a walk in maple leaves

one nice thing about being on "vacation" is eating and reading. i've probably gained 5 pounds in the last two days on kimchee, rice and cake (birthday, pre-wedding, wedding, post-wedding, just-because). and i've completed reading my first book in weeks: "a walk in the woods" by bill bryson.

random things in no particular order:

1) canada is a funny place. canadians are funny. and if you make fun of canadians in a wedding speech, they get offended for about 1/2 a second and then burst out laughing. it was my first wedding speech ever (totally unprepared and improvised), and i got like 10 people coming up to me afterwards saying that it was a great speech. go figure. i need to be unprepared more often; i seem to most experience success when i *don't* put my mind to things.

2) i appear to be sick. i have this huge painful lump in the side of my throat (swollen lymph node?), which according to a doctor who was at the wedding, is most likely the result of an infection that my body is fighting. but i don't know of any infections externally, so i'm fighting an invisible illness. i have four packets of sample antibiotics that he was kind enough to give to me. thankfully, today being october 1, i'm now medically insured and can see a doctor. i just need to get back to the country in which i'm insured.

3) after reading "a walk in the woods", which is about the author attempting the 2,000+ mile hike through the appalachian trail and not making even a third of it, i wanted to hike the AT. after reading "into thin air" about six years ago, which is about a team of climbers who lost a few of its members during a tragic everest attempt, i wanted to climb mount everest. i appear to be the most stupid adventure-seeker imaginable. i appear to desire challenges that are unimaginably difficult and dangerous. fortunately, i also appear to be among the laziest adventure-seeker as well. which means, i read in the comfort of my cozy urban life and eat more pre-wedding cake.

4) do you know that it gets down to -30 degrees celsius in edmonton? do you also know that edmonton has the largest shopping mall in the world which includes an indoor amusement park? being that i'm an extremely consumer-oriented person, i hope to visit said mall/amusement park and buy frisk(c) mints before i leave maple leaf land tomorrow.