Yes, right now many people are preparing for the 4th of July holiday weekend, but today I am thinking about Canada.
I love Canada. As a junior in high school, our choir went to Banff and Calgary to perform and work with clinicians. Now that I’m a teacher, I respect my choir teacher even more for taking us. One of my most favorite memories of my life is taking the gondola up the mountain at Banff. It was May, but we were in the Canadian Rockies, and it started to snow. So what did our choir teacher have us sing at the top of the mountain?
Carol of the Bells.
Seven years after that trip to Banff and Calgary, I was sent to the Canada Montreal Mission. I spent four months in Ottawa, including tulip season. We were told that during World War II, children of Dutch royalty were sent to Canada for safekeeping. Ever since, the Dutch send thousands of tulip bulbs to Ottawa, and a huge tulip festival is held there every year. It seemed that every house we saw that spring was also lined with tulips.
And then I spent a year exploring different sections of Montreal. I loved it. I taught people from all over the world (actually taught very few French-Canadians), ate some of the best food I’ve ever had, made some dear friends.
So Canada, thanks for being you. I hope to make it back to the Great White North someday…
