It's been a long time since updated and that's because been insanely busy! Firstly had the joys of finals so had a lot of work to do! While the finals weren't worth more than 30% of each module, it's still pretty stressful! I was lucky in that I only had 3 finals and one term paper. Unlike in Glasgow where exams all seem to be pretty strict and we have to sit far away from each other, no talking, special exam rooms etc. in Calgary it's pretty chilled. In fact in my first final (which was at 8am, unacceptably early!) we got given chocolate before the exam, chocolate in the middle of the exam and an extra 15 minutes of time because we looked stressed! Very different, but in a good way!
I had all my finals in the first week of the two possible weeks so on the Friday at the end of my exams with a few others who'd finished exams (and some who hadn't) we went to mine to watch movies, eat brownies and drink wine - lovely! The next day was Matt's birthday, so me, Steph, Kate and Matt's friends went to Twisted. I have to say it's probably one of best nights out in Calgary. The day after was the day Steph was leaving for Christmas and even though we were only going to be parted for a week and a half we had to have an emotional goodbye at the airport.
Then spent the next few days going to bars with friends, saying goodbye to multiple people and putting off packing. While saying goodbye to those who are coming back for the next semester was traumatic, saying goodbye to those who were leaving for good was really hard. Luckily I managed to make it through all the goodbyes without crying, but it was a definite possibility at certain times! By my final night most people had left, and me and Hannah went to meet Matt and Kate for drinks. Unfortunately we got a phone call on the way from Fliss telling us that she had not made her connecting flight due to leaving her passport and boarding pass on the previous plane but she couldn't get in touch with her boyfriend who was supposed to be picking her up the next morning English time from the airport. Fortunately we did manage to get in touch with him and then Fliss ended up on my flight home, which I rather enjoyed. Me, her and Pete had a great flight home, including some sleep which I was rather impressed at, and getting through Heathrow security only took me 5 minutes - what madness is this?! My mum and brother met me at Heathrow with a sign (as requested) and it was a true Love Actually airport moment! Perfect.
I was only home for a week and spent most of it (if not all of it) mildly jetlagged and a bit out of it! But it was great seeing family and getting back to British things like squash (and no for all you Canadians reading this I don't mean the vegetable!) However I greatly missed Canadian politeness, especially while sale shopping - no-one said sorry when they banged into me, ridiculous!
A few days back I flew back to Canada and coming into land all you could see was snow! Jetlag hasn't been too bad, it's almost as though my body was just waiting to return to Canada! Sarah's out visiting for a bit which is lovely, it's nice that one of my friend's back home will understand when I start talking about Canada stuff! We went to see Les Mis yesterday, I cried excessively, in fact I couldn't even stop crying once the film had ended - pathetic perhaps but it was just so sob-worthy! Right now I'm writing this from a hostel in Banff as me, Steph, Sarah and Lise are spending a few days here for New Years, chilling out, skiing and soaking in general mountain atmosphere! Lush! Shall give you an update in a few weeks on all the fun things we get up to!
Sunday 30 December 2012
Sunday 9 December 2012
Staying in? Not a chance!
Okay, so yes, I have a lot of work to do, but like a true trooper I have been doing my work and finding time to do fun stuff too! Who would have thought that you could do both?! As it's been such a busy week you're going to get a day by day account of my life, I'm sure you'll enjoy it highly!
Sunday - Woke up early on Sunday morning to go and take photos in the snow with Hannah, Fay and Julia. It was absolutely stunning, even if rather cold! But well worth the effort of waking up early! Then Jess drove me to church which was also great. Did some work before curling up with Steph and Claire to watch Miracle on 34th Street, beautiful day!
Monday - Now we all remember that on the plane over here me and Steph sat next to a lovely person called Kate? Well the 8 hour flight with us obviously didn't scare her too much and so we've been out lots since getting here (think they've all been mentioned in previous blogs!) The exciting thing is that even though Kate is a vegetarian, she works for Alberta Beef. For those people who don't know, Alberta is like the beef province, and Calgary is like the beef capital of Canada. And I love beef. So when Kate invited me and Steph to go along to a free buffet dinner of course we said yes (after some brief questions as to whether she really wanted her work colleagues to meet us!) We got dressed up business-casual and got a cab to the Sheraton Cavalier hotel. Once there and with a glass of free wine in our hands we met a lot of Kate's colleagues who were all lovely, and also met quite a few cowboys (very exciting!) The food was absolutely amazing, the beef was cooked in the style of four different countries - there was a carvery for Canada, fajitas for Mexico, some amazing thing for Korea and then beef pie for England. Although the fact the gravy was separate to the pie made it a little less British, like all the rest of the food it was amazing! Already feeling rather stuffed after all of that food there was then the joy of an ice cream sundae station for dessert! AMAZING! All in all it was a lovely night and I still felt full the next day which is always good!
