As most of you probably know, we LOVE a party. So, we decided to honour our country’s heritage with a Canada Day celebration here in China. I brought a small Canadian flag to the local bakery, Will Long Cake (nice name!), so that I could order a cake with the Canadian flag on it. Even with my translator present, this process took about a half hour. When asked if I wanted fruit on it, I mentioned that cherries would be nice, and anything else except the cherry tomatoes that seem to be present on many cakes. You know, a tomato is actually a fruit! I didn’t say anything about the parsley that is also seen on the top of cakes, and yes, I got some. We were very interested to see what the final product was, and I am happy to say it was a success! Pink IS a shade of red, so no matter that the flag is pink. It looked and tasted great!

We also ordered some pizza from ‘Champion Pizza’ the local pizzeria. I have to say they did a good job too, much better than the two pizza offerings we had in Shanghai. These guys should give Pizza Hut a lesson or two. Firstly, they DO included tomato sauce over the crust, and the toppings were rather similar to what we expected. We ordered a Hawaiian and an “All-American”, which is a pepperoni pizza. Other patients brought some crackers, chips, nuts and watermelon to the party too.

Simon put together a bunch of photos depicting our life in Canada and played them on his computer during the party, and one of the staff brought out their big speakers so we could listen to the audio of our going away party in Revelstoke when Simon’s band, The Sofa Kings, played.
It was great to get most of the patients out together on a hot summer night to enjoy some good stories and laughter together. Miriam brought some nail polish and did the girls and some of the ladies nails too!

The guys especially enjoyed Simon’s fishing photos and a few diehards stayed late to watch 2 of his fishing movies. I say diehards because as soon as the sun starts setting, the mosquitos come out. I ran for cover to the comfort of our room.

I think we would have done Canada proud by our celebration in a part of the world so far (physically and culturally) from where we call home.