Logic? I don’t have it.
[talking to Tim on the phone]
Me: I can’t figure out how to take the VIA Rail train out of Dauphin when I go home. There’s no platform on the other side.
Tim: [explains how they probably run both sides from the one track that has the platform]
Me: okay. But I’m confused. The timetable says the train only runs on Friday and Sunday, but the website says I can take it on Monday.
[Cue different ways of trying to figure out what’s going on]
Tim: Where is the train coming from?
Me: Thompson.
Tim: look at the train times and go backwards from Dauphin
Me: [reciting times]…0117…..0012….2327….oh.
Tim: Daft woman.
Me: *facepalm*
….The train leaves Thompson on Friday and Sunday, but gets to Dauphin on Saturday and Monday.
The Sun isn’t as Damaging Here?
Yesterday I was out from around noon until 4PM in the sun walking around into town and around town and then back. And I was *hot*. I drained my water bottle well before I even got back near the house, and my pedometer says I walked 5.25 miles. I neglected sunblock so I was sort of expecting to look in the mirror this morning and see sunburn on my forehead, but would you believe there’s nothing? Usually if I’m out in the sun for even a half hour without sunblock I start to get a little crispy. I’m sure the scientific reason is that I’m farther away from the equator, but I always thought sunlight was sunlight? Then again, when I was in the Caribbean, we were warned about the sun being hotter, so I suppose it makes sense the farther north you go, the less hot the sun is?
My latitude here is 51 degrees…am I really as close to the Arctic Circle as I think I am?
I’m using the latitude/longitude calculator here: http://www.satsig.net/maps/lat-long-finder.htm, and apparently when I’m in the UK, I’ll be at the 0 meridian…so I get to go from the hundredth meridian to the zero…and I realize I am probably a huge geek for pointing this out. (Latitude of where I’ll be in the UK is 53)
The Perils of Living Out of a Suitcase…
…Or at least, one dresser drawer, as Sarah emptied a drawer for me to unpack into is that you wind up wanting something you don’t have, or forgetting you’re out of clothing until it’s the following morning and you go to get clothes to wear!
This morning I wasn’t feeling well. I woke up with a small cold, so all I wanted to do was to take a hot shower, change into my fleece pajamas, and go back to bed. Unfortunately, my fleece pajamas are back in PA, but I did have a pair of UM sweatpants….but they were in the laundry basket, since I wore them two days ago. I also discovered I only had one clean T-shirt in the drawer, and it was a slightly ratty one I packed for sleeping in. So, I wound up needing to do laundry this morning while I wasn’t feeling well just so I’d have something clean and comfortable to wear!
Packing to come here was hard. I didn’t want to over pack and need two suitcases, especially since I’d have access to a washer/dryer. I also had to consider the season change, and I still worry that with not packing a sweatshirt I’m going to get chilly in late September. Since I’m spending most of my day indoors, I wanted to pack plenty of comfortable/lounge clothes, also known as pajamas…but now that I’m here, I don’t think I packed enough!
I was so worried about getting here and not needing things I packed that I failed to think of the flip side — wanting something you forgot to pack. I really should have packed a second pair of shoes – all I have with me are my Crocs and a pair of slippers for around the house. Yesterday while walking outside I slipped and turned my ankle funny. Usually when I do that I want to wear a different pair of shoes…but I can’t here, unless I want to *buy* a pair over at Wal-Mart. I probably could have asked my mom to throw in my sneakers into the package she’s sending me, but she’s sending so much already, I really didn’t want to make it any heavier!
For my next trip, I’m going to have to really think about what I’m packing. I’ll be gone during the late fall/early winter, which means while I won’t need my winter coat when I leave, I’ll certainly need it when I come home! I still only want to pack into one suitcase, so it’s going to be interesting to see how I’m going to fit bulkier winter clothing into the same suitcase I just had all this stuff in. I also wanted to try to pack my bathrobe in case Tim’s house is drafty. I used to take my robe with me when I went to Ann Arbor to visit, but I also usually had the entire trunk of my car available for packing space! The airline I’m using for the UK trip (Air India) doesn’t seem to have any baggage limits, but I have to get myself all the way up to JFK on public transportation, and I really don’t want to be dealing with loads of bags on New Jersey Transit!
Anyway, my point is that I really wished I had given a bit more thought to packing before I came up here. I probably would have squeezed in at least one more pair of lounge pants/pajama pants and probably my sneakers as well. Too late now, just information to file away, and information that maybe will help someone in the future!