Tuesday - Me and Claire went to see Silver Linings Playbook on Tuesday, honestly I recommend you all go and see it, I would happily see it again and again. Firstly Bradley Cooper is just amazing, and even though he is in a binbag for the majority of the film he still looks fantastic, and then Jennifer Lawrence is just perfect in this role. I could not recommend this highly enough. Then as it was Fay's last night here this semester we all went over to hers and made Christmas decorations (with varying levels of success it has t be admitted!) but now all our rooms look at least semi-festive which is lovely!
Wednesday - This week seemed to be the week for putting in extra effort to my appearance as to celebrate Fliss' 21st birthday we headed to River Cafe, a posh restaurant on Prince Edward Island (a small island in the Bow River which runs through Calgary). While the walk there from the C-train was absolutely freezing there were lots of gorgeous Christmas lights outside which made up for it. The food was amazing; after the slight disaster when five of us had ordered duck and they only had two ducks left, we all managed to get some delicious food. I had a steak and it even came with yorkshire puddings! How homely! For dessert I shared an apple upside down cake with Tilda which filled me up nicely. After deciding it was too cold to get the C-train home we piled into a taxi instead, much warmer!
Thursday - As this was Fliss' actual birthday, after bible study I went home and got ready to head out to the Den. We got to skip the queue which was good (even though for once the queue wasn't too long) . As we danced the night away (getting very amused with Tilda's ghetto moves and open mouthed faces) we kept checking the time until at midnight we could finally say happy birthday to Lucy! I headed home not long after that, knowing I had a lot of work to do and unfortunately after I left it seemed a thief went on a bit of a spree and 11 people got their phones and/or wallets stolen. Even Anna's cheapy flip phone went to the thief, much to the security's amusement. Losses aside everyone had a great night though!
Friday - So now for big Luce's birthday celebrations! While original plans had been to have a few drinks on 17th a few sore heads put paid to that idea so we headed up the Calgary Tower. The views were amazing and watching Steph and Lucy freak out over the height was equally beautiful. After multiple photos including a 'family' photo we headed down to the outdoor ice rink we'd noticed. None of us had skates but it was beautifully lit up and felt kind of film like. Gorgeous! Then we got the c-train home before curling up and watching Love Actually.
Saturday - Did you honestly think that I would have burnt out after 5 days of doing things? No, not me! On Saturday Lucy, Fliss, Tilda, Julia and me went to watch the Calgary Hitmen vs the Edmonton Oil Kings. Now firstly can I just state that while Edmonton is technically the capital of Alberta, everyone knows that Calgary should be as it's a much better city. So yes, there is quite a bit of rivalry. We were all given a box of macaroni and cheese to shake for 'Shake up the Stadium' and then to donate afterwards for the Food Bank Drive which is really nice (kudos to the Co-op for providing 10,000 boxes!) I have a wee bit of a crush on Spencer Humphries (one of the Hitmen) so of course was cheering him on loudly! Unfortunately by the end of the first period we were 2-0 down. The second period stayed the same. Things were looking pretty dire, especially when with 10 minutes to go the Oil Kings scored another goal! People were leaving the stadium, never a good sign! With 4 minutes to go, we scored...then pretty much 30 seconds later we scored again! For a brief glorious minute I actually thought we could do it! Unfortunately the Oil Kings then scored once more, but it certainly was an intense end to the game and I was very much on the edge of my seat!
Sunday - Not much to report today, been doing a lot of revision! However we did all exchange our Secret Santa gifts! A $5 we discovered was a lot harder to shop for than we thought it would be but I got some gorgeous Urban Outfitters socks from Lucy, wrapped in a magazine page which had Ryan Gosling on - beautiful! Then been revising most of the rest of today, but taking a break to write this blog post, aren't you guys happy I did? So that's that, my hectic but amazing week!
Sunday - Woke up early on Sunday morning to go and take photos in the snow with Hannah, Fay and Julia. It was absolutely stunning, even if rather cold! But well worth the effort of waking up early! Then Jess drove me to church which was also great. Did some work before curling up with Steph and Claire to watch Miracle on 34th Street, beautiful day!
