Footprints On The Lake

I am now officially homeless. There are holiday closures on campus for people living in residence, meaning that they have to move out during Christmas and New Year´s. Normally, people have to move out of their residence 24 hours after their last exam. Being that I extended my stay at Tatham Residence until the very last day, it was finally time to move out on Dec 22nd. I was still completely knackered thanks to our trip to New York. Therefore, I hated the “past-me” for thinking I could just come back and pack my stuff all in one day. I was really surprised by the amount of stuff that I added to my collection of valuable treasures during the past four months. There were a lot of nick-nacks, books and keepsakes I had to take home with me. Still, there was no way I could fit all of that into the one backpack I came with. For the time being, I slung it all into one big tarpaulin bag, just to get it out of the way. It took me ages to sort everything through and to chuck things away that I no longer needed. Bit by bit I was creating a huge uncomfortable mess, ripping apart the small and improvised, yet very comfy home of mine. In a way, I hated the idea of not having a base to come back to, despite the excitement of being free and able to travel excessively. I was completely drained after dragging heavy bags across campus (Carly agreed to store some of my stuff for now) and moving furniture around in order to clean all the nooks and crannies. Naturally, I was really looking forward to having a nice long holiday break. I would be doing nothing, except for sleeping all day, eating a lot of food, and binge-watching some series on Netflix. At least that was the plan.

Carly, Nadiya, Sam, Dan and I booked a cabin in Peterborough for Christmas, hoping for a nice Christmas getaway including snow, log fires and home cooked meals. Peterborough is a little bit further North halfway towards Ottawa. When we set off on our journey, nobody had a clue where we were going nor WIFI to look it up. I was trying to navigate the whole group from one bus stop to the next, all the while struggling with a huge big backpack on my back. It took us a few hours but eventually we got to Peterborough. Since we booked a cabin in the middle of nowhere we had to cater for ourselves. Because it was already late when we arrived at the bus terminal, we decided to go shopping straight away. Again, nobody had any ideas on what to have for dinner during the next week. We were running around the supermarket like headless chicken. Nadiya was trying to pursue her vegetarian diet and the rest of us were trying to figure out how much food we would need for the five of us. When the taxi eventually came to pick us up, we had shedloads of stuff. Not only did we have backpacks, suitcases and trolleys, but groceries as well. I was more than relieved when we finally arrived in the cabin.

The cabin was amazing! There was a Christmas tree in the corner and Christmas lights glowing in the windows and the electric fire was on. I hadn´t expected that! We unpacked the car, put everything away and immediately changed into jogging pants. We would be wearing these for the next few days to come! When we got up the next morning, I looked outside and was in complete awe. There was a great big lake right on our doorstep which was covered in snow. After we had breakfast (you could call it lunch really, given the time of the day) we wanted to explore our surroundings. The boys went off on their own, so me and Nadiya went on our own little adventure. We walked up and down the street for a bit. Obviously, this was a rather remote area. The street wasn´t cleared from all the snow so everything was very bright and quiet. There were a lot of trees on our street and a few neighbouring houses flanking the lake. I guess, it´s not too bad living here. There is a beautiful lake right outside, there are many woods and the area is really quiet. This is heaven for outdoorsy people! One of the neighbours even shoveled some snow to create a huge pile. Because of the lake his house was built on a slope. Therefore, he just took his snowboard, slid down the hill and used the pile of snow as a ramp to jump across the street. Soon we got cold though so we went back home to have a hot cup of rosie and snuggle up by the fire.

Oh, how I loved doing nothing! We spent most of the time slouched on the sofa cuddling up in fluffy blankets while watching movies in the evening. We even got to see some of my all-time favourites, like “Hook” and “American Tail”.

Also, we had a great variety of board games, card games and others at our free disposal. I love playing games, especially when there are many people to play with. Carly brought along a game called “Speak Out”. It is actually quite well known for people posting silly videos of them playing this game on facebook and youtube. Basically, this game is played in pairs. One person gets a plastic mouthpiece to put in his or her mouth. Also, this person has to read out some cards with short sentences on them. The other person has to guess what the first person is saying. Obviously, it is really hard to speak properly with that plastic thing propping your mouth open. We were in hysterics! It was so hilarious! We all sounded like total lunatics while dribbling all over the place. I loved that game!

