A trip down to the canal

This year is coming to an end and due to a dental surgery, I will not celebrate it with anything sparkly or glamourous. It will more likely be with some rest, certain amount of pain and some akward eating.
This is the second surgery within two months and the last time for a long long time I hope.
I'm sitting here with a poor night of sleep, feeling a bit sorry for myself, therefore I will go back a few weeks and write about our trip to Panama city. We went there for a family event. It's not a place we had on our list to see. As I had a busy autumn with school and work, I had not thought of looking up things to see or visit, except for one thing and that was Casco Viejo.
It ended up being my prefered spot in the city by far.

It's a world heritage site since 1997 and it was built in 1673 due to the fact that Panama City founded in 1519 was burned down by none other than pirates. Most of the old buildings are just facades with nothing on the inside and no roof. I really enjoyed our walks here. Usually the old parts of cities tend to be a bit more touristy and so is even Casco Vejo. In my opinion it's mostly just a positive thing as you actually see people smiling and wanting to serve you here. Something that is a rare event elsewhere in the city.

Like this barber we found.

He did a really nice job and did't charged much for it so he ended up very happy with a 100% tip.

A restaurant I really liked, that is a hotel as well, was Tantalo.

It is a place recommeded by Tripadvisor, so again pretty touristy. However when we went there around lunchtime and I felt it was a bit more local people discussing work or if they were tourists they were other latin americans, because I could only hear spanish around. I had a bit of a feeling that this could be a place in Buenos Aires. Lovely indeed.

Another spot I enjoyed was Punte de la Américas, a bridge taking you over the Panama Canal built by Americans in 1962. 

 We found ourselves a nice local beach on the other side of the bridge in the village of Vera Cruz.

                                   

We got to enjoy some really great fresh seafood at a restaurant by the beach called El Pulpo Loco. I had my life's greatest Mojito there as well. Made with chinola. Yammie.

The fried plantaines are a specialty that my Sweetie makes the best, there is a reason I call him the the king of plantaines (El rei del platanos). So it came to no surprise that I didn't much like the Patacones (Panamanian name for the fried plantaines) in Panama. I switched to rice after a few tries.

I might get to the more family part of the trip next time around. Now it's time to make porridge for my beloved who just woke up and prepare for a snowstorm coming our way.

perfectly good

It's in moments like this when too many things have happened that I find it hard to figure out where to start. So I decided to start by getting out of the bed and make myself some breakfast. A nice Finnish breakfast.

The bread is dark and very much made and brought from Finland, being Olulainen and the greatest bread in the world. The porridge is not Elovena but it's still perfectly fine oat. Coffee bought in Panama but served from Arabia's wonderful design and the spoon is Iittala, another wonderful Finnish design. We are such product patriots in our country. It is in a very lovely way and very much in honor of family tradition. This is what my breakfast would look like in Finland, except that the cheese would be Valio's mustaleima and about a thousand times better tasting that the mozzarella cheese I just ate. None the less, a very good breakfast indeed and ever since we got back from our trip to Panama, we have been eating oatmeal porridge in the morning. The first time I made my sweetie some, he takes a spoon in the mouth and then spells out my mother's name in a very satisfied way. I didn't find it weird in any way as my thoughts were in my parents' kitchen just as well. It's always my mother who would make us the porridge. The rest of the day it would be my father making the kitchen his battle field. Mom's morning porridge has a hint of magic in all its simplicity. The funny part about it is that every time she serves it she would have something bad to say about it. Either it was too thick or too thin or lacking salt or something else that every family member would close their ears to, as we knew it would be perfectly good. I realized I did exactly the same thing when serving it to my sweetie the first time, I said "it's not as good as mom's". Then I decided that, yes it is. With a little bit of rasberries and maple syrup and it's perfectly good.    
Yesterday we went skiing for the second time in a week. It's the first time I ski before Christmas here in Canada.
We tried out a new place, called Saint-Saveur. It's about 70 km from Montreal, so more or less the same as Bromont that we normally go to.
A cute place indeed and the tempretaure was nice and mild. What gave me an extra little feel of welcome was the Finnish flag, first in the row. I enjoy when people prepare for my arrival. I'm obviously kidding and I willing to admit that the Swedish and Norwigian flag wasn't far. 

It wasn't a very windy evening, something that was bad for the visual of the flag in the picture but good for our skiing. 

