My wife and I have been in Canada for the past week. We are with a group of 16 from the International House of Prayer doing the final regional conferences for 2007.

We were all in Winnipeg last weekend and we are now in Calgary.

Internet has been very limited and my iPhone has gotten the week off. AT&T international service prices are a joke. All my friends on Verizon paid about $9 and got their national plan turned into an international plan for the month. I would have had to pay $4 to get a slight discount on the per-minute charge. So instead, I just turned it to airplane mode and have greatly enjoyed being disconnected.

Something I have always teased my Canadian friends about is the “eh”s. But being here for the past week I’ve actually come accustomed to the phrase. It’s a freindly conversational word that invites feedback when talking.

We watched the Calgary Flames lose to the Red Wings last night at my first live NHL game. Quite a different experience from the Broncos games I grew up going to. NHL hosts a quiet and relatively un-enthusiastic crowd.

Something else that has been great about this trip is spending Canadian money. Everyone here will be happy to tell you that the Canadian dollar is now worth more than the American dollar. But spending Canadian cash feels like I’m not really spending money. It has this you’ll actually take this and give me something in return? feel.

And of course I have to mention Tim Hortons. Timmys. Timmy Hos…. A Double Double on the double please.