Soon, we got a little bored spending too much time indoors. There are only so many games to play, books to read and movies to watch. It was time for the great outdoors! Since the neighbours were playing ice hockey on the lake and racing their snowmobiles we figured that the ice was thick enough to walk on. Carly and Nadiya were too cold to go for a long walk, so Dan, Sam and I were left on our own. We went on a two hours hike along the shore of the lake until we reached the next little village. It was lovely to begin with. There was this huge open area which was covered in a thick layer of snow. Since I only have short legs it was rather hard for me to walk in the snow. We walked and walked and walked. My body was wrapped in multiple layers of clothes and because we kept moving I wasn´t cold at first. But very slowly my legs got colder and colder, until they were stinging. Obviously, a strand of my hair had been hanging out of my hood because it was solidly frozen. When I tried to tuck it back in it simply broke off. Oh well… Just as the sun was setting we reached our destination, all red nosed, sniffy and shivering. After a cup of hot chocolate, we got a taxi back home to change into some comfy clothes and sit by the fire. I had enough of adventures for that day!

We all got up comparatively early on Christmas Day. We did not have any presents, so there was nothing to unwrap and admire. Unfortunately, we ran a bit out of time before Christmas with exams going on and travelling to NYC and moving out. Therefore, we all agreed that we really could do without presents. A nice dinner would be all we needed. After everyone said their “Merry Christmas” and had their breakfast it was soon time to start preparing Christmas dinner. Nadiya was determined to get a head start and to peel the potatoes. It took her a while to realize that there were no potatoes. The five of us collectively rummaged around in the kitchen but she was right. The potatoes were gone! We definitely bought a huge sack before coming to the cabin but obviously we left them in the taxi. Christmas dinner without roasted potatoes?! It got even worse when I pointed out that we did not buy any Oxo or gravy cubes. To top it all off, we discovered that Sam ate all the sausages that were meant to go into the stuffing, as a midnight snack the other night. This was a disaster!

At least we had a proper turkey. The bird went into the oven first thing, because that would take the longest. After about three hours of roasting the turkey still looked really really pale. I was confused. It wasn´t until I realized that the oven ran with Fahrenheit rather than with Celsius that I was able to solve the problem. Oh dear…

Somehow, we managed to put together a fabulous dinner despite having no potatoes, no sausages and no gravy cubes. The gravy was made from onions and turkey juice, the stuffing was based on mashed up toast fried up with bacon and instead of roasted potatoes we had roasted parsnips. Additionally, we had turkey, carrots, broccoli, brussels sprouts and cranberry sauce.

Even though it was 9 p.m. by the time we had dinner, it was lovely!

After another few days of Netflix, games and napping all day it was time for us to leave. Instead of taking local buses to get back to the city, we took the train this time which was so much better! Still, there was one little problem: we had nowhere to stay for New Year´s Eve. We did not book a hostel or anything because they were all too expensive or already booked out. Therefore, we decided to take a chance and try to sneak back into the residence on Campus. The Brits all stayed in Atkinson Residence, which is an older residence on campus. The rooms there all have their own bathroom but no kitchen. Because the Brits are all staying for a whole year they were to keep their keys to their apartments. Obviously, I had to hand in my keys when moving out of Tatham Hall so there was no chance of me getting back in there. Thankfully, Jack, who shares a room with Dan, let me have his bed, since he was away until January. Everything worked out, just as we had hoped for. We sneaked back into the residence unnoticed and made ourselves at home. We would live off ramen noodles and toast for the next few days, since all the shops on campus were closed and we had no kitchen. Still, it was cheap! I did not realize how much stress and hard work Christmas was, despite having a lot of free-time. Thankfully, I had a few days to recover in Toronto, until it was time to embark on the next journey.