Canada Day in St. John's

Left: George Street on Canada Day (July 1 night). Mardi Gras-esque celebration in Newfoundland.


The week after I saw the Puffins, the buildup to Canada Day began. The national holiday celebrating Canada's independence from the tyrannical reign of Britain took place the extended weekend through July 2. Officially, Canada Day is July 1, but since that didn't fall on a work day, it was a national holiday officially on July 2 this year.

Unfortunately, Ryan and Keith had left earlier that week to chase other mink farmers around the province. I started going to a lot more Ultimate Frisbee practices through the quite well-organized league they had setup in the St. John's area, Mile Zero Ultimate. I met some of the warmest people in all of my life among those frisbee people. Honestly, the credo that the South has the only real hospitality in the world was just false as I learned over my time in Newfoundland. It is a close call between Cajuns and Newfies to decide who's friendlier.

Anyway, Canada Day came that weekend, which was a lot of fun. George Street, the social center of downtown, was bustling with people, music, and food. Oddly enough, the strangest sights were the many men in old-fashioned sailor uniforms (in the style you'd see them in pictures from WWII) walking around downtown. I only learned later from the Irish sailors I met at Hatcher House that these were all Irish sailors whose boat just happened to pull into St. John's for Canada Day. Nice timing.

Dakota checked out that following Monday (Canada Day, recognized) for England for a while before coming back to MUN to do Graduate work in Heritage Studies. As two Americans, we saw Live Free or Die Hard. I thought it was good, and definitely a match for the other Die Hard movies, however, I would have liked to see a bit more Bruce Willis' dialogue reminiscent of the first and third Die Hard, rather than just a lot of action in a complex plot.