Prarie Storm
It’s starting to storm out there, and despite the fact that thunder makes me jump and I don’t really like looking at lightning, I’m finding the storm pretty. It’s different than a storm would be at home…at home there just isn’t as much sky. I know, that sounds weird, but with the wide open prairies it just makes the sky look bigger for some reason.
Check the gallery for more photos:
http://photos.beccajanestclair.com/winnipeg-manitoba-august-2008/storm-in-dauphin/
Oh, and because I think this photo I took of Hobbes is adorable:
Going Green
I didn’t leave the house yesterday,and I probably won’t today…I’m currently glued to the Olympics. Weather also says it’s supposed to storm, and I don’t want to get caught out in that, since I forgot to pack my umbrella.
I’m still not sleeping well. I’ve been here for a week, and I keep wanting to go to bed around 11PM CST, and then I’ll wake up around 130, 3, 5, and then 7. Usually I’ll wind up giving up on sleeping somewhere between 8 and 9AM CST. Sometimes I fall back asleep quickly, sometimes it takes me a while to get back to sleep. The sleep timer on the television has been a big help. Every time I wake up, Casper thinks it’s time to play, and he’ll jump up on the bed and get right up in my face. This morning he accidentally swiped my nose with his claw.
I also wanted to pass along a link to a website I was given: http://www.reusablebagsgiveaway.com/. For the cost of shipping ($5.99 in the US) you can get two free LARGE reusable grocery bags. The more reusable bags we use, the less plastic, and this means there will still be a world to travel on. Several countries have banned free plastic bags, charging a tax if you require one, and many US cities are giving it consideration, too. I’m all for it. We leave the reusable bags in the trunk of the car, so we always have them when we go shopping. Up here, I’ve been taking my backpack with me to the grocery store along with an insulated bag ($2 at Weis markets), and between the two, I manage pretty well. Most grocery stores sell reusable bags for about a dollar these days. Even Wal-Mart gets into the act. Wal-Mart in the US had been selling black reusable bags for $0.50, Wal-Mart here sells large plastic reusable bags for CDN$0.97, made from recycled plastic bottles. Some stores even offer credit for bringing in bags to reuse. Weis Markets gives a three cent credit per bag you bring in (when they remember). Use a bag 33 times and it’s paid for itself!
Sarah and Joe have done a lot to their house so things are more environmentally friendly. From special windows, to cork floors, to a special toilet that uses less water. You can read all about the changes on their blog. The post is about a year ago when they were still in the process of moving, but it explains things far better than I possibly could!
Oh, and because I thought this photo was cute, here’s naptime for the cats:
(click for bigger)
You Can Take the Girl out of Lancaster County…
…but you can’t take Lancaster County out of the girl!
I wanted snack food. For the past few days I’d be watching TV or something around 10PM and just wish I had a handful of pretzels or chips to munch on, so today I decided to go get something to munch on in the evenings. There’s no Gibbles, no Utz, no Hanover….not even Snyder! The only pretzels I could find looked…not very good, so I settled for some salt and vinegar chips…and I bought the brand closest-sounding to home:
Old Dutch.
Oh, and how cool is it that the potato chips are in a box?
Rude Canadians?
Wow, I really bought into the old stereotype of “All Canadians are nice and polite” until today. I finally had my experience with a rude Canadian.
Last night, I really wanted a milkshake. I couldn’t remember which A&W Sarah told me was okay to go to, so today I decided to just walk down to the McDonald’s and get a milkshake. There was a family ahead of me – two kids, and two adults, and a teenager, who I wasn’t sure if she was with the family or on her own, since she was significantly older than the other two children. The counter person called “next”, and I hesitated for a minute to try to get the teenager’s attention to see if she was next or part of the family, when the man behind me not only barreled in front of me, but banged into me and practically sent me to the floor in his rush to get to the counter! Wow. I mean, if he had really wanted his Lunch that badly, I might have been nice and let him ahead, but I see no reason to push forward.
My second incident of rude – In order to get to the grocery store from Sarah and Joe’s, you have to cross the “highway” – it’s 4 lanes, but there *is* a crosswalk, and I was told that usually people will stop if they see someone waiting to cross, otherwise, you wait for it to be clear and then walk across like a normal crosswalk. I approached the crosswalk, and the cars on the opposite side of the street both stopped, and the car in the left lane on the side I was on stopped. There was a car coming in the right, but I figured as long as the other cars were stopped, it would stop too, so I started across. That jerk sped up! I had to RUN across the right lane so I could finish crossing. Seriously, what? If all the other cars are stopped for the pedestrian….shouldn’t you?
