Day Five - Back to normal...

I apologise. That last post was waaayy too long. Dont get me wrong, I think that it was all worth saying, but I can understand why people wouldn't want to read it all. But I hope you enjoyed the photos.

Today was a return back to the normal Bishops life. We got up ridiculously early in the morning to return the car (note: we did 1275km all up, and the whole trip cost less than $150 for everything inc. food!), and after breakfast I slept until 2.30pm. I then continued to do nothing all day until my 3rd year marketing class, which is my favourite of the week regardless of its 7-10pm timeslot. I have since watched the latest Pixar movie 'Up' with Anton. While it was great, its probably my least favourite so far.

Actually, I also spent $225 today. More money 'down the drain', but not wasted as far as I'm concerned. Why? That money will pay for two separate trips to the snow; one to Jay Peak on the 22-24 of January including transport, breakfasts, drinks and accommodation, and one for another weekend in February to a resort called Mount Snow, apparently voted the 'Best in the East' recently. I am not going to hold back when it comes to opportunities to go skiing - thats why I came here!

In other news, I am in the process of selecting my classes for next semester, and not only should it all work out with getting credit for QUT units back home, but my timetable should thankfully be a lot more reasonable.

OK, here are my next five differences between countries that I've noticed:

1) Mobile phones are very cheap here. I had planned to buy a new SIM card to put in my Australian phone, but it would have cost $30 to activate it, plus whatever amount of credit I wanted to put on it. For the same price I scored a brand new (albeit cheap) Nokia phone with new SIM card and $25 of credit for $55. You do the math.
2) In addition to this, the rates are incredibly cheap. With my company, I pay 30c/day for 10 texts (alternatively you can do them for 15c each, or 50c/day for unlimited), and 20c/minute for calls. To send a text internationally is only 25c!!!
3) Canadians don't like spray deodorant. Almost all of it is the stick or roll-on type, and the spray ones they do have aren't the 'dry' ones that are common in Australia. Its annoying.
4) Speed is not a priority for police to enforce here. On the roadtrip, I only saw one police car for the whole time. I don't know of any fixed cameras either. This is good.
5) In Quebec, there is no such thing as KFC. Instead, they literally call the same thing 'PFK', to ensure that they are 'French'. It stands for Poulet Frit Kentucky, and the direct translation is Chicken Fried Kentucky. How bizarre - so much for everything I've learnt in marketing about 'brand consistency'.

Alright, I'm off to bed. Goodnight!

Jono