Monday, January 09, 2006
Last email update - Costa Rica, January 8th.
Pura Vida! Hasta Luego!
Hey everybody,
Just thought we´d give you one more update before we head home to Canada, which you´ll probably receive after we arrive. After an extremely early rise and a pleasant 15 block stroll around the city of Alajuela looking for the correct bus stop to La Fortuna, we finally started making our way up through the highlands to Volcan Arenal. Apparantely Melissa was right all along and our stop was only 9 blocks down from our hotel. The bus was packed and we had to stand for the first 2 hours of the trip. The road was extremely curvy and we gained plenty of altitude through the major agriculture areas of Costa Rica. Shortly after we scammed some seats, a lady started throwing up in the seat behind Melissa due to the constant back and forth movement of the bus. Fantastic. Unknowing to us, she didn´t receive a barf bag soon enough and was puking all over the floor. We finally made it to Santa Carlos, about half way through the trip and she got off. Thank God! The driver was kind enough to wash the floor and we managed to score seats next to each other, but the smell of vomit remained for the rest of the trip.
We found a nice hostel in La Fortuna and went on a tour of Volcan Arenal, which consisted of a 5km hike up to a view point where we got to see actual molten rock spewing down the side of the volcano every 20 minutes or so. We then boarded the tour bus and spent 2 hours in the Baldi Hot Springs at the foot of the volcano. The dpzen or so pools consisted of temperatures from 37C to 63C, the latter being so hot, not one person set more than 5 toes into it. Beers unfortunately, were 1500 Calones, double anywhere else we had seen, which is about $3 U.S. each. We only had 3 between the 2 of us. We met 2 guys from the U.S. on this tour and ended up having dinner with them. They were vegetarians and therefore difficult to please in a mexican style restaurant.
The next morning, we headed on the jeep-boat-jeep across Lake Arenal and on to Monteverde-Santa Elena. The second jeep ride reminded Dave of backcountry camping in Alberta. Lot´s of steep inclines and rickety bridges made for a fantrastic journey through more highlands with great views.
Santa Elena was a cool little coffee town with lot´s of wind and dust. As soon as we set our bags down in our room, we were off to Selvatura, which consisted of a wonderful hike across 9 suspension bridges throught the cloud forest (more precipitation than a rain forest) where we saw lot´s of bgirds and some monkeys. This was followed by a canopy tour, which is the fast way through consisting of 15 cables which were used as zip lines. Melissa was scared, but still thinks it was one of the best parts of our trip. At times, we were as high as 294 feet above the ground, whizzing through clouded trees. It was a great, thrilling/terrifying time.
The next day, we did an early morning hijke through the cloud forest of the Santa Elena Reserve (Monteverde would have been too crowded) and then left on a bus to Liberia that afternoon.
We arrived in Liberia pretty late after a long bus trip which included 2.5 hours of standing this time. Damn those buses that start in San Jose! We spent the evening chilling out on the patio of our hostel drinking Pilsen´s and watching The Butterfly Effect with Spanish subtitles.
The next morning, we woke up at 4:30am to catch a 5:30 bus to Playa Tamarindo to do some surfing. We signed up for lessons at 9:20, which had started at 9:00, so we missed the beginning safety instruction and how to stand up. Oh well, we were pretty quick learners. Unfortunately, Melissa and her surf board had a fight, leaving her with a nice mark on her cheek, which progressed into a lovely shiner the next day. Everyone has been looking at her weird for the remainder of our trip. We were both able to get up a few times on our boards, providing us some great pictures thanks to Iguana Surf. The rest of our time, we spent chilling out on the beach and enjoying a few cervezas.
After a long bus ride back to Liberia, we had a fairly uneventful night, but really great bocas (bar food) at our new favourite restaurant/bar. Liberia is the most friendly city we visted, due to the relaxed atmosphere and total tolerence of our limited Spanish. Liberia is just like Lethbridge, AB including sabeneros (cowboys) and everything.
The next day, we got a ride to Volcan Rincon de la Vieja where we did some more hiking and saw the following geologic features: boiling pools, sulfurous fumeroles, and a miniture volcano. We decided against hiking the 16.6km to the summit to peer into the lake filled crater, so we got some post cards instead. However, we did do a second hike of about 10km to a Catarata La Cangreja which is a small blue lagoon fed by a really cool waterfall. It was beautiful and well worth the walk, which included an encounter with a 3m long snake.
This morning was basically another bus day back to Alajuela. We just finished dinner and are not looking forward to our 5am start tomorrow to fly back to Canada. If only we had another week!