It feels good to be back to the cold and fresh air. I'm willing to say that now, in a few degrees of minus. I was feeling less enthusiastic when it was showing -20°c a few days ago. It's not easy for the heart, mind and soul to go from +35°c to -20°c. The day after we got back I had a doctor's appoinment and entered a hospital that is situated in an older beautiful building. That morning it was -20°c and I was feeling a bit groggy from the traveling. When I enter the building, I look up on the wall and read the text "Tervetuloa". For a moment I was standing there feeling completely confused, then I zoomed out my blurry lince and saw words meaning welcome in plenty other languges. 
I can't however help but feel that Qubec is trying to welcome me back from my crankiness I was going through this autumn. It is kindly wispering to me "hey girl, we are not that bad, we are just a bit different and yes believe it or not but we are happy to have you here".

right kind of romantic

This weekend we did a roundtrip to Niagara Falls. It's a seven hour drive and a bit rough to do it with only a one night stay, but absolutely worth it. I have been to this place once before and remembered it being okay but nothing special. It's amazing how the right company can change how you feel about the surroundings.

The place is very touristy and you do feel that you're in the US and not Canada but the water falls are really powerful and with your beloved in your arms it all adds up to being pretty romantic.

The reason for our trip was actually to meet family. I have a cousin who tours the world on her figure skates with her dear husband in her arms and we were very excited to meet up with them and see their show.

We got to enjoy a splendid performance. It's a happy christmas show but due to the fact that the ice is so small and the speed high, it becomes very much filled with action and almost scary at times. Absolutely fantastic however and we both walked out feeling excited about the upcoming christmas.
We got to spend some nice family time both after the show and the next morning. Me and my Dominican were as well able to squeeze in some romantic alone time in the hotel room enjoying a wonderful view. Room service seemed liked the thing to do.

It was a very short and sweet trip, perfect to celebrate the fact that cheered up my November....

The fact being that my beloved got down on his knee on a roof top terrace in Montreal. It was up on the 44th floor and I need not to point out that the night was amazing along with the view of the city. I have been through a lot in my life but it was the first time a man was on his knee in front of me. When I saw him slipping on the sweetest diamond ring, I have ever seen, my eyes fill up with tears, my heart with happiness and my mouth with a thousand " yes sweetie, I do want to marry you".

bright traveling light

November was a month with poor sleep, lots of pressure and heavy conversation. It's started at work, then spread to my team work at the university and finally continued its ugly dance in our beloved living room. It was eating on my brain and sucking the juice out of my body. At one point I thought I would fall to the floor, or maybe I was secretly hoping it would happen, so I would finally get some rest. 
Something happened however to change all of that in one second. A candle was lit, in a darkness that felt too heavy to handle.

I will spread some light over this positive event a little later but first I need to try to sort out that draining feeling of stress.
I admire people who can fall asleep at night no matter how awful, corrupt or frightful their day has been. I say corrupt because that's a word that often comes to my mind when driving in Montreal. This city is beautiful in so many ways with unique wall paintings and cosy restaurants, but under the surface of the ridiculously poorly made asphalt hides corrupt politics. I know that it is a fact in many other countries and cities but I'm in Montreal and it's here the construction work is laughing in the face of hard working tax payers.  
Stress feeds on negative feelings, it's amazing how negative you can get when you let it happen. The secret is not to let it happen. What you should do, is to put a pair of shoes on and go out for a walk. Breathe out the negativity and breathe in the positive fresh thoughts. That's what I did, one fine evening when the first snow fell on the poor quality asphalt of this city...

I had Leonard Cohen playing from my iPod. 

"my once so bright, my fallen star
...
goodnight goodnight

My fallen star
I guess you’re right
You always are

I know you’re right
About the blues
You live some life
You’d never choose

I’m just a fool
A dreamer who
Forgot to dream

Of the me and you" 

Absolutely beautiful music and lyrics. For me it's describing my complicated relationship with this city. I chose this city. Not once but twice. Once 4.5 years ago when I moved here from Finland, then 2.5 years ago when I couldn't handle one more minute in the country side. Actually I guess I should go back even further, because when I was a 17 year old exchange student I chose this city as well. The silver lining being, I wanted this, I chose this. Why am I complaining?

Well I think we all are aloud to feel home sick and have the blues. It's okay to question your decisions from time to time and analyze them. That's how you figure out the future strategy. As long as you know where you have your feelings and keep your facts straight. 
As for stress, I'm not the person who takes it lightly and falls asleep. I'm the one who stays up all night, sinking deeper and deeper into it. It sucks the energy from me and uses it to make a circle around me. This circle then keeps me from enjoying human contact and wonderful things in life. It keeps me from properly speaking any languages and putting priority in things that matter. I tend to avoid friends and family in times like this, which is really easy to do in this part of the world. To avoid a person you love and adore and share your bed with, is a bit harder. 
So what did I do? 
... well it wasn't so much what I did but more what he did. It is however this kind of a beautiful thing that deserve a blog text of it's own, so I will bring it to light in my next blog moment.