Wellingtons: [noun]- more commonly known as Wellies, water-proof boots made out of rubber. Bagels: [noun]- no one can beat Tim Horton's

It should come as no surprise that I miss Tim Horton's.  It's definitely not their coffee that I miss but those delicious bagels.  They sell Tim Horton's-ish bagels at the grocery store but at places equivalent to Tim Horton's they are more like round pieces of bread.

Last Friday (November 26) I went to London where I didn't eat any fake bagels.  My whining stops now, I swear.  My friend Caleb (I thought I would reciprocate the gesture) celebrated his 21st birthday last Saturday and he wanted to go to London as his birthday present to himself.  I joined him on this 24 hour adventure that started at 4 am on Friday morning and ended at 4 am on Saturday.  We took the coach, aka the bus, to London where we saw a whole lot of super awesome stuff. 

London is too cool.  There was this awesome skate park where a bunch of kids were, surprise, surprise, skateboarding but there was also a DJ playing, people (legally) spray-painting the walls and it seemed like there was some sort of photo shoot going on as well.

Brace yourself for the best segue ever: Speaking of cool, there was no heating on the bus on the way home.  At the time, I really wasn't that bothered by it.  I mean, yes it was 3 in the morning and it was snowing for the first time since I've been here and heat would have been lovely but I think I was too tired to care.  Apparently I should have cared though as I have frostbite or one of its close cousins on one of my toes! I can't believe that I have frostbite especially because I have never even come close to getting frostbite in those bitterly cold Ottawa winters.  I'm actually pretty proud of it, it makes me feel tough which I can't imagine is a characteristic frequently used to describe me. Update: after extensive research, Dr. Wikipedia has informed me that I have Chilblains. 

THE SNOW! So since that fateful, frostbiting Saturday morning, it snowed for about three days.  The havoc that has been reeked is hilarious.  Schools closed, classes canceled, buses stopped, taxis stopped, pizza deliveries (a particularly devastating one for me) stopped all because of 5 inches of snow.  This is a pretty substantial amount of snow but schools were canceled for three days.  I don't think 5 inches of snow would render one day of bus cancellations for B.A..

Walking to school is now a hilarious adventure where I get to laugh at all the people slipping around on the unplowed sidewalks because they don't have sidewalk plows, or even regular plows as far as I've seen.  The other reason why there is so much slipping going on is because most people wear Wellies, the basic equivalent of rain boots, as their choice snow walking shoe.  I do have to admit that I have been wearing my rain boots to walk in the snow.  However, I have an excuse.  Me wearing rain boots as snow boots is happening only because when I was packing I figured winter boots wouldn't be entirely necessary and they take up a lot of room when you can only bring two suitcases for a year long trip.  Sure, Wellies do the trick in terms of keeping your feet dry but, lucky for me, flat bottomed rubber shoes + ice = minimal friction.

I was suppose to go to Edinburgh this weekend but my trip has been canceled due to the snow. My last weekend in the UK in 2010 was spent in Leeds, with a lot of time devoted to the library.