For actual halloween just went to a flat party at Claire's flat dressed as some kind of creepy dead doll thing. Very good fun, especially as Steph refused to look at me all evening as I creeped her out too much. I now have excessive amounts of fake blood left over so guessing I'll use that up next halloween.
Had a few reading days (they tell you that you have four but really they are lying, it's Saturday, Sunday, Monday (which we would have off for Remembrance Day anyway), and then the Tuesday) but it was still VERY nice to have a bit of down time! The week before had been super hectic with two midterms, plus a presentation and two assignments so I greatly enjoyed the extra sleep. Also went downtown and explored a few more bars so that was lovely. Also made use of cheap Tuesday cinema (that's a thing over here too!) to go see the new James Bond. Very good and all us Brits were very happy to hear some true British sarcasm and hear British accents (not that we're lacking that in our friendship group really!)
Then the major thing: SKI TRIP! As you all know I came to Canada to ski so even though it's always risky this early in the season (only second weekend of Lake Louise being open), I couldn't pass up the chance to go skiing. The trip was from Friday evening till Sunday evening, with two full days skiing. There were 3 buses full of us 162 ski club members keen to hit the slopes! Theme was cowboys, indians and aliens so with feathers in my hair and war paint on we partied away on the bus to Banff where we would be staying. The hotel was quite nice although apparently rated as the worst hotel in Banff.
Now, you'd think nothing too eventful would manage to happen within a few hours of getting off the bus, but once we reached a bar we found out that Anna had possibly had her purse stolen. After a lot of panicked phone calls to her (she'd gone back to the hotel with Matilda) me and Julia headed back to get an early night. Once back we called in to see Anna who being sensible had got in touch with the police, the reception desk and cancelled all her cards. Then came the awkward moment when she walked to the bathroom and found her purse. However, at least this meant she had her purse so me and Julia and Matilda went back to our room to sleep. After some interesting chats and a lot of laughter we got to sleep.
The next morning the alarm went off at 6:30 and we groggily started getting ready. Luckily my excitement to get skiing outweighed the sleepiness I was feeling. After a breakfast at the hotel (and making sandwiches to take with us) we were in the bus at 8. It was a bit of a struggle to get Julia's boots on but I have to admit we all looked pretty professional - even if there were hints of feat in the eyes of some of the girls who'd never skied before. Everyone apart from me, Flis and Cooper had booked lessons that morning (either to get ski legs back after only skiing once or twice or just to see if they could actually ski) so the three of us headed up in the gondola. While at first me and Flis were trying desperately to remember how to ski we soon got into our stride again. It was a little bit icy but we carried on up, getting chair lift to the other side of the mountain. There we encountered some major rocks and (fearing for our hired skis) proceeded down. Once past the rocks the run was super nice though! Got a few really good runs in before meeting the girls for lunch. Unlike the Alps there were no nice bars and cafes on the slope, just back at the bottom, but still that food was much appreciated.
In the afternoon I spent a bit of time on the baby slope trying to get Steph skiing, although this did end in her saying she hated skiing, was going home and never skiing again. Luckily her mood brightened up again. Me and Pete took Claire and Lucy up the shortest run there was. Although it was classified a green I really think it should have been at least a blue. While there were a few dramatic tumbles I felt like a very proud parent when we reached the end without any major injuries and just a few bruises. We headed back to Banff but by now the playlist which had been on every bus journey so far was getting rather boring, especially as the songs were awful and it seemed like there were a maximum of fifteen songs just on a loop. However this was not going to get us down. Once back we booked a table at a nice Mexican, showered, applied liberal amounts of deep heat, watched A Cinderella Story which we found on the TV then headed to eat. Luckily one of the benefits of skiing is you can eat a lot as you've earned is so we fully used that privilege. At that point a few of us were just too sleepy to stay out so headed home, got into pjs then watched some very bizarre TV before retiring to bed.
The next morning we were aching but excited as it was supposed to have snowed some more and as we were driving we could see it getting snowier! Upon arrival there was definitely more snow so me, Cooper, Flis, Phil and Henry got the gondola up and enjoyed the gorgeous ski down in fresh powder. Truly perfect skiing! Then we got a call from some of the girls (who had never skied before) wanting to do a run so we met them at the top of the chair lift. It was a wee bit of a traumatic experience with a lot of tumbles (including Jackie fully wiping me out!) but everyone got down without broken bones so I'm counting that as a success. After a quick lunch we headed out again. Me and Phil went up in the gondola and skied down. It was getting a bit icy again but half way down started to snow so that was lush. We decided not to do the Martini run (topless skiing, in that cold, no thank you) so got the chair lift and did one more run before standing at the bottom to watch the martini runners arrive. They looked very cold (unsurprisingly) but said it had been good. I'll take their word for it.
So, very sleepily we headed back to the buses for the journey back. While most of us wanted to just sleep the
There it is, a VERY long update on my life. I apologise for the length of it and thanks for sticking to the end (if anyone did!) Just one more wee thing to say because I'm British and haven't mentioned it yet, I think I'm actually becoming adjusted to the weather. Anything above -6 feels quite pleasant, and the fact it's above 0 today means it is positively hot! Just you wait, soon I'll be one of those people who never wears a coat in the UK!
On the bus
Me and Flis excited to get skiing
Me and Phil at top of Gondola
