four/four.

Exams are finally complete. A mere four days before Christmas. Pretty late really. It doesn't feel like it, mind. It mostly doesn't feel like Christmas at all. None of the familiarities of Christmas are here that let me know it's on the way. I haven't even been watching TV enough to see the Coke adverts, let alone the snowy BBC idents. I even forgot to eat most of the chocolates on my advent calendar. I opened the presents my family sent me today as well, as it's not really feasible to take them with me to Ottawa. The feeling was mostly one of guilt. It didn't feel right opening the presents my parents got me when they are five hours in the future, 3000 miles away. Sitting in my dingy, distinctly un-Christmas room in Hamilton three days before modern life's triumphant crescendo of 2009 I can only feel disenchanted. I put it down to context though. I'm not Scrooge. Christmas is about family and mine are too far away.

I am pretty damn stoked to be going to the nation's capital, Ottawa. Where tomorrow temperature reads: highs of -10C and lows of -12C and when I posed Matt the question of 'snow?' his retort was 'lots'. Do I hear the word 'Baltic?'. It's going be awesome to see Matt and I'm kind of intrigued to see how other families, particularly Canadian ones, do Christmas. Not to mention New Years in Montreal. That's going to be a blast.

It feels good to finally have finished all my exams as well. I am pretty confident with only a days worth of revision. Successfully achieved making one stupid remark in the exam today by saying that to reduce impact on storm water systems people should piss in the shower. I tell no lie, either. In the History exam the week before I got the ludicrous word 'degringolade' in on Patrick's request. For everyone that has no idea what this means: -noun: a quick deterioration or breakdown, as of a situation or circumstance. In short, it means 'downfall'.

Time to begin this lonely 8 hour journey.