Monday - Now we all remember that on the plane over here me and Steph sat next to a lovely person called Kate? Well the 8 hour flight with us obviously didn't scare her too much and so we've been out lots since getting here (think they've all been mentioned in previous blogs!) The exciting thing is that even though Kate is a vegetarian, she works for Alberta Beef. For those people who don't know, Alberta is like the beef province, and Calgary is like the beef capital of Canada. And I love beef. So when Kate invited me and Steph to go along to a free buffet dinner of course we said yes (after some brief questions as to whether she really wanted her work colleagues to meet us!) We got dressed up business-casual and got a cab to the Sheraton Cavalier hotel. Once there and with a glass of free wine in our hands we met a lot of Kate's colleagues who were all lovely, and also met quite a few cowboys (very exciting!) The food was absolutely amazing, the beef was cooked in the style of four different countries - there was a carvery for Canada, fajitas for Mexico, some amazing thing for Korea and then beef pie for England. Although the fact the gravy was separate to the pie made it a little less British, like all the rest of the food it was amazing! Already feeling rather stuffed after all of that food there was then the joy of an ice cream sundae station for dessert! AMAZING! All in all it was a lovely night and I still felt full the next day which is always good!
Tuesday - Me and Claire went to see Silver Linings Playbook on Tuesday, honestly I recommend you all go and see it, I would happily see it again and again. Firstly Bradley Cooper is just amazing, and even though he is in a binbag for the majority of the film he still looks fantastic, and then Jennifer Lawrence is just perfect in this role. I could not recommend this highly enough. Then as it was Fay's last night here this semester we all went over to hers and made Christmas decorations (with varying levels of success it has t be admitted!) but now all our rooms look at least semi-festive which is lovely!
Wednesday - This week seemed to be the week for putting in extra effort to my appearance as to celebrate Fliss' 21st birthday we headed to River Cafe, a posh restaurant on Prince Edward Island (a small island in the Bow River which runs through Calgary). While the walk there from the C-train was absolutely freezing there were lots of gorgeous Christmas lights outside which made up for it. The food was amazing; after the slight disaster when five of us had ordered duck and they only had two ducks left, we all managed to get some delicious food. I had a steak and it even came with yorkshire puddings! How homely! For dessert I shared an apple upside down cake with Tilda which filled me up nicely. After deciding it was too cold to get the C-train home we piled into a taxi instead, much warmer!
Thursday - As this was Fliss' actual birthday, after bible study I went home and got ready to head out to the Den. We got to skip the queue which was good (even though for once the queue wasn't too long) . As we danced the night away (getting very amused with Tilda's ghetto moves and open mouthed faces) we kept checking the time until at midnight we could finally say happy birthday to Lucy! I headed home not long after that, knowing I had a lot of work to do and unfortunately after I left it seemed a thief went on a bit of a spree and 11 people got their phones and/or wallets stolen. Even Anna's cheapy flip phone went to the thief, much to the security's amusement. Losses aside everyone had a great night though!
Friday - So now for big Luce's birthday celebrations! While original plans had been to have a few drinks on 17th a few sore heads put paid to that idea so we headed up the Calgary Tower. The views were amazing and watching Steph and Lucy freak out over the height was equally beautiful. After multiple photos including a 'family' photo we headed down to the outdoor ice rink we'd noticed. None of us had skates but it was beautifully lit up and felt kind of film like. Gorgeous! Then we got the c-train home before curling up and watching Love Actually.
Saturday - Did you honestly think that I would have burnt out after 5 days of doing things? No, not me! On Saturday Lucy, Fliss, Tilda, Julia and me went to watch the Calgary Hitmen vs the Edmonton Oil Kings. Now firstly can I just state that while Edmonton is technically the capital of Alberta, everyone knows that Calgary should be as it's a much better city. So yes, there is quite a bit of rivalry. We were all given a box of macaroni and cheese to shake for 'Shake up the Stadium' and then to donate afterwards for the Food Bank Drive which is really nice (kudos to the Co-op for providing 10,000 boxes!) I have a wee bit of a crush on Spencer Humphries (one of the Hitmen) so of course was cheering him on loudly! Unfortunately by the end of the first period we were 2-0 down. The second period stayed the same. Things were looking pretty dire, especially when with 10 minutes to go the Oil Kings scored another goal! People were leaving the stadium, never a good sign! With 4 minutes to go, we scored...then pretty much 30 seconds later we scored again! For a brief glorious minute I actually thought we could do it! Unfortunately the Oil Kings then scored once more, but it certainly was an intense end to the game and I was very much on the edge of my seat!
Sunday - Not much to report today, been doing a lot of revision! However we did all exchange our Secret Santa gifts! A $5 we discovered was a lot harder to shop for than we thought it would be but I got some gorgeous Urban Outfitters socks from Lucy, wrapped in a magazine page which had Ryan Gosling on - beautiful! Then been revising most of the rest of today, but taking a break to write this blog post, aren't you guys happy I did? So that's that, my hectic but amazing week!
Snuggled up to watch Miracle on 34th Street
All smart for Alberta Beef
Christmas Decorations
Posh at River Cafe
Good times at the Den
Moose at the top of Calgary Tower
Calgary at night
Saturday 1 December 2012
Work hard, play hard!
