Only finals still to go...

So classes are over. It's odd to think I may never have another lecture at U of C again, and much as I've complained about the work load I have to say I've had some amazing profs and will really miss some of the courses I've taken and people I've got to enjoy studying Linguistics with.

But before end of classes I had the excitement of getting to go see the Flames play the Canucks with Claire. For those of you who don't know, these are NHL (National Hockey League) teams: the Flames are Calgary's team and aren't that good, whereas the Canucks are Vancouver's team and are very good. There's quite a bit of rivalry and although we knew we would lose, until the last 15 minutes we were drawing 1-1. Okay so maybe the end score wasn't quite the same but let's not mention that. It was a great evening, me and Claire got all geared up in the Flames clothes and had great times dancing along to the cheesy songs.

On Thursday me and the IVCF group went to Peter's Drive Thru and then went 5 pin bowling. It's like 10 pin bowling, but with 5 pins...crazy Canadian things. Turns out I'm actually pretty good, came 3rd overall, mega win (not that I'm over competitive or anything). We had one round of normal bowling, the a round of crazy bowling...definitely not so good at that! But it was hugely hilarious and a great way to round off the bible study which has just been such a massive and amazing part of my time here.

Thursday was also the final Den of the year (well it wasn't there was one the week after but no-one cared about that one) so went out with the usual crowd. The Den was as sweaty and nightmare inducing as ever, but everyone getting home in one piece is always good! Friday was Phil's birthday so we went to a nice bar in Kensington and had some lovely cocktails. Claire managed to come down on her crutches which was great, even if we did get a mildly moody bus driver!

That Saturday some of the British girls had decorated their flat for a Midsummer Night's Dream party so we got all fairy-ed up and had a lovely time. A massive snow storm meant that going out wasn't really tempting so I had an early night instead. The Tuesday was the final official day of classes which is also known as Bermuda Shorts Day (BSD). I worked in the morning, then in the afternoon had pizza while watching Made in Chelsea before heading out to Cowboys for the party. It was crammed full of people but nice to have a dance, especially with some of the girls who I've not seen in a while.

Since then I've pretty much been writing my term paper, then doing Dance Fest shifts...oh dance mums, my favourite type of people. This Saturday went to Jamesons with the work crowd (well deserved after Dance Fest) and Jeff which was lush. I had an amazing steak sandwich, it was so super tasty. Then we chilled out and just generally had a great time. Now I've got a lot of studying to do what with finals coming up etc. but I've got so many great things to look forward to that it's okay!

Fun at Flames

Magical Fairies

Work crew

It's 2013 - new courses, new job, new blog post!

Sorry for the long gap between updates, things have been busy (as always)!

So when I left you last, we were in the hostel, about to head off skiing the next day! We woke up very early (in fact extra early due to Steph forgetting her phone is set 10 minutes fast), and after a breakfast got on the bus to Sunshine with lots of other sleepy looking powder obsessed people! I think my grin was actually reaching insane levels by the time we arrived at Sunshine. In the queue for our lift passes we got given free hot chocolate - I really do love Canadian hospitality! It was greatly appreciated, but in no time at all we had our lift passes and were in the gondola! When we reached Sunshine base camp, me and Steph had great fun attempting to teach Sarah to ski...however, we were perhaps not as successful as we had envisioned and she ended up booking a lesson for that afternoon which left me and Steph to go off so she could show me her improved ski skills! I have to say I was impressed at just how much better she had got! The runs were lovely, and full of fresh snow! So much fun! While Steph did have a bit of a freak out on one run because she saw mountain edges everywhere (there were no mountain edges anywhere, there were slightly steeper bits of the slope) no one got injured at all, which I count as a highly successful skiing day! Even Sarah got down a green with her instructor!

That evening we had been planning on heading to Banff city centre, but were so sleepy we ate in the hostel and then went to the hostel bar to bring in the New Year. The countdown started two minutes early, but considering we'd said Happy New Year to each other at 5pm (UK midnight) we weren't too fussed. Met some lovely Canadians and spent ages chatting to them (and looking after the slightly drunker member of their group!) The next day we went to the Elk and Oarsmen for brunch, love that restaurant! Ended up eating a lot of food and revelling in the gorgeous sunshine that there was. Then we headed up to sulphur mountain to soak our skiing aches away in the hot springs - it was very different from the last time I was there, the steam basically made it impossible to see anything, but it was truly gorgeous! Unfortunately lack of hair dryer kind of made my hair freeze afterwards, oddest feeling ever. We then went back to the hostel to grab our bags before heading for the greyhound. It was a bit of a military operation with some very well planned bus changes. Then came the waiting for the greyhound. We took shifts going to the nearby Timmies in order to warm up, as typically the shelter was shut and it was -20 something. Not pleasant at all. But it was nice and warm when it arrived and before long we were back in Calgary.

