bertoldi's and the Tasting Room. Sugar freaks like me will love London too- Marble Slab and Cold Stone Creamery, Jack Astor's (the world's smallest brownie is amazing), Cafe One (Oreo Brownie Cheesecake) and the latest I discovered- Hey, Cupcake! A small stand-alone bakery that only serves cupcakes and gourmet cookies, Stefania, Therese and I had a great hour or so eating huge delicious cupcakes and great coffee. Yum! Everywhere I've gone, I've never underestimated the importance of food in travel. A good meal can make any crappy day suddenly better! More than Chemical Engineering, my knowledge of food has grown exponentially here :)

The fact that I'm on my fourth cup of coffee for the day demonstrates how I've spent my money on caffeine over the past four months. Oh, and I owe Greyhound some credit for the dents in my bank balance too! Overall, I may have spent ridiculous amounts of money in Canada, but I'm a richer person than the one who arrived here four months ago :)

In the end, we all fruit!

Anyone who's seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding will remember this line at the end of the movie, where the obsessively Greek dad finally accepts that people are similar (and acceptable) irrespective of where they come from. Over the past four months, I only find myself agreeing with him.

As an exchange student, I've spent my fair share of time discussing cultural differences, having a million conversations that begin with "So how do you say this in (insert language)..?" But once you get past all of that, once you start discussing childhoods, families and lives, you start connecting with people. I'm the last one to seek friends exactly like me; however, we all love our parents, our hometowns, our siblings. All of us have an idea of where we want to go and none of how to get there. Our hopes and dreams may differ in details; but when I start talking about them, I can see that the eyes of my friends light up too. I grew up in Pune, but with the same family values as Stefania. I may be an engineer, but I have political views I can discuss with Therese. Cultural differences start conversations; it is the food, drink, Disney movies, boys, music, philosophy and embarrassing stories that sustain friendships.

I love the differences between our countries! And at the same time, I celebrate the similarities. It's a mix of the two that makes study nights very unproductive because of the long talks. I don't care though. It's totally worth it! This is what exchange is about :)

Jingle Bell rock!

Holiday season is here! Red and green lights everywhere :)

I think I'm mentally compensating for the fact that I missed Diwali this year by attaching more importance to Christmas and Thanksgiving here. The holiday season officially begins after American Thanksgiving (which was on the weekend of 24th and 25th November) and all the malls, lawns were lit up! Even our hospital has a huge decked up tree. Either I'm imagining it, or the general mood is really upbeat. The radio stations are playing Christmas specials: I find myself wanting to curl up with a book and mug of white chocolate! And I'm not even here for Christmas :( But then, Christmas is a time for family, and irrespective of location, I'm happy I'll be spending it with mine :)

Apart from missing Diwali, which is pretty much official Indian holiday season, there are couple of other things that have put me in a holiday mood. Last weekend, I crossed the border to spend Thanksgiving in Troy, MI. A family friend lives there, and I had a great weekend - lots of turkey, cosy recliners and two adorable bitches. I've met Sidney before - she ate all my Belgian chocolates three years ago, and was fine (dogs are NOT supposed to eat chocolate) but Hops was new for me, and very excited to meet a new person. The malls played Christmas tunes (I remember getting sick of them three years ago, because that's all they play for about two months) I had amazing Ghirardelli hot chocolate and there was pumpkin pie, date coffee cake and rum cake in the house, at the same time :D I was quite sad to leave the warmth of the house and travel back to London for pretty much the last time. But I met Rohit in Windsor twice :)

It snowed, finally!! I'm not a huge fan of the snow (I dread trudging through it to 8:30 class :D) but I woke up one morning, and it was all white and oh so pretty! It wasn't terribly cold either, about 0 or -1, so it was alright to walk around taking photos :) Also, last evening, Shruti and I attended Global Cafe. Global Cafe is this thing every other thursday for international and local students to mingle and have coffee with yum cookies. So the deal with this whole international student shindig is that I'm slightly tired of meeting new people and just discussing how exotic Indians are. Most of my close international friends know that by now :P Hence we'd never gone to Global Cafe till now. But this week's Global Cafe had us decorating gingerbread houses! Now, that was a great way to make a few new friends :) We obviously made the prettiest house, with cinnamon roll bushes and sparkly trees. The music for yesterday's Cafe was, of course, Let it snow and Rocking around the Christmas Tree! Also, I got some food from home last evening! No wonder I'm in a good mood!

Since Thanksgiving was just last weekend, I'm going to list a few things I'm thankful for, specifically for this Canadian semester-

1. My friends here- Shruti, Pooja and Kanu for making me not miss India, and Therese, Stefania and everyone else in Lambton for making this a truly international experience :)

2. Anshul Bhide, Nandan Gokhale and Gauri Joshi - for being in my life :)

3. Radio here- According to me, listening to the local radio makes you feel like part of the city (London is hardly a city) and BOB fm plays great music

4. Food

5. Starbucks Gingerbread Latte and Peppermint Mocha - This is the holiday spirit again

6. the Ottawa people :)

7. Megabus - made travelling everywhere more comfortable and affordable

8. Western Libraries

And that's all I can think of right now. Happy Holidays to everyone :)