Buenos noches,
Melissa and Dave
Pura Vida! Hasta Luego!
Hey everybody,
Just thought we´d give you one more update before we head home to Canada, which you´ll probably receive after we arrive. After an extremely early rise and a pleasant 15 block stroll around the city of Alajuela looking for the correct bus stop to La Fortuna, we finally started making our way up through the highlands to Volcan Arenal. Apparantely Melissa was right all along and our stop was only 9 blocks down from our hotel. The bus was packed and we had to stand for the first 2 hours of the trip. The road was extremely curvy and we gained plenty of altitude through the major agriculture areas of Costa Rica. Shortly after we scammed some seats, a lady started throwing up in the seat behind Melissa due to the constant back and forth movement of the bus. Fantastic. Unknowing to us, she didn´t receive a barf bag soon enough and was puking all over the floor. We finally made it to Santa Carlos, about half way through the trip and she got off. Thank God! The driver was kind enough to wash the floor and we managed to score seats next to each other, but the smell of vomit remained for the rest of the trip.
We found a nice hostel in La Fortuna and went on a tour of Volcan Arenal, which consisted of a 5km hike up to a view point where we got to see actual molten rock spewing down the side of the volcano every 20 minutes or so. We then boarded the tour bus and spent 2 hours in the Baldi Hot Springs at the foot of the volcano. The dpzen or so pools consisted of temperatures from 37C to 63C, the latter being so hot, not one person set more than 5 toes into it. Beers unfortunately, were 1500 Calones, double anywhere else we had seen, which is about $3 U.S. each. We only had 3 between the 2 of us. We met 2 guys from the U.S. on this tour and ended up having dinner with them. They were vegetarians and therefore difficult to please in a mexican style restaurant.
The next morning, we headed on the jeep-boat-jeep across Lake Arenal and on to Monteverde-Santa Elena. The second jeep ride reminded Dave of backcountry camping in Alberta. Lot´s of steep inclines and rickety bridges made for a fantrastic journey through more highlands with great views.
Santa Elena was a cool little coffee town with lot´s of wind and dust. As soon as we set our bags down in our room, we were off to Selvatura, which consisted of a wonderful hike across 9 suspension bridges throught the cloud forest (more precipitation than a rain forest) where we saw lot´s of bgirds and some monkeys. This was followed by a canopy tour, which is the fast way through consisting of 15 cables which were used as zip lines. Melissa was scared, but still thinks it was one of the best parts of our trip. At times, we were as high as 294 feet above the ground, whizzing through clouded trees. It was a great, thrilling/terrifying time.
The next day, we did an early morning hijke through the cloud forest of the Santa Elena Reserve (Monteverde would have been too crowded) and then left on a bus to Liberia that afternoon.
We arrived in Liberia pretty late after a long bus trip which included 2.5 hours of standing this time. Damn those buses that start in San Jose! We spent the evening chilling out on the patio of our hostel drinking Pilsen´s and watching The Butterfly Effect with Spanish subtitles.
The next morning, we woke up at 4:30am to catch a 5:30 bus to Playa Tamarindo to do some surfing. We signed up for lessons at 9:20, which had started at 9:00, so we missed the beginning safety instruction and how to stand up. Oh well, we were pretty quick learners. Unfortunately, Melissa and her surf board had a fight, leaving her with a nice mark on her cheek, which progressed into a lovely shiner the next day. Everyone has been looking at her weird for the remainder of our trip. We were both able to get up a few times on our boards, providing us some great pictures thanks to Iguana Surf. The rest of our time, we spent chilling out on the beach and enjoying a few cervezas.
After a long bus ride back to Liberia, we had a fairly uneventful night, but really great bocas (bar food) at our new favourite restaurant/bar. Liberia is the most friendly city we visted, due to the relaxed atmosphere and total tolerence of our limited Spanish. Liberia is just like Lethbridge, AB including sabeneros (cowboys) and everything.
The next day, we got a ride to Volcan Rincon de la Vieja where we did some more hiking and saw the following geologic features: boiling pools, sulfurous fumeroles, and a miniture volcano. We decided against hiking the 16.6km to the summit to peer into the lake filled crater, so we got some post cards instead. However, we did do a second hike of about 10km to a Catarata La Cangreja which is a small blue lagoon fed by a really cool waterfall. It was beautiful and well worth the walk, which included an encounter with a 3m long snake.
This morning was basically another bus day back to Alajuela. We just finished dinner and are not looking forward to our 5am start tomorrow to fly back to Canada. If only we had another week!