On the flip side….I talked to the man at the small vegetable stand outside the safeway,and he told me how to find the farmer’s market for next Friday (I’m too pooped right now!) and he sold me a cucumber for CDN$0.25, when he was selling them as “nine for $5”!
Oh, and while we’re on the subject of McDonald’s, I noticed what we would refer to as the “dollar menu” is called the “value menu” and most of the items are CDN$1.39, which when you do the conversion, is US$1.30. So even the fast food is more expensive here! But, they do have a CDN$0.99 Mini Milkshake – it’s the size of the happy meal drink and perfect when you just wanted a little bit of milkshake!
Olympics From a Traveler’s Perspective
It’s actually really interesting to be in another country during the Olympics, and to be watching things on that nation’s television station. It’s interesting how the focus isn’t all about the Canadians, and they’re actually talking about all the other nations and athletes…they even showed George Bush when the US walked by. It’s refreshing, because on the US station(s), I know they’ll be concentrating mostly on the US teams and on telling us all about the US.
The commercials are also great, because they’ve been showing support commercials for both Canada and the US….whereas in the US, we wouldn’t get Canadian commercials.
Also, I completely do not understand the Chinese alphabet they’re using for the countries. Peru followed by Ireland followed by Estonia…oh wait, and now it’s the Czech Republic and El Salvador. What?! And the UK, the US, and Canada all already marched. Can anyone explain to me the Chinese alphabet?
I’m also actually pretty exited…these are the 29th Olympics, and I’m turning 29! Okay, so the Olympics aren’t technically 29 actual years old, but it still keeps me entertained.
The only thing I might miss with not being in the US would be the coverage on *all* of the NBC owned channels and the chance to be watching high diving at 2 in the morning because it happens to be on MS-NBC or something like that.
I love the Olympics. I have since I was little…..Mom has a photo of me somewhere from 1984, asleep on her and Dad’s bed, holding an American flag in my hand because I had been trying to stay awake to watch the opening ceremonies. In 1992, when the US had it’s first “dream team”, dad and I watched every game we could, and collected all the newspaper articles. I bet I still have them somewhere. My hometown was host to an Olympic athlete (he went to Peddie, my public high school’s private rival across the street), and my college (Penn State!) has been the alma of many athletes. My friend is vying for a position on the US Hockey team for 2010, and Tim’s already been teasing me about staying with him in 2012 for the London games.
The sad thing about this year? I won’t be watching them with my mom, and I’ll miss out on the local coverage. Oh, but how’s this for strange? I went to both the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting) and NBC websites to check on the schedule because I don’t want to miss the Penn State alum (Kevin Tam, US Men’s Gymnastic Captain) and I thought I caught that part of Men’s Gymnastic’s was tonight, and I actually had the local (WGAL) logo showing on the NBC site. My IP is currently showing me as being in Canada, so I know it’s not some weird “we’ll go by her IP and show her the station logo for the local station”….but look:
(Click for bigger)
Isn’t that weird?
How Far North Are You?
I keep getting asked how far North I am, and saying 200 miles North of Winnipeg doesn’t really work, unless you know exactly where Winnipeg is, so here’s a nice map for you with a pin where I am:
(click to make it bigger)
Canadian Television
I’m not sure I really understand Canadian Television. Or, more aptly, I don’t understand the cable company Sarah and Joe have. They have digital cable, which has 100+ channels for your viewing pleasure…..but they all show the same shows. I found at least four instances of Ellen’s show, and caught Rachel Ray just as many times. What’s the point? Why have all these channels if all they do is repeat each other? I’ve also been entertained by the US stations it picked up. the NBC, ABC, and CBS affiliates are all Detroit stations….when Detroit is no where near being the closest US city. If we were in Windsor, sure, but here? Nope. Oh, and there’s multiple NBCs too, and different time zone channels, so I saw on the menu the soap opera my mom watches available at at least three different times. And then, there are channels listed in the line-up, but they’re not part of Sarah and Joe’s package…so why bother even showing those as options? Do they just list them so people will *want* the channels and pay the extra money or something? All it does is annoy *me* because I can’t remember what channels they get in their package and don’t get.
But, they do get Space, and Torchwood starts on Friday on Space, so at least I get to re-watch Season Two! And, I get to watch the olympics in High-Definition…and I can pick either CBC or NBC 😀
Walking around Dauphin
Today I walked North of Sarah and Joe’s (I think. They can correct me if I’m wrong) to the actual town part of Dauphin. I had a lot of fun walking around and exploring. My pedometer told me I walked over 4 miles, but I can’t believe it was really that much, though I did go on some side streets and backtracked myself at one point, so maybe I did.
