Monday, August 22, 2005
A relaxing weekend in Edmonton
This past weekend was pretty good; very eventful. On Friday night, Zara, Dave and I went out with some of Dave's friends. I didn't drink - shock! And it was quite interesting to watch as people got drunker and drunker. The bar we went to, I'd like to go back to again, but I dont think on a regular basis - all the guys and girls were quite well dressed, with lots of make-up etc, and I felt super out of place a few times.
Saturday, Dave finished painting his family room and then we headed to Budweiser park for Hot Edmonton Nights (I think that's what it is called) and a show on the oval track - Sprint and Stock cars. We kept switching between the quarter mile track and the oval track depending on which one was more exciting. My first impression when Dave first mentioned a few weeks ago that he wanted to go, was that I would like to check it out too, and then upon arrival, with the loud noises of the cars, I wasn't so sure this was for me. But as the night progressed, the noise seemed less and less intrusive and the smell disappeared, or maybe we got used to it?? We unfortunately missed the Jet cars, but we definitely saw the speeds that they reached - upwards of 250-300 miles/hour, taking about 5 seconds to travel the quarter mile track. That was really neat to see, and as they started up, it sounded really cool. The Sprint cars were better then the stock cars, just because they were travelling so fast, and seemed to fly through the air more (luckily the drivers walk away from their cars too). The sprint cars were going so quickly, it kind of made me think it was fake.
I was really interested in the fact that there were 2 girls in the Sprint Car race and 2 girls in the stock car race.
Sunday Dave and I met up with a friend I met last summer in Edmonton. Bobert (or Rob) has been away teaching English in China, and came to Edmonton to visit friends. We went to the Fringe together. We saw this play called Hollywood Grade 8 about a girl that went to university to become a movie star, and "fell" back into a teaching career - a grade 8 teaching career, which she hated and first and then liked by the end, however continues to do some acting on the side (Fringe Festival). I figured the show would be good for me - to either make me want to teach, or make me decide not to teach. I think it tempted me more to continue researching the teacher career.
Well, back to work...
This past weekend was pretty good; very eventful. On Friday night, Zara, Dave and I went out with some of Dave's friends. I didn't drink - shock! And it was quite interesting to watch as people got drunker and drunker. The bar we went to, I'd like to go back to again, but I dont think on a regular basis - all the guys and girls were quite well dressed, with lots of make-up etc, and I felt super out of place a few times.
Saturday, Dave finished painting his family room and then we headed to Budweiser park for Hot Edmonton Nights (I think that's what it is called) and a show on the oval track - Sprint and Stock cars. We kept switching between the quarter mile track and the oval track depending on which one was more exciting. My first impression when Dave first mentioned a few weeks ago that he wanted to go, was that I would like to check it out too, and then upon arrival, with the loud noises of the cars, I wasn't so sure this was for me. But as the night progressed, the noise seemed less and less intrusive and the smell disappeared, or maybe we got used to it?? We unfortunately missed the Jet cars, but we definitely saw the speeds that they reached - upwards of 250-300 miles/hour, taking about 5 seconds to travel the quarter mile track. That was really neat to see, and as they started up, it sounded really cool. The Sprint cars were better then the stock cars, just because they were travelling so fast, and seemed to fly through the air more (luckily the drivers walk away from their cars too). The sprint cars were going so quickly, it kind of made me think it was fake.
I was really interested in the fact that there were 2 girls in the Sprint Car race and 2 girls in the stock car race.
Sunday Dave and I met up with a friend I met last summer in Edmonton. Bobert (or Rob) has been away teaching English in China, and came to Edmonton to visit friends. We went to the Fringe together. We saw this play called Hollywood Grade 8 about a girl that went to university to become a movie star, and "fell" back into a teaching career - a grade 8 teaching career, which she hated and first and then liked by the end, however continues to do some acting on the side (Fringe Festival). I figured the show would be good for me - to either make me want to teach, or make me decide not to teach. I think it tempted me more to continue researching the teacher career.
Well, back to work...
Monday, August 15, 2005
The Slow Movement
I'd love to learn more about this "Slow" movement. I was recently waiting at the doctors office and took my Macleans with me. Inside was an article about this guy who thinks our lives are speeding right by without us even noticing. Most people he says are just trying to keep their necks above water and not truly enjoying life. I'm feeling that I'm being taken away on that whirlwind in life right now. So this past weekend, luckily with the onset of my "You're in trouble" problem, Dave and I weren't able to hit the hiking trip we were hoping to in Yoho, instead we decided to have a chill weekend. For us, it was chill, but still, I felt that I did way too many things, but not enough things that I had hoped to get done - like finish my book!
Saturday, I went to the farmers market with my two roommates - enjoyed lots of very unhealthy foods and picked up a few fresh vegetables. And Saturday night, Dave and I went out for a nice Greek dinner (entertained by a belly dancer and a male belly dancer). We tried desperately to look very occupied and deep into our conversation as they floated around the room, picking people to come up to the middle of the floor and "dance" with them. But, most people in the restaurant were white, and as most of you know, we can't really "dance", rather we move our arms, keeping our feet planted. Dave and I successfully avoided the embarassment of doing the "fresh water bottom feeder dance".
