OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA
SUPERIOR CUISINE

ALMOST...THE WHITE HAT IS ALMOST IN MY HAND!

Well, the feat to get to the last step of my degree has proven to be a little difficult, almost more difficult than applying to college! The effort I have put forth to gain admission to Le Cordon Bleu Australia, Paris, London and Ottawa has proven Herculean. But without fail, I have conquered the admission process and I am now about to enter the final step in Le Grande Diploma at Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa!

After spending 2 months trying to find housing in the picturesque town of Ottawa, I finally settled on a quaint B and B located less than ½ a mile from school. I am situated between two parks and the river is just a couple blocks from me. I can’t wait to get out and explore. The B and B, Avalon, is actually the cheapest place I could find. Shocking, isn’t it! Ottawa is a growing college and sight seeing town, not to mention the capital of Canada. There are three college/universities in this town alone. There are lots of places to lease, but no short term leasing. Thus, I settled on the B and B. Hopefully my experience here will be better than it was in London. I really hope so. If not, I look at it this way…it is only 10 weeks out of my life. What’s the worst that can happen?

I got into Ottawa around 7:30, a minor delay out of Chicago. I went through customs and immigration, the easiest yet! Got a taxi and got to my B and B, a quick easy ride from the airport. I meet the couple who own the B and B, very nice young couple. Marnie is a sweet woman who is nervous about having a guest staying so long – but she is going to do fine. My room is very nice and it is so much bigger than the London room! But than again, it’s not hard to beat that! The people here are very accommodating and so sweet. It’s gonna be great! I think this last cycle is going to the ONE that is the best!

I have walked a little around the neighborhood today and it seems like a real college town mixed with ethnicity. Like any other town the city is in a grid system. So it is easy to get around and not get lost. There are two main streets, Laurier and Rideau, (well what I think are the main streets) that run parallel. These are the main streets that everything is on. It’s fantastic. On Laurier there are bars and restaurants, the quintessential college town; it reminds me a lot of Auburn. On Rideau there are lots of ethnic restaurants, Indian, Thai, Lebanese, even Korean! I can’t wait to eat at each of these places. I ate Indian last night and it was good!

This is my first time to Canada….well if you don’t count Niagara Falls, which I don’t. So I am really excited and I can’t wait. Hopefully I will have time to exploring outside of Ottawa, if I’m lucky. I’ve heard of wonderful places all around the country, just beautiful places. I am coming at the best time of the year – just in time for fall. I will see the change of summer into fall. See the trees loose change colors and slowly loose their leaves. When I was little, I thought that if I picked all the leaves off all the trees then snow would come. So I would go out into my yard and pulled the leaves off the trees. Disappointed every morning, I would wake to no snow, with the exception of the snow blizzard in 1996 and again in 1998? I’ve had my share of the cold though; going to school to Syracuse, New York has awakened my perception of what a cold winter is. I have trudged through freshly snow laid tracks of those who walked before me at 8 am. I have worn scarves covering my nose, so my nose hairs would not freeze. I’ve experienced a harsh winter, two times too many. But I am excited to be in cooler weather and perhaps have the possibility of seeing a snowflake or two once again, anything would be better than the 100+F weather we Alabamians have experienced this summer!