where the foothills meet the prairies: lake louise

So it's mid November...time is truly flying! For those unfortunate enough to be only doing a semester abroad they don't have long left! In fact in a month and a day I'll be flying back to the UK to spend a jetlagged Christmas with the family! But even though finals are approaching super quickly, it's only just now that I've finished my midterms! CRAZY! Still loads of work to do but hopefully will get through it all without too many mental breakdowns! Few minor things to update on then the major thing of the ski trip!!

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 ~~carefully selected~~ dire and awful playlist was on again. I feel we will all be hearing those songs in our dreams. After the walk back to rez carrying all our stuff we were ready to collapse. Me, Lucy and Fay ordered a chinese then I got on with revision for today's midterm. Smothering myself in deep heat before sleep again I was very glad to be in my own bed, although sad that couldn't ski the next day. Woke up this morning very achey and sore but truly excited for the other opportunities to ski and tempted to try and get a few more weekends/day trips in than just the ski club ones.

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

I'm sure all of you reading this can sympathise when I say that I have a list of things I want to do in Glasgow but I've just never got round to doing, even though I've studied there for two years. I think one of the things about doing a year abroad is that you feel like as you're only here for a year that you should make the most of every little opportunity that comes your way. So that's what I've been doing! It's been pretty non-stop, especially as the work load over here is much higher but I almost feel that if I didn't go out and do all these things I may as well have just stayed in Glasgow.

One of the great things about Calgary is the Olympic Oval (the Ice Skating rink which was used in the Winter Olympics of 1988). The Oval is actually situated on campus and my room overlooks it, plus as students we get free skating and just have to pay $5.50 for hire of skates. I've been skating on it twice now, once on one of the two ice hockey sized rinks and once on the actual speed skating loop. It truly does seem to live up to it's reputation of being the fastest ice in the world and it's insane seeing the little children skating around so quickly. Also there are a large amount of people who clearly have been skating since a young age as they can do all manner of different skating techniques, go backwards, spin around, do jumps...unfortunately I'm not one of those people but who knows, by the end of the year I may be!

While just like when you choose the uni you want to attend for your degree the city is majorly important, I've discovered that really it's so much more than just the city which matters! One of the things I really liked about Calgary was it's proximity to the Rockies for skiing. Yet when my friends suggested a weekend trip to Lake Louise (a village in Banff National Park in the Rockies) I jumped at the chance to see it before the snow. We stayed in a gorgeous little hostel which really could be a hotel apart from the fact there are multiple people in the room, but as there were so many of us it was just us in our room! Because the Greyhound (Canadian equivalent of Megabus) we only saw the outline of the Rockies as the sunset and by the time we arrived it was pitch black (made even more scary by the fact the cheerier Greyhound driver warned us to be careful of bears on the two minute walk to the hostel), but this meant in the morning when we woke up and opened the curtains the view was literally breath taking.

We had a massive breakfast at the hostel (possibly one of the most tasty breakfasts I've ever had) before getting the shuttle bus to the actual lake. Now Lake Louise is one of those places you see in guide books and on postcards and think that it actually can't look that good...well it really does. The lake is made of water from the many glaciers that are nearby and is bright turquoise due to rock flour that mixes with it. After recommendations from some seasoned hikers we met at the hostel we did the Plain of Six Glaciers walk, which takes you around the lake then up one of the mountains. On the way you're supposed to see six glaciers, but as I'm not really sure what a glacier looks like I only noticed four...still awesome though. It was a very long walk but the views on the way were so spectacular and the view from the top just so stunning that it was very much worth it. On the way we met a few lovely chipmunks and also took excessive amounts of photographs (which really don't even do it justice). When we got back to the hostel we had a well deserved sauna and then another massive meal (which we had thoroughly earned).

The next day we went back to Lake Louise and hired canoes to go out onto the lake itself. It gave a completely different perspective on the lake and also was a lot less effort than walking. Even though it may seem a bit expensive ($40 for a canoe for an hour) it was completely worth every cent. On the way back we saw the Rockies and it's really amazing just how pretty they are (and how many have snow on already...you almost forget how you're higher above sea level to start off with). Although we were all exhausted by the end of the weekend it was truly great to get away and add even more things to the list of experiences. I'd love to go back there when the lake is frozen over and all the skiing starts up just to see the complete difference. For now though I'll leave you with some photos of it in the glorious sunshine (click to make them bigger!)