The town of Dauphin is small, I think maybe the entire area of “downtown” is about 6 or 7 blocks long. I found three Dollar General type stores, at least two (maybe even three) places that had “pharmacy” in their store name, a few assorted other stores, and three locations where you can mail stuff through Canada Post.
I walked down to the train station and discovered there is a train museum inside the station house. Unfortunately, even though the sign said it should be open, it wasn’t. I sent an e-mail to the address on the sign though to ask when it was open, so hopefully I’ll get to go to it at some point before I go home!
I also learned today that postage is expensive. Letters home are CDN$0.96, and letters to the UK are almost $2!
Photos:
For more photos, check out my gallery for today: http://photos.beccajanestclair.com/winnipeg-manitoba-august-2008/around-dauphin-part-one/
Did you know you can leave comments on photos as well as posts?
Shopping in Canada
I was so concerned before my trip about being able to figure out what the current temperature was outside (Multiply degrees in C by 9, then divide by 5, then add 32 to get degrees in F), that I never really stopped to think about the actual act of grocery shopping in another country.
So, here’s a few things I’ve learned so far that might be of help to other travelers:
- Become familiar with the currency and the conversion rate. I’m fortunate that Canada uses the Canadian Dollar and so the denominations are all the same with the exception of using a one dollar and two dollar coin instead of bills. This morning, I had $10 in loonies and toonies in my purse! Also remember that when you go to convert money back to US currency, most places won’t take coins, even if they are the dollar and two dollar coins. The Canadian dollar is worth about US$1.03, so it’s nearly an even exchange. I can easily convert in my head to figure out how much I’m spending in US Dollars. (And it’s not pretty. Wow, stuff is expensive here!)
- Learn the Metric system. I wanted to buy some cheese for sandwiches, and I stared gobsmacked at the signs for a good 10 minutes “$2.09/100g”. What’s 100g? 100g is a little less than 1/4 of a pound. So, if you wanted “one pound” of cheese, you’d need to order 100-500g. Fortunately, the deli scale at the Safeway measured in both pounds and grams, so when I explained I was a poor confused American who wanted a half pound of cheese, she was able to measure it out in pound format.
- Be prepared to spend more money on “American” items. I didn’t come with any toiletries because I wanted to save on the room in my suitcase. I sort of wish I had brought some along, anyway. I still haven’t bought any body wash, because I haven’t been able to justify the CDN$6.99 (US$6.70) for a bottle of body wash. I’ve been using the crappy bar of soap I snagged from the hotel in Winnipeg. I usually get the cheap store brands for around US$2.50….that kind of stuff doesn’t exist here. I also couldn’t find my cheap shampoo. I use the VO5 .99 stuff because it’s good and it’s inexpensive. I couldn’t find VO5, but I did find Suave shampoo in the same strawberry scent I usually get. CDN$2.53 for a double pack of the Shampoo/Conditioner. Not a bad price, but not the brand I usually get. I wonder how much space/weight a bottle of body wash would have taken up? Oh well, too late now! I wonder if Bath and Body Works ships to Canada?
Leg Two: VIA Rail Winnipeg -> Dauphin
I had such a great time on my VIA Rail trip yesterday, really. My train was set to leave at 9AM, but I got to the station around 7:30. VIA has checked baggage services (WOOT!) so I was able to check my large suitcase and that gave me time to wander around Winnipeg with just my backpack. Turns out, the VIA Rail station is in a bad part of town. Oops. As soon as I started seeing boarded up windows and smelled stale urine, I hightailed it back to the station. All I really had wanted to do was find some breakfast, but apparently there wasn’t even a Tim Horton’s on that end of town!
Back at the station, I sat with about a dozen or so people, all headed to points farther north (Churchill) and most booked into the sleeper cars. I met a man from Texas who was taking his annual vacation up to Churchill. We had fun comparing the weather with being farther North. I also met a German family who booked comfort class with me, and we spent part of the trip chatting.
The train was running on a slight delay, so we didn’t board until 9:15. But the train….oh, it’s lovely. So much leg room and head room and Amtrak *really* needs to take some notes from their sister organization! The seats had a footrest like a recliner would, and there was still room leftover that I had my large backpack at my feet and had plenty of room!
Check out that legroom!