Buenos noches,
Melissa and Dave
January 2nd - Costa Rica email update
Happy New Year Everybody!
Last we left off, we were on our way to go snorkeling in the reefs off Cahuita. It was absolutely amazing, we saw many fish including 2 nurse sharks which our guide kept grabbing by the tail! We were also able to book what seemed like the last room in Puerto Viejo for two nights, so we took the bus ride down to claim our cabina. Puerto Viejo was much bigger then Cahuita and had about 20 times as many bars. The town was completely crazy the whole time we were >there. It was just like being back on Whyte Ave! New Years Eve day, we woke up and rented some crappy bikes and headed further south to Punta Uva to swim and hit the beaches. Three times on our bike ride, we had to stop to put Melissa's bike chain back on. The roads are made of pit-run gravel and were full of humungous potholes which were sometimes impossible to miss even on a bike! Halfway there we stopped at Salsa Brava which is the biggest surf beach in Costa Rica and watched a bunch of people surfing. Upon arriving at Punta Uva, we set up and spent most of the early afternoon in the sun and cooling off in the ocean. We biked back to Puerto Viejo and prepared for a night of partying. We went from bar to bar all night until we ended up at Stanford's Restaurant for the countdown. We were then able to watch fireworks over the bay. Every bar on the beach had their own fireworks, and we could also see fireworks in Cahuita. We then went to Johnny's Beach Bar for a few more beers and spent the rest of the night partying on the beach with about 1000 other people. We went to sleep with the roosters crowing in the background. This morning we woke up late, waited for a bus with about 50 other people, squeezed on and then stood for the next hour on our way to Cahuita. In Cahuita, the bus backed into a car, so we were delayed by about 20 minutes waiting for the policia to arrive as well as >another bus to take us back to Puerto Limon. It was absolutely crazy! Standing on 2 buses, with all of our stuff in 35 degrees on a bumpy road, sure makes for an exciting travel experience. From Puerto Limon, we took a 3 hour bus ride back to San Jose, where a crazy "cab driver" told us he was going to give us a "special deal" >to Alajuela. After driving through many red lights leaving San Jose >in a car that was not a cab - was it stollen? - and Melissa's car door didn't shut properly we made it alive to Alajuela. We just got back from dinner, and are headed to bed to get ready for an early >rise and another bus adventure to La Fortuna and Volcan Arenal.
Until next time,Pura Vida,
Melissa & Dave
Happy New Year Everybody!
Last we left off, we were on our way to go snorkeling in the reefs off Cahuita. It was absolutely amazing, we saw many fish including 2 nurse sharks which our guide kept grabbing by the tail! We were also able to book what seemed like the last room in Puerto Viejo for two nights, so we took the bus ride down to claim our cabina. Puerto Viejo was much bigger then Cahuita and had about 20 times as many bars. The town was completely crazy the whole time we were >there. It was just like being back on Whyte Ave! New Years Eve day, we woke up and rented some crappy bikes and headed further south to Punta Uva to swim and hit the beaches. Three times on our bike ride, we had to stop to put Melissa's bike chain back on. The roads are made of pit-run gravel and were full of humungous potholes which were sometimes impossible to miss even on a bike! Halfway there we stopped at Salsa Brava which is the biggest surf beach in Costa Rica and watched a bunch of people surfing. Upon arriving at Punta Uva, we set up and spent most of the early afternoon in the sun and cooling off in the ocean. We biked back to Puerto Viejo and prepared for a night of partying. We went from bar to bar all night until we ended up at Stanford's Restaurant for the countdown. We were then able to watch fireworks over the bay. Every bar on the beach had their own fireworks, and we could also see fireworks in Cahuita. We then went to Johnny's Beach Bar for a few more beers and spent the rest of the night partying on the beach with about 1000 other people. We went to sleep with the roosters crowing in the background. This morning we woke up late, waited for a bus with about 50 other people, squeezed on and then stood for the next hour on our way to Cahuita. In Cahuita, the bus backed into a car, so we were delayed by about 20 minutes waiting for the policia to arrive as well as >another bus to take us back to Puerto Limon. It was absolutely crazy! Standing on 2 buses, with all of our stuff in 35 degrees on a bumpy road, sure makes for an exciting travel experience. From Puerto Limon, we took a 3 hour bus ride back to San Jose, where a crazy "cab driver" told us he was going to give us a "special deal" >to Alajuela. After driving through many red lights leaving San Jose >in a car that was not a cab - was it stollen? - and Melissa's car door didn't shut properly we made it alive to Alajuela. We just got back from dinner, and are headed to bed to get ready for an early >rise and another bus adventure to La Fortuna and Volcan Arenal.
