Canada Day Pt. 1

Although I consider myself a very patriotic Canadian, I tend to classify myself not as "Canadian" when asked, but as "Cape Betoner" or "Maritimer". Stuff like that. And I guess that's probably what Canada's national identity is- the fact that we have no national identity. And we seem to enjoy hockey more than is generally good for one's health.

This was, of course, going to be my first Canada Day celebrated in another country (along with nearly every other Canadian I know in Korea). We had to make a special weekend out of it, not only for ourselves, but for our other foreign friends who are not from Canada- it may have been our first Canada Day out of Canada, but it was their first Canada Day, like, ever.

So, of course, some of my fellow Canadian ladies and myself organized a huge Canada Day bash at Now Bar. CD's showcasing Canadian musicians were made, Grace and I made many small cakes (in our toaster ovens) which we transformed into a huge Canada Day cake, Kamal created a hockey quiz and the bar was draped in red and white (we mostly used Valentine's Day decorations...). It was a blast, and what's more, we totally set the standard for all other independence celebrations to come (ahem... Fourth of July...). Here, as always, are some pictures:


Mrs. C let drunk Janine and drunk Grace (and several onlookers; wellwishers) into her kitchen to decorate the epic Canada Day cake! We had already had a few drinks at this point, so when attempting to put three round cakes and three rectangle cakes together into one big cake, we got a little creative (aka: ripped up the recatngle cakes and shoved the pieces into the gaps between the circle cakes).

And the finished product! We used one rectangle cake to cut out the maple leaf and the "141" and smothered the whole thing in a very sugary icing and then sprinkled the whole thing with red and white hearts (again, Valentine's Day comes in handy).

Even British Paul was in Canadian cheer. Like my Maple Bear tee-shirt, by the way?

My shirt did not compare to Grace and Lindsay's shirts, though. Hilarity; especially Grace's reference to our Canadian Heritage Moments (commercials they show on Canadian channels that teach us about our history and famous Canadians). "Dr. Penfield! I can smell burnt toast!"

When we finished decorating, we turned off the music and paraded the cake through Now Bar as everyone sang the national anthem. It was a special moment.