So finally, I have got loaaads of time now to write up my last few weeks. It was crazy! My final exams for this semester started on the 11th of December and finished on the 21st of December. I had 5 exams and all of them went well or okay, so I am very happy about that! Unlike my expectations, their finals here are not strict at all, most of them were set in lecture theatres and one of them we even had on the University ice hockey rink! Of course the ice was removed though! I saw so many people taking their notes and phones into the exam to cheat and the professors who often were the only invigilators in the room made it super easy for the cheaters, too ;)! Anyways, I obviously did not cheat as I was way to scared that they would catch me haha. Honestly though, at the beginning of the semester I took a bit too much free time off so I then had to do longer shifts in the Library which I actually love doing especially in the night time, however half way through exams the Canadian cold hit me! -10, -15, -20, and no it did not stop there, -27 degrees Celcius!!! Can you imagine walking outside in this cold?! It feels horrible and I have never felt something like that before IN MY LIFE, especially when you are not prepared, like me, without proper boots and a proper (Canadian) winter coat… But I survived yay! This is a very dramatic shot from my favourite spot in the library, summing up the dark times of the final exams season! 😉 Just kidding! I was still able to do a lot of things in those weeks, like go shopping and go to church hangs and play handball, so it wasn’t that bad afterall, I just like taking out time for the important things in life, no matter if I have exams or not, I always like sparing some time for friends and hobbies!
More excitingly, Anna arrived in Ottawa on the 20th of December! I was literally counting down the hours until her arrival! It’s so good to finally have her with me for some weeks at least! The last few days before Christmas we did not really do a lot besides sleeping and eating and cleaning the house as I was super tired after all the late night studies. However, Christmas was coming faster than we thought. On the 24th, Canadians celebrate Christmas Eve and even though Christmas Day (the 25th) was on a Sunday this time, my Church decided to have a Christmas Eve service on Saturday evening only. I was really looking forward to that and as I am part of the team, we went there in the afternoon already to help put up all the chairs and decorations in the hall where this service was held, The Horticulture Building in downtown Ottawa. It was a great day, Anna rushed to the hair dresser in the morning, while I was doing some last minute shopping trips and after getting ready for too long (of course), we finally made it to the service venue. It’s always so amazing hanging out with my team and all the other people at church and I have already made sooooo many good friends there! The picture below shows a some of my team at MyChurch. As part of the team, we basically help setting up the church venue from scratch for every Sunday service (as MyChurch is a mobile church, we do not have our own venue, however they have been in a college theatre for some years now) and we talk to the new people coming to church and simply make them and everybody else feel welcome.
The service on Christmas Eve was in quite a posh area in Ottawa, which is called Lansdowne. The Horticulture Building is located right next to the massive American football stadium in Ottawa together with many restaurants and bars beside it. The Christmas tree there is very impressive, too!
Christmas Day
Christmas Day was rather relaxed. In the morning, me and Anna decided to go for a walk to Parliament hill as the sun was out and it was a very nice day, even though it was super cold with -10 degrees. For the evening we made plans with three of my friends from Church to have dinner together. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, rice, salad and apple crumble as desert. It was such a fun evening with such good food!!! Check out the pictures below!! Trying to fit 5 people in one picture is not that easy as everyone has always something to complain about so I just put 4 and now you just have to imagine all the nice shots of everyone in one picture! 😉
Now the countdown for our (mine and Anna’s) New York trip on the 28th has started and the planning of our 6 days there over New Year’s has begun! I’m sooooo excited!
MyYearInOttawa 