Until next time,Pura Vida,
Melissa & Dave
Friday Dec. 30th - Costa Rica Email Update
Hey Everbody
We´re here in Cahuita, on the Carribean coast. We started in San Jose at this cool ecological inn where they had brown toilet paper! The next morning, we took a long bus ride north on our way to Tortuguero. We had to change buses in Carieri which was a cool little industrial town. We used the bank and had lunch, trying to order in Spanish for the first time. We then took another bus down the first bumpy road of our trip and past many banana plantations. After dropping off many locals along the way, we ended up at the boat to Tortuguero, which is only accessable by boat or plane. During the 3 hour boat ride, we saw a crocodile, a deer and many birds. In Tortuguero, we were greeted by a local who insisted on showing us to our cabina and then offered to take us on a canoe tour of the National Park the following morning at 6am! We took it. On our 3 hour tour of the Park, we saw many different birds, a few kinds of monkeys and caymans. Melissa had to pee so bad she had to do it in the jungle. Upon arriving back after the tour, we then took a 5 hour boat trip down the canals to Moin and then to Limon. After stopping by the Scotiabank, we had some beers on a patio and grabbed some fruit before boarding our next bus to Cahuita. Today we´re going snorkeling and then heading further south to Puerto Viejo for New Year´s. So far the food and cerveza´s have been fantastic, Dave is a sweaty pig and we´re having a great time!
Talk to you soon,
Melissa and David
Hey Everbody
We´re here in Cahuita, on the Carribean coast. We started in San Jose at this cool ecological inn where they had brown toilet paper! The next morning, we took a long bus ride north on our way to Tortuguero. We had to change buses in Carieri which was a cool little industrial town. We used the bank and had lunch, trying to order in Spanish for the first time. We then took another bus down the first bumpy road of our trip and past many banana plantations. After dropping off many locals along the way, we ended up at the boat to Tortuguero, which is only accessable by boat or plane. During the 3 hour boat ride, we saw a crocodile, a deer and many birds. In Tortuguero, we were greeted by a local who insisted on showing us to our cabina and then offered to take us on a canoe tour of the National Park the following morning at 6am! We took it. On our 3 hour tour of the Park, we saw many different birds, a few kinds of monkeys and caymans. Melissa had to pee so bad she had to do it in the jungle. Upon arriving back after the tour, we then took a 5 hour boat trip down the canals to Moin and then to Limon. After stopping by the Scotiabank, we had some beers on a patio and grabbed some fruit before boarding our next bus to Cahuita. Today we´re going snorkeling and then heading further south to Puerto Viejo for New Year´s. So far the food and cerveza´s have been fantastic, Dave is a sweaty pig and we´re having a great time!
Talk to you soon,
Melissa and David
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
She turned herself in!
Well, one of my roommates came to confess to me that she was the one who put the compost into my bin, killing half the population. Apparently she thought I had brought my composter in from outside for the winter, so she went looking for it and found "a bin" in the basement. Oh well, the worms are safe?? in Dave's house now. I just hope one of his mice don't find the bin, and then get stuck in there... and then I'll have mice bodies composting... wow. Ok. I'm going to stop thinking about it.
Other News:
I'm going to the Nine Inch Nails concert tonight. I'm really looking forward to it, because apparently it will be different then any other concert I've been to, which I'm not sure what Dave means by that, since the first "real" concert I ever went to was The Hip with him just a year ago. I mean, I did go to New Kids on The Block, but can you really count that? When you're 10, and well, it's NKOTB. OMG - I called them that! Well, whatever, NIN will be "different". Open minded... open minded...
I made pumpkin soup 2 nights ago and I can't stop telling people just how good it is. It's spicy, but just so tasty! So spicy, that my eyes were tearing up. And as I cooked the jalapeno, everyone else who was cooking in the kitchen, found it kind of difficult to breathe as well. I can't wait to make more! Last night I made Jadine's curry - quite good too, however I think next time I need to add more curry, since it just wasn't spicy enough.
One more thing: My last day of work is December 15th...
Well, one of my roommates came to confess to me that she was the one who put the compost into my bin, killing half the population. Apparently she thought I had brought my composter in from outside for the winter, so she went looking for it and found "a bin" in the basement. Oh well, the worms are safe?? in Dave's house now. I just hope one of his mice don't find the bin, and then get stuck in there... and then I'll have mice bodies composting... wow. Ok. I'm going to stop thinking about it.
