Ho Ho Ho!

Like most students, I am celebrating the start of the holiday season by writing final exams. I hit a few Christmas parties in between nights of study and solitude. Today was my first exam of the week and two more will follow in the days to come. Then I will board a WestJet flight for Calgary and eventually wind my way to the winter wonderland of Frontier. Brr.

With the morning's test over and a couple hours of study finished in the library, I headed home for lunch. Walking to the bus, I felt something dripping on the back of my leg. The first time, I assumed it was "mysterious wet", the phenomenon of somehow getting moisture on your person from unspecified and unseen sources. This was a common occurrence in my Taiwanese life. After another drop on the same spot, I knew the rain was coming from my backpack. Indeed, my water bottle had burst its top and dowsed the contents of my bag, including a pink sheet of paper which felt inclined to share its dye with everything around it. A pink puddle emerged on the sidewalk. Just another day in my life . . . A good Samaritan stopped and gave me a plastic Safeway bag. She turned out to be Anna, a Christian girl who likes to study in Regent's atrium. So perhaps I made a new friend/acquaintance. But still, the soggy books and papers were disheartening.

But seeing the bus pull up brought a smile to my face. I had hit the jackpot. The Santa bus. Stuffed animals were lined up on the dash. Splashes of red and Christmas decorations circled around the driver . . . who was none-other than Santa Claus himself. I showed him my bus pass and wished him a hearty, "Merry Christmas" before taking a seat.

Thank God for blessings like a stranger with a Safeway bag and a Santa Claus who exchanged his sleigh for a bus.