In Canada, finally!

Wow! I woke up this morning to be amazed by the breezy clear sunny fresh day, my first day in oronto. I enjoyed two cups of good cofffe while working on my emails and blog.
It feels so good to be here. Last night my brother and my sister in law met me at the airport. We drove to their apartment in Scarborough along a smooth highway, enjoying the view of the sky coloured wondefully by the setting sun. The beauty of big Canadian sky! The magnitude of it!
Everything around me so clean, so fresh, so unclattered...
A great dinner of barbecued pork chops, fresh salad, a Croatian potato pie (my childhood favourite: rendacha), a cold Corona with a slice of lime, red Spanish wine, cheesecake... how great. Even greater sitting on a breezy balcony and chatting with two of my favourite people in the whole wide world. Kids come and go, talk a bit, disappear, come back, disappear. They are so tall, both of them. Marko is 6"4', Branka more than 6" and they are only 14 and 13 respecitvely. Incredible.

Everyone was out: Branka at school, Goran and Nela at work. Marko, whose school is over, was here with me. I helped him create his own blog. He wrote two nice entries, one about how happy he is that his favourite aunt (I) is back, and another one how happy he is to soon go to Croatia (where he can watch pirated movies and eat Croatian pizza "that is 100 times better than Canadian"). I am hoping for the great summer with them. They are so smart, grown up but still very affectionate.

My flight was very adventeruous, many mishaps along the way. I'll just list them:
-waking up 1,5 hour later then planned; rushing to the airport in a taxi that cost me an arm and a leg and a big argument with the taxi driver
-having to go to the immigration to have my visa stamped; last year they failed to do so and I haven't noticed; waited at the immigration for a long time witnessing rude banana-devouring and instant coffee sipping 'officers'
-having to check my luggage again in Chicago and almost missing my flight
-learning the hard way never to travel via the u.s.a again nor never to use the AA (American airlines) ever again; the rudest, most arrogant cabin crew you can imagine; also, (and feel free to sew me for being politically incorrect here) they can learn a thing or two about neat appearance. I don't want my food to be served by women whose big hair is spilling all over their big bosoms, falls over their big bottoms and perhaps ends in my food tray, too. Flying the AA feels like being in a country rock bar where you can find lots of single moms with teased hair on a desperate search for a second or possibly third husband. I know it's been tough for them after 9/11, but hey it's been tough for Thai air after the tsunami, too. I can't imagine their cabin crew being rude and scary. The aa cabin crew should go and take a refresh course in the basics of their jobs. They are truly awful!
Now, I'll probably go shopping with niece and nephew and let them rob me of a handful of dollars.
Wow, the air is so fresh, even in the midst of Toronto.