Other News:
I'm going to the Nine Inch Nails concert tonight. I'm really looking forward to it, because apparently it will be different then any other concert I've been to, which I'm not sure what Dave means by that, since the first "real" concert I ever went to was The Hip with him just a year ago. I mean, I did go to New Kids on The Block, but can you really count that? When you're 10, and well, it's NKOTB. OMG - I called them that! Well, whatever, NIN will be "different". Open minded... open minded...
I made pumpkin soup 2 nights ago and I can't stop telling people just how good it is. It's spicy, but just so tasty! So spicy, that my eyes were tearing up. And as I cooked the jalapeno, everyone else who was cooking in the kitchen, found it kind of difficult to breathe as well. I can't wait to make more! Last night I made Jadine's curry - quite good too, however I think next time I need to add more curry, since it just wasn't spicy enough.
One more thing: My last day of work is December 15th...
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Attempted Murder of my Red Wrigglers
Background: Of my friends that still read this blog, I would imagine that you know that I own a vermicomposting bin, which I used to keep in my room until my landlady found out and made me put it outside and now I keep it in the basement so my little worms don't freeze. Anyway, I feed them once a week with leftover vegetable or fruit matter to help them continue to reproduce until I can use them for composting all of my kitchen wastes.
Situation: Last night I came home and went downstairs to grab my bin, only to realize it was much heavier then normal. So I opened it up and to my surprise, someone had dumped the kitchen catcher (full of compostables to be put in the outside bin) into my little worm bin which is about 1.5 ft. X 1 ft. It is much too small to hold that much material. (I'm still in the process of determining exactly how many worms I have, and I know that they can eat their weight in "x" number of days, so I figured that would help me determine how many I own. I predicted that I probably had about 100 worms in there, and now, after someone suffocated them, I probably only have about 50.) Anyway, when I opened the bin, it was full of rotting material (different from composting) since it was covered in mold. On top of all the material were strips of newspaper to do what? - apparently keep the smell down? Hmm I'm quite shocked by the behaviour of someone in my house. It smelt horrible and had squished all of my little worms . So I emptied the bin, and tried to cover up the remaining vegetable matter to help keep the smell down. But now to figure out who did this... hmmm...
Background: Of my friends that still read this blog, I would imagine that you know that I own a vermicomposting bin, which I used to keep in my room until my landlady found out and made me put it outside and now I keep it in the basement so my little worms don't freeze. Anyway, I feed them once a week with leftover vegetable or fruit matter to help them continue to reproduce until I can use them for composting all of my kitchen wastes.
Situation: Last night I came home and went downstairs to grab my bin, only to realize it was much heavier then normal. So I opened it up and to my surprise, someone had dumped the kitchen catcher (full of compostables to be put in the outside bin) into my little worm bin which is about 1.5 ft. X 1 ft. It is much too small to hold that much material. (I'm still in the process of determining exactly how many worms I have, and I know that they can eat their weight in "x" number of days, so I figured that would help me determine how many I own. I predicted that I probably had about 100 worms in there, and now, after someone suffocated them, I probably only have about 50.) Anyway, when I opened the bin, it was full of rotting material (different from composting) since it was covered in mold. On top of all the material were strips of newspaper to do what? - apparently keep the smell down? Hmm I'm quite shocked by the behaviour of someone in my house. It smelt horrible and had squished all of my little worms . So I emptied the bin, and tried to cover up the remaining vegetable matter to help keep the smell down. But now to figure out who did this... hmmm...
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Banff Hike
September Updates...
- First weekend of September, Dave and I went to the St. Albert market - which is the biggest outdoor market in Canada
- I wanted to buy lots of treats, which I ended up passing on, but it was really difficult, definitely looking forward to going back again
- Played soccer on Sunday, was brutally cold - could barely feel my hands at the end of the game!
- Went to Medicine Hat the 2nd weekend
- Bowling... haha I won, which I normally suck at
- Saw lots of southern Alberta... not bad ... not bad
- Went to see Audioslave... really great concert, and really drunk boyfriend, grrr.
- Oooh... new picture display...
Friday, September 09, 2005
Before I tell you about my amazing hiking weekend in Banff over the long weekend, I need your opinion - can you see me being a teacher? Preferably K-6. Thoughts? Opinions...
I definitely miss teaching/helping people and working with kids...
I definitely miss teaching/helping people and working with kids...
