O, Canada!

Two things Canadian airports lack: wi-fi and ice cream.

You might be wondering, what do these two things have in common? You're right: nothing. BUT the Toronto airport boasted "free wi-fi" everywhere (even on the doors of bathroom stalls) and yet you couldn't access it. Aggravating and disappointing. As for the ice cream, Jennifer (my travel companion), just REALLY wanted ice cream - and it was nowhere to be found.

Our journey to London started in St. Louis, and took us to Toronto, Canada. We were the only students in Maryville's study abroad program to fly through Canada. However, despite the five-hour layover and 90-minute delay on the airplane, we did just fine compared to others in our group. Several flights were delayed because of bad storms in St. Louis, others were re-routed and a couple flights were cancelled entirely.

Other than hanging out for about five hours in a Canadian airport with no wi-fi, we did OK. We ate lunch (nachos... real Canadian, right?) and just hung out. By hanging out, I mean we charged our iPhones and struck up conversation with fellow travelers. We met a girl named Nicole, a Toronto native, who was also on our flight to London. However, she was just passing through London on her way to Bulgaria. The three of us compared passports; I proudly had one stamp (Canada), Jennifer had several and Nicole had every page filled with little space left. She had been everywhere: USA, Germany, Africa, England, Turkey and numerous other countries. She was traveling to Bulgaria to see her boyfriend, who was on the filming crew for a reality show. She told us of her plans to explore Asia with her boyfriend for five months in the fall. I know there's a whole world out there, but it never really resonated with me until just then. And to think I was happy and proud to expand my international travel outside the USA and Canada.