Home sweet home
I‘m back in Thunder Bay. 
And although I had an unqualified awesome time with Lauren in Ohio, I am very glad to be back home. In fact, here’s a couple of reasons why:
Driving and driving with my music. Until today, I hadn’t driven in two weeks. It was nice to be chauffeured around everywhere, even as the Americans obsessed over gas prices that are fully a dollar less than they are up here (thank you, Toronto 
). I actually got my G licence a couple of days before I went away, so this worked out well, because my new licence arrived in the mail. There is a new design now, one which I dislike compared to the old one. But what can you do?
Yet I digress. I miss driving with my music. Lauren has good taste in music; I‘m just used to plugging my iPod into the tape deck adapter thingy I have (yes, that’s a technical term) and listening to all my different types of music on shuffle. We listened mostly to a local radio station with ’80s and ’90s music, along with a couple of her CDs—some Fallout Boy, to whom I don’t really listen, and some sort of instrumental CD that emulates natural sounds. That one was interesting. I bought several classical music CDs at the Book Loft yesterday—they were only about $3 each. Considering last time I bought classical music CDs they were each $20, that is quite a steal.
What else? Oh, I miss my family and friends, of course. I consider Lauren to be one of my best friends, but I like spending time with my friends back here—especially because many of them have now returned from school away (I‘m losing all my friends to Southern Ontario! 
With three more months of vacation to go, I must make the best of it.
I miss Canadian money. I don’t care what you Americans say. Canadian money is uber-cool. I can instantly pick out what bills I need based on their distinctive colours. This speeds up transactions, making for happier salespeople and happier customers. With your American money, I have to sort out the bills and actually look at the denomination. I’m sure that those who are more practised at it (like Americans) probably don’t take that long to do this, so in the end there’s little net gain from the coloured money. But it’s still cool.
And yes, I know the Euro bills come in different sizes. Yee-haw.
But you know what I missed the most? Milk bags! Yes, I miss my whacky, strange Canadian bags of milk. I miss the special pitcher in which we place these bags. Those Americans who are ethnocentric enough to think that gallon jugs are the only acceptable form of milk distribution are missing out. Bagged milk is the neatest thing since sliced bread.
Yes, bagged milk is cooler than Miley Cyrus. Get over it.
Driving
I went driving for my first time today after Black Light! 
I didn’t crash the car into anything, though, so we’ll call it a success. My dad took me to a subdivision where there’s no traffic. Basically I tried to get comfortable with the car—which still scares me—and get a feel for using the steering wheel, gas, brakes, etc. I bemoan my lack of spatial sense and find it very difficult to know just how hard to press a pedal or turn the wheel. But I’ll learn.
Like I said, I didn’t break anything, and I did pretty well. Now I just have to find a driving school. I’ve put that on hold for a bit because Black Light practices have been my weekend focus. We present on April 10 and today (er, Saturday) was our first actual practice with the entire set assembled. Unsurprisingly, the play makes much more sense with a set around it than without! We have one more practice next week, a dress rehearsal, and then…show time! I think we’ll be ready.
My “project” this weekend has been programming Snake in Turing (what we’ve been using for computer science). I have it all done except for one bug with the high score feature that causes the game to crash. Darn inconveniences.
And I just realised that Daylight Savings Time kicked in—I glance at my clock: 1:59. I look again, 3:05. :blink: Either DST snuck up on me, or I blacked out. Now I have to go to bed because I’ve just lost an hour.
G1 Licenced
Today I went to write the “knowledge test” to get my G1 licence, and I am happy to say that I passed. So now I need to go find a school….
For those of you who don’t live in Ontario, we have a “graduated licencing” system. Basically I get a G1 by passing this test, and then I have to practice with that for 12 months (8 if I take a driving school course, which I shall) before I take an actual road test to get my G2. Then if 12 months after that I take another test and get my full G licence. Simple, no? 
Welcome to Ontario.
I‘m not that excited about learning how to drive. 
I mean, it’s not the best thing in the world. I’m rather terrified of damaging another car or something horrible like that. At least I got this over with, though.
The road signs were quite easy to identify; I got perfect on that. I got two questions wrong on the other test—I’ll be fine unless I have to park near a fire hydrant or drive in a city with streetcars. 