During the rest of Sarah's stay, I attempted to show the best parts of Calgary. Luckily we had a chinook so things were warm, but she still got excited at the sight of snow on the ground! We went up the Calgary tower both during sunset then also after night, and also walked around the Bow River (truly stunning at sunset, especially with the chinook clouds). We also went to Hitment vs Moose Jaw Warriors, and we won! VERY exciting. Plus we had a meal out at the Ship (everyone loves the Ship and Anchor, such good value)! As well as all that we watched a lot of rom coms, ate some great food, and went to the first proper Cascade party of 2013 (which even though term hadn't started got shut down by the CAs, spoil sports! Luckily Brewster CAs seemed much more accommodating so we carried on the party there)!

The room of my floor looked very empty without the mattress which Sarah had been sleeping on but the day after she left was the start of classes so pretty hectic. Unfortunately none of my profs seemed to understand that the first day back should be a gentle introduction, and all gave very long lectures - one of them even over ran! Ridiculous! The course I'm taking this semester are Syntactic Analysis (the higher level of the syntax class I took last semester), Speech Language Pathology (basically speech therapy, very interesting), Second Language Acquisition and Semantics. They all seem to be a lot of work (and the textbooks cost ridiculous amounts) but ah well, such is life! Apart from uni work I've also got a job at the theatre on campus. It's great fun, everyone who I work with is absolutely lovely and we seem to get paid for not doing much which is good!

Having people slowly return to Calgary has been lovely, so nice seeing people again (even though it's sad that some people aren't here). Since people have got back we've watched a few movies, had a few nights out (although not actually made it out, the queue for the Den was just too long) and generally had a lovely time catching up. There has also been about a foot and a half of snow (we laugh at the measly snow which is terrorising England!) Also as per most New Years Resolution-y people I've been hitting the gym with renewed vigour, and today did a brutal zumba class! Last night, Steph, me and Kate went to Original Joes and indulged in a lot of very good food and half price wine, lovely!

I think that's all I need to update you on, I'm probably missing something, but that'll teach me for leaving it so long in between blogs! Sure I will have more to update you on soon!

Skiing Pros

Sunshine in the Rockies

Sunset from Calgary Tower

Hitmen win

Excited to be back to Cascade parties!

Preparing for Calgary...

Okay so a lot has happened since last posted.

1. I got my results meaning I passed the year and can go abroad.
2. I booked my flights (a return cost me just over £700, no stops)
3. My visa/study permit came through.
4. My mentor got in touch with me
5. I managed to sign up for courses...mainly...

So a few things to expand on that brief list. Firstly flights get more expensive the closer you get to travelling (pretty basic I know) but that means BOOK EARLY! Especially if like me you want to come home for Christmas because those flights get super expensive. Search around, use a flight checker to see where you can get them cheapest. While there are some with extra stops for cheaper when it's 3 stops for only £20 less think to yourself if it really is worth the hassle! Also think about arrival times: I'm getting in at half 3 in the afternoon because then it gives me time to move into my halls and go shopping for pots/pans and all the other stuff I'm going to need. There is no point arriving at 11 at night if you're then going to be struggling to get stuff.

Second, the study permit came through in just 20 days which I think is pretty impressive. It's just an email which you then print off and take with you. I'm going to take all my supporting documents with me too as apparently it gets you through quicker.

Third, I decided to sign up for the mentoring programme as what have you got to lose? Even if I don't get on with her it'll be nice knowing there's someone I can contact with any questions/queries I may have.

Finally courses. The head of linguistics contacted me asking to talk through my course choices with me. Now of course the issue is when you've chosen your courses to apply you're often looking at last year's schedule. This was the case for me. A couple of courses had been dropped and a few give majors priorities. However after a few emails (all responded to very promptly) the linguistics department agreed on my course choices. I then signed up online for them all (it's quick and easy, and you're emailed all the information on how to do it). Only problem with signing up online is while I've agreed with the department I can do it, the computer sees that I don't have pre-requisites because I haven't taken any of my degree there etc. However I've been assured that this will all get sorted out.

So all in all a successful few weeks! Next job is insurance and then I think I'm ready to go!