Each train has a dining car and even that was pretty. I had a cheese sandwich (well, it was a ham and cheese I picked the ham off of) and some apple juice. Reasonably priced, too.
The dining car
Everyone I interacted with, from the counter person at Winnipeg, to the station master at Dauphin was incredibly nice and polite. The conductor even remembered I told him I had a checked bag so he went and got it off for me!
The only “thorn” perhaps, was a family with three small children under the age of 12. The kids were being rowdy and at one point bouncing on the seats and throwing shoes at each other with the parent either sleeping, or not paying attention. A quick trip to talk to the conductor though and the situation was solved.
The scenery was absolutely lovely, too, and I have TONS of photos to share! I’ve never seen the praries before, not even in the US, and the sheer vastness of flat was just breathtaking. Looking out either side of the train there was nothing but land as far as the eye could see…no skyscrapers, not even a mountain for a long while….just field after field of farming, flowers, and weeds.
Praries of Manitoba, with the Manitoba Escarpment in the background
Here’s a video I took of some of the scenery, including a CN train passing us:
For my photos I took in Winnipeg while walking around, you can check the gallery here:
http://photos.beccajanestclair.com/winnipeg-manitoba-august-2008/winnipeg/
For photos of the train and the scenery, you can check my VIA gallery here:
http://photos.beccajanestclair.com/winnipeg-manitoba-august-2008/via-rail/
And, if you want to see pictures of my charges for the next eight weeks, I have some photos of them here:
http://photos.beccajanestclair.com/winnipeg-manitoba-august-2008/quincy-hobbes-and-casper/
Google Maps Lie!
My mom drove me to the Philadelphia airport this morning. We don’t often go there, as I recently have been flying out of BWI, but when PHL is cheaper we go there since we live sort of between the two (or at least, equidistant). We printed directions off Google even though we were kind of familiar with the route.
Google Maps lie! An 11.6 mile stretch starting with the Rt 100 exit is actually more like 20+ miles. You have to be either familiar with the area or have a good sense of direction to know that there are three right turns not mentioned AT ALL in these directions. They aren’t new roads, so I’m not sure what Google Maps problem is with them. Basically, when you get off at Rt 100, you’re really on Rt 113. THEN you turn onto Rt 100, followed by a turn onto Pottstown Pike, and at one point you actually have to turn back onto 322 to get to 202. I don’t see *any* of that mentioned in the directions, do you?
Moral of the story? Make sure you have a real map in your car for a back-up, and try to figure out a way of verifying your directions before you go! Especially if you have to reverse them on your own for the way home! Mom wound up going a different way home because of all the turns not listed…oh, and id I mention that Rt 100 was closed in the opposite direction? Why doesn’t Google Maps update for those kinds of things?
Leg One: Philadelphia, PA to Winnipeg, MB
Today I embarked on the first leg of my trip up to Dauphin!
Flights:
Northwest Flt 1765 PHL -> DTW Departed 9:25 Arrived 11:12 at Gate A-40 (or some insanely high number)
Northwest Flt 4739 DTW -> YWG Departed 12:15 at Gate C-29!!!
YIKES! I had to travel across pretty much the entire MacNamara terminal to grab my connection…but I still had time to grab a gardenburger from Fudruckers. It wasn’t a bad burger, and surprisingly only $5.79. And other than a bagel I scarfed down in the car, and a peanut butter and jelly uncrustable, the only food I ate today so far. Oh, and I get to add “tram” to my list of transportation devices I’ve taken on this trip. IF I go to the mall, I’d also add a bus, but I just walked around one mall,and I’m not sure I have the energy to walk around another.
Types of transportation today: Car, Plane, Tram, Cab (do the people mover things in the airports count?)
Probably the most nerve-wracking thing for me was going to be going through Customs once in Canada, but surprisingly? No problems at all.
here’s my passport stamp!
Thank you, Canada for hiring competent customs agents who are BNL fans and who just stamp my passport while babbling about BNL instead of asking me all the required questions!
After breezing through customs, it was a short (albeit pricey – CDN$12.30) taxi ride over to the holiday Inn, where Sarah had booked me for the night. The hotel is really nice, here’s a view from my window:
After settling in, I took a walk down to the Shoppers Drug Mart and a mini mall, then I headed to The Bay to do some browsing. Now, I’m back in my room, drinking the horrible excuse for tea the hotel offers for free.
