One more week!

Well, there is only one more week of classes left, and then we are doing our final exams. When I think back to everything that we have been doing, I'm really surprised by how much we have covered. It's astounding!

I haven't really been doing much of anything lately. The only exciting thing that has happened recently is that my parent bought a new van. They now have a Dodge Caravan. It's really nice. My parents are planning on driving to Montreal for their 40th Wedding Anniversary, so they bought a new comfortable vehicle to make the drive. They figure it will take them five or six days to get to Montreal. My sister and I got them anniversary presents to match their trip. I bought my parents $400 worth of gas from Petro Canada. I gave them four $100 gas cards to use as they fill up across the country. My sister bought my parents $400 worth of hotel nights at Best Western Hotels. My sister's boyfriend even bought my parents a $40 gift card for Tim Horton's so that they can have coffee and doughnuts on the way.

The reason my parents are going to Montreal is because that is where they lived when they first immigrated to Canada (my parents are from England), and we still have lots of relatives there. In fact, my Granny lives there, and she is going to be 91 years old in December. I wish I could go with my parents to visit my Granny!

Anyway, my mum can to Calgary on Wednesday to show off the new van, and we went to Charlie Chan's Rice House in Kensington because it is close to my house. We had spring rolls, ginger beef, buddha's delight vegetables in spicy black bean sauce and chicken fried rice. It was so awesome! But we ordered too much food, which is a good thing, and I took it home with me and ate it the next day.

So that's my exciting life this week . . . stay tuned for more cool stuff!

Here I am in the library. I am supposed to meeting a friend, but while I am waiting I thought I could blog for a while. Also, I just like showing off how fast I can type, and it looks like I am really busy :-)

Anyway, I can't believe that there are only two weeks left before the final exams. It seems like the semester has gone by so fast. Time . . . . oh, my friend just showed up :-)

One of my favourite poems

Dreams

by Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

All Stampeded Out!

Yee Haw! Stampede is over . . . or at least it is almost over. Holy cow, I have eaten a lot of food over the last 10 days what with all the free pancake breakfasts and the awesome food on the midway. I went to the Stampede grounds on Friday after work to indulge in Stampede food for the last time. I started out with a flat iron grill steak. It was awesome! The steak came with barbecue beans, potatoes and garlic bread. It was the prefect start to my Stampede evening. The next thing I ate was some corn on the cob. I couldn't pass it up . . . for two reasons mostly. First of all, I felt like I needed some vegetables after all the meat and potatoes, and secondly, I have always loved corn on the cob - especially the ones at the Stampede. They are dipped in butter. Yum. Then it was dessert time, so naturally I had to have some more mini doughnuts with sugar and cinnamon. To wash it all down, I had a saskatoon berry lemonade. However, I didn't just go to the Stampede to eat . . . I also wanted to heard some great Country music so I went to the Nashville North Tent to hear Shania Twin. She basically sings covers of Shania Twain songs, and she was really good. While I was listening to Shania, I had a couple of Kokanes with my friends. It was a great time, but soon it was time to eat again! After Shania Twin was finished singing, we left Nashville North and I had some barbecue beef on a bun. The great thing about this beef is that it is slowly smoked using pure apple wood. It was heavenly.

Wow, I just looked at what I wrote, and I realised that I really ate a lot of food. I forgot to mention, I also had a cherry snowcone, and a Husky Slurpee (it was only a dollar in Weedickville, best deal at the Stampede). Eeep, my students are going to think that I have an eating problem!!! However, my post-Stampede diet starts on Monday!

I went to the parade! Did you?

I hope all my students enjoyed their day off on Friday. So far, the Stampede has been great. I have already been to two free Stameped breakfasts, and I'm sure I 'm going to go to a lot more before all this is over. On Thursday before school I went to the free Stampede breakfast at the CBC. There were so many people there, and there was even a buffalo! It was a lot of fun. I would have have liked to have stayed longer, but I had to give my students an essay test that morning :-) The best part was the pancakes. I love flapjacks!

On Friday, I went to the Stampede Parade. I looked for my students, but I couldn't see anyone. I was at the corner of 9th Street and 6th Avenue SW. I was hoping I might see someone, but that's okay. The parade was great. I wish I could play the bagpipes. Whenever I hear bagpipes, something deep inside of me is always touched. It must be some long forgotten Scottish ancestor inside of me. After the parade, I hung around downtown, and I couldn't believe I was in Calgary. Suddenly there were so many people around. It was like I was in a real big city :-)

Anyway, yesterday, I went to the local free Stampede Breakfast at the Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Centre. I got to meet my local MLA Dr. Swan. It was pretty cool because he is a liberal and not a conservative. I still didn't vote for him, but at least it didn't offend my principles too much accepting pancakes from a liberal (I'd choke before I took free pancakes from 'the other party').

Anyway, that's my Stampede so far!

Here are some pictures from my trip to Vancouver! Can you believe that I drove all the way to Vancouver just for the weekend? Going to Vancouver was okay, but coming back was a bit tough. The trip back home took over 14 hours. In total, there and back, I drove over 2000 kms. Crazy eh? But it was totally worth it. Probably the best parts of my trip were the food. I ate soooo much sushi while I was there. Then I went crazy for bagels, rugelach (a kind of Jewish pastry), and smoked salmon. Yum. I got all that great stuff at the Granville Island Market. I also spent a lot of time on the beach. It was so hot, I couldn't believe I was in Vancouver. It was like I was in some sort of beach resort. I wish Calgary had a beach. I also was a bit overwhelmed by being in a "real" city. Sometimes I forget just how "small town" Calgary is. Especially my neighbourhood of Kensington. I was staying in the West End of Vancouver, and it is like 10 Kensingtons all put together. However, despite having a great trip, it's nice to be home . . . there were ESL students everywhere in Vancouver, and it made me homesick :-)