So it's December and work is piling up...yet the end is in sight with only the hurdles of two assignments, a term paper and three finals to go...how hard can it be really? You may think that with all this work I surely wouldn't have much to update you on...but this is where you would be wrong! Apart from a wonderful trip to Chinook Mall on Black Friday to scoop up some bargains (I would talk about them but they were mainly Christmas presents so I feel I can't...however I did get a lovely pair of leather shorts), I've also been to the cinema to see Breaking Dawn (don't judge me!) and to see Life of Pi (HIGHLY recommend it when you get it out there!) Like all good friends, important as work is, birthdays are equally if not more important! So since last talking to you there have been two birthday celebrations!
Firstly Brittany! She turned 21 (very exciting!) and with my new leather shorts on we headed out to Cowboys! Cowboys is kind of like Ranchmans, but in a casino and much larger. Plus it plays a mix of country and chart stuff. I think I'm finally understanding Canadian line dancing and even managed to show a Canadian how to do it! I was very impressed with myself!
Then the next day was the birthday of excessive amounts of people, also known as Project Cascade or Project X. With over 170 people attending on FB the party was spread over two flats, and even then it was pretty rammed. By half 9 the CAs had come to shut down the parties and apparently the flats were completely trashed. The party buses that had been organised arrived at 10 so everyone just chilled about in smaller groups till then. Waiting for the party buses was possibly one of the coldest experiences of my life but as soon as we were on the bus (after the police slowing down to question why there were over 100 uni students waiting outside on the side of the road) it warmed up quickly enough! We headed to Exchange (which was where the Ski Club party had been held) and we pretty much were 90% of the people there that night which was awesome! After claiming our free drink we danced the night away then at 2am (clubs shut at 2 here) got on the party bus to go home. I have to say it's probably been one of, if not the best night out I've had since being here. Just all round good times and great to have so many friends out!
Aside from birthdays went out for catch up drinks with Steph and Kate and her friend Matt last night which was lovely. I absolutely love Julios, such a great bar so that was great! Also nice to have quite a chilled evening. Then today besides doing some work me and Claire headed off to Market Mall to do a bit of Christmas shopping including shopping for the Secret Santa us girls are doing! We may have got slightly over excited about the presents which we've found but I can't say anymore here because that would ruin the surprise!! Also apart from the normal bible study, this week had Unite the Light where all the Christian groups on campus come together to worship and pray together, was a really lovely time!
All in all it's been a great few weeks since last wrote! Probably will update in a week's time as a LOT going on this week, then it's finals, then a week of freedom then coming home! How time flies eh?
Firstly Brittany! She turned 21 (very exciting!) and with my new leather shorts on we headed out to Cowboys! Cowboys is kind of like Ranchmans, but in a casino and much larger. Plus it plays a mix of country and chart stuff. I think I'm finally understanding Canadian line dancing and even managed to show a Canadian how to do it! I was very impressed with myself!
Then the next day was the birthday of excessive amounts of people, also known as Project Cascade or Project X. With over 170 people attending on FB the party was spread over two flats, and even then it was pretty rammed. By half 9 the CAs had come to shut down the parties and apparently the flats were completely trashed. The party buses that had been organised arrived at 10 so everyone just chilled about in smaller groups till then. Waiting for the party buses was possibly one of the coldest experiences of my life but as soon as we were on the bus (after the police slowing down to question why there were over 100 uni students waiting outside on the side of the road) it warmed up quickly enough! We headed to Exchange (which was where the Ski Club party had been held) and we pretty much were 90% of the people there that night which was awesome! After claiming our free drink we danced the night away then at 2am (clubs shut at 2 here) got on the party bus to go home. I have to say it's probably been one of, if not the best night out I've had since being here. Just all round good times and great to have so many friends out!
Aside from birthdays went out for catch up drinks with Steph and Kate and her friend Matt last night which was lovely. I absolutely love Julios, such a great bar so that was great! Also nice to have quite a chilled evening. Then today besides doing some work me and Claire headed off to Market Mall to do a bit of Christmas shopping including shopping for the Secret Santa us girls are doing! We may have got slightly over excited about the presents which we've found but I can't say anymore here because that would ruin the surprise!! Also apart from the normal bible study, this week had Unite the Light where all the Christian groups on campus come together to worship and pray together, was a really lovely time!
All in all it's been a great few weeks since last wrote! Probably will update in a week's time as a LOT going on this week, then it's finals, then a week of freedom then coming home! How time flies eh?
Cowboys (loook how lovely my shorts are!)
Waiting for the bus!
Me and Claire at Exhange
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