Sunday he made me breakfast in bed - which was so relaxing, and I missed my soccer game, then we went shopping for house stuff - yay, fun. And then chilled in front of the teletube for the night.
Tonight. I'm going to finish my book. Its so good...
I'd love to learn more about this "Slow" movement. I was recently waiting at the doctors office and took my Macleans with me. Inside was an article about this guy who thinks our lives are speeding right by without us even noticing. Most people he says are just trying to keep their necks above water and not truly enjoying life. I'm feeling that I'm being taken away on that whirlwind in life right now. So this past weekend, luckily with the onset of my "You're in trouble" problem, Dave and I weren't able to hit the hiking trip we were hoping to in Yoho, instead we decided to have a chill weekend. For us, it was chill, but still, I felt that I did way too many things, but not enough things that I had hoped to get done - like finish my book!
Saturday, I went to the farmers market with my two roommates - enjoyed lots of very unhealthy foods and picked up a few fresh vegetables. And Saturday night, Dave and I went out for a nice Greek dinner (entertained by a belly dancer and a male belly dancer). We tried desperately to look very occupied and deep into our conversation as they floated around the room, picking people to come up to the middle of the floor and "dance" with them. But, most people in the restaurant were white, and as most of you know, we can't really "dance", rather we move our arms, keeping our feet planted. Dave and I successfully avoided the embarassment of doing the "fresh water bottom feeder dance".
Sunday he made me breakfast in bed - which was so relaxing, and I missed my soccer game, then we went shopping for house stuff - yay, fun. And then chilled in front of the teletube for the night.
Tonight. I'm going to finish my book. Its so good...
Monday, August 08, 2005
Another full weekend:
Friday:
Friday:
- Went to the Edmonton Folk Fest and enjoyed various music from across North America
Saturday:
- Went for lunch with Dave to a nice little bagel shop in the West End
- Had the best bagel sandwich ever - a total party in my mouth! The sandwish had: sundried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and spinach. It was also supposed to have melted cheese, but for obvious reason, I didn't have any.
- Went to the Devonian Gardens in Devon
- Saw some really neat flowers and trees etc from all over the world
- Had ALL you can eat rasberries at the Gardens
- Walked through the Japanese gardens, which were so beautiful (pictures will be up soon)
- Went to Folk Fest again at night, however got rained out (huge storm with lots of lightning and thunder and water, eww)
Sunday:
- Went shopping for house stuff for Dave's house (felt like a little kid with my Dad walking around aimlessly, playing with all trinkets on the shelves in Home Depot)
- Made Sushi!
- Went to see the Foo Fighters. My ears are still ringing
- Went to bed at 2am. I won't say why... but, "someone", not me, loves his (oops) beer.
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Memories of a Great Canoe trip in Lac La Biche, Alberta
- Finding a campground south of Lac La Biche
- Daryl "losing" his fish knife
- Attempting a 3.2 km portage with packs and canoes on our heads, which finally ended in 1.6 km, with the finding of canoe carts, doh!
- Teaching Pam and Daryl to steer their canoe? Maybe I did a bad job.
- Going under the bridge to go from Jackson Lake to Kinnard Lake
- Crossing Jackson Lake and Kinnard Lake in pouring rain, lightning and thunder
- Seeing about a dozen loons on the way to our campsite
- Seeing about 5 blue herons
- A muskrat
- Arriving at our campsite on "the island", setting up tent and waiting for the rain to stop
- Dave and Daryl's attempts at building a fire, with um, whole trees (see photos)
- Taking the long canoe circuit with Dave down Kinnard Lake, across a small portage to Blackett Lake and then back to Kinnard Lake and back to the campsite
- Our cute little campsite on the south side of the island
- Scary little outhouse, with animals living inside of it (I could hear them chewing!!!)
- Our little portage (750 m) involved Dave carrying the canoe, and me carrying my pack, paddles and life jackets. The portage was absolutely brutal, the first 20 feet was all under water (I was barefoot!!), so slimmy, felt like a city girl, then walking through large amounts of Muskeg (I guess we don't have that stuff in Ontario - but it looks like saw dust, and feels like compost). Walking along, walking along, suddenly my right foot sunk into the muskeg, and I went to put my left foot down, only to realize that I couldn't move, so I called to date "Dave... its got my foot", he came back, pulled me out and had to reach into the goo to grab my lost birk. Upset at first, but super funny now
- We then canoed down to the camp side at the South end of Blackette Lake, which definitely wasn't worth seeing, since it had no real tenting areas or bathroom, but good to know for next time
- We paddled 20 km
- We saw about 2 dozen loons (see pictures) and many many blue herons again
- Daryl's yummy fish that he caught earlier that day
- Me "losing" my windbreaker
- Our return home, which was quite exciting since we had to cross both Kinnard Lake and Jackson Lake in large large winds, luckily the wind was always on our back, however I spent most of the time steering while Dave paddled. Water was trickling in the canoe behind Dave. It was definitely one of the scarier canoe rides I've had, but we made good time with the wind. Good thing it was on our backs!!!!
- Going to find canoe carts for our trip back to the car
- A deer watching us roll by
- An amazing, tiring adventure that I can't wait to do again.