Oh, and I turned the sink in the bathroom into a wet bar:
To see more photos from today, check out my album for today: http://photos.beccajanestclair.com/winnipeg-manitoba-august-2008
Important News for Laptop Travelers
The Department of Homeland Security announced today that they can now search an international traveler’s laptop without reasonable suspicion. This includes US Citizens re-entering the country from abroad. Not only can they confiscate your laptop for months on end, but they also can share the contents of your laptop with other departments. There’s an article on Engadget with some comments including ways you can keep your data secure.
My advice would be that if you do have sensitive and confidential material on your hard drive, you should remove it and possibly store it on a secure online server where you would be able to download it once you reach your destination.
Just another example of why I’d love to move out of this country.
Gearing up to Go….
I’m just about ready to embark on my two months trip to Canada. I leave tomorrow morning, bright and early, and I have to take a plane from Philadelphia to Detriot, then Detroit to Winnipeg. Then, I spend the night in a hotel in Winnipeg and take a Via Rail train on Sunday morning up to Dauphin. I was going to take Greyhound, but I found that the train was a little cheaper, got in earlier, and I love trains. Good thing too, with a man being decapitated on a bus headed to Winnipeg!
But anyway. Packing is always fun. Especially when you get to your destination and look at your suitcase and think “the heck did I pack that for?”, which is exactly what happened to me when I went on Ships and Dip III in January. I packed TWO bags to take to my cousin’s house in Orlando, and when I got onto the ship? I alternated between a skirt or a pair of shorts. I didn’t even touch anything else I had packed for the bottom half. I think I got it down pretty well for this trip. Two pairs of pants, a skirt, two pairs of lounge/yoga pants, a few pairs of sleep shorts/boxers, 5 t-shirts and a peasant blouse. Sarah told me not to worry about trying to squeeze in a sweater and told me to raid her closet if I need one. Sarah also passed along a great packing tip, that has saved me from having to pack a second checked bag!
Instead of spending money on those Space Bags – make your own! Sarah told me she and her husband use large Ziplock bags for packing their clothing when they go on long trips. Just put all your clothes into the bags, seal them up with leaving a small opening at the top, and squeeze out all the air! I tried this with a few 2 gallon sized bags I had laying around and I actually have extra room in my suitcase – enough that I can pack two skeins of yarn to start a knitting project up there!
Another thing I did was eliminated packing heavy books to read on the plane or up at their house by getting audio books. Librivox is a service that offers FREE audio book versions of books that are in the public domain. I was able to download several old favourites, as well as the audio book version of Bleak House, so I can keep up with the Burn-Gorman.Com Book Club read-through of it while I’m away. These are mp3 versions of the books, however, so if you want to have them as iPod audio book format (m4b), you will need to convert them. Fortunately, I found a free converter for Windows, and I understand Apple computers come with a converter.
My last task for today before I go to sleep is going to be packing myself a Bento lunch for the plane. One of my favourite blogs to read,Lunch in a Box, has a great post about packing a bento for the airplane, giving you tips on what you can pack and how to pack things to make the most of your space. I plan on taking an Uncrustable and a Bagleful with me.
All Aboard VIA
I’m actually quite excited! On Sunday, I get to take VIA Rail from Winnipeg to Dauphin! I’ve never ridden on Via before. Sadly, when Dave and I took the train to Toronto from Wilmington in 1997, the VIA staff boarded onto the Amtrak train to take us into Toronto. I’ve always wanted to experience it…I love trains. Check back for lots of photos on Monday!
AAA Rip-off!
Today, I headed over to the AAA office to get some US money exchanged for Canadian to have with me just in case I needed cash before I get up to Sarah and Joe’s. Everyone kept telling me to use AAA instead of a bank because AAA wouldn’t fee you. Uh…right.
AAA has these things called “cash packs”, that is – US$100 worth of currency, minus a “shipping fee”. So, I passed over my US$100 and was handed a packet with CDN$88.
Please note that the current exchange rate is US$1 = CDN$1.02. Theoretically, I should have gotten CDN$102, which makes the AAA fee $14. Seems a bit steep to me! I’d rather I had taken my chances over at the airport, but ah well. We can’t always win, right?
What really had me amused though, was the girl behind the counter’s reaction to the Canadian money. The envelope felt heavy, and I knew there would be a loonie and a toonie ($1 and $2 coin nicknames), so I opened the envelope to take them out before they fell out, and the girl was just fascinated with the Canadian coins. She turned them over and over in her hands a few times and asked me what they were, and seemed impressed that I knew the “nicknames” for the coins. I guess they don’t get a lot of informed international travelers at the AAA in Lancaster!