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
August 30th, 2005.
Hmm. It’s a small world for sure! My flight was at 7:25 am, and I didn’t go through security until just after 6:30am, even though boarding started at 6:55am. After I went through, I followed my sign “A6”, kept walking, kept walking, then down 2 flights of stairs, across a moving walkway, up 2 flights of stairs, across 3 moving walkways, up 2 flights of stairs, turn around, oh there it is! Why don’t they warn you about that when you go through the gates – I almost missed my flight!!
I sat down and started chatting with the man next to me, he told me he was from Ontario and we exchanged information. Then I asked him where about in Ontario he was from – he told me a small town, but I would probably not have heard of it, so I told him to try me:
Back and forth, finally I discovered he was from Havelock (where my cottage is and his brother has a cottage on the same lake as me. I asked him what his last name was, which I recognized but I didn’t know why. Across the seats, his wife asked what my last name was and I told her and she said that I used to work for them – apparently they owned the Seahorse banquet hall where Karen worked for a few summers and I worked for a summer. I totally recognized the wife. So weird. So then we just caught up on the happenings of Havelock – Jamboree etc.
I took the Sky Shuttle back from the airport to work. There was only one other person on the bus, so we talked, and once I found she was from China originally, now living in Windsor to go to school and out in Edmonton visiting family for the first time, I invited her to join Zara at her “retirement” party the next night. So, I picked up Crystal at her Aunt’s store (Nail salon – where she did my nails for me for free) and took Crystal out to the bar with me. So fun. I introduced her as “this is Crystal, I met her yesterday on the bus” – typical me. People thought it was funny.
ALSO…
My trip home for Trussler/Alexander was quite eventful and fun. I took tons of pictures of my niece and nephew. They were both so cute. I got to change my first pee diaper after Madeline peed through her diaper. And I got many kisses from Liam. So much fun. It was great to see everyone as usual. I spent a lot of time in the water swimming etc. and had my annual sauna as well as my annual waterski (exhausting!). Karen and I went “fishing” – our annual tradition it seems like to catch up on everything for 4 hours. I met a few friends downtown Toronto for dinner on Monday night. Such a great time. I really do miss home, but coming back to Edmonton, standing at the airport, I realized just how much I love this city. It’s just too bad that the two provinces are so far apart.
Hmm. It’s a small world for sure! My flight was at 7:25 am, and I didn’t go through security until just after 6:30am, even though boarding started at 6:55am. After I went through, I followed my sign “A6”, kept walking, kept walking, then down 2 flights of stairs, across a moving walkway, up 2 flights of stairs, across 3 moving walkways, up 2 flights of stairs, turn around, oh there it is! Why don’t they warn you about that when you go through the gates – I almost missed my flight!!
I sat down and started chatting with the man next to me, he told me he was from Ontario and we exchanged information. Then I asked him where about in Ontario he was from – he told me a small town, but I would probably not have heard of it, so I told him to try me:
Back and forth, finally I discovered he was from Havelock (where my cottage is and his brother has a cottage on the same lake as me. I asked him what his last name was, which I recognized but I didn’t know why. Across the seats, his wife asked what my last name was and I told her and she said that I used to work for them – apparently they owned the Seahorse banquet hall where Karen worked for a few summers and I worked for a summer. I totally recognized the wife. So weird. So then we just caught up on the happenings of Havelock – Jamboree etc.
I took the Sky Shuttle back from the airport to work. There was only one other person on the bus, so we talked, and once I found she was from China originally, now living in Windsor to go to school and out in Edmonton visiting family for the first time, I invited her to join Zara at her “retirement” party the next night. So, I picked up Crystal at her Aunt’s store (Nail salon – where she did my nails for me for free) and took Crystal out to the bar with me. So fun. I introduced her as “this is Crystal, I met her yesterday on the bus” – typical me. People thought it was funny.
ALSO…
My trip home for Trussler/Alexander was quite eventful and fun. I took tons of pictures of my niece and nephew. They were both so cute. I got to change my first pee diaper after Madeline peed through her diaper. And I got many kisses from Liam. So much fun. It was great to see everyone as usual. I spent a lot of time in the water swimming etc. and had my annual sauna as well as my annual waterski (exhausting!). Karen and I went “fishing” – our annual tradition it seems like to catch up on everything for 4 hours. I met a few friends downtown Toronto for dinner on Monday night. Such a great time. I really do miss home, but coming back to Edmonton, standing at the airport, I realized just how much I love this city. It’s just too bad that the two provinces are so far apart.
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...
