O Canada

I got back into Canada on Tuesday night. My flight was pretty uneventful, but I'm incredibly grateful that I got a good seat. The flight was looking quite full, and I was a bit worried that I would have to spend the entire time crammed into a tiny seat in economy class. (I have only had to do this once, and it was really, really awful.) But fortunately, I requested and was given one of the roomier seats behind the bulkhead between economy and business class. I could stretch my legs and everything. I felt a little bit guilty stretching out like that but ... well ... someone's gotta do it. (What kills me is when they put somebody who is about 5 feet tall into these extra-spacious seats. Meanwhile, someone like me is sitting behind them with his knees up around his ears. What a waste!)

On the way into and out of the plane, I walked through the first class section. The disparity between Economy and First Class, and the unashamed luxury of it all is getting absolutely ridiculous! The first class seats are placed diagonally on the plane so that the seat can recline fully into a bed, and each person has their own kind of ... well, I can only describe it as a "relaxation pod". They are almost fully enclosed by small walls on all sides, and they have their own little entertainment system and climate control ... crazy. At some point I am hoping that we will see a First Class section where the furniture is actually composed of Sub-Economy Class passengers. One person will be curled up into a ball to form an Ottoman; a couple of other people will be the seat; somebody else will have the First Class Passenger's tray on their head, and so on. Other Economy class passengers will be employed fanning them with huge fans made of peacock feathers, while others hold their drinks for them and feed them peeled grapes. Awesome! "Boy! Ready my bedpan!"

Anyway, my plan is to go to New Brunswick on Sunday, and spend a few weeks down there. I hope I will be able to go swimming a little bit; it was actually too cold last summer to do much of that.

In the meantime, I have to try and study Japanese, for the 2nd level of the Japanese Proficiency Test in December. I'll also have some work to do over the summer, which I'm not exactly looking forward to, but which will at least give me something to do. "All play and no work makes Jeff very lazy indeed."

I'm hoping to get jogging a little bit, too. We'll see how that goes.

Enough rambling. Hope to see you all soon!